Despite what SOE may or may not think, they were onto an extremely good thing with the original design of SWG. Their skill system was the most unique system out of any MMO after UO. Sure, picking a class and having your skills chosen right away is easy, but with SWG and UO, the diversity you could have on a character was phenomenal. You could make your character be whatever you wanted within the boundary of 27 or so profession choices.
As already stated here, it wasn't until the focus shifted to jedi grinding that SWG started to go downhill. The SOE developers took the focus off of rectifying the numerous silly bugs in the game, and started releasing new content that in turn introduced newer bugs. I played SWG from the early days, first on Chimaera and then on Infinity, and eventually after 7 months of wading through bugs and dealing with the day-to-day profession changes of Guildmates, I became bored of playing and eventually left. I can honestly say that in my opinion, when it was first out, SWG was THE best MMO I have ever played, and if it was free of most of the niggly bugs and in its original form, no other MMO today would be able to hold a candle to it. I can also honestly say that if SOE were to switch back to the original Pre-CU game, and at least make attempts at fixing some of the bugs (chair or bike warping anyone?) I, and many thousands of others, would be back in that game in an instant. But SOE won't admit that they made a huge mistake with the remake. That post from Smed is a little way there but it is so dumbed down it isn't funny. The only way that they can be losing less players now than before is because thousands left in their droves when the CU was launched. That left very few in the game for the NGE, so that's why the numbers are down. SOE are just kidding themselves if they think things are getting better.
Aside from UO, which was an amazing game before Publish 16, I have never had so much fun in an MMO as I did in SWG. There was never a time where I was stuck for something to do. I could hang around my player city just taking in the sights, talk to my Guild members, visit a far away planet and hunt new creatures, harvest materials for my Doctor profession, make money from running missions from the terminals, improve my standing with the Rebel faction by completing missions or "theme parks" for them, explore vast expanses of land that went on for miles and miles, visit other player cities, visit a dungeon or instance (like the night sister cave on dath), kill Rancors, visit known places from the films, check out player-run shopping malls, fight Imperial players in the big cities, start the daily Anchorhead / Bestine battles that would always happen, etc etc. The possibilities of living in that universe were absolutely endless. No other game has the same immersion factor that SWG had in its prime. It's just such a pity that they saw fit to shaft the game so totally and turn it into the utter pile of carp that it is now. I made a triumphant return about a month ago and immediately after logging in, I felt so terrible about wasting £10 on the month subscription. Luckily I found out that I was granted a 21-day trial as a returning member. I didn't log back in after two days. The game has changed so much that it isn't recognisable anymore. It is very, very sad and until SOE remove the wool from over their eyes and realise just what they have done, there is no hope for those that still wish the game was how it was.
" but that didn't last long come CU and NGE. I agree that it was the best MMORPG to date by a stupidly long way.
