Staff writer Steven Crews spent some time chatting with Jake Neri, from LucasArts, discussing Star Wars Galaxies‘ history and where it is heading in the future. 

The MMO Gamer: First of all, for those of ourreaders who may be unfamiliar, please tell us a little bit aboutyourself and your role in developing Star Wars Galaxies.

Jake Neri: My name is Jake Neri and I am a produceron Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts. My role is to collaborate with thefolks at SOE on making sure SWG is the best possible game it can be.

The MMO Gamer: SWG has been around for quite sometime now, being released at the fore of the so-called “secondgeneration” of MMOs. Has that time been kind to the game? Is it whereyou hoped it would be four years on?

Jake Neri: Time has been kind to SWG. We are goingstrong in our fourth year of live service, with a dedicated andpassionate fan base and a talented dev team motivated to serve ourplayers. In an ever-changing MMO marketplace, this has been no easyfeat, but I think our success lies in how the development team has stayactive and flexible in responding to community feedback.

The MMO Gamer: What does the future hold? Where do you see things another year down the road?

Jake Neri: The future for Star Wars: Galaxies isvery bright. We plan to continue to add content and features to thegame through our Chapter Adventures that are part of the players’regular subscriptions to the game. Chapter 7 is slated for release thisfall and players will get to try out all the new content on our testcenter very soon. Chapter 7 will bring a brand-new Collection Systemalong with several other features, Chapter 8 will bring new spaceadventures this winter, swg credits and 2008 has plenty of content and enhancementsas well.

The MMO Gamer: Are there plans at this point for any further expansion packs?

Jake Neri: At this point, we have no plans for aretail expansion. Rather, both LucasArts and SOE made the decision tofocus our efforts on the Chapter Adventures, which will deliver highvalue content to our players while maintaining the flexibility toadjust to what our players ask us for as the game continues.

The MMO Gamer: What about a sequel? EverQuest 2 was announced around this time in EverQuest’s lifecycle.

Jake Neri: There are currently no sequels planned.We remain committed to SWG and feel that there are still plenty ofstories to tell in the game.

The MMO Gamer: Every game has its ups and downs,but SWG, in particular, has been through some particularly tough timesin its history. What would you say was the toughest of them all, andhow did you go about recovering from it?

Jake Neri: When you look at any game in the historyof MMOs, they have all had their ups and downs. I think that this isbecause there is no handbook on how to make these games. Our toughestchallenge is adjusting to the changing needs of our players while stillmaintaining a living, breathing game with a live community filled withpeople that have all different needs and desires. Overall, we are proudof SWG, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going.

The MMO Gamer: The New Game Enhancements wereobviously a major milestone—although mostly for the wrong reasons.Mythic opened a “Trials of Atlantis Free” server in Dark Age of Camelotin response to their own player criticisms, have you ever consideredopening an “NGE Free” server?

Jake Neri: There are no plans for a pre-NGE server,as SWG is in a great place right now. We have thousands of playersreturning to the game and having a great time with all the new featuresand content that we’ve added.

The MMO Gamer: How have the departures of such high-profile figures as Raph Koster, Rich Vogel, and Gordon Walton affected the project?

Jake Neri: Raph and Rich have been gone a long,long time now…long before I even arrived here at LucasArts. Those guysare great game developers and we all wish them luck on their futureprojects. They made tremendous contributions to SWG in their time, andour current development team led by Lorin Jameson, Thomas Blair, andTony Tyson are really knocking it out of the park and deliveringawesome content to our players.

The MMO Gamer: To older SWG players who may nothave been following the recent development of the game, what would yousay to convince them to come back and give SWG another try?

Jake Neri: Well, we continue to improve the gameevery day, and it’s all based on a deep Star Wars experience thatallows you to fight, socialize, role-play, adventure, explore, etc.Whatever you want to do in-game, you can find it in SWG. Our communityis strong and passionate and I would encourage folks to find their oldfriends online and come back to experience all the new content we’veadded in the past two years. All the professions have been enhanced,new challenges have been added, and new systems (like Beast Master)have been implemented. There are countless new, exciting things to findin-game, and more coming in the future.

The MMO Gamer: Was there anything we didn’t cover in this interview you’d like to tell our readers?

Jake Neri: Actually yes. We just released a digitaldownload version of our compilation pack, Star Wars Galaxies: TheComplete Online Adventures through www.Direct2Drive.com.For players eager to come back to SWG, or to try it out for the firsttime, this download makes it easier than ever. The download includesthe base game, all the expansion packs, a ton of bonus content, andeven an exclusive in-game item, all for $19.99.

We’d like to thank Jake for taking the time to chat to us. You can find out more about Star Wars Galaxies at their official site.