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If Lucas Arts was the main culprit for SWG shutting down...
Kruul
Member UncommonPosts: 482
Then it's making me feel reluctant to invest my time is another Lucas Arts IP, SWTOR.
I played and loved SWG through all the Phases and changes it went through. Over the years it was always a game I would go back to when the MMO I was playing got old. I know I'm not the majority when I say I still like the game in its current form but I do feel the majority never played SWG its fullest pre and post CU NGE so I take what most people say about it with a grain of salt and just roll my eyes.
When I heard that SOE was shutting down SWG the first thing that came to mind was that is was LA doing. I mean why would SOE shut down a game with 10 servers (2 high pop) unless it was persuaded to do so.
If this is how LA conducts business with companies that delevop and run Star Wars MMOs then whats keeping it from doing the same thing to TOR in 7 years when someone down the road develops the next SW product. People invest their time and passion into MMOs and when you see a profitable game get shutdown it makes one question and wonder whats in the future for other SW MMOs.
Just my 2 cents
Comments
From what was said it seemed like it was a financially mutual decision. I doubt SWG has been overly profitable for SOE for some time, and the cost to renew their license with LA most likely was higher then what they projected they would earn in revenue over the next 10 years or so that the contract would most likely be active for. I dont think anyone saw SWG lasting another decade, especially with such a high profile Star Wars game right around the corner.
Games are a business, and companies will do whatever makes the most financial sense.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
I too am not going to invest in SWTOR either for the reasons you give. Also im pretty sure it was lucases interference with SWG that caused the problems in the first place. I might be wrong but either way im not buying SWTIOR because i know pre cu SWG owns SWTOR from what weve seen and heard so far. SWTOR is going to be a theme park mmo swith lots and lots of dialogue to follow.
Not my cup of tea sorry
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1651869499.png
SOE's contract with Lucas Arts is expiring and it is SOE's decision not to renew.
I respect your opinion but do not agree at all. Of course this game died for me a long time ago with joint bad decisions by both SOE and LA. It was quite obvious from the start that the relationship between SOE and LA for the SW IP wasn't going to last soon after Bioware got the rights to do SWTOR. Competing games no matter how different is counter productive to what LA is trying to accoplish here ... and that is make this as popular and profitable as possible. Now LA will push as many people as they can from SWG into SWTOR to help its growth and SOE can get rid of that black eye SWG.
Well even if SOE was paying a 30% royalty to LA, swg would still be much more profitable than Vanguard. I'm not quite sure how LA gets their piece of the pie from SWG so this is purely speculative.
Lucasarts only cares about profit. They, and Lucas himself, stopped caring about the core IP years ago, and now they will do anything they can to monetize it. Shit, Phantom Menace is being re-released in 3D. Star Wars is all about making a buck, so why have a divided player base between 2 Star Wars games? Was a very simple decision for them, I'm sure.
and also the death of the most in depth crafting system in MMOs to date
Can you blame lucas arts for shutting this game down? It's been an abomination since day one. It has NEVER been about star wars. It's always been a craftin centric game with a weird class system with star wars skins. Nothing about it has ever felt star wars. I know some people liked the game pre NGE, and that's fine. But it never should have been a star wars game the way it was. All those systems would have been great in any other MMO just not a star wars mmo. A star wars MMO should have been about exciting combat, high adventure, space battles and tons of other things. It should not have been about crafting first and foremost over everything else. There should have been good story quests something that realy put you into the star wars universe.
Just about every design decision made in this game was completely and totally wrong for a star wars game. Was perfectly fine for another type of game. I don't blame lucas for shutting it down and not wanting star wars on it anymore.
Seems to me that this was pretty much LA. But it was writing on the wall from long ago that it was coming. Way back when SWG was losing subs there were several "differences of opinion" on how the game should move forward.
Pretty much sealed the deal when they announced that SWTOR was being made, that SWG's days were numbered.
Was not in either of there intrests, though, to make a stink about that and lose any subs before it was actually needed. Some cash is always better than none to companies.
Too bad for the loyal people that stuck to SWG but that is really the way companies look at these games.
I personally think it had nothing to do wtih LA and all to do with SOE.. I probably would have done the same thing if I were in SOE's shoes.. Honestly I'm sure to renew the IP was pretty expensive, and with SWTOR coming out I'm most likely a lot of the people that played SWG would move onto SWTOR. I sure as hell would, SOE vs Bioware......... hmmm let me think here............. I pick Bioware.
Another reason why I think it has nothing to do with LA is there is another Star Wars MMO out there. Granted its geared for kids but still wouldn't you think LA would have tried to shut down SWG for that if what you suggest is true?
Play Clone Wars, then come back and look at that quote again. It's a lobby of multiplayer games completely designed for kids, not an MMO, and in no way a competitor to SWTOR.
