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SWG... fun?
Rylone
Member Posts: 3
Hey everyone,
New poster here and could not help but create a topic after seeing the never-ending negative posts bashing SWG. Before I start into my main topic here, I would just like to give a little background on myself. My MMORPG experiences began with EverQuest in 1999 and has continued through DAoC, AC, MxO, AO, Eve, Guild Wars, Lineage II, WoW, etc. After having tried at least 60 percent or more of MMORPGs on the market, EQ was the only one I have ever really enjoyed (pre-SOE era, AKA Verant and the Vision.) As far as SWG is concerned, this is my first taste.
A few days ago I recieved the new PC Gamer in the mail and along with it came a demo disc with SWG's 10-Day trial. Now I have never been a big Star Wars fan. I enjoyed the original trilogy and watched them with no life-altering side effects. In fact, I have purposely avoided SWG because I just kept telling myself its was best to leave it to the dedicated Star Wars junkies, I would never be able to compete with'em. Just not interested enough.
Well, here I am years later installing SWG on my computer after having exhausted all other MMORPGs and being confronted with the same ole' boring crap. After two days of playing, albeit a short time and certainly not enough to write any kind of review, I can HONESTLY say I have not had this much fun playing an MMO game since my first year in EQ.
I find the "FPS like" combat system an invigorating change. Yes I know its just point and click, click, click, and click, but so is Diablo. I find the system much more fun then going up to a MOB, pressing "E" and watching the ensuing yawn-fest. I can easily attack multiple mobs. This system is especially fun in space, where not two seconds ago I found myself flying inbetween dozens of asteriods trying to take out a Black Sun space pirate; all while attempting to shake two of my six. What a friggin blast! I have escorted numerious allies through enemy infested nebulae, explored an abandoned research facility/asteroid, and hacked into several computer mainframes to obtain incriminating information. (I'm a Spy)
I find myself eagerly awaiting new upgrades to my newb ship and the day where I can finally ditch it and jump into a bigger one. I can't even imagine what PVP space combat will be like, but my trigger finger is itching to take some enemies down. I just got a new weapon that I can't wait to use on some Rak'qua warrior who is just asking for it. Don't know how they think they can get away with overrunning one of the Car'das' research facilities, gonna have to take out their Overlord and teach'em a lesson.
Yes, I know that I have only played for two days. I know all the banter about once I hit 30 its all going to go downhill. But I still cannot deny the fun I am having with the new things that have been put in place. I am still on what most would consider a "Newb Isle" but it is one I don't want to leave. In any other MMO I couldnt wait to get out of the newb section. That being said there are still numerous flaws that I have come upon. Most glaring of which is the cookie-cutter classes. Yuck, not even skill points or any AA. Just level up and get the same abilities as everyone else. Hopefully this will change. Even the abilities leave plenty to be desired. As a Spy I found that I can basically look forward to three types of new abilities. A new increased damage attack, a new sneak, and some smoke grenade ability. Thats it. Definately an area that needs to be worked on. (Including many others)
Anyway, before this post gets too long, I would just like to say that the POTENTIAL this game has is incredible. At this point I don't care what pre-CU/NGE was like. If this first stage of new content resembles any of the other stuff they are going to be rolling out it will be worth the wait. It could be the best of Eve, EQ, and Star Wars combined. Unfortunately, I think the player base that needs to be in place for this to happen is not there. As a current player I really want to help this game grow and see just have far it can go. Hopefully, others will join us in the future. I can't imagine how you Vets feel, but I can tell you I am going to continue to enjoy this world that you have left behind and hope to shape it into something better.
From a truly new and fresh perspective, this game is FUN.
Flame away!
Comments
I'm glad you are having fun. Fortunately (unfortunately?), your being truely new to the game does not give you insight into the great community that once literally ran SWG for about 2 years. SOE gave us a mediocre product and we turned it into a great game. Unfortunately over the last 8? months they pretty much stripped all of the community out of the game to make it more "fun." In the end, if a new community can be built within SWG, then all of the vets moaning will be forgotten and new people will begin driving the "fun" in the game.
For most combat oriented gameplay, the NGE is moderately fun for a period of time. The 10 day trial where you are on the spacestation and giant rock is very fun, and I am sure there are tons of people there with you. Which is great. Things die down outside of the tutorial because the only people there are a few who actually purchased the game recently and the shrinking population of vets.
Anyhow, hopefully you can continue to have fun. I know I periodically can still have some fun in SWG, but not nearly like I used to.
Well said!
But I l recently left SWG after 3 years, this includes beta. The game is a mere shadow of what it was.
Whats makes a great mmorpg is when you got thousands of ppl to play with, not 100.
