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Mr. Freeman, how did this all start?
Platonic
Member Posts: 6
Mr. Freeman,
My name is Jay. I'm a lurker on these forums. I played SWG since launch day and quit with the inception of the NGE. I come hear to read the words of my fellow Pre-NGEers and catch up on the latest rumors.
I was so moved by your coming here (despite your wife telling you not to last time) that I created an account and am now making my first post.
There are two open, honest questions I would like to ask you. Your response would mean very much to me. To have an educated answer to these questions from a former developer of SWG would be more than I could have ever asked.
If you could find the time to do me this favor, here are my questions -
Foremost,
Why was the NGE done in the first place?
I've heard several positions from SOE on this, but I've never found any sort of complete answer.
The first reason is something that I read in an SOE developer discussion at Austin last year - http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10830
The number of subscriptions were falling. Something drastic had to be done to save the game. Was this true?
The second reason I have heard was the unbridled success of World of Warcraft.
With an original IP gaining subscription numbers in the millions and SWG at maybe a quarter of a million, something had to be done to put SWG the same league as WoW. With the Star Wars IP, SWG should have been the runaway hit that WoW was. Was the NGE done to try and put SWG on the same level or supercede WoW?
The third reason I have heard was from a higher up person at LEC (I can't remember her name, nor do I have a link). She stated that SWG was far too complex. It had to be reduced to more hack and slash and less calculate and think if SWG were to ever be truly successful.
Which of those reasons, in your professional and informed opinion, prompted the NGE? Could it have been a combination of all three? Was there a reason I might have missed? Any input you have on the subject would be great.
Secondly -
Roughly, how many SWG subscriptions had been lost (at the time you left) compared to Pre-NGE numbers?
Julio Torres stated that 80% of the player base stayed despite the NGE. This may be rude, but I do not trust the man nor his company (as far as gaming goes atleast).
Sony Online Entertainment is not forthcoming with their subscription numbers.
The long standing debate in this community is how many people are playing the NGE now compared to Pre-NGE. Most of us want to see how much in failed in bringing in new subscriptions. This sort of failure not only justifies our leaving, but it also shows us that the NGE hurt SOE where it counts, their pocket book.
What did the numbers look like before you left? You know much more about these numbers than any of us ever will.
Thank you for your time, Mr. Freeman.
Despite the NGE, you helped create and guide a game I loved for years - the original and best version of SWG.
As you said, the NGE was signed off on by everyone at SOE. It would not be fair to point fingers and blame any one individual. But, I can say that I really did enjoy all of the work you put into SWG before the NGE. It brought me hours of fun and relaxation.
One of the most telling posts that you ever made on the SWG forums I could only understand in retrospect. The post about the toilet in the middle of the living room was the NGE. Regardless if you think a toilet should be in the middle of a living room, if the boss man says to build it, you do it.
Comments
Mr. Freeman doesn't know what truth is or does he care, he only wishes to paint a good picture of himself as the suffering Dev forced to ruin a game that they the Devs never played.
If I was Smed's boss and saw his comment about him playing WoW, I would have fired Smed shouldn't he be playing the games that he sells?
SWG was the best game I ever played I am spoiled by it no other game has come close, if only they would have added more missions with cool rewards that required team work or more special zones like the Ackley.
Maybe if they would have advertised more early in the games life cycle or had a better manual printed.
Any ways Freeman doesn't care about us, he cares about himself.
Ajax
Ajax
MMOs
Currently:
None
Formerly:
WoW - Phiane - Night Elf Rogue of Ragnaros
RF Online - Reyord - Cora Warrior of Spirit
SWG - Phiane Reyord - Pre-CU Jedi of Euro Chimaera
CoV - Iceis - Ice/Dark Corruptor of Defiant
Ragamuffin86 is right. So in fact, post NGE if they only had 100 players left, 80 of them were vets. If they only had 5 players, 4 of them were vets.
