Star Wars Galaxies: Beta Stories!

Q-3P0 stopped by the forums and gave us more beta stories!:

Yes, we're focusing on the positive ones. Yes, there are a lot of positive ones to choose from. In fact, most negative ones deal with bugs or balance issue that should be addressed in an upcoming publish or two.

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Okay, I have seen some other hard-core players here say that they are the target audience. I disagree. I quite possibly faul into that category. I am 31 years old, married with beautiful 10 month old daughter.
With a long drive to work, and even longer drive home, I have limited time to play (if I'm lucky, a couple of hours a night, and usually when the server is down).
My weekends are always family filled, so I don't get much more time there.
I have never played a MMORPG before, partly because I knew the potential of how fun it would be and I would want to play it all the time. I really always wanted so badly to play Everquest.
So one day at work (bored), I went online to check out the game I heard about in PC Gamer a long time ago. I went to the website, and noticed they were accepting apps for BETA testers. I went ahead and applied, and pretty much forgot about it.
When the acception came, I flipped my lid. I told everybody in my office, whether I like them or not. Why did I act so crazy? Because I'm part of the target audience.
I saw Star Wars the first time when I was 5-6 years old, and I was in. Everything in my youth was Star Wars. I collected the figurines, the AT-AT walker (I still have), the Death Star and all of that. A good deal of you out there know exactly what I'm talking about. Star Wars to us is EPIC!!! Maybe all of us, I don't know.
I am a huge gamer, my favorites include Diablo II, Starcraft, Warcraft series, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life and so on.
The point is this, I have never been a BETA tester before, and if I could pick any game to be a BETA tester on in the history of games, it would be this one.
And this game is AWESOME! When the final release comes out, and all the bugs are worked out *LOL*, this game will far surpass my wildest imagination.
Some have complained that the game is not linear... The fact that it isn't is what makes the game so great! You can pretty much do whatever the heck you want to do in this game. It is truly a virtual reality. I've played the game enough to become familiar with Moenia on Naboo. I just love this little town. Once we are able to fill out our character sheets, this will be my birthplace. But I've been other places too, Tatooine, Correlia and a couple of others I think. Every planet I've been to is completely stunning. I've tried to travel on foot between two far-apart cities, and wound up just getting my self killed so I could clone, I was so tired.
This game is vast, and with the limited time I have to play, this game will take up the free time I have for the considerable future.
And that is a point I also want to address. If I could be a test gamer and make a living at it, I would do it in a heartbeat, but I'm not. I have an MCSE and work on Voice data servers all day. I love to game when I come home, and sometimes it interuppts dinner, and sometimes I neglect my husbandly duties so I can try to play for a few minutes.
That is a problem. And that is the danger of a game like this. Don't get me wrong, I love this game and will try to be a better husband while still playing this game. But I can see the trap, and I know I'm not alone in this. Couples will get divorced because of this game, and that is a fact. It happened with Everquest, and this game is going to draw the larger audience, because it is Star Wars.
So, in conclusion *Dear Jesus, sweet relief*, I have two points to make; Devs, if you read this, live up to the EPIC that is Star Wars! And everyone else, this game is good escape, but only that. Go out every once in awhile and look at the real trees. Go swim in the real lake, and go make of yourself the absolute best.

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Well said, we definitely don't want to break up any marriages. I'll state for the public record: Please have fun visiting Star Wars Galaxies, but always give the people in your real life the respect and attention they deserve (or buy them an account ).

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Earlier today I had my most immersing game experience to date.
You want to know what happened? Cool read on...
I'm trying to create a selfsufficient crafter here, going by the name Mosek. So he dabbles in medics, and are good at crafting, hunting and pistol skills. Enough so he can solo out there for much needed resources.
Anyway, Mosek went for a hunt earlier today and found a nest of those big horse/zebra like animals (sorry, don't remeber the name). They /con'ed dark blue so I figured I could take them out as long as I did it one by one. One of the animals was a scout, standing on lookout post, ready to call for help if danger threatened the herd.
Circling round the herd I found one animal standing a bit by itself, so I change stance to kneeling, firing of a /threatenShot, confusing the animal and giving me more time for the attack. A couple of /bodyshot2 later it's dead. Everything going smooth and steady.
This continues until there's only two animals left, a colt and that scout. I'm getting rather excited too as I see this is all going well, and will probably get a chance to take out the nest for additional experience. So... Target the colt and fire away another /threatenShot.
Then it happens...
I'm about 50 meters from the scout and it notices me shooting the colt and begins to charge towards me. I hit the dirt, hoping it won't notice exactly from where the shots were fired from.
That didn't do much good. It still charges towards me and stopping just besides me. It then bows it head towards me, like it's sniffing the air, searching for my scent.
*Clonk* - Yeah, that's my jaw dropping.
I sit here looking at the screen, completely amazed as to what is taken place here. For several minutes the animal stands there. Keeping itself between the nest and me, as if to protect it, still sniffing the air, trying to decide if i'm a danger or not.
Finally, after several minutes I decide to try and crawl away and then the animal nibbles at me, without hurting me though, more like saying - "Get out of here!". I managed to crawl away, all the time it is constantly following my moves. I'm still terrified it will change its mind and attack me.
In the end, I managed to crawl away, and with my trusty pistol firing away some well aimed shots at the scout and take out the nest.
I tell you, i've never been so eager to go out and hunting animals after this. To me, that was one awesame experience!
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I have to agree with the majority. I really like what I'm seeing.
I've played EQ for the better part of 4 years. It's a great game and I honestly believe that SWG has improved on a lot of the weaknesses (and flat out messed up stuff) that EQ has.
Sure, SWG needs some more work on balancing, making all the classes useful and other stuff here and there. I hope the balancing continues at a fast and furious pace, because there is some real work needed there.
Even still, it's on the "gonna get it" list for both my wife and myself.

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Fun!
Dathomir didn't have much appeal for me initially, but my friend wanted to go there, and I like to explore, so off we went.
It's dark, moody, and dangerous. I don't have a lot of developed combat skills on my character (okay, I only have intermediate carbine), but with two people who have hunted a lot together, we seem to do remarkably well. Yes we cloned a few times and were incapped a few more, but I very much liked the challenging level of the creatures. This is a great hunting planet.
However, with just two of us, we quickly learned to give the witches wide berth.
We ran from one outpost to the other, dodged or engaged mobs as necessary, and generally had a lot of fun.
I found resources were abundant on Dathomir and had trouble deciding whether to sample or hunt. Once when I had chosen to sample, I realized I needed to head back to civilization, so I turned on my waypoint to the nearest outpost. I was kneeling on a steep hillside in the gloom; I stood and turned around. The mountainside dropped below me into a mysterious and impenetrable mist, a huge moon hung in the sky, and my waypoint gleamed a beacon of light far below...that was all I could see. It was utterly eerie and beautiful.
*click* (Another beta screenshot I can't show anyone.)

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Have a great weekend!

-Kevin O'Hara
Community Relations Manager