I know they changed the SWG game, but really, it was probably for the better.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
If the game was so great then more people would be playing it. It is just that simple. You can pine on just like most SOE subscribers compiling a list of reasons that point to anything but the game itself if you want, but the cold hard truth is people will play what is fun and people are not playing SWG.
Three years later and you want to say SWG is better now than it was? Even if that were true, you are comparing a game that has been 100% in repair mode for the last 3 years to a game that was being neglected in favor of pushing out expansions and working on complete game redesigns.
Imagine if SOE had instead spent the last 3 years fixing the broken health/action/mind system, tweaking classes and adding content instead of the path they chose. You wouldn't be pointing out how cool the house customization is (which can be found in at least a half dozen other games in various fashions), because there was endless more customization in the original game that wasn't just limited to a house. You wouldn't be blaming a busted broken game not succeding on angry people, because the game would be healthy.
So the game is better now?
Can I find PvP (not duels, but galaxtic civil war) fights just about anywhere I go, let alone find people. Do I have to go to the one predesignated place where SOE has determined PvP should happen?
If I do somehow manage to find a decent PvP fight it will get lagged to death if more than a handful of people are there.
Change my career to be anything I wanted it to be. Make such unique templates that people have to ask how I did things?
What was done to the absolute best crafting system in an MMO is still a crime. There are no words to even justify how terrible crafting is now compared to prior.
I could go on, but who cares. What has the game gained?
Can you even level 1 to 90 without a large game in content yet or do you have to grind xp on mobs? Do the combat animation even match gameplay or is it still benny hill online? Do mobs still ignore game play rules that players have, like shooting you through mountains and buildings?
Where are the game expansions? Where are the new races and classes? The new cities and planets?
Storytelling looks very cool. Some new dungeons, cool. Collections... lame, but to each their own.
No, if I took the few positive things the NGE has added to the game and the over three years of wasted development time and instead applied that to the original game, you woulnd't have angry people to blame the failure of this game on. Instead you would be playing with hundreds of thousands of other people in one of the best online games.
I just don't see what the game has "gained" to excite anyone enough to call this game the best version of SWG ever. I completely relate to the SOE customer mentality of getting excited when there is anything positive happening. It is surprising how widespread that mentality it and I surely was there once myself, but comparing a busted broken game to another busted broken game doesn't make either a winner. It isn't the fault of angry people, because they just didn't all of a sudden get angry for no reason. They are angry, because the game is built on lies and broken promises.
Just go to the official forums if you want. Look at how many people talk about what fun the old game was. Some people still have hope...
A little about me first, I am a day one Vet and played off and on through pre and post CU. My toon's name was/is Hodokie Seek and I have rolled Master Doc, Master Riffles, Master Ranger, and Master Combat Medic but also dabbled in other professions as well. I have not logged in for over two and a half years but decided to give SWG a shot again since there is not much else out there that has captured my interest. Also to be honest, the curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see if what I was reading on the forums was true or not.
Pre-CU I was a Master Doc/Master CM and I engaged in a fair amount of PvP even though I am not a fan of PvP. It was still fun and many of the peeps I rolled with were great. Battle were engaging and most all were very mature and rolled their parts well.
Post CU and after Docs got nerfed I adapted and became a Master Ranger/Master Riffles and I spent all my time hunting and harvesting with my Mount, a carrion spat named Silver. I sold my resources and goods to peeps I new and also on the market. My travels on all the planets often lead me to cross paths with those in the bush running mish’s and needing help and I was almost most always happy to lend a hand. The community for the most part was great and role play was always great fun.
Now I am 3 days into my 7 day Vet Trial and have two view points in which I am trying to view the game from, just to be sure to give it an honest shake. One from the Vet's point of view and one from a new persons point of view.
New Person's POV – If you have never played SWG before and know nothing of the pre or post CU days, you may actually like the game. I think it still retains enough of the unique features of the old days such as player cities and buildings that you may say wow, this is cool. Combat is simple, not very much thought put in to it. The UI is kind of clunky but one can adapt to it, graphics are “meh” but who cares about that in an FPS right? Has many WoW over tones but hey, isn’t everything compared to WoW now a days? I can see where a new comer will over look that. I have seen on Eclipse some RP in Mos Eisley so RP doesn’t appear to be totally dead and even heard from an old Vet that remembered me and he said he has adapted to it well and that it just takes time. So, if you have not had any dealings with Pre or Post CU or have any history with SOE I can see where this game may appeal to folks.
Vet's POV - First thought when I logged in and started moving around is, “Man, I’ve been robbed.” Game mechanics have been so mixed up and messed with that it will take some time getting used too. If you were heavy into a particular type of character for RP like a Doc or Ranger you might find it very hard to choose a profession you would want to commit to. If you are thinking about coming back again to just take a look see, then do it as a new character and go through the tutorials. The game is different. Quests are “meh”, least what I have done so far, community Mixed as far as willingness to help new comers, at least that I have seen so far, graphics and even the character movement to me seems to have been altered as well to make it easier to run on lower end video cards. At least that’s what it looks like to me. As a Vet, there is a strong likely hood that you may very well not like what was done.
