even tho they will shut it down on 15th Dec 2001 we all know that SWG died on the 15th Nov 2005
it just took 6 Years for Smed and his crew to realize this fact - oh wait it was LA who realised that ... not Smed ... he is still as delusional as ever.
remember remember the 15th of november
Let me finish that last part for you:
"Remember, remember the 15th of November. The NGE, Treason and Plot. I see no reason the NGE Treason, should ever be forgot."
And no, there's a reason I didn't name names. In truth, there's no point in placing blame. What's being done is done. Regardless of whose decision it was, Star Wars Galaxies was special in its own way. I have very fond memories Pre-CU. I will always cherish those memories. I will be sad when they shut the doors forever. I will drink to the game I loved, not the game it became.
The only reason LA would cancel SWG or force SOE to cancel by demanding a larger sum of money for the continued use of the IP, is greed and to force people to KOTOR.
I for one can see through all the eye candy BS and KOTOR is not a sand box and not a MMO by my definition. All I see is another POS like STO with the same result.
I would gladly be proven wrong, however LA and the current state of the industry do not provide any information to the contrary.
IMO, consoles are the market of choice and as a result games are being dumb downed to suit the larger console general public.
SWG did not last for four years before the NGE. It is obvious that those claiming they spent four years mastering 36 professions to unlock Jedi are either ignorant parties that have never played Pre-NGE Galaxies or bitter veterans that do not care that SWG survived for nearly six years after the NGE hit.
Regardless, dismissing the post-NGE game as "not SWG" is insulting to everyone who plays and enjoys the current game and I'm very disappointed that an MMORPG columnist took that tone.
It was so much more than class overhauls and mechanics changes. I'll try to apply the NGE idea to WoW.
A WoW NGE would remove half the classes, say Druid, Warlock, Shaman, and Rogue. If you played and loved one of those classes, tough sh**. Now you must pick between Warrior, Priest, DK, Mage, Hunter. Also, instead of classic WoW's tab targeting, WoW would now have a twitch FPS combat system (that functioned terribly in practice). All or nearly all achievements and gear would be wiped. Spent 100 hours getting your raid gear set? Tough Sh**, it's now worthless.
All these changes would be made with no more than two weeks' notice to the players, and on the same day that a major expansion pack was released (that many players have already pre-ordered, expecting more of the same WoW) That is what the NGE was.
Granted, SWG had a lot of problems, chief among them tons of bugs, class imbalances, and a lack of content and structure for players. The way to make SWG thrive was to fix those problems. Indeed, SOE swore up and down that they were doing just that (smuggler and squad leader revamps, anyone?), before springing the NGE on the playerbase with two weeks notice.
WIth SWG, SOE burned down the barn to get rid of the rats. Not only was it unethical, it was monumentally stupid.
Indeed. I tried to stick around after the NGE, but the community made the game, and the community left for greener pastures. Most expected SOE to at least attempt to fix some of the issues that had plagued the game from release. Instead they created a whole new set of problems, not the least of which was pissing off the majority of the players at the time.
I know the people who still play SWG now don't like the fact that "disgruntled vets" are saying the game was already dead, but it was dead to them. Either way both sets of players are sad, or were sad, to see the game go.
The only MMO I ever "lived" in. To this day it still has no competitor for that feeling of being part of a living breathing world. Top crafters were akin to celebrities, dancers/musicians reknowned for their homemade songs and routines and you spent as much time going to weddings, parties, plays in the theatres and firework shows as you did killing Nightsisters on Dathomir. I already said my goodbyes when the CU came along, but I shall say it once again as you pass into MMO history and time papers over the wrongs SOE did to you.
As for the end being December 15th because SW:TOR comes out then - I don't believe it. EA/Bioware have been cagey about the release date so as not to tip off the competition, so I don't believe Lucasarts (if they had the right to know the release date at all) would have been able to tell SOE, even in a veiled way.
I played this game from publish 7 until the NGE. I saw a lot of things happen to this game and a ton of potential. Yes there were issues in the pre-CU days. The CU was supposed to fix them all but instead Smedly and his boys decided to revamp just in time to hopefully save themselves the loss of subs when WOW came out. All the same issues remained and we had to learn a new combat system, deal with leveling (which was not part of the game before), and still manage a loss of a third or more of the server population.
