The right.


- Not afraid to innovate.

EQ
SWG
PS

All innovative mmorpgs in their time with EQ being the first major 3D mmorpg and changed the genre. SWG decided to change the EQ format and take a risk with one of the biggest IP's in the world with the skill based system and a full player economy with a more dynamic world than we've seen in the past or atleats for a very long time. PS also was the first real mmofps and I ignore WW2o because it sucks and was never a mmo with the tiny player base. They even bought Vanguard off of Sigil and they probably knew it wasn't going to be very good but they took a risk there and to be fair probably paid peanuts for it.

- Good fan service.

I like all the veteran Rewards and I know its a trick to keep you playing but you wouldn't play if you wern't having fun and I looked forward to getting my SWG veteran rewards and didn't care that it was just house items because it was something rewarding you for playing the game for so long. They hold fanfaires knowing that even with all their mistakes they will be slagged off to their face in public but they don't have to do a fanfaire and its a great service for the fans left lol. Finally I really like all the come back trials and think its a fantastic idea that I really miss from WOW because sometimes I want to give WOW a try to see if the new patch has fixed my problems with the game but don't wanna pay the monthly fee.

- Great unified patcher and Station access.

I like how you can sub up to all their mmorpgs if you like alot of them and save money each month. However I just wish'd you could pick the 2 mmorpgs you like for example and save a couple quid instead of having to sub to all of them seeing as you probably wont like them. I also think the new unified patcher which is in beta but works great is fantastic, it has its problems but its just nice being able to access all the mmorpgs from one point and wooo it doesn't have the timer issues the single game patchers have. This unified patcher works great with people new to the genre too because you can make them download it and they can try out all the games with you.

Now here are my problems with SOE that they need to work on and change.


- Too many expansions

Now I'm not complaining about new content or anything but the problem with their expansions is they're often rushed and not tested and lacking in quality and content. If you look at the WOW expansions that they've been working on for years you see the quality shine through with fantastic hand crafted feeling zones and dungeons which are very polished and bursting with content. Then you look at your average SOE expansion and its like they're more like big patches that often ruin the game. I mean the three SWG expansions were very lackluster and people didn't want instances in the game yet the last two were instanced heavy and that wasn't what SWG was about. ToOW was soooo rushed they didn't even do a space portion to the planet like everyother and mix space quests with ground ones like RotW did. JTLS didn't even feel like Star Wars and it's like where is the Death Star or Star Destroyers? Wheres everything that makes Star Wars, Star Wars. Why didn't they work on putting Star Warsy content to the existing planets? Why did they make cheap crap based on 5 seconds of a movie?

The Planetside expansion was soooooooo bad it destroid the game and the population was just in decline ever since then. We all asked for city type content on the existing islands and instead we get some useless caverns that noone ever went down because they sucked.

EQ and EQ2 just get flooded with "another expansion" every week it feels like and the zones quests they create are sooo lackluster and feel all generic. They don't work on adding value to the game but just adding cheap content to keep people busy and forever making the game top heavy. The whole Adventure pack thing too shoulda been a free content patch and not something you had to pay for lol.

- Bad game management

It seems to me that SOE just don't know or care what direction to take their mmorpgs. Star Wars Galaxies is a perfect example of this where Raph Koster and probably other developers designed a mmorpg that was sposed to be a dynamic skill based mmorpg that players had an effect on the world and everything had to be seemless. Yet instead of adding content and fixing all the problems in the direction that the players and the design of the game wanted they just wanted to ruin it. They added Jedi that broke the game and spent most the time fixing them instead of adding good content and fixing bugs or paying attension to other professions. Then they did the CU and the NGE trying to take it in another direction and we all know what happened there.

Planetside had a expansion that had 3 months to be developed and ruined the game. Then its like they didn't seem to know what to do like add what we wanted which was to make bases interesting and adding cities. Instead they add stupid BFR's and changed Oshur............ complete waste of time that noone liked.

- Rush games to release.

We all know what happened with SWG being rushed to launch and then failed because people didn't want to playa  buggy mmorpg. With EQ2 most of basic features we wanted were missing and it needed PVP from launch and mailboxes etc etc. Now they pay the price because of how crap it was and it doens't matter how much they changed the game since because people din't give a mmorpg a second chance on average.

- Art styles suck.

Everything but SWG just has a horrible bland art style that just isnt interesting. Look at how generic and ugly EQ2 looks for example it's all very plastic and very pre generated feeling. I mean I dunno what it is about SOE but they just don't dog ood art in the games and it isn't a problem with their concept art because it looks very nice but they can't seem to translate it into the games.

