Originally posted by Raltar

 

So.... Blu-Ray won the format war even though nobody is using it because SOMEDAY they MIGHT POSSIBLY use it? Thats sort of the same as if I were to claim that Electronic Arts won the next console war by releasing a console they haven't made yet because they might someday make that console and we might someday all own one. But really, what are the chances that will happen? And even if any of that came true how would it alter any of the rest of what has been said here about Sony? Seems to me I'm not the only person here who wants the facts to change to fit his own notions of what is right and wrong.

And I have no doubt that the Sigil team lied about the quality of their work. In the industry these days it seems that being a lair who never gets within ten feet of a computer is the road to success (just look at Richard Garriot) so it only makes sense that most of the guys at Sigil would have made that their goal. But look at this from the perspective of Sony, they obviously knew what the score was when one of their own former employees came crawling back to them to beg for mercy after flushing several years of his life down the toilet on a game he wasn't able to finish himself. They knew what they wanted out of the deal and they got it. The customers who bought the game are the ones who got the shaft.

Originally posted by Baikal

 

 

FYI....I'm really not trying to call you out, or be offensive, but it's amazing how we let our feelings get in the way of reality, and I know I'm guilty of that sometimes as well. SOE just isnt my hot button (and I'm not sharing which company is, but I know talking about it makes me see red, and disregard facts!) I think maybe Sony is that company for you!

 

You really have no idea what you are saying here. I'm no fan of Sony but I also have no love for any other company in this industry these days either. In fact, I've always been very negative of many companies. For about ten years I ran an Anti-Sega website telling people about the various lies spoken and failed products of that company (I started around the time they began their "Blast Processing" nonsense and lost interest when dancing on the grave of the Dreamcast went out of style). I've never had anything nice to say about EA. I regularly retell the story of how the Shadowbane developers were liars and how their public relations manager had a criminal record. You can see my posts here on this forum about Dark and Light for yourself. And the Warnings "Amazing" Avery made sure I got for my posts in the Age of Conan forum. Not to mention I just recently got banned from the Gametap website for "insulting" their moderators after they got bought out by a european company called Metaboli that forced them to downgrade their services to a broken beta system for obviously moronic reasons.

So if I have a "hot button" then it would be the entire video game industry. I just expect corporations to be held accountable for it when they lie to their customers. Is that wrong?

Sorry to go off subject.... this is in responce to Raltar.

Blu-Ray won the High Definition format war with HD-DVD because Toshiba threw in the the towel. HD-DVD players are no longer being made. HD-DVD movies are no longer being pressed. Blu-Ray players started selling in 2006. The format has been available for home use for about 3 years. Currently there are about 1500 Blu-Ray titles available in the US (standard DVD has about 100,000 titles).

I think that alot of people were turned of by the format war and just decided to stick with standard DVD. Plus, to use any Hi-Def material you need a Hi-Def TV. Most people were not willing to spend the money upgrading. The prices of Blu-Ray players, Hi-Def TVs, and Blu-Ray movies has dropped a great deal in the last 2 years. With the broadcasting industry switching from analog to digital TV Blu-Ray may start seeing wider acceptance.

One last thing, when people switched from VHS/LD to DVD, there was a huge jump in video quality (I think it was: VHS 240 scan lines vs DVD 520 scan lines). Plus you no longer had to rewind tapes, worry about tapes wearing out, or worry about tapes getting erased. Switching from DVD to Blu-Ray is not as big of a jump as going from VHS to DVD.

Another one last thing, even Walmart sells Blu-Ray discs.

On the Blu-Ray thing, and this is the last time I'm going to comment on it: A "war" which hasn't even happened yet does not absolve Sony, SOE or any other company of any wrong doing. The fact that you openly admit the vastly larger number of products using DVD and the fact that consumers are still buying DVDs while ignoring Blu-Ray says it all. There is no reason for you guys to keep bringing up what is not only a totally unrelated subject but also a faulty arguement at the same time.

Now, as for you Interitus...

