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For your reading pleasure: Customer vs. Corporation
n2k3156
Member Posts: 523
With the advent of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, a crossroads has been reached in regards to relations between the developing company and the customer. Specifically, the controversy centers around the companies Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts, and their online world of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. In the fabled saga of the Star Wars Universe, there exists an evil Empire bent on oppressing the free denizens of the galaxy through the means of cruelty, totalitarianism, and sheer force. The only people standing in their way are the Rebellion, a small group of intrepid freedom fighters who battle on against seemingly insurmountable odds. When Sony Online Entertainment, a recognized worldwide leader in MMO games, purchased a smaller company, Verant, it also acquired the project to bring this saga to life in the form of SWG (Business 2). Originally launched with great promise, though lacking in many of the features that were advertised for launch, SWG held the title of the fastest growing MMORPG to date. Then, rival company Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which quickly rocketed to five million subscriptions. That, coupled with the added pressure of gradually declining subscriptions, other competing games, and severe problems with the in-game mechanics led to both companies feeling pressed for success. SOE/LA decided to revamp SWG, first through the Combat Upgrade (CU), then through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). SOE/LA specifically misled their online community throughout the launch, Combat Upgrade, and New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, leading to a breach of contract between the customer and the corporation.
One of the major problems with SWG since its inception has been that it was released early, when it was not ready. Initially, customers were promised space travel, battlefields, player vehicles, and player cities, amongst other things. It is important to note that SOE/LA did not deliver these things as promised when the game was launched, and even charged customers to pay for an expansion for space travel, when it was promised as a feature at the outset. When SWG went live, it included only the battlefields, which were disabled shortly thereafter due to technical problems, and were never reactivated again. Other aspects like space travel were added later in SWGs first year. Another blatant lie to customers was that they would be able to begin the path to becoming a Jedi Knight, the fabled protectors of the galaxy, at launch. Jedi in the game were an Alpha-class character, meaning that they were superior to other characters in their skills. Balance was achieved by making the path to the class secret, making it extremely difficult to become. However, after months of people searching for the path to become a Jedi, SOE/LA announced that they had not included Jedi in the original launch and were doing so in the next scheduled publish. SOE/LA left out an important advertised feature and misled their customers into thinking that it did exist. Also, a monthly story arc that promised customers participation in the fate of the galaxy was also advertised as one of the games features, and it did indeed run for several months. But, SOE/LA decided to suspend the story arc, and have not reinstituted it since.
Despite all these issues, Star Wars Galaxies was initially a success, and attracted large amounts of customers to its unique style of gameplay, coupled with the experience of being part of the Star Wars saga. Business Wire wrote that Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided quickly became the fastest growing MMORPG in North America (Business 1). The players of the game were especially devoted to it, defending it against its early critics. The initial success of SWG was due largely in part to three things. The first was that the game was extremely unique and complicated in its mechanics. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times wrote that Previously [before the subsequent changes], the game was unabashedly complicated, appealing to mature, reflex-challenged gamers with its strategic combat style and deep skill system (Schiesel 1). No other game had ever presented such a broad skill system. It allowed players to customize the professions of their characters to an extent that made sure that everyone was an individual with different qualities that allowed them to excel in their area of choice. In addition, the number of playable professions, which was thirty two at launch, gave players free reign to choose what they wanted to be. The second reason for SWGs initial success was its community. SWG attracted players that were mature and desired a challenging, entertaining experience. This led to people bonding together to mutually accomplish their goals, forging a strong community that was unequaled in the history of MMORPGs. The third and final reason for its initial success was that it was Star Wars. While this is somewhat of an obvious point, many players would play any game regardless of the quality as long as it allowed them to take part in the adventure that is the Star Wars universe.
As the game developed, there were some underlying problems that were leading it to decay. Parts of SWG were fundamentally flawed, and the constant maintenance and updates needed to balance it out were taking their toll on SOEs resources and fans patience (Adams 1). Problems with the balance of combat in the game led SOE/LA to begin development of the Combat Upgrade, or CU. The original intent of the CU was to balance, not change. It is important to note that SOE/LA once again did not deliver what they promised the customers, changing the nature of the Combat Upgrade as they saw fit with little to no feedback from the customer. SOE/LA saw an opportunity to use the customers desire for something new to sneak in other features that they thought would help improve the game. This reflects the extremely weak lines of communication that developers and players had, leading to updates that often were the exact opposite of what the players want or what the game needed (Adams 2). In contrast, upper management at SOE/LA stated that A lot of positive changes have taken effect since Star Wars Galaxies first launched, showing that the discontent of the customers with the changes were not reaching high enough into the corporate infrastructure (Lucasarts 1).When it was released, the CU changed combat almost completely, as well as affecting aspects of the Galactic Civil War (GCW), crafting, and the Jedi Village. All were important gameplay mechanics that instead of being fixed were broken even further by this first attempt to change the game in midstream.
