All Posts by Stakex

Whos to say SWG is going to be replaced? We have a semi, sorta, confirmation that there is a KotoR MMO in the works from a 3rd party company (EA confirmed it, while BioWares is developing it and Lucas Arts is the primary publisher), set for release sometime next year. So the game is 18 months away and the developers and main publisher won't even confirm it even exist? Good money say there will be no Old Republic MMO any time soon, at least in the next couple years. So in terms of Galaxies being replaced in the "near future", its very unlikely.

As for your question... thats really only a question you can awnser. I have been playing Galaxies since launch and still play often and enjoy it very much. So some people around here will tell you that, since I actually play the game, Im (and anyone who says anything positive) simply a fanboy and to not listen to what we say. However, while I post to promote and defend a game I enjoy playing... the "haters" around here quit the game years ago, and for whatever reason still come to the SWG boards just to bash, and downtalk the game. So while they might call people who still enjoy the game "fanboys" what much can be said about them for haveing no life, and comeing to trash a game they left a long time ago.

And this is the problem... especially here, your going to get two very diffrent opinions on the game, and what you should do.Now, I'll tell you my opinion as someone who still actually plays the game... take it for what you will. 

First off, its a myth that SWG is dead or dieing. I play on a fairly low pop server and there is almost always quite a few people around... obviouslly not as many as the old days, but enough. If population is a big deal, there are a couple servers that are fairly well populated most of the time. So the games not going anywhere any time soon... because its player base is still more then strong enough to support the game for quite some time to come.

And don't worry about major changes to the game messing up your character more then any other game. The developers have learned their lesson, and the game is very stable now in terms of major changes. Hell in all my years playing Ultima Online my mage has gone from powerfull, to near useless and back a dozen times over... its the nature of an MMO. For better or for worse, the changes the devs made all thoes year ago were needed... some players go did in fact get screwed, but thats life. Its not something that is a future worry in Galaxies.

So lets for the sake of disscusion say the KotoR MMO comes out in two years. There is by no means any guarantee its going to be a good game, or that its going to appeal to current Galaxies players. It might be a game that most Galaxies players end up hateing... we just don't know right now. But either way, as long as there are players in SWG... its not going to be shut down simply because another SW MMO comes out.

People have been predicting the death of Galaxies for years... when in reality the situation in game and with the game is far better then they say. Bottom line: Go and try the free Trial. If you like the game as it currently is, stay and play it. Its not going anywhere any time soon.

This post shows that almost no one knows who was really behind the changes made to SWG... Lucas Arts was in the drivers seat and had to approve all changes and content additions into the game... so blame SOE all you want, but Lucas Arts was just as much, if not more, to blame for anything bad that happened to SWG.

Since BioWare has already developed two decent Star Wars games set in the old republic, it only makes sense that a new SW MMO set in that timeframe would go to them. And sure BioWare made a great SINGLE PLAYER RPG in the KotoR games... but whos to say that any MMO they make will be as good? If Lucas Arts has their hands in it as much as they did with SWG... the outcome will likely be the same in the end.

Im not syaing SOE dosn't have some serious issues... but Lucas Arts was running things behind the scenes, and most people don't seem to realize that.

Originally posted by Teiraa

Originally posted by Burntvet

The thing you forget is that Sigil had no other revenue source besides Vanguard, and when that tanked, the company went under and most people got the sack.

Icarus, on the other hand, has already sold/licensed their MMO making tool set to several other companies, so they have money coming in. The devs have said they can/will self-publish if that is the right decision for them, and all but said SOE will not be touching their game. And nothing certain "haters" can say will change that.

Go read more about it on the official forums and get it from what the devs have said themselves.

And this game deserves better than the Station Pass Graveyard, regardless.....

My point is, even if a company is about to tank soon, the owners will still make public statements that everything is running well, and that there are enough funds for everything etc. etc.

If there are no funds, they need another publisher, and if they get to choose SOE, no fanboi can change that.

And I am no FE hater by the way

That right there is in fact the truth of the matter... even if FE fans don't want to hear/believe it. Not at all to suggest that is the case, but if it was, FE's developers would very likely not say anything until they could no longer keep a lid on it.

