Star Wars Galaxies

Star Wars: The Old Republic is now free to play. And, if you're anything like me and have an affection for Star Wars that goes back to watching the VHS Special Edition releases so often that you wore the tapes out, you'll want to try it. It's a great, well-balanced MMORPG, collecting everything great about Star Wars and Bioware games and the time of the Old Republic into one rad package. It has some issues – I'm noticing a strong outrage at the F2P model EA has set up – but it tickles all the right fancies.

But I don't want to talk about The Old Republic. Instead, I want to look back, almost a decade ago, to Star Wars Galaxies, that strange, confusing, grindy, sandbox, community run oddity that I admit I spent a year and a half playing.

Better late then never! ZAM's Mike B. aka Fony was a bit delayed on getting a BFF Report last week, but this week he's back with the BFF Report - Episode #95: The Top 5 Most Controversial Games of 2011! In this episode, Fony... well... he covers the top five most controversial games of 2011. That's pretty much self-explanatory.

Anyway, it's a great way to wrap up 2011 for those of you suffering from your post-holiday funk (it's been two weeks, get over it). If you're still in that "New Years" mood, why not check out ZAM's ongoing "The Top 5 Most Important MMOs of 2012" series? Original titles are running high, people.

Farewell Star Wars Galaxies! While you may be gone from the world, you'll still be considered, during your pre-NGE and pre-CU phase, one of the great examples of sandbox MMORPG gameplay. You were one of the few MMORPGs to create a living, breathing world with a unique vision, and for that, gamers around the world salute.

As a final farewell, Producer Tony "Teesquared" Tyson writes his a thank you to the Star Wars Community, and ZAM's own SWG Community Manager, Instigator, was romping about SWG during its final hours. Good night Star Wars Galaxies!

Goodbye to my beloved game, you shall be missed...



Star Wars Galaxies Servers have all been shut down, on December the 15th, 2011, at Midnight EST.

Galaxies Wide Score
SWG - Rebel 56% Imperial 44%
Ahazi - Rebel 26% Imperial 74%
Bloodfin - Rebel 11% Imperial 89%
Bria - Rebel 63% Imperial 37%
Chilastra - Rebel 43% Imperial 57%
Chimaera - Rebel 76% Imperial 24%
Eclipse - Rebel 69% Imperial 31%
FarStar - Rebel 66% Imperial 34%
Flurry - Rebel 69% Imperial 31%
Gorath - Rebel 77% Imperial 23%
Radiant - Rebel 87% Imperial 13%
Shadowfire - Rebel 93% Imperial 7%
Starsider - Rebel 72% Imperial 28%
Sunrunner - Rebel 4% Imperial 96%