The Alt Key Gives You the Power to Choose.

Don't know how many of you are into the MMO scene. But I thought I'd let you in on a great project. SWG Emu has been around for a while now, you might have heard about it, but they are really starting to get things looking great over there. Just today I reinstalled my copy of Star Wars Galaxies, but instead of playing SOE's game I went and set up to play SWGEmu. If you want to play what was(at least in my opinion) the greatest MMO head over there and get going. It's totally free, and only requires a few downloads, although you might be required to own a copy of SWG, not sure about that.

Star Wars Galaxies, before it was butchered, was a vast and exciting game world. One of the only games where I would just hop off my speeder and wander around the country side. Partly due to my love of Star Wars and partly to to the elegance of the environments. The planets were lush and beautiful, even the deserts, and really made me feel like I was there. The skill based combat system, again my opinion, was/is by-far better than a level based system.

When you play other MMO's, if you're a level 34 and you are fighting a level 35 odds are you'll lose. But with SWG it was never that clear cut. You could be a 2/2/4/3 Marksman fighting a 4/1/3/2 Brawler and you wouldn't have a clue as to whether or not you might win. It was all about your skill points and skill modifiers. True it had it's problems, uber-buffs and stat-stacking, but it was still a great system.

I think it's only true downfall was the implementation of Jedi. At first it wasn't too bad. You might see one Jedi a month, and even then it was always out in the middle of nowhere. Jedis feared being spotted, feared being hunted, and feared most of all, permadeath. To obtain Jedi was really no accomplishment, you only had to master the right professions in the right order, an order that was different for everybody and unknown to everybody until it was accomplished.

Over all, I say that Star Wars Galaxies had the driving force to change the MMO realm, to be a real contender in the current power-grab World of Warcraft currently has on the genre.

I'm not completely biased, I have played other MMO's. I've played World of Warcraft, RuneScape(as if that counts), City of Heros(and City of Villains), The Matrix Online, PlaneShift, and one other that I can't remember. While all these had their bright moments, they all had their downfalls.

I don't claim that SWG, or even SWGEmu, is the Golden Ark of the MMO Covenant. Just that it is excellence, I played SOE's Star Wars Galaxies for almost four years. Four years where the only other game I played was Half-Life 2. Four years of training, fighting, crafting, recruiting, exploring, flying, dying, dueling, questing, and most of all, having fun. More fun than I have had in any other game I have ever played in all my years of gaming.

I'm very excited to see the great updates coming from the SWGEmu Team. I can't wait to unleash my Imperial Master Pikeman unto the unsuspecting galaxy, and truly enjoy a game in a way I haven't for so many years.

I recommend all of you, whether you play any MMO's or not, to check out SWGEmu. Even if you have to go buy a retail copy of SWG, it's worth it.