All Posts by MetaSeven

If you like the good old stuff, Warhammer is right there for you and it is raw. Combat is like as it was ten years ago and it's raw as in half-baked. That doesn't prevent them from hyping it to the max. And there is Age of Conan, the even more hype title. The most people probably still believe it has the features, it aggressivly agitated daily for ages, because they missed the meek statements that their action combat won't have that much action because of technical problems and such. You get more some more blood, but no drunken brawling. Both games have been delayed several times. And then you have Spellborn. The comparing is almost odd. Two big hype gorillaz with hordes of fans and the puny arty game from europe in between. It indeed looks suspicious that they always seem to push the date back, when the release day comes closer. But, they also announce that they found publishers and such, so they seem to grow everytime, where the gorilla titles always have worldwide partners built-in anyway.

Its apparently true, people stick to heavy advertisement of even scapped features and extolments of how great and über-next-gen their game is, especially when there is the US label sticking somewhere (IP or company). If a game ramps up, without that much false promises and vapour features, like TCOS, it has to make its way first. People = Dumb Sheep. Devs learn: lie, manipulate, hype, announce vapour features. People gonna buy that.

I think the hype meter is a good way to see the buzz generated by marketing, (mostly) announcing bogus features in interviews, give wrong impressions of the state of the game. The current hype meter leader Age of Conan for example fed us with interviews explaining features that didn't made into the game (like drunken brawling), endlessly bragging with a new combat system that was scapped due to technical difficulties and some other things that somehow made it through the NDA barrier. If you know how Warhammer actually looks in game, you know why they generally prefer to show concept arts.

the hype meter is perfect, as it does not care about judgement. Unfortunately, a meter is not invented yet to show the actual quality and anticipation of a product, like honest features, honest screenshots from the game and such ;)

Knight armor was effective on horsebacks versus other warriors at some point. The historical context matters here. With other weapons and fighting styles and other social developments this became obsolete. Naked vs Armored is therefore a wrong approach, moreso that it has little to do with games or Spellborn especially.

Originally posted by Alboin

to MetaSeven: good points indeed. Although as I see  it  they're not improving anything, but just simulating some activity to keep at least current subscription base paying. Doubtfully they can come up and say: "Thats it, folks, we're pulling the plug next year". They will be simulating some activity and re-packaging old features selling them as new - very very cheap way to keep customers paying. At some point - will it be SWG2, KOTOR or whaever onlinestarwarsy - current swg will be down, cause probably the best franshise in the entertainment business was treated like a dock hooker.

What I don't understand is if there is any confirned knowledge about SOE's license being exclusive or not. I tried googling only fan speculations founded.

I know very well where you are coming from and I agree that they do not 'really' improve the game from our point of view, as one can see quite easily that they reboil the same things for years. They just ressurrected Aurellia and pimped it with some attrite assets they haven't already overused a thousand times. They introduced some more grind what they euphemistically call 'collections', which is in nothing more than, in fact, a highscore (whoohoo) so that the folks can get overexcited that they killed a few hundreds of quenkers and see their name displayed on a website. To be fair, they also added new instances. In one you can earn a bullhead as a backpack. True story.

With all polemics, they do not 'simulate activity'. They in fact add things to the game. Nothing to write home about it for us, although there are some people who like it. There are people who even play monotonous asia grinder games which jumped the shark years ago - each to his own.

The exclusive license or non-exclusive license was some informed speculation. Mister Smedley and the Jake Neri have said they will continue with SWG and exclusive/non-exclusive license stuff is much more reasonable than 'pulling the plug'.

Ok, they didn't mention KOTOR … well …

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LucasArts and BioWare Corp. to Create Ground-Breaking Interactive Entertainment Product

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and EDMONTON, CANADA -- October 30, 2007 -- LucasArts and BioWare Corp. today announced that they have entered into an agreement to create an interactive entertainment product. The product, details of which will be unveiled at a later date, will be developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, and will push the boundaries of the gaming market by utilizing the strengths of both companies to deliver an innovative, high-quality experience. [Read More]

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Wall of Text has hit for 235000 damage.

It's likely that LucasArts grants a temporary exclusive license for the companies they work with, so that not two identical games are released (e.g. two Star Wars RPGs at the same time). Yet, exclusive licenses will be temporary and after a given period of time translated to simple non-exclusive licenses.

Therefore, John Smedley and Jake Neri can talk about long-time commitment with Star Wars Galaxies for another ten years or more but that doesn't prevent LucasArts (with another company) from producing a second Star Wars MMO title. Star Wars Galaxies is over four years old. It was just around five years between the two EverQuest titles.

In case LucasArts wants to stay in the MMO market, they probably produce another MMO and in fact, they were approached several times (but declined officially). Star Wars Galaxies was always discussed controversially and was never as successful as it should have been, yet was still successful from the business perspective.

Finally, both companies cooperatively produce and work on Star Wars Galaxies. Any change and addition needs approvement from LucasArts. It's entirely wrong to blame SOE alone. So when LucasArts decides to work with someone else (like Bioware), it's probably not based on incompetence on SOEs part, but probably to exploit the highly successful KOTOR brand (which is partially Biowares franchise!).

I think it is likely due to a number of reasons:

1. Nancy McIntyre (LucasArts marketing) hinted in the infamous NGE interviews that they like to have a »SWG2« at the end of the decade (look it up, I am not sure if she even talked about 2008/2009). Of course, a lot will have changed since then (especially due the the NGE debacle), but that indicates the willingness to continue in the MMO market.
2. The MMO market is dominated by large brands and franchises. Part of World of Warcrafts success is the known and acclaimed Warcraft brand, established years before. KOTOR is similar in this regard, as that it created a known and acclaimed franchise known among PC gamers (unlike Star Wars for itself). The KOTOR franchise belongs partially to Bioware (as George Lucas himself has noted that he maybe wants to take the franchise someday to make something out if it, e.g. TV).
3. There is the likelihood that the exlcusive license is translated into a non-exclusive license after a couple of years, so that Star Wars Galaxies cannot be the reason that prevents another Star Wars related MMO. Five years of an exclusive lifespan seems reasonable (see EverQuests). SWG is more than four years old. Another Star Wars MMO game till the end of the decate and the KOTOR rumor fits that schedule perfectly.

A final sentence on topic. The lack of Expansions and the relatively long interval between chapters as well as the known and visible lack of new art and content are no good omens, not the fact that it is available as Direct Download only. Star Wars Galaxies improves somehow (just into another direction than many of us would like to see).