What's so civil about Galactic Civil War anyway

One of the major things missing from Star Wars: Galaxies has been any kind of meaningful galactic Civil War.  Sure, you could fight those evil rebels (weren't they the bad guys?) but it was largely inconsequential. All that is about to change, because the next update is all about the GCW.

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Hoarders - The MMO

I was watching the A&E show, Hoarders and couldn't help but think of MMO's.  If you're not familiar with the show, it is about people who cannot throw anything away.  Their homes and yards end up turning into junk yards.  In real life it turns out to be a very serious problem, but in MMO's it is standard fare.

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August Gaming

August is here already. This month is really the calm before the MMO storm of September. There is plenty to look forward to though.

• Hearts of Iron 3 storms the front on September 7th. If you like World War 2 grand strategy games, this will be for you.
• World of Warcraft Patch 3.2 is likely due out this month as well. A new raid, battleground, PvP experience and more are apart of the patch.
• Champions Online's open beta will start on August 17th. The NDA will be down then too, so expect plenty of chatter.
• Warhammer Online will be having a live event, the Wild Hunt, starting on August 31st. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see the huge bug patch, 1.3.1, be released soon too.
• Star Wars Galaxies will be releasing a new Cybernetics system along with many new craftable droids.
• Blizzard will be holding BlizzCon on August 21st. The expected big news is WoW's next expansion.
• Crimecraft is due to launch on August 25th.
• Aion is having some more beta events too.
  

That's what is on tap for August, I miss anything?

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Werit Gets Around

It's true, I can be rather easy when it comes to games. I just cant help myself, I'm not a one game kinda guy. This last week I played around quite a bit.

Warhammer Online. Yep, I still play!
Aion. Street Fighter called and wants its annoying sound back.
Ghostbusters. I came, I saw, I'm still playing.
Fallout 3. I think the apocalypse will actually come before I manage to finish.
Star Wars Galaxies. I am very close to resubscribing.
Punch-Out for Wii. Glass Joe was getting uppity.
NHL Hockey. Greatest hockey game ever?
Ice Hockey. The soviets beat me down. Needed more fat guys.
Light of Altair. More on this later.
Eve Online. Just to train, my subscription will be ending soon.

My posts last week were pretty varied. That is the nice thing about a general blog, you can switch it up when you feel like it. I had been doing WAR posts almost non-stop for several weeks, so I need a break to talk about other games. Do not fear WAR fans, I have a piece of paper filled with WAR topics!

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In a galaxy not so far away

Recently, my interest in Star Wars Galaxies was piqued by Fan Faire. I have always liked SWG, but whether or not I want to play ebbs and flows. One, it is Star Wars and Two, it does have a lot going for it.

At Fan Faire, they announced the new Chronicle system. It is similar in concept to Ryzom's Ring and CoX's Mission Architect; User-Generated Content. SWG has been doing user-generated content in the form of the Storyteller system for years, so this is the next big step.

The Chronicle system allows players to build their own quests. It doesn't seem to use an instancing system, instead it uses what the game already has available. The quest is given through an object, which you can likely put on your vendor. You can also choose iconic Star Wars figure to be the quest givers. So Darth Vader can message the player and tell him what to do.

The Quests can be crafting, killing, PvP and more. You can even create a quest drop and specify its drop rate on existing npc's. Lets not forget the rewards either. There is a special Chronicle loot table, XP and custom rewards. The custom rewards are ones that you provide. You can check out screenshots of the system here.

Another topic of Fan Faire was the Galactic Civil War, Rebels versus Empire. The developers have many ideas but would not commit to anything just yet. Let's hope they do, as the struggle between the two factions is a big part of Star Wars.

Recently, SWG also brought back battlefields. They had something similar a long time ago (before WoW) but it went away. These are open world fields where a set amount of players fight it out over objectives. It is similar to being instanced in that the population is limited, but it is not separate from the rest of the world.

Unlike some other games (Vanguard and PotBS), SWG had a pretty decent showing. That should speak well for its future, even if stiff competition is on the way. There is room for both games, as they are going to be quite different from each other. I do think SWG will need a face-lift in the coming years to hang on though.

It turns out SWG had a free trial so I was able to log in and hang out a bit. My server was more crowded thanks to the free server transfers. I walked around a bit, looked at some of the new houses (which are SWEET) and did some of the Empire Day event.

Here is a compilation of the video I took.

Direct Link.

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Free vs Paid Expansions

Is there anything more exciting than new MMO content? Maybe, but for this blog post, no. Most often this new content comes to us via expansions. Sometimes they are free, sometimes they need to be paid for. Each MMO has its own idea of how this should be done. For this post, content additions and expansions are roughly equal.

On the free side you have games like Eve, Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heroes/Villains. They tend to release new content, at decent intervals, for just the cost of the subscription. SWG recently released the Battle for Hoth and an Appearance Tab system. CoX put out Issue 13, which had many improvements.

