Star Wars Galaxies - Pandora's Box
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- čas přidán 11. 02. 2023
- The greatest saga ever told...Yours.
Twitter: / madseason_
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Credits/references:
Game Director(Raph Koster) Blogs: www.raphkoster.com/2015/04/27...
GDC SWG Postmortem: • Classic Game Postmorte...
Ex-SOE employee AMA: / iama_former_soe_employ...
Icon art by Tartan Kiwi: / tartan_kiwi
Pandora's Voice by Lara Sluyter of / @larashorrorsounds
Music:
Force theme by Eliott Tordo: • Star Wars - The Force ...
and Samuel Kim: • Star Wars: The Force T...
Zero Gravity Ballet: • SWG Soundtrack - 23 "Z...
The Clouds Must Part: • SWG Soundtrack - 21 "T...
Warming Sunrise: • SWG Soundtrack - 07 "T...
Stickerbrush Symphony remaster by Yargami Scipionyx: • Stickerbrush Symphony ...
To Start a Journey: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCEX2...
A Cantina band cover by Genis Ibañez Guerola: • STAR WARS CANTINA BAND...
Duel of the Fates Medieval Style by Samuel Kim: • Star Wars: Duel of The...
Entropic Rhapsody by blinch: • Loop Hero - Entropic R...
New Horizons cover by gabocarina96: • Main Theme - Animal Cr...
Imperial March cover by Kenny Mac Composer: • ORCHESTRAL REMAKE | "T...
World of Sand: • SWG Soundtrack - 02 "A...
Calm Before the Storm cover by Super Guitar Bros: • Final Fantasy X Guitar...
Nerevar Rising cover by Berend Holtland: • Nerevar Rising (Morrow...
Aquatic Ambience cover by Yargami Scipionyx: • Aquatic Ambiance (rema...
Hyrule Castle Remaster by Yargami Scipionyx: • Hyrule Castle (remaste...
Life is Beautiful cover by PPF: • Kinugasa, Kobayashi, &...
Duel of the Fates 8 bit by GhostVoltage: • Star Wars : Duel of Th...
Dark Hallways cover by pipevanes: • Videogame Orchestra! D...
William Tell Overture(Rossini) by CZcams Audio Library
Singularity's Dream by blinch: • Loop Hero - Singularit...
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Kevin Macleod: filmmusic.io/song/3584-dance-... creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Seasons of War: • Official World of Warc...
War: • World of Warcraft Ost ...
Legends of Azeroth: • Official World of Warc...
Lich is Unbreakable by blinch: • Loop Hero - Lich is ...
Enter the Dungeon by blinch: • Loop Hero - Enter the ...
Loop Blues by blinch: • Loop Hero - Loop Blues
You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet cover by Yargami Scipionyx: • You Can Hear the Cry o...
Once in a lullaby by Chris Christodoulou: • Chris Christodoulou - ... and check out his bandcamp here: chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com
Pandora's laugh/speech by Lara's Horror Sounds: • Creepy Little Girl Tal... - Hry
Been referencing this many times over the years, figured I should finally give it the video it deserves. Thanks for being patient, sorry these take so long to make!
If you are curious on status/progress of the next video, I post updates on my twitter: twitter.com/madseason_
Episode #1 - World of Warcraft: czcams.com/video/BazitK-ZgDk/video.html
Episode #2 - Rise of the Influencer: czcams.com/video/vRqHHAFlXJI/video.html
Episode #4 - The Ocarina of Time: czcams.com/video/sAXIAPC8pG8/video.html
You do what you need to do good sir! I’ve always loved the content so, clearly, I’d like more (you have nothing else to do, like eat or sleep, right). But I think I, and all of us, want you to be healthy and happy with your work. Happy to see you posting, hoping we get to see more ;)
@@TheActualJae i agree with you
Love this series. Keep them coming 👍🤘👍🤘
I think that you're a very talented creator, but everything you do is hollow if you don't go after the (((true criminals))), even if it means being banned from JewTube. There's a reason why (((Bobby Kotick))) is still the CEO of Blizzard.
Great vids take time. Love your work and whatever you do moving forward, we will support you. Thank you for everything so far
I feel privileged to have played this game at its peak. It was a truly memorable experience.
Same, mmos back then in general were pretty magical, swg especially. I miss that feeling of the unknown and intimidation they used to bring. We were lucky for sure!
Definitely! My coworker and i used to wake up at 3am to mine and take out tie fighters before work haha! I still remember when they had that kashyyk celebration going on! Aww i still have all those discs 😥
Can still play and better fan made servers SWG Legends and SWG Resto EMUs fyi “Resto is Besto” 🐻🇨🇦
It was awesome
You need to go outside
My best friend played this game heavily back in the day, they were an ace imperial pilot so much so that I was once invited to an ingame event where a GM controlling Darth Vader attended a ceremony to award my friend with a title and ingame reward for their work supporting the imperial navy :D
It really was something special.
They don't make them like they used to
@@Thorerthedwarf Agreed. I played this game so, so, SO much. It was a blast. I was one of the few people that liked the Geneticist (think that's it) profession. It took hours for me to collect samples, breed the creatures, resample them, and got some of the best pets with the best perks/stats. The game was a blast. I miss MMOs when they had charm vs. the current crap where they crank em out for $$$.
Sony was somewhat decent back, a far cry from what they used to be in the good days.
It just sucks. EQOA, SWG, you name it, the 2000s and early 2010s were the best for MMOs and gaming in general.
What blows me away is how many *amazing* ideas from SWG haven't made it into other MMO's.
I comment on this a lot. Everything to how open the world was with player cities to the mix off classes. No one wants to make a game this detailed anymore.
They all are chasing after WoW making these boring cookie cutter handholding games. It's lame, make a great sandbox mmo again damnit, fucking innovate and not stagnate.
A lot of this early MMO era was supported by being an early form of social media. MMOs can’t support things like player driven economies as much anymore
money
@@undolf4097 Eve online still going strong, still the best mmo economy out there
The community in this game was unreal. We had a gathering of our guild and people literally came from all over the world, Norway, France, Mexico, Canada, etc. Some friendships I still have today.
Same, still friends with someone I met ingame.
Vandelay?
Same here.. love from sweden
@@johanswed74 Did you play a Bothan?
Only MadSeason could make me nostalgic for a game I never played
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
@@DonsAnalysis That's pretty cool, I'll check it out
I miss this game so much. The community was just something else.
Remeber carver back then when we played Star Wars galaxies? I miss those times
@@chabbab6698 the good ol days
Finding a Jedi on SWG in the beginning was like meeting a celebrity IRL. I love the Jedi path in during launch and how they made it so hidden.
Bounty hunting them was better IMO
@@AdamantineAxe I never got to witness that myself, but I believe you. That does sound awesome lol
i grinded to unlock my jedi, was about 20 jedis on my server at the time of my unlock
Chasing a jedi was one of the best fun i had in any game the whole process was amazing with the droids and the jedi not knowing that someones in on to him :D
@@AdamantineAxe **Flame thrower intensifies**
This game was one of the best games ever made, and absolutely no one since has tried to implement its lessons or build something similar (except maybe some recent great SP experiences like Kenshi). People who played it at its peak (myself included) talk about it like being at woodstock in '68.
