I mean, I went to Mustafar the other night, and it was deserted. From the trip to my house, to the Imp outpost, to Coronet, to Mustafar, I only saw one player, standing unmoving in the Coronet starport.
Even with armor, Jedi isn't what it used to be, to put it mildly. Gone are all the intricate and excellent saber animations, reduced to one generic poking and slashing mulligatawny. The lack of being able to "lock on" to a target is still inconceivable - they took the time to make friendlies "pass-through" without breaking targetting, a classic example of solving the wrong problem.
Then there's the screwy interface - select an ability, then right click to activate it? Carved in stone? Not that you can really tell what an effect does by watching - there are no combat messages and most of the specials don't have any animation attached to them.
I guess I agree with Mort - SWG is going down the drain and the devs don't have the slightest idea what they are doing... or management is actually trying to dumb it down enough to work on a console, no matter how much they emphatically deny it.
I'll be surprised if it is still running after February, if that.
Typing my last reply made me realize there was no point in continuing with SWG and EQ2 right now, and my account was going to be charged in 3 days anyway, so I went ahead and cancelled.
Hopefully SOE will get their crap together and I can come back someday, but I'm not holding my breath.
It basically came down to I didn't recognize my character, my Jedi, any more.
Maybe when I get a job I'll give WoW a try. It always appealed to me, but I couldn't justify paying three different companies.
'Course, if someone wanted to get me a copy and a prepaid game card for Christmas, I wouldn't mind at all. 
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Mortious had this to say about Optimus Prime:
I'm cancelling SWG properly and disbanding the guild tomorrow night, after Lovak has given all his food and drink away to newbies.
Well danm....
I might be keeping up my Sation passa acount for awhile, but if avm goes, guess I might move my house.
---SWG tanking has me mixed, I could care less about the ground game at this point, but space was fairly fun, not to bad to go lanch and take potshots are npcs everyu onece in a while. On the other hand if SWG tanks, I would hope Lucasarts will get the go ahead for a MMO X-wing/Tie fighter game. It was fesible in SWG, o hopefully with Prople how know WTF they are doing with a space sim it will work.
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Mortious had this to say about the Spice Girls:
I decided to give EVE Online a try after watching this trailer (right-click and save target as).
That's a pretty damn neat trailer I still have no idea what the heck playing the game involves though.
Oh, great... this game just reminded me of a game we played wayy back when... at the time some of you ECers became really nasty pirates... >_<
If I remember correctly, it was a web browser game where you owned a ship, and could explore/discover/exploit planets and stuff...
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Cobalt Katze said:
That's a pretty damn neat trailerI still have no idea what the heck playing the game involves though.
A whole lot of headaches and WTF for the first day, crossing your eyes and boggling at the complexity.
Once you can wrap your head around it though.. it's seriously sweet. The graphics are nice but they start to show their age when you get too close to the stations (big pixels) but the shadowing and reflective surfacing is very well done. There's talk of a big graphics upgrade in the upcoming expansion too.
I've played two days and am only just getting into it. Some people have played for 2 years and still not maxxed their skills (there are literally hundreds of thousands of skills).
And how does the PvP aspect work? Is it like UO, where you were simply screwed if you venture out of the safe areas, making it impossible to enjoy the game without joining a guild of some sort?
--Satan, quoted by John Milton
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Bloodsage painfully thought these words up:
But what is there to do?And how does the PvP aspect work? Is it like UO, where you were simply screwed if you venture out of the safe areas, making it impossible to enjoy the game without joining a guild of some sort?
I haven't played EVE before, but my understanding is that there are basically two types of players: Merchant/Trader types and Mercenaries. Mercenaries have to buy weapons/armor upgrades from Merchants in order to keep from getting killed. Merchants need to harvest resources to produce goods, but they are mostly in unprotected spaces. They pay Mercenaries to protect them on these runs. Mercenaries get cash to buy upgrades, Merchants get goods to produce them. It's basically forced grouping, but I think it works well.
-H
I will expect you there shortly.
