So that one might live, another must die. And so it was that Star Wars Galaxies went the way of Mark Hamill's leading man status last week, having been ushered out of existence by the dark forces of licensing in order to make way for The Old Republic. We've already posted news of the closure, but it's well worth having a look at the below player videos of its final moments. As well as all the epic space battle stuff, the death of an online world makes for a strange, and sad affair, where the evident outpouring of emotion is so often hampered massively by the constraints of the game. Yet for all that the stiff animations and looped emotes somehow make these farewells all the more poignant.
Also: watch Luke Skywalker get murdered by Ron Burgundy.
Here's the climactic invasions of Theed (by the Rebellion) and Coronet (by the Empire), which looks pretty awesome at around the four minute mark:
Star Wars Galaxies: The Skies of Theed and Coronet in Dec 15, 2011 (Europe-FarStar) Watch on YouTube
Here's how the end of the universe looked from Mos Eisley, on the Europe-FarStar server. The uploader notes he had to turn off some graphical whizzbang to cope with the number of players and fireworks:
Star Wars Galaxies: The last 10 minutes of FarStar Watch on YouTube
And here's someone's music video, which sets assorted vignettes from the last day to a very sad song.
Watch on YouTube
This is oddly moving, in terms of what's lost from a personal perspective when an MMO closes: a player touring their in-game house, carefully built and decorated across the years, for the very last time:
My last day in SWG - Bye bye my virtual home! Watch on YouTube
FInally, and all too aptly, here's the Luke Skywalker NPC getting mobbed to death in the twilight moments of the game. I particularly like that one of his assassins is called Ron Burgundy.
SWG Flurry killing Luke Skywalker in the last moments Watch on YouTube
Farewell then, old Galaxies. You were, if nothing else, fascinating.
