Thanks you to all who have emailed us so far with their comments on Star Wars Galaxies and the upcoming Combat Upgrade by Sony Online Entertainment:

Thats the real problem with the combat update. it takes away SWG a Galaxy Divided, and replaces it with Everquest, but with Stormtroopers.

Now they promise months of testing and tuning "in live" they know it's not ready, and they expect the customers (that remain, many of us have canceled multiple accounts, and thats just those that have *seen* it. and only a small percentage of the general playerbase goes to the test center, it's volenter. we do that because we love the game we have. not the other games that sony online also sells. while i myself have only played SWG for close to 6 months i found it a fresh change from the same old same old in the norrath based universe.

SWG was a diverse game with endless possibilities. and i'd planned to stay a while, 3 accounts and the "rent" on my houses is good for a year. i wasn't planning on going anywhere. now 2 accounts have already been canceled and my main, while ready for the painful conversion *cringes and closes eyes while muttering "oh man this is going to hurt*
- Loki

First off, the game is NOT Star Wars, but more like a cheap Everquest rip off. Our characters are nerfed and changed dramatically. I worked my rear end off to get xp to build my character up and it is all for naught. Many vets of the game will be gone and so will people with numerous accounts on SWG. It seems that SOE in not interested in player feedback or the opinions of it's customers. Also, I think a majority of thier customer base has been alienated and turned away from the game because of this bonehead CU. Another thing is: Where is LucasArts? Is SOE giving them false feedback to keep them happy? There are many people who chose to play SWG just because it is not like Everquest or WOW. Star Wars is a unique universe created by a man with vision. If this is SOE's interpretation of the Star Wars Universe, then they have failed Mr. Lucas.
- William R. Barnett

Alot of the comments make reference to the weapon sounds, since alot of the new weapons were never in the movies, people not liking the sounds is just a matter of personal taste and not a valid complaint against the game.

It seems all of the comments refer to 70-80% of the player base not wanting it, this poll was hidden away on the forums, only a small minority of players even use the forums and not all of those even used the poll, add to that the fact that people can use multiple accounts to sign the poll.

Positive Elements from my opinion
* The Level system, while not perfect or fully balanced yet, adds more depth to the combat system by making people actually think about what they can and cant attack instead of just being able to run into a group of enemies and take them all down.
* Combat has been made alot more strategic and tactical, moves take time to prepare, some moves dont do much damage but have a specific negative effect on the target, every special move has its own set of advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation.
* In the old system someone could run into combat que up a long list of their best move, no matter what the target and wait for combat to finish. The new system requires them to think about which move they should use next. Should they lower the targets armour effectiveness so other moves can do more damage? should they knock the target down so they can escape? should they keep using heavy damage moves and hope the target falls before they do?
*Ever profession has its own place in combat now, before there were a couple of professions that could win any fight and the others were not even worth doing. In the new system each profession has something unique to add to a combat group. Every profession can be good assuming the player understand it and the relevant strengths and weaknesses it gives them.
* Each special move or command has its own specific icon now which make it clear what each move does rather than having to hover the cursor over them to find out what they do while in a fight.
* Many people have complained about the warm up and cooldown for some moves. I think this makes perfect sense since using special moves with a melee weapon will put alot of physical strain on the user and moves with a blaster will put alot of strain on the weapon . Overcharge shot is a good examples, the description says that it "over charges" the blasters power core do deliver a more powerful shot so it makes sense that the blaster would need to recharge long than usual before being able to fire again.

My main point is that SOE could not possible know what the majority want because there is no way they can gather an honest opinion from the entire player base.

People against the CU seem to think SOE can please everyone but with such a large and varied player base how can this be possible?
Personally I believe they are doing what is best for the game and they have the full support of myself and many others.
- Rob C

The CURB, which seems to be an entirely new kind of game, was only released for test three weeks ago BUT it is announced for release on May 5th. In fact. bugs and all, the SWG developers have moved up the release date to today. It has to go out now because LucasArts is about to release Revenge of the Sith. Those of us who have been testing the CURB find that right now it is so buggy it is nigh on unplayable. SWG spokespeople are already releasing statements saying that work on the CU will have to continue after its Live release and asking for players to be patient.

Right now, SWG seems to have about 200,000 subscribers (down from about 350,000 at launch). When the CURB comes out, it appears that SOE calculates they will be able to refill some of the emptier servers with a newer, younger audience drawn in by marketing allied to the film. However, other veteran players are already registering vociferous protests on the forums, many are claiming to have cancelled their accounts and some Player Correspondents are resigning from their position or being fired by Forum Moderators for protesting the CURB.
- Alex Clarke

Several of my posts have been deleted from the SWG forums. Those of which have asked for specific details, on what is going on and why? In fact one that I posted just yesterday was deleted and it was only requesting that the SWG team look at the professions section of forums to get more information. I thought this game was created for the community? I thought that it was created so we could live the Star Wars Fantasy? Most players liked it for what it was, and only requested that the in live version be fixed.
- K.B. Sargent

For those that are interested, a Galaxies petition is now online. As of this post, nearly 8000 people have signed so far.

Clearly this is a concern for many long time gamers of Star Wars Galaxies, while many others are more then happy with the changes. Whether new gamers will purchase Galaxies and enjoy it just as much, we will have to wait and see. Please keep your comments coming, we will post as many as we can both positive and negative on this issue.