You have the code! You have the servers! You have the baying crowd of madmen just ready and waiting to sign up for double-expense monthly charges, minimum duration three months! What better way to smother TOR while it is still a mewling infant in the cradle! Imagine! The same people who called you a bald-headed, doughy madman yesterday would tomorrow hail you as a god whose very name would be a killing word amongst your rivals at Bioware and Blizzard! It would be a bold, audacious, preposterous move! And it would cost you nothing! It's totally Smedley! Go for it, you bald-headed, doughy madman! Who knows, it mighy even be your ticket to, dare I say it?, the Presidentship-for-Life of Sony Worldwide!
Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire? Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..
He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top. That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.
/lol
First of all, there is no possible way free realms has had 3 million people log in. Not even if they only logged in once and never returned. It is a logistical impossibility.
Beyond that, you think 2.4 million a month is a cash cow? That is less than $30 million a year and I bet you they spent far more than that just developing the game and are pumping serious money into advertising on television. Soe wont even repay the investment for the game for at least a couple of years and I doubt the game has that type of staying power.
There are 10 servers with a few hundred players on at peak times, tops. Basing the 89/10/1 rule on 3 million is a joke. When the game hits 4 million "users" who register on a web page and the game still only has 10 under populated servers I guess they will be making tons more money right? Obviously free realms can add 2 million users, but not need more servers.
I'd play a precu SWG again. And with modern servers and my new computer + internet speed that is 5x faster then back in the day, the game would be amazing.
I agree the game had many bugs. But I still managed to have a lot of fun, and if offered unparalleld rp in an mmo, atleast for me.
If I had my way though, I'd have to original game with the expansions, but get rid of jedi as a playable class. Maybe have them playable only during special live events by the devs. They could get rid of the crazy dots too and maybe cap bonuses and defences to make game play a little more balanced. It would be great!
Now the reason I go to this is because we're talking about "full" servers which means concurrent users. Twice that amount (two servers) is 60,000 to 80,000 to reach an average concurrent 3,000 mark.....
SWG Pre-CU isn't about the opinion of anyone (including me). Its about if they put it up and left it alone if they would have enough accounts to make a profit... or you could argue more than they currently have. With the added twist that IF someone actually likes Pre-CU that much... would they actually leave for another "core design".
As opposed to current customers which are basicly already playing the same core design.. but a very bad implementation of it.
That's really what it comes down to... apparantly SOE doesn't think its worth it (as they claim LEC is working with them... ) there isn't much of any other interpretation to have.
I think they would make money... I just don't think they want to put the resources etc into it.. as they think "moving forward" is better for them in the long run (aka cutting lose the dead weight as they can.. ie: MxO).
I'd play a precu SWG again. And with modern servers and my new computer + internet speed that is 5x faster then back in the day, the game would be amazing.
I agree the game had many bugs. But I still managed to have a lot of fun, and if offered unparalleld rp in an mmo, atleast for me.
You think it would, but it won't.
Matrix Online ran absolutely marvelous when it launched. Sure it had some performance issues and the servers crashed now and then lol. But I could run everything at max back then and it looked awesome!
But when Windows Vista and/or the latest GFX hardware (GeForce 8xxx series and up and ATi HD series and up) the game started to run horrible, full of graphic anomolies and horrible lag. With only 1 or 2 devs on the team, they never got it fixed! Hence the reason why they finally shut it down.
There is a HUGE chance, the exact same will happen with the pre-NGE code. It was written and optimised for hardware at that time (2003) and the NGE code has been optimised during the years with the coming of new hardware and it's drivers.
All optimisations and updates, the pre-NGE codes misses and doesn't have.
This might actually be the biggest issue why SOE wouldn't even want to bother and risk launching a pre-NGE server.
Having people whine all over the internet about not being able to run old SWG on their latest shit and how poo SOE is, idiots who cannot get it to run on latest hardware, bla bla bla... jada jada jada.
As seriously, if SOE didn't even bother to assign some very EXPENSIVE tech devs on Matrix Online to fix the engine for the latest hardware. Why in earth would you think they will do it on pre-NGE SWG!
The only game they do it for right now, wich they hired a special guy for, is EverQuest 2.... because it's still their flagship product and most profitable product.
Yesterday I decided to swing by the SWG sony forums just to see what's been going on. In my home server of Ahazi, a long time player posted some his old screenshots from pre cu/cu times. I looked through them, saw myself and old friends in a few, and was over come with a desire to play THAT game more than any other game out now and upcoming.