Yes!
Kenshi! I freaking loved that game!
SWG lives on in all it's iterations and some others (pre-CU, CU, NGE, and Custom).
- For pre-CU there's SWGemu (been a while since I've personally played it, but it looks to still be very active. I played that for the longest as I started on it not long after Official SWG dropped the CU.)
- For CU there's SWG Restoration I, II, and III (Restoration was the most popular CU server last I checked. I played Restoration I and II, but never went back for version III.)
- For NGE there's SWG Legends (currently the most populated SWG server regardless of iteration. It's a lot more than the basic NGE though, and has a lot custom content, including the Bespin cloud city. I haven't played it over a year, but I see that it is still very active. I would probably still be playing it, but life changes resulted in not having the time or energy.)
- There's also a popular hybrid CU/NGE server there's ProjectSWG (it's a complete rebuild of the game rather than using copies game files allegedly taking the best elements from Pre-CU, CU, and NGE. I've never actually played that one, but it looks good and appears to be active.)
- One that is quickly gaining popularity and looks very interesting is SWG Evolve (it's built on NGE game files, but has some Pre-CU/CU profession elements and multi class skill system, world bosses, hard mode heroics, Jedi unlock system.)
There are several other servers for Pre-CU, CU, and NGE with a few more that are custom or hybridized servers, but the above are arguably the best for each category. Other folks will obviously have their favorites. You technically need original copies of the game discs, however there is a workaround for that. I can't spill the beans, but the workaround is easily found via google.
Oh man SWG. I had just moved out into my first place when this game launched. It's hard to put my feelings into words with this game. There were high highs and depressing lows. I still think about it a few times a year. Only the good memories remain. Chewbacco if you are out there, those were fun times!
I hear you we all have that "one" for me it was Wolfenstein's enemy territory! played that game for years the community was awesome definitely a once in a lifetime experience! loved that game!
I felt this to deep
Hey it's me Chewbacco, whoa dude it's been forever, hey u got 20 dollars?
@@schnarfschnarf5886 hahaha I absolutely love your name. And sorry, I am beyond broke. :(
I hope one day your buddy stumbles on this video and replies so you can reunite.
I remember begging for this game and finally getting it for my birthday. I was 10 and when I got to Mos Eisley I was in awe looking at other people. Their characters were so detailed and they had amazing gear that was also very well detailed (or so I remember). I would just inspect people for hours. I was really bad, would always get lost and lose my land speeder haha.
Sounds like we had very similar experiences. I miss the magic that we got from our first mmo. Something we'll never get again, but also something to always look back to fondly.
I convinced my parents to buy this game for me. Then I found out it required a separate subscription which I could never justify. Then I begged for a refund. Haha. I ended up getting Halo PC instead which led to Halo Custom Edition and Star Wars mods instead. 😅
I remember reading the box art and manual. It looked so cool though. 😞
I ran a group for people like you in my guild. I'd show them the basics and let them leech off me to get some levels to start and help with what skills to take as well. Didn't cost anything but time because the guilds city paid for equipment and speeders for the new people. I loved that game so much!
Edit: I only did these things because thats exactly what someone did for me when I first started playing not knowing what to do.
This is a very accurate and concise retelling of the SWG saga. I was there from day 2 (servers weren’t up on day 1 lol) and went through the era of no vehicles, hologrinding, unlocking my Jedi (on master entertainer, I shook my ass for the force), NGE… all of it. Was quite a ride. Great video.!
I've been gaming since the 80s. Starting from Atari at 2 years old (my mom worked for Atari) and all consoles until Commodore to my 486dx/33 /w DOS based games and nerding offline on BBS's prior to the internet... through the dawn of the internet until present day. On my now R9 7950x /w a 7900xt and DDR5 6k mhz. Even with graphics to its fullest glory these days in 4K. I can say with certainty that Star Wars Galaxies PRE-CU, running around in 720p on my commando with 3x AT-STs soloing Krayt Dragons was one of the greatest gaming experiences I have ever experienced. As the only Dark Jedi on the server, I teamed up with the only Light Jedi on the server. We created the world first Mandalorian helmet in the death watch bunker. I set up a museum outside of Theed and it was on display until the servers shutdown. Once CU came out, I quit the game and left it to the best bounty-hunter on the server named Dfett. - Unicron / Gair
To me, SWG is about fond memories and lost potential. It is a game I miss greatly, not just the game, but the friends within the game.
Absolutely awesome video! We have been working to bring back the original game for many years and working to recreate the experience we all loved when we played Pre-CU SWG. Appreciate you taking the time to make this and share it, well worth the watch.
Thank you guys for keeping it alive! I've been following your project since 2008, and have really enjoyed what you've done with Finalizer.
@@madseasonshow We appreciate the kind words! It has been along road but we are nearing the end and it is all falling into place. Glad we are able to give players the opportunity to be a part of it all again.
@@swgemu Hope to experience SWG one day since I didn't get the chance to play it back in the day.
And thank you guys for still being around and keeping the dream alive.
Love this group of humans!
One of my favourite games of all time. A truly player driven game. Whenever I watch the movies I get the feeling that I remember visiting the locations myself and have memories attached to them.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
I play one of the emu ever few years was actually thinning of starting if up next month or so
SWG: Legends, look it up
Same with me, such a great game for it’s time for any Star Wars fan. It was my first MMORPG and I had no expectations. For me it was an amazing immersive Star Wars experience that can never be replaced. I was only 12 when I started playing in 2003. You can imagine the impact that had on me. I have childhood memories blended in with the game. I was living in the Star Wars Galaxy, every day before school ai would tell my friend stories of what I was doing in the game, what I was planning and what you could do, and after school I would race home to play Star Wars Galaxies. I have a lot of digital memories blended in with my childhood 😁
This video was phenomenal, man. A true hit of nostalgia, and making me wish I could go back to simpler times, where all I cared about was getting home from my shift at the local supermarket, at 17 yo, so I could grind the next holocron profession.
Right there with you man. Ill cherish those memories forever.
I bought my first graphics card and upgraded the ram in our slow home PC just to play this. Had a year or so of amazing experiences, then the NGE update kicked in, I had all skills for all classes suddenly unlocked. Had nothing to motivate me, and all my friends left.
I keep meaning to check out the star wars galaxies legends thing, but I don't really have the freedom and time to play as much as you have during your youth.
Well you can. SWG lives on in all it's iterations and some others (pre-CU, CU, NGE, and Custom).
- For pre-CU there's SWGemu (been a while since I've personally played it, but it looks to still be very active. I played that for the longest as I started on it not long after Official SWG dropped the CU.)
- For CU there's SWG Restoration I, II, and III (Restoration was the most popular CU server last I checked. I played Restoration I and II, but never went back for version III.)
- For NGE there's SWG Legends (currently the most populated SWG server regardless of iteration. It's a lot more than the basic NGE though, and has a lot custom content, including the Bespin cloud city. I haven't played it over a year, but I see that it is still very active. I would probably still be playing it, but life changes resulted in not having the time or energy.)
