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why SWG failed in the end
MasterCrysis
Member Posts: 94
incase you haven't read this.
straight from the developers mouth. its a good read if you have played it. gives alot of insight of what happened internally to make the NGE and do away with the pre-cu.
Comments
Yeah, this whole thing has been scrutinized over already.
However I think this comment gives insight into the expectation of sunsetting SWG upon release of TOR.
"Not just make Galaxies better, but make it succesful. Not the 200k
subs it had, but really succesful. The idea was that we had the most
valuable IP in the entire world, and we f**ked it up to the point of
having 200k subs.
And yes, all 200k of you were important, but 200k means nothing in the
scheme of things. "
Translation: The 200k were expendable.
Very informative, yes. And you should have read the one he wrote to start with--uncensored revelations and very candid about his feelings towards the players (Om nom nom). A lot of us figured he must have got into a bottle of home-made hooch.
This is the sanitized version, but still informative.
P.S.
For those who missed it, here is the original, in all its unedited glory:
http://www.mmofringe.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8
It answers some questions, dodges others, and doesn't seem to recognize that some exist. For example, why the ToOW bait and switch? Why say that NGE was done on the basis of current player feedback when every scrap of evidence suggests that it wasn't?
Changing the game at runtime is a bad idea: okay, I can agree with that. What about completely ignoring your playerbase and apparently intentionally misleading them though? Not addressed.
Ah yes, the infamous "om-nom-nom" monologue.
Classic stuff.
Should put to rest any fanboi spin that SOE gave a crap about any current players at the time of the NGE, and why so many of us were right in leaving.
Ahh...Good ole Dan. That rant probably didn't win him any professional points edited or not.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
Indeed, between this, Jeff's disclosures, Brenlo's comments, and Koster's, there really is very litte mystery left regarding why and how the NGE was done. At this point, people that keep trying to spin this into some kind of positive are really the horse-floggers. The beans have been thoroughly spilled by people that were in SOE at the time, and part of (or privy to) the decisions that were made.
The only thing they won't touch with a 40 foot pole is why they misled us around ToOW time. They just say, "oops, sorry."
Indeed, between this, Jeff's disclosures, Brenlo's comments, and Koster's, there really is very litte mystery left regarding why and how the NGE was done. At this point, people that keep trying to spin this into some kind of positive are really the horse-floggers. The beans have been thoroughly spilled by people that were in SOE at the time, and part of (or privy to) the decisions that were made.
The only thing they won't touch with a 40 foot pole is why they misled us around ToOW time. They just say, "oops, sorry."
Only because a bunch of class action lawyer sharks began to circle sensing blood did their own council/beancounters told them to offer the refunds...it was undoubtedly the cheaper route.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
Still reading over the linked article, but I had to read the portion you highlighted twice. It says alot of things about SOE.
Edited or not.
Those bas**rds.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
EVE Online started off with probably like 20,000 subs back in 2003. They kept working at the game and improving it, making the fixes it needs today and didn't rush out content or go crazy feeling the need to do some NGE. They have just slowly flowed content out over the years just adding minor tweaks to make it better. It has paid off because they've built from what was a horrible buggy game with potential, into something that works and fun for the people who like it and have gotten over 250,000 subs.
SWG and PS failed because SOE rushed every patch without testing, didn't listen to their community and ruined the game.
Imagine if CCP owned Planetside and SWG.... the world would be a better place!
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
Whats funny is alot of my friends played WoW as their first mmorpg and they got bored of it after TBC and went looking for other mmorpgs. They tried SWG and they hated it because they didn't like being stuck to the ground, said jumping looked retarded, they hated the targeting and they hated the UI.
When I told them about the game having the old profession system and everything being a player economy, they were really turned on by that and said thats what they want. Something different from WoW that offers more, complexity and customization. They don't want to play another WoW clone because WoW does it better than anything else could.
So what turned off people from SWG before? Was It the profession system and player economy? No... These are the reasons why:
- Poor performance
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue
- lack of content
Instead off addressing these issues, they just felt the need to do the CU and NGE....... like why? The proffession system and the fact the game had no levels drew people to the game.