The final aspect of the game that led to its destruction was that even after the CU, which was meant to curb subscriber loss, the game continued to slowly lose subscribers at a percentage that was larger than normal. Why? Changes from the CU had not reached the desired effect, and had indeed made things worse, which led customers to hit the cancellation button. Those customers were migrating to other MMORPGs. Upper management at SOE/LA made the decision that more drastic measures needed to be taken. In Gamespots interview with John Smedley, he said that Right now World of Warcraft is certainly owning a lot of online play (Feldman 8). He was later asked why the decision was made to change the game, and he responded that we always felt like we had under delivered on the Star Wars experience (Feldman 1). In their effort to save SWG, they instead ending up destroying it.
The ultimate result of the clandestine meetings between SOE and LAs upper management led to the release of the NGE, which stands for New Game Enhancements. In essence, the NGE changed the game that customers had paid to play for more than two years, and did so by giving them only several days notice. The NGE came to exemplify the point that SOE/LA did not care what they had promised, and instead worked only in terms of future development, not for the current customers. Dallas Dickinson, an SOE producer, said that it felt like a better idea for us to break with the past and develop the game it should have been to begin with (Adams 2). John Blakely, the Vice-President of Development at SOE, said that It was a tough decision we had to make (Musgrove 2). In retrospect, it also turned out to be the wrong one. Computer Gaming World wrote this of the ineptitude of the management: SOE tossed everything (including the good parts) into the garbage chute, wholly replacing it with a dreadful set of new game enhancements that actually make things much, much worse (Davis 1). Dan Adams of IGN.com wrote that The answer from SOE and Lucasarts is a sweeping change to the core gameplay elements of Star War Galaxies (Adams 1). The skill-based system of professions was totally replaced with a set of nine iconic professions. Old professions were combined into these new ones, and some were eliminated completely. SOE officials justified this by saying The only other profession [besides Bio-Engineer] we didnt absorb into one of these iconic templates is the creature handler, and only 1% of our players play that character type (Adams 3). While this could be true, they still have essentially eliminated months of work for that 1% of players. Computer Gaming Worlds review of the changes stated Veteran players will also feel cheated by the bland class selection, which replaces SWGs deep and versatile skill system (Davis 1). The games interface was completely changed, as was the combat system. Instead of a complicated turn based system of combat, a pseudo FPS, or first person shooter system was introduced. Also, the removal of item decay coupled with the increase in quality and quantity of loot drops destroyed the player-based economy and left those players who pursued crafting professions to be nothing more than a novelty, as opposed to the integral part of the game that they previously were. Even the entertainers, who were one of the most popular professions, were so changed, or nerfed, that they served no purpose any longer. CGW summed it up quite ably when it said the games devoted fans
find themselves spurned by the developers hope that a dumbed-down gaming experience will appeal to wider audiences (Davis 1).
The reaction of the customers to this bait-and-switch has become something of a legend in the ferocity in which they displayed their new opinion of SOE/LA. Directly after the announcement was made, many players were banned from the official SWG forums for protesting the NGE, or questioning the business ethics behind it. Instead of using this single line of communication to gauge the opinion of the players, and form a suitable plan for future development, the forum moderators crushed any protests and removed those who even mentioned any criticism of the NGE. Instead of containing the anger, the move spread it to other online destinations devoted to gaming. On Gamespot.com, 50% of players rating the new version of the game have rated it as abysmal, signaling to the potential players that the NGE was meant to attract that this new version is not worth playing (Schiesel 2). Another destination for many fans of MMORPGs is MMORPG.com, and even though the game is rated around a 7 on a 10 point scale, the content of the reviews from the players are sometimes so explicit in their dissatisfaction that they are not fit to print. The New York Times reported that former players are swapping tales on refugee Web sites like Imperial Crackdown (Schiesel 1).
