The Banhammer Falls, and a Final Farewell to Star Wars Galaxies

Last week all of a sudden we were banned from the Star Wars Galaxies Emu for having multiple accounts.  We’ve been playing quietly and unobtrusively for five years, having entered the game in April of 2015.   Apparently we didn’t get the OK to have two accounts from the same household.

I wrote a ticket and asked what happened after all this time, why we would be banned, and what could we do to fix it.

I got a pleasant response saying we were in violation of the TOS and were given a list of what we’d need to verify we were real people with multiple copies of the game.

Fair enough,  but I am that person who has never been banned, warned, or disciplined in any game ever.  I could not stop thinking about this, and just banging my head against why anyone would even think of us, quietly living our galactic lives.   What is the source of this?

So last night I couldn’t sleep thinking about it, I asked my husband this morning if he’s be OK with us just walking away from the game.  He has always loved the game more than any other, and enjoys getting rid of angst and anxieties taking down Imps and other bad guys.   I personally have plenty of options for other things to play.   Mr Big played quite far into Secret World, farther than I ever got, but he’s asking for a free to play recommendation.   He does have a lifetime LOTRO account if he can find the details.  It’s not Galaxies, but it’s a great world to play in.  Oh well.

For myself, I have my little story of making it through the NGE without ever unsubscribing, somehow.  In June 2011 it was announced that Star Wars Galaxies would close in December of 2011 so as not to compete with or disturb the glory of the incoming game Star Wars the Old Republic.   In July 2011, I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and became embroiled for the rest of 2011 in chemo and concerns over my real life longevity.   I was not there when the Galaxies went down.

I’m still standing.   It seems the Emu is close to finishing their work and the galaxies will close once again.  It is probably a good thing I won’t see that closure of the Emu world either.

I’m going to dig out and photograph our pile of boxes from Galaxies to add here, for posterity.   (Added 8/19/20, only found two copies of Jump to Lightspeed but our collection is a bit inaccessible at this time, all doubled up on shelves as they are with couches in front of them.)  I have them, four accounts worth, even though there were only three of us, ever, we all had characters on each account because we were fiends to play when the game was live.  Share and share alike.

I’ll finish by saying I love that the Emu exists, thanks to countless hours of dedication and love for the game by the developers.   Ahem, except for no Corellian butterflies for a newbie to fight outside of Coronet, it has been a pretty perfect game experience.   It was incredible to step back into the world, hear the music, see all of the cities and worlds restored.

My The Force Be With You All

Atheren Lightrunner, Master Ranger, Master Rifles, retired