Personally Im not quite sure why there is such hate aimed at SOE, and why people say they are such a bad publisher/developer anyway. They have published one of the most popular MMO's of all time (EQ), and saved two other games from early cancelation (Pirates of the Burning Sea, and The Matrix)... something most Publishers wouldn't bother doing. Then there is Star Wars Galaxies.... which brings with it a love hate relationship for allot of people, but even with its rocky past it still has a fairly healthy playerbase and more active players then Tabula Rasa, which was suppose to be the next best thing in gameing.

The only large group of people that have any serious complaint with SOE are the Jedi of SWG who were screwed over with the NGE. Spending countless hours to build a character, only to be told "Hey, now some noob can do that in a couple days" would really piss anyone off... especially when there was very little compensation. And perhaps people who really were in love with the absolute RPG pre-NGE combat of Galaxies, and had their game removed in a matter of weeks, with almost no warning...... thats the only really huge blunder SOE has ever made as far as I can tell.

But the problem there is as the SWG devs always said, SWG has one of the most vocal groups of players there is... and pissing off even a small percentage of them, causes a ton of out cry... which is likely why it seems like everyone really hates SOE. Who knows tho, thats just my thought on the matter....

Originally posted by Obee

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

So basically, what most of you are saying is. If an MMO doesn't attend the E3 show every year, it's on it's death bed? So like, if Age of Conan doesn't make it, that game is dead as well? As many booths as their may be at the E3 show every year, I highly doubt every gaming company has room for every game they have coming out and already available.

SWG may be dying, but not being part of the E3 show doesn't mean much. Hell, Planetside, Matrix Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea aren't listed either. So from your perspective on things, all 3 of those games are dead too.

 

Yeah, all of those games are dead.  You seem to be attempting to disagree with the thread by posting a point that agrees with the thread.

 

 

Do you even play any of thoes games, or do you get your info about them from the same place most peoeple here get their SWG info.... ex players, who have nothing better to do then make up crap about the games they no longer play?

PotBS is not dying, not by a long shot in fact. Ive played it in beta, and play it now... and there has been a stead increase of players and a fairly solid player base. So its really hard to say its "dying" or "dead". As for Planet Side and The Matrix.... you can say they are dead all you want, but their servers are still up. So obviouslly enough players play to keep them up, thus they are not dead. So what exactlly were you baseing that statement on?

Well said Rhoklaw... glad to see some people around here actually think alittle before they post.

A note for my other post... aside from a server merge being a sign that SWG is truely dying, the announcement of another Star Wars MMO will also be the beggining of the end for SWG (providing the MMO is good). True Star Wars fans aren't going to all jump ship for WoW or Conan.... but another SW MMO will definatly draw allot of players other games failed to.

Yes, you are correct... but thats when the servers are all fairly populated, and a merge was not needed. If subscriptions fell to, or near un-profitable, that "to difficult" attitude would change very fast.

The main reason a server merge is complex with Galaxies is player cities and houses. Its not at all a technical issue, but more a political issue. When the games still making money and a merge is not requierd, the devs aren't going to drive off more players by telling them they have to give up this city and house locations because their server is being merged into a more populated one.

But when its a choice between shutting down the game, or giving it a chance to live on for a couple more years... they would find a way to merge the servers, and you can mark my words on that one. At that point, if the populations are that low... the amount of people your going to upset will be minimal, especially because it will be the near empty servers dumped into the fuller ones. At that point you will not be driving off that many players, and the merge would in fact make much more sense.

Ive done some searching for the last 15 minuts, and found nothing that says anything about BioWare saying they were not working on a KotoR MMO.... if anyone can link to a statement to that effect, Id love to see it.  

I do however, recall last year sometime they did in fact say they were not currently developing a KotoR 3. Which of course proves absolutly nothing about a Kotor Online. But some Lucas Arts employies recently fired have said that yes, there is both a KotoR 3 AND a sister MMO game in development, along with a few other games they spilt the beans on. Of course that could be ex-emploies blowing off some steam, but with the other evidence, it does seem very possible its true.

