14 DAY TRIAL // Those players who have at one point enjoyed Star Wars Galaxies, the MMO maintained by Sony Online Entertainment, but have since left it for greener pastures, like World of Warcraft, Aion or EVE Online, now have an incentive to return to their first love. Sony is saying that returning gamers will be able to play Star Wars Galaxies for free from February 1 to March 1, just as another update for the MMO is released.
Named Galactic Civil War: Forces Under Siege, it aims to introduce a new sense of scale to the game, as Imperial and Rebel armies engage each other for the control of major cities.
With Forces Under Siege, cities will have different NPC presences, different quests and even different buildings depending on who controls them and player cities can declare themselves as connected to a faction or another by displaying a flag. Neutral players can join in the combat by aligning themselves with the Imperials or the Rebels in order to be able to get some interesting rewards.
Star Wars Galaxies will be getting new quests specific to the city combat scenarios, which will offer players tokens for successful actions like healing the wounded, manning defensive structures, putting together ambushes and doing actions related to their chosen classes. These tokens can then be redeemed in game for new weapons and faction specific personal items.
Players who are returning to Star Wars Galaxies do not need to re-create an account as Sony has already activated the one they previously used. Those who choose to re-subscribe to the MMO before March 1 will be given an in-game painting as a reward.
It's surprising to see Star Wars Galaxies still aiming to get back long lost players, considering that BioWare is hard at work creating another Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic, which might arrive as soon as 2011.