Fact is, the only thing that statement of his tells us, (and I actually saw some random LA marketing say it in an online interview weeks before ever JT repeated it) is that they couldn't get any new people in the door with the NGE.
We could have told them that for free though.
SWG Team Mtg.
Well I think the NGE trigger was pulled because they thought SW EIII Revenge of the Sith was going to gain them a lot of new free exposure..really the last great chance since launch to gain new players. Subscriptions were probably better than they are now but the oppourtunity from CU failures justified the risk, ROIs were developed with massive projections, this was the ultimate sweet spot for a change. The upside was almost intoxicating to the money guys, plans for marketing were revealed and promised big things, the team of devs just being workers want to please their bosses and began rally behnd the group thinking, the organization began to lose focus on the real customers, to hell with them, we'll be rolling in customers I am sure was talked about at the higher levels. Decenters were labled "not team players". The point of no return probably hit somewhere around September close. The problem was the product wasn't as good at the marketing or the plans. That's the big lesson that I am sure has been learned a thousand times.
God, I have seen this type of decision making a million times in the corporate world, I am pretty sure this assessment is 85% on the money.
I know this I work for a HUGE company that you all know well and likely use in your PC's, we were following a great marketing strategy with a crap product, the result was the competition kicked our asses, stole our market share, what happened? Make a great product and win your damn customers back, btw, it's working.
I really can't say anything other than what SOE has said about it.
But keep in mind none of the reasons you've heard are necessarily contradictory. There's "Why do anything?" first, and reasons for specific decisions on the other: What to do, how, why to do one thing instead of another, etc.
Subscription numbers are very confidential, so I couldn't say if I knew.
Heh. That was BlixTev.
Jeff Freeman
He did not say that. The "toilet in the living room" comment was made by Blixdev in a thread regarding developers being able to influence or "do as they wish" in the terms of coding. He was making a point that he's nothing more then an employee and as a plumber who's boss tells him to "install a toilet in the middle of the living room" the best he could do to in the terms of his own influence would be to put a blue tablet in it so you get blue-flushes. He, blixdev, was commenting how developers have no creative rights other then what's dictated to him.
Tiggs then replied with a qyote of said toilet comment "Now I know how that got there!", or something relavent.
This is at least what my memory recalls.
And yes, I too think it's an interesting point although likely to be a matter of coincidence. Anyone recall hit boxes being added to the game around July-August 2005? That was the first step towards the "new game experiance".
One thing that I have gleamed from reading Mr. Freeman's old post (Here at MMORPG.com) is that the NGE was orginal going to be the new space station introduction and the reworking of the combat but not necesarily the removal of the professions. Some where in all the build up it turned into this...........other thing.
Which to me makes sense in at least it would explain how the Trials of Obi-Wan could have been made with all 32 profession in mind even with the NGE moving forward.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
Why?
You had a bunch of FPS style gamers developing and managing a game beyond their scope. It was too much for them? No, they wanted to trade the smaller "geek" crowd for the much bigger "WoW" crowd. Nothing wrong with a company wanting to make money, but what they did was wrong. They knew they were going to run a bunch of people off and the losses were going to be acceptable because they thought the kiddy crowd just wasn't staying because the game was too hard for them to grasp (remember all the posts about the difficulty of the mechanics?).
The customer was ripped off with full knowledge and FULL INTENT by all parties involved except those who left because they had a conscience. Do you think any of them are going to admit that? You already know the answer, everyone here has pretty much said it and so has SOE with their words, posts, and most definitively with their actions.
Just as I am sure there was no reason in the past to ask a pirate why he and his ilk did their dirty deed, there really is no reason to ask a member of the SOE SWG regression teams why they did any of the things they did to trade off our communities for the WoW crowds.
At least, this is my view and opinion on the whole ordeal.
"SWG was a world, now it's just a game" -adamrk-
"When the game was good, you didn't have to ask where the population was, because it was everywhere. When the game was good you didn't have to ask which server had population, because they all did. When the game was good you didn't have to beg friends to give it a try, because they were already playing. " - Salty Pete