Also, some might be intrested in this.................. http://www.destructoid.com/knights-of-the-old-republic-mmo-set-for-a-2010-release--91216.phtml

Basiclly EA said they might be co-publishing an MMO with Lucas Arts thats they are currently funding in Austin Tx, and the only studio they own there is Bioware. So again Lucas Arts has been linked not only to Bioware, but to Bioware AND their un-known MMO. And if LA is in fact involved, the odds of it not being Star Wars related are very small. Although, I suppose it could be an Indiana Jones MMO...........right?

A few of SOE's other MMO's are also not on the list. Did it ever cross you mind that its simply because some of these are new games, and perhaps the others will have an expansion revealed at E3? We already know there are no plans for a SWG expansion in the next year, so really why would they bring a game to E3 when they have nothing new to show for it? They wouldn't... Galaxies wasn't at least years E3 either.  

Logic goes a long way people. Instead of looking at something like this as a dooms day posting and making wild assumptions, actually try looking at it logicly, and think what might be the REAL reasons a game like SWG isn't on the list. To even think something like this is even a hint that Galaxies is finished is laughable at best.

In reality, the first sign you will see that SWG is starting to die, will be a server merge long before the game is ever shut down. Obviouslly its still profitable with all the servers running... onces it no longer is, there will be a reduction in servers before a cancelation. SOE has done this several times before with The Matix, and Planetside. So its seems quite likely they will do it with Galaxies as well, seeings as its(a much more popular game then The matrix and Planetside.

I played WW2 Online three weeks ago, and there were plenty of people online... and I have never had much of a problem finding large battles. Anyone who says there were only 30 people on is so full of it, its not even funny... obviouslly just a hater trying to drive people away from the game.

I played FoM for the last few months of beta as an LED officer mostly under the name Jon Travolta, with my partner Sam Jackson (we were watching Pulp Fiction when we made out chracters)... and very much intend to keep an eye on FoM: Rebirth and see what happens. 

I loved the game in beta, and thought it was quite possibly the best idea for an MMO in a long time... but when I played the live game a few months later I hated the changes that had been made, and quite after only a couple days. If the Rebirth can capture some of the former glory that beta had.... then I will def be back in game.

Well as a current UO subscriber (account 101 months old) Id say that there should be no "free to play" servers or anything like that... as there is no bussiness sense behind it, and its really unfair to thoes who have paid for the game all these years. 

Also, UO would be a terrible game for a system where you only pay real money for ingame items, perks like houseing, and other content not availible to thoes who opt not to pay any money. Systems like this normaly make it extreamly hard on people who choose not to pay, and make it near impossible to play the game. Shot Online is a great example... try to level in SO without buying a double XP item. Its nearly impossible. Not to say this dosn't already happen in UO with people buying in-game cash with real money.... but thats far less widespread.

Things that could change for UO in terms of billing that would be nice, and well recieved by thoes who actualy play the game would be a reduction in monthly cost, perhaps to something between $7-10 a month, makeing it well below the standard $15 so it appeals to more people, followed by a new expansion and a big media push.

Originally posted by randomt

Ya know.. I think soe should put up a classic server for a month or two just for fun.. so that we can laugh when you all turn around and leave after realising that pre-nge was no better than post nge in the first place, and laugh even more when they complain that there's only 30 people online at any given time.

 

Ludicrous.  You people are.

 

QFE.... see my post above. Tho this would not be possible, I would love to see it.

Originally posted by Fishermage

 

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Originally posted by salvaje

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Originally posted by summitus

 

 

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Originally posted by Asmiroth20

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Originally posted by Darean002

 

 

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Originally posted by salvaje

 

I've not paid for the game in nearly a year.  But I get a trial on any of my old accounts at almost any time so I check in from time to time.
Nice try.
This is one of the fanboi tricks that are tried from time to time to somehow disqualify us from saying anything about the NGE.  It goes like this:
"Ok, you don't play the game, so you can't comment on it"
Then evolves to:  "AHA!  GOTCHA!  You PLAY the game, you hypocrite!"
This line of argument= FAIL.  Almost all of us practically get spammed with free trials on our own accounts, and any of us can use the regular 14 day trial at any time to check the game out.  So we can stay current in being able to critique the "great" work of this Dev team without paying SOE a red cent.
 