- There's also a popular hybrid CU/NGE server there's ProjectSWG (it's a complete rebuild of the game rather than using copies game files allegedly taking the best elements from Pre-CU, CU, and NGE. I've never actually played that one, but it looks good and appears to be active.)
- One that is quickly gaining popularity and looks very interesting is SWG Evolve (it's built on NGE game files, but has some Pre-CU/CU profession elements and multi class skill system, world bosses, hard mode heroics, Jedi unlock system.)
There are several other servers for Pre-CU, CU, and NGE with a few more that are custom or hybridized servers, but the above are arguably the best for each category. Other folks will obviously have their favorites. You technically need original copies of the game discs, however there is a workaround for that. I can't spill the beans, but the workaround is easily found via google.
I still remember running into my first jedi on Dantooine. He was a Mon Calamari with a yellow light saber. I was a Teräs Käs Master at the time and the Jedi had only advanced partly through Padawan so he hadn't learned force run. Jedi back then could be attacked by anyone that saw them use their lightsaber since it caused a Global TEF (Temporary Enemy Flag). I managed to kill him after a bit of a struggle, but it was after I learned you could only die 3 times or lose your character. He was surprisingly cool about it. I ended up running into him again a few months later this time with a large part of my guild, only this time the Mon Cal Jedi had joined the Rebellion (Empire for lyfe) and he was now a Jedi Guardian. He preceded to take on 5 Teräs Käs Masters and a legion of Stormtroopers/ Riflemen. He eventually had to run since we had the numbers on him, but it's a memory burned into the deepest parts of my brain. Jedi was a true Alpha-class in that game. Never saw PvP like that in any other game.
16 years ago I got my internet in that game and I have never been able to let it go, I was there when the servers shut down in the mos Eisley cantina. Banger of a game.
I really like how irl props are implemented in these videos. Really gives you the appropriate early 2000s feel and makes for a nice, unique and funny style of presentation.
I remember being an Image Designer / Musician in this game back in 2004. I remember hanging out by the Cantina where I’d make a ton of credits from tips from musician buffs I’d give other players, and then when I wanted to switch it up I’d hangout in the tents outside of Cantinas that were similar to Salons irl; Players walked in knowing what they wanted. I’d make more tips from changing a players appearance to just how they wanted it. I remember thinking how incredible of a game this was. I got to hangout with other players and actively engage in making their overall gameplay experience more enjoyable through combat buffs or fun cosmetic changes. It wasn’t a perfect game, but I never played anything like that, even 19 years later.
Sadly, the CU, then NGE came out a year later and nobody showed up to Cantinas anymore outside of just want to chat. The Salons just became empty buildings, and eventually most towns and cities followed suit. Still have memories of how sad it was to see what was once incredible become empty and forgotten. Will always love what SWG was in its early days. Thank you for the nostalgia trip
Edit: also are you Pedro Pascal? You sound just like him
I could have never imagined that anyone would create such a comprehensive and in depth documentary about this game. It means so much to get to re-visit the SWG universe like this. Thank you!
I never comment on videos, but I have to say I was never expecting to run across this deep dive these days after all these years. Very in depth recap of the whole thing! Was a day 1 SWG player, at one point had 5 accounts... So many good memories were had. Folcwald on Naritus! Miss all you guys that made the community great! And Greyhawk Thunderbird, if you're out there somewhere still, miss ya! Even though it ended terrible, feel lucky to have had experienced 3 awesome years with this game.
It was my pleasure to make, glad you like it. It's a special game for sure! Don't think we'll see anything like it again.
@@madseasonshow thankfully theres still several servers up and running
Check out Star Citizen! It might scratch your SWG itch
@@madseasonshow The end was nigh when they removed the TEF that allowed for pick-up PVP and removed instant weapon switching.
I invented the FIREBIKE on my server. A swoop made with materials of such poor quality, it banged and caught fire the first time you called it.
I've never even played SWG, but I'm going to watch the hell out of this video. Thank you for doing what you do! Publish more, please.
Enjoy, thanks for being patient...these take forever to make lol
@@madseasonshow thank you mad, best of wishes to ya
you can play it i have been playing it on and off because a team of people revived the classic experience before EA ruined it giving everyone jedi.
Yes, it is alive and playable RIGHT NOW my friend! The Finalizer emulator is up and running! Ive played it over 4hrs just today alone lol
i didn't bothered i personally thought graphics were meh, even star wars fan, i was never fan of sandbox games, i prefer theme park just its simple, i can grind when i want, quest in lvls i needed too, didn't have to stress making my own fun, i was having blast what developers gave me, I was in beta of wow still enjoy wow to this day, but i hated when blizzard made things to simple, i despise BFA and SL to this day and playing classic WoTLK and loving every moment of it.
SWG's death nail was Smedley's "Vocal Minority" comment. They simply REFUSED to listen to their playerbase. Just give your customers what they want. Its that simple! Ugh... 20 years later I still get upset just thinking about SOE. One of the saddest days of my young life was when I left my house for the last time, strapping on my Nightsister Armguard, transfering billions of credits to the few friends that were still playing, went up the mountain on Naboo where my first house had been, sitting down and looking down the mountain at the horizon as I logged off for the last time. I'd mastered every profession, claimed every title, sold the best armor on my server and was one of the most powerful Jedi on my server... and then one day I was suddenly completely irrelevant, just like everyone else. I was depressed for months afterwards. It was as if a piece of me died in that game. To this day I tell this cautionary tale about an arrogant and dismissive company who took the single most loyal and dedicated customer base, who would still be paying their monthly fees if they'd have just listened once. SWG EMU's are STILL up and running. Just think about that... Anyone who was surprised by the crap they called the sequel movies haven't been paying attention.
preCU+JTL was godly... the profession system was unmatched.
I agree so many games die when the companies don't listen to their main player base. The end video where they mock players who don't like the changes shows how stupid they think the players are. Thinking they they just need to prove how big of a nerd they are. No they are genuinely upset at poor decisions. Changes should have to pass through a tribunal of people who actually play the game before being approved
I play on swg infinity feel free to jump back on.
I paid for multiple accounts. I too am pissed at SOE.
I'll never forget that every time the community wanted something, they purposefully went the other way. It was absolutely bananas. I agree with you that I have a burning hate for SOE. Once the Xbox 360 came out, I couldn't bring myself to play. The CU and NGE was just absolutely horrible. Going to Theed during CU and NGE was saddening, my heart dropped every time. It was a master class in how to ruin a wonderful experience.
As someone who played wow a few months before the burning crusade came out. I heard so many legends of the older MMOs. Star wars galaxies was one that absolutely mesmerized me. Thank you for making this detailed video. I love your stuff man
I can tell you....that final "Connect to SWG Lost" message was one of the more difficult things I've had to deal with in my gaming life. I came to the game post NGE and I loved the gameplay and the community. There were people that I met along the way that I still talk to today, who I still consider great friends. There has been no MMO that has come since then that conveys the same feeling as SWG for me.
EXCELLENT video MadSeasonShow. Truly excellent. The only thing I wish was covered more was a lot of the changes that happened post NGE...because there were a lot of changes other than server merges and shutdown. I am glad that you included the Emulators section though...because many of those servers are incredibly populated and vibrant communities even now.
