Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided Ships 502
TJPile writes "After months and months of beta testing and years of waiting, the Star Wars version of Ever-crack is now shipping. Order your copy today. There are already plans for an expansion pack in 2004 that will feature more character races, worlds, and even the ability to buy, fly, and fight in your own spaceship. The game will set you back $50, come on 3 CDs, require Internet access, and will cost around $10 a month (service subscription fee). Right now it's Windows only." Yep, I'm hoping to play as the Pit of Saarlac: The Ultimate Camper.
Evil that it's not working yet.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, imagine the utter disappointment of getting home and fniding that I could only create my station login and couldn't get a little jump on everyone
(Oh well)
I can't wait for this to go live today...should be really exciting (in a "i'm so lame, i have another life online which spends more time interacting with women than I do" kinda way)...again, disappointing that the addon won't come until 2004, but I imagine all the dedicated Star Wars nutters out there will find ways to keep busy until then...
Now I wonder how long until the Mac OS X port (now that EQ has finally arrived for Mac)
Better work harder on your character name (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, but will it be good (Score:3, Interesting)
Disclaimer, I haven't played the beta at all, simply going on comments from others, and I fully realize gaming forums aren't the BEST place for opinions. I'll probably wait for a buddy to pick it up and check it out then... in the meantime, I'll stick with Dark Age of Camelot.
Erm... please do not believe the Hype. (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks and feels like Anarchy Online. It's actually a pretty boring game. So far, it's been plagued by the same kinds of problems Everquest had, including the same lack of customer support and generally shoddy game design. They've had several patches that were nothing but nerf-fests and introduced more bugs than they fixed. You've got about a one in one thousand chance of ending up with a force-sensitive character, so forget about ever playing a Jedi.
Sure, they'll iron this thing out eventually. Once a lot of people start playing it and player communities take hold, it'll probably be fun. Once they get the 100 or so feautres they left out of the initial release added, it'll be a better game. Once the playerbase beats them into submission and forces them to make a few obvious, common sense design changes that should have been in from the beginning, it'll be a better game. It'll also probably be 2007.
If this game ends up being fun, it will be in spite of Sony, not because of Sony. Just like Everquest. Remember that this is not truly a LucasArts game.
Honestly I'd hold out for Worlds of Warcraft. Blizzard will treat its customers far better than Sony does.
Re:Correction (Score:2, Interesting)
I love MMO flight sims like the next guy (eg., Aces High [hitechcreations.com], WWIIOL [wwiionline.com]), but uhh - that is going a bit too far.
Re:Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
This game is put out by Sony Online Entertainment and for all intents and purposes Sony doesn't appear to believe in the existence of anything but Microsoft Windows and the PS2 in regards to producing games.
It could potentially hurt their bottom line to produce anything but a Windows or PS2 version of SWG or EQ. Since it forces someone wanting play such a game to buy a Windows PC or PS2, which increases the chances of Sony selling a PS2 or Vaio Computer System.
Hey, I wish it wasn't so, but that is the nature of the beast.
Of course, I am fairly certain that if you were to gather close to 100,000 close friends to not only sign a petition, but to also kick in a $50.00 "donation", you could likely persuade Sony to build a Linux client with the condition that you would be providing them with the big pile of money that you would then have.
Then again, there is likely a larger chance of Microsoft freely, with no strings attached, seeing the error of their ways and providind EVERY spot of source code ever produced as Open Source.
Welcome to Craft Wars Galaxies (Score:1, Interesting)
I pity the stupid fools who actually go out and buy this game. It is nothing short of boring, spend most of your time crafting stupid things, tending to house maintenance, running around endlessly in a random world.
SWG = Utter flop.
Re:May I Be The First to Ask... (Score:2, Interesting)
Thank god I already have my gaming fix somewhere other then SWG...
Kierthos
Re:Agreed (Score:5, Interesting)
Nail in the Coffin (Score:5, Interesting)
The list included....
learn the game so as to not look like a newbie.
master your class
visit all the planets
do a theme park on every planet (theme park = mission generated by someone like "jabba")
there were others, but (and this is quote from the Beta boards)
"in a product designed for my amusement, I shouldnt have to go looking for fun."