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Thats all good and well salvaje, but it raises a greater question. If you hate the game so much, why do you still invest your time in it? I mean, you're obviously spending a decent amount of time with each free trial to check out each new publish.
 
To truly evaluate a new publish and its new instances (for example) that means you've taken the time to do the pre-req quests and then run each new instance. So lets see, thats about 2 hours per each pre-requisite quest, and an average of 2-4 hours per instance. Thats quite alot of time you must be investing to do each instance (2*4+4*3 = 20 hours, give or take).
So that makes me wonder: if you hate the game so much, why are you still investing your time and energy in it? Ok, fantastic, I'm glad you're not wasting your hard earned dollars, but its still quite an investment from you if you know the each publish as well as you claim to.
So really, my point doesn't change and your argument is still invalid.
You're either still investing lots of time in it (as a non-paying returning veteran) or your logic = FAIL. Which is it?

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    What he does is what I do every now and then.  He pops in to see how the game is for a little spark of nostalgia and finds out that the trainwreck is still in progress.  Yes, we do spend a lot of time talking about the game that we used to play.  I guess it's cause it was trashed so suddenly (June 2003? to November 2005).  Other games fade out of mind eventually, but SWG didn't get that chance.  SOE burned it out too soon which leaves us wanting closure, if that makes sense. 
    SWG is dead.  I don't mean that in the sense that there's nobody playing it (although there is a remarkably noticeable population problem they're having), I mean the magic that the game used to have.  Whenever I logged in, I felt like I was really in the Star Wars universe.  It's really sad when I log into the game with the same name and find that it's just a shell, just a game and not a world anymore.  Immersion, customization and community were all intertwined making it perfect for me.  Made it perfect for a great many people.

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Well ok mister annoying blue text , let me quote his sig the shall  I ?
 
"The veterans are NEVER going to come back to the the game as long as it's the NGE.
Get over it."
there we go thats not hard to understand now is it ? .. or does never not really mean never eh

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$ logging into a trial to SOE= $0
I occasionally (maybe once every couple months) will log into a trial just to see if the population of Bloodfin has gone up or down.  It's down.
Also, I do this so as to NOT be ignorant of how the game currently is which allows me to continue to blow the arguments of fanbois out of the water.
Which is why you guys keep wanting to hang some sort of "hypocrite" label on me, because I am the one guy you can't refute and it bugs the shit out of you.
 

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Plus he has people like me who still pay, still play, and also play on Bloodfin. I can say the DEVs have not learned their lesson from the NGE, are still developing the game in the same way, and the populations are NOT growing. I want the best for the game and am not technically part of this boycott (although I certainly would have more accounts if they weren't so bad).

 

What is best for the game would be to apologise, fire Smedley, and opem Classic Servers YESTERDAY. Sadly, they don't listen to my sound business advice.

I am technically taking the SOE "side," doing my best for them, but I won't lie for them, as many others do here. The game is screwed; they aren't making it better, and the population is still falling, due to the mistakes they are still making. Sure, some people are having fun, but more people keep paying for a game they hate because it's the only Star Wars MMO there is.

Such is the power of brand loyalty, of which I am unabashedly afflicted. That being said, it helps when one has the disposable income, which I do, and one is not a boycotter, being one who would rather get his hands nice and dirty and fight the good fight from within. Plus I find my way more fun all around, and that's what MMO's are all about, entertainment, right?

This is MY entertainment and my own way of enjoying a game I used to love, in a galaxy that now seems VERY far, far away.

 

However most people seem to forget... the "Classic" SWG you talk of was no better then the NGE. It was a game that was full of bugs, glitches, dozens of unfinished professions, and just as many complaints. Its a total myth that the NGE was the sole thing that caused alot of very happy SWG players to suddenly up and quit. The truth of the matter is the game was in a vary sad state long before the NGE was ever a thought, and "classic" severs would do absolutly no good but to remind people of how bad the game was back then. If you recall... back in thoes "classic" days, everyone complained and bitched that the combat was broken, most of the professions were lacking content, and the game had more bugs then a rainforest. Thoes were the "WE NEED A COMBAT UPGRADE!" days... and the devs spent months working on a combat upgrade that really pissed more people off then it pleased. The CU made the game slower, brought in more bugs, and didn't really fix the core issues.