All they needed to do was fix them 4 points and happy days!
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
Whats funny is alot of my friends played WoW as their first mmorpg and they got bored of it after TBC and went looking for other mmorpgs. They tried SWG and they hated it because they didn't like being stuck to the ground, said jumping looked retarded, they hated the targeting and they hated the UI.
When I told them about the game having the old profession system and everything being a player economy, they were really turned on by that and said thats what they want. Something different from WoW that offers more, complexity and customization. They don't want to play another WoW clone because WoW does it better than anything else could.
So what turned off people from SWG before? Was It the profession system and player economy? No... These are the reasons why:
- Poor performance
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue
- lack of content
Instead off addressing these issues, they just felt the need to do the CU and NGE....... like why? The proffession system and the fact the game had no levels drew people to the game.
All they needed to do was fix them 4 points and happy days!
Those point are indeed PART of the reasons, but you have to keep in mind not everyone was suffering from the points you mentioned.
- Poor performance, I had shitty performance when I was in CB, at the time of OB I upgraded my system which at the time was pretty top of the line. Of course nobody will deny CORROLAG as most suffered from either some hitching or lag, but overall I didn't experiance that much performance issue's as I read others had. Kinda the story of my life with MMORPG's when with most MMORPG's I hear so many people complain about performance yet I hardly experiance that much problems with them in the performance area.
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis, I am not playing WOW but have done so for a short period of time, but compared to what ever made MMORPG there is NOT one MMORPG that I felt got character movement/jumping as correct like WOW did, so sorry this surely does not go for SWG alone, but not have seen any other MMORPG that satisfied my movement feel like WOW had done. With WOW I felt like my characters feet actualy touched ground when walking/running/jumping, unlike with most MMORPGT I feel somewhat disconnected from the ground I walk on.
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue. One of the best things the game offered ME PERSONALY
- lack of content. To a extend yes, overall NO, as SWG didn't started out as a handholding game, but you are right the multiple topics created showed that many needed that.
well, that explains why the NGE stank so badly...
They created it in only 2 months and the lead dev was made of ass.
That article reads like something a nazi war criminal would write, he does a lot of apologizing and accepts part of the blame, yet he doesn't comprehend what he did wrong.
I've mentioned it in several threads around here... but where would SWG be if SOE actually stuck with the original game, fixed the numerous bugs and gameplay issues, and kept on adding content over time?
SWG would be in a far better position than it is now. It would offer a unique style of gameplay that most MMORPGs do not offer these days. It could be a home for players that prefer the sandbox style of play instead of the run-of-the-mill "Class+Level" system that everyone uses now.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
Remember Planetside and how EQ2 and SWG were way behind in development and losing money, SOE had to butcher the Planetside Dev team and divert the resources to finishing SWG specially because they were under contract with Lucas Arts and they wern't happy with the game taking so long.
So Planetside suffered as well because of poor management of SOE and thats why it was released the way it was. While not broken, it would have been so much more and yet they really had to set their sights lower because the Dev team was busy working on the other mmorpgs.
Then SOE gave them 3 months to create an expansion with no testing or anything and thats how Core Combat come to be... a rushed PoS that ruined the game for many.
All 3 games were doomed from the start.
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
Whats funny is alot of my friends played WoW as their first mmorpg and they got bored of it after TBC and went looking for other mmorpgs. They tried SWG and they hated it because they didn't like being stuck to the ground, said jumping looked retarded, they hated the targeting and they hated the UI.
When I told them about the game having the old profession system and everything being a player economy, they were really turned on by that and said thats what they want. Something different from WoW that offers more, complexity and customization. They don't want to play another WoW clone because WoW does it better than anything else could.
So what turned off people from SWG before? Was It the profession system and player economy? No... These are the reasons why:
- Poor performance
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue
- lack of content
Instead off addressing these issues, they just felt the need to do the CU and NGE....... like why? The proffession system and the fact the game had no levels drew people to the game.
