SWG: First Impressions

Tuesday, September 14, 2004, at 12:57PM

By Eric Richardson

As I mention in the category description, we're playing the game Star Wars Galaxies. Yeah, we have classes like that. Be jealous. This is why I'm a COMM Major.

Once getting my computer up to date enough to play the game and shaking my fist at Microsoft when they tried to tell me that an OEM version of XP is only allowed to be used on the computer it ships with, I got started. The game looks amazing, as you can see in screenshots on their website.

I chose to be an Artisan, since I'm really not that interested in just fighting all the time. Once in the game, though, I couldn't quite focus as clearly. So I am an artisan, but I'm also working on bits in Scout, Marksman, and Brawler. Scout because I wanted to be able to harvest hide and bones from animals, marksman because I wanted to shoot a gun fairly straight to hit said animals, and brawler because I wanted to be able to use the knife they give you. I think this is partially a result of my typical style of play: as self-reliant as possible. What takes a little bit of time to understand in a game like this is that you can form a group of players that each have a specialized skill to bring to the table. Maybe, though, this grouping is better suited to non-newbie players, people who can actually bring something useful.

I find myself having to fight the urge to play the game like it's single-player. When you come into the game you have a choice; you can either start talking to people or you can just go do something. I tend to just go do things. I don't think that's the right strategy here. It takes a long time to do things yourself. It goes a lot faster if you make friends.

I'm not very good at making money. I wander around, I survey, I kill the easy animals -- that's about it right now.

It's a pretty obvious conclusion, but the people who play more advance faster. It's odd leaving the game on a Thursday and seeing someone at a certain point, and then coming back after the weekend to find that they've massively passed you by.

Eh, that's enough for now. More later tonight.