Star Wars Galaxies: Producer's Letter

Stradden · February 2006

It's that time of month again. It's time for the February version of the Star Wars: Galaxies Producer's Letter. Enjoy!

Hello!

My name is Grant McDaniel, though many of you may know me as Rogue_5. I was recently Producer for the Star Wars Galaxies Trials of Obi-Wan expansion, and now I am the Producer for SWG. I have been part of the SWG development team since almost the very beginning back in February 2002.

All along I have been an avid, some may even say extreme, Star Wars fan and collector since the very first film was introduced. I have collected thousands of various Star Wars items and memorabilia including such things as toys, books, replicas, and autographs, and I often spend my free time tracking down unique and rare items for my personal collection.

The best part of being such a devoted Star Wars fan is getting to work on a Star Wars game. There is no other job I could think of that would allow me to indulge my passion and get paid for it. I recognize the strength that this franchise has in terms of fans worldwide and I respect the core values inherent in the brand. For that reason, I am proud to be on the development team and excited about leading the SOE development team into the future.

Going forward, our overall goal this year is to continue to improve our game by focusing on adding content that offers players the best interactive entertainment experience available online today. We are lucky as we already have the greatest entertainment brand to build content around Star Wars .

To make that goal a reality we will continue to develop compelling Star Wars style adventure content that brings the excitement of the movies alive through in-game missions and story-driven adventures. Additionally, we will be working to further differentiate each of our nine iconic Star Wars professions in the upcoming live publishes. We will start by giving them new abilities and skills, and then access to new things that make each of them unique. Improving our communication is going to be a critical part of achieving this goal. We recognize that our success is determined in large part by our ability to listen to players, ask for feedback, initiate research and stay true to the brand. We want your continued support. Your input is critical to our process and we will continue to bounce ideas off the community, put new content on our Test Centers and probe for your ideas. Together we can take this game to the next level of excitement.

We know we have to earn your loyalty. To that end, this year you will see an increased focus on quality first and a passion for introducing content that brings iconic Star Wars conflicts and characters alive in-game. Like you, we love this brand because of the classic Star Wars adventures it brings to life Jedi fighting with Lightsabers and Force powers; Bounty Hunters battling with blasters; Commandos and Officers leading raids, Smugglers and Traders offering valuable resources, Spies leading us behind enemy lines and Medics keeping us safe and putting us back in the action or Entertainers engaging us with their artistry. Let's not forget the fun we have in space with the best space combat in the galaxy while dog-fighting in legendary ships like the X-wing, TIE fighter and Millennium Falcon. There is no other Star Wars game that let's players take up residence in the Star Wars universe and play an active role in the ongoing battle between the Empire and the Rebels. This year, our commitment to you is to bring back the spirit of Star Wars with more focus on the wars, the characters, the adventures, and battles that hearken back to the movie adventures. We have a lot of fun planned, a lot of quality improvement, and a lot of bug fixing so get ready for an exciting year that will remind you of why you love SWG .

Feel free to, drop me a line from time to time and let me know how we are doing. I look forward to hearing from you on our boards, the Stratics chats (hint: you might want to tune in to the one coming up this month for some news about an upcoming publish!), and meeting some of you at upcoming events (look for announcements coming soon about the Dev team hitting the road and going on some real-life galactic adventures). Stay with us and keep giving us the benefit of your insights. I look forward to a great year at the helm of a truly great game. The movies may be over but the adventure continues right here!

May the Force be with you!
Grant Rogue_5 McDaniel, Producer SOE

For more on SWG, click here.

RemyVorender · February 2006

"We know we have to earn your loyalty."

Too late for that. Good luck with the perpetual trainwreck that IS SWG though.

freebirdpat · February 2006

Ah the carrot and stick routine. I remember this, I remember a letter that was like this about the CU that was supposed to come out before JtL. Basically it was like "its on the way, its on the way, there is a few delays" and then boom it arrives and essentially its a few paragraphs written by some 5th grade english class.

PowderBurnt · February 2006

THAT took 2.5 months to write and get to the community? LOL ::::12::

Merodoc · February 2006

The Producer's letter was low on the content and high on the theoretical, the planned-for-the-future. I wish Lucas Arts and SOE would stop veiling their plans, and instead announce everything. And, if they in the future did deliver the "goods," they would be in a greater position than they are now--which is one where they tell nothing and produce littler.

RexNebular · February 2006

Looks EXACTLY like that fake producer's letter someone put together a couple weeks ago

edgehead · February 2006

oooooooooooo k......

