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Brand New Gamespot Interview
Firebird1
Member Posts: 222
Before you all throw stuff at me
Thanks to Slashdot I have discovered this Gamespot interview.
http://www.gamespot.com/6140991
Please read this...
Comments
PR fluff.
That Smedley guy needs to be fired.
Yea no kidding, he should rename it to "Softball! with Curt Feldman", wonder what perks Feldman got to write that contrived tripe. Considering 60% of those polled on Gamespot hated the NGE, 12% liked it and 20% had other feelings about it. That is not even close to representing their own user base.
The writer should have also taken his picture with Feldmans picture at the beginning of the piece, wearing his SOE sweater and swinging pompoms.
GS: How does the internal team participate?
JS: One of the things that we do is that everybody, literally everybody in the company, from our legal department to our finance department to our development group, gets into the game.
OMG Spread the blame around!!!! Now the Lawyers and Accounting department get blamed too!!!! OMG what a maroon.
"I'm not a racist...I only hate stupid people..."-SinisterCB
Yah, I especially like how he pretty much starts off by saying "well, this new guy started at LA..." so that's giving him a chance to shift the blame onto the new guy AND LA. And he repeats that linkage several times.
Damn, the man's a pro...
GS: How did you drill down to know what aspects of the games were right for a change?
JS: We spent quite a bit of time and money doing product research. We did a number of focus groups and talked specifically about changes that we could make to the interface, to the combat, and to the overall gameplay experience--to make it a lot more fun. We also did surveys asking the current user base what was missing, what were things we could do to make the game better.
After Imperial decoding we found a hidden message: Coca-cola zero still doesnt taste like coke its all lies to try and recoup the cost of product research.
GS: How influential was Jim Ward, really, in getting you guys to rethink the SWG formula?
JS: What Jim brought to the table was a renewed desire to work with us. I think that's the biggest thing. It brought our companies a lot closer when Jim came on board. They became really serious and strong partners and very enthusiastic partners.
A lot of people don't realize, but in addition to running LucasArts, Jim also runs all of marketing for all of LucasFilm. This guy knows Star Wars like nobody knows Star Wars. He knows this brand and what it's capable of delivering. Jim has been a great partner and has been working with us really closely.
After Imperial decoding we found a hidden message: 2 of Jims kids were not driving 06 cars so he put his foot in our a$$es, mainly because our 1st and 2nd dev teams couldnt fix all the bugs and make enough people happy enough to play SWG to become the leading MMO resulting in 06 cars for all of his second cousins as well.
GS: One thing you didn't change was the revenue model. Now, when I think of you, I think of you as a keen observer of what's happening in the Asia markets... Do you see anything happening in the future with products at SOE that might build off of the billing and pay-model trends building in Asia?
JS: What I'm seeing over there is a trend toward more the upsell model. You can play a game without subscription, but maybe you're buying cosmetic items, or maybe you're purchasing a cheap subscription with a kind of "behind the velvet rope" [gamespace]. We've been trying to adopt a variant [subscription] model for an upcoming game we have coming out next year--I can't really give you details about it.
But we're also considering adding other models for the current set of games. We think the best strategy is to get these games into the hands of more people. We believe that the social bonding that occurs really makes them like the experience and want to come back for more. Then getting gamers over that subscription hurdle is--gotta be job number one for us after making great games.
So we think that [free-to-play] model could easily apply to other games. Is that going to happen to Star Wars? We have no plans for that, but let's put it this way, if we're very successful with this [upcoming] model, we could see making radical changes across the board. But we'll just have to see.
After Imperial decoding we found a hidden message: lets distract them by bringing up the the Asian market and let slip the plan to produce SWG2 (mainly for legal purposes) Our current model for SWG2 are based on 2 new dazzling ionic proffs, the cloaking medic and the rifle wielding jedi
GS: And the winner will be...?
JS: Years back it was us. Right now World of Warcraft is certainly owning a lot of online play. And we have some big stuff planned, so as time goes on you're going to see the interest here climb.
After Imperial decoding we found a hidden message: right now we suck bad WoW is the shizzle and we tried to copy their game with the CU but that didnt work but we still have some cash from the suckers that backed us the first 3 times!!!
PIRATE LORDS
Hey.. I LIKE Coke Zero.
I just can't believe Schmedley keeps finding softball interviewers.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
Doesnt matter either way, the game the way it is and the trend it started by causing its core of vets and tons of hard core SW/MMO fans who backed it for this long to now hate the game in SOE hands.
