Star Wars Galaxies - 300,000 Subscribers, No Jedi... Yet

Thanks to IGN PC for their interview with the creators of PC MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, in which it's announced the title has "surpassed 300K registered accounts", despite what they describe as "some teething problems at the initial launch", and is still "...the fastest growing MMO ever - in the Western world at least." They say they're now trying to "get players away from mission terminals and directed towards more in-depth content", with new quests being designed and implemented in-game, and as for the question of becoming a Jedi, they confirm: "We've yet to see any Jedi in the game, though there are some players that are close to unlocking that Force-sensitive slot", and hint that "ancient historical artifacts known as Jedi holocrons" are part of the path to becoming a SWG Jedi.

Comments

How many in a year from now?

[meanfriend]

Obviously MMORPGS rely on monthly fees as a stream of revenue so I wonder what sort of staying power this game will have? What will the user base be like in a year from now, when the novelty has worn off for a lot of players?

I also find it interesting that Blizzard recently axed 400,000 battle.net accounts for cheating

If Battle.net charged a MMORPG-type $10 monthly fees like SWG, then they would be throwing away $4 million a month in revenue (I realize that the user base for Blizzard games would not be nearly as large with monthly fees). But if a widespread exploit took hold of SWG and started ruining the game for others, would they have the guts to close thousands of accounts and throw away potentially millions of dollars a month to combat it?

Re:Jedi! That's BULLCARP!

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

Reading this, I couldn't help but think about this passage from The Hitchhiker's Guide regarding the population of the universe:

POPULATION: None
It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

More on topic, you've gotta have Jedi in a Star Wars game. Besides, if Galaxies were an actual Star Wars film (or at least a prequel), all 300,000 users would be related to, the mentor of, the creator of, the childhood guardian of, or a clone of some character from the Original Trilogy. Are a few extra Jedi running around stretching the game's credibility that much?