You have the code! You have the servers! You have the baying crowd of madmen just ready and waiting to sign up for double-expense monthly charges, minimum duration three months! What better way to smother TOR while it is still a mewling infant in the cradle! Imagine! The same people who called you a bald-headed, doughy madman yesterday would tomorrow hail you as a god whose very name would be a killing word amongst your rivals at Bioware and Blizzard! It would be a bold, audacious, preposterous move! And it would cost you nothing! It's totally Smedley! Go for it, you bald-headed, doughy madman! Who knows, it mighy even be your ticket to, dare I say it?, the Presidentship-for-Life of Sony Worldwide!
Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire? Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..
He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top. That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.
/lol
LMAO. I really need to come over here more often. some funny stuff going on. and soe's reputation, regardless of what game they come up with, will remain tarnished for a long, long time.
Yesterday I decided to swing by the SWG sony forums just to see what's been going on. In my home server of Ahazi, a long time player posted some his old screenshots from pre cu/cu times. I looked through them, saw myself and old friends in a few, and was over come with a desire to play THAT game more than any other game out now and upcoming.
Me too, me too.
My last screesnhot is of my old Jedi Knight standing on a bluff in the wild north of Tattoine beside his Barc overlooking his three guild hall compound, an old Imperial fort off the left, as the sun set for him for the last time.
SMEDLEY, ARISE, AND OPEN SOME PRE-NGE SERVERS NOW!
You think it would, but it won't. Matrix Online ran absolutely marvelous when it launched. Sure it had some performance issues and the servers crashed now and then lol. But I could run everything at max back then and it looked awesome! But when Windows Vista and/or the latest GFX hardware (GeForce 8xxx series and up and ATi HD series and up) the game started to run horrible, full of graphic anomolies and horrible lag. With only 1 or 2 devs on the team, they never got it fixed! Hence the reason why they finally shut it down. There is a HUGE chance, the exact same will happen with the pre-NGE code. It was written and optimised for hardware at that time (2003) and the NGE code has been optimised during the years with the coming of new hardware and it's drivers. All optimisations and updates, the pre-NGE codes misses and doesn't have. This might actually be the biggest issue why SOE wouldn't even want to bother and risk launching a pre-NGE server. Having people whine all over the internet about not being able to run old SWG on their latest shit and how poo SOE is, idiots who cannot get it to run on latest hardware, bla bla bla... jada jada jada. As seriously, if SOE didn't even bother to assign some very EXPENSIVE tech devs on Matrix Online to fix the engine for the latest hardware. Why in earth would you think they will do it on pre-NGE SWG! The only game they do it for right now, wich they hired a special guy for, is EverQuest 2.... because it's still their flagship product and most profitable product. Cheers
THIS!!!!! The last time the original PRECU code was used was May 2005. Later in May the CU was thrust upon us. Now think about just how many things have changed in OVER 4 years. Vista did not exist.....Mac's weren't around.....How many updates has Xp had in this time span?.....So many countless NEW pieces of Hardware are now running on many PCs (Coreduo processors, Quad processors, Countless Video card upgrades....ETC ETC). And one of the "EXCUSES" often given to the playerbase was the code was so poorly written it was near impossible to patch it without breaking a hundred other things. So do you really think it is cost effective for them to try and relaunch PRECU????? They'd spend as much or more just getting it up to 2009 then add to it the thousands of tickets they'd recieve on the first day on compatibility issues they overlooked. It's a really nice dream for PRECU to be relaunched but NOT GONNA HAPPEN Cedd
I think the vast majority of vets realize that $OE will never put up classic servers. If $OE could have done so, I think they would have when they lost 80+% of the SWG playerbase due to the NGE fiasco and before refunding untold sums of money for the ToOW expansion. While some believe it is arrogance on the part of Smedley/ $OE that there were never any classic servers, I believe contractual barriers (LA) and the huge loss of the experienced and talented devs that made the NGE a oneway move. No redo's, no more chances. Smedly obviously doesn't care about his business reputation, so why would he allow arrogance to prevent $OE from making money? Especailly if he could have recovered a good number of payng players? I am sure he wonders how much he could have made off the TCG if there were 200+k more subscribers around to fleece.
