I've seen crazy rumors... know crazy rumors.. and that's a crazy rumor.
Sure, some of it tracks, but most of it is speculative hogwash.
Mmmhmmm.....but as spin I find it most interesting. We must ask ourselves, who benefits from this little tale? Who gets shafted? Why might someone want to spin it this way?
Not curious at all. Throwing out more and more "it's really LA's fault" bullshit is $OE's way to try to recover whatever respectability they once had. They already have seen how their name attached to VG has damaged that game's reputation even if they did nothing to it (which is just as speculative as this is).
$OE is trying to revive one game, but has seen many a "Look what they did to SWG, it's gonna suck" post. Why not try to put false rumor out there that it was really LA? It couldn't hurt. Hell, some gullable person may actually buy that, or in Sony's case, spraypaint it on walls in the inner city.
They also have DC coming soon, you KNOW they're in talks to get Star Trek and maybe Stargate on their distribution list. This kind of misinformation can do nothing but help them in the long run.
Shayde - SWG (dead) Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled - Some deluded SWG fanboi who pities me. I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too. 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Hornswaggle. This big clandestine agenda to institure the NGE without the public knowing. Like it's the Kennedy assasination or something. Anyone who read the boards new even before JTL launched that 'sweeping changes' were imminent. All you needed to get clued in as to what was coming was the GCW 'upgrade' that went live in jan 05.
This doesn't wash. Sure, for about a year, all we heard was "This will be addressed in the Combat Revamp." And the design documents were leaked so we knew that it was being worked on. From the end of Nov'04 thru December, there were a series of Friday Features about changes in the upcoming Combat Revamp, changes that were consistent with the design docs. (SOE has since destroyed the evidence, purging most of the FFs from Nov'04 thru Sep'05 off their site.)
In Jan'05, they suddenly went silent on the subject of the Combat Revamp. Some Friday Features about the upcoming Combat Upgrade started appearing in Feb'05; they didn't exactly contradict the earlier FFs, but there was a different slant to them. What hit the Test Center around April Fools Day was not a year in the making. It had the hallmarks of something slapped together in the space of a few weeks, with little or no testing. Remember how they tried to retain weapon certs by skill box, and didn't realize how incompatible it was with a level system? The conversion was probably done by the EQ2 team: "magic spell" healing and CM attacks, "magic spell" particle effects all over the place, Wookie "mystical" loot items, etc. The initial set of colored icons were mainly generic fantasy, and I swear I saw a horse on the "mount" icon.
I am a SWG Vet since launch.....yes I would of liked to be still playing SWG but don't think I could anymore anyways....but on to what I have to say...
They (SOE/LA) aren't going back classic servers or half/half classic/NGE servers. It is evident by now if you haven't gotten it....they don't care so much about money. If they did they would of changed things back or try to appease the SWG populace.
It all comes down to one thing......PRIDE.
PRIDE > Money as far as SOE/LA is concerned.
What is interesting is the PR campaign for SOE it seems. What the op says is prob true....but I am seeing this more and more. One could say that SOE is innocent for they had to do what LA says to do.
Don't have to listen to my rants....for SOE is still a pawn in this glorified chess game.....I have a video for them...
Not curious at all. Throwing out more and more "it's really LA's fault" bullshit is $OE's way to try to recover whatever respectability they once had. They already have seen how their name attached to VG has damaged that game's reputation even if they did nothing to it (which is just as speculative as this is).
$OE is trying to revive one game, but has seen many a "Look what they did to SWG, it's gonna suck" post. Why not try to put false rumor out there that it was really LA? It couldn't hurt. Hell, some gullable person may actually buy that, or in Sony's case, spraypaint it on walls in the inner city.
They also have DC coming soon, you KNOW they're in talks to get Star Trek and maybe Stargate on their distribution list. This kind of misinformation can do nothing but help them in the long run.
Thank you Shayde. When the NGE first launched, SOE was clamoring that this was their baby, they were the brains behind everything, it was not LA's doing or beckon call. Only when it flopped did they fall back to "hey, don't blame us, blame Lucas." Lucas responds with "hey, don't blame us, we merely signed off on the concept. They were the developers."