First of all: I come here for the same reason I expect that you and everyone else comes here. To talk about games. Thats what I do. I talk about games I've played and games that have yet to be released. Nothing about that counts as "trolling" unless you also consider yourself to be trolling as well. Perhaps instead of throwing insults when you can't win an arguement it is you who might want to consider finding another forum to post in.

On the subject of SecuROM: How exactly does it matter that people asked companies to stop using Starforce? How exactly does that make SecuROM okay? It would be as if I were stabbing you with a knife and after you asked me to stop I took out a taser and proceeded to shock you. Some people prefer Starforce and some think SecuROM is worse. I don't know or care which category you fall into but if you can't agree that BOTH are just flat out the WRONG way to handle things then you clearly are missing the point of all this. Maybe you need to look into more of how SecuROM works. Maybe you need to read about how it can damage your computer, limit access to software you legally own, cause glitches which can go on for months even after the game which installed SecuROM has been removed, how Securom goes to great lengths to hide itself on your computer and how not even Sony's own uninstall program for SecuROM can completely remove it. Not to mention the fact that it does nothing to prevent piracy anyway since game pirates can remove SecuROM from the game just as easily as any other copy protection. Every game using SecuROM has been cracked within less than weeks of its release to the public. This program serves no purpose but to annoy people who actually legally paid for their copies of the game.

On the subject of the music industry and rootkits: Again, how does the fact that the music industry is losing money absolve them of wrong doing? It was WRONG for them to use rootkits on their CDs and they were told as much by the legal system. Just because they had what you personally feel was a "good reason" doesn't somehow get them off the hook. I'm sure the next guy who the police arrest for robbing a bank will have plenty of "good reasons" why he felt he had to do it, but those reasons won't stop him from going to jail. My feeling on Sony, the music industry and any other company which intentionally and knowingly hurts their own customers is the same: Good reason or not its still WRONG and they need to be held accountable.

On the subject of the NGE: Yes, I agree that the orders probably came down the chain of command from Lucas Arts. HOWEVER, you need to see Dan Rubenfield's Infamous "Go Eat a (censored) Rant". In that rant he openly admits that as a developer of SWG he was there when the order was given to implement the NGE and he DIRECTLY WANRED THEM that: "If you do this, you will lose all 200k subscribers." Maybe the order to implement the NGE came from on high somewhere, but SOE and their foot soldiers knew EXACTLY what would happen, they knew it would screw over and piss off ALL of their current customers and yet they allowed it to happen anyway. In my mind, that makes them just as responsible for this as an assassin who commits murder on the orders of another person. Is the person giving the order wrong? Yes. But so is the Assassin. SOE is just as responsible as Lucas Arts for the NGE, there can be no doubt at all of this.

Furthermore, the NGE is only the tip of the ice burg when it comes to SOE screwing their customers over. SWG never worked properly even before the NGE. It was full of bugs and server sync issues that never got fixed while the developers were adding more storm tropper armor or some other absurd thing which added nothing to the gameplay. I also played Planetside and saw how they screwed up that game by constantly adding updates which threw the game out of balance while refusing to implement changes the players actually did want (Even simple stuff like more equipment profiles got shot down because SOE wasn't willing to pay for extra server space, meanwhile money was spent developing giant robots that nobody asked for or wanted). Virtually every other game owned by SOE has also gone through similar disasters such as Vanguard and even MxO... which brings us to your next point actually...

(But before I get to that, I would just like to point out that it would serve you right if I decided to call ArcAngel3 over to this thread. That guy is totally pshcyo about SoE and MMOs in general and will dominate any thread he posts in with constant rebuttals until every other poster simply refuses to touch the thread anymore. You do NOT want to mention the NGE around him and if you think I'm "trolling" you now then you do NOT want to know what he would do to you.)

