The End of a Saga
So as of 12:00 midnight, Star Wars Galaxies has gone offline for good.
The last day was insane. The Rebel Alliance was invading Theed on Naboo, bringing a Nebulon B frigate and three Corellian Corvettes to wage war against the Imperial presence there. The Galactic Empire meanwhile had its sights set on Coronet, the capital of Corellia, my home planet, menacing the skies of the city with a fearsome Star Destroyer accompanied by two Lancer frigates and Lambda shuttles dropping off contingents of stormtroopers and dark troopers to add to the chaos. Meanwhile, Jabba the Hutt was throwing a party down by the Great Pit of Carkoon. Boba Fett wasn't in a very good mood.
I first started my adventure back on June 27th, 2003. I had been following the game closely throughout its development cycle as soon as they announced it, and had gotten the game when it first came out. The servers were overloaded on that first day, however, so my brothers and I had to start on Day 2 instead. I remember being amazed by it at the time, and even to this last day I was still amazed by the things one could find in it.
My first character was a man named Tarce Gritts, a bearded fellow following in the footsteps of a character I created in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight that I would play with my younger brother back in the 90's. We would take turns being each others' antagonists, and then we would play our hero characters who would practice or go swimming or other things Jedi Knight would allow us to do in the multiplayer mode. I would bring Tarce Gritts to SWG, starting him off in Coronet, having him be a strong willed Corellian.
Eventually, years later, I had to give up SWG for a period of time due to money constraints. About a year or so later, however, I had gotten back into it. I had decided to start over from scratch, creating a new character, also Corellian. His name would be Marcas Delmar, and he was to be a pilot and a smuggler. His name is actually an exercise in redundancy, as it Marcas is relating to or of the sea, and Delmar is essentially "of the sea". The sea in this case being the sea of stars. A true spacer, in every sense of the word.
I had gotten my friend Andrew back into the game after learning he had played it as well. He brought with him his little blue rodian commando, Ottwoo Reehihop. I remember we used to do this thing where he would speak rodese (as SWG allowed you to speak different alien languages provided you had learned them) and I, not actually knowing it, would pretend to know it and respond with usually generic responses. Good fun. We ran hundreds of quests and missions together, and he helped me accomplish probably my most impressive goal: the elusive 9 Ace.
In the game, there are 3 factions you can be a part of: the Rebel Alliance, the Galactic Empire, or neutral (meaning you can act as a mercenary to either side or not participate in the war at all). Each faction has their own Pilot profession, and each Pilot profession has 3 squadrons. In order to join a squadron you can't already be a Pilot, so you have to drop all of your Pilot skills and starship combat XP to join a new squadron. With the help of Ottwoo, Marcas was able to master the Pilot profession 9 times. Why do this? Because each squadron has different missions, because the 9 Ace was a badge of honor, because the space component was my favorite part of the game, and because, goddammit, 9 Ace sounds fuckin' cool.
Of course, what's a Pilot without his dream ship? Marcas was able to acquire the deed to a CEC YT-2400 freighter. With the help of Ottwoo, the ship was given a fiery red and yellow paint job and christened the Corellian Gambit. The idea stemmed from my love of Final Fantasy 6 and the airship the Blackjack. I decided that since Marcas was a scoundrel from Corellia, he would probably name his ship after some sort of card game but would also pay respect to his home, as Corellians are a very prideful people. Corellian Gambit is a type of card game in the Star Wars universe, and seemed a perfect fit. Marcas and Ottwoo proceeded to run all sorts of missions on this ship, and over time Marcas fashioned it into a home. Not a home away from home, the real deal. The ship began to develop a character all its own.
I started growing a fondness for these adventures. They may have been virtual, nothing more than pixels on a few planes, but they were still exciting and engaging and entertaining and... well, lots of things. It also helped that I had a regular friend in Andrew to help me out and play with, that Marcas had a regular partner in Ottwoo that he could count on helping him out and seeking new fortunes with. They ran as an oddly matched pair, one a sly and slippery smuggler, the other an explosive and rascally commando. They overcame almost all the odds that came before them though, and they always had some new place to explore, some new quest to seek. It was a lot of fun, and I'd grown fond of the characters.
