Place 3 – Star Wars Galaxies
Setting: Science Fiction | Developer: Verant Interactive / Lucas Arts / Sony | Release Date: June 25, 2003 | Discontinued: December 15, 2011 | Payment Model: Pay2Play | Voting Result: 8.51% (123 votes)
What kind of MMORPG was it? Star Wars Galaxies played from the story between Episode IV and V of the books or movies, where over time elements from other time periods were implemented.
The game world consisted of various well-known planets that players could travel to and complete various tasks. The game was a true sandbox. Aside from a few assigned missions, the gameplay mainly revolved around crafting, breeding pets, and managing housing in player-run cities, as well as fighting mobs or other players.
What made it special? To this day, Star Wars Galaxies is considered one of the MMORPGs with the best crafting system. What was special was that players could not master every profession simply due to the immense effort required.
Successful crafters became well-known figures on the servers because of this. Additionally, the MMORPG offered various collections through which players could earn special rewards and titles.
What did it fail to achieve? Upon release, Star Wars Galaxies had decent initial sales but not spectacular ones. At its peak, it could only boast about 300,000 subscribers. In the years following the release, its numbers declined, leading to significant changes under the NGE (New Game Enhancements) label.
Raph Koster, one of the designers, noted that the game had a “retention problem,” largely due to a survey indicating a lack of content. WoW, however, was not deemed the “killer.” He admitted that expectations were high and not met; however, the game persistently held on for many years without being a failure.
Since 2015, Star Wars Galaxies can also be played again thanks to some eager fans via an emulator.
