Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by hubertgrove

 

No, all your objections are easily overcome.

Firslty, I am not saying 'Bring back Pre-NGE game to replace the current NGE game'. No, if poeople like the NGE game, then let them continue playing it. I am just recommending the opening of one or two Pre-NGE servers to run alongside the existing game. And before you say, how can there possibly be two versions of the game, then go and look at DAoC which runs two versions together perfectly happily - I believe, in fact, the classic DAoC is actually more popular than the modern version.

Secondly, true it would be exceptionally expensive to get Koster and Walton back to work on the game, even if they were needed. But I'm suggesting they wouldn't be needed. The pre-NGE game worked perfectly well right up to and after the launch of the third expansion. All SOE needs to do is run that code. It exists. It works. It's already been played.

Thirdly, I am suggesting that the code is stable enough to run pretty much as it is, unsupported and unbugged. Would people be prepared to play such a game? Hmmm, all I can say is that  enjoyed the pre-NGE sandbox game so much that I personally would do so. And if, just to keep it running, the game did need support, then as Smedley as always said he would do - quite presciently as it turns out - then all he needs to do is hire some of the boys working on the EMU. They know the code. They understand the dynamics. They love the game. AND THEY'RE CURRENTLY DOING IT FOR FREE!

 

 

WHAHAHA! Perfect? Perfect my rear butt!

Seriously, how much I did love the pre-NGE game... FACT is that it was plagued by a rampant amount of bugs.

Such an ammount of bugs, NO ONE would be willing to be put up with TODAY! As for everyone their expected quality standards and bug thresholds has been raised and lowered significantly!!

Back then in 2003 they could still get away with it, because there wasn't any real and serious competition on the MMO market anyway. (altho they still lost a great chunck of players because of all the bugs... hence the reason they got desperate and started working on the NGE)

Or did you forget that for example, that the Smugler class was a completely broken and useless class in pre-NGE? Wich they never bothered to fix back then?

Have you forgotten the rampant threads about that?

Or how about all the performance and rubber banding issues people were having? (server side issues by the way).

Cheers

Where did I say 'perfect'?

I only said that two versions of the game can run side by side 'perfectly happily'. Which, as DAoC showed, they can.

As for the amount of bugs existing in the old game. True, there were many. But they did not mean the game was unplayable by any means. In fact, a quarter of a million people were still playing the buggy game when SOE introduced the NGE.

Would people still play such a buggy game now? Hmmm, I think many might. I know I would. The fact that this one forum in thos one MMO discussion site is still one of the most avtive forums on the board suggests that a lot of people might also do so.

Sure there were rubber-band issues - sometimes (I played the game up until the end and I personally didn't find that a game-breaking issue at all). And yes, Smugglers were hampered by a lack of things to smuggle. But tjhey could make money by splicin things and by making spices and, with a little bit of Pistoleer is their build, they could be quite deadly with a gun. Teras Kasi artists never complained about the lack of Teras Kasi temples.

I am not suggesting that Smedley should bring back the game with a great fanfare and proclaim it as the next generation game of the future.

Just that he run one or two servers as a niche game for a niche audience - probably around >10,000 players - and generate a nice little revenue stream for the company without too much trouble.

Hell, Planetside has less players than that and he keeps those servers ope.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

 

Where did I say 'perfect'?

I only said that two versions of the game can run side by side 'perfectly happily'. Which, as DAoC showed, they can.

As for the amount of bugs existing in the old game. True, there were many. But they did not mean the game was unplayable by any means. In fact, a quarter of a million people were still playing the buggy game when SOE introduced the NGE.

Would people still play such a buggy game now? Hmmm, I think many might. I know I would. The fact that this one forum in thos one MMO discussion site is still one of the most avtive forums on the board suggests that a lot of people might also do so.

Sure there were rubber-band issues - sometimes (I played the game up until the end and I personally didn't find that a game-breaking issue at all). And yes, Smugglers were hampered by a lack of things to smuggle. But tjhey could make money by splicin things and by making spices and, with a little bit of Pistoleer is their build, they could be quite deadly with a gun. Teras Kasi artists never complained about the lack of Teras Kasi temples.

I am not suggesting that Smedley should bring back the game with a great fanfare and proclaim it as the next generation game of the future.