I took this last day to try to do as many things as I possibly could. Took Marcas' podracer out to the race track at the Agrilat Crystal Swamp next to Doaba Guerfel on Corellia and the Old Boonta Eve course on Tatooine outside Mos Entha and Espa, and I even ran the track that I designed on Mustafar. I cleared out Fort Tusken, visited the Imperial Oasis, partied at Jabba's, and hung out at Andrew's avatar Ottwoo's place. I took a last few flights and looks through my YT-2400, the Corellian Gambit! I engaged Imperial forces at the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor, and also in the streets of Coronet. I got shot down by the Star Destroyer. I made a brief new friend, got to say goodbye to some old ones, visited some NPCs, including Watto and Admiral Willham Burke. Got a drink at a few cantinas, including the one at the Nova Orion space station above Ord Mantell. Bullseyed my first womp rat! And I made one final message to myself in orbit above Corellia, the planet I had first set foot on in Star Wars Galaxies. Then I headed off to the chaos of the starport in Mos Eisley, to allow Captain Marcas Delmar to meet the end alongside his longtime partner Ottwoo Reehihop. They /hi5'ed, /hugged, thanked each other for their companionship, and /cheer'ed to the end. Connection to SWG lost!
I decided to take footage throughout this last session. I now have 180 GB worth of footage to sort through and compile. Should be fun. I also decided to have Marcas leave me a message, letting me know that whether I forget about it or not, that it was a significant chapter of my life and that I had a lot of fun playing with him through the years. It's a bit hokey, I know, but I'll appreciate it in the future. It's hard to lose old friends, and it's hard to throw away your cherished creations. Marcas and the Corellian Gambit eventually became those things to me, and I'm going to miss them both. At least I'll have the memories.
Goodbye, Star Wars Galaxies. May the Force be with you. Always.
The last day was insane. The Rebel Alliance was invading Theed on Naboo, bringing a Nebulon B frigate and three Corellian Corvettes to wage war against the Imperial presence there. The Galactic Empire meanwhile had its sights set on Coronet, the capital of Corellia, my home planet, menacing the skies of the city with a fearsome Star Destroyer accompanied by two Lancer frigates and Lambda shuttles dropping off contingents of stormtroopers and dark troopers to add to the chaos. Meanwhile, Jabba the Hutt was throwing a party down by the Great Pit of Carkoon. Boba Fett wasn't in a very good mood.
I first started my adventure back on June 27th, 2003. I had been following the game closely throughout its development cycle as soon as they announced it, and had gotten the game when it first came out. The servers were overloaded on that first day, however, so my brothers and I had to start on Day 2 instead. I remember being amazed by it at the time, and even to this last day I was still amazed by the things one could find in it.
My first character was a man named Tarce Gritts, a bearded fellow following in the footsteps of a character I created in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight that I would play with my younger brother back in the 90's. We would take turns being each others' antagonists, and then we would play our hero characters who would practice or go swimming or other things Jedi Knight would allow us to do in the multiplayer mode. I would bring Tarce Gritts to SWG, starting him off in Coronet, having him be a strong willed Corellian.
Eventually, years later, I had to give up SWG for a period of time due to money constraints. About a year or so later, however, I had gotten back into it. I had decided to start over from scratch, creating a new character, also Corellian. His name would be Marcas Delmar, and he was to be a pilot and a smuggler. His name is actually an exercise in redundancy, as it Marcas is relating to or of the sea, and Delmar is essentially "of the sea". The sea in this case being the sea of stars. A true spacer, in every sense of the word.