At that time I had multiple accounts, every one of them were experiencing a constant nerf bat. Better yet were the stealth nerfs we got and SOE never said anything about. You only knew it was coming because the updater would download something and suddenly your avitar sucked at what ever it was they were good at before. We lost a third of the population then too. Thats about the time they stopped reporting the server populations by the way.
Then along came the NGE which was nothing but a deceitful and horrible lie to the entire customer base. "We cant roll back the servers" was their standard excuse but I will tell you that they could have at any time. There is no IT department that does not have backup tapes, CVS and the ability to back out of an upgrade. Okay I can understand not wanting to roll back, but do not lie to me and say you cant.
Population deminished again. I left two months after the NGE happened. The reason was not as much because the NGE sucked (which it did), but because I had lost faith in SOE's ability to make a rational decision concerning the future of the game. Since then I have not purchased nor will I ever purchase another SOE product until their management team is dismantled and rebulit from the ground up. Yes they are a business and need to make money. But it is difficult to make money when you alienate your customers. Think of the PS3 hack... or maybe the CD root kits... it is not just SWG that shows Sony's true colors.
As for what happened to the game: honestly if you were Lucas Arts with a brand name like "Star Wars" would you want to be associated with that? Why did they keep it around so long? Again, it is Star Wars. It will make money (which is what the bottom line is for any company). This day has been coming since 2006 when Bioware announced they were making an MMO. Lucas kept it as quiet as they could even denying the rumors, but we knew even back then that galaxies days were numbered.
Why must people continually find reasons to place fault on problems in soe games onto some other source.
...
I supposed Warner Brothers is responsible for SOE shutting down The Matrix Online.
I suppose Sigil is responsible for SOE not being able to turn Vanguard around over the last 4 years.
I suppose Warner Brothers is responsible for DCU turning out to be a complete failure.
I suppose Wizards of the Coast are to blame for Magic the Gathering:Tactics being a total bust.
I suppose Lucas Arts is responsible a second time for Clonewars Adventures being a bust.
Do you find it odd that every game you listed there has a third party involved, but the EQ franchise is doing great and it has no 3rd party? Maybe SOE just wants to take your money and convince you to become a station member so you will get angry at (insert 3rd party here) and dump it for EQ so sony can keep all your cash.
Seeing SWG shutting down now is like finally taking your long-time-terminally-ill family pet to the vet to be put down.
About a year ago I rolled a trial account to check out how it was improved (sigh), and it had the same ridiculous bugs it had back then: go into a cave, take a step, suddenly you are in outer space, take another step you are back inside the cave... or enemies shooting at you from across walls... or animals charging you at 150km/hr.... so on. It was really sad to see. They didn't fix *any* of the bugs I remembered from years before.
Not sorry for those who stuck with the game either. If those folks had a bit higher standards and quit back then in 2005 with the rest of us, then The Greedy Bunch might have shut down the game earlier and so someone might have had the chance to make something good out of the IP. The way I see it, SOE cheated *all of us* out of 6-8yrs worth of (good) StarWars MMO gaming.
They didn't deserve the IP.
As for Darth Smed, he's been a liar (since 2005 for sure) and always will be. I feel sorry for the new generation of gamers he will cheat and lie to, and swindle money out of next.
Why must people continually find reasons to place fault on problems in soe games onto some other source.
...
I supposed Warner Brothers is responsible for SOE shutting down The Matrix Online.
I suppose Sigil is responsible for SOE not being able to turn Vanguard around over the last 4 years.
I suppose Warner Brothers is responsible for DCU turning out to be a complete failure.
I suppose Wizards of the Coast are to blame for Magic the Gathering:Tactics being a total bust.
I suppose Lucas Arts is responsible a second time for Clonewars Adventures being a bust.
Do you find it odd that every game you listed there has a third party involved, but the EQ franchise is doing great and it has no 3rd party? Maybe SOE just wants to take your money and convince you to become a station member so you will get angry at (insert 3rd party here) and dump it for EQ so sony can keep all your cash.
All your cash is belonging to SOE!
I don't find it odd that every game I listed has a 3rd party involved, because that was the point I was making. SOE has had more than enough opportunities to work with 3rd party IPs and the results are always the same.
