“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. “
Samuel Beckett – 1906 –1989

Back in early 2005, before the Combat Upgrade was released and while the game was at its all time peak in terms of player numbers, the Euro-Tumbleweed server decided to hold an event – on Gorath. At first, eight new Rodian toons descended on to Coronet. We were lost in the mix of what was once the busiest starport in the Galaxy. Most Gorathians hardly noticed we were there at all. However, within the next half hour there were over 60 green snouts running around in their underwear with the little green R2 helper droids (remember them?) following them around.

The start of the Gorath invasion

We did all the noob stuff; tried to sell our starter melons, tried to buy a lightsaber, tried to duel players who were significantly tougher than we were. Players from Gorath took it well and as we toured the popular cantina’s, we picked up a few proper players on the way who were happy to strip off to their undies and join in the fun.
The event cumulated with a trip to the Krayt graveyard and 60 green Rodians bravely attempted to take down one of the ancient dragons using our CDEF Carbines and wooden poles. A movie of the entire event can be found here

WATCH MOVIE

Yes, it was childish. No, Pex wouldn’t give us a badge. But it was the most fun I’ve ever had in SWG. The event required not a single storyteller prop or a quest NPC. The fun was purely down to the people involved. I’m going to sound like a grumpy old man but people just don’t say hello any more. The servers aren’t as busy I admit, but they are busy enough. I see plenty of people, even on Tumbleweed but we just run past each other too busy to even wave. I get more interaction from NPC’s. What’s happened?

60 Rodians, 60 R2 Helper Units and 60 X31 Landspeeders outside Mos E

The problem is that for better or for worse, a lot of the old social meeting points are long gone. Doctor queues, shuttle ports and medical centres used to be where you met new people while you waited to get something done. The only enforced social interaction takes place at cantina’s but for the most part you either have an entertainer alt, or someone in your guild has an entertainer alt.

The heart and soul of SWG is the communities of people that emerge on the servers that you play on. The problem we face now is that the main focus of the Galaxies is now firmly aimed at traditional gaming which is entirely goal based. This is a problem in so much as that when gamers achieve these goals, they start screaming for more content. If Raph Koster was dead, he’d be turning in his grave.

Of course, while Raph always wanted to create this wonderful virtual sandbox where people could cast off the shackles of goal based objectives, the truth is that many people simply want to play this way. It’s inevitable. What we now lack is a large enough subset of people who don’t particularly care much for this style of play. We need more players for sure, but we need players who aren’t particularly concerned with their virtual penis size. We need girls.

As far as I know, both my readers are male but in case you are a lady. Please accept my apologies if the above statement sounded sexist. It was a generalisation I agree, but the truth of the matter is that females are more likely to make their own fun, more likely to engage in social interaction and less likely to give two hoots about being the toughest pvp’er on the server. When I say girls, I mean all people who have these qualities. When I say girls, I mean this as a compliment.
Ingrained into the fabric of this game we have a wonderful means where people can interact with each other. The various types of emotes alone are staggering. There are so many people who aren’t typically exposed to MMO’s that would absolutely love SWG. The question is, how do we pull them in?

Imagine your bog standard free to enter internet chat site. All rooms are actually cantina’s or medical centres in Star Wars Galaxies and when you enter one, a toon is created. As an internet user, you see a very basic representation of the toon but someone actually playing the game will see the chat room user as a fully fledged SWG player. If the chat room player wants to customize their character (new clothes for example) they can pay a small fee to do so. If they want to venture outside of their current surroundings they will have to purchase the full game.

 The lure is a free chat room with a massive difference. The benefit for us all is a social scene as well as new players. Star Wars fans, chat room fans, role players – all suddenly cast into a world that they likely never knew existed. Imagine real life girls in SWG! As a fully paid up player, you could also jump into the galaxy and chat with friends whilst at work or school.
This is my bold vision for the future of Galaxies. I recently sent this suggestion to Deadmeat who liked the idea but thought it was technically challenging. I bet it is. I also bet that the next generation of MMO’s will allow players to interact using the internet. It would be fantastic if SWG was the first game on the market to do this.

Take care of yourselves readers, I guess that’s what you’re best at.
SuperFurry – 13th July 2007
Email me: SuperFurryGalaxies@hotmail.com