All they needed to do was fix them 4 points and happy days!
Those point are indeed PART of the reasons, but you have to keep in mind not everyone was suffering from the points you mentioned.
- Poor performance, I had shitty performance when I was in CB, at the time of OB I upgraded my system which at the time was pretty top of the line. Of course nobody will deny CORROLAG as most suffered from either some hitching or lag, but overall I didn't experiance that much performance issue's as I read others had. Kinda the story of my life with MMORPG's when with most MMORPG's I hear so many people complain about performance yet I hardly experiance that much problems with them in the performance area.
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis, I am not playing WOW but have done so for a short period of time, but compared to what ever made MMORPG there is NOT one MMORPG that I felt got character movement/jumping as correct like WOW did, so sorry this surely does not go for SWG alone, but not have seen any other MMORPG that satisfied my movement feel like WOW had done. With WOW I felt like my characters feet actualy touched ground when walking/running/jumping, unlike with most MMORPGT I feel somewhat disconnected from the ground I walk on.
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue. One of the best things the game offered ME PERSONALY
- lack of content. To a extend yes, overall NO, as SWG didn't started out as a handholding game, but you are right the multiple topics created showed that many needed that.
While not everyone had a problem with these points you have to understand that MOST people did and thats why the game was such a big disappointment at launch and why it never done that well and lost so many subscribers. Most people I knew back in the day didn't have top of the line machines and couldn't even get the game to run and myself I had a Geforce 4 and only 256mb ram and some kinda basic amd processor. I was getting like 5FPS in towns and that was with all the settings on lowest. Alot of people I knew had worse systems than me and that is why SWG failed BIG time there because the performance was terrible.
I myself hated being stuck to the ground and it really put me off the game and everyone I knew hated the same feeling too because they tried to jump and they couldn't and it is a really restrictive feeling to have in a 3D game. It also made you feel detatched from the environment because you couldn't jump on things and there was no collision.
The problem with the tutorial was that it was useless and didn't teach you anything. While alot of people liked being thrown into the world without a clue what to do, most people hated it. There always used to be people running around going "what do I do" and that can be really shit for a new player. What they needed to do with the tutorial is ease you into the gameplay and teach you what things do and what you can do in the world. They needed to have something like the legacy quests which gave you something to do while each quests teaches you new things. Like say crafting a vehicle or planting your own house down and getting you to decorate it with an item you got from a previous quest. I remember EQ2 doing something similar at the start and that game did such a good job of introducing you to the world, before releasing you at level 10 to Antonica or CL.
I remember EVERYONE complaining about there being nothing to do. Like sure theres all this freedom and customization but it is all pointless because theres nothing to use it in. Wheres the Star Warsy content like fighting Darth Vader in a Death Star or raiding a Star Destroyer. People wanted to do fun quests and I was one of them because there was only so many times I could grind on missions or going to Fort Tuskan before I got bored. Things like Jabba's Palace were great and the game needed more of that. I even had LOTS of fun on Mustafar because it was like OMG finally content and lots of quests, problem was I completed it in a week lol.
I played the original relase for about a year then went to EQ2 for a break.
I came back about a year ago and it just felt bland....
To err is human....to play is divine
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
Whats funny is alot of my friends played WoW as their first mmorpg and they got bored of it after TBC and went looking for other mmorpgs. They tried SWG and they hated it because they didn't like being stuck to the ground, said jumping looked retarded, they hated the targeting and they hated the UI.
When I told them about the game having the old profession system and everything being a player economy, they were really turned on by that and said thats what they want. Something different from WoW that offers more, complexity and customization. They don't want to play another WoW clone because WoW does it better than anything else could.
So what turned off people from SWG before? Was It the profession system and player economy? No... These are the reasons why:
- Poor performance
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue
- lack of content
Instead off addressing these issues, they just felt the need to do the CU and NGE....... like why? The proffession system and the fact the game had no levels drew people to the game.
All they needed to do was fix them 4 points and happy days!