Since you brought it up, the results are not much different when SOE works with their own properties.
Everquest was purchased by SOE after it was already a raging success. SOE didn't even exist until after EQ was a success.
Everquest II was merging servers within the first year of operation, during a time when the total mmo market was doubling every few months. Millions of new players were joining and EQ2 was declining. This game represents the very best efforts by SOE and the success it has is often outdone by independent developers.
Planetside actually had some potential, until SOE ruined it with the first expansion and a long series of mismanagement.
The Agency spent over 5 years in development and the results were so poor that SOE chose to cancel the project instead of releasing it.
Free Realms has had something like 15 million accounts created, but it cannot fill up 1 single server. Just imagine how many people would have to not play wow in order for the game to not be able to fill up 1 single server.
This isn't even mentioning their failure of station publishing, the virtual card games or all the EQ spin offs.
The pattern pretty clearly describes where the problems are. All of the problems that led up to the final situation for SWG can be seen repeated all over the SOE platform of games.
Why must people continually find reasons to place fault on problems in soe games onto some other source.
...
I supposed Warner Brothers is responsible for SOE shutting down The Matrix Online.
I suppose Sigil is responsible for SOE not being able to turn Vanguard around over the last 4 years.
I suppose Warner Brothers is responsible for DCU turning out to be a complete failure.
I suppose Wizards of the Coast are to blame for Magic the Gathering:Tactics being a total bust.
I suppose Lucas Arts is responsible a second time for Clonewars Adventures being a bust.
Do you find it odd that every game you listed there has a third party involved, but the EQ franchise is doing great and it has no 3rd party? Maybe SOE just wants to take your money and convince you to become a station member so you will get angry at (insert 3rd party here) and dump it for EQ so sony can keep all your cash.
All your cash is belonging to SOE!
I don't find it odd that every game I listed has a 3rd party involved, because that was the point I was making. SOE has had more than enough opportunities to work with 3rd party IPs and the results are always the same.
Since you brought it up, the results are not much different when SOE works with their own properties.
Everquest was purchased by SOE after it was already a raging success. SOE didn't even exist until after EQ was a success.
Everquest II was merging servers within the first year of operation, during a time when the total mmo market was doubling every few months. Millions of new players were joining and EQ2 was declining. This game represents the very best efforts by SOE and the success it has is often outdone by independent developers.
Planetside actually had some potential, until SOE ruined it with the first expansion and a long series of mismanagement.
The Agency spent over 5 years in development and the results were so poor that SOE chose to cancel the project instead of releasing it.
Free Realms has had something like 15 million accounts created, but it cannot fill up 1 single server. Just imagine how many people would have to not play wow in order for the game to not be able to fill up 1 single server.
This isn't even mentioning their failure of station publishing, the virtual card games or all the EQ spin offs.
The pattern pretty clearly describes where the problems are. All of the problems that led up to the final situation for SWG can be seen repeated all over the SOE platform of games.
The reason why the agency was caned was it was going to use the same combat system that DCUO was using, and we saw how that ended up for the pc side of things. Honestly the agency went into the works right after the nge using the same type of combat system. It has stalled several times as soe was trying to decide the direction of the game. I think SOE saw it was never going to make the cash they put into it, and pulled the plug. One of the few good decisions soe has made.
exactly the nge wasn't a sole sony decision. fanbois neeed to be a bit more level headed it was lucas arts and their liscenincing of the ip they said look we want to make money chnage thegame or we pull the ip and you end up in a financial rut....
This! Seriously! No one remembered that NY times article?
It was actually that stupid bimbo from Lucas Arts who masterminded the NGE and basically shoved the NGE through our throats. SOE just bowed and executed it.
Most of the SOE devs at that time were strongly against the NGE, but were forced to execute it.
exactly the nge wasn't a sole sony decision. fanbois neeed to be a bit more level headed it was lucas arts and their liscenincing of the ip they said look we want to make money chnage thegame or we pull the ip and you end up in a financial rut....
This! Seriously! No one remembered that NY times article?
It was actually that stupid bimbo from Lucas Arts who masterminded the NGE and basically shoved the NGE through our throats. SOE just bowed and executed it.
Most of the SOE devs at that time were strongly against the NGE, but were forced to execute it.
