Dancer Archive
Thread: Pardon me my moment of nostalgic happiness
I posted this on my galaxy board, but felt like posting it here too.
I AM NOT LEAVING!!
Even I am the very last person left standing on Kettemoor, I will remain...unless I do something colossally stupid and get myself banned of course...or if I just don't have the funds to play, that would suck though.
I am stockpiling various things for armor and weapons for after the CU and then, when it comes; I will think back and remember my newbie days. I will remember when I was slain by a kaadu as my first player death, despite being in a group of 6 people. I will remember by first incapacitation at the...er...hands of a chuba outside Keren.
I will recall hours spent surveying and hand sampling by the placid and serene rivers of Naboo, kneeling among the golden wildflowers as they swayed in the breeze and marveling at the beauty of the graphics as I threw rocks around in search of metals with which to build CDEF weaponry. This same weaponry that was then used by friends to hunt small creatures and bring me their bones and hides so I could craft them armor and they could be protected...sort of...in battle.
Life was simpler and people meant something to each other. It was enjoyable to go into another person's house and see what they had done with their items. It was fascinating to watch the sunsets and then experience fireworks for the sheer joy of their graphical beauty as their starbursts shone against the night skies. It was thrilling to go out as a group and kill a lair of gualamas, barely surviving, and knowing that success was only possible because you relied on your teammates and them on you.
I long for the days when I could dance in a cantina and see battle weary combatants come in, sit, and converse while healing, enjoying the company as much as the game and buffs were not the focus of the job and entertainers worked for tips and got them. I pine for the days when walking into a medical center I was greeted by a sight of wounded being healed amidst regales of stories of battles and tumbling was only something done in the field when dodging the opponents’ blaster fire.
Yes, things were new and raw and people appreciated and helped one another. I have never felt a truer sense of community than I did during those early months in Keren, when Theed and Dantooine were but names of distant places that you could not start in and people ran combat missions from the terminals by the Starport while crafters congregated on the hilltop and lounged by the crafting stations. The days when you didn’t dare venture to Dantooine, Dathomir, Endor, or Lok without a solid hunting party, because you knew you would die at the jaws of the various beasts if you dared attempt go alone.
Now, the game has become so much like real life: bigger, faster, better, always concern for the self and never for the others who share the world around us. Forgotten have become the days when the community was the focus of the majority of peoples' minds. So many no longer desire, no, they loathe interaction with others except when it directly benefits them and the credit is the fiercest weapon in the galaxy. The honor and loyalty that came with finding that doctor who would hunt with you and that entertainer that would remain in camp for you, and that friend that would tank the opponents as you provide cover fire…they are all but memories to some and never existed for many.
Do I fear the coming changes? No, I do not. I welcome them with open arms. Bring back the community feeling and the need for cooperation, and you bring back the spirit of the game. Han Solo did not defeat the Empire alone, neither did Luke Skywalker, it was a team effort. Even the Darth Vader and the Emperor could not go it alone; they had to have a fighting force and a team. Small victories may be claimed by individuals, but they are still small. True battles are won at the sides of comrades in arms and friends.
Where have they gone, the hunters who would bring hide and bone to crafters to trade for needed goods without their primary concern being the lining of their pockets?
Where have they gone, the crafters who would sell to the person, not to the tune of the economy and a good bargain was one where both profited and not the bottom line?
Where have they gone, the entertainers who dance and sing and play their instruments for the sake of the song rather than the pocket and the feeding of the selfish masses?
Where have they gone, the medics who traipsed alongside the hunters, providing medical attention as needed instead of parking themselves as automatons?
They are still there. I know many of them.
They are those who will take these changes, adapt to them, and move forward. They are the ones who will recall, and do recall, and live with the memories of the community being the focus, of the team being the thing that wins the day.
They are the ones who will be there, standing alongside me, when the game finally ends and we are all forced to go our separate ways, and when it is all said and done, will be able to say, "Yeah, we did that, because we worked together.”
They are those I call "friend" and they are those who know the meaning of the words "friendship," "teamwork," and "community.”
Bring on the changes, I say, bring them on and bring back the need to rely on each other once more. Bring us back to the days when the community meant more than the self and sacrificing yourself for the goal was infinitely more honorable than being the last or only one standing.
Anyone need a tank or an entertainer?
Else-Whira wrote:
The changes on Test aren't going to restore the game back to where it was preholocron madness. The changes that are on Test right now are a new game designed around small adventure parties that diminish the role of community, crafters, resource gatherers, and socializing the way we all grew to love it. Instead of the blank canvas to create a virtual world that was handed to us when the game went live the CU is telling us the role we are to fill and it is that of one of the 8 people needed to complete the nights combat adventure.
Wow, I think this says it so well. This is exactly on target. The game has been turned into a small-party adventure game. There's nothing necessarily wrong with small-party adventure games but heck, every OTHER MMO on the market is like that... SWG used to be different. Not anymore, I guess. The problem with SWG though is, those other games had some actual CONTENT -- like storylines, actual instanced missions or quests, that is, something to do. SWG has never really had that because the players were supposed to "make their own" content. They're taking away that element of the game -- us making our own content -- in favor of the combat-oriented small-party model of other MMOs but... where is the content to back that up? Where are the "instanced missions", the "story arcs" and so forth? They're borrowing wholesale from games like EQ2 and COH for the engine without realizing that the engines of those games exist in a larger context -- that of the quest-driven, story-arc-driven adventure. There are no quests of any real import in SWG. Are they going to be adding quests and story arcs along with the CU? It doesn't seem so... and that's going to give the game a real problem once the newness of the CU wears off.
C
*BIGHUGS*