An extremely important and more direct measure of customer satisfaction, the subscription base, or number of people currently paying for the game, was the primary reason for the changes. Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post said of his interview with SOE that Blakely said that the changes have already won over a fresh supply of players, though longtime observers of the game say they see a lot less traffic on the games servers. (Musgrove 3). Rumors abound about the games population tanking from around 200,000 players to somewhere south of 50,000 players. The New York Times wrote that many Galaxies players are canceling their accounts and migrating to other online games (Schiesel 1). SOE/LA has publicly admitted that they expected to lose some veterans. The games senior director at Lucasarts, Nancy MacIntyre said that We knew we were taking a significant risk with our existing player base (Schiesel 2). However, this amount of cancellations should have shocked them to their core. MacIntrye went on to say that [I] expect the game to return to its previous subscriber levels in the next six months (Schiesel 2). If this had been the case, SOE/LA should have been touting their subscriber numbers monthly after the NGE, to show upward growth. Since then however, SOE/LA has refused to admit the current server populations, and made the statement that SOE does not and has never released server populations. This is in direct conflict with the numerous statements made by SOE/LA employees that SWG had upwards of 500,000 players in its heyday only a year or so ago.
MMORPG.com stated in their review of the current state of the game that the changes that were made were too little, too late (MMORPG 2). John Smedley, the games producer, said that with the changes were making with Galaxies, I think were headed in the right direction (Feldman 2). However, regardless of the merit of the changes brought on by the NGE is the manner in which it was delivered, clandestinely and with total disregard for the same players that had supported the game up until that point. This only goes to prove once again that during SWGs history, SOE/LA have a track record of not delivering what they promise to the customers. Whether that is through technological incompetence, like bugs that prevented armorsmiths from making factory runs of the correct color armor for months, or blatant lies, such as the path to Jedi at launch and the months of secret development of the NGE, they have broken the contract between the customer and the corporation. In the agreement that customers sign to play the game, there is a clause that states that the game is subject to change. However, it is doubtful that customers knew the extent of the corporate lies and money-grabbing schemes that would be protected by this clause. In addition, this EULA, or End User License Agreement, of a game has never been tested in a court of law, which leads to the speculation of whether or not SOE/LAs conduct can be challenged in that venue. Only time will tell. But whether or not that is needed to prove to other customers to stay away is doubtful, since the disenfranchised fans that were alienated by the mistreatment they faced have spread the word to every corner of the digital world that no matter what promise Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts make, you can expect it to be broken.
Adams, Dan. And the galaxy was changed for all time Star Wars Galaxies. IGN.com 4 November 2005. 8 February 2005. www.pc.ign.com/articles/664/664704pl.html
Schiesel, Seth. For online Star Wars Game, Its Revenge of the Fans. The New York Times. 10 December 2005
Lucasarts announces new Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack as franchise unit sales surpass one million. Lucasarts.com 19 August 2005. 8 February 2005. www.lucasarts.com/press/releases/104.html
Lucasarts celebrates Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided One Year Anniversary. Business Wire. 28 June, 2004.
Feldman, Curt. Q&A: SOEs John Smedley on Galaxies outer limits. Gamespot.com 15 December 2005. 8 February 2006 www.gamespot.com/news/6141213.html
Feldman, Curt. Q&A: SOEs John Smedley on the kinder, gentler Galaxies. Gamspot.com 9 December 2005. 8 February 2006 www.gamespot.com/news/6140991.html
Musgrove, Mike. Sadness in Star Wars World. The Washington Post. 2 February 2006. D01.
Star Wars Galaxies. Computer Gaming World. 9 February 2006.
Hinman, Rob. SWG: New Game Experience Review. MMORPG.com 23 November 2005. 8 February 2006 www.mmorpg.com
NGE Refugee.
Comments
I always like the "too little to late" statements.
The CU and NGE weren't too little to late. They were either to much or just the wrong direction.
Seriously if they had taken the time, people and resources used on..
1) CU
2) NGE
3) At least the last 2 expansions
And..
had put all that towards fixing and finishing the existing game. We wouldn't be discussing this at the moment... Nor would the game basicly be dead.
That of course is just my opinion.
Overall I agree with what you posted. My personal view is..
Beyond EQ1 which SOE bought they have never had what I'd consider a commercially successful pay to play MMO. Planetside was very popular at one time but it was ruined to the point that they are going to offer a free client.
Neither EQ1 or EQ2 could succeed in Asia (sony corp is based in Japan). SWG was shut down in Asia as well.. EQ1 and EQ2 have both consolidated servers and the sticky point there is EQ2 is barely over a year old.
MxO I think they bought because it already bombed so the work was done for them. Altho obviously they wanted the DC Comics license.
Granted before any fans jump on EQ1 is one of the longest running MMO's but consider this..
EA has never consolidated UO servers. They opened Origin server last year (so they are opening servers not consolidating). Oh and UO runs successfully in Asia on multiple servers in various regeions (including Japan and Korea they have some more towards Australia's time zone as well).