Those point are indeed PART of the reasons, but you have to keep in mind not everyone was suffering from the points you mentioned.
- Poor performance, I had shitty performance when I was in CB, at the time of OB I upgraded my system which at the time was pretty top of the line. Of course nobody will deny CORROLAG as most suffered from either some hitching or lag, but overall I didn't experiance that much performance issue's as I read others had. Kinda the story of my life with MMORPG's when with most MMORPG's I hear so many people complain about performance yet I hardly experiance that much problems with them in the performance area.
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis, I am not playing WOW but have done so for a short period of time, but compared to what ever made MMORPG there is NOT one MMORPG that I felt got character movement/jumping as correct like WOW did, so sorry this surely does not go for SWG alone, but not have seen any other MMORPG that satisfied my movement feel like WOW had done. With WOW I felt like my characters feet actualy touched ground when walking/running/jumping, unlike with most MMORPGT I feel somewhat disconnected from the ground I walk on.
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue. One of the best things the game offered ME PERSONALY
- lack of content. To a extend yes, overall NO, as SWG didn't started out as a handholding game, but you are right the multiple topics created showed that many needed that.
While not everyone had a problem with these points you have to understand that MOST MANY people did and thats why the game was such a big disappointment at launch and why it never done that well and lost so many subscribers. Most people I knew back in the day didn't have top of the line machines and couldn't even get the game to run and myself I had a Geforce 4 and only 256mb ram and some kinda basic amd processor. I was getting like 5FPS in towns and that was with all the settings on lowest. Alot of people I knew had worse systems than me and that is why SWG failed BIG time there because the performance was terrible.
I myself hated being stuck to the ground and it really put me off the game and everyone I knew hated the same feeling too because they tried to jump and they couldn't and it is a really restrictive feeling to have in a 3D game. It also made you feel detatched from the environment because you couldn't jump on things and there was no collision. Same like I said.
The problem with the tutorial was that it was useless and didn't teach you anything. While alot of people liked being thrown into the world without a clue what to do, most people hated it. There always used to be people running around going "what do I do" and that can be really shit for a new player. What they needed to do with the tutorial is ease you into the gameplay and teach you what things do and what you can do in the world. They needed to have something like the legacy quests which gave you something to do while each quests teaches you new things. Like say crafting a vehicle or planting your own house down and getting you to decorate it with an item you got from a previous quest. I remember EQ2 doing something similar at the start and that game did such a good job of introducing you to the world, before releasing you at level 10 to Antonica or CL.
I remember EVERYONE ALLOT complaining about there being nothing to do. Like sure theres all this freedom and customization but it is all pointless because theres nothing to use it in. It might have been pointless towards you and other people's playstyle, but it was NOT pointless to again other people who where playing and did enjoy the freedom given, it was more like many did simply not understand many things about the game and indeed got frightend by the freedom they where given. Wheres the Star Warsy content like fighting Darth Vader in a Death Star or raiding a Star Destroyer. KINDA WHY WE GOT THE NGE as MANY people didn't feel the game was Star Warsy Enough People wanted to do fun quests and I was one of them because there was only so many times I could grind on missions or going to Fort Tuskan before I got bored. Things like Jabba's Palace were great and the game needed more of that. I even had LOTS of fun on Mustafar because it was like OMG finally content and lots of quests, problem was I completed it in a week lol. I will not deny that the game could have used or use more content in all sorts of area's, but the complain about nothing to do tells when I speak about pre-cu SWG more about a persons playstyle then it is saying anything about the game or any game from that time.
For sure. Smed has always approached SWG as some kind of get rich quick scheme. Always trying the latest scam, gimmick or short-cut to try to cash in on the IP. Like most of these schemes, his failed miserably, over and over again; and it doesn't seem like he's finished yet.
CCP and Blizzard grew their games through consistent hard-work, polish and good customer relations. I really don't think Smed can grasp this mind-set. It seems too foreign to him. Even when people give him good advice and he tries to listen, he seems to turn it into some kind of half-baked gimmick. He always seems to try to catch and cash in on the latest trend, but seems to always mess it up somehow. It's like he's trying to copy things without really understanding what makes them work.