Just that he run one or two servers as a niche game for a niche audience - probably around >10,000 players - and generate a nice little revenue stream for the company without too much trouble.

Hell, Planetside has less players than that and he keeps those servers ope.

Another problem you have to take in mind is...

That the game was a horrible monotone grindfest. Don't forget that too!

Seeing the increase of discussions, whining threads and whatnot about how people hate Asian grinders.

Well... honestly, SWG wasn't any different when it comes to grinding a thousand mobs to max out some tree.

Not to mention that most of the time you were camping mob spawns with a lot of other players.

The game was really oldschool in that sense.

How many would be willing to be put up with that today you think?

As seriously, I think a lot of the people crying here for Pre-NGE servers have totally forgotten about that.

I myself remember it all too well, in how extensive and sometimes even frustrating the mob camping and long grinding could become. There were days that I just logged off out of frustration, because of all the camping going on.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

Another problem you have to take in mind is...

That the game was a horrible monotone grindfest. Don't forget that too!

Seeing the increase of discussions, whining threads and whatnot about how people hate Asian grinders.

Well... honestly, SWG wasn't any different when it comes to grinding a thousand mobs to max out some tree.

Not to mention that most of the time you were camping mob spawns with a lot of other players.

The game was really oldschool in that sense.

How many would be willing to be put up with that today you think?

As seriously, I think a lot of the people crying here for Pre-NGE servers have totally forgotten about that.

Cheers

Yes, but people still play those Asian grinders in their millions, eh?

What you'e got to understand, what you've got to accept, is that just because you hate a game doesn't mean that everyone else hated it.  Try not to be so solipsistic.

Just visit other game sites and forums and, without posting anything else, post 'How many of you would pay $15 a month to play the old pre-NGE SWG?' and within 24 hours you will always find between eight to ten posters who say they would. Not a scientific method of market testing by any means but, still, I believe, a useful indicator that the game you can't stand is still loved and remembered by other people. I have actually done this so I am speaking from my own experience.

Cheers.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

Another problem you have to take in mind is...

That the game was a horrible monotone grindfest. Don't forget that too!

Seeing the increase of discussions, whining threads and whatnot about how people hate Asian grinders.

Well... honestly, SWG wasn't any different when it comes to grinding a thousand mobs to max out some tree.

Not to mention that most of the time you were camping mob spawns with a lot of other players.

The game was really oldschool in that sense.

How many would be willing to be put up with that today you think?

As seriously, I think a lot of the people crying here for Pre-NGE servers have totally forgotten about that.

Cheers

Yes, but people still play those Asian grinders in their millions, eh?

What you'e got to understand, what you've got to accept, is that just because you hate a game doesn't mean that everyone else hated it.  Try not to be so solipsistic.

Just visit other game sites and forums and, without posting anything else, post 'How many of you would pay $15 a month to play the old pre-NGE SWG?' and within 24 hours you will always find between eight to ten posters who say they would. Not a scientific method of market testing by any means but, still, I believe, a useful indicator that the game you can't stand is still loved and remembered by other people. I have actually done this so I am speaking from my own experience.

Cheers.

I didn't hate the game at all. In fact, I loved the game for it's fantastic community back then.. with all it's social RP elements, the city building, houses decorating, etc, etc.

I too hated SOE for what they did to my beloved game back then with the coming of the NGE! Don't forget that!

You are right! There are still plenty of people playing Asian grinders today... Yes Asian people by the millions!

SWG is a western oriented and marketed game.

Market Testing has proven that Grind fest MMO's are hated by most western players. Hence the reason the impopularity of Asian MMO's in the west!

Why do you think that NcSoft has put so much emphasis on quests with their new game Aion? Pure and solely for the reason so they could market it to the West as well.

--------------

I am not trying to say that NO ONE would want to play on Pre-NGE servers. Hence, I would be willing to give it a go again.

But I am honest in saying, that I have high doubts if I would still love it as I did back then? Spening hours and hours camping the same mobs and mindleslly grinding them over and over and over for combat XP.

Not to mention trying to master crafting skills.