- Character models and armour

They can't do character models well too. The ones in Planetside are just really ugly and the armour is horrible kiddy looking. The SWG models are nice but the Human faces are really really ugly. EQ2 models look really plastic and again the human face is just dead ugly. Their idea of new character models in Vanguard is releasing slightly changed and even more ugly......

All the armour too is just really bad I mean look at how crap the EQ2 armour is and then see how they tried to fix that with making it look more like WOW's and that just made it look all stupid.

For me to fix their games they really have to do a more easy to access and better advertised unified website where you can access all their games on that website like browser based games. I really think the main problem with EQ2 is lack of players and too many servers spliting everyone up. Even Planetside the main problem is lack of players and it would be really good to see that be a free browser based game and be more hevily populated with giant battles again.

We all know SOE need to merge SWG's servers down to just a few then launch pre cu servers.

SOE needs to fire John Smedley, first and foremost.  Under his leadership SOE went from a dominant position in the market to mediocrity.  That is the name of their game -- A bunch of mediocre or worse games.

Quality control is something that SOE doesn't utilize. 

they did plenty right...5 years ago when the market was young.   SOE's only problem is the failed to change as the industry did.  SWG and other problems with games are just the normal problems companies have from time to time (thank god its not financial like some companies).  All they need to do is stop making games similar to the old legends of the late 90's.

ever played Vanguard?  complete copy of Everquest.  Everquest 2 is just that, everquest V2.  Planetside and the Agency are their innovative products but due to poor advertising and bad management planetside is lackluster at best.  SWG..lets not go there.

I could be wrong on this, but I don't believe they developed SWG or EQ, they just acquired them like they did their other games.  EQ2 they did make though and atleast for me it fails on many levels.

Customer service is horrible.  In SWG there was a housing bug that caused the loss of my house.  I made a ticket maybe 7 times and every time they would just delete it without even notifying me.  Finally I called them and they said there was no record of a ticket, even as I was looking at it on my screen.  I gave them the ticket number and made clear, "I am reading the number off of my screen as I speak."  Then they customer service guy says, yeah...I see it now....sorry there is nothing I can do about that. 

Another customer service fiasco.  This wookie was in love with me and when I rebuffed him he set up mining extractors in my city with derogatory comments about my character.  Several people from my guild called customer service but they said they couldn't do anything and just let the time run out.  Well, he was a very wealthy wookie....

SOE hates customers.  They don't even like our money, which sounds strange for a business, but there it is.  They purposely do things to make games worse.  And every once in a while, they say they will improve something or change something, and you better watch out, because it's rarely what they say and it's foregone that the change will be worse than the original and buggier too.

SOE is consistently the worse mmo game company.  They make failures and buy other people's failures and then bundle them together and that is supposed to be a value?  Not to me. 

For me their customer service was the best I've ever used and they've always helped be straight away and always sorted out my problems like when I dumped some girl and she deleted all my characters and I told SOE and they gave them all back to me. Blizzard however I waited 2 weeks without a response and I got banned for no reason and it took me like a month to get through to them and get my case sorted out for them to unban me and not even say sorry.

Originally posted by PapaLazarou

 Blizzard however I waited 2 weeks without a response and I got banned for no reason and it took me like a month to get through to them and get my case sorted out for them to unban me and not even say sorry.

I feel your pain. All is well now.

SOE customer service is perfectly fine in most cases but when it comes to the important aspects of the game e.g. the game mechanics and general gameplay...well they pretty much fail completely. Take SWG as an example, i played for ages and got my jedi etc which was such an amazing feeling which i doubt any other game will give me, and then they fucked it right up the ass by changing the games combat system (combat upgrade LOL) and giving everyone bounty hunters and jedis as starting proffesions which in all honesty is a a complete farse. Then EQ2 i played for like 30 mins and i was like...screw this it's pants, largely due to the fact it took so long to get anywhere in that game.

But i agree about the pre-cu servers, that would def bring me back :P

Originally posted by Terranah

I could be wrong on this, but I don't believe they developed SWG or EQ, they just acquired them like they did their other games.

They developed SWG as a partnership deal with LucasArts.

Firing Smed would solve the problems......

Originally posted by pdxgeek

Originally posted by Terranah

I could be wrong on this, but I don't believe they developed SWG or EQ, they just acquired them like they did their other games.

They developed SWG as a partnership deal with LucasArts.

