I still play and would have to say that all in all JTL (Jump to Lightspeed - aka the Space expansion to SWG) is really well done.  Granted, there's not much content for JTL and the grind gets a little old but there's some great action on servers like Starsider and Valcyn.  That said, considering how amazing the graphics are and how well designed the engines are (the old Wing Commander team put together JTL), one would think Space would be as intense as say BF 2142.  Don't get me wrong the battles are amazing but the larger 20 on 20 battles don't happen as often as we'd like.  As far as the "ground game" goes I've heard and read a lot and have a bunch of PRE NGE and PRE CU friends.  Needless to say they hate the NGE.  In my opinion, I think the game definitely lost depth and I don't like the notion of "respec" Jedi's.  (pretty much any yahoo can run around with a lightsaber as opposed to the old days where one had to train in a variety of skills as well as complete a hard grind in the "hope" that one day a mysterious old man "Obi Wan Kenobi" would appear and being their Jedi training)  It would be nice if there were more complexity to player characters, more story line (maybe even story line campaigns in the GCW) and just more of a Star Wars feel.   As far as ground PvP goes it is intense and competitive.  There's a lot of nasty behavior/drama that can take the Star Wars right out of the game.  I'd have to say one of the greatest losses be how the old PRE NGE style promoted teamwork.  In retrospect, though, there are huge battles on a regular basis and they can be pretty intense. Some last for hours and hours at a time.  However, SOE's main PvP zone consists of one city in ruins.  In a nutshell, you basically end up standing in front of one door grinding NPCs till the NPC boss comes out and you kill him in about 4 seconds flat. Then repeat, over and over and over lol  There are some great battles and tactics in the midst of all this mindless grinding and you do have the option of traveling around SF (Special Forces=PvP enabled) but that really doesn't do it for me.  Of course, theres also the options of attacking and trying to hold a handful of Static Bases (which are PvP Zones) as well as player bases in player cities but all in all I'm disappointed in all this.  You'd think there be so much more to do in the Star Wars Galaxy rather than just standing in front of an NPC door waiting for the Star Wars Galaxies equivalent of King Koopa to spawn so you can kill him over and over again.  Bah.. I still enjoy playing it and hope for more positive change from SOE but I say again, Bah...  On the brighter side, Chapter 8 is going to be a dedicated to JTL.  So far it's pretty exciting.  If anyone's interested in playing for the space aspect you might want start up in the next month or so and get prepped.  It takes some time to gather enough parts to really "load out" a starship thats viable in PvP.  That said, f you are coming to PvP be ready you will be up against a ton of seasoned vet's with amazing starships and some brilliant tactics.  All in all the Pilot community is a good one and should you need a hand grinding or getting your feet wet, there are a lot of Imperials and Rebels that would be willing to help.  I suggest Starsider personally although Valcyns has been pretty busy since the Roeving Line Squad (An elite Alliance Starfighter Squadron from I think the Ahazi server) transfered over.  Starsider is the unofficial SWG "Space" server though.  Some really awesome pilots there as well as the other servers.

Note: The game has definitely improved in the past 8 months and a ton of players have returned...  it's fun but it's also a major investment of time to get anywhere really...  I don't know that I can really say it's worth it but there's definitely some cool stuff to do and some great times and good people playing SWG... I gotta say though it doesn't quite capture the Star Wars feel.  Firststrike, however, does.  Space maybe simplified here but it's awesome - ROTJ style

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I played it for a while, but only the Jump To Light speed part caught my interest.
And in the end I gave up on that too, because of the stupidly long missions you had to complete to advance.
Having to complete an hour long mission which is moderately challenging, just to get the difficulty cranked up to "near-impossible" at the end get old real fast.

The ground-based game seemed rather uninteresting.