As always, got to remember we ARE talking about LA here.
Just read up a bit on him/them a bit and you will see that they had more control than lots of people think.
At the end, some of the design choices may very well of been forced on SOE to keep the title. But hey i say there is enough doubt in the issue to say a pox on both their houses:P
Put out a POLISHED game, take the time needed or dont start. And LET the people building the games have the time and freedom to do that right.
I have played it and I know its not a competitor its a totally different type of game to SWG... Ok I guess I should have used MMOG or MOG........ But this isnt about what a MMO is.
If you think about it,it would be smart on LA end to have SWG and SWTOR.. In a sense they would be going head to head with each other. But profit wise it would just be a bonus for LA.. Some people that liked SWG may not like SWTOR, or some people might play Both.
So if LA was really all about the money then they would keep both game running.
I disagree. Initially SWG was never intended to place players into the StarWars movies. It was intended to place players into the Star Wars Universe ( sure there was a war taking place....but many other things were going on as well ) . To experience the various places of the Star Wars Universe as if you were a living breathing occupant...perhaps hero..perhaps not. A detailed virtual universe.. Only when they tried to make SWG "epic" and "action-packed" like the movies...did the "Galaxies" in SWG lose it's meaning and the universe , now much less complex or interesting, began to fray and fall apart.
Honestly, re-negotiating the license would probably cost more than SWG profits currently.
SOE doesn't care about SWG anymore.
LA doesn't care about SWG anymore.
Why would they bother trying to save it when it's just easier to let it die.
One news post I saw was with SOE. (paraphrased: "Shutting it down was a very hard decision to make. But now the decision is done and it is written in stone. The game is closing")
On the other hand this is SOE and Smedley. I'm not sure I trust such a statement to be solidy accurate.
Who cares what happens 7 years down the road? You will be sick of it in a few years anyway. I bet the content can be finished in 1 year even if you are a casual.
There are so many games out there that I found the notion of sticking to one for a long time not very appealing.
Well said.
LucasArts created the NGE and then they quit SWG. They stopped working on it and started working on SW:TOR because they thought that it would be a bigger cash cow. Whether they're right or not, that was bad business.
You buy these MMOs, but they're not yours, everything you work on is all for not when a developer just decides its over.
This is really simple. Sony, in what, the last month or so has taken a very expensive hit finacially. SWG has a very low and loyal playerbase that probably doesn't amount to much if any profit for SOE. Their contract with LA was coming to and end in the new year and it seems like they made a business decision that would allow them to not cut jobs on some of their employees while also saving money on not renewing that said contract, even though some think that LA doesn't want competition for TOR though both LA and SOE said last year that wouldn't be a problem.
I really hate this argument.
They gave UP on SWG right after the NGE hit. They didn't even TRY to get us to like it. They released it, and quit. They've known that SW:TOR was on the way. It was closed because of TOR, plainand simple.
We can speculate on this forever, and really that's all everyone who even cares is doing. Only the powers to be really knows the truth.
Among other things, SWG has been plagued with low population for ages. If they've had over 20K players these past two years, that is a damned miracle.
Even before the CU/NGE, the game had population issues. They were bleeding subs. Very few people wanted to play a Star Wars game where they were Uncle Owen farming on Tattooine, or a cantina dancer in Mos Eisley. People wanted light sabers and space battles and Jedi and big, epic moments between the Empire and the Republic. Both SOE and LA knew that, but they both screwed the pooch. You don't change a game after however many years to something completely different.
That said, there was a lot of bad blood all the way around. I think the low population, lack of profitability, and upcoming SWTOR game from BioWare all combined with Sony's recent financial problems to lead to SWG finally getting killed. It's been a long time coming, really.
It's business. If a game was no longer profitable to go forward you'd pull the plug on it too. Not sure why that seems so foreign to people. If you don't want to ever be dissapointed that a game shuts down don't play MMO's.
It has never been about Star Wars? It was about letting you live in a virtual Star Wars world, set in the Original Trilogy's timeframe. It was about you being able to do as many things as possible in that Star Wars world. Whether you wanted to fight, be an entertainer, be a merchant, be a crafter. It was about you doing what you wanted.
Anyways, your type was the EXACT type of people SOE was looking for when they did the NGE. Can't put the thought into developing and building a unique character. Needing someone to lead you by the hand and show you, "LOOK! LAZURZ ARE FLASHING BY! OMG THERE'S A LIGHTSABER! YOU JUST TALKED TO OBI-WAN AND ARE NOW BFF! THIS IS A GREAT STAR WARZ ADVENTUR1!!" The type of player that can't even possibly begin to fathom that, believe it or not, there can be aspects of an MMORPG game outside of combat.
As far as SWG shutting down, I'm not sheddding a tear at all. The game that's shutting down is nothing at all like the original version that I once liked to play.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)