Which is why I don't buy SOE's idea that WoW killed EQ2's chances to succeed in Asia. If that is the case how in the heck are the UO servers still up and running there. EA's track record shows that money losing projects/divisions will be closed in no time.
I still find it odd that a Asian (for the most part) company cannot succeed there. Then we wonder why they seem to have no clue what players in the USA/Europe want?
Again that's just me and my rambles.
But at this point I'd reactivate some of my UO accounts before going back to SWG.
*edited* some of my typical spelling errors.
TOTALLY honest and direct, no holds barred, and detailed description of what has occured with SOE/LA.
Let's hope a lawyer who played the game and has the resources goes after these people at SONY, SOE, and LA.
Sago Mactow
Former SWG 2yr 7 month Vet
6/26/03 - 1/26/06
Jedi, Master Shipwright, Master Architect
DFR Councilman
Tarq Server
This deserves a good Sunday morning Rofflecopter.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Wow.. it's even annotated!
Well Well put.
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
/salute N2K
Nicely done.
But too little too late? Only if you apply that to what they left of the original game.
_______________________
Kote lo'shebs'ul narit
Sago Mactow
Former SWG 2yr 7 month Vet
6/26/03 - 1/26/06
Jedi, Master Shipwright, Master Architect
DFR Councilman
Tarq Server
Excellent article. Good summary.
Erillion
Pretty well written.
It's already been crossposted multiple times to the SWG forums.
I hope it's getting into others as well.
Beautifully written and very comprehensive overview of the game world I and thousans upon thousands of other gamers had fallen in love with. It's quite humorous to read the message boards ranging from fansites to the official forums and to see the amount of venom that a community is able to hurl. What is more amusing though is that the people in charge of this dismal affair (NGE, CU etc) can care less what people have to say... at least until their project is cancelled and they are left looking for work with "I designed the Star Wars Galaxies NGE" line in their resume.
There is a community "update" so to speak in the Friday Features usually written by thunderheart other times written by rogue_5. Most of them have been removed unfortunately
. One of the Friday Features every few months was "Astromech Stats" This was a breakdown by percentage of the population of the game... what races and classes people were. When the NGE was announced the day before it went live it was shown by their own numbers that CH made up a solid 15% of the characters, more than any skill set in the jedi professions. If we look at the last numbers available for the amt of subscriptions swg had, 250,000... 15% of that is 37,500. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more Creature Handlers than current active subscriptions heh.
As someone that had been in game since the 4th of July (a week or so after release) and had 900+ days logged when my account finally ran out this past January I can safely say that I currently now own 0 sony products. And if I have anything to say about it I will never again own another sony product. I can also say that I will not ever buy another Lucas Arts game nor anything that Lucas has had a hand in. This I think will be the best way of making any impact. I know that I personally have gotten everyone in my immediate and extended families to skip over any and all sony products whether it be a camcorder or new tv. Heck as it stands now sony reps could come to my house and beg me to take a playstation 3 with a 60" plasma and the only thing they would get is to be chased away by my dog. Let them go back to thier little island and rot. I think Smedley did say one truthful thing in the time since he has been in his position: John Smedley, the games producer, said that with the changes were making with Galaxies, I think were headed in the right direction. Too bad the direction isn't what he anticipated.
As we speak there are several pages worth of threads wondering, as the 6month mark gets closer, where the influx of new players are and when the broken content will be fixed. Not to mention the much wanted (for a VERY long time) additional content being made available to the core game.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
Could someone please repost this in the Intrepid boards for me? It's my old server and I'd like them to see this. Thanks.
NGE Refugee.
I think you just, as customers, have to adapt to your counterpart.
In the case of SoE, it was proven countless time that you better not listen to what they say and just check the body of the game and wonder about the possible evolution and be prepared to be surprised...completely.
SoE is like going into a bar, whatever they say don't listen, check the "body language"...
Bah, considering I am a geek and I can't even recall when was the last time I went to a bar...oh well...you get the idea nonetheless.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Heck, who couldn't have seen this coming long ago. SOE has always been jerks to the customers. Granted many deserve it, but they have always made changes that were unpopular to the customer based.. I had problems back after launch and got banned by Garva.. Even now they are just giving people lip service. Just about a month ago a bunch of never heard of devs started posting about a new and improved communication program from our friends the devs.. since they most of them never post on the boards.
I got banned back in 2003 for a few days for telling Garva that some management guys should have been fired.. well guess what? The customer was right in the long run.