SWG had several fundamental flaws when it launched. The biggest by far was way too many professions... most of which had very little content at launch. Alot of former players refuse to admit that condensing the professions was a good idea. But it was not only a good idea, it needed to be done. You can't keep a steady flow of good content into a game for everyone when you have 30 professions. You can do maybe 2-3 professions a publish, and the whole time every other professions screaming "Why not us" or "When are we next". With only nine professions, SWG is a much better game in terms of content development. If there were only nine professions at launch no one would have complained.

IMHO SWG died the day the CU failed... alot of people who held out hope for change at that point left the game never to come back. Most people point to the NGE as dooms day, but that was just the final straw for thoes who were left after the CU (of course i refer to thoes who had fault with the game). On the two servers I played on the population dropped off considerably between the NGE and CU. While after the NGE it fell, but not nearly as much. Like it or not, the NGE actually fixed many of the fundamently flaws that were in the game since launch. Its presentation was bad, but the changes themself were needed for the game to have any possible future.

Im not a SOE fanboy, and in fact in my time on the SWG board most of my posts are SOE bashing. I think they have made several bad mistakes and done alot of very bad things to the community. Its their fault the game is in the somewhat sorry state its in. But SWG has never been a better game then it is right now. Theres not nearly as many bugs, all professions have a pretty good amount of content, alot of things removed pre-CU have returned at least to an extent, and SOE does seem to have learned some lessons from the past no matter what anyone says. Saying they haven't learned anything becuase Smedly isn't fired or there are no pre-CU servers is utter BS. Smedlys only mistake was not letting the community know about the NGE plans sooner (even tho thats not his job as president, but rather htat of the devs and CR... no one even knew who he was till he made the appology shortly after the NGE release). And Pre-CU servers would be comperable to developing another game from scratch since, as the devs have said several times, all the old code was scrapped. Not to mention sony would have to run two dev teams to keep both sever types up and running. Like it or not, the old SWG days are gone... either enjoy the new game, or wait till the KotoR MMO (not confirmed, but were not all stupid) comes out.

And one last point... I, as an active player, do disagree that the game is totally dead. Idiots like salvaje can say what they want... but SWG has come along way, the content is better now, and the player levels aren't as low as most SWG haters play them up to be. They are far from the numbers for the first year, but they have in fact climbed slowly since after the NGE. Its hard to notice that when you only hop in the game from time to time. Either way tho... if SWG was first release as it is today, it would be a blockbuster hit. Plain and simple. But unfortunatlly, SWG has a very troubled past and alot of bad blood surrounding it.

Originally posted by wrekognize

People like to talk about how a MMORPG is going to die.  Heck, people have been saying Ultima Online will end for 10 years, and it's still alive as ever.

...

Very good point here... I should know, since I have been playing UO for 8 years now. 

But while UO is still quite a lively game, it is not nearly the power house it once was. And tho WoW will not "die" for a long time... it will fall from its current MMO dominance status long before it does, and that quite likely will happen a lot faster then most people think. Possibly in the next couple years.

I'll say up front that I have played, and do not like WoW... but Im not a WoW hater. In my opinion the developers looked at what worked in past MMO's, crammed it all in one game that was easy and user friendly and BAM.... instant success. You have to admire the developers for this. Over the last two years it has seemed inconcievable that WoW would fall from dominance anytime in the next 5-6 years... so why do I feel WoW will make the fall long before then? Several reason... 

First of all, what makes WoW such a success will ultimatly be its un-doing. Content and feature wise, wow has almost NO inovation at all. It borrowed almost everything about the game from past games, and presented it in a more user friendly way. But at the end of the day, WoW is still just every MMO from that past. So in the next couple years, if a few high profile MMo's come out and are able to present something new and entertaining to the MMO scene... they will draw alot of veteran MMO players with the promis of something diffrent.

