Toad

What is this game all about? Do you just run around all day and never do anything? How is it kept up, by that I mean, what are the "rules" of the game?

Thanks!

msdmoney

I will try to keep my real opinions to myself about this game as I am trying to sell a copy in the fs/ft forum . But basically you live as more or less an average joe in the Star Wars universe. Like other RPG's you start out with very little basic skills, and build these up by doing different things and getting exp. You can choose many diff. tracts, bounty hunter, creature handler (tame pets), craftsman (make armor or other useful items), architect, chef, entertainer(dance or play music in cantinas). You gain skills in each by performing actions pertaining to those skills - for example fighting as a bounty hunter or crafting as an artisan. Its an MMORPG so a lot of the game is what you make of it. You can fight monsters, fight other players as imperial or rebel, or group up with friends and start a guild and fight as a team, own a house. There arent so many rules so to say as in single player RPG's and there is no set story/tract to follow. Pretty open ended that way. If you like Star Wars you can visit certain points of interest in the Star Wars universe (Never appealed to me as I have little knowledge of Star Wars, had to ask if rebels or imps were the "bad guys," I've seen and enjoyed the movies but thats it). The rush right now is to open a special character slot to become a jedi, as nobody has become a jedi yet (its purposely hard to make for less jedi). Hope this answers your question as I am not quite sure what you meant by "rules," but there is stuff to do just depends if you enjoy what there is to do. If you are considering buying this game I will shamelessly plug my copy fs in the trade forum.

Galanthas

Gamespot's review of the game.
Score 7.5
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starw...ed/review.html

Official Site
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/index.html

Sorry can't be more helpful. I lost interest in the game while I was playing Everquest(<-pure evil). The more I read about it the more I disliked the way it was turning out.

What I got from some people that were in beta was that,unless your a die hard SW fan, there are other games more worth your time.

Gashlycrumb

I tried this game for a while, and to be honest I got bored with it quickly. The graphics are great, and it is very slick and looks interesting, but it just seemed to get old fast. There is a great article about it on Gamespy.com so you should check it out. There might be more to it if you log in a lot of hours, but it seemed really like the quests were really mundane in comparison to other games, even older games like Asheron's Call.

Basically you hunt, tinker, or go on errands for NPC's. That seems to be about the game, and a lot of people run Macro's so they aren't even there.

Personally, I would say give the game some time to develop before jumping into it, especially considering it is 15 bucks a month, for one character per server.

Just my humble opinion.

PalmerJoss

I was one of the few who actually got online and started playing the day of release, and at first I was wowed. The graphics and sound are excellent provided you have a high-end pc, but the story and gameplay left a great deal to be desired. All I did was run halfway across the world most of the time doing either retrieve or kill missions. That was about the extent of the gameplay--run, find, and kill. There are story elements in place now, but they are just more of what I mentioned above--kill something or find something for an NPC. I would definitely wait until the game is more fully developed, and possibly until the vehicle expansion becomes available. Just FYI, I've already cancelled my account and have no plans to rejoin unless I've read about some drastic changes to the gameplay.

Toad

Wait ---- you have to pay money per month for this friggin game??? I can't even buy it and just stick it and play it????


Ridiculous.

Shay

I believe most if not all mmorpg's have a mothly subscription cost. SWG comes with a free month of service. A group of guys I work with were playing. They got treated pretty crappy by customer service.

msdmoney

/sigh

Its an entirely different model for games. Different yes, ridiculous no. But its not even worth explaining further, because this debate is so tired and you obviously haven't researched what you get by paying per month for the "friggin game." (Well MMORPG's in general, SWG is a ripoff at any monthly fee due to their poor customer service, shoddy patches, lack of content, etc.)

Toad

Classy response, thanks. I love being talked down to by a newb. (And yes, a monthly fee for a game is ridiculous in my opinion; you believe it's not. Either way, it's not a "friggin" fact.)

Anyone else have anything pertinent or not useless to add?

balancer

ShawnMercury

All online games cost a lot to upgrade and maintain. Diablo II was the only free game that did a pretty good job. Games that don't charge monthly fees never put anything back into the game and don't do well.

SWG is good if (1) you love Star Wars, or (2) if you're new to MMORGPs, it's a good starter. Otherwise, there are better games out there.

If you go to Amazon and buy Jedi Academy (which is pretty good) you can get SW: Galaxies (Collectors Ed) for an extra $5 (which includes 30-day free online). I recommend that route.

Toad's wrong, newbie's right.

Toad

I realize that games such as this need money to provide the updates and staffing, etc. and that's fine if you like it. For me, it's ridiculous.

Too bad, the game looks so beautiful too. I would have loved to play it, but alas, apparently I cannot afford to.

Any PC Star Wars games you can recommend to fill my time instead? What about Knights of the Old Republic?

BigDave

Great game! I played it on the Xbox, but I'm sure it will be just as good on the PC.