On the Subject of MxO: This was always a terrible game, there is no way around that. It had no hope and no future. Not only was it based on a second rate action movie to begin with, but on top of that the moment it came into contact with Sega its death was pretty much unavoidable thanks to whatever mire has been sucking Sega into the depths of hell for the last 15 years. The only reason Sony picked this game up in the first place was because they needed another title to pad the value of their All-Access Pass. Thats it. Sony did not care that the game was crap and they had no plans to ever make it better. They were just stringing us all along with it by offering it as a "benefit" of the all access pass. You seem shocked that Sony is now reversing their promise to never shut one of this games down. But thats the way it goes with Sony. They give you something nice and no matter how much you like it, no matter how many times you thank them for it and no matter how much money you spent on it, they will still take it away from you as soon as it suits them to do so. The All-Access pass has fallen out of favor with Sony. They no longer see it as the best way to earn revenue from their MMOs. Thus, their reason for keeping games like MxO around is gone and so is their "prmoise" they gave. Sony has no honor and thus no reason to keep any promise.

Which brings me to the final issue, "Micro-transactions": Its funny that you support these being that they are the prime reason why your beloved MxO is being shut down. The reason why Sony no longer supports the "All-Access Pass" is because they now see Micro-transactions as being a superior way to earn revenue. Now they are in the process of converting any game which can be to use Micro-transactions (EQ2 being a prime example of this) and any game that can't be converted to use them is on the chopping block (with MxO being an example of this). Over the next several years expect every game released by SoE to use Micro-transactions in some format and expect games which don't to be shut down. I would bet money on this (with Planetside being my first bet as the next game to bite the dust).

TL:DR version: You guys give me a lot of ranting about economic down turns and companies losing money as some kind of excuse for why they screw over their customers but I don't think its that simple. Go rob a bank and tell the cops you did it because you needed to pay your rent. Let me know how that goes for you. This is pretty much the same excuse you are giving me for why Sony has done things that were obviously illegal and immoral. Given the choice of Sony going out of business because they treated their customers with respect or them staying in business by screwing their customers over I would choose a respectful Sony out of business any day.

Originally posted by Raltar

On the Blu-Ray thing, and this is the last time I'm going to comment on it: A "war" which hasn't even happened yet does not absolve Sony, SOE or any other company of any wrong doing. The fact that you openly admit the vastly larger number of products using DVD and the fact that consumers are still buying DVDs while ignoring Blu-Ray says it all. There is no reason for you guys to keep bringing up what is not only a totally unrelated subject but also a faulty arguement at the same time.

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Raltar, I think that you may be confused about what people are talking about when they say format war. The war was not between DVD and hi-def DVD (Blu-Ray/HD-DVD). The war was fought between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD formats for market share of the hi-def market.  The war ended over one year ago when Toshiba admitted that they could no longer compete against Blu-Ray (several major movie production companies had switch from supporting HD-DVD to supporting Blu-Ray).

If you are actually stating that the above war was never fought then you need to research the subject. It was covered by Sound and Vision and Home Theater magazines as well as The Digitalbits website (great website, keeps track of DVD player/movies sales). It was even covered by the major news networks. If you think that there was no hi-def DVD war then you must also think that there was no BetaMax vs VHS format war either.

Also, if people are ignoring Blu-Ray then why can you find Blu-Ray discs at most, if not all major retailers that sell DVDs? If these stores are not selling the discs then they would be pulled from the shelves to make room for products that they can sell. Blu-Ray is not being ignored, it just has a smaller market share then DVD.

Just because I stated that Blu-Ray won over HD-DVD does not mean that I support Sony. It is a corrupt company.

This is the Wikipedia entry for the hi-def format war: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_definition_optical_disc_format_war

Originally posted by Raltar

Bunc of Epic Fail <snipped for reading comfort>

LOL! What a bunch of EPIC FAIL in this post.

To counter one of your silly arguments.

The MAIN reason SOE picked up the Title Matrix Online, wasn't to pad their Station Pass, but because they wanted the IP of DC Universe from Warner Entertainment.