If you read the article you see they have some pretty high goals that they will never reach with its track record running that paticular MMO so bet on them scrapping it or more drastic changes or both. It will be a "beta" style game for some time with tons of bug trying to mesh old data and codes with new ideas.
IMO the way it is , it will never be worth the money and people who dont realize this yet will in time.......
PIRATE LORDS
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
Doesnt matter either way, the game the way it is and the trend it started by causing its core of vets and tons of hard core SW/MMO fans who backed it for this long to now hate the game in SOE hands.
If you read the article you see they have some pretty high goals that they will never reach with its track record running that paticular MMO so bet on them scrapping it or more drastic changes or both. It will be a "beta" style game for some time with tons of bug trying to mesh old data and codes with new ideas.
IMO the way it is , it will never be worth the money and people who dont realize this yet will in time.......
It most certainly does matter. It means all this will happen again if SWG 2 ever actually becomes a reality, regardless of the development house.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
Doesnt matter either way, the game the way it is and the trend it started by causing its core of vets and tons of hard core SW/MMO fans who backed it for this long to now hate the game in SOE hands.
If you read the article you see they have some pretty high goals that they will never reach with its track record running that paticular MMO so bet on them scrapping it or more drastic changes or both. It will be a "beta" style game for some time with tons of bug trying to mesh old data and codes with new ideas.
IMO the way it is , it will never be worth the money and people who dont realize this yet will in time.......
It most certainly does matter. It means all this will happen again if SWG 2 ever actually becomes a reality, regardless of the development house.
Not to much unless the license is turned over to a new company. SWG2 in the hands of SOE may end up being a nice game but it would have to be a bad a$$ game to get the tons of people to try it or try it "again" and even then so many people are now turned off by SOE because of the trend they have already set.
However if it did switch hands and developed with codes that had way less bugs it may have a chance of reaching their goals.
As it stands in the hands of SOE it will never be at the top and LA will not settle for that.
PIRATE LORDS
It just sounded to me like Smed was trying to shift some blame. Especially since this is the FIRST TIME I've ever seen Ward's name mentioned AT ALL.
That, and he had ALL the employees play and he asked them if they liked it. If YOUR boss told you to play one of YOUR companies games.. and asked YOU if you liked it.. what answer would you expect?? "It's brilliant, boss."
If smed isn't unemployed after all this, Sony has no brain.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
Doesnt matter either way, the game the way it is and the trend it started by causing its core of vets and tons of hard core SW/MMO fans who backed it for this long to now hate the game in SOE hands.
If you read the article you see they have some pretty high goals that they will never reach with its track record running that paticular MMO so bet on them scrapping it or more drastic changes or both. It will be a "beta" style game for some time with tons of bug trying to mesh old data and codes with new ideas.
IMO the way it is , it will never be worth the money and people who dont realize this yet will in time.......
It most certainly does matter. It means all this will happen again if SWG 2 ever actually becomes a reality, regardless of the development house.
Not to much unless the license is turned over to a new company. SWG2 in the hands of SOE may end up being a nice game but it would have to be a bad a$$ game to get the tons of people to try it or try it "again" and even then so many people are now turned off by SOE because of the trend they have already set.
However if it did switch hands and developed with codes that had way less bugs it may have a chance of reaching their goals.
As it stands in the hands of SOE it will never be at the top and LA will not settle for that.
You completely missed my point. My point was EVEN IF in the hands of another company it will be the exact same mess all over again because LEC was just as involved in this as SOE.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Lol, sorry Shayde but until Ward comes out and says contrary I beleive what Smed said is accurate. Quit denying LEC was involved in this, that article made it crystal clear there is more then just a passive relationship between the two.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
- "fewer obstacles to becoming a Jedi"
How about none! Wonder if the interviewer actually knows about the subject or just reads the spin?!
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
Well, looks like Jim Ward, president of LEC has just as much of a hand in this as SOE. According to Smed they cooked the NGE up together. How is everyone finally going to quit with the LucasArts to the rescue bit and pulling SOE's license since it's OBVIOUSLY what LEC wanted? After all I don't see Jim Ward retorting Smed's statements publically with a press release.
As far as I am concerned that interview just took everyone that felt this was all SOE's doing out to the wash. You have no arguement left. A new guy from LEC came in, wanted change and worked with SOE to make that change.
Oh, *gasp* he even used the word PARTNERS!