It's a standard RPG, so no worries about monthly fees. The story and the visuals are both done very well.

Nuff

Subscription based games, when done well, are fantastic. The time I spent playing Everquest at $10 a month actually SAVED me money. Think about it, if you were addicted as I was and play 4-5 hours a night and 15-20 hours over the weekend that's 40 hours a week or ~160hours a month for $10. I got more gameplay out of EQ per month than any other game I have ever bought.

With that said, Star Wars Galaxies is, in my opinion, unplayably bad. The game design is horrible and you easily run out of things to do and advancement for your character in under a month. Avoide this at all costs is my recommendation.

Knights of the Old Republic is a fantastic game. I highly recommend it, it also has good replay value as you can play light or dark sided.

(Psst if you finish kotor twice start to finish and take 20 hours a time (which is a high estimate) thats 40 hours of gameplay for $50...compare to my eq estimates above and you see that EQ is better gametime per dollar than any console game can ever be.)

Toad

Well unfortunately I can't donate that much time to it to make it worth it.

I've never played an RPG, funnily enough. I'll give KOTOR a try when it comes out for PC.
Thanks!

Galanthas

Everquest=Pure Evil. But I can agree the 3 years I played, it saved me a ton of money, because I rarely bought any games or anything else with my own cash for that matter since my whole life revolved around the pure evil. I was up to 6 hours minimum per day before I kicked the habit last November. I could never recommend a MMORGP to anyone ever again because it's way to consuming and can lead to bad things in RL.

Chris_D

KOTOR is taking me over 30 hrs so far (first time round) so I must be crap .

RoQuEr

Its an entirely different model for games. Different yes, ridiculous no. But its not even worth explaining further, because this debate is so tired and you obviously haven't researched what you get by paying per month for the "friggin game." (Well MMORPG's in general, SWG is a ripoff at any monthly fee due to their poor customer service, shoddy patches, lack of content, etc.)

msdmoney

My "classy response" was just a reply to this classy and elegant post...
Your reference to the monthly fee as ridiculous is more likely due to the fact that you can't afford it, than it actually being ridiculous.
I never stated my opinion as a fact , but I assumed (I think correctly) that you haven't even tried a game like this before and calling it ridiculous is a little premature. But for something more pertinent to add, I would suggest trying it out, or better yet another MMORPG for the free month. Anarchy Online apparently has a free download and free trial I think, never actually played but hear it is good now (just to suggest another sci-fi MMORPG). As others have stated these games tend to save you money as you end up devoting time soley to them and buying few other games. You would also fit right in judging from your use of the word newb (as if that has any bearing on whether my point was valid). I will agree with Galanthas though, that its difficult to suggest one of these as they really do eat up an obscene amount of time and can lead to bad things in real life.

ravan

Had it, dumped it.. major zzzzzzzzzzz..

and I *wanted* to like it.

Toad

Msdmoney - you're exactly right - it's ridiculous because I can't afford it (I think I said that above). Oh the humanity!! Still, thanks for another condescending post and all the help you have proffered.

RoQuEr - thank you for your originality.

To everyone who posted something useful -- I appreciate your responses. It's unfortunate that I won't be getting the game b/c it just looks so amazing and is exactly what I would want. Being a huge Star Wars nerd, I'd love it simply because I could plunge myself into the Star Wars universe and interact with the characters, places, and subtlities I've grown to love. Oh well, maybe some day. I guess I have neither the time nor the money to devote to it right now. (Being in law school and married doesn't help the cash flow).

Thanks guys and gals!

Feneant

Toad, the game was described as an 'Uncle Owen Simulator' in a review I read and its about right. The game blows.... where Everquest and most games are an EXP grind, this one is a crafting grind, you craft craft craft to gain skills and go up in experience (you can exp grind too I guess) and there is little to no depth with the story at this time.

As to paying, what do you expect, you pay for bandwith, servers and for shitty tech support (no MMORPG has good tech support). I gladly pay on any game as it reduces the number of the under 18 crowd by a lot so you don't deal with kids calling you every profanity in the book.

Nuff

Toad, I was in a similar boat as you...and I would *love* a Star Wars mmog environment where I could interact with the SW universe...unfortunately Galaxies is not it, IMO. Even if it was free I wouldn't play its that bad.

Do try KoToR though, I have really loved the time I've spent with it.

balancer

i would think being in law school, would show that you had some cash flow, not to mention 2 incomes... oh well, it's that damn econmy again

Ginwen

If you get into playing a game with a monthly subscription, they can a great deal financially, because they cut out almost all your other entertainment cost, due to their addictive nature. I played Everquest for a year, and bought no other games, never rented movies, and had to be convinced to do other activities (luckily I was convinced on occasion, so I'm still married--I think my wife would've preferred I was a drug addict though for all the time I spent on the damned game).