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
This is by far the best SWG video explaining I've ever come across . Well done bro
I come visit this video on another account once in a while as a comfort video; one I play on a Sunday night before sleep, or during slow hours at work when I want to just have something in the background. It keeps me grounded because I used to play SWG in my teenage years with my older brother.. and it reminded me of those times when all I cared about was getting home from school to play it with him and to make friends online. IRL I was having a rough time in school and home, and I was a huge Star Wars nerd, so playing when I could at home was what really allowed me to escape. I remember so many events from those 3 years before the CU... making friends and switching guilds to joining one of the largest guilds and player cities on my server, becoming the most profitable resource extraction company on said server... in-game weddings, events for holidays in the guild halls, spending nights upon nights decorating and redoing my home, whole weekends of just window shopping at various player-run town malls, my guild's rivalry with another guild that used resource extractors as ways to block us building and expanding territory, heck... I even had a personal tailor I kept on pay-roll that'd always keep my character in the latest of server fashion.
Even though that game was FLAWED, to where if you weren't a fencer, swordsman, or rifleman/combat medic... you might as well just have fun in groups because you weren't doing anything by yourself... and that, at the time I played, the only real end game content was doing that Corvette so that you could build that AV-21 Landspeeder 'Corvette'; the games systems were so blended together that I genuinely made personal friends with entertainers, tailors, craftsmen, bounty hunters, and more. I remember the most profitable and fun time I had was when I was a master ranger/rifleman and would supply chefs and bio-engineers with the best meat, hides, and bones on the server; and moonlit Ranger Tracking the "old man" for the Hero of Tatooine main quest, for Jedi who had more credits than patience (or sense).
Nothing ever came close. Not even Eve Online.
There was a genuine sense of comradery and community. Being able to go around player towns and shop with friends for the latest gear or the newest droid or the best ship upgrade, to then attending an event at the guild hall, to then going out hunting rancors on Dathomir, then celebrating a good hunt at my home... talking about what we'd do with the resources or planning out future events... that's how an MMO should feel. It didn't matter the game mechanics were broken and the missions and content was sparce... we made our own content and kept up hope; hope that one day SWG would evolve and grow and gain all the features it was missing and they'd fix the combat imbalance and, well, I could finally viably run a Carbineer/Squad Leader combo without feeling like being a "stats stick" person who was effectively useless in the combat they were designed to fight in. :)
And then the executives decided to chase trends and shotgunned and reversed the progress. To chase the $$$ World of Warcraft brought in.
What's amazing, however, is that I hear that the last 2 years of SWG in the NGE were the best the game ever had. By that point, the developers were fans of SWG, the ones actively playing the game, and had a passion for fixing it. They actually finished implementing the entire Galactic Civil War system with NPC town raids and AT-AT walker fights, stuff that didn't work since near the start of the Pre-CU! They had proper instances with flyable vehicle combat, and the classes were actually balanced out and all the content was fixed and playable, including the Trials of Obi-Wan. It honestly was the best version of the NGE, built on the community dynamics of the old Pre-CU, with Jump to Lightspeed having now dynamic combat in PVP zones in space. They finally got it (mostly, abit flawed [staring at you anti-decay rules removing scarcity from the market and causing crafters to quit in mass]) right!
But by that point, they were only catering to the hardcore fans... and when they announced The Old Republic and the shutdown of SWG... they lost those too.
I never got to see those NGE "good times", but I'm happy the game left an impression on the people that could actually get into it. Nowadays, I don't think any major MMO has a level of community like the one SWG was able to cultivate during it's life. Simply because you were forced to rely on others HAD you rely on others. There wasn't any other choice. You made friends and enemies BECAUSE that was the point. The NGE did do away with a lot of the community actions because you no longer relied on people to get gear, but there was still a quality experience, however flawed it was, underneath all of those theme park quests.
I really hope with the success and release of the SWGEmu that people genuinely take a look at the mechanics, especially social mechanics, of SWG and add those into future projects... SWG, in ways, was LIGHTYEARS ahead of its time, and only nowadays... after everyone has subsisted on vapid theme park MMOs that only care about nickel and diming you, that people are looking back going... "Damn, they had something... imagine what we could have gotten..."
The man. The myth. The legend. MadSeasonShow with the instant click to watch
Thank you dude hope you enjoy
@@madseasonshow keep it up
Dude I had the same thought!!!! 🤩🤩🤩
Me too
Seriously
So great to hear you again boss. Another classic video about a game taking away from us.
Going on 30 this year, loved SWG but wasn't quite wise enough yet to fully understand how awesome and unique it was for the time. If only I had been a few years older at it's peak. I would've loved if this came back.
I was too young as well but there's really solid emulator servers up for SWG today. I personally play on Restoration, it's post CU and pre-NGE, also is one of the few to have the space expansion.
@@brycel5642 CU was ridiculously necessary since just loading 50 line long macros through a button press kind of sucked.
NGE was trash. Thanks for the server rec
I feel exactly the same way. I'm about to turn 30 soon. I loved my time on SWG, but I was just a teenager and didn't really get to experience the game to its max, in terms of instances, pvp, end game loot, etc. Plus I played during NGE. Which had enough people, but it would've been cool to see the game when it was at its peak. I just started playing on SWG Restoration like the other person who replied, and it's nice so far. Memories keep coming back. It's not that popular and it's a bit empty. But you still see players around, and it's nice.
I was honored to have played SWG from the time when it was in beta through release. I remember sitting in my college dorm room loading up the launcher to check out the beta back in the day. While I didn't play it for very long, I will always fondly remember the early community the game fostered and friends and relationships I gained.
I still miss this game. There was nothing else like it and haven't been ever since.
there are like a dozen emulators out there. most with very active communities
Still plenty of private servers to play on
There a many servers, but really in my opinion, only 2.. SWGEMU and SWG Legends. To sum it up, SWGEMU is the game as it was more towards launch. I know they have worked hard to create that server from the ground up, but in my opinion, especially when compared to games of today. SWGEMU is really kind of boring. SWG Legends is the game as it was when it was shut down, combat system is lacking, but balanced. The game had A LOT of content before it was shut down and the Legends team has added ever more over the last few years. The community is Legend is very active and you do not see the toxicity like to do with newer, online games. SWGEMU hopefully is the same, though I do not know for sure since it been years since I have played over there. I suggest SWG Legends.
@@saltypaladin9488 I'm aware. Ive played swgemu for a long time, but lately I've found restoration to be my favorite. There's lots of content I never got to see because I stopped playing after the CU.
@@GoomyB started rest myself today after quitting after the mustafar dlc. Its hard to get into again (gameplay wise) but Im loving it all the same.
holy shit madseason x SWG. This crossover is the best thing ive ever seen. I cant tell you how happy this makes me, my favorite creator and one of my favorite games in a universe I never knew existed.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
Thank you for this. Myself, my wife, and my best friend dedicated 3 years of our lives to this game. I was a beta tester for 3 months before the game launched publicly. It was a time of such fun. I would wake up at midnight and realize the minerals had shifted that day and I needed to move all my harvesters or they were wasting energy.
I will forever remember Star Wars Galaxies fondly. The sandbox, the camaraderie, the Player Associations, it was such a wonderful time of just unique gameplay experience that we, the players, built.