Nothing there to make me wanna re sub.

Bubye SWG

/shrug

pinkdaisy · February 2006

wow,

it took that long to write all of 7 paragraphs. Are we supposed to get the warm fuzzies because he's a Star Wars fan. We would expect the producer for SWG to be a Star Wars fan. I'm glad he has thousands of Star Wars pieces; that must make him a good game producer.

All the hype over the letter Producer's letter and that's all we get?

~PD

Cymek · February 2006

7 paragraphs of NOTHING.

Swear to god these people must be trained by politicians.

SnaKey · February 2006

McDaniel, G
San Diego, CA 92109-2214
(858) 581-2104

He said don't be afraid to drop him a line.

chadzubal · February 2006

At this point how actually belives anything SOE says? The have no idea what customer service is and no matter what they say they don't care what players of there games says.They have proven time and time again the do what they want and if you don't like it too bad.(I quote from there customer service when I used to play"if you don't like are game cancel your account".

Martrae · February 2006

Wow...that was both iconic and Star Warsy. It was Star Warsy for it's sheer iconicness and iconic by method of being Star Warsy.

Cerion · February 2006

Hmm, shows you how much I pay attention to SWG these days...Didn't even know they'd changed producers.

I could be mistaken, but I've talked with Rogue 5 at Fan Fest and isn't he the dev that created the Jedi professions hologrind scheme? I remember asking him what he was thinking when he created it, and he replied (paraphrasing here) "Never would have predicted those consequences (of the hologrind)."

Anyway, maybe I'll check out SWG again in 2 more years once I've recoupped my previous investment in the game.

jigered · February 2006

this letter will not get me back; lies from the start again: 80% still playing?(letter from Torres) yeah right, log in and see for yourself!

Haladar · February 2006

There we have it, written proof that another chunk of the MMO industry is rotten to the core (as if we needed more).

Seriously, to combine the worst franchise with the worst genre... never smart.

This fool talks like he's totally, blissfully unaware that 75% of all Star Wars games suck, SWG is easily the most hated and unpopular high-budget MMOs out there and that his MMO is the steaming rotting flagship of everything that's wrong in the eyes of almost all gamers who know anything about it.

And yes, the first thing I thought after reading that was: holy shit, that guy sounds like Paul Martin/Stephen Harper/Jack Layton (the front runners in the last sorry excuse for a Canadian election) all rolled into one. The one difference in this case is that the politicians were a lot more specific than this clown.

The politicians at least had the good grace to repeatedly mention the Top Polled Issues Of The Day (healthcare, corruption, US relations e.t.c., e.t.c) over and over again and talk about why only they could resolve them. This clown didn't even promise to fix anything that's wrong with this steaming pile of sh$%. He didn't even acknowledge the depth of the sh#$@ that SWG is in... all while telling us how much he wants to listen to the players.

Hmm, perhaps he's only referring to the players that HAVEN'T cancelled their accounts yet. In that case, SWG is welcome to their fanbase, such as it is...

(P.S. Despite what it may look like, I'm actually NOT a disgruntled ex-SWG fan. I played that game for a free trial before the NGE and then again afterwards, playing intensively to experience as much of the gameworld as possible in the first trial, and uninstalling the post-NGE trial in 3.5 hours. I never decided to go for the long run because from all the research I could do and conversations I had, this product had some serious, deep problems. That worry was confirmed when I checked their forums and even then, pre-NGE, I found an army of "I QUIT" posts made by people who had played for a year and felt cheated and lied to. So no, the emotion in this post comes from being a disgruntled MMO player who has run out of MMOs to play).

Erillion · February 2006

Two useless posts of hot air, with no details and nothing substantial.

Yes, I am still playing SWG .. because of my friends in game, not because of SOE or LA. Their corporate rhetoric sounded boring the first time, and has not improved the 30th time. SWG is a nice flight simulator and chat room, but its neither a MASSIVE nor a MULTIPLAYER nor a ROLEPLAYING game anymore.

Have fun

Erillion

pmcubed · February 2006

SWG, EQ2, MXO, what other games are made by SOE that im forgetting~

Rogue_5 if you want to join a company that incompases your passion for Star Wars, unless your a souless demon from the pits of the 7th teir of hell, SOE was a bad choice

G/L to you

blunder1983 · February 2006

Like you, we love this brand because of the classic Star Wars adventures it brings to life Jedi fighting using guns; Bounty Hunters using guns; Commandos and Officers using guns, Smugglers using guns, Spies using guns and Medics using guns and poisons or Entertainers and Traders crying at the cruelty of SOE.