QFT nobody does nothing without Lucas calling the shots, after all he waited like almost 20 years before making the pre story to new hope so his xwife could not get her hands on half the money. Anything Star Wars has always had Lucas to sign off on it. Nothing happens without his approval, or interference. That is the only thing that bothers me about SWTOR.
In the end, it's all been said before. I only hope that someday some dev team attempts to create a new game that has the social and crafting aspects of SWG, but with a much better game layered over it.
Sure, there was a lot wrong with SWG but there was a lot right with it too.
I'd like to give a final parting salute to the Kauri server; one of the best communities and role-playing environments I've ever been in. Remember back in the day when server reputation meant something? Remember all the player run events?
I'd also like to salute my old friends from my guild "The Commission". You guys were simply the best.
Both were extremely guilty. As the one who wrote this site's takedown of the NGE (anti SoE people still see it and seethe with rage over memories hehe), here is what happened:
1.) LucasArts thought there was "too much reading" and wanted a more "iconic" system.
2.) SOE violated almost every rule of gaming in designing the system.
The idea that this was mainly LA is a myth pushed ever since the NGE came out, as SOE tried doing damage control. The SOE devs on their personal blogs (remember when blogs were something new???) were raving about how fun the system was, and how proud they were of it.
SOE stuck with the NGE being a success for at least 18 months after it was launched. It wasn't until the takeover of Vanguard that they admitted publicly they screwed up bigtime with the NGE.
As far as the game closing, it is the closing of an era. I agree with Raph Koster. The game never maximized its potential, but it did some truly revolutionary things, and many things in MMO's that are taken for granted were conceived in the original Pre-CU SWG. I would've much rather played a title that never met its potential, then dumbed down mediocrity that was World of Warcraft.
sigh.. as an old veterano of swg I enjoyed the game immensenly. It had a steep learning curve for sure but that was part of the allure of the game. It was innovative in so many ways. I have not played a game since that forced (pre nge) players to interact synergistically from the doctors to the dancers. The time I played the game it was a true community. None of the other morgs that i have played come close. So rest in peace i guess, at least we have the fond memories of the game and maybe some innovative risk taker out there will model the way the game was in the beginning.
To all those claiming the NGE was the end, you just show you never played the game. To those who claim the CU upgrade killed it, you never understood the game.
What killed SW:G was the doc buff and it was created for all those who insisted on wearing heavy armour without wishing to pay the penalty for it.
In the original SW:G you had three health bars. Health Action Mind. Each action you took cost a combination of points. Some more mind, some more health. You also recharged these bars at varying rates and attacks could target damage one more then the other. If your own actions depleted your bars faster then they recharged, you would pass out.
How well you recharged was baded on your race, your own settings, food buffs AND the armour you wore. Cloth armour had no penalty, the heaviest armour effecticly stopped you from recharging meaning that in combat you would be quickly depleted. It was supposed to bring a balance in the game, wear heavy armour, you took less damage but could not fight for long. Seems sensible, medieval knights didn't go around jogging everywhere in full combat armour. In fact unmounted full armour is near impossible to walk in.
You got to remember that in the Star Wars universe, none of the heroes were combat armour. Only the easily killable dweebs like Storm Troopers and Boba Fett wear it and we all know how they end up. So for many classes, wearing cloth made perfect sense. My own Terra Kassi (unarmed) class wore cloth and did far better before the doc buff and post doc buff then armoured players before the doc buff.
But some vocal players couldn't accept this, they had to have heavy armour AND be able to wear it constantly despite the high cost with wear and tear.
So they created the doc-buff. A buff that gave anyone under its effect a recharge rate more then high enough to offset the armour penalty. Immidiatly a problem emerged. Players like me who wore cloth got to be insanely powerfull as I already was pretty invincble before and now my HAM bars rarely showed even the slightest dent.
But then a unique element of SWG got in the way. Crafting materials in SW:G varied over time in quality, sometimes a required material was bad, sometimes good. At one point on my server the primary ingredient determining quality for doc buffs reach 999 or 1000 points. Alderaan roasted duck. I made so much money from it that afterwards I never cared about money again. It created doc buffs so strong that even dark jedi were no match.