The NGE was Sony's brainchild. Lucasarts signed off on it. Both are guilty in ruining the game. Sony is demonized only because not only were they more public, they were also the ones most hostile to those complaining.
Though their might be a hint of truth to the rumor. It does explain why the CU was scrapped and not even worked on. However, this comes from both sides not having any clear vision of where the game was supposed to go. They just seemed to agree Raph's vision wouldn't compete in a Post World of Warcraft world. Since they had no vision or any real organization with the game, it just went through change after change.
I miss old school SWG. It had that spark that no other MMO has been able to create. There was a lasting timelessness about it that made me wanna log in and just be apart of all the stuff going on, the majority of which was not raiding or fighting at all.
It was tons of fun building a city with guildmates. It's was more fun decorating public buldings together because we all pitched in. The cantina became a callaborative joke that we all kept adding to.
I loved being able to go into Space or find stuff to do on a planet's surface. Shuttle and spaceport waiting was even fun sometimes too when the population was high.
People's avatars really reflected a piece of their personalities. There was a plethora of clothing and visual customizations to choose from, not to mention the fact that you could change your character's apearance at will as long as you could find an image designer. And, let's not forget the combat/crafting character customization. We had a huge list of professions to choose from.
The developers laid out a pallet that we could paint our avatars onto.
So why in the hell have we gone so far backwards?
Every new MMO is further and further away from these kinds of things. We get the same rehashed crap, over and over and over again.
I could care less about who is responsible for the implementation of the NGE.
I just want to find a game that provides character customization and player housing options equal to or greater than old school SWG.
The sad thing is that there's not one single game on the horizon that looks like it could even remotely offer this.
Now, you're probably at this point thinking about "Well, what about the Trials of Obi Wan?". I'm glad you asked, because I'm going to clarify that. Development of TOOW had been in for quite some time, and an enourmous amount of money had been spent on it - too much that it couldn't NOT be released. Further, it was apart of the contract with LA that x expansions released by x time. Even further it should be noted that the NGE was developed by a very small (in terms of the whole SOE/SWG team - which was HUGE) skunkworks team. It was very hush hush at the time.
Trials of Obi-Wan was designed for pre-cu. It was not intended nor designed with either the CU nor the NGE in mind. The large main encounters were developed as end game content for 20 member raid groups. The developers who were working on it had no qualms about sharing development and design info with testers during bug-testing sessions.
While I don't disagree with much of what you wrote, I don't subscribe to the whole lucas arts being the master minds. They might make it very difficult to make a game and get approval for certain aspects such a lore and content, it isn't like SOE can't do anything. SOE dreamed up the twich, they have a history of "revamping" their classes, combat systems and craft systems in their other titles. SOE is just as much to blame and more likely to shoulder the lions share.
Here you have it folks. The truth. SoE had a bit of a bad wrap when it comes to sweeping changes.
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
THe Op didnt post speculation..this is all stuff We vets saw happen.
its not a rumor or some secret..its pretty clear to anyone with half a mind.
We know what really happened, a combination of a few Key points.
1) Due to major delays in revamps to professions = players leaving SWG
2) Due to Bugs still unfixed since Day 1 = players leaving
3) Huge success of PVE quest / zone format of World of warcraft
4) Huge Media Hype of Star Wars Episode 3 movie and all the "fans" loving mustafar and Jedi battles
5) un-questionable Success of FPS games like Battlefront and Battlefront 2
Lucas Arts marketing department were starting to panic. Were losing people...there all playing WoW, my KID plays wow and hates SWG!!! How can we make that work with SWG and win our fans back???
They tried to roll all of that into a game, and I seriously think they Caught Sony off guard, I think they just walked in and said, this is our Game our Name on it Our liceanse this is what will be.
They took a gamble, yes fact is SWG was declining was losing too WoW, cause its not a pick up and play Game, it was really a more adult game that had subs from people Id guess 25-35 age group. and the Tons of new fans would skip "complicated stuffy old SWG" for the fast play easy to get into non-community driven games like WOW and all teh FPS games that were out at that time.
They took a gamble and Lost, what they didnt calculate was the fact that games like that are 1 time fee games. It looks impressive cause they were free. and WoW was differant at that time, simple , Plug and play in a matter of sorts.