I had gotten my friend Andrew back into the game after learning he had played it as well. He brought with him his little blue rodian commando, Ottwoo Reehihop. I remember we used to do this thing where he would speak rodese (as SWG allowed you to speak different alien languages provided you had learned them) and I, not actually knowing it, would pretend to know it and respond with usually generic responses. Good fun. We ran hundreds of quests and missions together, and he helped me accomplish probably my most impressive goal: the elusive 9 Ace.
In the game, there are 3 factions you can be a part of: the Rebel Alliance, the Galactic Empire, or neutral (meaning you can act as a mercenary to either side or not participate in the war at all). Each faction has their own Pilot profession, and each Pilot profession has 3 squadrons. In order to join a squadron you can't already be a Pilot, so you have to drop all of your Pilot skills and starship combat XP to join a new squadron. With the help of Ottwoo, Marcas was able to master the Pilot profession 9 times. Why do this? Because each squadron has different missions, because the 9 Ace was a badge of honor, because the space component was my favorite part of the game, and because, goddammit, 9 Ace sounds fuckin' cool.
Of course, what's a Pilot without his dream ship? Marcas was able to acquire the deed to a CEC YT-2400 freighter. With the help of Ottwoo, the ship was given a fiery red and yellow paint job and christened the Corellian Gambit. The idea stemmed from my love of Final Fantasy 6 and the airship the Blackjack. I decided that since Marcas was a scoundrel from Corellia, he would probably name his ship after some sort of card game but would also pay respect to his home, as Corellians are a very prideful people. Corellian Gambit is a type of card game in the Star Wars universe, and seemed a perfect fit. Marcas and Ottwoo proceeded to run all sorts of missions on this ship, and over time Marcas fashioned it into a home. Not a home away from home, the real deal. The ship began to develop a character all its own.
I started growing a fondness for these adventures. They may have been virtual, nothing more than pixels on a few planes, but they were still exciting and engaging and entertaining and... well, lots of things. It also helped that I had a regular friend in Andrew to help me out and play with, that Marcas had a regular partner in Ottwoo that he could count on helping him out and seeking new fortunes with. They ran as an oddly matched pair, one a sly and slippery smuggler, the other an explosive and rascally commando. They overcame almost all the odds that came before them though, and they always had some new place to explore, some new quest to seek. It was a lot of fun, and I'd grown fond of the characters.
I took this last day to try to do as many things as I possibly could. Took Marcas' podracer out to the race track at the Agrilat Crystal Swamp next to Doaba Guerfel on Corellia and the Old Boonta Eve course on Tatooine outside Mos Entha and Espa, and I even ran the track that I designed on Mustafar. I cleared out Fort Tusken, visited the Imperial Oasis, partied at Jabba's, and hung out at Andrew's avatar Ottwoo's place. I took a last few flights and looks through my YT-2400, the Corellian Gambit! I engaged Imperial forces at the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor, and also in the streets of Coronet. I got shot down by the Star Destroyer. I made a brief new friend, got to say goodbye to some old ones, visited some NPCs, including Watto and Admiral Willham Burke. Got a drink at a few cantinas, including the one at the Nova Orion space station above Ord Mantell. Bullseyed my first womp rat! And I made one final message to myself in orbit above Corellia, the planet I had first set foot on in Star Wars Galaxies. Then I headed off to the chaos of the starport in Mos Eisley, to allow Captain Marcas Delmar to meet the end alongside his longtime partner Ottwoo Reehihop. They /hi5'ed, /hugged, thanked each other for their companionship, and /cheer'ed to the end. Connection to SWG lost!
I decided to take footage throughout this last session. I now have 180 GB worth of footage to sort through and compile. Should be fun. I also decided to have Marcas leave me a message, letting me know that whether I forget about it or not, that it was a significant chapter of my life and that I had a lot of fun playing with him through the years. It's a bit hokey, I know, but I'll appreciate it in the future. It's hard to lose old friends, and it's hard to throw away your cherished creations. Marcas and the Corellian Gambit eventually became those things to me, and I'm going to miss them both. At least I'll have the memories.
Goodbye, Star Wars Galaxies. May the Force be with you. Always.