I guess the bottom line is the game as it stands right now is a hacked and butchered version of what it used to be, kind of sort of like a bad roll out of a brand new release game. If you were a Vet, will you be constantly be reminded, (for worse or for better) of what was stripped from the game. As a new player with no previous history with SOE you may actually get into it.
Just my two cents.
Edited:
Still going to play through the trial and give it a shot just because there is nothing else out there at the moment but by no means is this game a fraction of what it was. Again, just my opinion.
I know they changed the SWG game, but really, it was probably for the better.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Sorry man, not buying it.
This game is sorry, now. There is nothing to recommend this game to anyone anymore. If I wanted to play Benny Hill Wars Online, I might like it. If I wanted to PWNZORS!1!! Online, I might like it. If I wanted to to subsidize Dev School Online, I might play it.
I am sorry to say it, but many players of current SWG are like the poor, mangy, starving dog tied to a tree in someone's backyard. They get all excited when some piece of rotten meat get thrown in their dogbowl and they are happy to get it. Nevermind that the owners don't like the dog anymore and barely remember it exists.
SWG's terrible reputation is well deserved.
Is it a lie to say the economy is ruined beyond belief?
Is it a lie to say that 20+ of the servers are ghost towns?
Is it a lie to say the biggest issue current players have is wanting server merges or free transfers?
Is it a lie to say that 32+2 professions were reduced to 9?
Is it a lie to say the devs have said it is ok to AFK grind, because most of the game's "content" does not start until max level?
Is it a lie to say they game is still filled with issues of lag and bugs almost 5 years after launch?
Is it a lie to say that people continue to quit despite the so called "new content", the mechanics for which were mostly stolen from WoW?
Is it a lie to say that the devs teams have turned over at least 3 times in 5 years?
Is it a lie to say that SWG had at least 200k active players before the NGE and now has less than 25k?
Is it a lie to say that $OE has repeatedly lied to and mislead its own SWG customers on many well documented occasions, as well as engaged in many other shady business practices?
Since the answer to all of those would be "No", how can anyone even remotely claim that SWG is better now than it was before, and have any level of credibility? Anyone saying otherwise is a shill or deluded.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
I understand what you're trying to say, and I can actually empathize with you're feelings on this, but maybe the problem is not that people are angry at constant changes. Maybe they're angry at seeing the game deteriorate into a lesser quality experience.
When some people enjoy the current game so much it may be difficult for them to understand why others do not, and therefore think it has to do with frustration at having to adapt to changes rather then discovering the results of those changes to be a poor experience.
According to Freud sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, so maybe sometimes a bad game is just a bad game.
I think the bulk of people are trying to say regardless of whether anyone wants to see it or not that
a) there is nothing better out there EVEN in its nerfed state (i have said that anyhow)
b) I'm playing because I like the genre and there is nothing out there that matches this game EVEN in its nerfed state
c) the game is fun anynhow and its better then anything out there EVEN in its nerfed state
So the decision really boils down to this. Do you want to use your entertainment time to play a worse game then this and pay a company for it or use your entertainment time for this game or not play any games at all and watch bad TV. Well I choose this because quite franky its still fun. As for empty servers unfortunately here is the thing. I"m coming away from playing a new release that had less people then SWG does now and I"m not a WoW fan so I didn't enjoy WoW very much and long ago left. IN comparison to the totally baren servers in new games that were just horrible I hate to say SWG is well crowded. There are still people to group with and still guilds to join and I can still do community type things. I can't say this for other games I have tried with less scope, less content and less community. If and when a better game comes along I think people will switch. I"m not sure I will like age of conan because quite franky I hated the movies and I hate that kind of genre. I'm waiting for release of a game further down the line so for now and as long as it exists I will play SWG because its fun and passes my time and I can still get into it unlikeother games with less scope and which are far more simple to me. Newer players coming to SWG in fact find the game fun so I have new friends and old friends alike in that game. I wish they would merge servers but for now they are not. In the future they may, but the issue of player cities is I think something that is stopping them I'm not sure. In any event those who do play the game are not "idiots" as I keep being told i am. Most of us are mature adults who play the game for what it is and have made a conscious decision to pay money to do so and not ask for what we can't have because at the end of the day if they did that and you think about it they will be hurting more players if they give old players who no longer play and likely wont return their way. Sony has no guarantee everyone will return and its a safe bet that they wont. So barring that and realizing that they have acknowledged that they screwed up NOW YEARS ago. They have stated they have learned from their mistakes and wont be changing back again for the very reasons which got them angry subscribers in the first place. This has long ago been stated so its time to move on find another game, play this game or just not play anything. Everything else is just unrealistic. That game is gone and this one exists play it or not.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
You know I see way more people on this site and others bashing WoW--they complain about the PvP, the raiding, the artwork, and various other things yet WoW has ten million subscribers.
SWG continues to struggle because it is, very simply, a bad game. The NGE, sitting on top of the old game's infrastructure, just doesn't work. If it did the few devs still working on it would add things to it instead of just bringing things back from the old game. There are hundreds of pre-cu players that go back to the game all the time but very few stick around. There are also extremely few new people coming into the game (proof of this is the fact that SOE took the boxed game off the shelf) so the game isn't growing and isn't ever going to grow beyond whatever it is today.