To Naritus, the HOBO's, and playing music far into the night... May the sun never set on SWG's memory.
You know, one of the things that killed SWG was the changing maturity of the player base. As Genx aged and millennials replaced them in importance, sandbox's demised because millennials weren't and aren't up to not having their hand held. Take the old republic. It was so scripted on rails to be dumbed down garbage. But they were catering to the mentality of new gamers. And this issue has only gotten worse leading to the rise of the early trash access
@@TheBelrick - Speaking to teenagers and young adults of today it's amazing how risk averse they are. Even driving, once seen as the pinnacle of independence for teens, is now mostly ignored because of "I don't want to be in a wreck". It's really going to be tough in about 15-20 years.
@@BrandonIT1337 Umm, i disagree with you now. All my peers and friends and workmates have adult children. Literal children. Anxiety issues, inability to work at all. And all they desire is pot and video games. Their parents are still doing every adult chore for them, home or not
The way genz were brought up is a complete disaster that is going to hasten the ongoing societal collapse.
@@TheBelrick Okay Boomer 👌
@@YukiOnTour Got out of bed yet zoomer?
I played SWG from the week of launch all the way until the release of the NGE, then for a few months a couple years later just so my friend and I could experience Jump to Lightspeed (which was unaffected by the NGE). I still have very intense emotions surrounding this game. I get angry at just the thought of the NGE but most of all I feel sad, and I really miss all the friends I knew back then. Many people who I haven't spoken to since we all said our good byes to each other the day NGE launched. I've never seen such a unified negative response to a game update in my life.
I was JonusAngelus on the Corbantis server. I was a part of New Reclamation in the early days right outside Moenia, then later a member of the Hyperspace Outlaws on first Corellia, then Lok. Would be nice to speak to anyone who remembers that part of the galaxy, if you're out there. LordRevan, Miinah, Teldenon, everyone else, I miss you guys.
combat upgrade server is back, SWG r3
I really, really hope one of this people who you have remembered so vividly see your comment. It's genuinely touching and reminds me of the unforgettable hours of fun and development of serious friendships I've forged in MMOs.
It makes me wonder about the two or three people who connected with me greatly, but I have no idea who they are or what they're doing now 15+ years later
@Doom Guy The name sounds vaguely familiar. The HyperSpace Outlaws had gotten fairly large at a point, so I think it's likely you'd have had some interaction with us. That's really great. I loved all the little self-run shops people had.
fellow corbantian. Bramocca (VENOM)
I remember my dad bringing home this game, and i sat on a chair behind him for days as he struggeled with finding his bearings. This video made me wish i had played this game more back in the day, but my heart was with DAOC.
Your accuracy and detail was truly stunning. I was temporarily brought back to a time I forgot and loved dearly
I played SWG from launch up until the first combat upgrade. 100s of hours played, i pretty saw everything the game had to offer, i even managed to make quite the name for myself on Bria, mainly due to being one of the best Armorsmiths on the server as well has having the 2nd jedi unlocked. I love that game with all my heart, it holds so many happy memories and great times with life long friends and i miss it dearly. Great video x
I was on bria too, miss it soo much😢
This was the first MMORPG I was introduced to and I was 12 when it released. I have a true love for WoW but nothing has ever (and I doubt will ever) capture the essence of what SWG did. You just existed in a universe and your purpose was to exist. Make friends, (literally) build communities and immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away. I have avoided videos about SWG for many years as I have genuinely found it upsetting I am not able to return or speak to the friends I made there, but I am going to break that cycle with this video and I can't think of a person more suited to talk about SWG.
I was devastated when CU/NGE happened and was one of the many that left. Greatest game ever. I shed tears over it as I said goodbye.
However, you CAN play it RIGHT NOW!!!
Go get on the Finalizer emulator and join us! I've played over 4hrs a day for a while now!!
It also shows its flaws. You need people to play the game like its real life and it never works forever. You were a kid with too much sparetime, but for people with jobs it is impossible to get into. Likewise, it never becomes very diverse, the fanbase was all copy pasted straight male nerds with bad hygine. Most of the population wasnt marketed to and that is untapped revenue and players
@@wile123456 Naw man, that's just your life. I work 50-60 hours every week and play MMO's almost religiously through out the night. I just hear the classic excuse of: its impossible for people with jobs.
@@vividly94 well then you've also dedicated all your free time to MMO's instead of family, friends and other hobbies 😂
@@wile123456 what exactly is funny here? Man holds a full time job and does what he wants otherwise. Livin the dream.
Welcome back old friend
Man, all those years ago. Starting and being completely lost. Then, the amount of joy and accomplishment of becoming a TKM and being a part of a huge krayt dragon hunt. Stayed through all the changes all the way through the final notices in chat before disconnect.
I've got the collector's edition box sitting on a shelf above my desk. This was an amazing game in its prime, a community unlike any other I've been a part of. Building player settlements and sourcing most resources from player efforts was just incredible. Thanks for a trip down Memory Lane!
At the 15 minute mark you hit one of the greatest points of the original game. The creativity of the player base. Back in the day there were websites dedicated to the incredible creations of folks willing to dedicate their time. And did they ever. Those simple, yet overlooked, things are what I really miss the most about this game, even 20 years later.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
Serious? Are Jedi added into this version of the game too albeit it being very rare etc...
@@devwadehra9896 Oh yes, there are Jedi. You have to unlock them. And they are rare. You should give it a shot! No other game exists that is like SWG since. So go have some long awaited fun! :)
@@DonsAnalysis How do I get this emulator?
@@devwadehra9896 well, first of all it's called SWGEMU. Secondly, there is a "requirement" that you have the old game to be able to play but dozens and dozens of people have told me there are ways to get around that w/o having to go buy an old copy. I just didn't need to look into it cuz I still had my old discs. But, you definitely should look into it and join us all! :)
I'll be honest, this is one of the greatest series' on CZcams. You should be very proud!
Everything from the editing to the script to the soundtrack is just perfection.
This video evoked so many emotions in me. I played SWG pre-CU and and post. Your editing work and narrative are amazing. I’ve watched so many SWG videos online, but none have placed me in the past quite like this one.
I remember purchasing a PC gaming magazine that introduced SWG and I was completely blown away about how it looked. I wasn't able to try the game, at the time, because my PC wasn't up to speed (and I was still deep into Ultima Online at the time). However, I had a roommate in college that was there when the CU and NG patches dropped; I'll never forget the disappointment he expressed when this happened.
Such a shame, because Sandbox games are needed in this genre.
Fantastic video as always @madseasonshow. Love your content!
I purchased SWG off the shelf at a Walmart randomly, one day. I wasn’t following any gaming news and wasn’t a gamer. I had no idea what this game was until I took it home, installed it, and started it up. It turned out to be just one week after the game’s launch. It was mind blowing! I was in it through everything. And everything you’ve said was 100% accurate. Very well spoken and presented! This was like reliving that whole time and what we went through as players was so tragic and heartbreaking and unnecessary. What a waste of a game!
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
SWG was my early gaming childhood. I lived and breathed it from launch. It really takes me back seeing all of this laid out like this. It was a lot of fun, I made a ton of friends, and I felt like I lived in the star wars universe. It was great.