I see the Beta posting trolls have migrated (Score:5, Interesting)
I was in beta pretty much from the beginning, and while there were naysayers from the get go
The people you hear griping about this game, while allowed their opinion, are also the people who were more intent on *PLAYING* the game in beta instead of testing, were the ones who would complain *BITTERLY* about the constant character wipes, and the folks who would *WHINE* on the development boards about how the Developers were hell-bent-out-to-get-them-by-ignoring-this-issue-
In the last 4 weeks of beta I saw *SO* many posts along the lines of 'if you don't do X, I'm not buying the game.' This was from the folks who when discovering a flaw in the game, would say 'hmm
In all honesty, SWG has the feel of Ultima Online more than EverQuest. Its open ended, there is no defined way to 'WIN' the game. It, like the theory behind ANY MMORPG exists so its fun to *play*.
Saddly, many folks were taught that level based games like EverQuest were the mold. And unless you have 'SuperSword, AwesomeArmour, and UberSkillX' your simply a looser.
Does SWG have bugs ? yes. Will they be fixed ? yes. Will new ones pop up ? yes. However the developers for this game have been more open and upfront about Star Wars Galaxies than in *ANY* other beta I have participated in. [And I have been in almost every MMORPG beta except Meridian59] They care about this project, most of them are HUGE fans of the films themselves, and they have been pulling 24 hour days ever since Sony Online Entertainment announced 'You have no more time
All these sour grape X-Beta posts you are reading, are people who lost track of what they were supposed to be *DOING* in beta. Something im shocked to see people admitting on
How can you form an opinion of a game thats not finished ?
Re:Not yet ready (Score:3, Interesting)
I would have to agree that the baseline of play is above and beyond much of whats out there, and they definetly touch the surface of delivering a "star wars feel" to the universe, but it still feels rote and somewhat boring (need money? run 10 delivery missions flying on a shuttle back...and forth...and back...and forth...between 2 cities, want to advance as a crafter...click through the basic items craft sequence about 300 times and you'll get some advanced thing...you can click through...about 300 times to advance).
I have a feel that much of the interaction is yet to come in the form of player events and player cities, both of which were un-seen in the beta. But only time will tell, i just hope their buggy release doesn't turn off so many people that the project suffers in the long run because of it.
Wait a month (Score:2, Interesting)
1) A lot of people have been saying it, and believe it or not, it's true: This game is not ready for release. Can you play it and have fun? Yes. But there are innumerable problems that should have delayed release for a few weeks at least. These include stability issues (they just got to 1 day of uptime in the last 2 weeks), class/balancing issues (many have not been tested thoroughly), and, of course, bugs. I know that any MMO that's released, or any game for that matter, is going to have bugs. SWG just seems to have a large number, including several that have been around for weeks without being fixed.
2) The price! $15/month is, IMHO, outrageous. SOE feels that because their game is "Star Wars", that intitles them to charge more than other MMO's. I think we, as consumers, need to send the message that this is not true. Unfortunately, there's enough Star Wars zealots out there that I think they will never get this message.
Is it a waste of time to go out and buy this game right now? Absolutely not. It is fun to play, as long as you keep one caveat in mind: it's not quite done yet. This was easy to do in Beta, especially since I didn't have to pay for it (except for the cd's, and shipping). Be prepared for a game that's going to go through many bug fixes and balancing adjustments in the first couple months.
Does ANYONE like it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like any other MMORPG, then (Score:5, Interesting)
The _only_ thing to do in a MMORPG is to run around beating rats with a stick (or goblins with a sword, or whatever), to hopefully level up in the next 6 months. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam. Only the next level-up will require even more hours of beating bigger rats with a bigger stick.
It's repetitive, it's boring... and generally it's not a game, it's _work_. Only I'm supposed to pay for the privilege of doing boring repetitive stuff each day, instead of being paid for that.
What's the point? Do my actions advance the plot? No, because there's no plot and no story. Does it exercise my gray cells by requiring some cunning and strategy? Well, no, because you only need to click on enemies. Repeatedly. That's the only strategy involved. Ever. Does it require reflexes, accuracy or some other skill? Well, no, because the "skills" are just a bunch of numbers on your character. As long as you can click on a rat, that's all the skill you'll ever need. Etc.
The _only_ MMORPG so far which I could somewhate enjoy was Ultima Online. And you know why? Because I could ignore the MMORPG part. The UO interface makes it wonderfully easy to communicate with people, even in the middle of combat.
So basically you can treat it like a glorified chat room with graphics. And predictably it had attracted a lot of social people, who actually used it as a glorified chat room with graphics. It was fun.
That is, until I realized that I could just go back to IRC and save the 10 bucks a month fee.
So here's my proposal. You want some online life having to do with Star Wars? Well, go find an IRC channel about Star Wars. It's free, it's got a less lot bugs than a MMORPG, and generally a far more rewarding online social experience. And it doesn't make you hit rats 50 times with a stick, either.