I appreciate why you fanbois come here and try to pump up the game and make it look better than it really is--you see the empty servers and you're worried about the future of your chosen game. Unfortunately no amount of spin from you or from SOE is going to help.
I know they changed the SWG game, but really, it was probably for the better.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Sorry man, not buying it.
This game is sorry, now. There is nothing to recommend this game to anyone anymore. If I wanted to play Benny Hill Wars Online, I might like it. If I wanted to PWNZORS!1!! Online, I might like it. If I wanted to to subsidize Dev School Online, I might play it.
I am sorry to say it, but many players of current SWG are like the poor, mangy, starving dog tied to a tree in someone's backyard. They get all excited when some piece of rotten meat get thrown in their dogbowl and they are happy to get it. Nevermind that the owners don't like the dog anymore and barely remember it exists.
SWG's terrible reputation is well deserved.
Is it a lie to say the economy is ruined beyond belief?
Is it a lie to say that 20+ of the servers are ghost towns?
Is it a lie to say the biggest issue current players have is wanting server merges or free transfers?
Is it a lie to say that 32+2 professions were reduced to 9?
Is it a lie to say the devs have said it is ok to AFK grind, because most of the game's "content" does not start until max level?
Is it a lie to say they game is still filled with issues of lag and bugs almost 5 years after launch?
Is it a lie to say that people continue to quit despite the so called "new content", the mechanics for which were mostly stolen from WoW?
Is it a lie to say that the devs teams have turned over at least 3 times in 5 years?
Is it a lie to say that SWG had at least 200k active players before the NGE and now has less than 25k?
Is it a lie to say that $OE has repeatedly lied to and mislead its own SWG customers on many well documented occasions, as well as engaged in many other shady business practices?
Since the answer to all of those would be "No", how can anyone even remotely claim that SWG is better now than it was before, and have any level of credibility? Anyone saying otherwise is a shill or deluded.
250k people did not cancel by accident.
This really makes sense - Back to grade 1 maths for you.
That the best you've got? About the same as the usual fanboi argument.....
More than 250k players have canceled from SWG's high water mark.
Estimates of the game population right before the announcement of the NGE but after the hype from ToOW put active players anywhere from 180k-200k, it actually brought some players back.
There are significantly fewer than 25k paying accts in SWG now, by any honest appraisal, when $OE's shell game of station pass and trial accts are taken out.
My apologies if I didn't use small enough words....
I know they changed the SWG game, but really, it was probably for the better.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Current version is a bad game experience compared to what we had pre cu ,vasting community knows , $OE knows too but they are milking the few fanbois left paying.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
So imagine if, instead of tearing out the entire game, they had just tweaked the few things you didn't like about the old game. Imagine if they had fixed the bugs and made mind damage more tolerable and CH pvp viable again. Don't you think that would have been better than destroying the game to rebuild it into a half-baked version of the original? If they had done that, fixed the bugs and continued adding balance passes and content, we would be in a golden age of SWG right now. For that reason alone the NGE really *is* that bad. Instead of buckling down and just fixing what was wrong with the old game they could have avoided all this grief and drama and while it's too late for SWG it's an important lesson for other game developers to learn.
+1000000000
You were reading my mind when you wrote that.... Sure pre-cu had is flaws but why not fix them instead of trying to make a WoW in space clone....
Bottom line was SOE/LucasArts saw how much money WoW was making and tried to cash in on it.. It backfired big time...
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
It continues to struggle because it sucks... It has nothing to do with vetrens spreading rumors or trashing the game on forums, it has to do with people trying it out with free 15 day passes and seeing for themselves how bad of a game it is...
The two things NGE did to me that was unforgivable was destroying the crafting professions and removing the ability to make a unique character.... Remember not everybody who played SWG wanted to be a ubber combat player...
Now all you got are several cookie cutter templates to play as... If I wanted to play as a Luke Skywalker clone I'd go play Jedi Academy, its a lot more fun...
Yes there are a couple of servers that are doing well, smaller population servers are paying to move to bloodfin and a few others. I agree the game is playable now for those who are pvpers and some pve'er to an extent. For US CRAFTERS, the game is ruined, they had the best crafting system I have ever seen in any game and they trashed it. Yes they are throwing in some schematics now to make crafting somewhat useful, but it is not the same.
i hate to break it too you but the nge is the worst thing to happen in game ever. me and 249,999 of my friends will back me on that. all of the 32 professions did have balance and had use. remember how fun ch was before it got nerfed? remember how good you could be after working long and hard to become a tkm or rifleman? remember how people wanted cm and sl's in there groups? everyone and everything had a use unlike the nge where the only classes people play are bh and commando both of those classes are shells of what they used to be in the pre-cu. not only that pvp was balanced. pve was balanced and much more fun then this trash they have in the game now. tell me do you think we wanted pvp bases or restuss in the old days? no we didn't due to pvp happening anywhere. we had the tef system to keep people in line. pvp had better balanced rewards unlike the useless trash they give you now. entertainers had buffs and took away cf, docs gave buffs that made pvp and pve much more fun. everyone in the game had a use unlike the nge. content? we didn't need heroic mobs we had 20 man groups going hunting for pearls. we had pvp that lasted a whole weekend. we had one of the greatest content systems in any game the village. what do you want as a reward? a lame pistol or carbine or an ugly backpack? or to unlock and build up your own jedi knight. this game isn't smart or strong it sucks and is trash and everyone in the mmo world knows that. i don't know what dev you are but let me say this one more time. bring back pre-cu ftw!