Even with lesser buffs it was possible to take on a lair of rancors on your own all at once. No more carefully pulling enemies one at a time, making sure the lair was not hit to avoid spawning new ones. Now a buffed player just stood close to the lair and spawned AoE attacks till everything had died and moved on to the next.
This saw the creation of the solo-group. You needed to be in a group to get the best paying missions but then dealt with them on your own. Teamplay? Only thing left was making sure you kept your group up to the required size, everyone moved on their own.
Oh, there was some content left that was still hard but only because it was near insane. Death Watch Bunkers that had enemies with 100% resistance to all damage types except 1 wich had 95% resistance. FUN!
When a MMO has become a solo affair where all combat is walking up to a spawnpoint and starting your macro... you have lost. The CU and NGE just finished the job.
That said, I’m sure it won’t be long before someone starts up a Galaxies: Resurrected unofficial server.
Heh, and immediately closes again after Lucas Arts sues their shorts off.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
To all those claiming the NGE was the end, you just show you never played the game. To those who claim the CU upgrade killed it, you never understood the game.
What killed SW:G was the doc buff and it was created for all those who insisted on wearing heavy armour without wishing to pay the penalty for it.
Doctor buffs were a problem for sure, but they were a fixable problem. Likewise Doctor buffs were always in the game from day 1. Just most players didn't have them or couldn't make very good ones.
The NGE was the end to players faith in SOE to make good on promises or resolve the issues of SWG. Prior to that event there were still a lot of players who held hope that SOE could somehow fix the game and achieve the potential in SWG. So yes the NGE was very much the end of SWG, because the players left and never came back. SWG ended being a viable product that could grow or generate anywhere close to the amount of money to support a game of its size.
Everything about the game went into significant decline after that event. From player population to content updates to staff SOE assigned to work on the game.
Doctor buffs were just one problem among many in the original design of the game, but it was a very easy problem to resolve in comparison.
It's not true to say that the content people were playing the game rather than making suggestions. In fact, content people who merely were hoping for improvements and new game play made thousands of great suggestions, all which were ignored by the devs.
It was Lucas Arts who pushed for NGE, SOE did intend to have a NGE, but they wanted to wait until it was polished, tested, and thought to be as best as they can get it. And Pre-NGE wasn't great like everyone says. It was full of bugs, glitches, sloppy coding, and broken combat. I'm not saying that the game is perfect now, it still has bugs, glitches, ALOT of sloppy coding, but the combat for the most part isn't broken. Somethings are unfair, but atleast everything works.
Most of the people who say Pre-NGE was better are people who haven't actually tried the new game. A game where there is perma-death is a game that people quit after 3 months. No one wants to recreate a toon everytime they die. Hoenstly, i'm said to see SWG go, but it wasn't a surprise, i'll be at the end event saying good bye to some friends, getting screenies of what i can, then i'll moev on.
P.S.
I don't like Sony, they mess up alot, have very bad security, and over look their fans alot. However, don't blame them for Lucas Arts decisions. NGE and the game shutting down are all due to LA.
Comments
Let me finish that last part for you:
"Remember, remember the 15th of November. The NGE, Treason and Plot. I see no reason the NGE Treason, should ever be forgot."
And no, there's a reason I didn't name names. In truth, there's no point in placing blame. What's being done is done. Regardless of whose decision it was, Star Wars Galaxies was special in its own way. I have very fond memories Pre-CU. I will always cherish those memories. I will be sad when they shut the doors forever. I will drink to the game I loved, not the game it became.
The only reason LA would cancel SWG or force SOE to cancel by demanding a larger sum of money for the continued use of the IP, is greed and to force people to KOTOR.
I for one can see through all the eye candy BS and KOTOR is not a sand box and not a MMO by my definition. All I see is another POS like STO with the same result.
I would gladly be proven wrong, however LA and the current state of the industry do not provide any information to the contrary.
IMO, consoles are the market of choice and as a result games are being dumb downed to suit the larger console general public.
SWG did not last for four years before the NGE. It is obvious that those claiming they spent four years mastering 36 professions to unlock Jedi are either ignorant parties that have never played Pre-NGE Galaxies or bitter veterans that do not care that SWG survived for nearly six years after the NGE hit.