Re:I have to know... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Correction (Score:3, Interesting)
A valid credit card and additional recurring fees are required to play this game. Fee information and pricing plans will be provided after installation of software.
Don't you just love this way of doing business? "We'll set you a client for $50, but we won't tell you how much we charge for server access until after you've bought and installed it." Giving you a 30-day subscription improves it somewhat, but it's still rather shady dealing with customers.
Lots of Beta Testers pissed they have to pay now (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me say that as a n00b to this whole genre I think this game is awesome. Sure there have been some bugs and glithces, but wth? it's been beta! There are supposed to be bugs and glitches and the beta testers find them and the devs fix them. And that is what has been happening.
Don't believe the negative hype from beta testers who are pissed that they are going to have to start paying for a game they have had for free for the last several months. The game is what you make of it and I'm dying for the CD's to arrive tomorrow so I can get back in.
See you on Corbantis,
Lasugod
Re:I see the Beta posting trolls have migrated (Score:3, Interesting)
All those posts people made on the SWG Beta boards where they complained about something not working are examples of what you say they weren't doing: providing feedback. The problem is, their feedback would often get deleted by the board admins because they don't want anyone to talk bad (or, "be unconstructive") about their product.
I have 2 friends who were in Beta, and they both were absolutely shocked when they heard that it was coming out so soon. I went to visit them last weekend and saw it for myself: the game is not at all fun, outside of the cities there is almost zero content, classes aren't close to being finished, and it's buggy as all get out (nothing spells "immersive StarWars universe" like running for 5 minutes towards a large city and suddenly warping back out into the field where you started - repeatedly). Neither of them will be buying the game and nor will I - we just expect better from "professional" developers.
Expansion? Already? .. What a load of... (Score:2, Interesting)
So ? Is this a marketing move with false promises ? Or, could it be that Lucas realized no one would ever play a Star Wars game without the X-wings and Tie Fighters everyone loved in the previous Star Wars games. No matter what it is, if i'm a dev and i hear my boss say that the expansion will have to offer the star fighting feature, and that wasn't expected a couple of months ago, i'm either a very good developper for cutting down dev time or i'm already searching for a new job.
IOW: I'll believe it when i see it and i will play it only when starships with multiplayer crews are available. Going for anything less, would be a lack of respect for the Star Wars universe IMHO.
Top Ten Why YOU Don't Want to Play SWG (Score:5, Interesting)
Top Ten Reasons:
Why YOU donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
10. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot fight Darth Vader so you can show youâ(TM)re l337, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
9. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot play a Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker or some other SW character, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
8. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot jump âoefor real,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
7. If you ordered the game âoeagainst your better judgment,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
6. If youâ(TM)re mad because you are choosing to pay $15 a month, but you live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to spend $144 for $12 a month, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
5. If youâ(TM)re mad because you have to give up lower skills to attain higher ones thus preventing you from having your uber-ultra-hella-mule-bounty-hunter-survey-medic character, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
4. If youâ(TM)re mad because you may or may not get your game on the 26th because of limited quantities, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
3. If youâ(TM)re mad because you did not like something in the beta, vented on the board, but refused to saying anything âoebecause of the NDA,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
2. If youâ(TM)re mad because the server you decided to join will not be up in first batch of galaxies and all your friends are dumping you to join other servers (hence really arenâ(TM)t your friends), then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
And, the top reason why you shouldnâ(TM)t be playing SWGâ¦
1. If youâ(TM)re so mad over a frickinâ(TM) videogame, because you have so little perspective on life, that you have to vent your rage on a web page, you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
Two friends of mine were in the beta and I wish I had been. I'd go over one of their houses and watch, play and talk about the mechanics of the game. The one thing we all always walked away thinking was how refined the game mechanics are compared to UO. Here are some important points:
1. Combat is "real-time, turn based." Having the fastest connection with a machine at 270 fps is no better than one with 15 fps. If you're smart, though, you'll use the MULTITUDE of combat moves to appropriately shift your stance for range, weapon, defense, etc. You don't have to be fast, you have to be smart about your combat and you will have to interact as teams to take down big creatures or goals.
2. You cannot have an uber-character. Another cool thing is that you have to give up lower skills to continue to gain higher ones. The days of all the characters you have making you self-sufficient and having no reason to interact with lower characters is gone. You will have to interact with lower characters to continue your trade.
3. The skills are interwoven such there isnâ(TM)t an unimportant trade. You can heal yourself, you can learn new skills and you can get things you need yourself, but to do it well and fast requires other people. Dancers to remove battle fatigue, combat medics to support you in combat, artisans to make better weapons (there are no lootables on creatures as far as weapons, shields, etc), leaders group squads and, of course, combat specialists in hand-to-hand, pistols, rifles and carabineers. You will have to interact with other characters to get things done.