You and your 250k friends that played eh?
It is amazing 250k folks played when there was supposed to be 250k subs....with some folks holding as many as 10 accounts each. To be fair though, it was probably more like 100 to 125k holding those subs.
No matter how much the "vets" wanna pretend Pre-whatever was a popular game, the fact of the matter is that it was no more than a niche game with those numbers.
Had SWG launched as an EQish type clone(not WOW easy...but structured like EQ), I bet the subs would still be about as high as launch.
Not only that, but there would be several more expansions as well.
I would wager most folks are like me...they prefer new content to regrinding the same lvls over. All the while listening to bot banter, as recursive macroing was part of the game mechanics to deal with tedious/boring grinds.
I doubt we ever see another big name IP skewered for a sandbox style game...and that is a good thing IMO. Ralph should of put his tradeskill ideas in...cause it would be lying to say SWG didnt have it good in that area.
The second he wanted to make a SIms out the rest of the game someone should of pimp-slapped him...HARD like. Had he stayed away from basing the game on non-combat trades, and kept the proffesion count down , chances are the game would of launched a lot better.
Dont care to ever spend money on a game like Pre-NGE again...it sucked compared to EQ...or most MMO games in general for that matter.
The idea of giving someone everything possible in a game is cool...but very unrealistic. Quite simply he bit off WAY more than he could chew...and SWG suffered for it.
Ralph screwed SWG for anyone who wanted to play... other than those dedicated 125ish K. Took mine and others money for his "version" of Star Wars. Hate to use not "Star Warsy" since it is associated with that steaming loaf of NGE that SOE shat out as a fix...but it is a very appropriate description IMO.
I doubt any company will give him a chance to do it again....thus he launched his own company.
Wonder if he ends up gambling his own money on a sim game this time around. Should be interesting, to say the least, watching what he tries to mess up next time around.
Having good ideas is one thing...getting it into a game is another.
Ask Brad when/if he surfaces again.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
Anyhow, what happened to SWG is not his fault. He created a game system that was years ahead of anything else. The problem is that SOE, just like all their games, released it before it was ready. There were major stability issues, imbalances and many systems were not even close to being complete. The game also seriously lacked content for players to interact with. However the underlying game was brilliant in many ways and if it was given time to finish development then this game would most likely be a major powerhouse.
I doubt Raph cannot find another job with a major software house again, I suspect he chose not to due to the shit treatment he got from working with SOE. Would you go knocking on door after you watched your hard work stomped into the ground? Similar situation with his work on Ultima. I only wish he would make another game I could try.
As for the game not being popular? It was the second largest MMO in North America at the time. It broke all MMO sales records. It was surely not the only game where people had multiple accounts, so lets not try to downplay its popularity that way. SWG had more potential in more areas than any other game at the time. Now though the best comments you hear about the game are "It isnt all that bad". Now that is a solid endorsement if ever I hear one.
Edit: I still think Brad McQQ is a good game designer, but he lacks the ability to run a business and keep his mouth closed. His time has passed though.
Oh yes..It's sooo good now that they quit selling(umm trying to sell) it in stores.When it has 250k active people playing it all the lies aren't going to convince anyone( I hope).
All SOE and NGE has going for it now are the fanboi's trying to lure people in,,and This is the aboslute worst place to try that..
Number 1 thing I can not deal with no matter what incarnation of SWG is the low population. Why should I have to spend how ever much it is to change to an actually populated server just so I can be able to find groups.....
Number 1 thing I can not deal with no matter what incarnation of SWG is the low population. Why should I have to spend how ever much it is to change to an actually populated server just so I can be able to find groups.....
To satisfy the pockets and the greed of small people ..
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Yeah, despite the fact that most of the servers are completely dead due to the changes SOE/LA made to the game, they refuse to offer a 1-time free transfer!!!!
SOE is still making players pay to transfer their characters despite the mess SOE created...
It baffles me how people are still willing to pay for this game
The servers are not as dead as you try to make them appear to be. There are a lot of people playing SWG. A lot of you guys just try to bash the game because you don't like it.
The servers are not as dead as you try to make them appear to be. There are a lot of people playing SWG. A lot of you guys just try to bash the game because you don't like it.
Current game is very unpopular.. if there was PRE CU installed on the server there would be more people playing...
anything less then 300k is an horrific failure..because pre cu we had that numbers 300k ..then with unpopular changes the game got worse and very unpopular , till to this day...
Current game is not entertaining and good enough for most people.
"Not as dead" is not good enough for a population.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Comments
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
If the game was so great then more people would be playing it. It is just that simple. You can pine on just like most SOE subscribers compiling a list of reasons that point to anything but the game itself if you want, but the cold hard truth is people will play what is fun and people are not playing SWG.
Three years later and you want to say SWG is better now than it was? Even if that were true, you are comparing a game that has been 100% in repair mode for the last 3 years to a game that was being neglected in favor of pushing out expansions and working on complete game redesigns.
