[SwordMage]

Unlike some of the combat revamps and other overhauls we have seen in games like EQ, EQ2, and earlier in Starwars Galaxies, the NGE was an attempt to make the game more "starwarsy" at the request of the franchize owner (Lukas Arts). It almost amounted to a change of game genre; gone was locked target combat and a nice sandbox environment for role-play--to be replaced with faster pace combat and an attempt to make all players think they were more playing the heroes of the adventure (also gone were non-star wars professions like creature handler and bio-engineer). Also, the game moved from a crafted item based game to a looted item based game.

It was a shock, to say the least, when it was released 3 weeks after it was first announced (right on the heels of the release of the Obi-Wan expansion, which SOE quickly offered to buy back from anyone who no longer wanted it).