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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Star Wars Galaxies - Fastest Selling MMOG Ever 66

Posted by simoniker from the ker-ching-goes-the-registers dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a LucasArts press release announcing Star Wars Galaxies has attracted more than 125,000 users in its first week, an all-time MMORPG sales record, and something LucasArts call "..the single most successful introduction of an MMO to date." This PC MMORPG is thus far proving extremely popular, despite teething troubles, and the press release also mentions the development team "..is working on a variety of new features, such as player-owned ground vehicles and player cities, along with substantial new content to be added on a regular basis throughout the coming months."
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Star Wars Galaxies - Fastest Selling MMOG Ever More

Star Wars Galaxies - Fastest Selling MMOG Ever

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  • Wow ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, 2003 @08:52AM (#6376747)
    who knew there were so many people living in their parent's basements ... this can't be good for the economy!!

  • So they sell it fast. Big deal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, 2003 @09:20AM (#6376845)
    The whole point is to keep the players in game so you can feed off them like some cheap crack dealer.

    Give it 6 months then look at the figures. A lot of friends who left the MMORPG I play in have since come back to the game (Neocron), so the taste of the game is going to appeal more to SW Fanbois and EQ junkies. :)

    • Re:So they sell it fast. Big deal (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Pengo ( 28814 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:42AM (#6377167) Journal

      Hmm... i have left DAoC to play it. I find that it's better suited for those with lifes. It's the first MMORPG I have played that a casual gamer can enjoy. I protested the game first when my friend talked me into getting it just for the reason it was full of fanboi's.

      I think that the people screaming that it stinks the loudest are the people trying to convince those that are leaving their current games. That's at least been my experience.

      • I play DAoC, and there are a hell of a lot of people who I WISH would leave and go play Galaxies instead.

        The unfortunate thing is that too few of them actually are. Else it'd be a much more civil atmosphere to actually play the game as opposed to getting lectured for not supporting your realm, or not falling in line behind some self-styled gestapo.
      • It's the first MMORPG I have played that a casual gamer can enjoy. Yes, If you mean by casual gamer someone who plays 12 hours a day instead of 16. c'mon just to get into the story line of the game + pvp (the galatic civil war) you have to do 20 delevery missions. Don't even get me into how hard it is to get to point A to point B or to get experence.
        • You can knock off twenty delivery missions in an hour. The shuttle system is easy to use with a max of ten minute wait to get anywhere on the planet. Experience... well, depends on which skill lines you are talking about there. I think most combat oriented players can move up their first skill boxes in an hour as well, though, which doesn't seem too shabby to me (being more of a crafter type, which takes a lot longer).

  • And if this was surprising.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by analog_line ( 465182 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @10:44AM (#6377173)
    ...you obviously don't live on the same planet as I do.

    Not only that, it's likely to take a lot from Everquest, as so far as I've seen, it's designed to be the single most addictive thing on the planet next to crack and refined sugar. Everything seems to be designed to make it harder than ever to put the thing down for a few hours and go to sleep, never mind holding down a job.

    Staying WELL away from this bugger. I am SO not interested.
    • Ahh, I'm just waiting for the VR universes to provide easier ways to make real money.
      When I can design a new piece of gear for, say, EverQuest XX, the 2011 edition, upload it, sell the rights through in-game links to ebay, and then distribute the money I make between "pieces of gold" and RL folding money.
      Well, at that point I'm puttin' on my goggles, pluggin' in the feeding tube, and never ever coming back out.

      Sure I'll be spherical and I'll smell bad, but online nobody will know or care.

      Rustin
      • This has been modded as "Funny", but mark my words, it *will* more-or-less happen, and probably sooner than you think.

        What's interesting is it's already happening now to a degree. There are people who are making some decent cash from eBaying stuff from online games.

        At this point, most of it is ill-gotten (through bugs such as duping), but it won't be long before these games get a wide and deep immersive enough world to allow people to find a legitimate niche and make enough income to maintain their persi

    • Re:And if this was surprising.... (Score:4, Funny)

      by saden1 ( 581102 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @11:25AM (#6377370)
      I have addiction phobia so count me out. I don't smoke, drink, or gamble because of my fear of getting addicted. now you can add games to my not-to-do-list. I am already addicted to prOn as it is but I am working to resolve it.
  • I saw the game for sale for $130 CDN. Before subscription. What the hell, why would anyone buy that?
    • Actually that 130 dollar edition is the "collector's edition" if you can believe it. Possibly the lamest concept to hit gaming. Usually they include a map, a t-shirt, that kind of thing. No idea what's in the SWG though.
    • Yes, the collector's edition is about $130 CDN, but the regular one is just over $50. (Which is what I bought.) It includes a relatively-thick manual, a little booklet, three-cd case (with cds, of course) and a couple of advertisements to Earthlink and such.