Doesnt matter either way, the game the way it is and the trend it started by causing its core of vets and tons of hard core SW/MMO fans who backed it for this long to now hate the game in SOE hands.
If you read the article you see they have some pretty high goals that they will never reach with its track record running that paticular MMO so bet on them scrapping it or more drastic changes or both. It will be a "beta" style game for some time with tons of bug trying to mesh old data and codes with new ideas.
IMO the way it is , it will never be worth the money and people who dont realize this yet will in time.......
It most certainly does matter. It means all this will happen again if SWG 2 ever actually becomes a reality, regardless of the development house.
Not to much unless the license is turned over to a new company. SWG2 in the hands of SOE may end up being a nice game but it would have to be a bad a$$ game to get the tons of people to try it or try it "again" and even then so many people are now turned off by SOE because of the trend they have already set.
However if it did switch hands and developed with codes that had way less bugs it may have a chance of reaching their goals.
As it stands in the hands of SOE it will never be at the top and LA will not settle for that.
You completely missed my point. My point was EVEN IF in the hands of another company it will be the exact same mess all over again because LEC was just as involved in this as SOE.
I disagree, its obvious to me that in its 1st year it wasnt reaching profit expectations and I believe that was mainly due to some bad code design that led to a game riddled with bugs that the developers seem to have had a tremendously arduous time trying to fix. Given the amount of time that passed while many aspects of the game stayed broken is evidence enough. And during this time a great many SW/MMO fans/customers tried the game and quit saying that they would return once the game was finished/fixed/not in beta. A lot of hard core SW/MMO fans/customers stayed to support it while this went on for over a year (2 to 3 times the # of people playing it now and many of these players having multiple accounts) it generated a lot of revenue. SOE and its developers fault not LECs
Then WoW comes out and after seeing its success SOE tried to immolate the WoW style of gameplay with the CU instead of fixing or finishing the 1st version. This really didnt accomplish much as they lost almost as many players as they gained from the change and the game still had severe bug problems, many of them being some of the same bugs as it had from launch as well as about the same # of broken proffs. Again I hear from a large # of players we will not pay for a game still in beta, cya As well as the large fan based protests against the CU (thousands of SWG customers made and signed petitions). And no mention to date that LEC is really involved or partnered at that point.
What the fans wanted was the bugs to be fixed they wanted a finished product; the amount of bugs SWG has had is great in comparison to the other leading MMOs. This wasnt the fault of LEC it was the fault of SOE and its dev teams and to all that the very very poor customer service that SOE provided for the most part.
What LEC wants is a top rated/played MMO which will obviously give them fat pockets, nothing wrong with that. Producing a bad product (a car that goes 10mph top speed for instance with lights that work half the time for instance) along with poor customer service and an elitist we dont need you as a customer since we already have you money attitude, something very wrong with that.
What needs to happen for the fans to get a top rated SW MMO is a great dev team that finishes what they start instead of halfassing it. SOE has fumbled the ball so many times they need to retire to the minor leagues until this can change and LEC needs to realize this. An SWG2 could stand a chance if it were in some other hands now and not in the hands of SOE with its current reputation it earned because of how poorly in has managed SWG.
PIRATE LORDS
Well.. technically NONE is less. :P
I have to disagree that a new company would do worse. I think LA has learned that they only make things worse. A company liek NC Soft or Blizzard would make SURE it was stable before they launched it, and they would be DETERMINED to fix bugs as they go. $OE has proven that bugs never die... just look at ALL of their games for example of that.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Lol, sorry Shayde but until Ward comes out and says contrary I beleive what Smed said is accurate. Quit denying LEC was involved in this, that article made it crystal clear there is more then just a passive relationship between the two.
I'm not denying they were involved. As a matter of fact, they were quite involved in the last 6 months. They weren't involved AT ALL the 2 years prior, and they never held $OE to any accountability.
Ward hasn't made one press release yet. I'm not putting anything in his silence. He probably hasn't seen smeds interview.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Sorry to said company in this article for the outburst and to the people still playing the game, happy holidays to all and gl in the future.
I think it gives a little insight as to why they implimented the changes. Smedley chats about the market growing to "5-6 million people online at the same time within a few years." This kinda clears up the 'what the hell were they thinking?' question I had. Its obvious they are banking on newer players entering the market and trying to capture them. The only problem is I don't think the product in its current form will hold many past the free trial period let alone show them enough value to pay the 15$ a month subscription fee. Its obvious they are gambling here. I just wish they wouldn't have walked all over the vets with their gamble.