To get the IP and the deal, Warner shuffeled Matrix Online up in The Smed's ass to get rid of the game that was giving Warner Entertainment a severe stomach ache.

That you don't like The Matrix movies, doesn't make this excellent movies second rate!! So get a grip.

Sad truth is that The Matrix Online wasn't such a bad game at all. I enjoyed it for several months, but left because of server stability issues at that time and the Epic Failness and amateurism of Monolith Entertainment to deal with it.

The game itself, except some glaring exploits (but wich MMO hasn't at launch), was pretty solid and downright fun!

It had a lot of freedom with classes and you could respec the trees to change class (to say it in common terms) anytime you wanted.

The game died out in the hands of SOE, because SOE didn't bother to put energy and money in the game to update it and make it work with the latest OS and Hardware.

Cheers

Originally posted by EbenEmael

Raltar, I think that you may be confused about what people are talking about when they say format war. The war was not between DVD and hi-def DVD (Blu-Ray/HD-DVD). The war was fought between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD formats for market share of the hi-def market. 

I understand that completely but like most sane people I don't care about formats I don't use or will likely ever use. What YOU don't seem to understand is that an invisible "war" between two formats that are barely used by anyone and which most people do not own or use is NOT relevant here. It doesn't make Sony a good company and it doesn't erase any of the things they have done to disrespect their customers. That fact that you admit yourself that they are a corrupt company makes me wonder WHY in the WORLD you would continue to debate a point which you know is irrelevant. Its almost like you are going out of your way to agree with me in the most back-handed way you can think of.

@Interitus: Gullerimo is a troll. Now you see the difference.

@ Guillermo197:

OMG EPIC FAIL IN YOUR POST!!!111

Seriously, if comments like that are the best you got then you need to GB2 /b/.

The really funny part is that once I sort the obvious MxO fanboyism out of your post, you pretty much end up admitting to me that Sony scooped up the game knowing it was crap and without any intention to ever make anything decent out of it. So thanks for agreeing with me!

Originally posted by Raltar

Originally posted by EbenEmael

Raltar, I think that you may be confused about what people are talking about when they say format war. The war was not between DVD and hi-def DVD (Blu-Ray/HD-DVD). The war was fought between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD formats for market share of the hi-def market. 

 

I understand that completely but like most sane people I don't care about formats I don't use or will likely ever use. What YOU don't seem to understand is that an invisible "war" between two formats that are barely used by anyone and which most people do not own or use is NOT relevant here. It doesn't make Sony a good company and it doesn't erase any of the things they have done to disrespect their customers. That fact that you admit yourself that they are a corrupt company makes me wonder WHY in the WORLD you would continue to debate a point which you know is irrelevant. Its almost like you are going out of your way to agree with me in the most back-handed way you can think of.

 

 

@Interitus: Gullerimo is a troll. Now you see the difference.

 

 

@ Guillermo197:

OMG EPIC FAIL IN YOUR POST!!!111

Seriously, if comments like that are the best you got then you need to GB2 /b/.

The really funny part is that once I sort the obvious MxO fanboyism out of your post, you pretty much end up admitting to me that Sony scooped up the game knowing it was crap and without any intention to ever make anything decent out of it. So thanks for agreeing with me!

Let me get this straight... anyone who uses Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is insane? They are also irrelevant? Just because you don't care about them doesn't mean no one else does. No one is forcing you to use them. However there are a lot of other people that do care. If there weren't then companies like Sony would not bother inventing/building new tech and stores like Walmart and Target would not be selling the formats. Companies generally do not deal in items that do not make them money.

You seem to think that DVD is the best format that can ever be. Well, guess what? Live theater used to be the only way to see a play. Then came film. Then came Phonovision (1928). Then came magnetic recording (VHS for one). Then CED. Then laser disc. Then DVD. Then hi-def DVD (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD). Who knows what's next. My point is all formats will eventualy die and be taken over by something better. And it is the insane, irrelevant people that drive that change. People like you just get in the way.