They may do CU servers in a few years, but never pre-cu. It's a shame it was a great experiement in which i was and still am a willing participant. We were 1 ingredient short in the great recipe when they blew er up too. So close.
See you in the dream.. The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
I wouldn't even play the pre-CU servers if my life depended on it. The game had it's time to shine. It's a has been.
best community = best mmo=fact.
Game was whatever you wanted it to be. I guess you didnt want it to be something unforgetable. thats cool too. Not sure why you wouldnt play a video game to save your life, but whatever.
See you in the dream.. The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Just got a free month on swg from a freind who wanted to keep me ocupied after I split up from my Girlfreind. Have to say I never played it in the classic period u guys are talking about, even though I am a massive massive star wars fan(since the age of 4 don't u know ) i find that the game in its current state couldnt even hold my interset for a free month. Also having worked for sony myself (in music not in games) for 10 years I know what a bunch a c*^ts they are in every department. They won't give u what u want ever. The best hope is some enterprising young dude or duedet sets up a pirate server like they have with the classic version of AO. Personly I think give the people what they want and I hope u get it. just 2 my 2 bobs worth:)
It was an executive decision. For whatever reason LA and SOE exec's couldnt come to an agreement or solution. A developer has said they could run 10 different versions if they wanted to.
See you in the dream.. The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Comments
Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire? Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..
http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/1#c19400407
He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top. That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.
/lol
First of all, there is no possible way free realms has had 3 million people log in. Not even if they only logged in once and never returned. It is a logistical impossibility.
Beyond that, you think 2.4 million a month is a cash cow? That is less than $30 million a year and I bet you they spent far more than that just developing the game and are pumping serious money into advertising on television. Soe wont even repay the investment for the game for at least a couple of years and I doubt the game has that type of staying power.
There are 10 servers with a few hundred players on at peak times, tops. Basing the 89/10/1 rule on 3 million is a joke. When the game hits 4 million "users" who register on a web page and the game still only has 10 under populated servers I guess they will be making tons more money right? Obviously free realms can add 2 million users, but not need more servers.
I'd play a precu SWG again. And with modern servers and my new computer + internet speed that is 5x faster then back in the day, the game would be amazing.
I agree the game had many bugs. But I still managed to have a lot of fun, and if offered unparalleld rp in an mmo, atleast for me.
If I had my way though, I'd have to original game with the expansions, but get rid of jedi as a playable class. Maybe have them playable only during special live events by the devs. They could get rid of the crazy dots too and maybe cap bonuses and defences to make game play a little more balanced. It would be great!
I personally think more but, even if only two servers were fuil up, that's ten thousand players (5000 per server) on a minimum three-month contract:
10,000 x 15 x 3 = $450,000
Cost of 2 x server and getting one fat server room nerd to turn on server = $200 + double whopper with cheese.
I'd say that's not a bad return.
Oh let me try and dig something up so I can put a spin on this whole thing in another direction (bored).
Two servers "full" and servers run 24 x 7.... aka 10,000 people will not fill two servers.
This is actually a piece on jumpgate evolution:
"They're looking for 3,000 players online at once, and he estimates to get the amount they'll need to open 30,000 to 40,000 accounts in the beta."
source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/jumpgate-evolution-why-it-was-delayed-how-it-looks-now.ars
Now the reason I go to this is because we're talking about "full" servers which means concurrent users. Twice that amount (two servers) is 60,000 to 80,000 to reach an average concurrent 3,000 mark.....
SWG Pre-CU isn't about the opinion of anyone (including me). Its about if they put it up and left it alone if they would have enough accounts to make a profit... or you could argue more than they currently have. With the added twist that IF someone actually likes Pre-CU that much... would they actually leave for another "core design".
As opposed to current customers which are basicly already playing the same core design.. but a very bad implementation of it.
That's really what it comes down to... apparantly SOE doesn't think its worth it (as they claim LEC is working with them... ) there isn't much of any other interpretation to have.
I think they would make money... I just don't think they want to put the resources etc into it.. as they think "moving forward" is better for them in the long run (aka cutting lose the dead weight as they can.. ie: MxO).
You think it would, but it won't.
Matrix Online ran absolutely marvelous when it launched. Sure it had some performance issues and the servers crashed now and then lol. But I could run everything at max back then and it looked awesome!