Regardless, dismissing the post-NGE game as "not SWG" is insulting to everyone who plays and enjoys the current game and I'm very disappointed that an MMORPG columnist took that tone.
Faretheewell, Star Wars Galaxies, it's been so long since I last played that I barely recall what it felt like. ξ
It was my all time favorite mmo... and the reason I'll never buy another Sony game.
Indeed. I tried to stick around after the NGE, but the community made the game, and the community left for greener pastures. Most expected SOE to at least attempt to fix some of the issues that had plagued the game from release. Instead they created a whole new set of problems, not the least of which was pissing off the majority of the players at the time.
I know the people who still play SWG now don't like the fact that "disgruntled vets" are saying the game was already dead, but it was dead to them. Either way both sets of players are sad, or were sad, to see the game go.
The only MMO I ever "lived" in. To this day it still has no competitor for that feeling of being part of a living breathing world. Top crafters were akin to celebrities, dancers/musicians reknowned for their homemade songs and routines and you spent as much time going to weddings, parties, plays in the theatres and firework shows as you did killing Nightsisters on Dathomir. I already said my goodbyes when the CU came along, but I shall say it once again as you pass into MMO history and time papers over the wrongs SOE did to you.
As for the end being December 15th because SW:TOR comes out then - I don't believe it. EA/Bioware have been cagey about the release date so as not to tip off the competition, so I don't believe Lucasarts (if they had the right to know the release date at all) would have been able to tell SOE, even in a veiled way.
I played this game from publish 7 until the NGE. I saw a lot of things happen to this game and a ton of potential. Yes there were issues in the pre-CU days. The CU was supposed to fix them all but instead Smedly and his boys decided to revamp just in time to hopefully save themselves the loss of subs when WOW came out. All the same issues remained and we had to learn a new combat system, deal with leveling (which was not part of the game before), and still manage a loss of a third or more of the server population.
At that time I had multiple accounts, every one of them were experiencing a constant nerf bat. Better yet were the stealth nerfs we got and SOE never said anything about. You only knew it was coming because the updater would download something and suddenly your avitar sucked at what ever it was they were good at before. We lost a third of the population then too. Thats about the time they stopped reporting the server populations by the way.
Then along came the NGE which was nothing but a deceitful and horrible lie to the entire customer base. "We cant roll back the servers" was their standard excuse but I will tell you that they could have at any time. There is no IT department that does not have backup tapes, CVS and the ability to back out of an upgrade. Okay I can understand not wanting to roll back, but do not lie to me and say you cant.
Population deminished again. I left two months after the NGE happened. The reason was not as much because the NGE sucked (which it did), but because I had lost faith in SOE's ability to make a rational decision concerning the future of the game. Since then I have not purchased nor will I ever purchase another SOE product until their management team is dismantled and rebulit from the ground up. Yes they are a business and need to make money. But it is difficult to make money when you alienate your customers. Think of the PS3 hack... or maybe the CD root kits... it is not just SWG that shows Sony's true colors.
As for what happened to the game: honestly if you were Lucas Arts with a brand name like "Star Wars" would you want to be associated with that? Why did they keep it around so long? Again, it is Star Wars. It will make money (which is what the bottom line is for any company). This day has been coming since 2006 when Bioware announced they were making an MMO. Lucas kept it as quiet as they could even denying the rumors, but we knew even back then that galaxies days were numbered.
Saddly, SWG had so much potential.
Seeing SWG shutting down now is like finally taking your long-time-terminally-ill family pet to the vet to be put down.
About a year ago I rolled a trial account to check out how it was improved (sigh), and it had the same ridiculous bugs it had back then: go into a cave, take a step, suddenly you are in outer space, take another step you are back inside the cave... or enemies shooting at you from across walls... or animals charging you at 150km/hr.... so on. It was really sad to see. They didn't fix *any* of the bugs I remembered from years before.
Not sorry for those who stuck with the game either. If those folks had a bit higher standards and quit back then in 2005 with the rest of us, then The Greedy Bunch might have shut down the game earlier and so someone might have had the chance to make something good out of the IP. The way I see it, SOE cheated *all of us* out of 6-8yrs worth of (good) StarWars MMO gaming.
They didn't deserve the IP.
As for Darth Smed, he's been a liar (since 2005 for sure) and always will be. I feel sorry for the new generation of gamers he will cheat and lie to, and swindle money out of next.