I say that brave soul that risked it all has a hurt pride. But I say .....TAKE ONE MORE risk, gamble again!! you have nothing lose NGE is massivly declining, you cant hurt it anymore then you have, SWG IS ROCK BOTTOM.
Risk one more time, Open a few Classic servers that are PRE NGE with JTL, RotW, and ToOW on them ...
Open a few servers pre Pub 8 and call them SW:G year one servers ...
Leave a few as SW:G NGE and then once you have yoru fan base back and in play you can focus on bug fixes...
in a year I bet they can easily fugure ways to add expansion to each , but for each .. and have 3 great games not just 1 diminished version.
Yes thats spending 4-5 million of risk , Thats what..... 2 months of fees from our full servers?
Do the math, take one last gamble Lucas Arts
Miataka (+many sub variation of that) ~WoW (Kael'Thas, USA) MiaTaka ~ RF On-line (Fire Server) -Mia- takahashi ~SWG (Europe-chimaera) Miataki Valeinca ~EQ 2 (everfrost) MiaTaka Soyinka ~Second Life
So, I just got off the phone after about a 3 hour conversation that pretty much blew my mind. It didn't blow my mind because it was so incredulous, but because it was so obvious that it had never really occured to me before as being 'what happened'. What is about to follow you may or may not believe, but *I* believe it as the gosphel truth. And after you read it, something is going to click just as it did with me:
Now, you're probably at this point thinking about "Well, what about the Trials of Obi Wan?". Nope , first let me say very well written and probebly very VERY accurate. But to answer the thing "what i'm probebly thinking about" is more": "who was that on the phone? , afcourse i asume some insight/inside force from SOE?, like i said very well written but the thing that kept me going was to find out who it was you talked to over the phone? which obviously was the spark for you to make this very well written articel
So, I just got off the phone after about a 3 hour conversation that pretty much blew my mind. It didn't blow my mind because it was so incredulous, but because it was so obvious that it had never really occured to me before as being 'what happened'. What is about to follow you may or may not believe, but *I* believe it as the gosphel truth. And after you read it, something is going to click just as it did with me:
Now, you're probably at this point thinking about "Well, what about the Trials of Obi Wan?". Nope , first let me say very well written and probebly very VERY accurate. But to answer the thing "what i'm probebly thinking about" is more": "who was that on the phone? , afcourse i asume some insight/inside force from SOE?, like i said very well written but the thing that kept me going was to find out who it was you talked to over the phone? which obviously was the spark for you to make this very well written articel
First, that would have required actually talking to someone from the inside of SOE. I don't believe he did for a second.
Secondly, that would require naming his source, which we can all rest assured he never will. Why even support unsubstantiated drivel? He has no proof of talking to ANYONE of importance in regard to his post. He will never provide any proof of said convo (obstensibly to protect his source, I'm sure).
'Til I see something tangible, the OP is full of shit on this one.
So, I just got off the phone after about a 3 hour conversation that pretty much blew my mind. It didn't blow my mind because it was so incredulous, but because it was so obvious that it had never really occured to me before as being 'what happened'. What is about to follow you may or may not believe, but *I* believe it as the gosphel truth. And after you read it, something is going to click just as it did with me:
Now, you're probably at this point thinking about "Well, what about the Trials of Obi Wan?". Nope , first let me say very well written and probebly very VERY accurate. But to answer the thing "what i'm probebly thinking about" is more": "who was that on the phone? , afcourse i asume some insight/inside force from SOE?, like i said very well written but the thing that kept me going was to find out who it was you talked to over the phone? which obviously was the spark for you to make this very well written articel Logical AND obvious he wont tell excactly who he was speaking with , but to make this topic seeing he was on the phone atleast somewhere in his story he could have said he talkied with someone from SOE or who ever. And i made the word PROBEBLY larger and red to show you as i indeed often forget one needs to be very very clear at small little words to explain them as when not ..wel see your response Don't worry bro i aint taking all he said to serious, but it remains well written and honostly i feel speculations like he made or wrote about could (again notice the word could which doesn't mean fact but meanly..... it could) not be that far from the truth. But then again it might I've seen worse topics on these forum, and don't worry i 'm actualy back at SWG and very much enjoying myself (yes i am a vet and been there pre-cu-SWG and can identify with allot of stuff said, but at some point it has to stop but topics like the drivel we normaly would see/read as you suggest didn't feel this topic to be that) but be aware i'm also a gamer with passion for mmorpg so i aint that smallminded as allot of these disgrunted dishonost wanna-be gamers are as we see on these forums.
