Main Character Name:
Yespa
Forum Handle:
Yespa
Discord Handle:
✨XxYESPAxX✨#0681

Player Association:
I am involved with a variety of different guilds. Preferably, I run my own city, Seraph's gate, on Dantooine. We host a variety of guilds are are a primarily Beastmaster (BM) focused city with the DNA LAB designation for faster incubations.
Where in the RL world do you live?
Home base is in Colorado Springs. Due to my work and cultural activities - I live/travel often in San Francisco, NYC, Denver, and down through Mexico to Brazil.
How long did you play the live version of Star Wars Galaxies?
I played from Beta to a few months before closure (couldn't stand to see it shutdown, was a travesty in gaming history). I paid for 8 accounts from 2004ish through to the end. Had characters everywhere, especially lot trades! My favorite time period was probably the CU (Combat Upgrade) - The community then was at its greatest, and SWG really shone.
What type of work do you do?
I'm retired CEO and served in the Air Force. Now I do Dev work in the crypto arena, mostly dapps and such. Recently was recognized as a historically significant dev for crypto due to my advances and contributions since 2017.
*I also wanted to take a moment and commend the team for utilizing Midjourney for the recent EFOL Painting, I've been using Midjourney straight for probably 6+ months now and it has a lot of potentiality and applicability, even for SWGL.

What does a typical Star Wars Galaxies day consist of for you?
Good question - its really random. I "try" to get my todo list, but with the recent influx of new and returning players, I spend a lot of my time answering questions, buying or suggesting gear builds etc. I'm also (finally) making pets again, so I spend a lot of time afk levelling pets on a couple of characters and then learning their specials thereafter.
I am currently farming the Witches of Dathomir theme park rewards to help build up Seraph's Gate Decorum.
What was the race and profession of your very first character?
I did the whole boring white male, normal size, blonde hair, blue eyed Scout (eventually my second Jedi). My very first Jedi was a Purple Twi'lek.
What is the one thing you’ve always wanted to be in Star Wars Galaxies that isn’t or is no longer?
This is a hard question, but only due to needing to narrow it down. What never was added, but was planned - were Capital Ships. Pre-NGE was a better version of creature handler that could tame creatures, and have three out. I also miss the Visibility system for Jedi - its not very immersive with Jedi around everywhere at this point in Star Wars. * Now I'm hoping that with JTP2 coming, the Jedi and Sith Meditation houses will be added, I miss mine very much!

What other hobbies or activities do you take part in, other than playing Star Wars Galaxies?
My biggest hobby is Magic The Gathering. I've played since 93, and kept through almost every single year, my collection is massive. I also play online and even worked as a high tier judge in NYC for a few years.
I am also Christian, and have served in various ways to the global community, which really has been a fulfilling journey. Outside of SWG I maintain my swtor account, my ffxi and ffxiv accounts, and I used to play guild wars 2 and Ragnarok online. I play a few mobile games when I'm bored or need some cognitive credits. I love D&D and do some tabletop board games with friends here and there. I have a lovely wife who is also a missionary and we help/work with folks in need, and provide counseling and therapeutic services as well.
What race and profession is your main character?
My current main guy, is a copy of my main guy from live - white boy, long blonde hair blue eyed Jedi (BM) - Light Side of course. I also roll with a Wookie medic/bm, Bothan officer (sometimes bm when just action macroing) and an ent and crafter (Cook, Tailor, Structures).
What do you like most about the profession you have chosen for your main character?
Jedi once was an "Alpha Class", but with the NGE, it really levelled the playing field. Regardless if you kit out a Jedi properly, you're still outclassing other jobs, in ways that a Jedi (I guess) should in such a game. Jedi is iconic, and running it with BM (Beast Master) really adds new dynamics - especially for light side. Anyone who watched Rebels, could enjoy the concept of Force enabled Beastmastery. The extra dps and various buffs/debuffs pets provide are a gamechanger. I think I prefer Beastmaster over any specific job to be fair as well. Would be nice to get some BM jewelry sets someday!
What faction is your main character?
Rebel, always Rebel (we know how the story ends, even if Disney tries to twist it). Yespa alts only do Imperial faction for content badges or loot, or to help a guild(ie). On live - I led a massive rebel network across several servers - This started out as Jedi defense, but quickly expanded to base busting, pvp, space, and much more. We would have characters in the network call upon any in need and we would all server hop to events, or even to protect a single member.
Today this network actively works to oppose imperialism in the real world, from continent to continent. We actively work to oppose and identify dangerous policies, philosophical, anti-religious, and even religious paradigms - that cause harm to the betterment on mankind. Imperialism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and many more policies and thoughts to action efforts that seek to undermine your fellow man. This also includes fighting human trafficking, drugs distribution en masse, and dictatorships. Real life A-Team.
What is your favorite player owned ship?
The Adv. X-Wing is my favorite, not just for iconicism, but I actually enjoy flying it. I can't count how many Star Destroyers I've taken down solo in my Adv X over the years. The Firespray for obv Boba love - but oddly enough, the B-wing holds a place in my mind/heart. I had a lot of fun with it on live, and its just a really wonky ship.
What is your favorite ground vehicle?
Hmm. With the addition of the vehicle mod kit, I sold off a lot of my extra high end vehicles. I really love the Mando Speeder, the Mustafar Panning Droid (due to stance), and the Rickshaw 920 due to cruisin' in style. Prob overall favorite is the Basilisk War Droid and/or the AV21 is sentimental. Hard to choose.
How did you choose your main character's name?
Prior to SWG, I had Moondog, Dethstryk and Tirara. SWG provided me after several hundred attempts a chosen name - Yespa. I really fell in love with the name as "Yes-pa" or "Yes-Father".

