Designer Raph Koster noted, “This single event doubled the churn rate of the game, and even after it was all put back, it stayed 50% higher than it had been ever after. There was also a nasty nerf to group XP in August 2004 that caused a sizable exodus from the population.
The “ Jedi problem” stirred up problems, both when players were struggling to figure out how to unlock this secret class and after when players had to grind their tails off to use the force. To make matters worse, the rise of World of Warcraft and its multi-million subscriber count gave the suits a serious case of Blizzard envy.Ĭontroversy seemed to dog Star Wars Galaxies as a fact of life. Even with the rough ride, SWG rose to around 300,000 subscribers early on, a highly respectable number for the time, but not quite what both SOE and LucasArts had anticipated with the Star Wars label. “Like, you couldn’t log in.”Īs a half-finished game, Star Wars Galaxies struggled to fulfill its destiny by patching in content, fixing bugs, and expanding to include space combat. “When the game launched, it didn’t actually work,” Raph Koster later wrote. Even so, players developed a real fondness for what was there. As visionary and creative a product as Star Wars Galaxies was (just ask any veteran to tell you what he or she loved about the game), both players and developers alike wouldn’t argue with any accusations that the title was rushed out the door too soon, buggy beyond belief, and starving for content. To discuss the NGE, one needs to understand the context of the situation, and for pioneering players, the halcyon days of the early SWG era were sometimes anything but. Well, it happened a long time ago in a studio far, far away… So how did this disaster occur and what was so bad about it? It’s been 10 years since the NGE damaged a game’s reputation, embittered players for life, and made the mainstream notice that not all was sunshine and daisies in MMOs. Both videos are posted after the cut.It became one of the most infamous moments in MMO history - and perhaps one of the most misunderstood.įor all that the MMO community references Star Wars Galaxies’ New Game Enhancements (NGE) as a synonym for devs breaking a game with a horrible patch, expansion, or business decision, the actual details of the referenced events have become blurred through time, retellings, and a sort of weird mythology.
Of course, for those who like the features of ILM, Napyet has also created some video instructions detailing how to re-activate the mod using some file trickery. However, the ReShade graphics installer still works, and as Napyet showcases in the video, there are a variety of options the program is capable of to make SWG look nice (or at least slightly less rough).
There’s some important context to note for this video: Previously, the game’s launcher had a direct download link to the ILM visual mod but has since had that link removed and the mod effectively disabled.
With that in mind, we feel it’s important to highlight the channel’s latest helpful video, which provides a guide on how to improve SWGL’s visuals through use of the ReShade program. If you read my trip through Star Wars Galaxies Legends for Choose My Adventure, you already know I made a lot about the help that the Napyet Gaming YouTube channel provides, and for good reason the channel is full of extremely helpful guides for new players as well as some thoughts on the game, all of which are presented in an easy to understand, laid back, and clean way.