First, that would have required actually talking to someone from the inside of SOE. I don't believe he did for a second.
Secondly, that would require naming his source, which we can all rest assured he never will. Why even support unsubstantiated drivel? He has no proof of talking to ANYONE of importance in regard to his post. He will never provide any proof of said convo (obstensibly to protect his source, I'm sure).
'Til I see something tangible, the OP is full of shit on this one.
Comments
Mmmhmmm.....but as spin I find it most interesting. We must ask ourselves, who benefits from this little tale? Who gets shafted? Why might someone want to spin it this way?
Curiouser and curiouser.
fishermage.blogspot.com
$OE is trying to revive one game, but has seen many a "Look what they did to SWG, it's gonna suck" post. Why not try to put false rumor out there that it was really LA? It couldn't hurt. Hell, some gullable person may actually buy that, or in Sony's case, spraypaint it on walls in the inner city.
They also have DC coming soon, you KNOW they're in talks to get Star Trek and maybe Stargate on their distribution list. This kind of misinformation can do nothing but help them in the long run.
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
In Jan'05, they suddenly went silent on the subject of the Combat Revamp. Some Friday Features about the upcoming Combat Upgrade started appearing in Feb'05; they didn't exactly contradict the earlier FFs, but there was a different slant to them. What hit the Test Center around April Fools Day was not a year in the making. It had the hallmarks of something slapped together in the space of a few weeks, with little or no testing. Remember how they tried to retain weapon certs by skill box, and didn't realize how incompatible it was with a level system? The conversion was probably done by the EQ2 team: "magic spell" healing and CM attacks, "magic spell" particle effects all over the place, Wookie "mystical" loot items, etc. The initial set of colored icons were mainly generic fantasy, and I swear I saw a horse on the "mount" icon.
They (SOE/LA) aren't going back classic servers or half/half classic/NGE servers. It is evident by now if you haven't gotten it....they don't care so much about money. If they did they would of changed things back or try to appease the SWG populace.
It all comes down to one thing......PRIDE.
PRIDE > Money as far as SOE/LA is concerned.
What is interesting is the PR campaign for SOE it seems. What the op says is prob true....but I am seeing this more and more. One could say that SOE is innocent for they had to do what LA says to do.
Don't have to listen to my rants....for SOE is still a pawn in this glorified chess game.....I have a video for them...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A
Thank you Shayde. When the NGE first launched, SOE was clamoring that this was their baby, they were the brains behind everything, it was not LA's doing or beckon call. Only when it flopped did they fall back to "hey, don't blame us, blame Lucas." Lucas responds with "hey, don't blame us, we merely signed off on the concept. They were the developers."
The NGE was Sony's brainchild. Lucasarts signed off on it. Both are guilty in ruining the game. Sony is demonized only because not only were they more public, they were also the ones most hostile to those complaining.
Though their might be a hint of truth to the rumor. It does explain why the CU was scrapped and not even worked on. However, this comes from both sides not having any clear vision of where the game was supposed to go. They just seemed to agree Raph's vision wouldn't compete in a Post World of Warcraft world. Since they had no vision or any real organization with the game, it just went through change after change.
I miss old school SWG. It had that spark that no other MMO has been able to create. There was a lasting timelessness about it that made me wanna log in and just be apart of all the stuff going on, the majority of which was not raiding or fighting at all.
It was tons of fun building a city with guildmates. It's was more fun decorating public buldings together because we all pitched in. The cantina became a callaborative joke that we all kept adding to.
I loved being able to go into Space or find stuff to do on a planet's surface. Shuttle and spaceport waiting was even fun sometimes too when the population was high.
People's avatars really reflected a piece of their personalities. There was a plethora of clothing and visual customizations to choose from, not to mention the fact that you could change your character's apearance at will as long as you could find an image designer. And, let's not forget the combat/crafting character customization. We had a huge list of professions to choose from.
