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poll about why you left SWG
ArcAngel3
Member Posts: 2,931
There's a lot of speculation about why SWG lost subscriptions. I thought a poll like this might be enlightening. Since polls don't always give people a chance to say exactly what they'd like, please feel free to clarify your choice with comments.
Comments
Can't answer more than one huh? NGE was a good enough reason for me.
It is reallly a shame, SOE created something unique and special....Then destroyed it. I think alot of us feel lost because there is no other game style that matches what Pre-NGE was. We run from one mouse and cheese to another MMORPG looking for what we lost.
I have never wanted to like a game more in my life than SWG. I tried and I tried to learn to just like it, but I never couldn't. I even came back for the first expansion but it was only fun for a week or so.
I am enough of a sucker that I would still get SWG 2 at launch...... sigh.
It won't suck one day... I know it.
I left mainly because they removed bounty hunting of jedi when they went to NGE....killing jedi wannabe grinders on kashyyk is about the main reason I played the game.
Especialy the ones that thought they are badasses with their healer jedi and challanged me to BH em, only to bitch and moan about how overpowered CM is after i collected their bounties.
I left because many of my ingame friende left. And they left because of one of the polls choices..
Still with me? Good!
That pretty much does it for me
Launch
Launch continously delayed.
Launched with tons of bugs.
Launch that was missing alot of the promised mechanics.
Fast forward to the JTL expansion, after spending the time before that adding in most mechanics that where supposed to be there at launch.
JTL had plenty of bugs that were reported and ignored from beta.
Bugs from launch or early launch that were still being ignored.
Refusal to correctly balance proffs, more specifically melee stackers.
Fast forward to RoTW expansion.
Working on an expansion while blatantly ignoring pre-existing bugs in the main game.
Bugs with the expnasion that again were reported in beta, and again ignored before release.
Knowingly releasing a very bugged expansion then acting suprised there was problems.
Zoning and invisible walls in a game that really didn't have any before this.
CURB and CU, around the same time as RoTW testing was ongoing
Scrapping the highly liked CURB for the quickly and poorly done CU.
Wasting all the Dev time and effort spent on the CURB for a poorly done CU.
Again ingoring pre-existing bugs to work on other mechanics that were also bugged.
And again blatantly ignoring bugs reported from CU beta.
And again knowingly releasing very bugged content and acting suprised there was problems.
Putting in Combat Levels which almost everyone detested.
Forcing players to choose 2 Elite proffs rather than being able to mix and match skills/proffs.
Totally hosing proffs, gear, equipment, CA's AA's, resources with the CU changes.
Blatantly attempting to whore Jedi to the public for more subs while mostly ignoring the rest of the game.
Publish after publish and patch after patch devoted solely to Jedi while ignoring the rest of the game.
Nerfing proffs left and right that had a chance at defeating said Jedi.
Now fast forward to the ToOW expansion
Working on an expansion while blatantly ignoring pre-existing bugs in the main game.
Bugs with the expnasion that again were reported in beta, and again ignored before release.
Knowingly releasing a very bugged expansion then acting suprised there was problems.
More zoning and invisible walls that players detested.
Had some of the least variation of either Mobs or Terrain of any expansion but cost the most.
Contained no Space zones, but again cost the most of any exansion.
Now the NGE, remember SL and some other proffs were revamped just before this
Completely took out 20 odd proffs including the ones that were just revamped.
Knowingly wasting Dev time/ effort on proffs that were not going to exist in NGE.
Sprung on the public 1 Day after ToOW billing hit.
Obviously poorly done with little planning or thinking ahead.
Was not wanted, needed, or asked for by the players but was forced on them anyway.
Riddled like swiss cheese with bugs.
Knowingly released with these bugs.
Chock full of Lag.
More changes to combat and proffs.
Again totally hosing proffs, gear, equipment, resources with the NGE changes.
Intentionally screwing every Non Combat proff that was still remaining.
Forcing everyone into 1 single proff with no variation.
Taking out every combat special in favor of the same 4-5 repeated over and over from lvl 1-90.
Huge amounts of lag even though it now had 1/5 the players of a previous mostly lag free game.
Intentionally trying to lie and mislead the players.
Repeating these same lies and misdirection in every single interview.
Things that were common throughout the life of SWG
Constantly nerfing proffs.
Constantly changing combat, never getting it right, and not leaving it the hell alone.
Never correctly balancing proffs for either PVP or PVE.
Bugs, bugs, and yet more bugs.
Blatantly ignoring many of these bugs till game changes made them moot problems.
Very poor customer service.
Threatening and or banning players who posted valid problems, bugs, or concerns.
Knowingly releasing incomplete or bugged content, patches, and expansions.
Attempting to lie to or misdirect the players at every turn.
Very rarely ever listening to what the players liked, wanted, or saw as a problem.
Also very rarely ever admitting to mistakes or trying to fix those mistakes once made.
Wasting Dev time/effort for changes that were not wanted or asked for.
Taking weeks or months to undo these changes even though they took 1 patch to implement them.
Refusing to take player input on changes or mechanics that they wanted.
Ever increasing lag even though the number of players kept decreasing.
Changes, Content, or Mechanics that were never even tested by players, just implemented.
I'm sure there's other things that some would say were missed or they would disagree on but for me and most people I knew that played those were the highlights of why we disliked the game more and more, ended up quitting, or in the case of people who hadn't played it why they wouldn't try the game.
Sure those are my opinions but that what I saw personally and what I was told from everyone else I knew who had played or heard of the game some or all of those reasons are why they quit or wouldn't try the game.