Imagine if SOE had instead spent the last 3 years fixing the broken health/action/mind system, tweaking classes and adding content instead of the path they chose. You wouldn't be pointing out how cool the house customization is (which can be found in at least a half dozen other games in various fashions), because there was endless more customization in the original game that wasn't just limited to a house. You wouldn't be blaming a busted broken game not succeding on angry people, because the game would be healthy.
So the game is better now?
Can I find PvP (not duels, but galaxtic civil war) fights just about anywhere I go, let alone find people. Do I have to go to the one predesignated place where SOE has determined PvP should happen?
If I do somehow manage to find a decent PvP fight it will get lagged to death if more than a handful of people are there.
Change my career to be anything I wanted it to be. Make such unique templates that people have to ask how I did things?
What was done to the absolute best crafting system in an MMO is still a crime. There are no words to even justify how terrible crafting is now compared to prior.
I could go on, but who cares. What has the game gained?
Can you even level 1 to 90 without a large game in content yet or do you have to grind xp on mobs? Do the combat animation even match gameplay or is it still benny hill online? Do mobs still ignore game play rules that players have, like shooting you through mountains and buildings?
Where are the game expansions? Where are the new races and classes? The new cities and planets?
Storytelling looks very cool. Some new dungeons, cool. Collections... lame, but to each their own.
No, if I took the few positive things the NGE has added to the game and the over three years of wasted development time and instead applied that to the original game, you woulnd't have angry people to blame the failure of this game on. Instead you would be playing with hundreds of thousands of other people in one of the best online games.
I just don't see what the game has "gained" to excite anyone enough to call this game the best version of SWG ever. I completely relate to the SOE customer mentality of getting excited when there is anything positive happening. It is surprising how widespread that mentality it and I surely was there once myself, but comparing a busted broken game to another busted broken game doesn't make either a winner. It isn't the fault of angry people, because they just didn't all of a sudden get angry for no reason. They are angry, because the game is built on lies and broken promises.
Just go to the official forums if you want. Look at how many people talk about what fun the old game was. Some people still have hope...
A little about me first, I am a day one Vet and played off and on through pre and post CU. My toon's name was/is Hodokie Seek and I have rolled Master Doc, Master Riffles, Master Ranger, and Master Combat Medic but also dabbled in other professions as well. I have not logged in for over two and a half years but decided to give SWG a shot again since there is not much else out there that has captured my interest. Also to be honest, the curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see if what I was reading on the forums was true or not.
Pre-CU I was a Master Doc/Master CM and I engaged in a fair amount of PvP even though I am not a fan of PvP. It was still fun and many of the peeps I rolled with were great. Battle were engaging and most all were very mature and rolled their parts well.
Post CU and after Docs got nerfed I adapted and became a Master Ranger/Master Riffles and I spent all my time hunting and harvesting with my Mount, a carrion spat named Silver. I sold my resources and goods to peeps I new and also on the market. My travels on all the planets often lead me to cross paths with those in the bush running mish’s and needing help and I was almost most always happy to lend a hand. The community for the most part was great and role play was always great fun.
Now I am 3 days into my 7 day Vet Trial and have two view points in which I am trying to view the game from, just to be sure to give it an honest shake. One from the Vet's point of view and one from a new persons point of view.
New Person's POV – If you have never played SWG before and know nothing of the pre or post CU days, you may actually like the game. I think it still retains enough of the unique features of the old days such as player cities and buildings that you may say wow, this is cool. Combat is simple, not very much thought put in to it. The UI is kind of clunky but one can adapt to it, graphics are “meh” but who cares about that in an FPS right? Has many WoW over tones but hey, isn’t everything compared to WoW now a days? I can see where a new comer will over look that. I have seen on Eclipse some RP in Mos Eisley so RP doesn’t appear to be totally dead and even heard from an old Vet that remembered me and he said he has adapted to it well and that it just takes time. So, if you have not had any dealings with Pre or Post CU or have any history with SOE I can see where this game may appeal to folks.
Vet's POV - First thought when I logged in and started moving around is, “Man, I’ve been robbed.” Game mechanics have been so mixed up and messed with that it will take some time getting used too. If you were heavy into a particular type of character for RP like a Doc or Ranger you might find it very hard to choose a profession you would want to commit to. If you are thinking about coming back again to just take a look see, then do it as a new character and go through the tutorials. The game is different. Quests are “meh”, least what I have done so far, community Mixed as far as willingness to help new comers, at least that I have seen so far, graphics and even the character movement to me seems to have been altered as well to make it easier to run on lower end video cards. At least that’s what it looks like to me. As a Vet, there is a strong likely hood that you may very well not like what was done.
I guess the bottom line is the game as it stands right now is a hacked and butchered version of what it used to be, kind of sort of like a bad roll out of a brand new release game. If you were a Vet, will you be constantly be reminded, (for worse or for better) of what was stripped from the game. As a new player with no previous history with SOE you may actually get into it.
Just my two cents.
Edited:
Still going to play through the trial and give it a shot just because there is nothing else out there at the moment but by no means is this game a fraction of what it was. Again, just my opinion.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Sorry man, not buying it.
This game is sorry, now. There is nothing to recommend this game to anyone anymore. If I wanted to play Benny Hill Wars Online, I might like it. If I wanted to PWNZORS!1!! Online, I might like it. If I wanted to to subsidize Dev School Online, I might play it.