      I'm happy with it. Plus it has that new-game smell which puts me beyond the joy of extacy.

      - shazow
      • I know this is a little off topic, but you say it is a 3-CD set. Why don't they release this title on a single DVD? If you look at the requirements to run the game, its somewhere around 933MHz for a minimum. Most computers sold with those specs or above came with a DVD-ROM drive, so I think it would be cheaper for them to release a set with 1 DVD rather than 3CDs.

        Just my 0.02
        • Why don't they release this title on a single DVD?

          That would probably make a lot of sense in a game where you would have to constantly swap discs, but with SWG, once you have the game installed, you do not need the CD's again...
        • Why don't they release this title on a single DVD?

          Just to add some real world geek data (I know mileage may vary):

          Of the 3 geeks I work with, all of whom meet or exceed the min requirements, none of us installed a DVD reader into our machines when we built them.

          But I agree any software title that comes with more than one bluebook CD should offer a green friendly DVD alternative.

  • Fast selling...but can they maintain it? (Score:5, Informative)

    by deanj ( 519759 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @01:10PM (#6377945)
    You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about this game in the first place. It's been a long time since they starting hyping it, and it's finally out. It should be no surprise that a franchise like that would make a lot of money initially.

    I've been playing since Beta 3. Initially, I was most worried about the graphics performance of the game, seeing how bad it was near the end of Beta 3. I was pretty happy to see they seem to have cleared most of that up.

    I've been playing for a week now (off and on...mostly off, since I have a real life), and initially I was pretty happy with it.

    But right now, I'm sitting here wondering... "Well, what next"? I'm not sure how they're going to maintain people's interest in this game. I've made my way to the first tier of exp in the game, (one of initial professions you have to start with), and now I'm on my second tier.

    Unlike Everquest, in which it was pretty clear what getting more experienced in something would get you, it's not all that clear in SWG.

    They've always said that this was a game where you could "live Star Wars". Well, I can tell ya, it must be pretty damn boring most of the time down on Tatooine....
    • Oddly, "they" (LucasArts,SOE) haven't been hyping this game much at all. There's hardly any real advertising per se, it's mostly been word-of-mouth. Seems to be pretty effective, if you ask me. :)

      Still, I won't touch this game in its current state, but I will keep an eye on it and see how it progresses and improves, if at all.

    • You folks must not be reading the same gaming magazines I do, because I've seen ads for this game, and "previews" for nearly a year now.
    • You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about this game in the first place. It's been a long time since they starting hyping it, and it's finally out. It should be no surprise that a franchise like that would make a lot of money initially. Every time I see another ad or preview for a starwars game my eyes just glaze over and I flip to the next page. I mean really, how many star wars games does the world need? I know it may be an unfair comparison, but these star wars games are starting to
      • SWG is not EQ. Many people jumped at the thought of grouping and nuking and avoiding trains with Jawas and Lightsabers instead of Spectral Callers and Claymores, but that's not what SWG is about at all, nor should it ever be.

        Galaxies, you see, is not merely another copycat MMORPG. Many games say 'what did EQ and Anarchy Online and DAoC doright?' and then copy it. Galaxies knew that their game would be different, so instead looked for the parts of those games that were bad and avoided them. Hear me out.

  • And the sheep return in thier flock... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06, 2003 @01:46PM (#6378164)
    It doesn't matter how crappy this game is or what the bugs and shortcomings are. Media has proven once again that the idle minded player will flock to their beloved franchise name like a bull to a red flag without thinking.

    I really wish people would take a critical view of the content before shuffling over to a store and handing over their money because "Duh... it's Star Wars! Dats da best!"
    • 1. The word "media" is plural. Thus, "media have proven" is more correct.
      2. I don't know what "idle minded" means, though if it is a real term - or your own new invention - it would be "idle-minded" or "idleminded" (using the hyphen is usually correct, though stylistically you can choose to make it one word). I suspect you were reaching for "addle-minded" or "addle-brained."
      3. "Player" is singular, thus "their" (plural possessive) is difficult to justify in your second sentence.
      4. How do you "take
  • Please stop these boring SWG advertisements - we've heard enough already and the game it pretty boring. Account will run out by the end of this month thank god...

