Private servers are good for building a community (I know, we all have fond memories, mine is SWJKA, especially in the later, JK+ times), but they fail to put players into skill brackets, meaning that if you enter the game later or don't spend your entire life playing it, you'll eventually fall off as pros will insta-kill you everywhere.
Kinda sad I was too young to actively play Jedi Outcast multiplayer back when it was popular (and singleplayer-wise, I actually prefer it by a large margin...okay, except bossfights with Tavion and Desann, I hate them :D). It died off pretty quickly as Jedi Academy arose, and SWJKA ruled the landscape ever since. But in principle, they both provide that feeling :)
Took me a while to learn some undocumented stuff, such as rotating your body at the exact speed of side saber move so that the saber would remain in enemy's body the longest, dealing up to 200 damage. Then some folks learned even better underkicks to counter it instead of just evading it and getting some of the damage. Amazing times :D