I left right after the CU and just stopped thinking about the game. Came back months later and I had no idea what I was looking at. No idea why my interface was so colorful or why I had a targeting reticule. But worst of all, I couldn't believe the ghost town Coronet and Mos Eisley were. I had seen more life in my local graveyard.
I'm very grateful the emulators are alive today. It's better than it was live. Thank you for talking about the Emus, not enough retrospectives on SWG mention them.
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
What server were you on?
@@ternel Do you mean during Live, in 2003 onward?
@@DonsAnalysis yes do you remember your server 20 years ago?
@@ternel Yep! Bria! :)
Man, the nostalgia is serious on this one. So many hours spent playing music in cantinas. Alot of good memories.
By and far, the best storytelling of one of the best (for a time) mmo's I enjoyed so long ago. Rest is Pieces SWG. ♡
Thank you for this video man, I grew up gaming with my dad from when I was only 5 years old starting with WoW, however I had some memories of this game around the same time as well. I would always hear stories about him riding around as a bounty hunter killing freshly buffed players after they had to stand in line to get them. Or blowing up somebody’s vehicle before they could have a chance to run back to it and their surprised reactions. He even would give his own version of why he believed the game went to shit (because they added Jedi lol). This just hit me entirely unlocking memories I forgot that I had.
Great video! SWG is still my favorite game of all time. It took me mastering all 32 professions to unlock my Jedi pre-publish 9! I used to be the Fencer profession forum correspondent, it's what lead me into my career in the games industry. Thanks again
I miss SWG, it was so far ahead of it time. One of my favorite MMOs of all time.
SWG lives on in all it's iterations and some others (pre-CU, CU, NGE, and Custom).
- For pre-CU there's SWGemu (been a while since I've personally played it, but it looks to still be very active. I played that for the longest as I started on it not long after Official SWG dropped the CU.)
- For CU there's SWG Restoration I, II, and III (Restoration was the most popular CU server last I checked. I played Restoration I and II, but never went back for version III.)
- For NGE there's SWG Legends (currently the most populated SWG server regardless of iteration. It's a lot more than the basic NGE though, and has a lot custom content, including the Bespin cloud city. I haven't played it over a year, but I see that it is still very active. I would probably still be playing it, but life changes resulted in not having the time or energy.)
- There's also a popular hybrid CU/NGE server there's ProjectSWG (it's a complete rebuild of the game rather than using copies game files allegedly taking the best elements from Pre-CU, CU, and NGE. I've never actually played that one, but it looks good and appears to be active.)
- One that is quickly gaining popularity and looks very interesting is SWG Evolve (it's built on NGE game files, but has some Pre-CU/CU profession elements and multi class skill system, world bosses, hard mode heroics, Jedi unlock system.)
There are several other servers for Pre-CU, CU, and NGE with a few more that are custom or hybridized servers, but the above are arguably the best for each category. Other folks will obviously have their favorites. You technically need original copies of the game discs, however there is a workaround for that. I can't spill the beans, but the workaround is easily found via google.
SWG was my life in my early 20s. I joined a few months before NGE, so never got to experience the game in it's original incarnation. I remember partying w/ everyone on the Ahazi server the day they closed the game forever. I bawled for a good few hours after. Thank you for bringing back those memories. If there are any members of LTF out there reading this, Cree loves and misses you all. May the Force be with you, always.
I've read and watched a lot of coverage on SWG over the years. I got the game within the first month of it being out. I was on a dialup connection. It took three days to download the initial patches to even get started. The world was hollow, the actual game loops were some of the worst gaming I've ever experienced. No jumping, you could walk up sheer cliff faces. So many documentaries about SWG gloss over the obvious problems and you touched on so many things that even I'd forgotten about. Thank you.
But the people I met in that game changed my life. The experiences I had just being a player in that world are unforgettable. I took up tailoring and for a few months, became a pillar of my local community. My hardware and connection were so bad it would take an hour to leave the planet I settled on. So I couldn't even really play the game right. Few things could match the joy of learning another race's language and using it to exclusively communicate with them. Walking into a cantina and mingling, exchanging services and credits. Nothing will ever come close to that.
I stopped playing well before the first expansion. I never got to see the game get over its first bumps. I never got to be a part of a player built city. Never got to do space travel. A game of this style with actual design foresight and proper polish would consume my life if it were released now.
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
Thank you for what you choose to create. I discovered your channel quite recently, two months and around 80 videos ago, looking for an excuse to justify purchasing a PC, and attempting to decide if i should attempt to relive my days in WoW, during Wrath, with the advent of its classic version. I had no idea the heart, storytelling, nostalgia.. and dare I say, hope? That I would find in your work. You are a wonderful dose of monotone reality, in a world of neon and gimmicks. While I never played SWG myself, the window you've given us whom choose to care about the fate of gaming itself, in a time when it was truly, changing, in a way it seemingly cannot, or by will of men will not again, is invaluable. What wonders you've seen, all in the space between transistors. Thank you for choosing to do this, and know that this random-ass stranger on the internet, honors you for it. Thank you. You are unequivocally, a good Force in this world. Keep it up :)
It's criminal this video doesn't have 10 times the views. It's one of my favorites of all time.
Was such an interesting game. Met a lot of cool people that I am still friends with to this day. 20 years later.
It's incredible how I can watch a video of a game I never played nor knew existed before Madseason talked about it and feel nostalgic. Your videos never fail to entertain, I had goosebumps A LOT while watching. Thanks for everything Madseason, can't wait for the next video.
Just started playing Star Wars Galaxies: Legends this week. It's been INCREDIBLE! At least 700 players were online, helping me and actively playing. There's still hope in this game, although small, it's nice to walk down memory lane. May the force be with all of you
would you mind sharing how? Been on my mmo list to play for a while.
@@knightbender2 I can't share a direct link, but if you look up Star Wars Galaxies Legends, you'll see a site that will show you the steps to download! It's simple and easy (:
Same I just got into it as well!!
Legends is a recreation of what killed the game I love. If you want to experience anything close to what this video was about, go play swgemu
@@nicknailer1749 to each their own! I personally enjoy Legends more than the other version.
The absolute best game I ever played was Pre-CU SWG in 2003. I still remember the magic of logging in for the very first time. I still think about her every now and then.
This video brings back the feels. My first MMO. When my buddy got me to play WoW I was so confused and offended you had to choose a class and would be locked to it. In spite of the rushed launch and all of it's issues, it evolved into a magical experience, well until NGE.
Cheers to a great video!
Shed a tear... I really miss this game. Still coming back to SWGEMU every once in awhile.
Outstanding video MadSeasonShow!
I shed many tears too. It lives on though!!!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
The biggest issue with SWGEMU is unlike other MMOs that have come back with fan servers (City of Heroes being the one I think of instantly), the lack of player base is devastating. Couple that with being split between the three versions (Release, CU, and whatever the hell you want to call that turd it went out on) and I just can't imagine there ever being enough players are the right levels for it to ever be equal to the 'real thing'.
@@Nightenstaff heya, it is true that the population is less but you'd be surprised just how many people are ready to "coalesce" from all the different servers when the emu is completely finished
That song at the beginning is so magical. I think it's called tales of a Jedi knight. But they hold so much wonder and mystery. Before world of warcraft was in my life there was Star Wars.
