I think this sums up the sad history of SWG pretty well. I was one of those people who ground for weeks to get Jedi powers.

i think vanguard showed what a mistake it is to release a game when it is not ready, and the NGE showed what a mistake it is to radically change a game after it has been around. the importance of these decisions should not be lost to time. people should look at them and see the results and learn from them. hopefully, future games will not have the same problems, or they will deal with them differently.

(yes, i played swg before the nge and enjoyed it a lot. i also tried it after the nge. i tried it on a few different times to get a feel of it. i view the nge as a major disappointment. i am under the impression that they probably had a decent subscriber base but were not totally happy with it. i think most estimates place it around the ~200,000 mark. world of warcraft hits and the suits see the millions of subscribers it has and they get jealous. they come up with the idea of changing the game to become more 'action' orientated. by doing that, they alienated a large chunk of those that were playing. the nge forever changed star wars galaxies. i would like to think had they just fixed the bugs with the game, added content, made a few tweaks and peaks, it could have been a bit more successful.)

I had essentially 'beaten the game' before JTLS launched by achieving Dark Jedi Knight and missing the painful grind of Jedi VillageLoL. I quit two weeks before JTLS cancelling my preorder due to dislike of flight sims. I had heard things of what happened, but this article was a nice wrapup of the game's death. Creature Handler was my first profession and I'm glad I wasn't around to pet my boys for the last time.

Man and I just started being less depressed about SWG

Escapist article: Blowing up Galaxies
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/101/14

Raph responded in his blog over his quote.
http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/06/12/tired-of-hearing-about-the-nge

Then he responded over the blog itself here.
http://rlmmo.com/viewtopic.php?p=45713&highlight=#45713
(second to the last post)

It's always entertaining to read about the mistakes made here, but sad as well.

It's not just resentful, pre-NGE players who hate change that disliked the NGE. I never played pre-NGE at all, although I do have the pre-NGE box and CDs... In the context of how badly the change was managed, it's easy to forget that the NGE on its own merits is about as entertaining as a bowl of oatmeal.

[edit] escapistmagazine's fonts are TINY on this monitor, and the page doesn't scale. Who designs these things?

The story of Star Wars Galaxies Online, much like that the Hindenburg, has become a cautionary tale of disaster with lessons that will be passed down through generations of game designers. Whether you were playing at the time, or just a kid who has only just heard of the betrayal in passing, you will find this an excellent read.