Secondly, along the lines of the first point... WoW's popularity is not becuase its such a great game that it blowing away a ton of other very good, high popularity MMO's. Its becuase the MMO market is very weak right now, and most other big name MMO's are getting pretty old, or are very complicated to play.  Also on this point... WoW has had considerable fan fair the last 3 years. This fan fair has drawn ALOT of players to WoW and is likely responsible for a conderable portion of its player base. Think, if your new to the MMO scene, your probly going to pick the game with the most press (especially since alot of WoWs press said it was a great starter MMO). But this press has died off alot in the last few months... and will continue to do so. As a new generation of MMO's come out, more and more players will leave WoW for something new, and new MMO players will not be as drawn to WoW as they once were. 

Another issue that not many people think about that will have a serious effect on WoW (and all MMO's for that matter) is the economy. The economy is down, cost of living and gas are up and games are the first to go for many when money is tight. I know 3 people who recently canceled WoW accounts because they simply cannot afford it right now. Of course this should effect all games... but I feel WoW, and all older MMO's will feel it more. Wow has such a huge fan base, its will see by far the most players quit from such problems. And at least a decent percentage of thoes that do quit will move on to new games when they come back. Now this only applys to North America (which has 2.5 million WoW players)  as Im not really sure of the status of the econmy in the rest of the WoW gaming world.

Next, WoW is over 3 years old now. Blizzard says it has 10 millon subs (5.5 million of which are in Asia, a market not many MMO's target, especially China), which is a great number for a 3 year old MMO. But thoes numbers will start to fall in the near future, and WoW will naturaly start loseing players and the amount joining will drop with age. Of course expansions can slow this down, or even stop it for a bit if the expansions are of good quality and add alot to the game. But becuase of the problems mentioned by the OP, I doubt this will happen for WoW. Blizzard could probly survive a drop of 90% in its player base, and still have the game be very profitable. So it dosn't have to constantly develop alot of new content and try hard to please as many people as it can for fear the game will stop being profitable.........yet.

Lastly... Another MMO from Blizzard will also be bad for WoW (not neccisarily bad for Blizzard tho). Alot of people will quit to play it, and if its the same thing as WoW bundled into another game, its going to fail, at least to people who are tierd of WoW. Its going to be a test for Blizzard... they are actually gonna have to do more then use things from old games, and make a new entertaining game from scratch. If its the same old same old... thoes who quit WoW to play it will likely jump ship. Some will go back, other won't. 

I don't mean to single WoW out here, and Im by no means saying anything bad about WoWers... all MMO's rise and fall over time. As I said, Ive been a UO player since its hay day... Ive seen it rise to the top, and then slowly fall over the last few years years or so. All games will deal with alot of these problems, but WoW's size and popularity cause it other uniqe problems. And while none of these issues will drain a large enough amount of players to really hurt the player base, together they can put a serious dent in it over a fairly short period of time. Even still... WoW will be a formitable MMO for a long time to come. Just how long will WoW maintain its dominace tho? Thats the real question. I personally feel in 2-3 years we will be talking about how some other MMO has over taken WoW as the dominant game. Or.... the more likely scenario, we will be talking about how several games have risen and leveled the playing field with WoW.... which would in fact be the best thing for the MMO world.  

Thanks to anyone that actually read all that... 

Wow...  you basiclly called everyone who likes the game blind, saying your the only one who can see. If thats not a troll I don't know what is. I can tell you that SOE has no problem with complaints, or speaking out against them, as long as you follow forum rules. The grievences you have had are nothing SOE is going to run and hide from... but seeing a sample of your posts, its no wonder you have been warned so many times.

Im a SWG player since launch... and believe me, Ive had my fair share of problems with SOE. Ive made alot of post that were definatlly not in favor of SOE or the game, and never once had a problem. Why? Becuase they were always mature post, that stayed within the forum rules... Ive even had devs respond to and get into lengthy talks in some of the posts. Believe it or not, the devs do want to listen (even SOE devs) and will talk to the mature part of the community.

 I agree with thoes who say your lucky they didn't ban you... so just be happy with that and drop it.