Entry 1: A Galaxy in the Making
Saturday, June 7, 2003 - 4:31AM (ScreenShot0000)
After years of posting on the SWG Development boards, after waiting all night for a beta “buddy key,” I was in game. I was so excited, I didn’t know what to do first. So, I did what any fledgling adventurer who’s never played an MMO before would do: I ran into the woods as fast as burstrun would take me. The trees blurred by as Narmle faded away behind me. I ran and ran until something finally lit up my minimap.
As I crept closer, I was surprised to find a decent sized installation. I didn’t know there would be things like that in the woods so I took my first ever SWG Screeny (one of what would be thousands over the years). I also didn’t know that a Twi’lek was running around the corner of the base, no doubt looking to give me a “hero’s welcome,” into the Azahi Galaxy. As the blaster fire screamed past where my ears would be (if I were human), I quickly got the hint that I was somewhat of an unwanted guest in these parts. Would this be my first “corpse run?”
Saturday, June 7, 2003 - 4:34AM (ScreenShot0003)
A Novice Scout camp and a CDEF Rifle… man those were the days. After narrowly escaping my first corpse run I managed to bring down a few critters and I accrued enough hide and bones to build my first camp. Man, I was pretty impressed. One second I was a bloody mess, the next, lounging on a lawn chair that I myself built. And it was really there too! It was a fully functional camp and I put it there. I made something out of nothing. If someone walked by, they’d see it. They could interact with it. And it’d give ME XP! I had an overwhelming thought in my head that kept saying “I picked the right profession for sure.”
Saturday, June 7, 2003 – 11:41PM (ScreenShot0006)
The Galaxy wasn’t all solo camps and green pastures I soon found out. I made my way to Tatooine, bought a few pieces of brand spanking new Bone Armor on the Bazaar, and ran out into the… well, into the darkness really. This place wasn’t like Rori, and I thought that was just cool in itself. Even the music was different. As I made my way up and down the sandy hills, I saw something on my minimap that I don’t recall seeing before… other people!
I ran as fast as my Mon Cal webbed feet could sift through the sand. As I got closer I saw two sets of blaster fire heading towards something big… really big… Bantha big! Was there some kind of etiquette with this type of thing? Could I just join in the fray? Did they need my help? Would I be stealing XP? Who cares, this was awesome! I pulled out my rifle and invited them both to a group… my first ever group in SWG beta.
Saturday, June 7, 2003 – 11:43PM (ScreenShot0008)
We spent a few hours together, hunting, harvesting, just sitting around talking. This was so much different then my time on Rori. Being part of a group was clearly going to be the way I would spend much of my time. Everything about it felt right. This was back in a time when running into anyone at all was a pleasant surprise. Everyone was so friendly, with character wipes looming at any time, we just hoped we’d have 5 more minutes to do anything at all. I remember adding just about anyone to my friends list in hopes that the next time I logged on, I could rally the troops and do something bigger and better.
Monday, June 9, 2003 – 1:07AM (ScreenShot0018)
Two days later, and I was already deeply in love. Star Wars, what kid wasn’t raised on the stuff? The game was broke, but in a strange way, that was part of the charm. Besides, this was beta, right? The only thing that really killed was the dreaded server disconnect. It was like being starved, and someone yanking your favorite food out of your hands. The good news was I finally met a medic! “Rowa” had his shit together for sure. He was a veteran MMO player and usually played a healer (he added that he played with a group called “Transcendents” that jumped from MMO to MMO http://forum.transcendents.org/index.php)…
Anyway, this was my first taste of cohesion. I remember thanking him every single time he healed me. He was smooth, kept himself out of trouble, and led the group perfectly. I almost dropped Scout for Squad Leader because I was so into the idea of leading groups because of this guy’s influence. Good thing you could be any profession and lead a group 😉
Monday, June 9, 2003 – 7:30PM (ScreenShot0019)
Zannex, my real-life next-door neighbor, hooked up the buddy key. He and I built computers just to play SWG. We surfed the official boards for years. We were more excited for this then we were about anything else in the world I’m pretty sure. His dream was to be a Droid Engineer, and he told me to come quick because he had just built his first extractor and placed it near… get ready for this… his HOUSE! At first, I questioned his choice to be a crafter, but when he was able to build harvesters, and made me the pieces for my bone armor that I was missing, I thought twice.
Wednesday June 11, 2003 – 12:11AM (ScreenShot0028)
Rowa and his fellow “Transcendent” Weema were down for adventure every time I logged in. We picked up a straggler, and headed for the hills of Rori. In a land before swoops, or even mounts, it could take hours to get from one place to another. “Splitting Aggro” was a term I used that implied that you had to run between hostile mobs without getting any unwanted attention. With my scout modifiers, they let me go first. It was my responsibility to get us through groups of creatures that could easily chop us up. No one wanted to risk a corpse run, it meant losing valuable XP while the group pushed on without you. “Rezing” was a long way’s off, I didn’t see anyone do that until well after the launch of SWG.
Wednesday June 11, 2003 – 12:15AM (ScreenShot0031)
Clad in bone armor (the only armor even invented at the time) we learned the ins and outs of the combat together. We learned to pull one target at a time, to only have one person pull, and to pull aggro off the medic. What started out chaotic, ended like a warm knife through butter. We mowed down Tortons like it was nothing. By the end of the night, we were all capped on any XP we needed. We logged out, and the next time I logged in, I built my house on Rori, right behind Zannex’s place.
Friday, June 13 2003 – 1:57PM (ScreenShot0044)
Home sweet home… for about a day I think. I’m pretty sure one of the character wipes happened just days after I placed that small generic house on Rori. But still, there was a feeling of finality about it. I staked a claim of sorts, like that scout camp just days prior… except this time, it would be there every single time I logged in. A place to hide out, a place to meet friends, a place to put my stuff, and call my own.