I don't know. That's me honestly admitting that. And I am pretty sure a lot of you people have forgotten about that and how you would react to this game now almost 6 years later.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

I didn't hate the game at all. In fact, I loved the game for it's fantastic community back then.. with all it's social RP elements, the city building, houses decorating, etc, etc.

I too hated SOE for what they did to my beloved game back then with the coming of the NGE! Don't forget that!

You are right! There are still plenty of people playing Asian grinders today... Yes Asian people by the millions!

SWG is a western oriented and marketed game.

Market Testing has proven that Grind fest MMO's are hated by most western players. Hence the reason the impopularity of Asian MMO's in the west!

Why do you think that NcSoft has put so much emphasis on quests with their new game Aion? Pure and solely for the reason so they could market it to the West as well.

--------------

I am not trying to say that NO ONE would want to play on Pre-NGE servers. Hence, I would be willing to give it a go again.

But I am honest in saying, that I have high doubts if I would still love it as I did back then? Spening hours and hours camping the same mobs and mindleslly grinding them over and over and over for combat XP.

Not to mention trying to master crafting skills.

I don't know. That's me honestly admitting that. And I am pretty sure a lot of you people have forgotten about that and how you would react to this game now almost 6 years later.

Cheers

Well, there's only one way for Smedley to be sure, isn't there?
 

By opening up one or two pre-NGE servers.

And, as I've speculated, a customer base of only 5000-10,000 would provide a regular profit.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

I didn't hate the game at all. In fact, I loved the game for it's fantastic community back then.. with all it's social RP elements, the city building, houses decorating, etc, etc.

I too hated SOE for what they did to my beloved game back then with the coming of the NGE! Don't forget that!

You are right! There are still plenty of people playing Asian grinders today... Yes Asian people by the millions!

SWG is a western oriented and marketed game.

Market Testing has proven that Grind fest MMO's are hated by most western players. Hence the reason the impopularity of Asian MMO's in the west!

Why do you think that NcSoft has put so much emphasis on quests with their new game Aion? Pure and solely for the reason so they could market it to the West as well.

--------------

I am not trying to say that NO ONE would want to play on Pre-NGE servers. Hence, I would be willing to give it a go again.

But I am honest in saying, that I have high doubts if I would still love it as I did back then? Spening hours and hours camping the same mobs and mindleslly grinding them over and over and over for combat XP.

Not to mention trying to master crafting skills.

I don't know. That's me honestly admitting that. And I am pretty sure a lot of you people have forgotten about that and how you would react to this game now almost 6 years later.

Cheers

Well, there's only one way for Smedley to be sure, isn't there?
 

By opening up one or two pre-NGE servers.

And, as I've speculated, a customer base of only 5000-10,000 would provide a regular profit.

Sure, with no bug fixes, no content updates. Nothing nada.

How long would you think you or anyone would stick around?

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

Sure, with no bug fixes, no content updates. Nothing nada.

How long would you think you or anyone would stick around?

 

I don't know. Let's ask the 50,000 people who've been wading through Vanguard for the last two years.

LOL

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

I didn't hate the game at all. In fact, I loved the game for it's fantastic community back then.. with all it's social RP elements, the city building, houses decorating, etc, etc.

I too hated SOE for what they did to my beloved game back then with the coming of the NGE! Don't forget that!

You are right! There are still plenty of people playing Asian grinders today... Yes Asian people by the millions!

SWG is a western oriented and marketed game.

Market Testing has proven that Grind fest MMO's are hated by most western players. Hence the reason the impopularity of Asian MMO's in the west!

Why do you think that NcSoft has put so much emphasis on quests with their new game Aion? Pure and solely for the reason so they could market it to the West as well.

--------------

I am not trying to say that NO ONE would want to play on Pre-NGE servers. Hence, I would be willing to give it a go again.

But I am honest in saying, that I have high doubts if I would still love it as I did back then? Spening hours and hours camping the same mobs and mindleslly grinding them over and over and over for combat XP.

Not to mention trying to master crafting skills.

I don't know. That's me honestly admitting that. And I am pretty sure a lot of you people have forgotten about that and how you would react to this game now almost 6 years later.

Cheers

Well, there's only one way for Smedley to be sure, isn't there?
 

By opening up one or two pre-NGE servers.

And, as I've speculated, a customer base of only 5000-10,000 would provide a regular profit.