It always amazed me that SOE tried to pull subs away from Blizzard by introducing the NGE by mimicking WoW in alot of ways but failed to implement the things that Blizzard does really well.
Whats funny is alot of my friends played WoW as their first mmorpg and they got bored of it after TBC and went looking for other mmorpgs. They tried SWG and they hated it because they didn't like being stuck to the ground, said jumping looked retarded, they hated the targeting and they hated the UI.
When I told them about the game having the old profession system and everything being a player economy, they were really turned on by that and said thats what they want. Something different from WoW that offers more, complexity and customization. They don't want to play another WoW clone because WoW does it better than anything else could.
So what turned off people from SWG before? Was It the profession system and player economy? No... These are the reasons why:
- Poor performance
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue
- lack of content
Instead off addressing these issues, they just felt the need to do the CU and NGE....... like why? The proffession system and the fact the game had no levels drew people to the game.
All they needed to do was fix them 4 points and happy days!
Those point are indeed PART of the reasons, but you have to keep in mind not everyone was suffering from the points you mentioned.
- Poor performance, I had shitty performance when I was in CB, at the time of OB I upgraded my system which at the time was pretty top of the line. Of course nobody will deny CORROLAG as most suffered from either some hitching or lag, but overall I didn't experiance that much performance issue's as I read others had. Kinda the story of my life with MMORPG's when with most MMORPG's I hear so many people complain about performance yet I hardly experiance that much problems with them in the performance area.
- Stuck to the ground, no third axis, I am not playing WOW but have done so for a short period of time, but compared to what ever made MMORPG there is NOT one MMORPG that I felt got character movement/jumping as correct like WOW did, so sorry this surely does not go for SWG alone, but not have seen any other MMORPG that satisfied my movement feel like WOW had done. With WOW I felt like my characters feet actualy touched ground when walking/running/jumping, unlike with most MMORPGT I feel somewhat disconnected from the ground I walk on.
- Poor tutorial and the way they were just thrown into the game without a clue. One of the best things the game offered ME PERSONALY
- lack of content. To a extend yes, overall NO, as SWG didn't started out as a handholding game, but you are right the multiple topics created showed that many needed that.
While not everyone had a problem with these points you have to understand that MOST MANY people did and thats why the game was such a big disappointment at launch and why it never done that well and lost so many subscribers. Most people I knew back in the day didn't have top of the line machines and couldn't even get the game to run and myself I had a Geforce 4 and only 256mb ram and some kinda basic amd processor. I was getting like 5FPS in towns and that was with all the settings on lowest. Alot of people I knew had worse systems than me and that is why SWG failed BIG time there because the performance was terrible.
I myself hated being stuck to the ground and it really put me off the game and everyone I knew hated the same feeling too because they tried to jump and they couldn't and it is a really restrictive feeling to have in a 3D game. It also made you feel detatched from the environment because you couldn't jump on things and there was no collision. Same like I said.
The problem with the tutorial was that it was useless and didn't teach you anything. While alot of people liked being thrown into the world without a clue what to do, most people hated it. There always used to be people running around going "what do I do" and that can be really shit for a new player. What they needed to do with the tutorial is ease you into the gameplay and teach you what things do and what you can do in the world. They needed to have something like the legacy quests which gave you something to do while each quests teaches you new things. Like say crafting a vehicle or planting your own house down and getting you to decorate it with an item you got from a previous quest. I remember EQ2 doing something similar at the start and that game did such a good job of introducing you to the world, before releasing you at level 10 to Antonica or CL.