4. There are NO NPCs that can sell goods. Players must craft all goods and there are taxes on various things. The rampant inflation that is common on other MMOGS, in theory, should not happen because it will based on the actions of the players. It will not be forced up people using tricks in the game to force up generation of money, plus the richer you are the more you have to do to support tha
Re:Better work harder on your character name (Score:3, Interesting)
5. Non-fantasy or non-science fiction oriented names from popular fiction or non-fiction media either fictional or non-fictional (e.g. Bill Clinton, Austin Powers, Britneyspears, Harrypotter)
So, Bill Clinton and Britney Spears cannot play with their real name. And neither can a whole lot of people. Like people actually named Jesus. Or the entire Bin Laden family.
Re:One thing I never understood (Score:3, Interesting)
- It pays for initial development, with a nice ROI, just as the sale of expansion pack boxes pays for each of their development costs.
- It keeps people playing, since they already paid a large amount of cash, and later it's only a small fraction of that amount to keep playing.
- People are used to paying $50 for a game
- (cynically) It's a good way to get cash out of people who only will play one month.
A year or two after release, usually the price on MMO games falls pretty low yet still stays on the shelf.. At that point, they've already got the most fanatic players in the game, so they will start with the "gilette" marketing model where they sell the box cheap to more casual gamers, and make most of their money on the subscriptions. By this time, though, they've more than likely recovered all their initial development costs (and then some).
Re:I see the Beta posting trolls have migrated (Score:3, Interesting)
What I am actually saying is, its very easy to write something negative about a beta, ANY beta, be it the newest version of windows, or an online game, especially if they loose track of WHY its a beta. Beta are for testing, reproducing, and fixing bugs. There will be times when things are deliberatly set up to break.
Its even easier when a LOT of the people writing them were not in beta, or never tested in beta. [And by that I mean they logged in, played for a while, and made their decision, they didn't test, they just wanted a preview.] I have seen a 1/2 a dozen posts on here alone that are from people who say they were in beta, and either havent logged in for about 4 months, or are 'misrepresenting' themselves just a bit, because the information they are taunting as 'gospel truth' is 180 degrees from real.
I do agree, last weekend, the game wasn't ready . However, that was some 240 hours ago. As any coder under a deadline knows, a LOT can be done in 240 hours if you have enough caffine.
There was a lot of stress testing over the past week where the developers, like any professional coder, delibertly BROKE things to see the impact.
Don't you stress test your code and put in errorchecks before you go to production ?
All I can say is, on the last night of beta, I went through all the bugs I reported, and tried to reproduce them. Off of my list of 15 showstoppers [containing evils like, permadeath, losing a ticket to endor that runs 2200 credits, exploits with skills, Exploits with stats. etc.]
I couldn't reproduce ONE of them
Of my 2ndary list, yeah
Yes, posts were sometimes removed from the Beta boards, I distinctly rember users who would post the same thing in EVERY thread on the boards. Things like "Dood, my harvester is still broken, if you don't fix it, im not going to buy the game."
Saddly, I didn't meet my beta goal of capping an Ewok. Me and a few friends made it to Endor on the last night, but our new characters (the 4th ones that night
Re:Correction (Score:3, Interesting)
sorry to get "star wars nerd on you" (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, it's the "Pit of Carcoon" the Sarlacc creature lives inside it. I think the idea may have come from a creature called an "antlion [antlionpit.com]" but just added tentacles for fun.
Strangely it seems, the spelling of "Carcoon" has at some time in the past 20 years (1983!?) been changed to "Carkoon" (check google [google.com]). I know this happens from time to time in the starwars universe...
you can get more info about the Sarlacc here:starwars.com [starwars.com]
Re:Better work harder on your character name (Score:1, Interesting)
EQ only relaxed the restrictions because they boiled down to "Names that sound like, but aren't, existing fantasy names."
There's only so many Kandalfs (or is that Kandalves?) you can have before it starts getting a bit silly. Frankly I'd rather see people just play as Scratch McGroin rather than yet another glottal nightmare like Kz'mel'en'or.
Re:I see the Beta posting trolls have migrated (Score:4, Interesting)
There were a lot of unconstructive negative posts in the Beta forums. And many of them were quite insignificant gripes in the larger context of beta testing.
I think one large issue that many people are missing with SWG is that it's balance in bartle spectrum is much better than most other MMO games. This means the socializers and explorers will enjoy this game a lot more than most games, since that aspect of MMO games is usually left at the very end of the priority list.
