Palla, the game was originally going to be a MMOG using a graphics and level system very similar to Everquest 2. (and boy Do I remember the flames and rants about this in the early forum days. Whiny fanboys. grrr)
However, with the SW license they decided to drop the everquest 2 engine and custom design their own (take 2 and a half years out of the time they had to make the game with that one.

took em two years to get everything right and another 6 months to start allowing access to more then just tatooine and naboo, how did they ever expect to make a great game with so little time for GAMEPLAY is beyond me. And I mean it. in mid 2000 they got the rights. they started building the engine. I've seen what they had for the E3 show of 2001. it was just 3 different areas that were barely big enough to run from one end to the other in 2 minutes with a couple monsters thrown in to look cool. finally at around 2002 the second half they had it done and Tatooine almost complete and they opened testing. However, they still hadn't even come close to balancing and fixing everything or even testing some of the elite professions before launch. they rushed the game out due to demand from the head dogs and to get more money to develop it. sounds like a familiar tactic anyone?). They also decided to make a new system, due to the fact that a level based EQ system would cause the "EQ in space" phrase to be thrown aroud the forums like a drunken woman in a orgy.
However, after seeing what it became I wish they had kept all the EQ systems. I beta tested it and found it boring after the initial "wow" phase wore off, and I played it a bit after the beta test (and after they took what was a fast leveling system and turned it into a hellish grind. Yeah I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory,but I think they made it such a slow long grind to hide the fact that at high levels there is nothing to bother doing. the grind is all there is, and by the time you reach master this or that they will have added some content and you'll never know how lame it really is) and found it even worse.