You do realize that the profit generated by 5-10K subs is considered pocket change in the world of big business, my firm has executives who get larger bonuses than what that would make.

Now, if they thought they could get 250K back, sure they'd give it a go, but they know better.  First, once the pre-cu/nge code was unveiled (and which would you chose btw?) people would find out there was lots of hateful things about it that they've forgotten in the past four years. 

Next, as found in DAOC, the Origins servers started out great, they had to open 3 of them, and then.... very quickly, people realized that once the nostalgia ran off they grew disinterested and within 2 years of opening, the orgins servers were ghost towns....yet Mythic did nothing wrong, the player base had just wearied of the game.

As others have mentioned, the OPS sugggestion is a no win scenario for SOE and they are better off to let the legacy of SWG go out quietly into the night.

lol

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by Guillermo197

 

Sure, with no bug fixes, no content updates. Nothing nada.

How long would you think you or anyone would stick around?

 

 

I don't know. Let's ask the 50,000 people who've been wading through Vanguard for the last two years.

LOL

There is no way vanguard has anywhere close to that amount of players.  It was rumored to have around 40k when soe bought it and people are guestimating it to be around 5-10k now.  That is about a 75-85% drop in 2 years for a game that at least has a development team. 

There is no reason for soe to put up classic star wars servers.  No need to poke the dead body with a stick.  The time has passed and I highly doubt they are interested in making another PR gamble to make an extra 1-2 million dollars a year.  

All of this is based on the simple assumption that soe could even put those servers up again.  I'm not talking about permission from lucas arts or licensing issues.  I am talking about people with the ability to do the actual work.  I doubt they could even get the servers to boot up with the code properly.  

Originally posted by Daffid011

There is no way vanguard has anywhere close to that amount of players.  It was rumored to have around 40k when soe bought it and people are guestimating it to be around 5-10k now.  That is about a 75-85% drop in 2 years for a game that at least has a development team. 

There is no reason for soe to put up classic star wars servers.  No need to poke the dead body with a stick.  The time has passed and I highly doubt they are interested in making another PR gamble to make an extra 1-2 million dollars a year.  

All of this is based on the simple assumption that soe could even put those servers up again.  I'm not talking about permission from lucas arts or licensing issues.  I am talking about people with the ability to do the actual work.  I doubt they could even get the servers to boot up with the code properly.  

Everything you've said has been covered in other posts.

1/. If VG is still up and running, it's because it makes money. If so, why not a few pre-NGE servers?

2/. There's plenty of reason for putting up 'classic' star wars - a million dollars in profit even if ONLY 5000 play

<Mod Edit>

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by Daffid011

There is no way vanguard has anywhere close to that amount of players.  It was rumored to have around 40k when soe bought it and people are guestimating it to be around 5-10k now.  That is about a 75-85% drop in 2 years for a game that at least has a development team. 

There is no reason for soe to put up classic star wars servers.  No need to poke the dead body with a stick.  The time has passed and I highly doubt they are interested in making another PR gamble to make an extra 1-2 million dollars a year.  

All of this is based on the simple assumption that soe could even put those servers up again.  I'm not talking about permission from lucas arts or licensing issues.  I am talking about people with the ability to do the actual work.  I doubt they could even get the servers to boot up with the code properly.  

 

Everything you've said has been covered in other posts.

1/. If VG is still up and running, it's because it makes money. If so, why not a few pre-NGE servers?

2/. There's plenty of reason for putting up 'classic' star wars - a million dollars in profit even if ONLY 5000 play

<Mod Edit>

Vanguard doesn't require any extra resources to operate.  It is already running.  It does not need licensing approval.  It does not need to split profits with a partner.  It does not need a brand new dev team to initiate, research and complete the project.  It isn't like soe has tons of extra talent to throw at screwball projects like this.  It isn't like sony as a whole is swimming in money to speculate on something like this.  It isn't like smed can do whatever he wants anymore.  He has a boss now. 

1,000,000 is REVENUE.  Before ongoing expenses and lucas arts cut.  There is a lot of unknown in there. 

If you were in soes shoes right now where would you put your developers to work?  On yet another attempt to make SWG profitable or on a project that might just do something positive.  

