Well well well, look who’s finally able to go drinking in all the states: Star Wars Galaxies is turning 21 today, having originally launched on June 26th, 2003. Incidentally, we write these things as much to make us all feel old as much as to toast them. Sorry.
Before you say, “Star Wars Galaxies can’t have a birthday because it sunsetted when SWTOR came out,” I’m afraid I can’t agree. SWG has had functional and populated emulators and rogue servers since long before its sunset in late 2011, and the modern scene is pretty hopping, thanks to a whole slew of servers running rulesets from different eras – and some running hybrids that never existed on the live server at all.
For example, my favorite rogue server haunt since I joined in 2018 is SWG Legends – the largest rogue server, which happens to run a funky version of the final game – and it’s added quite a bit of new content that’s earned accolades even when up against modern AAA MMORPGs, including Bespin and Cloud City, open-world apartments, and a complicated farming system that perfectly complements the classic MMOs convoluted but loveable crafting mechanics.
But SWG is much more than just Legends; for example, the classic SWGemu still runs a super old-school server online if you crave vanilla-ish pre-JTL version of the game, and SWG Restoration III just released its 1.2.3 Skyward Bound patch with UI scaling and new difficulty modes. I’ve given the roleplay-centric Empire in Flames a spin in the past, plus there’s Infinity, Awakening, and a slew of others. The SWG subreddit and server list on the wiki is a good place to start.
All of this is just to remind folks that you can still play the game, even though it’s old enough to be finishing college soon, and all these years later, it still holds up thanks to its sandbox mechanics, some of which have still (absurdly) never been replicated. Happy birthday, SWG!
For fun, here’s the last vid I did on the game earlier this year, when I finally bought a Bespin apartment in Legends and decided to tour all the new player city additions (including roads!).
Some further reading!
