massively multiplayer

I have 60+ hours invested in game so far and I am ready to cancel.
What is "Star Wars"- Heroic Adventures, Intense Battles, In-Depth Universe, Humor and Tragedy.
What is "SW Galaxies"- Repetition, Hack/Slash/Repeat, Mine/Craft/Delete, endless and pointless.
What "SWG" should have been- A SPACE faring RPG game featuring 100's of distinct planets each with a different personality and culture, rather than being planet-bound on 5-10 huge planets, vast and formless, culturally confused, dotted with MOBs. It should have been a chance to hop into battle vs. NPC armies or PVP squads, rather than the typical hard-to-form/find groups system to hunt down vicious snakes, butterflies and frogs. It should have featured quest-like missions personalized for character type, rather than mission terminals dispensing notes you must deliver to Grandma Ackbar reminding her to soak her head in saltwater before bed. Here are your 43 credits and 5 faction points, repeat this 160 times to make Lance Corporal.

Ahh yes, a new Star Wars RPG. Everybody's excitied. The previous reviewer mentioned being immortalized. Well, guys, you're up for a disappointment.

Aren't you forgetting how these things work? You think this will be free to play? No! Don't forget the purpose of games: to make money. As will it be with this.

An Empire Divided will milk money from your pocketbook. The more you want to play, the more you have to pay. These games fail. They always do. They're designed that way. Yes, it's beautiful in concept. Yes, it should totally rock.

But it wont. It will be just like all the other star wars games of late - mass produced and cheap. The only good one is Jedi Knight II, but that's because it has a history. It has a family. This game is just another lucasarts sale ticket.

Let me tell you what will happen. You will come home with this new game. You will be totally excited at the new shiny box, brandishing all the latest in graphics and reading all sorts of good reviews. You will play it for a while, get immersed.

Boom, your trial period is up. Now, each month it's time to pay your star wars tax. Is a computer game worth re-buying each month? For the same money you could but two or three new star wars novels, or even better play Jedi Knight II, or join an online star wars text based RPG. You see, those games are made FOR fans, this game is made FOR money.

I urge caution with this game. It may look nice now, but it's simply playing off the success of the hastily made star wars prequils. It's a hype sucker, and it will suck the hype right out of you as you put it in a drawer and don't look at it for months.

Star Wars Galaxies disappoints many because it doesn't exclusively concentrate on action. Many customers buy this game expecting to be Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, or Princess Leia. They don't expect to be a Xaverri, Kid Dxo'la, or Ton Phanan. Never heard of these people, they are all minor, but influential characters, in the Star Wars universe. The 3 main characters experience epic struggles. In contract, the former 3 characters experience struggles of a different kind (to survive, to budget, to fight without a light saber in your hands, and to develop some form of sustainable existence). Star Wars Galaxies allows the player to gradually build up a character into a person; complete with contacts, conflicts, and adventure. In addition, most players expect to become a Jedi immediately. The experiences that create a Jedi were horrendous (even Yoda said so). Hence, the Jedi path is hard, because the Jedi path is, well, hard. For casual players like me, SWG is a perfect game. I'm not working towards a force slot. Instead, I've slowly developed 3 players(SWG allows up to 10 players on different servers); each with strengths and weaknesses. For die-hard players, there are many professions to master (from smuggler to chef). In addition, die-hard players can take one event (pvp combat for instance) and slice it into multiple playing experiences (ie. commando, combat medic, factional armor smith). For combat oriented players, there is always an Imperial presence and many rebels running around. Finally, SWG is a life oriented game; meaning, your character can change as your interests change. Example: I started one of my characters as a novice artisan, worked my way up to novice weapon smith, changed into a tailor, and now am working towards a master artisan. In addition, I picked up some rifle, fencing, and scouting skills on they way. In the near future, I hope to maybe dabble in the architect profession. All in all, Star Wars Galaxies is a deeply immersive game that will continue to get better as they add expansions to enhance the playing experience. More importantly, it takes roughly a month (incidentally, the amount of prepaid time provided with a new SWG purchase) before you start to realize the scope of the game.