SWG is dead as a project.  There is no incentive for soe to waste resources reviving a project that has undergone countless revamps in the hopes that it might make a buck they would have to split with someone.  Why would soe want to reopen the classic/nge pandoras box to media and player scrutany yet again.  There is not enough gains in it for them to do that. 

They lost everything when they chose to eliminate their current customers in favor of a mythical customer.  Soe should de everything in their power to distance themselves from that image and dredging up swg classic servers on the off chance that anything positive comes out of it isn't the right direction to go. 

Not to mention soe as a company is obsessed with micro transactions and still aim for mmos with millions of players.  Classic servers, no matter how cool it would be, are just so far off this companies radar it isn't even funny.  Even if it would make their customers happy, when has this company ever used that criteria to make their decisions?

Smedley would sell his left testicle before making a classic SWG server, that is, if he has a testicle to sell. Smedley has no clue what he's doing and by the looks of it, will probably join Brad McQuaid and Richard Garriot in the ranks of some of the dumbest MMO developers ever.

I defended SOE for years, but even my love for EQ isn't enough to cause me to look the other way. Only thing SOE has over any other gaming company is the SOE Station Pass, which is probably the only reason 90% of their games even have a population.

Originally posted by hubertgrove

You have the code! You have the servers! You have the baying crowd of madmen just ready and waiting to sign up for double-expense monthly charges, minimum duration three months!

What better way to smother TOR while it is still a mewling infant in the cradle!

Imagine! The same people who called you a bald-headed, doughy madman yesterday would tomorrow hail you as a god whose very name would be a killing word amongst your rivals at Bioware and Blizzard!

It would be a bold, audacious, preposterous move! And it would cost you nothing! It's totally Smedley!

Go for it, you bald-headed, doughy madman! Who knows, it mighy even be your ticket to, dare I say it?, the Presidentship-for-Life of Sony Worldwide!

 

 

Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire?  Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..

http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/1#c19400407

He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top.   That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.

/lol

Originally posted by todeswulf

Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire?  Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..

http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/1#c19400407

He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top.   That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.

/lol

 

And you guys complain when we pull numbers out of our arses. The Massively article is way off because the FTP game geared towards children genre is a different beast altogether. That fomula appllies to adult hobbies not ftp games like Free Realm, Roblox, Pirates of the Car, and the myraid of others. Anyone who has any children at this point can tell you that they sign up and play EVERYTHING but you as the parent rarely if ever pay for any of it because it's all fleeting. 3 million children give or take do not a profit machine make.

And it's Fringe.

Originally posted by todeswulf

Originally posted by hubertgrove

You have the code! You have the servers! You have the baying crowd of madmen just ready and waiting to sign up for double-expense monthly charges, minimum duration three months!

What better way to smother TOR while it is still a mewling infant in the cradle!

Imagine! The same people who called you a bald-headed, doughy madman yesterday would tomorrow hail you as a god whose very name would be a killing word amongst your rivals at Bioware and Blizzard!

It would be a bold, audacious, preposterous move! And it would cost you nothing! It's totally Smedley!

Go for it, you bald-headed, doughy madman! Who knows, it mighy even be your ticket to, dare I say it?, the Presidentship-for-Life of Sony Worldwide!

 

 

Why should smed do anything for those that wished he and his family would die in a fire?  Anyway Freerealms is pulling in well over 2.4 mil a month now..

http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/1#c19400407

He has his Cash cow, and if the Rumors are true and EQ 3 is in fact based on the FreeRelams model he will probably be given credit for single handedly putting SOE back on top.   That should be enough to put some of the more lunitic frindge Vets over the edge.

/lol

 

First of all, there is no possible way free realms has had 3 million people log in.  Not even if they only logged in once and never returned.  It is a logistical impossibility.  

Beyond that, you think 2.4 million a month is a cash cow?  That is less than $30 million a year and I bet you they spent far more than that just developing the game and are pumping serious money into advertising on television.  Soe wont even repay the investment for the game for at least a couple of years and I doubt the game has that type of staying power. 

There are 10 servers with a few hundred players on at peak times, tops.  Basing the 89/10/1 rule on 3 million is a joke.  When the game hits 4 million "users" who register on a web page and the game still only has 10 under populated servers I guess they will be making tons more money right?  Obviously free realms can add 2 million users, but not need more servers. 