The only reason that I have been commenting on this subject is because you have kept making incorrect statements about there not having been a format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, that no one uses the formats, and anyone who does is insane and irrelevant.

OK, that the last of my comments on that subject.

         SOE is a small part of a huge umbrella corporation but large enough to make their own decisions. I think the higher ups of SONY the goliath...probably have assistants sign off on half their shit anyway. ..if they don't blindly do it themselves. So ..just saying SONY itself sucks is a huge generalization.

       That really is neither here not there...the main reasons most people hate them..from what I remember is the seeming mishandling of games...in particular cash shops and TCGs. (which personally never affected my enjoyment of the games because the items are not necessary. Other than keeping up with the Skywalkers ).Then there is the  bile  bitterly belched in regards to Vanguard and the ever present SWG.  Again..Sony..took over Vanguard when sigil  was failing miserably..other than ..maybe the need for more advertising...they are trying to save an already suffering game from a very crappy launch. SWG...well...all I can say is LucasArts and the man himself have such a choking grip on their franchise that nothing is done to anything remotely "StarWars" in nature without their go ahead....and likely their insistence instigates any change from the start. So I can not blame SOE for something if SW trademark/copyright mongers gave them the O.k.   SOE is also not going to blame it all on LucasArts because they still have a working relationship...albeit a strained one I'd imagine (thinking SW:TOR here).  So I just don't see SOE as the Adversary ..  Then again...I'm just a cawing crow.

EDIT: I know this was also concerning the AGENCY and then the format war..(I thought HDDVD..at least in the states..went down in the first round...not much of a war)...but when people come on condemning SONY in it's entirety based on some MMOS (for the most part)....vilifying them to the point that SOE is  guaranteed a write up as one of Satan's minions in all future revisions of THE BIBLE....well...it gets ridiculous.

Originally posted by BarCrow

         SOE is a small part of a huge umbrella corporation but large enough to make their own decisions. I think the higher ups of SONY the goliath...probably have assistants sign off on half their shit anyway. ..if they don't blindly do it themselves. So ..just saying SONY itself sucks is a huge generalization.

       That really is neither here not there...the main reasons most people hate them..from what I remember is the seeming mishandling of games...in particular cash shops and TCGs. (which personally never affected my enjoyment of the games because the items are not necessary. Other than keeping up with the Skywalkers .The bile especially  bitterly belched in regards to Vanguard and the ever present SWG.  Again..Sony..took over Vanguard when sigil  was failing miserably..other than ..maybe more advertising...they are trying to save an already suffering game with a very crappy launch. SWG...well...all I can say is LucasArts and the man himself have such a choking grip on their franchise that nothing is done to anything remotely "StarWars" in nature without their go ahead....and likely their insistence instigates any change from the start. So I can not blame SOE for something if SW trademark/copyright mongers gave them the O.k.   SOE is also not going to blame it all on lucasarts because they still have a working relationship...albeit a strained one I'd imagine (thinking SW:TOR here).  So I just don't see SOE as the main villain ..  Then again...I'm just a cawing crow.

 

EDIT: I know this was also concerning the AGENCY and then the format war..(I thought HDDVD..at least in the states..went down in the first round...not much of a war)...but when people come on condemning SONY in it's entirety based on some MMOS (for the most part)....vilifying them too the point that SOE are guaranteed a write up as Satan"S minions in all future revisions of THE BIBLE....well...it gets ridiculous.

It would be nice to know what is really going on between LA and SOE and LA and BioWare. I have no doubt that LA tied SOE's hands to a certain degree about what they could do with SWG. But SOE was the 'expert' in MMOs so LA had to have put some trust in them. We will most likely not kow the entire truth. I also don't think that George Lucas gave a damn about SWG. Compared to the amount of money that he made off of the movies and merchandise, SWG was a side note to him. But that is just a guess on my part.

Edit: The hi-def wars went on for 1-2 years in the USA I think. It was stupid to begin with. Sony and Toshiba should have just made a unified format. Hi-def would have been much more excepted if they had.