(To original poster)
SOE are really bad and thru time you will discover this. Right now, enjoy it for what its worth,
alot of new players have blinders up, but in the end, it will be the same outcome as us vets.
Enjoy whats left of a great game gone bad.
Welcome to the game
I'm having alot of fun with the current expansion (Trials of Obi Wan). Finished all the quests a month or two ago now, but I still spend most of my game time on Mustafar collecting Glowy loot for new combos in the Cube. Alot of the useful stuff comes from the instances which gives you reason to repeat them. Seems each time I get everything I want, a new combo that I like is found
Much different to Kash, as once you've done all the quests, there really is no reason to go back.
I too find space alot of fun, I enjoy both the flying part and the ship tweaking part
I'm hoping hte next expansion or set of quests will include more space involvement.
Move Along. Move Along...
I see Obraik is attempting to get his post count up through doubling.
I too really like space. Something I forgot to mention is that if you like it, it is a blast. However, if you truely want to come into SWG for space and space PvP, you need to go to Starsider Server. Most of the other servers only have sporadic pvp events while Starsider remains much more consistant.
I am glad your having "fun"
I find this post exceptionally suspect though. Its sounds like SOE employee verbage to the max.
Alot of what was said is copy paste sony propaganda.
"I find the "FPS like" combat system an invigorating change."
Um invigorating change from what? Thought you never played SWG before? WoW (you tried according to your post) has an "FPS like" combat system. I think this makes this entire post very suspect.
As hard as it may seem to you, people do genuienly find fun in the game. Just because someone's opion differs from yours does not make them an employee of SOE.
I think the OP means by "I find the "FPS like" combat system an invigorating change." is that it's a nice change from the other games out there where you click and watch your character do the fighting. Last time I played WoW, it did not have an FPS like combat system but more like what SWG used to be.
Glad you are enjoying it. For your sake I hope SOE and LucasArts actually finish what they started this time instead of just re-writing the entire game again 6 months from now.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
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Don't click here...no2
i tell you what...i really hate this mentality "everyone must hate the game otherwise they are working for soe". Cause we all know its IMPOSSIBLE for ANYONE to like a game that haxxjoo doesn't like...right?
how unbelievably ridiculous
==========================
As hard as it may seem to you, people do genuienly find fun in the game. Just because someone's opion differs from yours does not make them an employee of SOE.
I think the OP means by "I find the "FPS like" combat system an invigorating change." is that it's a nice change from the other games out there where you click and watch your character do the fighting. Last time I played WoW, it did not have an FPS like combat system but more like what SWG used to be.
OP is capable of explaining what he means. I didn't need you to respond for him.
Look, the guy has 1 post. This post above. He comes in says the entire swg talking points memo and dissappears and you don't find that the least bit suspect?
What does it take for you to find something out of the ordinary? Two headed chickens?
He must be playing on a west coast server. The "east coast lag" issue has been horrid for most players and still isn't fixed.
I don't doubt a player who has played 2 whole days finds it to be fun. He hasn't passed the new player curve that I pointed out existed. You have to log 10 total ingame hours to reach the curve. On my average of standard players. Once a person hits that the player starts to reach the games fundamental flaws with the NGE. My theory holds true if subscription numbers from free trials do not pan out.
haxxjoo, for you:
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=366760
and a whole plethora of two-headed animals. Doesn't seem so unbelievable to me.
No, I don't work for SOE or Lucas
I actually have some contempt for them myself after what they did to EQ. They really catered to the power-leveling classes and not the RPers. (70 dmg 25 dly anyone?) Anyway, thats a different game.
What I was trying to accomplish with that post was at least provide a little positive feedback for a game that I genuinely enjoyed playing even after absorbing all the negativity. I admitted to only playing 2 days which is probably the equivalant of 6-7 hours and also stated a few of the larger flaws among the many. But I couldn't help but think about what could be, I stress "could be", and felt compelled to create a topic.
I am in no way saying that you guys are wrong for leaving or for being upset. I have no idea how it would feel to have my game changed in such a drastic way after playing for years. Hopefully the fixes and additions will come fast and really work. They owe their player base that much at least.
For now I think I'll just continue with the 10-Day trial and see if I run into any of these barriers that would stop me from playing. If I do hit this wall, I will probably just hold out for some of the new MMORPGs. I still can't help but mention that there is something in that game, even if it is buried under a ton of muck.
fair enough
Come back post free trial and let us all know if you decided to subscribe.
Good luck!
mmorpg is now a former shell of what it once was. i mean a total 180 ever since the
NGE was implemented. if anyone is enjoying it right now more power to you, just remember
these two things when dealing with SOE/LA:
1. bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs and um bugs
2. embrace any changes that they deem necessary (NGE) without any sort of debate or
voting system.
i am not trying to down your enjoyment man, i just don't want you to fall into the same
trap as myself and thousands of others did. Best of luck i hope SWG treats you well.
