Unfortunatly you have to pay the $15 a month to play. First you create a character, anywhere from a human to a wookie, and make them look how you want to. Next you pick a character class (bounty hunter, jedi, commander, officer, trader, spy, smuggler, 2 others i forgot) and advance your character by doing certain missions that develop skills unique to your class. For example, commanders need to do missions that use heavy weapons/hand to hand combat and eventually they can lead armies of real players into battle. You can join the empire or rebellion (set in the OT days) and eventually get perks of that group. Example, drive an AT-AT or fly X-Wings. And of course its all in the star wars universe so you can visit jabba's lair, a cantina on tatooine, corellia, and several other places unique to the universe. And occasionally you run into famous faces like han solo, darth vader, and boba fett. Its a real fun game and i would recommed you buy it especially since its only $30 for the game and ALL expansion packs. But its one of those games where you play for a few months, then it gets kinda old, then you pick it back up later and play for a few more months. Hope this helps!
