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SWG development plan 2008=Fail
http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/previews/3000-Star-Wars-Galaxies-2008-Preview
Highlights:
-window dressing (but not substantive revamp) changes to each profession. Meaning changes that won't really enhance them. They admit smugglers were pissed by "update 1".
-Quarterly chapters. CH9 is all about ONE new foozle instance. woot. Not.
-More galactic scavenger hunts. Very Star Wars-Y. Not.
-Article admits that SWG is basically a financial failure.
Nothing in there that is going to convince any vets to come back, that's for sure.
My verdict: FAIL
Comments
Entertainers and Medics, i know for sure, are pleased with their updates and it has added and fixed alot of useful stuff, these things are frequent and for the time they've had to do them, they've done quite alot. Chapter 9 is not all about Exar Kun, The new story teller additions such as story teller kits, and new tokens are just one of the other new things. Alot of people actaully like the collections, and the rewards. It doesnt admit it is a financial failure, it says its not making as much money as you'd expect (due to the NGE) also implicating in that sentence that its found its place and is doing fine financially - just not extrodinarily. A good, reasonably objective article, though they overlooked a few things.
So the NGE is why they aren't making as much money as they'd expect...
Why do they continue to sink time and money INTO THE NGE?
Especially when all they have to do to get rid of the NGE is:
1. Upload backup from prior to 4/27/2005
2. Get Devs to write conversion/respec program to allow NGE characters to convert to Pre-CU characters with the appropriate number of skillpoints to spend.
That would require far less effort than adding all the crap they did for foozle instances and scavenger hunts.
It is funny how people can read the same thing and get different views of the article.
"Great minds discuss ideas, lesser minds discuss things, and shitheads get personal."
I personally think the first comment posted in response to the article is brilliant and spot on.
Who cares?
SWG? Pull the plug already!
its funny how the same people have been crying doom since 2005....and yet here the game is still
Yes I hate a game that takes customer input and places it in the game, what are they thinking?
The one you wrote there?
SWG? Pull the plug already!
From the areticle...
"They found, in a survey of the data, that a huge percentage of their players had been - whether consciously or not - vigorously collecting various items around the world."
LOL! Survey? If they actually relied on 'data', the NGE version of SWG would not exist! I guess the loss of over 200k players that have not returned is not enough 'data' for them to draw conclusions from? It is not hard to imagine players doing the grindfest 'collections' when there is so little content, especially for the solo player or small groups (more so since since C6CD) on the 20 or so ghost servers!
Only the 'target audience' could get excited over the article.
SOE has always ignored data that contradicted what they wanted to do and touted data, no matter how tortured and contorted it had to be, to support whatever they wanted to do.
This is all too true. SOE's devs have an all too common way of finding data to support their preconceptions and ignoring data that undermine those preconceptions.
The "focus groups" that gave us the NGE unfortunately (for SOE) failed to follow up with their cash to support the NGE.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
This is all too true. SOE's devs have an all too common way of finding data to support their preconceptions and ignoring data that undermine those preconceptions.
The "focus groups" that gave us the NGE unfortunately (for SOE) failed to follow up with their cash to support the NGE.
Focus groups can work well, when not misused. They manipulated the results by using samples that didn't represent their customer base (because they'd already decided to cast us off) but who represented the customer base (simpering simpletons) that they wanted, and so Cao's "supreme vision" scored well.
I bet they neglected to ask their focus groups how they'd feel about playing the NGE if it came on the heels of dumping the existing player base of the old game, in an environment where it was receiving worse press than Britney Spears would if she beheaded a kitten on national TV.
Woot they started do that now after how many years lol think I'll resub NOT...........................
Yeah, they sure take the customer input that we want Pre-Cu and impliment that don't they?
Are you freaking kidding me? They STILL haven't figured this out? My God.
Not a moneymaker? It's hard to screw up a game with an IP like star wars that practically gives you license to print money but SOE/LA managed it.
I think the thing that makes me the sickest is the last part. LA is looking to keep the fans they have. Indeed, they ran off everyone else now they are clinging on by their fingernails so they are trying hard not to screw this up... again.If they had tried to do this before I think they would have a decent audience still. Now though, I find it hard to believe that they'd break 30K players. I mean actually playing. Not this station pass crap numbers SOE likes to spew.
Isn't it funny how they haven't solved that communication problem yet?
Despite that being THE problem they keep apologizing for again and again?
The communication they NEED to hear is the one that says: Pre-CU or FU.
Which is my stance towards them... And that of at least 200K others.
haha I can't believe you picked that topic to put your first post in
<a href="http://www.lolbase.net/us/Baneli"><img src="http://www.lolbase.net/us/Baneli/signature/626ffffff.png"; alt="Signature for Baneli (us)" /></a>
Tbh I think a lot of the struggles have been more closely related to upper management decisions that simply killed the game.