Arnott Nostromo - SWG/MBH dead because of SOE's NGE
Kreeping Death - City of Villians and is canceled due to a horrid lack of depth
Padan Fain - UO/TH still going strong (old habits are hard to break)
I agree with the OP , I am a 2 year vet of swg almost 3 year now . When the NGE hit i left like everyone else i knew . But recently i resubscribed , And im havin hella fun with the new system . There are great things to come for SWG as long as it stays in service that is
. As a vet I can attest to the fact that SOE really does seem to be turning over a new leaf . I havent seen them put this much effort into publishes since launch . Things are still bumpy here and there , but one thing for sure is , SWG is the best and still most complex MMO on the market . I've tried almost all of them COH ,WOW ,DAOC ,EQ2 , EVE ,EQ and many others yet they all seem to be a shadow of what SWg is and could be . NO i don't work for SOE . These are my opinions , IF you don't like them thats up for you to decide .Its a great thing that all people dont think alike . 
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
i like the new FPS combat to its much faster then the old system.
i would give up jedi if jedi could be uber again (and not a starter professin) so i could earn jedi lol.
also i hate most of NEPAL on ahazi...all jerks... lol
It's nice that you enjoy it, but you should probably face facts: The game won't be around all that much longer for you to enjoy.
That's the "other edge" of the NGE being a purely business decision. You don't have to do much looking around at developer and producer comments to come up with the following:
Star Wars Galaxies is dead. The CU didn't have enough players, and the NGE has even fewer -- and this is obvious from reading their own spin. It's bad.
Now, I've heard the argument "They won't kill it after pumping millions into advertisement and a new upgrade". Yeah they will. In fact, that's preciesly why they'll kill it. It's SOE and LA's -- they'll take the short term hit in order to pour resources into more productive areas. A company with a single product -- MMORPG or otherwise -- will stick with it as long as it's actually earning profit. For companies like LA and SOE, it's not "Is it earning profit" but is it earning enough? Factor in the royalties SOE has to pay LucasArts, and SWG needs to do more than operate in the black. You can bet that even BEFORE the NGE launched, the folks in accounting new exactly how many new subs and box sales they needed -- over the CU numbers -- to get a return on their development and advertisement dollars. If they didn't get the box sales over Christmas, and don't have the subs once the trials run out, they will kill the game. Talking about how, in six months, it'll be "good" or "workable" doesn't mean squat to them. The intellectual property is too valuable to be tied up in a game that takes six months of further investment in order to pay off the last investment.
And here's where the "valuable IP" part comes in. The "Star Wars" name. Do you honestly -- even for a minute -- think LucasArts is going to let it's "Star Wars" property remain tied up in an MMORPG whose only saving grace is that's it's probably making more than it spends? This isn't like crap SW titles -- the profit on that is box sales, pure and simple, and the development costs are considerably lower.
MMORPG's try to recoup much of their development costs on box sales, yes -- but they aim for long-term returns off subscriptions. (It's not as much as you think -- servers, bandwidth, CSR teams, GM's, QA, etc all take money -- but it's a nice return once they've recouped initial investment).
The NGE was an act of desperation. LucasArts looked at Galaxies and saw it wasn't going anywhere and was NEVER going anywhere. Sure, they had about 225 to 250k subs prior to the CU -- and God knows how many after, although I am confidant to say "fewer" (many of those who stayed cancelled extra accounts -- another loss). That wasn't enough --- not with World of Warcraft running around with 1.5 million subs in the US alone and 4million worldwide.
LucasArts might have tolerated a steady 250k subscriptions before WoW. It wasn't EQ sized, but it was a steady return. But World of Warcraft ate them alive.
It was no coincidence that the original Combat Revamp design was aimed at remaining true to the basic "virtual world" design. By the point that went into design, SWG was a virtual world game whose players were, by and large, fond of the "virtual world" concept. Many had multiple accounts, and what they wanted was increased versatility, more options, more "to do" and the more egregious design flaws (primarly having to do with combat -- something Koster never cared that much for --) fixed. The original design docs reflected this.
Then World of Warcraft came along, and I suspect LucasArts told SOE that 250k wasn't going to cut it, they wanted a LOT more. SOE scrapped the original design, and aimed at a WoW clone -- hoping to lure some of those new MMORPG players (who learned on WoW) to SWG, using the "Star Wars" name and the release of Episode III.
It was an abyssmal failure. Had they even broken EVEN in terms of subscriptions gained/lost, they wouldn't have rushed production of the NGE within a few months.