If you added up all of the free content those games release for a year, would it add up to a paid expansion? I think in many cases it would, but then you would have to add in the fact that you had to wait. Free expansions allow for more additions, quicker which means a more dynamic game.

On the pay side, you have games like WoW and Everquest. These games do put out free content upgrades too, but usually they are few and far between (I am looking at you WoW). When they do put out a paid expansion, it is usually packed full of content and worth the wait. The downside is that paid expansions can be slow to hit the marketplace.

Finally there is the hybrid, like Lord of the Rings Online. They put out free content updates (Book 13 ) pretty regularly and a rather large paid expansion (Mines of Moria).

As far as WAR goes, we will have to wait and see what approach they take. I think it will be a hybrid, but I can't recall where I heard that. They have released 2 new careers so far and have plans to release another two soon. These were cut from launch, but are free content none the less. I can't wait to hear their ideas for a paid expansion.

What kind of expansion do you prefer?

I would have to go for LoRTO. It seems that they are giving their customers the best of both worlds in terms of content. I really do like the free updates, however, I suspect a paid expansion can be very healthy for a game. Maybe it is just psychological, but the expectations are higher when shelling out extra money, regardless of the amount of free content they have been releasing.

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SWG, Looking Good.

SWG is the most underrated MMO out there. With their recent Producers Note, they are looking good, in more ways than one.

Coming early in the new year is an Appearance Tab. When I was playing SWG, this was one feature I was very excited about. Much like Everquest (2 I think) and LoTRO, SWG will now allow you to make your character look like you want, rather than be at the mercy of the stat'ed armor you need.

All of the armor with the nice stats still works the same, but it doesn't show. Instead you have a new tab where you can put what you want to be visible. There are still restrictions, so no Jedi's looking like they have armor and such.

Star Wars has such iconic armor, like the Storm trooper, that this system is badly needed. Before you could get Storm Trooper armor, but eventually better armor would come along. Now you can look like a Storm Trooper or Rebel pilot for as long as you like. Awesome.

This is one system I think should start to become standard. For the PvP types it may cause some issues, if they need to make decisions based on an opponents armor. I never have had to do this, maybe it is because I am a bit slow, but I imagine some people do. LoTRO does not show the appearance tab in the PvP area, so there are options.

I am not sure how this would go over in WAR. There are some very nice armor sets, I'm sure people would still like the look of them even if they are not optimal anymore. That would have to make the art folks happy as assets will get used more. However, WAR is much more PvP oriented than the other games, worth a discussion though. I think WoW would benefit from this system. There are some cool looking armors out there, it is a shame you have to ditch the entire look to get some stats.

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I'm not dead yet

With the impending announcement of Bioware's new Star Wars theme MMO (yea, it is pretty much official now), you might be surprised that Star Wars: Galaxies is still alive and kicking.

I know some of you out there get angered by this fact, for whatever non-nonsensical reason. But alas it is true, and I am thankful for it. I do not currently play SWG, but I think it is a very good game. If I had more time, I would play.

the folks over at SOE are getting ready to release a new Chapter, The Battle of Echo Base. Echo Base is the location where the snow battle takes place in Empire Strikes Back. The battle is actually a Heroic Encounter (instanced dungeon/raid'ish). Depending on whether your are Imperial or Rebel, you will have a different experience. It is PvE only, so now PvP in there.

One new addition is the use of vehicles, so you can get in an AT-ST or a Snowspeeder and fight. This is something new to the SWG game, so hopefully it will work out well and we will see more in the future.

It is great to see them put more iconic content in the game, as the original trilogy is what I think Star Wars is. SOE and Lucas Arts have obviously not given up on SWG yet. What does that mean for Bioware's venture? Who knows, it could be something totally different than SWG which would allow both to live together.

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Dwarves in Spaaaaace!

Well no, not really.

Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) is a game I have been playing on and off since it launched in 2003. Recently my interest in playing again has been raised. Regardless of the past, there are some interesting developments happening over there.

• Canceled accounts have been re-activated for free!
• Thats right, if you have an old account there, go login and play. They activated all old accounts for their 5th anniversary. It is only temporary of course. No need to setup a subscription or anything.
• A new Star Wars collectible card game has been announced, Champions of the Force.
• A virtual in-game CCG like EQ's Legends of Norrath, with loot cards.
• Due out this summer.
• All subscriptions get free booster packs monthly.
• New midlevel theme park.
• As someone with a mid-level character, a new theme-park is new content. reviews of it have been pretty good too.
• Housing System
• I am a huge fan of SWG's housing system. It is always one of the features that brings me back to the game.
• Sci-Fi
• Need a sci-fi fix every so often.
• Hoth is coming soon!
• Hoth, a new PvE instance is being worked on. Should be unlike anything they have done previously.
• It is Star wars....
• Star Wars! Although many parts of not Star Warsy enough, it is what we have.

The main reason I do not play on a regular basis is that I do not have anyone to play with. I have never actually made any friends over there. Playing solo gets a bit boring after a while.

I am quite tempted at the moment to go back to playing.

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