I'd play a precu SWG again.  And with modern servers and my new computer + internet speed that is 5x faster then back in the day, the game would be amazing. 

I agree the game had many bugs.  But I still managed to have a lot of fun, and if offered unparalleld rp in an mmo, atleast for me.

If I had my way though, I'd have to original game with the expansions, but get rid of jedi as a playable class.  Maybe have them playable only during special live events by the devs.  They could get rid of the crazy dots too and maybe cap bonuses and defences to make game play a little more balanced.  It would be great!

Originally posted by hubertgrove

Originally posted by miagisan

i predict there would not be enough to fill 1, maybe 2 servers of old pre cu if they did

 

I personally think more but, even if only two servers were fuil up, that's ten thousand players (5000 per server) on a minimum three-month contract:

10,000 x 15 x 3 = $450,000

Cost of 2 x server and getting one fat server room nerd to turn on server = $200 + double whopper with cheese.

I'd say that's not a bad return.

Oh let me try and dig something up so I can put a spin on this whole thing in another direction (bored).

Two servers "full" and servers run 24 x 7....  aka 10,000 people will not fill two servers.

This is actually a piece on jumpgate evolution:

"They're looking for 3,000 players online at once, and he estimates to get the amount they'll need to open 30,000 to 40,000 accounts in the beta."

source:  http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/06/jumpgate-evolution-why-it-was-delayed-how-it-looks-now.ars

Now the reason I go to this is because we're talking about "full" servers which means concurrent users.   Twice that amount (two servers) is 60,000 to 80,000 to reach an average concurrent 3,000 mark.....

SWG Pre-CU isn't about the opinion of anyone (including me).  Its about if they put it up and left it alone if they would have enough accounts to make a profit...  or you could argue more than they currently have.  With the added twist that IF someone actually likes Pre-CU that much... would they actually leave for another "core design".

As opposed to current customers which are basicly already playing the same core design.. but a very bad implementation of it.

That's really what it comes down to... apparantly SOE doesn't think its worth it (as they claim LEC is working with them... ) there isn't much of any other interpretation to have.

I think they would make money... I just don't think they want to put the resources etc into it.. as they think "moving forward" is better for them in the long run (aka cutting lose the dead weight as they can.. ie:  MxO).

Originally posted by Terranah

I'd play a precu SWG again.  And with modern servers and my new computer + internet speed that is 5x faster then back in the day, the game would be amazing. 

 

I agree the game had many bugs.  But I still managed to have a lot of fun, and if offered unparalleld rp in an mmo, atleast for me.

 

You think it would, but it won't.

Matrix Online ran absolutely marvelous when it launched. Sure it had some performance issues and the servers crashed now and then lol. But I could run everything at max back then and it looked awesome!

But when Windows Vista and/or the latest GFX hardware (GeForce 8xxx series and up and ATi HD series and up) the game started to run horrible, full of graphic anomolies and horrible lag. With only 1 or 2 devs on the team, they never got it fixed! Hence the reason why they finally shut it down.

There is a HUGE chance, the exact same will happen with the pre-NGE code. It was written and optimised for hardware at that time (2003) and the NGE code has been optimised during the years with the coming of new hardware and it's drivers.

All optimisations and updates, the pre-NGE codes misses and doesn't have.

This might actually be the biggest issue why SOE wouldn't even want to bother and risk launching a pre-NGE server.

Having people whine all over the internet about not being able to run old SWG on their latest shit and how poo SOE is, idiots who cannot get it to run on latest hardware, bla bla bla... jada jada jada.

As seriously, if SOE didn't even bother to assign some very EXPENSIVE tech devs on Matrix Online to fix the engine for the latest hardware. Why in earth would you think they will do it on pre-NGE SWG!

The only game they do it for right now, wich they hired a special guy for, is EverQuest 2.... because it's still their flagship product and most profitable product.

Cheers

Yesterday I decided to swing by the SWG sony forums just to see what's been going on.   In my home server of Ahazi, a long time player posted some his old screenshots from pre cu/cu times.  I looked through them, saw myself and old friends in a few, and was over come with a desire to play THAT game more than any other game out now and upcoming.