Star Wars Combine

Genre(s): Massively Multiplayer, Simulation/Life

3rd Party Rating: None found.

Price: Free

Link(s): http://www.swcombine.com/

Description:
Star Wars Combine is a free massively multiplayer online role-playing simulation game based on the Star Wars Universe, developed by amateurs in their spare time. Combine is not licensed by Lucas Arts, but is permitted to use the setting.

As a browser-based game we at Cheapskategamer.com would typically not list it, however, this game was ranked #88 in the Top 100 games of All-Time by PCGamer Magazine, March 2012 so we felt it deserved a review listing. Josh Augustine, an editor at PCGamer Magazine (US) said the following “I’ve played the free, browser-based Star Wars Combine for 12 years. It’s EVE-like focus on corporations and politics, with more role-playing options and hardly any graphics to speak of, produces the most memorable emergent gameplay I’ve ever experienced.”

The Star Wars Combine is an online game. Its purpose is to bring fun to the players by offering them a universe that they may immerse themselves in and forget, for a while, their real lives.

The Star Wars Combine is massive. Its purpose is to welcome and gather thousands of players inside the same game, creating an extremely rich gaming environment. The multitude of players generates an unlimited quantity of interactions between them.

The Star Wars Combine is about role-playing. When playing the Combine, the end-users are not only playing an avatar inside the universe; but also they are investing a part of themselves into what they would dream to be if they were living in the Star Wars universe.

The Star Wars Combine is a simulation. A simulation is the partial implementation of existing mechanisms, from physics to economy, including politics, engineering, logic, and even socialization.

The Combine is about Star Wars. The Combine is developed by Star Wars fans, for Star Wars fans. The purpose is to provide a Star Wars universe where fans may dream.

Whilst performing rather common tasks (many of which could take hours, days or even weeks depending on complexity and type) players interact in their forums and chatrooms, planning the next operation, role-playing their character, trading in the open market or in the black market and organizing events.
As Josh Augustine states in his article: “The amount of free spontaneous creativity within this game is mind-numbing, dwarfing even the machinations behind EVE Online.”

However, patience is an essential element of this simulation. Every action takes time, and the character’s creation is a more serious than in other, similar simulations, with many veterans who have been playing since the game’s creation.

The purpose of this slower, real-time pace (in comparison to other simulations) is also devised in order to allow players –- who are spread all over the world and covering all time zones—to have the time to respond to events happening around them while being offline.

The player’s character is present in the game regardless of the player being online or offline. Therefore, actions such as being killed are always possible, and again unlike many other simulations, a players death is permanent. However, players can create a new character after a short waiting period and begin again, minus all prior possessions, positions and other things.

Publisher: Combine Team

Developer: Various Developers/Designers/Programmers

Release Date: December 1998

Players: Massively multiplayer online

ERSB: N/A

Sample Gameplay Video(s):