Sony Online's announcement of the "New Game Environment" for Star Wars: Galaxies left Creature Handlers feeling devastated. Many of us conducted private farewell ceremonies for our virtual pets. This is a shot from my own event. I'd given up my Creature Handler profession months before this scene was captured in order to pursue my Jedi profession, and so I had to recruit a Master Creature Handler to help me summon my pets one last time. She is seen standing next to my spider in this scene. Appropriately, this Creature Handler was a member of BEAST/Bria, a multi-server guild dedicated to the Creature Handler profession. One by one, I traded my animal companions to her. She would then summon them and give them a command that allowed me to command the pet as though it were still my own. I would then ask the pet to do it's tricks one last time for me, and then I would order them to attack a NPC at a random camp that had spawned nearby, just over the brow of a hill. As the pet scuttled over the hilltop and out of sight, I asked the Creature Handler to delete the pet-control device, causing the pet to disappear forever from the game. The effect was a satisfying simulation of setting the pet free and watching it run off. Later, I described the scene on the SWG Forum. Dozens of former Creature Handlers let it be known that my message brought tears to their eyes, as we shared our grief at the loss of one of the funnest, most enjoyable professions in this game.

Iakimo, SWG/Bria Server

This is my last original pet from my Creature Handler career. She was one of the first pets I tamed; later I mount-trained her myself. Shortly before the NGE went live, I had a Creature Handler I met on Lok rename her, "Hope," as a symbol of the hope that one day the Creature Handler profession would be reintroduced to Star Wars: Galaxies.

Iakimo, SWG/Bria Server