Originally posted by Nicrox

Good review its a fair and honest review. Though I'd like too see a live interview with some tough questions asked. Maybe a few other people have some questions and Stradden can do a live interview with Smed LOL.

 

 

I would like to see this too, not only on this site, but in journalism as a whole.  The problem is the marketing types that you have to wade through to get to the people who actually work on the games and have something to say that is worth printing in a responsible article.  Smedley and other executives like him have very little to do with the game aspects of SWG; his job is to put a positive face on whatever is going on with the product and ensure that it sells through as much as possible. 

The folks that game companies trot out to do 'live interviews' are normally not designers, they are PR men who are highly trained in the art of giving answers that are, at best, evasive and at worst, untrue.  Its the same thing you see in political interviews and really any other kind of journalism.  The interviewee is normally someone with very little to gain by doing the interview, and a lot to lose (subscribers, credibility, money, whatever).  The interviewer is usually hand-cuffed prior to the 'live' interview, and informed, either by the subject or the subject's PR handlers, that certain things are off-limits and any pressing beyond those boundaries will result in the ending of the session.  Peter Moore provided lots of great soundbytes to interviewers when he was with Microsoft and now EA, but if you look closely at his many interviews, you'll see very little information actually disclosed, and that which was disclosed was very carefully selected to convey his company's message and present his product in the best possible light, not inform the reader.  That's just the way this stuff works, unfortunately.

Even if Smedley were to sit down with myself or anyone else who writes for this site, chances are that you the reader wouldn't get the answers to the hard questions you want, simply because its not in his or his company's best interest to provide them.

Utterly crap review.  How much was MMORPG paid by SOE to write this?

First off, there is no sandbox anymore.  Any sandbox elements that remain were left by accident, and aren't supported at all.  In fact, don't talk about them, they remove sandbox (ie: non loot controlled) stuff on sight!

Also, the author pays no attention to the fact that the populations in the game have completely crashed, outside 2-3 servers you see no one.

Nor does he point out the HUGE glaring bugs that given that many date back to release should have the Dev team hiding thier faces in shame (if they had any pride), such as mobs spawning (and running) in and through objects, shooting through terrain, etc.

And I find it really funny that he pans pvp in SWG, given that the dumbasses who came up with the NGE in the first place spent the first year of it basically inventing pvp systems.  Just goes to show you how poor management in this game has been.

And as for the dev teams, it's now on number 4, having once again lost both it's lead dev and producer.

Note:  Most of the ex SWGNGE devs have moved on (and through) the DC Online team.  Which should be a warning to anyone seriously considering that game.

I believe that people have to be held accountable for there actions. Players who pay for a boxed mmo  ($60.00) and a month subscription ($15.00) desever answers when questions are asked. And I understand that it cost alot of money to create and mmo. But there was a time when mmo's had the basics such as (Player Housing) (Crafting) (PVP) (PVE) on release. Today most developers throw promises of game features like it was candy too the mass fanbase and community , without regard too the damage they create. Thus damage control comes into play. 

And at time it can be the community who needs to step back as well because they have the power too help or destroy the reputation of an mmo (SWG).  Developers at one time used creative ideas too create a mmo instead of building a clone of a shallow game.

Originally posted by Nicrox

I believe that people have to be held accountable for there actions. Players who pay for a boxed mmo  ($60.00) and a month subscription ($15.00) desever answers when questions are asked.

 

While I agree with the spirit of what you're getting at here, the reality in the business world is quite different, in my opinion.

MMO companies, like any other for-profit organization, are under no impetus to be completely transparent to their customers. On the contrary, they would be extremely stupid to do so, as it would negatively affect their bottom line.  There is no contract between a player and a game service provider; the only right a player has is the right to stop paying for the service.  I understand that people feel invested due to the large amounts of time spent in various game worlds (I feel that way myself), but the reality is that they are renters, not owners, and have no rights whatsoever.

I would love it if devs, and more importantly marketing types, were more forthcoming with their information, but the reality is that telling half-truths on marketing tours and retconning past statements in light of new information is how the game is played, and that will never change.  These guys work for a living like most everyone else, and they will do what they have to do to keep the paycheck coming.

Sure its a little bit distasteful, but that's the way the business world works, and for whatever reason, a lot of mmo gamers have trouble grasping this.

The moral of the story is to take what anyone in the entertainment industry (game devs, producers, etc) says with a grain of salt. They are all trying to sell you something.  The best you can expect is to get a little bit of enjoyment out of a product while you can. 

So did they do this review mostly to get a bunch of hits from pissed off former players that would come here to rant about it?

Let the thing go... there isn't any reason currently to re-review the game.