But when Windows Vista and/or the latest GFX hardware (GeForce 8xxx series and up and ATi HD series and up) the game started to run horrible, full of graphic anomolies and horrible lag. With only 1 or 2 devs on the team, they never got it fixed! Hence the reason why they finally shut it down.
There is a HUGE chance, the exact same will happen with the pre-NGE code. It was written and optimised for hardware at that time (2003) and the NGE code has been optimised during the years with the coming of new hardware and it's drivers.
All optimisations and updates, the pre-NGE codes misses and doesn't have.
This might actually be the biggest issue why SOE wouldn't even want to bother and risk launching a pre-NGE server.
Having people whine all over the internet about not being able to run old SWG on their latest shit and how poo SOE is, idiots who cannot get it to run on latest hardware, bla bla bla... jada jada jada.
As seriously, if SOE didn't even bother to assign some very EXPENSIVE tech devs on Matrix Online to fix the engine for the latest hardware. Why in earth would you think they will do it on pre-NGE SWG!
The only game they do it for right now, wich they hired a special guy for, is EverQuest 2.... because it's still their flagship product and most profitable product.
Cheers
Yesterday I decided to swing by the SWG sony forums just to see what's been going on. In my home server of Ahazi, a long time player posted some his old screenshots from pre cu/cu times. I looked through them, saw myself and old friends in a few, and was over come with a desire to play THAT game more than any other game out now and upcoming.
Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire? Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..
http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/1#c19400407
He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top. That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.
/lol
LMAO. I really need to come over here more often. some funny stuff going on. and soe's reputation, regardless of what game they come up with, will remain tarnished for a long, long time.
Me too, me too.
My last screesnhot is of my old Jedi Knight standing on a bluff in the wild north of Tattoine beside his Barc overlooking his three guild hall compound, an old Imperial fort off the left, as the sun set for him for the last time.
SMEDLEY, ARISE, AND OPEN SOME PRE-NGE SERVERS NOW!
mark my words if $OE opened pre-cu servers they would kill tor when it comes out
tor=boring class/level based game
pre-cu=the greatest story ever told yours
I think the vast majority of vets realize that $OE will never put up classic servers. If $OE could have done so, I think they would have when they lost 80+% of the SWG playerbase due to the NGE fiasco and before refunding untold sums of money for the ToOW expansion. While some believe it is arrogance on the part of Smedley/ $OE that there were never any classic servers, I believe contractual barriers (LA) and the huge loss of the experienced and talented devs that made the NGE a oneway move. No redo's, no more chances. Smedly obviously doesn't care about his business reputation, so why would he allow arrogance to prevent $OE from making money? Especailly if he could have recovered a good number of payng players? I am sure he wonders how much he could have made off the TCG if there were 200+k more subscribers around to fleece.
What the NGE didn't finish, TOR will.
They may do CU servers in a few years, but never pre-cu. It's a shame it was a great experiement in which i was and still am a willing participant. We were 1 ingredient short in the great recipe when they blew er up too. So close.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
I wouldn't even play the pre-CU servers if my life depended on it. The game had it's time to shine. It's a has been.
best community = best mmo=fact.
Game was whatever you wanted it to be. I guess you didnt want it to be something unforgetable. thats cool too. Not sure why you wouldnt play a video game to save your life, but whatever.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Just got a free month on swg from a freind who wanted to keep me ocupied after I split up from my Girlfreind. Have to say I never played it in the classic period u guys are talking about, even though I am a massive massive star wars fan(since the age of 4 don't u know ) i find that the game in its current state couldnt even hold my interset for a free month. Also having worked for sony myself (in music not in games) for 10 years I know what a bunch a c*^ts they are in every department. They won't give u what u want ever. The best hope is some enterprising young dude or duedet sets up a pirate server like they have with the classic version of AO. Personly I think give the people what they want and I hope u get it. just 2 my 2 bobs worth:)
It was an executive decision. For whatever reason LA and SOE exec's couldnt come to an agreement or solution. A developer has said they could run 10 different versions if they wanted to.
See you in the dream..
The Fires from heaven, now as cold as ice. A rapid ascension tolls a heavy price.
Even though I am still PEED OFF with SOE and Smeagel, I would sign up in a second and start paying a yearly fee if they brought back Pre-CU.
They would have to totally trash the current mode and bring every profession back. I would even support a Pre-CU minus the Jedi characters.
Yes I grinded through 23 professions to earn my Jedi, but when those dang Jedi Orbs came out it was the downfall of the game.