What a game this was! Love it!
Take my money and make a remastered version
Thank you MadSeason for taking the time to craft this wonderful video. SWG was my first MMO and I played it with a good friend of mine. We loved it from day one. We loved that it was hard and challenging and felt like Star Wars. I was a doctor and he was an artificer. We spent many hours playing. We had our own house! But in the end, the game lost us with the whole jedi thing and we quit. Still have love for the game and would definitely play one that was brand new but with the same original goals.
I never played as I was team Everquest, but it's so nice to have this complete story laid out so I can finally understand it entirely.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
(And I also played EQ for a decade+ too!) :)
This was fantastic. What a time in mmo history. I was there from launch to shutdown.
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
@@DonsAnalysis na
Can’t forget meeting and befriending a Jedi player pre NGE and at first I felt genuinely intimidated and quite awestruck, such was this game’s unique immersion.
i just wanted to say thank you so much for taking your time and care to make these beautiful videos on the genre that means so much to us.
Oh you don’t even have an idea about how much we miss you man
Mad season, Ive been watching your vids for 5 years or more I think now. Watching the videos that you put out always give me this overwhelming sense of nostalgia and remembrance of a time back in 2007 when I first got to college an play wow. It was a really magical time for me from going to a poor kid with almost no way to play awesome video games to getting into college and getting my first gaming PC, living out on my own and being in college with my own apt and dating my first serious gf who was a crush from highschool. Wow is one of those things that was just special and came alongside so many other good moments in my life it's just iconic to me and makes me think of my golden years. My whole life began at 18 and Wow was a big part of that. And it's cool to listen to someone else talk about it in the same way I feel about it. If you played WoW and fell in love with the experience up till Wotlk, you know what I'm saying. It's not something you can explain to a person who hasn't played it or doesn't play games at all.
I played this game obsessively up to the NGE like many others, it was a game providing equal amounts of joy and frustration and I've many many fond memories. The work you've put in to create this video is much appreciated.
This is now the 3rd time your Pandora's box shows up on my autoplay, and I'm still watching... You are the editing god -- thanks
I was an early beta tester for this game. I remember spawning into the game after the long queue to load. It crashed all the time. Early on, the servers didn't last more than 10, maybe 15 minutes before being shut down for another interminable wait to get back in. Over and over again. But...I tell you, there was nothing like spawning in on Tatooine, before vehicles, and just...running. Running and running and running, out into the wilds of Tatooine. In fact, my then-toddler son used to call it "Man Running!"
When people started finding significant locations, they would post the coordinates. I remember when Jabba's palace was added. When we spawned in, EVERYONE started running in the same direction. I can still remember the first time it just popped into view. You'd laugh today, but it was such a thrill! And it was so much fun.
Then the game released. I made the tough decision to bail because of the cost and janky nature of play. I almost came back when the first Jedi started to emerge and post the secrets to unlocking the tree. Almost but not quite.
What a trip down memory lane! My brother helped convince my dad to let us get this game with our meager allowances, I fell in love with the worlds and community and met friends that I have still to this day that I met when I was 9/10 years old. Played until the bitter end, and even later on emulators, the community is still as passionate and welcoming as ever. Thanks for making this!
Was my pleasure, thanks for watching it.
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
@@DonsAnalysis Jesus dude let it die
I didn’t know I needed this, but I really did. Thanks maddeason!
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
I played this fairly close to it's inception. They didn't even have speeders when I started the game. This was a difficult game with a long grind before you achieved anything. You could step right outside the bounds of Mos Espa on Tatooine and get murdered by a space frog. One of my favorite memories was trying to set up a Kryat Dragon hunt. Took over an hour to gather enough people, then you had a good half hour run to the canyon, then another 15-30 minutes to actually kill the dragon, if you could. So you'd be investing a few hours to maybe kill something or maybe not. The hunts failed as many times as they succeeded. It was pretty great traipsing across the desert with 20-40 players into an uncertain future.
The best part about Galaxies was the way you weren't locked into any class. There was a fixed pool of points you got and every class you began took a fixed number away. Every upgrade in the skill tree of the class would take more away and the higher you went the more they cost. You could master a class and still have plenty of points left over for another. The elite classes had certain requirements from the base classes, something like a bounty hunter had scout aspects and combat aspects. The creature handler did somewhat mess things up. Every combat oriented character would usually have at least some levels in creature handler so the creature could do some tanking. That's the first time I ever recall the player base getting upset as there were cries of it being Pokeman and not Star Wars. I have to admit that it was really cool seeing someone whip out a Rancor in the middle of town.
The factor battles were pretty great as well. They could erupt out of nowhere. You'd be running Rebel missions at a small outpost and suddenly you'd see AT-STs everywhere, frantically running around trying to organize a defense. Most of the game was grinding and running, like 90 percent of it. That sucks, but what it did was make your accomplishments feel like something. Unlike now with things like FTP mobile RPGs where you level in minutes but the levels don't mean anything, if you level in a skill tree every level felt different. I left the game right before JTL because life got in the way. I didn't have enough time to invest in it. When it takes an hour or two just to get in a group, travel to Dantooine, then get to the actual thing you want to get to only for all of you to get killed in three minutes there's no such thing as casual play. You couldn't do much of anything solo in the game, you needed friends, which was great, but also meant you either played the game with dedication or you didn't.
I always wanted to play this when I was a kid, but I missed it by a year or two in the end. Always felt like I missed the boat there.
This was the exact love letter I was hoping for. This was my favorite game of all time, and miss those times we had. Thank you so much for this
Privately owned public servers still exist!
@@TheRealRusDaddy The problem with those private servers are:
1. In my experience you can never trust the admins on those types of servers, almost every single one of I've played for WoW or other mmo's have had controversies about admins gifting currency,rare items, etc to themselves and their friends.
2. When SWG was live, you could only have 1 character on a server. On these private servers you can make as many characters as you want. So everybody had alts that could do everything from crafting, collecting resources, being an entertainer or being a strong combat character. This made the demand for players specializing in those things much lower. Simply not the same feeling of everybody having their 1 specialty and relying on others to get what they lacked.
3. I never found an emulator/private server that had a fresh start server. SWGEmu for example, last time I played like 6 years ago, people had been already playing the game for years and everybody was absurdly rich, every single spot on most planets were already taken by cities or player housing, etc.
I would totally play on a private server if those problems were resolved.
@@albert4860 I get your concern but SWG Legends, if you're ok with NGE, addresses those. The only one is the fresh start. That's going to be impossible unless you join someone's solo server.
The attention to detail and your style of presentation are phenomenal! As someone who came to SWG late, after the NGE, I still have many fond memories of my guildmates and I bouncing from planet to planet in search of adventure. I wasn't there when it closed but I felt a genuine ache when they announced that the game would be sun-setting. Please keep up the excellent work and know that you just gained a new sub.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact ORIGINAL game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
My brother and I joined after the NGE and CU hit and we still consider it to be one of the experiences that enriched our love for Star Wars the most. That post NH/pre ESB era was such an awesome time period to set an MMO in, and the incorporation of prequel planets and tech in a GCW set galaxy was just so fucking cool to see.