I just cancelled my Station Pass which ends Mar 1.. I doubt I'll ever play a SONY product again, they have done more damage then they'll ever know... I know they'll read this thread sometime, just so we are clear SOE... your customers hate your #*)@#( guts! Enjoy!
http://Intrepid.galaxyforums.com has it hosted... You're welcome to come check it out.
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
Same old story, I know we all know =p They did some of the same stuff with EQ2, their other, NOW FLAGSHIP MMO. Just with the Jedi class, on how they didnt even implement it into the game although they promised for it to be there, is just like how SOE did it with EQ2 about UNLOCKING THE FROGLOK race. They just use ploys like this to snag people in their quarterly fee grasp, why i'm never paying anymore than a month at a time, my trust is forever broken. Thanks SOE.
Much as I and anyone else loved the old game, it's just not coming back due to a surfeit of corporate hubris and stupidity. In all honesty, SoE and LA need to fail badly. If they don't, a precedent would be set that completely changing a game even years after release and removing the results of a couple of years of players' work, removing professions/classes, turning top quality items into junk and making starting professions of special classes that were hard earned during the course of the previous game is okay. Now, that's just chilling for anyone that likes mmog's.
Too bad SoE seems to spend more resources "moderating" critical posts from the forums than actually fixing what's wrong with the game. They ought to change the tagline for the game to "Continued posting of this topic will result in actions against your account." It may make the forums "look" more encouraging for all the noobs, but if anyone thinks it's actually toning down the anger level... Reality is if a critical discussion with the expectation of results can't occur on the forums, I'll probably spend time by the SWG boxes at the game store warning people off with examples of what's wrong with the game and its developers. That is, if there are any. Last time I looked no one in my area had more than a battered box or two in the discount bin, and I live in NYC.
Is that cheap? Sure it is, but certainly not any cheaper than what the players have had foisted upon them time and time again with this developer.
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
The only point I would argue on that would be the CU actually causing customer loss. I beleive loss was already there and the CU was a moment or revival, it just wasn't anywhere enough to make LEC content with keeping it when they got a look at WoW's numbers.
Very well written however, excellent article.
- 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
Anything to add Obraik or AA? HAH, I thought so...
Not even the fanboys have anything to counter this article with, that in itself shows the glaring faults of the shit-peddling crew of SOE/LA...
Other than that, well written and well formatted... This article is going to be read by thousands, many on the official forums are pasting this faster than it can be deleted...
I hope it is Dis-Order. Potentail customers need to know what theyre in for with these people.
NGE Refugee.
I wouldn't consider AA a fanboi. He's pretty open-minded about this whole ordeal. He understands the human side of what happened with SWG and it's players. I think he just sees it differently. I think he sees that the game could be sucessful on it's own accord and it could have it's own fanbase if it wasn't so poorly managed. I share his view on that.
That's just me trying to get inside someone else's head though, so I could be wrong.
SOE knows what you like... You don't!
And don't forget... I am forcing you to read this!
I thought the same about him til some of his later posts. A few were nothing but threads he started to get everyone fired back up and bitching about SWG again because apparently he was bored. And I am sorry but when you tell me the game I play sucks because you don't like it, that is not open minded.
He tries to play himself as open minded but he seems to have an agenda of keeping himself entertained here.
- 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
I agree.. the atrophy pre-dated the CU. If they would have never done the CU and pushed RotW, they'd have been much better off. They'd have never pissed off a great deal of the community, would have never lost those players.. and gained more with the content.
I can't tell you how many times my friends and I thought "RotW would have ROCKED without he CU." That, and for every person they "got back" with the CU, the same, if not more left because of the CU.
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
I agree.. the atrophy pre-dated the CU. If they would have never done the CU and pushed RotW, they'd have been much better off. They'd have never pissed off a great deal of the community, would have never lost those players.. and gained more with the content.
I can't tell you how many times my friends and I thought "RotW would have ROCKED without he CU." That, and for every person they "got back" with the CU, the same, if not more left because of the CU.
Well I can't really agree SWG would have rocked just because of wookieland. I was not a big fan of that expansion to begin with because it went against the grain of SWG and tried to take a KotOR approach at SWG which I was not happy about at all with forced terrain paths and the whole 9 yards.
If you are really interested in my feelings of the game pre-cu I did write a review up after my first trial of the game before I came back and subbed.
you can find it here: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/loadforum/433/loadthread/19569/setstart/1/loadclass/103
I don't see how anyone can say they think the game would rock pre-cu without the ham system being redone still. I can't think of a person that wasn't complaining back then about how screwed up combat was.
- 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