I don't find it odd that every game I listed has a 3rd party involved, because that was the point I was making. SOE has had more than enough opportunities to work with 3rd party IPs and the results are always the same.
Since you brought it up, the results are not much different when SOE works with their own properties.
Everquest was purchased by SOE after it was already a raging success. SOE didn't even exist until after EQ was a success.
Everquest II was merging servers within the first year of operation, during a time when the total mmo market was doubling every few months. Millions of new players were joining and EQ2 was declining. This game represents the very best efforts by SOE and the success it has is often outdone by independent developers.
Planetside actually had some potential, until SOE ruined it with the first expansion and a long series of mismanagement.
The Agency spent over 5 years in development and the results were so poor that SOE chose to cancel the project instead of releasing it.
Free Realms has had something like 15 million accounts created, but it cannot fill up 1 single server. Just imagine how many people would have to not play wow in order for the game to not be able to fill up 1 single server.
This isn't even mentioning their failure of station publishing, the virtual card games or all the EQ spin offs.
The pattern pretty clearly describes where the problems are. All of the problems that led up to the final situation for SWG can be seen repeated all over the SOE platform of games.
The reason why the agency was caned was it was going to use the same combat system that DCUO was using, and we saw how that ended up for the pc side of things. Honestly the agency went into the works right after the nge using the same type of combat system. It has stalled several times as soe was trying to decide the direction of the game. I think SOE saw it was never going to make the cash they put into it, and pulled the plug. One of the few good decisions soe has made.
This! Seriously! No one remembered that NY times article?
It was actually that stupid bimbo from Lucas Arts who masterminded the NGE and basically shoved the NGE through our throats. SOE just bowed and executed it.
Most of the SOE devs at that time were strongly against the NGE, but were forced to execute it.
QFT nobody does nothing without Lucas calling the shots, after all he waited like almost 20 years before making the pre story to new hope so his xwife could not get her hands on half the money. Anything Star Wars has always had Lucas to sign off on it. Nothing happens without his approval, or interference. That is the only thing that bothers me about SWTOR.
In the end, it's all been said before. I only hope that someday some dev team attempts to create a new game that has the social and crafting aspects of SWG, but with a much better game layered over it.
Sure, there was a lot wrong with SWG but there was a lot right with it too.
I'd like to give a final parting salute to the Kauri server; one of the best communities and role-playing environments I've ever been in. Remember back in the day when server reputation meant something? Remember all the player run events?
I'd also like to salute my old friends from my guild "The Commission". You guys were simply the best.
The king is dead, long live the king!
In the end, it was both SOE and LA.
Both were extremely guilty. As the one who wrote this site's takedown of the NGE (anti SoE people still see it and seethe with rage over memories hehe), here is what happened:
1.) LucasArts thought there was "too much reading" and wanted a more "iconic" system.
2.) SOE violated almost every rule of gaming in designing the system.
The idea that this was mainly LA is a myth pushed ever since the NGE came out, as SOE tried doing damage control. The SOE devs on their personal blogs (remember when blogs were something new???) were raving about how fun the system was, and how proud they were of it.
SOE stuck with the NGE being a success for at least 18 months after it was launched. It wasn't until the takeover of Vanguard that they admitted publicly they screwed up bigtime with the NGE.
As far as the game closing, it is the closing of an era. I agree with Raph Koster. The game never maximized its potential, but it did some truly revolutionary things, and many things in MMO's that are taken for granted were conceived in the original Pre-CU SWG. I would've much rather played a title that never met its potential, then dumbed down mediocrity that was World of Warcraft.
To all those claiming the NGE was the end, you just show you never played the game. To those who claim the CU upgrade killed it, you never understood the game.
What killed SW:G was the doc buff and it was created for all those who insisted on wearing heavy armour without wishing to pay the penalty for it.
In the original SW:G you had three health bars. Health Action Mind. Each action you took cost a combination of points. Some more mind, some more health. You also recharged these bars at varying rates and attacks could target damage one more then the other. If your own actions depleted your bars faster then they recharged, you would pass out.