Feel free to edit in your items, add in other things, or whatever but that should cover most the problems in SWG from launch to current.
Yes there was tons of bugs, and still they kept creating more expansion and adding content.
Reason is pretty clear, there's separate teams working on bug hunting and creating new content. Just like every other MMO.
Comment like that just annoy me
That is why every game SOE will ever publish, produce create or what ever will never be a success they simply have to much dead weight at the company to be competent at being a successful company; by successful I mean having 1 million plus subs play 1 game outside of the station pass crap.
Water cooled Intel Corei7 920 D0 Stepping OC'd 4.3GHz - 6GB Corsair Dominator GT RAM 2000Mhz - ASUS RAGE II EXTREME X58 Mobo - 2x HD 5870 in Crossfire X, OC'd 0.9Ghz core 1.3Ghz RAM - Dell 2407WFP Flat Panel LCD 24" 1920x1200
The NGE
Being told there was much to much reading...
Telling us the game was too complex so they made it easy.
Jedi = both sides of how this went...
The way SOE treats people and in hindsight finally saying "DO NOT MAKE OUR MISTAKES"...
Leading people on
Lying to thier customers
Taking things away without giving back somthing better but making it worse.
Thinking they know what the real playerbase wanted.
Trying to tell me the NGE was going to work and to "Give it a try".... lol ahh how nice it was to be right in the end though...lol
(This is a few) ..... there is alot more of course but no need to spend 10 mins typing them all.
______________________________
I usually picture the Career builder commercial with the room full of monkeys and upside down sales chart when thinking about the SOE/SWG decision making process.....
SOE's John Blakely and Todd Fiala issued a warning: "Don't make our mistakes." Ref NGE
Winner of the worst MMOS goes to.... the NGE and SWG..!!! http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm?loadFeature=1034&bhcp=1
NGE...
Says it all, doesn't it?
Starwars Galaxies, An Empier Diveded, That's what it says on my box anyway.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Heres the differences with SWG though:
For most of its lifetime SWG had more bugs and problems than almost any MMO out there. There was no real big effort to fix most of these problems in SWG, feedback that they would be worked on at any point, or even that the Devs would acknowledge they existed let alone ever be fixed. Other MMOs don't delete/lock posts from players when reporting these problems and in many cases actually threaten or ban people who post about them.
SWG Devs are game Devs no matter what they're working on. IF they don't have half the team working on an expansions, revamps, or whatever guess what they could be doing? Yes thats right, their efforts could be spent on fixing problems.
Do you realize how much Dev time and effort was wasted on crap they invalidated just months later?
Say 20 Devs worked on the CURB, which took say 2-3 months, which was suddenly scrapped for the CU, which also took 2-3 months. They then spent the next 6 months trying to fix all the problems in the CU only to totally undo all that effort with the NGE.
2-3 months for CURB
2-3 months for CU
6 months trying to fix the CU, only to invalidate all of that effort for the NGE
Total of 10 to 12 months
Thats 10-12 months of 20 Devs effort pissed away for mechanics that disapeared the day the NGE went live. Now think about what could of been done in that time if these Devs had been working on something worthwhile. Thats just one example, theres more that could be given.
Bugs/Problems and SOEs blatant ignoring of those problems is the number one reason why SWG never took off in terms of sub numbers, players quit the game, others wouldn't try it, and why it has such a terrible reputation. The NGE was just the icing on the cake in a game with a long track record of being riddled with bugs and problems that never got fixed.
In a nutshell, people wanted a solid game, not a half assed game with half assed expansions and revamps.
The games been going downhill ever since Jedi were added IMO. It would have been kool for people to play a mix of the professions but instead the game just turned into everyone being Jedi and thats all people focused on.
While I agree with all of the criticisms of SOE handling of SWG, one I haven't seen mentioned, it the decision made sometime before or during JTL development, the Star Wars part of the game didn't matter. From that point on, SOE introduced more and more content and mechanics they were contrary to the movies we saw:
1. Players in imperial or rebel starships, not being attackable by players of the other faction. (this was the beggining of the end)
2. Removal of TEFs. (ie encouraging rampant faction farming).
3. Allowing people to wear faction armour without being attackable.
4. Creating invisible walls on Kash.
5. Introducing content from the prequels that shouldn't have existed or at least have been as prevelant in the time frame of the game (Grevious, Clone armour, jedi star fighter, etc.)
6. Introducing unrelalistic paticle effects (ghosts flying away from a character on intimidate, the heartbeat rhythm on certain CM effects, etc.)
7. Introducing factionally inappropriate buttons in interface (i.e. having a stromtrooper being shot as the symbol for certain moves all of riflemen, even ones that are imperial.
8. Making Jedi easier and easier to obtain so there were more and more of them.
9. Turning Squad Leaders into bard like magicians, rather than leaders of men, (or aliens).
These are just a few I recall off the top of my head. There are of course many others. Just about every single change from JTL on was bad for the game.
Then of course there was the NGE/ToOW, after which the game ceased being a star wars game. If they hadn't destroyed what little was left of the Star Wars part of the game, I may have given it a chance. But since they were intent on making a mockery of the movies, I couldn't possibly have supported it, even if it turned out to be the most fun game ever.
What about people that left way before the server wipes, like me. I quit the game after they introduced the first wookiee armor. It was supose to help "balance out" the wookiee characters, which were my favorite, but did it really? LOL. I was like "hey my wookiee still sucks, and now he looks stupid as well". Thanks SOE!
P.S.
Did the wookiee race get any decent love from the developers?
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC