Aliens in the Desert

A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
I had been waiting with great anticipation for this game. The last game I had paid for was UO, but I was ready to shell out the cash for this one. I am, of course, a terrible Star Wars fan. I was also excited about the large-sounding range of activities available in the game.

I was not one of the whiners who felt cheated because they couldn’t play a Jedi right away (I mean, come ON! Han Solo was the hot one). Besides, Galaxies had plenty of neat sounding professions (i.e. classes) to choose from without having to be uber-jedi-boy/girl. I myself was thrilled at the chance to play an image designer (I get to be a hairdresser in the Star Wars universe? How cool is THAT?). I saw my character as a Rodian image designer/smuggler, aka super spy and master of disguise.

I was completely engrossed in the character creation interface for hours the first time I tried it out. I simply was astounded at how detailed the interface was for creating the physical appearance of the characters, not to mention the wide range of appearances that could result from it. I could even control my character’s bust size! My days of overly-busty half-elves were solidly behind me.

I played Galaxies for quite awhile, longer at the time than my stint in any other MMORPG world. What I liked most about it was that from the design perspective it did not make the assumption that all MMORPGs had to essentially appeal to the same audience. Galaxies had more appeal to players who enjoy building and socializing than any previous game I had played. There were real social centers where characters would dance, make drug deals or just hang out and chat. Tailoring was a very valid and useful profession (its Star Wars; you have to look cool!), and even beginner tailors could make things that would sell on the bazaar. Architects built houses and furniture for intrepid colonizers. The fact that you could multi-class your character by mixing and matching professions meant that if you wanted to make things but still be able to kill things, you could. Two fighters of very different levels could still fight together, meaning you could play with your friends even if they “out-grew” you, and you could just about always find someone to go hunting with. Hides and meats were valuable commodities to certain other players, and so your hunting time was rewarded monetarily as well as with experience. The almost-entirely player driven economy meant there were always deals to be brokered. I had fun running a drug (er..spice) delivery service for awhile. There were also some simple touches that games hadn’t really thought to do before…like, say, an in-game email service, which made all that deal brokering and coordinating very easy to do. All these design decisions aided Galaxies in becoming a highly social-oriented game. Which, after all, is why you play these games with other people, right?

Sadly, it was the dreaded treadmill that once again undermined the game for me. I was determined to become a master image-designer, but after my first few levels it became very difficult. It pretty much became necessary in order to advance to sit in one place with one person allowing you to alter their appearance over and over again. One person I trained in image designer was a master the following week, and I had only gained one more level. Maybe I just don’t have it in me to sit still. This was similar for all the professions. Cantinas became very depressing places in some towns. There would be many people dancing, but then you’d realize that those people had all put macros on their characters which would have them do dance loops over and over again without a human presence behind the keyboard. Those dancers were merely twirling empty shells, and the Cantina was in fact empty of any possible interaction.

My husband (boyfriend at the time) had different sources of frustration. He regretfully decided to involve himself in the PVP aspect of the game. This was regretful because as far as combat was concerned, the different character classes were vastly unbalanced. Not only that, but Imperial characters were able to rack up faction points very quickly, which allowed them to purchase large machines of destruction which would lead to them accruing even more faction points. It was a hard day to be a Rebel brawler.

One of the smartest moments of Galaxies came as I was canceling my account, however. I confirmed my cancellation and a very friendly screen came up informing me that if I ever wanted to come back, my character would be there waiting for me. This warmed my heart…I would not have to part with my beloved Beezelbub after all. For the time being I shipped off, but I may just have to visit that Galaxy Far Far Away again in the future….