How well you recharged was baded on your race, your own settings, food buffs AND the armour you wore. Cloth armour had no penalty, the heaviest armour effecticly stopped you from recharging meaning that in combat you would be quickly depleted. It was supposed to bring a balance in the game, wear heavy armour, you took less damage but could not fight for long. Seems sensible, medieval knights didn't go around jogging everywhere in full combat armour. In fact unmounted full armour is near impossible to walk in.
You got to remember that in the Star Wars universe, none of the heroes were combat armour. Only the easily killable dweebs like Storm Troopers and Boba Fett wear it and we all know how they end up. So for many classes, wearing cloth made perfect sense. My own Terra Kassi (unarmed) class wore cloth and did far better before the doc buff and post doc buff then armoured players before the doc buff.
But some vocal players couldn't accept this, they had to have heavy armour AND be able to wear it constantly despite the high cost with wear and tear.
So they created the doc-buff. A buff that gave anyone under its effect a recharge rate more then high enough to offset the armour penalty. Immidiatly a problem emerged. Players like me who wore cloth got to be insanely powerfull as I already was pretty invincble before and now my HAM bars rarely showed even the slightest dent.
But then a unique element of SWG got in the way. Crafting materials in SW:G varied over time in quality, sometimes a required material was bad, sometimes good. At one point on my server the primary ingredient determining quality for doc buffs reach 999 or 1000 points. Alderaan roasted duck. I made so much money from it that afterwards I never cared about money again. It created doc buffs so strong that even dark jedi were no match.
Even with lesser buffs it was possible to take on a lair of rancors on your own all at once. No more carefully pulling enemies one at a time, making sure the lair was not hit to avoid spawning new ones. Now a buffed player just stood close to the lair and spawned AoE attacks till everything had died and moved on to the next.
This saw the creation of the solo-group. You needed to be in a group to get the best paying missions but then dealt with them on your own. Teamplay? Only thing left was making sure you kept your group up to the required size, everyone moved on their own.
Oh, there was some content left that was still hard but only because it was near insane. Death Watch Bunkers that had enemies with 100% resistance to all damage types except 1 wich had 95% resistance. FUN!
When a MMO has become a solo affair where all combat is walking up to a spawnpoint and starting your macro... you have lost. The CU and NGE just finished the job.
That said, I’m sure it won’t be long before someone starts up a Galaxies: Resurrected unofficial server.
Heh, and immediately closes again after Lucas Arts sues their shorts off.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Doctor buffs were a problem for sure, but they were a fixable problem. Likewise Doctor buffs were always in the game from day 1. Just most players didn't have them or couldn't make very good ones.
The NGE was the end to players faith in SOE to make good on promises or resolve the issues of SWG. Prior to that event there were still a lot of players who held hope that SOE could somehow fix the game and achieve the potential in SWG. So yes the NGE was very much the end of SWG, because the players left and never came back. SWG ended being a viable product that could grow or generate anywhere close to the amount of money to support a game of its size.
Everything about the game went into significant decline after that event. From player population to content updates to staff SOE assigned to work on the game.
Doctor buffs were just one problem among many in the original design of the game, but it was a very easy problem to resolve in comparison.
It's not true to say that the content people were playing the game rather than making suggestions. In fact, content people who merely were hoping for improvements and new game play made thousands of great suggestions, all which were ignored by the devs.
I know. I was the Medic and Doctor Correspondent.
It was Lucas Arts who pushed for NGE, SOE did intend to have a NGE, but they wanted to wait until it was polished, tested, and thought to be as best as they can get it. And Pre-NGE wasn't great like everyone says. It was full of bugs, glitches, sloppy coding, and broken combat. I'm not saying that the game is perfect now, it still has bugs, glitches, ALOT of sloppy coding, but the combat for the most part isn't broken. Somethings are unfair, but atleast everything works.
Most of the people who say Pre-NGE was better are people who haven't actually tried the new game. A game where there is perma-death is a game that people quit after 3 months. No one wants to recreate a toon everytime they die. Hoenstly, i'm said to see SWG go, but it wasn't a surprise, i'll be at the end event saying good bye to some friends, getting screenies of what i can, then i'll moev on.
P.S.
I don't like Sony, they mess up alot, have very bad security, and over look their fans alot. However, don't blame them for Lucas Arts decisions. NGE and the game shutting down are all due to LA.