When I saw this come across my feed, I never expected I would sit and watch the entire 90 minutes. Very well put together!
I played SWG back in early 2004 until it died. Though I admit my playtime diminished greatly after CU and more after NGE.
The Crafting system was always the most unique aspect of the game for me. Never really cared about becoming a Jedi and wasn't a fan of the cookie cutter changes to compete with WoW. I was one of those who appreciated the game for what it originally was, flaws included. Many of the younger players of our guild quickly fled to WoW and we were left with a group of "old timers" that eventually kept playing together with LOTRO and SWTOR post SWG.
My wife and I met on this game and it it was bittersweet when we logged in for the finale. We still look back on it with great fondness.
Thanks for the video. I appreciate the walk down memory lane.
I think the SWG private server scene deserves its own look. They've created a whole new planet of in-game content on their own among other crazy things.
This series is some of the best content I've seen on CZcams. It's obvious you put an insane amount of work into them. I'm always looking forward to your videos!
From time to time, I miss going to a random Cantina and whop out my bots and throw a party, buffing and healing people as master musician. I loved the non combat way of levelling, getting access to more diverse instruments as i climbed the tree. SWG will always have a weak spot in my gamer heart ❤
I wish I’d been able to play this TWENTY YEARS AGO when it came out, it’s right up my alley
You still can. SWGEmu for pre-cu, SWG Restoration III for CU, SWG Legends for NGE version.
The man, the myth, the LEGEND.
These Pandora's Box videos are wonderful. I've never played SWG but this video made me understand and appreciate its legacy and influence on the genre. Also, love you choice of music.
You can play it RIGHT NOW!
Come join us on the Finalizer emulator! It's the exact game! I've played 4hrs a day for a while now!
@@DonsAnalysis Oh I'd love to, but I'm a parent now. MMOs are off the map for a couple of years.
@@greasycrab Me too! Father of 3 now instead of a bachelor playing at my friend's house and taking shots! Lol
Play after the kiddos are in bed! :)
Can't help but tear up watching this. SWG was my first MMO. I had watched friends play Runescape and Dark Age of Camelot, but I didn't have a PC of my own to play with, only the family one. Finally in my first year of high school my parents got me a Dell Laptop that could run ( just barely) this game. I was a Star Wars fan before this came out but after playing SWG, I was obsessed. To this day I still search for that same sense of community, wonder, and enjoyment I got from playing SWG. Thanks for making this video.
How is it my heart fluttered and I started feeling a deep longing for my time playing this game. Woof. I loved SW:G.
Absolutely freaking love this series. I hope one day you'll do a Pandoras Box on Asherons Call. It still makes me sad how it ended to this day. The memories I made immersing myself in Dereth growing up will never be forgotten. Wish you the best Mad!
out of all channels I subscribe to, the videos that madseason comes out with bring a whole new sense of joy. The deepdive on a game I have never played but the end makes me feel like i was a part of something. great video man been watching for a long time
This was a fantastic video and a great walk down memory lane. I spent more time than I'd like to admit in SWG and was lucky enough to be there on release day, have one of the first Jedi’s in the days of permadeath, and be part of a server wide community that lasted far longer than the SWG servers. I also served as the SOE Official Forums Galactic Civil War Correspondent (DaesDream) for the 6 months leading up to the CU, and what you might not know is that there was an entirely different CU planned.
As a correspondent I got to (after signing a long since expired NDA) play in the Alpha of what the devs called the "Combat Revamp", which incorporated player positioning and aim and lessened the impact of the doctor buff system, while keeping the basic aspects of the combat system intact. There were also reward based systems in place for overall galactic civil war standing per planet which aimed to encourage building and defending of player faction bases within their cities. In my personal opinion the Combat Revamp alpha was amazing and would have given the game a real chance to compete against WoW.
However, over the course of less than a week we (the correspondents and "Blue Glowey" previous correspondents) were informed that the Revamp was going to be scrapped and the CU was going into alpha. There was almost universal objection to the CU among correspondents, but it didn't matter, the higher ups had made up their mind to try and clone WoW. I stepped down as GCW correspondent shortly after the release of the CU as my own form of protest, and moved on to WoW with the rest of my friends that I'd made playing SWG. I haven't seen much reported about the original Combat Revamp, and I imagine there are a very small number of people who even knew it existed, but it was truly a fork in the road where SOE chose poorly and torpedoed one of the greatest games ever made.
I have watched this video so many times, its just so inspiring and sad at the same time. A game I missed out when I was younger and would of probably played. Thank you Madseason for creating this.
Jeez was this a HIGH VALUE production! Man! More of this PLEASE!!!
90 min of madseason ASMR voice 😌😌
Great video, thank you for this nostalgia trip!
I was a dedicated crafter who always kept 1 tree in combat. As such, and since I almost never see this mentioned, I'll add this: when the Combat Downgrade hit, it reset ALL weapons and armor to base values. "Base" meaning minimums...so worthless vendor trash. But it was far worse than that. All crafting mats were reset, too. I logged out rich with a huge stock of gear to sell for months and millions of materials of all kinds--including tons of rare and potent mats to fuel my craft for years. When I logged in, it was all worthless. Every bit of it. I was in shock. The throwaway stuff I could sample outside my house was better than the rarest of my stockpile. I never saw my Twi'lek smuggler (who sliced my gear for sale) friend again, my architect was MIA...it decimated the crafting community overnight.
After joining the protests to no avail, I left Bloodfin behind forever. RIP Galaxies--the best crafting system of all time and it's not even close.
I'm glad someone brought this up because this was the same time I, bitterly, quit. I ran the best resource extraction company on my server, I had dedicated people and multiple accounts for survey work and a rolo-dex of Rangers, smugglers, and professions of all types either working with me, for me, or were some of my top clients. There was entire supply chain management and delivery system in place, and spent long, hard hours with spreadsheets and memo pads taking notes and planning out the business with my brother and his buddies from work that we managed to convince to play this game and take part in this company.
When they rolled out the CU, I logged in and had a panic attack. A genuine one. An entire empire ran by us, around 20 other intermediaries, and numerous contractors dissolved overnight. We were sitting on garbage with nowhere to shift it, people quit in droves and our supply lines fell apart; with a sharp decline on orders. I remember we tried for a week to salvage what we could and ended up selling off wholesale to a few player guilds for crafters that needed levelling materials and closed up shop. I still remember the night we closed our main company's guild hall after I scrapped my entire *personal* architect crafting room, filled with treasures and memories from my guild. One I spent many, many nights crafting brick after brick of factories, extractors, furniture, and more. I sobbed while doing it, and that was one of the first nights my brother shared a drink with underaged me, bitterly complaining about SoE, SWG, and above all else... the friends we lost. Tried sticking around to get a feel for the combat upgrade but that shock was so overwhelming it killed any drive I ever wanted to play that game ever again.
KGB Resources from Lowca salutes you, I'm sorry you went through the same.
I don't quite understand why, but when I hear the music, especially loading into Dantooine, C-Net stirs this massive flutter and takes me out of the moment while I think about it. The whole SWG experience I had will always be with me, and take me to that place and time when I played.