Sony has made other blunders that have not helped their reputation. So as a whole I think that Sony has the rep that they deserve.

Originally posted by EbenEmael

 I also don't think that George Lucas gave a damn about SWG. Compared to the amount of money that he made off of the movies and merchandise, SWG was a side note to him. But that is just a guess on my part.

 

Edit: The hi-def wars went on for 1-2 years in the USA I think. It was stupid to begin with. Sony and Toshiba should have just made a unified format. Hi-def would have been much more excepted if they had.

Sony has made other blunders that have not helped their reputation. So as a whole I think that Sony has the rep that they deserve.

Fair enough...I think they suffered enough for all of eternity...just on BETAMAX alone...lol. Those were sweet though. Yes...**sniff**...I had one.  Sad. As for Lucas...this is the guy who went back and digitally altered...enhanced is fine....but altered scenes..to be more family friendly. Come on...there are generations that will possibly never know that HAN FUCKING SHOT FIRST!!!!!...sure he's a rascal and a scalawag....but he is a fair and even one?...bullshite. And his statements..later in his career that StarWars was always meant for children....only with severed limbs....breeching on sibling incest.and a secret father ..almost priest like figure that is trying to get his son to do dark things with him. Not nice....He found out how much of a gold mine all the merchadise was worth and sold out..imo..that's why Wookies became ewoks and we have a wee Vader running around Phantom Menacing people. The 2nd and 3rd episodes were a little darker...but the quality wasn't there story wise imo. Although , I hear the Clone wars series is better than that sickening movie....he just went all kiddie. I think he probably liked the idea of SWG until it wasn't reaching the children...then revamp WOWification....now what do you have.  ....Caw!CAW!

Originally posted by BarCrow

Originally posted by EbenEmael

 I also don't think that George Lucas gave a damn about SWG. Compared to the amount of money that he made off of the movies and merchandise, SWG was a side note to him. But that is just a guess on my part.

 

Edit: The hi-def wars went on for 1-2 years in the USA I think. It was stupid to begin with. Sony and Toshiba should have just made a unified format. Hi-def would have been much more excepted if they had.

Sony has made other blunders that have not helped their reputation. So as a whole I think that Sony has the rep that they deserve.

 

Fair enough...I think they suffered enough for all of eternity...just on BETAMAX alone...lol. Those were sweet though. Yes...**sniff**...I had one.  Sad. As for Lucas...this is the guy who went back and digitally altered...enhanced is fine....but altered scenes..to be more family friendly. Come on...there are generations that will possibly never know that HAN FUCKING SHOT FIRST!!!!!...sure he's a rascal and a scalawag....but he is a fair and even one?...bullshite. And his statements..later in his career that StarWars was always meant for children....only with severed limbs....breeching on sibling incest.and a secret father ..almost priest like figure that is trying to get his son to do dark things with him. Not nice....He found out how much of a gold mine all the merchadise was worth and sold out..imo..that's why Wookies became ewoks and we have a wee Vader running around Phantom Menacing people. The 2nd and 3rd episodes were a little darker...but the quality wasn't there story wise imo. Although , I hear the Clone wars series is better than that sickening movie....he just went all kiddie. I think he probably liked the idea of SWG until it wasn't reaching the children...then revamp WOWification....now what do you have.  ....Caw!CAW!

I think that I remember an interview with George Lucas where he said that at the time that he made Star Wars: A  New Hope that special effects technology was not far enough advanced to make the scenes that he want to. So when the tech became available he re-shot/edited/inserted some of the scenes. It made sense to me. I like the 1st 3 movies that were filmed. I have only seen 1 of the next 3 though (I have all 6 on DVD but have not gotten around to watching them all). I must say that story quality took a big hit on the later movie.

As far as SWG going the way of WoW, I think that was mostly SOEs idea. I'm not sure how attuned LA was to the MMO scene at the time. SOE would have been more likely to know of WoWs success and pushed for the changes that were made (CU/NGE).