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Hellbender's account was hax0red to write:
I haven't played EVE before, but my understanding is that there are basically two types of players: Merchant/Trader types and Mercenaries. Mercenaries have to buy weapons/armor upgrades from Merchants in order to keep from getting killed. Merchants need to harvest resources to produce goods, but they are mostly in unprotected spaces. They pay Mercenaries to protect them on these runs. Mercenaries get cash to buy upgrades, Merchants get goods to produce them. It's basically forced grouping, but I think it works well.-H
This is more or less accurate. Without going too much into the corporate atmosphere, there are four types of players: miners, merchants, mercenaries, and pirates. Mercenaries and pirates are more or less the same skillset - ship command and weapon skills. Mercenaries are hired by miners and merchants to protect against pirates. Miners go out and rape asteroid fields, and either sell the ore they mine or use it to make other things -- ships, weapons, etc. -- to sell on the market. Merchants can make their own stuff, or some just play the markets, buying low and selling high.
Once you get into the corporate atmosphere, there are things like starbases that get built and inter-corporation wars.
As far as similarity to UO, there is some -- in some low security sectors, you can get ganked just making your way from warp gate to warp gate. It's rare that gate camps prove to be anything more than an annoyance, though, since a ship with any sort of speed or structural fortitude can usually make it to the gate before getting destroyed. Travelling is safe, for the most part, unless you're travelling solo in a cargo hauler, but there are griefers out there who just want to make your day miserable.
The only time you really have to worry about being attacked is if you're out in an asteroid belt mining, since it's the only time you're in an accessible place away from the eyes of NPC gun turrets that enforce the law. When travelling between stations in a system, or travelling between systems, you're rarely very far from sentry guns.
To be perfectly honest, I don't understand how people can play the game as anything but a pirate. Miners sit in asteroid belts, orbit an asteroid, and shoot it with their mining lasers; mercenaries sit around on their ass, watching miners mine or flying in formation with haulers; merchants get to play a glorified economics sim. Pirates have the most engaging playstyle, in my opinion, since it's a proactive, combat oriented role rather than the reactive role mercenaries play.
The best part about piracy, IMO, is that you don't need as much support from other players to make it work; I usually fly solo, or in a pair or trio at the most.
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This one time, at Mightion Defensor camp:
and EQ2
Sorry to see you go, PE
Especially now that we're all near your level and could hang out 
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
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From the Book of Armaments, Lyinar Ka`Bael did read;
Sorry to see you go, PEEspecially now that we're all near your level and could hang out
Yeah, I thought of that, and if I had a job, I wouldn't be cancelling. Right now it's just 24 bucks I can save. The instant I get a paycheck from a job I'd probably sign back up - it's just right now it's not worth the money.
only problem with that, is that you have to find someone with their own copy of the cds
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Arttemis was listening to Cher while typing:
To be perfectly honest, I don't understand how people can play the game as anything but a pirate. Miners sit in asteroid belts, orbit an asteroid, and shoot it with their mining lasers; mercenaries sit around on their ass, watching miners mine or flying in formation with haulers; merchants get to play a glorified economics sim. Pirates have the most engaging playstyle, in my opinion, since it's a proactive, combat oriented role rather than the reactive role mercenaries play.The best part about piracy, IMO, is that you don't need as much support from other players to make it work; I usually fly solo, or in a pair or trio at the most.
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Redmage Darkrayver had this to say about Reading Rainbow:
If anyone needs at least a 10 day trial of WoW, I still have my code kicking around.only problem with that, is that you have to find someone with their own copy of the cds
Same here.
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Bloodsage had this to say about Tron:
But what is there to do?And how does the PvP aspect work? Is it like UO, where you were simply screwed if you venture out of the safe areas, making it impossible to enjoy the game without joining a guild of some sort?
What there is to do: everything. Whatever you want to do, you can. Pirate for a living, run a big corporation, wage alliance wars, engage in shady politics, build ships, explore, run missions, haul cargo, play the market like a stock trader, and so on. EVE is quite limitless.
PVP is quite balanced, you can go outside safe areas easy enough, you just have to watch your back, and use your mind a bit. Taking a cargo hauler into unsafe space is like signing your death warrant -- however it's quite possible for someone who has been playing the game for a few months to take out someone who's been at it for longer. Same if you are in a frigate, and you go 1vs1 against a cruiser, there's a good chance you'll win the fight.
As Mort said though, the first few days it's a lot of headaches and much OMGWTF, the learning curve in EVE is insane.
ben(at)netmastering(dot)nl
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Cavalier- had this to say about the Spice Girls:
Still with Cape Radio Kila?
Not currently. I quit a couple months ago due to not having time, moving, finding a job, and such. I'm still debating if I'm going to go back or not.
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Mortious was naked while typing this:
I would.. I really would.. but I played beta and it bored me to tears.
Well dammit, that's because you weren't playing with ME. Stupid time zones! You're in the wrong country! RAWR!