I am sorry to say it, but many players of current SWG are like the poor, mangy, starving dog tied to a tree in someone's backyard. They get all excited when some piece of rotten meat get thrown in their dogbowl and they are happy to get it. Nevermind that the owners don't like the dog anymore and barely remember it exists.
SWG's terrible reputation is well deserved.
Is it a lie to say the economy is ruined beyond belief?
Is it a lie to say that 20+ of the servers are ghost towns?
Is it a lie to say the biggest issue current players have is wanting server merges or free transfers?
Is it a lie to say that 32+2 professions were reduced to 9?
Is it a lie to say the devs have said it is ok to AFK grind, because most of the game's "content" does not start until max level?
Is it a lie to say they game is still filled with issues of lag and bugs almost 5 years after launch?
Is it a lie to say that people continue to quit despite the so called "new content", the mechanics for which were mostly stolen from WoW?
Is it a lie to say that the devs teams have turned over at least 3 times in 5 years?
Is it a lie to say that SWG had at least 200k active players before the NGE and now has less than 25k?
Is it a lie to say that $OE has repeatedly lied to and mislead its own SWG customers on many well documented occasions, as well as engaged in many other shady business practices?
Since the answer to all of those would be "No", how can anyone even remotely claim that SWG is better now than it was before, and have any level of credibility? Anyone saying otherwise is a shill or deluded.
250k people did not cancel by accident.
I understand what you're trying to say, and I can actually empathize with you're feelings on this, but maybe the problem is not that people are angry at constant changes. Maybe they're angry at seeing the game deteriorate into a lesser quality experience.
When some people enjoy the current game so much it may be difficult for them to understand why others do not, and therefore think it has to do with frustration at having to adapt to changes rather then discovering the results of those changes to be a poor experience.
According to Freud sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, so maybe sometimes a bad game is just a bad game.
I think the bulk of people are trying to say regardless of whether anyone wants to see it or not that
a) there is nothing better out there EVEN in its nerfed state (i have said that anyhow)
b) I'm playing because I like the genre and there is nothing out there that matches this game EVEN in its nerfed state
c) the game is fun anynhow and its better then anything out there EVEN in its nerfed state
So the decision really boils down to this. Do you want to use your entertainment time to play a worse game then this and pay a company for it or use your entertainment time for this game or not play any games at all and watch bad TV. Well I choose this because quite franky its still fun. As for empty servers unfortunately here is the thing. I"m coming away from playing a new release that had less people then SWG does now and I"m not a WoW fan so I didn't enjoy WoW very much and long ago left. IN comparison to the totally baren servers in new games that were just horrible I hate to say SWG is well crowded. There are still people to group with and still guilds to join and I can still do community type things. I can't say this for other games I have tried with less scope, less content and less community. If and when a better game comes along I think people will switch. I"m not sure I will like age of conan because quite franky I hated the movies and I hate that kind of genre. I'm waiting for release of a game further down the line so for now and as long as it exists I will play SWG because its fun and passes my time and I can still get into it unlikeother games with less scope and which are far more simple to me. Newer players coming to SWG in fact find the game fun so I have new friends and old friends alike in that game. I wish they would merge servers but for now they are not. In the future they may, but the issue of player cities is I think something that is stopping them I'm not sure. In any event those who do play the game are not "idiots" as I keep being told i am. Most of us are mature adults who play the game for what it is and have made a conscious decision to pay money to do so and not ask for what we can't have because at the end of the day if they did that and you think about it they will be hurting more players if they give old players who no longer play and likely wont return their way. Sony has no guarantee everyone will return and its a safe bet that they wont. So barring that and realizing that they have acknowledged that they screwed up NOW YEARS ago. They have stated they have learned from their mistakes and wont be changing back again for the very reasons which got them angry subscribers in the first place. This has long ago been stated so its time to move on find another game, play this game or just not play anything. Everything else is just unrealistic. That game is gone and this one exists play it or not.
You know I see way more people on this site and others bashing WoW--they complain about the PvP, the raiding, the artwork, and various other things yet WoW has ten million subscribers.
SWG continues to struggle because it is, very simply, a bad game. The NGE, sitting on top of the old game's infrastructure, just doesn't work. If it did the few devs still working on it would add things to it instead of just bringing things back from the old game. There are hundreds of pre-cu players that go back to the game all the time but very few stick around. There are also extremely few new people coming into the game (proof of this is the fact that SOE took the boxed game off the shelf) so the game isn't growing and isn't ever going to grow beyond whatever it is today.
I appreciate why you fanbois come here and try to pump up the game and make it look better than it really is--you see the empty servers and you're worried about the future of your chosen game. Unfortunately no amount of spin from you or from SOE is going to help.
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Sorry man, not buying it.
This game is sorry, now. There is nothing to recommend this game to anyone anymore. If I wanted to play Benny Hill Wars Online, I might like it. If I wanted to PWNZORS!1!! Online, I might like it. If I wanted to to subsidize Dev School Online, I might play it.
I am sorry to say it, but many players of current SWG are like the poor, mangy, starving dog tied to a tree in someone's backyard. They get all excited when some piece of rotten meat get thrown in their dogbowl and they are happy to get it. Nevermind that the owners don't like the dog anymore and barely remember it exists.