Still instead of focusing on changing stuff we'll use your monthly payments for another half done expansion pack which we expect you to pay for.

And dont worry we'll think of some new innovative ways to blindside you with a good screwing.

Fixed their statement

freethinker · February 2006

that letter was too iconic and star warsy. ::::07::

Marku · February 2006

blunder1983 - best post ever , hehe.

Beltazore · February 2006

You guys should also read this post by Rogue_5 where he at least gives out more information, even though its not all

Named "Rogue_5's Comlink: Feb 14, 2006" http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=DevDiscussion&message.id=23901#M23901

Here is some of it posted my Rogue_5:
In publish 28 we will be making some changes to armor. In publish 29 we are planning on introducing new Bounty Hunter enhancements. We will be discussing these changes in greater detail during the Stratics chat tomorrow night (Feb. 15, 2006) and we will be posting more information on our site about them later this week as well. When can you see a roadmap for the future? That will be the focus of next weeks Friday Feature (Feb 24, 2006) which will outline our live game plans for the next six months.

He also talks a little about traders and entertainers and also that there will be a new expansion.

marooke · February 2006

...once again they are promising to fix bugs...oh yeah, and they will fix bugs...

i will cancel today. not because of the letter,
but because i just got home today and CAN.

damn...

colganau · February 2006

Originally posted by pinkdaisy

wow,
it took that long to write all of 7 paragraphs. Are we supposed to get the warm fuzzies because he's a Star Wars fan. We would expect the producer for SWG to be a Star Wars fan. I'm glad he has thousands of Star Wars pieces; that must make him a good game producer.
All the hype over the letter Producer's letter and that's all we get?
~PD

Strange I thought the way this game was going that no one on the Dev team had ever seen a Star Wars movie or read any of the books because all they seem to do is screw it up

absinthed · February 2006

hi i have been playing swg for a long time now and there used to be a great comunity but now days when i log on there is about 5 or 6 people playing on the whole server you maybe trying to inprove the game but for who there is no one playing it its a ghost game what is happening to it i ejoy this game very much but there is no one around i thought it was supposed to be a massive multi player game lol sort it out

Korlen · February 2006

Same here, I started in early September 2003... and have continued to play the game... through all the horrid changes...

My game times have not changed over the years... but over the last few months... I feel lucky to see at least 2-3 people in the same place...

My guild is reduced to "Sunday only" players who come on long enough to check mail and update vendors.

My friends list use to have at least 20-30 players showing on line at one time.... now it appears empty most days....

It is really disheartening... that's why I don't feel A few handfuls of empty promises letters from a bunch of lackeys can't mend the broken image of what SWG use to be....

Lucas Arts/SOE F*%Ked up big time with the NGE.. and they are just now starting to realize it... I just hope that other companies out there will take notes and not follow in their footsteps.

juzza · February 2006

The thing that really drives me crazy with SOE is they never address the problems. They always say everything is perfect and it is what the gamers are crying out for.

Then why is it everyone I know that used to play SWG quit and went to WOW? They must know they have annoyed so many people and lots of us have quit but they just bury their heads in the sand!

As for this producer's letter. He says he is a Star Wars fan and collects loads of rare stuff. That's great but he never mentions if he has ACTUALLY played SWG!!!!

In the 2 years, and more, that I played the game it has gone from something very involved with great scope (there were like 2 or 3 Jedi on any server) to the CU which killed the spirit of the game to the NGE which is the most laughable change to a MMORPG I have ever seen. Play Battlefront 2 if you want that!!!

Yes, we all know the real reason behind the NGE, it's console ready! It will be out on the PS3 (whenever that comes out). Strange that, Sony produce the PlayStation......ahhhh there is a link there somewhere

As for them saying many players have stayed with the game, yes, maybe the characters in-game are the same but the people who are playing them are not. How many people sold their accounts on Ebay? How many people sold or gave their accounts away to friends?

If people behind the game really were Star Wars fans then that game would have still been the same as it was when I first played it with all bugs ironed out and you would have to work your socks off to get to a Jedi, not just "add water" when you start the game!

Think about it, this was a 20+ profession game where you could make hybrid characters that they have turned into a 5 profession instant Jedi pile of poo poo

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Star Wars Galaxies: Producer's Letter

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