What Happen in SWG  was not all SOE's fault,  LA played a LARGE part of it,  I have a friend that was in the snadbox testing and while he would not give me specifics, he told me they were coming out with the game we all wanted.  It was LA forcing changes to come out with the films, that forced SOE to use the EQ engine with SWG skins.  Only way they could make the schedule.  Now for Customoer Service, yeah SOE Lying to the player base was all SOE and Smedley's head should be Placed on a silver pike and shown on the opening screen's of every MMORPG to come out from now on.  As a Reminder of what SOE did and a a Promise that it will never happen again!

Until they fire Smedley, nothing else matters. Baby steps.

Originally posted by Thunderous

SOE needs to fire John Smedley, first and foremost.  Under his leadership SOE went from a dominant position in the market to mediocrity.  That is the name of their game -- A bunch of mediocre or worse games.

Quality control is something that SOE doesn't utilize. 

 I agree with ya, Mate! Smed gotta go but who would be one to replace him and perhaps see thru the changes that could turn around SOE?

Brad McQuaid?

This thread is so two years ago.  Live in the present folks.  EQ and EQ2 are about to release new expansions, with EQ2 winning awards year after year.  Vanguard was saved from the brink of death and continues to make inroads towards the game it should have been at launch (seriously, try it, if a wide open world is what you want, it's definately your game).  The Agency and DC Universe is on the way.  Sure SWG was screwed up, heck I used to be one of SOE's biggest critics.  But one thing can definately be certain:  they've made mistakes, but they can also learn from them.  They're still in business, still drawing in revenue, and still doing in what I would call a much better job than in previous years.  Just my two cents worth.  Believe me, I understand how hard it is to ditch the SOE hate, they've earned it, but if you find you can get past it, you might be pleasently surprised.

You bet they are drawing in revenue by adding RMT card games to every one of their existing games.

Then there is the Agency, a game designed for RMT from the start. Pay extra for items, entering certain zones,  getting premium service. Whoa!

No thanks.

---

Originally posted by dr4ygon
SOE customer service is perfectly fine in most cases but when it comes to the important aspects of the game e.g. the game mechanics and general gameplay...well they pretty much fail completely. Take SWG as an example, i played for ages and got my jedi etc which was such an amazing feeling which i doubt any other game will give me, and then they fucked it right up the ass by changing the games combat system (combat upgrade LOL) and giving everyone bounty hunters and jedis as starting proffesions which in all honesty is a a complete farse. Then EQ2 i played for like 30 mins and i was like...screw this it's pants, largely due to the fact it took so long to get anywhere in that game.
But i agree about the pre-cu servers, that would def bring me back :P

---

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Brad McQuaid?

 Qualified perhaps over qualified but too much bad blood with the Silig acquistion.

Any other ideas of Smed's possible replacement - someone with enough passion and drive to institute the changes that could turn SOE around?

Originally posted by MickeyMann

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Brad McQuaid?

 

 Qualified perhaps over qualified but too much bad blood with the Silig acquistion.

Any other ideas of Smed's possible replacement - someone with enough passion and drive to institute the changes that could turn SOE around?

i nominate jestor rodo. RODO IN '08

SOE has not done one thing right. Verant Interactive made EQ, which was funded by Sony. When VI was dismantled by Sony, and formed into SoE EQ fell apart. The big suits over at Sony thought they knew how to run games better than gamers. Nope. They are like the Fannie Mae of MMOs. They have no clue.

Originally posted by Binny45

This thread is so two years ago.  Live in the present folks.  EQ and EQ2 are about to release new expansions, with EQ2 winning awards year after year.  Vanguard was saved from the brink of death and continues to make inroads towards the game it should have been at launch (seriously, try it, if a wide open world is what you want, it's definately your game).  The Agency and DC Universe is on the way.  Sure SWG was screwed up, heck I used to be one of SOE's biggest critics.  But one thing can definately be certain:  they've made mistakes, but they can also learn from them.  They're still in business, still drawing in revenue, and still doing in what I would call a much better job than in previous years.  Just my two cents worth.  Believe me, I understand how hard it is to ditch the SOE hate, they've earned it, but if you find you can get past it, you might be pleasently surprised.

SOE/SWG is considered a joke among many MMO players.  Just say SOE, SWG, or NGE in public chat in any MMO and watch the responses. I have yet to see any evidence that SOE has learned anything from the mistakes that they have made in SWG. Is SWG better now than it was right after the NGE? Probably. Is it better than it was pre-CU? IMHO, no. From what I have seen not many other people think so either.