What is your favorite planet and/or city and why?
Dantooine - As you may have guessed, purple is my color of choice. Dantooine reminds me of Michigan Fields, and just has really beautiful scenery. Rori/Kash and ofc Bespin.
What is your favorite NPC?
I could go all star wars on this, but honestly - the Junk Vendor npc. This npc makes the (current) game possible. I loved the Rancor Tamer in Jabbas Palace as well. At one point I had wished to write a ton of content, theme park and the like and would have hoped to build an entire npc network. Maybe I'll apply again one day when I can offer more guaranteed time <3
What are the most credits you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters?
On live, I spent 1 billion credits on the removed Dathomir Prison Painting - one of my friends received while it had that small window of availability (pretty sure he got it from a csr on live though). On Legends, Yespa spent 50mil on a Mando Helm that matched his armor's color choice perfectly. I doubt ill spend over 50mil on anything in legends though again :)
What do you like best about SWG Legends?
SWG Legends was around when everything else (emulator wise) was failing or just an inkling. I ran my own private server for like 5 friends for a while, so I know what a challenge it is to run something, and I have to say, Legends runs it like it should be run (hiccups aside, no one is perfect). The fact that it had JTL when no one else did - is what brought me in, the fact that they advanced the storyline to Bespin is what keeps me. A good, even if slow, development cycle is obvious to those keen to it - I do recall the devs here stating they will do their best to keep the development run accordingly to what the actual live devs intended for the game. Other servers do not have that kind of team, or attempt of a decree of stability and chronology. Having worked on SWG myself, this is important to me, not to mention just maintaining the experience.
I think a shout out to KelKel for helping me with bugs, Meankty for taking the brunt of criticism while being a great csr, and to Walhmart (I remember when he was not even staff!) He's really come a long way - is in order too, Y'all are great and I appreciate y'all. Geit is an awesome guy, I'm glad to see him on dev - he's good at communicating and helping too. So many, but those are the ones who have stood out to me, that I can remember names. Oh and Nesiah too, who helped me relearn all the things I forgot about BM. And all of them and Elour too is really nice and helps a lot too, knowledgeable!

Describe your best experience playing Star Wars Galaxies.
My best experience is leading the first team to ever clear the entire Mustafar storyline. We did it during the 6 days of pre-release (leading up to NGE). That means we did it all in CU, and we did it with almost no sleep. Another server did this too, and cleared about 1.48 hrs behind us. This was before there were guides, (we made the guides), figured out the puzzles and mechanics and access (and bugs). It was much much harder in CU. We finished it in a big bang and felt something major was accomplished. NGE started right after, and everything from thereon changed.
It was a kind of love to do content before it had guides written and mechanics figured out. Same with Exar Kun, our (almost) same team figured out the instance and weapon swapping before anyone and we went on to teach it to everyone for the following year or two. We also got to do farming runs for eccentrics too rich to bother learning.
What is your favorite questline and/or place within Star Wars Galaxies and why?
Another challenging question - I really enjoyed Kashyyyk when it released. it was different, less sandbox-y which was a change of pace - and is the Wookiee homeworld. It was just magical and this is when space was added as well.
Personally, now though - Bespin. Not just because of this interview, but because of the time, quality and rich experience it offers the player base. I will say it over and over, Bespin did not receive the honor it was, and is, still due. I hope it further garners both attention and development.
One of the current issues discussed is about access to credits outside of afk farming - Bespin offers players 13mil for rebels and 18 mil for imperials....and can be done on multiple characters....this should be expressed and broadcasted as it only takes less than 12 hours to complete after 90/Hoth unlock. It was done really well, and has arena, token farming (crafter ent) etc too! It also has farmable AT-AT heads called Bespin Cars....so much to do there and a lot of cool things to get as loot, like animated signs for decoration and much more.
* What brought me back from hard work irl to SWG again was Taming. It is an awesome system, and hope it gets updated in the future! Over the years I check in every so often (even if unable to play), but Taming kept me here, its an enjoyable (yet credit sinkable) activity.

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Thank you ✨XxYESPAxX✨for allowing the Player Spotlight to shine on you! And to everyone else - we hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did learning about yet another outstanding and experienced community member!
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