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Without a community, a game is nothing.

Feb 28, 2008 Games

I’ve found my game-screen shots folder on my computer. Star wars, Ever Quest II and World of Warcraft.

I’m not sure if there are a few who’ll understand the emotion, but going through the Star Wars screen shots was a lot like going through images of someone near and dear that had long passed on. I remembered the community, the spirit, I remembered the wide-eyed way I approached the game and the hours of wonderful role play that, as months flew by and the game aged, helped me see past out-dated graphics as well as the things the developers had done to the game. And then I remembered that, for me, it’s pretty much passed on into the great Geek memory of has-beens.

As is usual with many MMORPG’s, the game changed, the community drifted. Time passed, people stopped playing and moved on to other, newer games with shinier graphics–leaving empty servers and a plethora of idiots using their two week free trial.

But I honestly think that I will not find another community in a game quite like the community of role players and players I found in Star Wars galaxies. Here was a game in a genre that just didn’t appeal to the young just discovering the internet or a certain genre–no–here was a game that appealed to all ages. You could be playing beside a sixty year old or a fifteen year old–bridging an age gap few games today, in my opinion, have been able to do or recreate. Never have I come across a group of ‘well spoken’ people, nor such (at the time of its hay day) a large group of role players in a game that actually role played well.

City wide story lines propelled by player and game made props, hundreds of people showing up to events, several hundreds, if not thousands of objects such as clothing, homes and home decor to appease those obsessed–or simply concerned–with creating a good setting and character environment. Buildings and vehicles, customization that, while limited, mixed and matched together could at least, create a few bumps in the mundane of cut-out character avatars.

And I’ve yet to come across a game that has remotely touched upon such things.

Without a large portion of the original community that once backed the game, it has become a smaller galaxy. New characters (when I picked the game up again) were not as welcomed nor accepted. Role play was more difficult or as rare as legible typing. Leveling up and PVP seemed more interesting to newer players than fiddling with the ten thousand things that made the game encompassing.

SWG lost something vital when it lost the community, and I am done being bitter toward SOE over its decisions in handling the game–because I’m done with the game. But, as I said, going through the screen shots today aroused some of that old longing–for a game that could do the same thing SWG did in its hayday. To draw me in and keep me playing well past when I should have gone to bed. To make me feel like my spent money was worth it. To entertain me and give me a few moments out of the mundane to feel extraordinary.

Many of the new games I am beta testing today would do well to look at Star Wars: Galaxies during its height of popularity. Many games should also take a moment to learn as well as understand SOE’s mistakes that brought down a game that should have been legendary. I hope that the new games I am looking at will take note; fancy graphics, smooth play, in dept story line and originality is all fine and good–but without your community, a game is nothing.

Yes. I did just ramble on about a massively multi player role playing game. Tune in next week, when I waste another of your precious life’s moments going on about drow. Or lolcats. Or loldrow.

Star Wars: Galaxies

Tags: MMORPG