SWG's terrible reputation is well deserved.
Is it a lie to say the economy is ruined beyond belief?
Is it a lie to say that 20+ of the servers are ghost towns?
Is it a lie to say the biggest issue current players have is wanting server merges or free transfers?
Is it a lie to say that 32+2 professions were reduced to 9?
Is it a lie to say the devs have said it is ok to AFK grind, because most of the game's "content" does not start until max level?
Is it a lie to say they game is still filled with issues of lag and bugs almost 5 years after launch?
Is it a lie to say that people continue to quit despite the so called "new content", the mechanics for which were mostly stolen from WoW?
Is it a lie to say that the devs teams have turned over at least 3 times in 5 years?
Is it a lie to say that SWG had at least 200k active players before the NGE and now has less than 25k?
Is it a lie to say that $OE has repeatedly lied to and mislead its own SWG customers on many well documented occasions, as well as engaged in many other shady business practices?
Since the answer to all of those would be "No", how can anyone even remotely claim that SWG is better now than it was before, and have any level of credibility? Anyone saying otherwise is a shill or deluded.
250k people did not cancel by accident.
This really makes sense - Back to grade 1 maths for you.
That the best you've got? About the same as the usual fanboi argument.....
More than 250k players have canceled from SWG's high water mark.
Estimates of the game population right before the announcement of the NGE but after the hype from ToOW put active players anywhere from 180k-200k, it actually brought some players back.
There are significantly fewer than 25k paying accts in SWG now, by any honest appraisal, when $OE's shell game of station pass and trial accts are taken out.
My apologies if I didn't use small enough words....
Umm... yeah. Not even the people on the official forums share that opinion.
A few people keep saying "Its better than it was when the NGE first launched". Sorry that just isn't a convincing statement considering how terribly broken the NGE was when it released.
It's a long time ago and a lot of people don't remember or didn't play or refuse to say it because they keep walking around with nostalgia in their chests. But, I was there and I remember. It really was bad in a lot of ways. And the OP has stated a lot of them, as have I in my reply.
And I think the reason for people not really talkikng about this on the official SWG forums is not because it isn't true, but rather because they have moved on.
It would be easy to blame everything on people that just can't let go, but when applied to how things really is it just doesn't hold true.
You yourself said "the update made us somewhat suffer for 1 and a half year". I submit that the game isn't anywhere near as good as you present it to be, but instead it gets painted in rosey colors by people who are willing to put up with just about anything to play a star wars game. It is easy to say how much better things are after a game hits rock bottom and compare it to an era when the design team never gave the game a fair chance to get fixed and instead kept redesigning every aspect instead of fixing it. SOE considered it more important to pull the entire live team off the game and put them onto the Jump to Light speed expansion than to give the original game a chance at all. It is an unfair comparison.
All things considered, excluding those who fall into the NGE battle and just leaving those clean of its experiences. This game if as good as you say should able to attract and retain those players, but it continues to struggle. Why so?
I'm not painting anything in rosey colours, I'm trying to tell the truth based on my experience from playing this game a lot starting from a long time before the NGE, in the NGE and then after it. I consider the NGE to be over and something that is in the past. The game has moved on and is really out there providing some super things things, but a lot of people still wont forgive or see the new and better Galaxies. .. The uniqueness of Star Wars Galaxies is still there except that you now have a much more balanced combat system where you mould your profession differently.
A lot of people think about all that they "lost" in the New Game Enhancements, but they always fail to see what they gained and in the years of post developing a lot of things have happened. There have been many updates and much new content.
Some people here have said that we never say that the game is GREAT, but I will say it. The game IS great. When I speak about the game not being all that good before the NGE then I mean that certain parts of the game were really annoying and frustrating. The combat system being the main one. I hated having a worthless character who would get owned all the time.
But, being with friends and living in a world that you can shape in the extent of Galaxies has always been faboulous. I don't know of any other game where you get to personalize, let alone HAVE a home like the one you can have in Galaxies. That is truly unique.
The game continues to struggle because it has a lot of angry gamers spreading false and bad expressions of a game they hate. Not because the game is bad. The game has never been better before. Never ever. We all have our newbie memories, although if you view at it from an objective point of view it is entirely different. The game simply have never been better. Bad image is what makes it struggle unjustly,
Current version is a bad game experience compared to what we had pre cu ,vasting community knows , $OE knows too but they are milking the few fanbois left paying.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Bad game, sucky company, idiot devs...Time to move on!
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Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
+1000000000
You were reading my mind when you wrote that.... Sure pre-cu had is flaws but why not fix them instead of trying to make a WoW in space clone....
Bottom line was SOE/LucasArts saw how much money WoW was making and tried to cash in on it.. It backfired big time...
End Game
It continues to struggle because it sucks... It has nothing to do with vetrens spreading rumors or trashing the game on forums, it has to do with people trying it out with free 15 day passes and seeing for themselves how bad of a game it is...
The two things NGE did to me that was unforgivable was destroying the crafting professions and removing the ability to make a unique character.... Remember not everybody who played SWG wanted to be a ubber combat player...