For example:
-the decision to release the game in such a buggy, incomplete state,
-just when devs and players had just about completed their work on fixing and balancing the original game, upper management decided to scrap all of that effort and collaboration and introduce the buggy, unwanted Combat Upgrade in the first failed attempt to copy World of Warcraft.
-just when the devs had finally completed much desired profession revamps, and introduced new content in the Trials of ObiWan expansion, the upper management decision to mislead the entire playerbase about the future of the game, and surprise everyone (probably some devs included) with the NGE, which removed the just revamped professions, added more serious bugs to the game, and rendered much of the new expansion content useless.
-when it was immediately clear that staff and players were horrified and outraged by the last point, they could have rolled back to a functional version of the game, but upper management refused to do this.
-when it became clear that management changes and classic servers were the only things that might have a chance of getting hundreds of thousands of cancelled subscriptions back, upper management repeatedly has refused to entertain this idea.
-if they finally listen now, which is doubtful based on this track record, they will probably listen too late for it to make a difference.
Are you freaking kidding me? They STILL haven't figured this out? My God.
Not a moneymaker? It's hard to screw up a game with an IP like star wars that practically gives you license to print money but SOE/LA managed it.
I think the thing that makes me the sickest is the last part. LA is looking to keep the fans they have. Indeed, they ran off everyone else now they are clinging on by their fingernails so they are trying hard not to screw this up... again.If they had tried to do this before I think they would have a decent audience still. Now though, I find it hard to believe that they'd break 30K players. I mean actually playing. Not this station pass crap numbers SOE likes to spew.
That Neri guy is the one who said time has been good to the game, and that it has been a success. He then dodged a question about the NGE, talking as if it never happened. Is this the guy that's talking about better communication? More of the same old crap.
In beta, there was communication. Upon launch, it vanished.
Thunderheart was hired to address that issue, and we all know how well that turned out.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
In beta, there was communication. Upon launch, it vanished.
Thunderheart was hired to address that issue, and we all know how well that turned out.
Luckily, they don't have enough players left, or the Smed would have had to make his regular six month appearance on the OBoard to promise better communication in the future. Last time the dev team began to openly mock the players on the OBoard by having programmers post about how many lines of code they wrote that day.
The communication issue will never be solved until SOE hires at least one person who has at least a base level of social skills. Considering the head of their company wide 'Community Relations Team' is one of the biggest douche bags in the company (almost to the level of Gordon Wrinn, who set the bar about as low as it possibly could be set when he held the position "Working as intended"), I don't see the communication problem being solved any time soon.
I am really curious which customers you're talking about. I do not recall reading anything about SOE soliciting advice from all players in the game. The only conclusion I can draw from your statement is that the changes they've made have come from suggestions made by the game's forum rats. The problem here is, SOE says those who visit the forums represent a very small portion of the playerbase. This means the game's developers are taking their ideas and vision for an MMO from the small group of players who happen to visit the forums. This is not exactly something you or anyone else should be bragging about.
How can medics and entertainers be pleased with their changes, when it has not even happened yet? Why do you act as if this stuff is already in game and available? This stuff is all subject to change and may never make it into the game at all. You have played SWG for how long and you still take the dev team's word for stuff? I think they made a word for that a long time ago that looks something like this:
FOOL
Akevv Ostone
No Longer SWG Free
For example:
-the decision to release the game in such a buggy, incomplete state,
-just when devs and players had just about completed their work on fixing and balancing the original game, upper management decided to scrap all of that effort and collaboration and introduce the buggy, unwanted Combat Upgrade in the first failed attempt to copy World of Warcraft.
-just when the devs had finally completed much desired profession revamps, and introduced new content in the Trials of ObiWan expansion, the upper management decision to mislead the entire playerbase about the future of the game, and surprise everyone (probably some devs included) with the NGE, which removed the just revamped professions, added more serious bugs to the game, and rendered much of the new expansion content useless.
-when it was immediately clear that staff and players were horrified and outraged by the last point, they could have rolled back to a functional version of the game, but upper management refused to do this.
-when it became clear that management changes and classic servers were the only things that might have a chance of getting hundreds of thousands of cancelled subscriptions back, upper management repeatedly has refused to entertain this idea.
-if they finally listen now, which is doubtful based on this track record, they will probably listen too late for it to make a difference.
There is no reason to listen now. It is just the same old tired story. They are going to change this time. They really, really, really mean it. Just keep paying them and sometime in the future the game will get better, they promise.
Folks need to realize that SOE has NO intention whatsoever in making any sweeping changes, addressing anything regarding the NGE combat engine, or making any significant investments in the game. The audience they have now is the core player base. They have whittled away everyone else. Those who remain will be there until they get tired of playing or the game closes. They have PROVEN to SOE that the dev team can do anything they like, be it nothing at all or minimum effort instances.
Akevv Ostone
No Longer SWG Free
Ever since SWG chopped down the main player base by introducing the NGE, they havn't been able to recover from the weight of the fall. They have been failing for months on end. - Nothing New