One thing I saw about people being accountable for their actions etc

Part of the problem is when you work with a 3rd party IP that you do not own.  In general on a certain level you are going to have NDA agreements.  Thus the people who are really responsible will never take the blame and if you talk about it.. you will end up in court.

Not to mention most likely never work in your chosen field again.

The NGE didn't just destroy a game.. it destroyed a community and by the looks of it.. pretty much took one company down with it.. while the other just walked off to find another developer to make a WoW clone with star wars skins from the start.

yes that's my opinion.

I feel sorry for the people they put on this game now.. as they are taking heat or seeing very little return on their acitons (at least very little positive) for a situation they did not create.

Oh and I mis my game.. that's my review.

Originally posted by JestorRodo

What the hell? Yesterday the one word comment to its 6.5 rating  was mediocre . Which I can agree but now it is this -

Final Score
6.5
Acceptable

The NGE is far cry from Acceptable, at least in the eyes of the over 200,000 fromer SOE customers who quickly made it part of their MMO gaming history.

Did SOE squeeze hard after reading the word mediocre because this game is truly mediocre and that is being nice.

 

Very lame of whoever  changed it and proves that SOE's reach to the forum is true.

soe should just pay me to shut up. i need a new cpu anyway.

Interesting reading. I remember when this game was in development, I really looked forward to it. When it came out I didn't get around to try it, and since I've mostly heard bad things about it so I never gave it any more thought. This review still makes me not want to try it, but at least I got an insite into what kind of game it is, which I thank you for.

Originally posted by Antarious

So did they do this review mostly to get a bunch of hits from pissed off former players that would come here to rant about it?

Let the thing go... there isn't any reason currently to re-review the game.

One thing I saw about people being accountable for their actions etc

Part of the problem is when you work with a 3rd party IP that you do not own.  In general on a certain level you are going to have NDA agreements.  Thus the people who are really responsible will never take the blame and if you talk about it.. you will end up in court.

Not to mention most likely never work in your chosen field again.

The NGE didn't just destroy a game.. it destroyed a community and by the looks of it.. pretty much took one company down with it.. while the other just walked off to find another developer to make a WoW clone with star wars skins from the start.

yes that's my opinion.

I feel sorry for the people they put on this game now.. as they are taking heat or seeing very little return on their acitons (at least very little positive) for a situation they did not create.

Oh and I mis my game.. that's my review.

Sorry Antarious but this is a MMO website. Their job is to bring information to the masses. This includes reviews 5 year old games that are still being played. The games may still SUCK and the reviews may be BIASED, but hey, what can ya do??? The game is a POS in its current state but it still has its fans.

Originally posted by jedijef

Originally posted by Nicrox

I believe that people have to be held accountable for there actions. Players who pay for a boxed mmo  ($60.00) and a month subscription ($15.00) desever answers when questions are asked.

 

 MMO companies, like any other for-profit organization, are under no impetus to be completely transparent to their customers. On the contrary, they would be extremely stupid to do so, as it would negatively affect their bottom line.  There is no contract between a player and a game service provider; the only right a player has is the right to stop paying for the service.  I understand that people feel invested due to the large amounts of time spent in various game worlds (I feel that way myself), but the reality is that they are renters, not owners, and have no rights whatsoever.

Remember when UO first launched and 100k or more players leaped onboard too play and create a community. Boths deveoplers and community would sit down and discuss what was needed to build a better game. If the community gets pushed aside then when most launched mmo's tend to have a new trend of mass exodus and subscription drop of the chart. Its foolish to say there is no 'contract' between player and service provider of that mmo.  When a new mmo is seeking players with its new game features and game abilities there is a unspoken contract of trust that when apon launch that mmo that the players have followed for 2 year or more will have what is promised.

Today we see new and old mmo's reniging on there promised features for  their game and jumping aboard another too clone a better mmo. And in that we tend to see a lack of a strong community or stable mmo. How many players in four years have played more then 6 mmo's because they can't find a mmo with the promised game features or deveopler and community building block.

Don't know why some of you are saying this was an impressive review because it's not, not by a long shot. An impressive review is an imparcial one, not one where only the nice things are mentioned. Towards the end you get the feeling the reviewer was trying to sell the game to players as "it's ok, come on in."

You would almost think, Smelly was behind this. Don't doubt it, not when it comes to soe.

Impressive review? Hardly!

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

That was an enjoyable read, and it's obvious that a lot of effort went into trying to be balanced, fair and honest.  Very challenging with this game's history, and well done by the author in my view.