I remember EVERYONE ALLOT complaining about there being nothing to do. Like sure theres all this freedom and customization but it is all pointless because theres nothing to use it in. It might have been pointless towards you and other people's playstyle, but it was NOT pointless to again other people who where playing and did enjoy the freedom given, it was more like many did simply not understand many things about the game and indeed got frightend by the freedom they where given. Wheres the Star Warsy content like fighting Darth Vader in a Death Star or raiding a Star Destroyer. KINDA WHY WE GOT THE NGE as MANY people didn't feel the game was Star Warsy Enough People wanted to do fun quests and I was one of them because there was only so many times I could grind on missions or going to Fort Tuskan before I got bored. Things like Jabba's Palace were great and the game needed more of that. I even had LOTS of fun on Mustafar because it was like OMG finally content and lots of quests, problem was I completed it in a week lol. I will not deny that the game could have used or use more content in all sorts of area's, but the complain about nothing to do tells when I speak about pre-cu SWG more about a persons playstyle then it is saying anything about the game or any game from that time.
See freedom is great and I loved all the mechanics of the game but like I said you do all that stuff and what for? You could never use it for anything in the game other than doing more grinding. The PVP in the game was poor and that was because there wasn't enough content and sure you could setup your own events but in the end that isn't as much fun as say having a battlefield made by the developers based on a famous battle in Star Wars. The NGE isn't bad because it wanted to make the game Star Warsy because I agree it's called STAR WARS and yet you couldn't do all the kool Star Warsy things you wanted to do and see. The NGE was bad because what they changed the game to was just shit.
I'm all up for sandbox and a skill system and I'm all up for customization and freedom. However it seems like to everyone else that it has to mean you make your own content and the game should be barren....... why? Why can't we have all that stuff in a world full of content like WoW is? I don't want to have to use my imagination all the time because I got the game to play something developers made. I want to have the sandbox stuff but I want it to be full of fun quests and instances and all the great star warsy stuff.
Noone in their right mind would say "I don't want a Death star in Galaxies because I want to make my own content". No cause your making of content can't make a Death Star. All you're really doing is using the mechanics they put in place and grinding and having no use for them. However that Death Star Content gies you a place to use all the effort you just put into your character.
What I'm saying is content isn't the enemy of the sandbox that so many people seem to think. Content just gives you something else to do, more options and more fun and gives you a reason to group.
‘If someone asks for pink fluffy bunnies, we give then bunnies done to the best of our abilities. You might hate bunnies, but you make the best bunnies you can possibly make. That is your job”
That is what we do. All of this is tempered with reality. Sometimes things take longer than we’d like.
Sometimes things end up more or less fun than we intended.
This is the job of a designer.
Being a digital arts major in college this statement really pisses me off. Is this guy a complete moron or just a straight up asshole. If i ask for fluffy bunnies i expect fluffy bunnies i dont want a fluffy pigeon, a fluffy dog, or a fluffy hedgehog, i want a fluffy bunny. If i hated bunnies i wouldnt ask for bunnies. If i got a bunny and it looked like shit then id kick it to the curb, or put it in a pot of stew.
Point being when someone is asking you for a piece of work you dont turn it in half assed and you sure as hell dont derive from what the person you are making for asked for. The job of a designer is not making a piece of shit and hope you put up with it. Its making something magnificent and know youll like it. This guy is a douche waffle.
I'd argue that SOE/LA never gave a crap about it's players.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
I'd argue that SOE/LA never gave a crap about it's players.
Not that they ever did, as you say, but the NGE was a clear signal that they were willing to throw every single paying customer over the side in the search for a larger "theoretical" customer base that doesn't read and is willing to take whatever crap they push out without question or complaint.
This is why they'll not be getting another $ from me, ever.
Also keep in mind, the link goes to a blog post that has been revised no less than 4 times. The very first rendition was much more blunt and incriminating. Poke around the web long enough and you can find the other 3 versions.
I'd argue that SOE/LA never gave a crap about it's players.
Not that they ever did, as you say, but the NGE was a clear signal that they were willing to throw every single paying customer over the side in the search for a larger "theoretical" customer base that doesn't read and is willing to take whatever crap they push out without question or complaint.
This is why they'll not be getting another $ from me, ever.
Yeah and someone named Arkavius on the official SWG forums came along and made a thread about wanting an SWG items store, he's exactly the kind of player what SOE has been looking for.