Now all you got are several cookie cutter templates to play as... If I wanted to play as a Luke Skywalker clone I'd go play Jedi Academy, its a lot more fun...
Yes there are a couple of servers that are doing well, smaller population servers are paying to move to bloodfin and a few others. I agree the game is playable now for those who are pvpers and some pve'er to an extent. For US CRAFTERS, the game is ruined, they had the best crafting system I have ever seen in any game and they trashed it. Yes they are throwing in some schematics now to make crafting somewhat useful, but it is not the same.
url=http://www.enjin.com]
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/FAIL
NGE, I don't think it's fun, and the gameplay is buggy.
Starwars Galaxies, An Empier Diveded, That's what it says on my box anyway.
Welcome back mate
Come join the rebels on chilastra.
Account has been stolen, why would someone want to steal my account?
There are probably no new players coming to SWG. Everyone is transferring from their dead servers to the 4 with any semblance of a playerbase.
It isn't an influx of players it's a re-proportioning of players.
Tecmo Bowl.
You and your 250k friends that played eh?
It is amazing 250k folks played when there was supposed to be 250k subs....with some folks holding as many as 10 accounts each. To be fair though, it was probably more like 100 to 125k holding those subs.
No matter how much the "vets" wanna pretend Pre-whatever was a popular game, the fact of the matter is that it was no more than a niche game with those numbers.
Had SWG launched as an EQish type clone(not WOW easy...but structured like EQ), I bet the subs would still be about as high as launch.
Not only that, but there would be several more expansions as well.
I would wager most folks are like me...they prefer new content to regrinding the same lvls over. All the while listening to bot banter, as recursive macroing was part of the game mechanics to deal with tedious/boring grinds.
I doubt we ever see another big name IP skewered for a sandbox style game...and that is a good thing IMO. Ralph should of put his tradeskill ideas in...cause it would be lying to say SWG didnt have it good in that area.
The second he wanted to make a SIms out the rest of the game someone should of pimp-slapped him...HARD like. Had he stayed away from basing the game on non-combat trades, and kept the proffesion count down , chances are the game would of launched a lot better.
Dont care to ever spend money on a game like Pre-NGE again...it sucked compared to EQ...or most MMO games in general for that matter.
The idea of giving someone everything possible in a game is cool...but very unrealistic. Quite simply he bit off WAY more than he could chew...and SWG suffered for it.
Ralph screwed SWG for anyone who wanted to play... other than those dedicated 125ish K. Took mine and others money for his "version" of Star Wars. Hate to use not "Star Warsy" since it is associated with that steaming loaf of NGE that SOE shat out as a fix...but it is a very appropriate description IMO.
I doubt any company will give him a chance to do it again....thus he launched his own company.
Wonder if he ends up gambling his own money on a sim game this time around. Should be interesting, to say the least, watching what he tries to mess up next time around.
Having good ideas is one thing...getting it into a game is another.
Ask Brad when/if he surfaces again.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
I think you mean to say Raph, not Ralph.
Anyhow, what happened to SWG is not his fault. He created a game system that was years ahead of anything else. The problem is that SOE, just like all their games, released it before it was ready. There were major stability issues, imbalances and many systems were not even close to being complete. The game also seriously lacked content for players to interact with. However the underlying game was brilliant in many ways and if it was given time to finish development then this game would most likely be a major powerhouse.
I doubt Raph cannot find another job with a major software house again, I suspect he chose not to due to the shit treatment he got from working with SOE. Would you go knocking on door after you watched your hard work stomped into the ground? Similar situation with his work on Ultima. I only wish he would make another game I could try.
As for the game not being popular? It was the second largest MMO in North America at the time. It broke all MMO sales records. It was surely not the only game where people had multiple accounts, so lets not try to downplay its popularity that way. SWG had more potential in more areas than any other game at the time. Now though the best comments you hear about the game are "It isnt all that bad". Now that is a solid endorsement if ever I hear one.
Edit: I still think Brad McQQ is a good game designer, but he lacks the ability to run a business and keep his mouth closed. His time has passed though.
Oh yes..It's sooo good now that they quit selling(umm trying to sell) it in stores.When it has 250k active people playing it all the lies aren't going to convince anyone( I hope).
All SOE and NGE has going for it now are the fanboi's trying to lure people in,,and This is the aboslute worst place to try that..
Number 1 thing I can not deal with no matter what incarnation of SWG is the low population. Why should I have to spend how ever much it is to change to an actually populated server just so I can be able to find groups.....
To satisfy the pockets and the greed of small people ..
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Yeah, despite the fact that most of the servers are completely dead due to the changes SOE/LA made to the game, they refuse to offer a 1-time free transfer!!!!
SOE is still making players pay to transfer their characters despite the mess SOE created...
It baffles me how people are still willing to pay for this game
Tecmo Bowl.
The servers are not as dead as you try to make them appear to be. There are a lot of people playing SWG. A lot of you guys just try to bash the game because you don't like it.
Current game is very unpopular.. if there was PRE CU installed on the server there would be more people playing...
anything less then 300k is an horrific failure..because pre cu we had that numbers 300k ..then with unpopular changes the game got worse and very unpopular , till to this day...
Current game is not entertaining and good enough for most people.
"Not as dead" is not good enough for a population.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)