Just got home from my friend’s wedding at Disney’s Epcot and saw an email from Star Wars Galaxies:
House/Structure Pack-Up Notification for Inactive Accounts:
Effective March 3, 2009, at 4:00 AM PST your in-game player owned properties including Houses, Guild Halls, Theaters, Hospitals, Cloning Facilities, Merchant Tents and Factories may be packed-up, removed from the game server(s) and placed in your datapad.
Dear Former Star Wars Galaxies Citizens,
On March 3rd, we may pack up and remove items attached to Star Wars Galaxies accounts that have been inactive (an account that has not been logged into and had an active, paying, and valid subscription) since July 1, 2008. If your service has been inactive since July 1, 2008, and you do not validly re-subscribe prior to February 15, 2009, your houses, structures and associated assets may be packed up into your datapad and removed from the game servers at 4:00 AM PST on March 3, 2009. Should you decide to return to Star Wars Galaxies after that date, you will have to place these items back into the game world.
May the Force™ be with you!
- The Star Wars Galaxies Team
For more information please visit: www.starwarsgalaxies.com/packup
Please be aware that if you do not re-activate your Star Wars Galaxies account by providing SOE with valid billing information on or before February 15, 2009, at 11:59 PM PST, your house, guild halls, factories, merchant tents, theaters and all associated assets will be packed up into your datapad and removed from the game.
So, if I’m reading that last paragraph correctly, if I do nothing whatsoever, all my former property will be digitized into my inactive character’s datapad rather than being destroyed? Fine by me! Back when I had Station Access I tried a couple times to get back into SWG but failed miserably. It’s so different since the NGE that I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing or where I should be doing it — ironic that it used to be a sandbox which promoted exactly that "lost" feeling and now that it’s a directed leveling game I’m even more lost? But it also hasn’t aged well. At all. As for my stuff, I couldn’t remember where my old guild’s town was, much less where my house was. The guild was disbanded then re-formed under another name anyway, would that have destroyed my house? I believe it was within city limits to help with city’s growth rating and taxes.
Regardless, I prefer a situation like this where they just take all inactive character’s belongings and keep it in some inventory system where it can be used at a later date, if the account is ever re-activated. I think LOTRO has a similar system where if you don’t pay your housing upkeep, any items inside go into an escrow account. But I don’t know if the escrow also has a time limit where eventually you’ll lose everything. SWG’s datapad solution is virtually painless since everything goes right back to your character.
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Remember the EULA, nothing in the game technically belongs to players, active or otherwise. I’m actually surprised that sent out a notice to people, because I’m sure the EULA doesn’t state they have to when taking action to reclaim what is rightfully theirs in the first place.