The other day my inbox greeted me with a message from SWG. Apparently as a part of a promotion my account has been re-activated, and I was invited to come back and give the game some attention.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I rushed back. Ok, maybe not overwhelmed, but there was a bit of emotion; fear.

The downloader/installer took some time, but it was painless and in a blink I was in a galaxy far, far away. The first thing I did was log in my old character to see if the city I was a resident of was still standing. Once in game I was present with a window telling me I had to pick a profession; gah.

See back in the day my character was a sort of a jack of all trades he had a mining company, did some mercenary work, and even did a bit of bounty hunting. Having to pick a single profession felt limiting, but I begrudgingly selected Smuggler. With that out of my way I was free to start hiking across naboo back the Waypoint I had for Vagabonds Rest. As I ran, wildlife sprung up, literly, around me and I had to be quick to not draw their attention. It was interesting to see how the planet looks today compared to years ago, and more interesting to see the city still standing. Yes, VR still stands.

Alas almost all of the structures have now been abandoned, and wildlife runs free along the streets. It was sad, but it brought back many memories of those first days on rori, and then on naboo when the city was bustling with people. And even more sad is the fact that with the upcoming land reclaimation project most, if not all of the buildings, will be gone. *shrug*

I sat down in the middle of town, said my last goodbyes and logged off.

Until the next day, when I created a new character to see what SWG is all about now. Sure it looks a lot like the old SWG, but its not at all the same. It feels sort of like an old girlfriend that moved away for a few years and returned to town older, a bit crazy and with an “I don’t care what you think.” attitude. If I had never know her before, I might have actually enjoyed hanging out with her, but now when I do I can see is how much she has changed.

If money and time were not so limited I might even be convinced to spend more time with this new SWG and get to know her better, but for now I think its best we just don’t talk.

Edit: some screen shots