I think a lot of the frustration many MMO veterans have with SWG is that the bartle-defined killer type players do not get an overwhelming portion of the attention of the developers. In this game they do get a fair share of attention, but this game is certianly not going to cater to the FFA PvP type of crowd.
People who enjoy socializing, crafting, exploring, and the non-hardcore PvP types will probably find this game enjoyable, since a lot more time has been invested in these kinds of activities than most other MMO games.
I do, however, I share the disclaimer with many other beta testers, that new players who have little patience for bugs should probably not jump right into the game in the first month or two...
Prediction MMO* is downfall of SOE (Score:3, Interesting)
Eventually Sony is going to dump huge money into some MMO game and it's going to be a disaster. They'll blow huge amounts of money on some great idea and then nobody will show up to play. The only way they can achieve revenue growth in MMO games is by getting subscribers they don't already have and by jacking up fees.
Furthermore, with everybody rushing to make new MMO games, there's going to be increasin competition for these subscribers. So you'll see the subscription base fragment, thus making it even harder to make a buck because you'll have effectively less subscribers per game. So you either have to scale back the games or raise the prices.
Re:The StarWars Galaxys Experience, summed up (Score:3, Interesting)
Fortunately, SWG has LucasArts to back it up, and I don't anticipate LucasArts selling itself to SOE anytime soon.
Re:Agree 100% (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me just check. I have about $18,000 USD in my account available right now, no debt, and I own my own home outright.
Pop quiz: is this
It seems to me that the sheep here are the people who are going to buy this in droves without reading reviews, simply because it's a Star Wars (tm) product. It further occurs to me that I probably don't want to be playing in an environment with those people.
Re:Issues with Star Wars Galaxies (Score:3, Interesting)
You know, I think you just defined a new genre. I mean nowadays, multi-player games are 1 vs 1 or few vs few or FFA (think RTS, FPS) or thousands of players more or less interacting (MMOLRPG). But very few games are few vs cpu ie. collaborative games. Of course games like commando or baldur's gate could be played with a couple of friends but were not designed in that goal (not First Person).
Now, what's the common point between most cool flix/books (star wars, matrix, LotR...) and plain ol' RPG? Both are about a bunch of friends trying together to reach some common goal. I would actually kill for a FPTRPG (need some more vowels here) or First Person Team RPG. First Person is the most immersive way to render a game; the reason why all RPG are Third Person is that you have to actually manage several NPCs in your group. If you only play ONE character and your party members are other PCs, you can stick to First Person. OTOH, MMRPG are First Person but are not really immersive because thousands of PCs make the world very unrealistic. For instance, the force is completely unmanageable in SWG. If they restrain player access to the force they breed frustration; and if everybody can get to the force you end up with scores of jedi-kids wielding light sabers and TKing rocks all over the place.
Now, back to our FPTRPG. You're a bunch of friends in this ship in the middle of a firefight with tie fighters. One player pilots the ship, dodging fire; two man the turrets and try to knock out the ties, the last one is fixing the machinery throwing every little bit of energy into the rear shields and trying to get this light speed engine back on. Afetr you evade the tie-fighters, you drop one player on some planet to investigate rumors about a new imperial secret weapon, two on another planet to convince them to join the rebels while the last one deals with the smugglers to improve your ship's equipment. That would be cool.
I realize that the game world would have to be way more flexible AND solid than current RPGs. You'd have to model the medium-term consequences of multiple simultaneous events. I don't know if the (AI?) technology is robust enough yet to make the perfect FPTRPG. But I feel that game studios can make a good enough product. And this one would be innovative for one.
Re:Better work harder on your character name (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Not the worst, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe, one day, I'll pick you up in a galaxy and fly you to the front lines.
The reasons you've listed are exactly why this game is not Star Wars - it is EQ with a Star Wars skin.
The Dark Forces series are the *heart* of Star Wars. The X-Wing series are the *soul* of Star Wars.
Galactic Battlegrounds is what happens when you implant the heart and soul of Star Wars into a game format that doesn't like Star Wars. Neat, but could have been much better.
I really, really wanted this to be the heart, soul, and body of Star Wars - the grim outlook that Dark Forces had, the freedom of space flight, and the persistance and interaction of a MMORPG.
Instead, I'm attacking outcast citizens near Coruscant, watching Wookies dance to relax, and taking samples of strangely-named gases and metals when I'm sick of the other two.
It is the "Star Wars:Christmas Special" of Star Wars games. Hey, the gangs all here... disturbing me... ack.
Today is a dark day for the Rebellion.
-lw