So that's where the game is today: The pre-CU numbers weren't high enough. The CU's were a drop in numbers -- something you can discern by how quickly the NGE was thrown into development -- and the NGE, well....."beta" is a kind way to say it. By their own admission, they lost 10% of their user base (more in terms of subscriptions) and yanked in minimal amounts of new players -- once again, according to their own press release. (You can't square 80% veterans, 10% unique user loss, and still claim you got a bunch of newbs in).
The addition of new character slots helps mask it a bit, of course -- a lot of "newbs" are really new alts.
So what are you left with? They're going to pull the plug -- long before collision detection goes in. Long before the game is playable. They needed a lot more players than they had in the CU to avoid it (admitted outright) and they didn't get it.
Blizzard showed that MMORPGs can attract millions -- even outside of Asia. LucasArts is sitting on some of the most valuable IP in the West. They're not going to jerk around. LucasArts is going to cut their losses. SOE probably feels the same way.
Enjoy your game while you can. There won't be a fourth incarnation. There won't be a game much longer.
I'll be sure to give your regards to my wife. As for the "go outside" bit -- I quit the game six months ago. I checked it out when I got the free offer -- figured they couldn't make it worse. Admittedly, that prediction didn't work out to good.
Look, I realize you're upset. You apparently like the NGE. Good for you. But getting pissy and personal isn't going to change the facts -- facts you can't argue with.
Calling me names isn't going to keep your game afloat. NOTHING is going to keep your game afloat. And unlike some games, Star Wars Galaxies won't be limping along on a handful of servers, virtually no support, and 20k dedicated players. SOE isn't going to pay the royalties to LucasArts for it, and LucasArts won't want even that much competition to "Star Wars the MMORPG's" next incarnation.
But it's obvious from your response you've got nothing -- no arguments, no facts, no nothing. Just bile.
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
NGE Refugee.
See, that's what got me about his post -- I mean, I'm used to pointless insults (I used to hang out on Usenet, for Pete's sake) but to that?
What's it matter to him if I'm wrong? Nothing. He gets to play his game, and I'm obviously not lobbying SOE to rollback or something. I cancelled long back and only keep tabs on it because I rather liked playing a Star Wars MMORPG. (Of course, these days I play a lot of EVE-online, and WoW when I want mindless and quick).
So you'd think he wouldn't care.
But what I suspect is that he thinks I'm right. Because if I'm right, his game is gone. But since he can't really argue it, he just insults.
*laugh*. Reminds of the official forums. I've got to admit, I've been laughing myself silly over people whose response to EVERY goodbye post -- ranging from polite and well thought out to flaming rants -- is "Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out".
Do they honestly think SOE will keep the servers up for a handful of people? You have Torres and Smedly talking about how the NGE was "necessary" to save the game -- and you're cheering on people who are leaving? People who like the NGE should be even more pissed at SOE and LA than people who hate it.
By delivering it in the manner they did -- half-finished -- they screwed themselves out of a lot of new sales. (People don't LIKE paying 15 bucks a month for a buggy game). By releasing it on the heels of ToOW without warning, they screwed a lot of vets.
When the lead producer comes out and says "We didn't have enough people under the CU to stay open" -- especially if you LIKE the NGE -- why wouldn't you be furious that it was released in a way that seemed design to make it as unappealing as possible? And why would you be happy when people live?
People who like the NGE need other players. They need a LOT of them.
But besides that, anyone that is brand new to NGE and love it, will defend there so called mmorpg.
The vets and new peeps that still play that game are either hardcore star wars fans or newbies to the game (and trying the free 14 day pass).
Believe me, I am sad because the game accounts I put so much time into is now worthless characters.
And after 3 years of playing and got nothing to show for my accomplisment, well this game can kiss
my ass. I will never buy a SOE product again.
Just put it this way, whatever game you folks play and call it your best. Imagine that company pulling
the plug and changing everything around you, where the game is a former shell of what it use to be.
Wouldnt you be pissed too?
Have fun in NGE world and goodluck with your characters that you create.
5 accounts cancelled due to NGE.
1 master creature handler/rifleman
2 master dancer/master entertainer
3 armorsmith/artisan
4 tkm/fencer/pikeman
5 Jedi MS/MD
And you think the NGE isn't broken? During the last two weeks of my subscription (Dec. 12-26) I encountered more issues in every aspect of the game than I had seen all together in the other 9 1/2 months I played. Mapping errors, failed collision detection, switch issues, over spawning, and the all important inability to complete various missions.
I had some fun with it at first, but I don't like the feeling that sombody was holding my hand and telling me exactly what to do. The only times I had to think with a new character were when bugs were happening. Somthing wouldn't be where it was supposed to be, or an npc wouldn't respond to me. Once I had an agent I had to talk to stuck in an invisible wall in mos entha, I couldn't talk to him to get the mission I had to do.