One of the points that really stood out to me was this: "That said, the game itself remains one of, if not the, most unique endeavors in the short history of the MMORPG genre, and would do well to invest a bit of marketing effort in promoting itself as a thinking man's game rather than a clone of the combat-only orgies that are being churned out by virtually every development studio in the business. With deep customization options, unparalleled immersion and roleplay tools, and a PvE game that is built on player interaction and choice, Star Wars Galaxies is currently a decent alternative for those seeking a place to call virtual home, and is worth a look due to an array of unique features that set it apart from the newer, simpler games crowding the market."

This really seems to refer to the vestiges of the pre-NGE game that remain.  On the other hand, the dull, repetitive, necessary questing that seems bolted onto the game, the plain HUD, the uninspiring pvp, the simplistic WoW clone combat, the replacement of a vibrant player economy with loot: these are all pure NGE.

The review in parts reads to me like a review of two seperate games, and I guess that's really what it is.  The original design was indeed a thinking person's game, with rich opportunities for player directed adventure and nearly unlimited customization.  These Kosteresque features still seem to be the game's strong points.  Ironically, these strong points were badly watered down by the NGE.  The second game, bolted onto the first (or in many cases overwriting the first) deserves the critique it received.  It was rushed, it is dull and overly simplistic, and it is a WoW clone that doesn't happen to work as well as the game it copied.

I still can't help wondering where we'd all be now if the original, thinking person's game was simply fixed and completed, and then--as the author suggests--properly marketted as an alternative to the WoW clone culture.

All the time I dream of what it would have been like had all the development money they spent on CU and NGE had been put into balance and bug fixes and new content.

It's like the mike tyson of mmo's All the potential in the world, and for a short time was Champion.

Under poor management it failed abysmally. Now scraping a living of its name, and past glories.

Such potential and such disappointment.

The game was alive before NGE . it was a constant challange the sandbox killer  why do corps use it like a litter box

concept consolers people who don't game, You can tell by the customer service and the forms. Sorry starwars is a violent game

bunny ears? angle wings? sanata clause?

Your reviews suck  you have not played the game with those who know how to play

I'm waiting for the game to return better than ever more advanced.

cigg johnson kettlemore the most famous rebel

5 years and 3.5 of that are wasted time.

it had a huge potential and was the best mmo so far imho but greed made it a poor clone of wow.

RIP

I think the review's pretty fair. I tried the trial a while ago just for old times sake and although I could never get back into it because I liked the original too much I don't think the game is as bad as people make out. At least not relative to most of the competition. If a person already has a game they like a lot then I don't think they'd stick with SWG but anyone who's fed up with all the current games and can't find anything they can stick with might like SWG purely because of the atmosphere from seeing things from the films and the ability to swap into space combat for a change if you get bored.

I was a pre CU, NGE SWG player also. I went back to the game last year and found it lackluster and very repetitive. All my houses, factories, etc were still available however and since I was an oldtimer, I had a lot of bonuses, especially very valuable holos.  Your buildings do get packed up into a big package so they might be difficult to see at first. You'll find them in your pack or inventory.

I tried to see it as a virgin player would, without the negative feelings associated with the NGE and actually, it isn't a terrible game. The new tutorial featuring old Star Wars "friends" was interesting and the Epic Quest line was ok, but frankly, I felt strange doing "hit" quests and performing overtly criminal acts for Jabba the Hut as a light side Jedi.  It didn't  fit the storyline. Of course, I feel the same was as a Paladin in WoW doing the same kind of things.

It did, however, seem barren, even on a highly populated server. There was never the feeling of being in a real city because there were no people. Even on Chilastra, a well-populated server, Coronet, the busiest Rebel Alliance city in the "day" was all but deserted, same with Theed on Naboo. Whole cities were deserted, it was extremely difficult to find a player run store, most had shut down. You can still be a Droid Engineer or Weaponsmith, but it's very difficult to find anyone to buy your products In short, the game had died compared to what I once knew.

I really think that if more people returned to it, rebuilt the player towns, re-established an economy, the game might actually be enjoyable again. I can say that I really enjoyed space combat, and gathering the equipment for my first really good fighter. And the quests in Kasshyk were fun, although difficult without a group. Fortunately, I joined a good guild that helped me.

But as much as I wanted to enjoy the game again, it just didn't stick.  I wouldn't warn a first time player away from it, but for someone like me who remembers the "old" days, it will be a big disappointment.

Find that old tape back-up they claim they lost long ago start at JTL release,and never touch anything but bug fixes and content updates and presto! a game that would have and could possibly be the greatest that was ever made! Of course sony would never do this it would require they hire more then 2 devs to work on it and re-release it as an empire "re-divided". We see so many MMO's now going the way of sony. Simplicity seems to be the norm of idiot game design these days. yeah lets make it so easy 1st graders can play!....