WoW has turned out to be a blessing and a curse. WoW exposed more people to MMOs, but now most every MMO developer is trying to copy them, most with poor results.

Originally posted by EbenEmael

Let me get this straight... anyone who uses Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is insane? They are also irrelevant?

You are trying to put words in my mouth. I don't recall ever using the word "insane" to describe anyone in this thread. I also did not say people who own Blu-Ray are irrelevant (although they are based on the fact there are so few of them), What I actually said is...

BLU-RAY IS IRRELEVANT TO THIS DISCUSSION!

... because even if Blu-Ray did win some "war" it wouldn't make Sony a better company nor would it erase the huge number of ways they have abused, lied to and stolen from their own customers.

Why are you having such a hard time grasping that? And why, when you yourself admit that Sony is "corrupt" and  "has the rep that they deserve", do you continue to argue with me? It makes no sense. We are both in agreement on the matter which is actually up for discussion here but you seem determined to continue your off-topic rant about Blu-Ray no matter what I say.

Originally posted by EbenEmael

Originally posted by BarCrow

Originally posted by EbenEmael

 I also don't think that George Lucas gave a damn about SWG. Compared to the amount of money that he made off of the movies and merchandise, SWG was a side note to him. But that is just a guess on my part.

 

Edit: The hi-def wars went on for 1-2 years in the USA I think. It was stupid to begin with. Sony and Toshiba should have just made a unified format. Hi-def would have been much more excepted if they had.

Sony has made other blunders that have not helped their reputation. So as a whole I think that Sony has the rep that they deserve.

 

Fair enough...I think they suffered enough for all of eternity...just on BETAMAX alone...lol. Those were sweet though. Yes...**sniff**...I had one.  Sad. As for Lucas...this is the guy who went back and digitally altered...enhanced is fine....but altered scenes..to be more family friendly. Come on...there are generations that will possibly never know that HAN FUCKING SHOT FIRST!!!!!...sure he's a rascal and a scalawag....but he is a fair and even one?...bullshite. And his statements..later in his career that StarWars was always meant for children....only with severed limbs....breeching on sibling incest.and a secret father ..almost priest like figure that is trying to get his son to do dark things with him. Not nice....He found out how much of a gold mine all the merchadise was worth and sold out..imo..that's why Wookies became ewoks and we have a wee Vader running around Phantom Menacing people. The 2nd and 3rd episodes were a little darker...but the quality wasn't there story wise imo. Although , I hear the Clone wars series is better than that sickening movie....he just went all kiddie. I think he probably liked the idea of SWG until it wasn't reaching the children...then revamp WOWification....now what do you have.  ....Caw!CAW!

I think that I remember an interview with George Lucas where he said that at the time that he made Star Wars: A  New Hope that special effects technology was not far enough advanced to make the scenes that he want to. So when the tech became available he re-shot/edited/inserted some of the scenes. It made sense to me. I like the 1st 3 movies that were filmed. I have only seen 1 of the next 3 though (I have all 6 on DVD but have not gotten around to watching them all). I must say that story quality took a big hit on the later movie.

As far as SWG going the way of WoW, I think that was mostly SOEs idea. I'm not sure how attuned LA was to the MMO scene at the time. SOE would have been more likely to know of WoWs success and pushed for the changes that were made (CU/NGE).

WoW has turned out to be a blessing and a curse. WoW exposed more people to MMOs, but now most every MMO developer is trying to copy them, most with poor results.

...True..I heard that too...And It's fine to enhance things and add scenes that connect  the films together..after It was uncertain how successful  "A New Hope" would end up. Adding scenes to further the story is great....but changing the entire context of how a main character is perceived is ridiculous. It's much more interesting to see how a character changes and evolves than to just re-edit the movie to imply he (Han) was always a soft hearted rogue. Not to mentioned adding the younger vader to the Ghost family portrait at the ewok party. Was that really necessary?...oh well...apparently ..he seems to have made  the movies only for himself...lol...sorry enough ranting