The developers laid out a pallet that we could paint our avatars onto.
So why in the hell have we gone so far backwards?
Every new MMO is further and further away from these kinds of things. We get the same rehashed crap, over and over and over again.
I could care less about who is responsible for the implementation of the NGE.
I just want to find a game that provides character customization and player housing options equal to or greater than old school SWG.
The sad thing is that there's not one single game on the horizon that looks like it could even remotely offer this.
Trials of Obi-Wan was designed for pre-cu. It was not intended nor designed with either the CU nor the NGE in mind. The large main encounters were developed as end game content for 20 member raid groups. The developers who were working on it had no qualms about sharing development and design info with testers during bug-testing sessions.
"Do not fret! Your captain is about to enter Valhalla!" - General Beatrix of Alexandria
"The acquisition of knowledge is of use to the intellect, for nothing can be loved or hated without first being known." - Leo da Vinci
its not a rumor or some secret..its pretty clear to anyone with half a mind.
We know what really happened, a combination of a few Key points.
1) Due to major delays in revamps to professions = players leaving SWG
2) Due to Bugs still unfixed since Day 1 = players leaving
3) Huge success of PVE quest / zone format of World of warcraft
4) Huge Media Hype of Star Wars Episode 3 movie and all the "fans" loving mustafar and Jedi battles
5) un-questionable Success of FPS games like Battlefront and Battlefront 2
Lucas Arts marketing department were starting to panic. Were losing people...there all playing WoW, my KID plays wow and hates SWG!!! How can we make that work with SWG and win our fans back???
They tried to roll all of that into a game, and I seriously think they Caught Sony off guard, I think they just walked in and said, this is our Game our Name on it Our liceanse this is what will be.
They took a gamble, yes fact is SWG was declining was losing too WoW, cause its not a pick up and play Game, it was really a more adult game that had subs from people Id guess 25-35 age group. and the Tons of new fans would skip "complicated stuffy old SWG" for the fast play easy to get into non-community driven games like WOW and all teh FPS games that were out at that time.
They took a gamble and Lost, what they didnt calculate was the fact that games like that are 1 time fee games. It looks impressive cause they were free. and WoW was differant at that time, simple , Plug and play in a matter of sorts.
I say that brave soul that risked it all has a hurt pride. But I say .....TAKE ONE MORE risk, gamble again!! you have nothing lose NGE is massivly declining, you cant hurt it anymore then you have, SWG IS ROCK BOTTOM.
Risk one more time, Open a few Classic servers that are PRE NGE with JTL, RotW, and ToOW on them ...
Open a few servers pre Pub 8 and call them SW:G year one servers ...
Leave a few as SW:G NGE and then once you have yoru fan base back and in play you can focus on bug fixes...
in a year I bet they can easily fugure ways to add expansion to each , but for each .. and have 3 great games not just 1 diminished version.
Yes thats spending 4-5 million of risk , Thats what..... 2 months of fees from our full servers?
Do the math, take one last gamble Lucas Arts
Miataka (+many sub variation of that)
~WoW (Kael'Thas, USA)
MiaTaka
~ RF On-line (Fire Server)
-Mia- takahashi
~SWG (Europe-chimaera)
Miataki Valeinca
~EQ 2 (everfrost)
MiaTaka Soyinka
~Second Life
First, that would have required actually talking to someone from the inside of SOE. I don't believe he did for a second.
Secondly, that would require naming his source, which we can all rest assured he never will. Why even support unsubstantiated drivel? He has no proof of talking to ANYONE of importance in regard to his post. He will never provide any proof of said convo (obstensibly to protect his source, I'm sure
).
'Til I see something tangible, the OP is full of shit on this one.
First, that would have required actually talking to someone from the inside of SOE. I don't believe he did for a second.
Secondly, that would require naming his source, which we can all rest assured he never will. Why even support unsubstantiated drivel? He has no proof of talking to ANYONE of importance in regard to his post. He will never provide any proof of said convo (obstensibly to protect his source, I'm sure
).
'Til I see something tangible, the OP is full of shit on this one.