  • Yeah, it would be nice if it actually worked. (Score:4, Funny)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 ) on Sunday July 06, 2003 @06:42PM (#6379715) Journal
    I post this now, because the servers are down on Star wars Galaxies. I blocked off a section of my time (ie this whole weekend) to play but the servers have been down as much as up. What you aren't hearing is that they pull down the servers for 4 hours a day every day for maintaince. On top of if something goes wrong (ie today.) They've had about 7 hours of DOWNTIME for my server today and when I try to go into my character select screen, my almost uber guy is standing there NAKED with none of his items and his HAIR is gone. It looks like he was the victim of a prison rape. Needless to say, I don't think they will be getting my money when the free month is up. It's nice that they have a built in macroing system though. It's almost like building an aimbot into a first person shooter.
    • If you're quitting because of downtime in the first month of play and not because you dislike the actual gameplay then you're being foolish. These kinds of games are always going to experience downtime at first because it seems that it's impossible to project what's going to happen in the game once 125,000 accounts are created and played, and because these games are invariably overhyped early and thus bug-fixing delays get progressively more unacceptable so that they have to get the game out the door, flaw

      • Re:Yeah, it would be nice if it actually worked. (Score:4, Informative)

        by @madeus ( 24818 ) <slashdot_24818@mac.com> on Monday July 07, 2003 @07:11AM (#6382085)
        If you're quitting because of downtime in the first month of play and not because you dislike the actual gameplay then you're being foolish.

        If you think it's going get beter soon you've no idea about how SOE do business - PlanetSide (another SOE game, that's been running for longer) has constant down time issues, they STILL reboot the servers daily and take them down during peak times and they still have lots of problems when they are running.

        Doors frequently don't open in the game, you can get stuck in the game until they servers are rebooted, you can shoot through some objects (like trees), people can shoot and kill you even when they are facing the *opposite* direction (which makes using stealth suits to sneak up on someone a joke), the killer client side hit detection means you can - for example - get run over and killed by a vehicle (like a tank), even if it seems to you that you were 10-20 feet away from where you are standing - all issues that have been knowen about for a month, but not fixed.

        A couple of months won't be long enough for them to even nearly sort it out, trust me (or read the the SOE Station.com forums). It might be sufficently useable to be considered ready for release in 6 months, but not in 8 weeks.

        I say people are right not to go beyond the first month if it narks them, the bugs in SOE games such as SWG and PS can be really annoying, and the issues are NOT going to go away anytime soon - the developers don't even know what's going on with there games.

        For example, the developers of PS recently said they didn't know sticking doors were an issue, despite the numerous bug reports submitted by players (including myself) and forum topics dedicated to the subject.

        The games are not ready for release by a long shot (and many of the issues are not specifically to do with it being massive multiplayer, simply that the game has had too short a development cycle).
        • you can shoot through some objects (like trees)

          They must have the same coders from the Star Wars Galaxies team. NPC's can shoot through hills, mountains and trees in SWG. There is nothing like burst running over a hill only to get shot in the butt by someone who is on the other side. I think maybe they were playing a little too much counterstrike since all the guns work like AWP's
      • If you're quitting because of downtime in the first month of play and not because you dislike the actual gameplay then you're being foolish. These kinds of games are always going to experience downtime at first because it seems that it's impossible to project what's going to happen in the game once 125,000 accounts are created and played, and because these games are invariably overhyped early and thus bug-fixing delays get progressively more unacceptable so that they have to get the game out the door, flawe
    • If you had read the comments posted by beta testers right here on slashdot, you would have known that the game was a buggy piece of shit.

      At least 5 testers posted previously.
      • The game is a fine piece of shit. I like it. I'm glad I paid for it. I will continue to pay for it until school starts and I run out of time to waste.

        - shazow
      • If you had read the comments posted by beta testers right here on slashdot, you would have known that the game was a buggy piece of shit. At least 5 testers posted previously. I can live with the bugs I've run into myself, such as: 1. The I bought my stuff from the bazaar but can't actually get it bug. 2. The I can get a NPC character to keep giving me dark Jedi Amulets for free which I can then turn around and sell to n00bs for 3000 credits bug. 3. The Faction points bug that some exploiters found wh
        • So from everything you've listed it sounds like you are basically saying you can live with the exploits because they make you more powerful instead of playing fair.

          A cheat is a cheat, whether its an exploit of a bug or a hack doesn't matter.
          • So from everything you've listed it sounds like you are basically saying you can live with the exploits because they make you more powerful instead of playing fair.

            The last line was a joke. I can live with the bugs because they were bound to happen and I knew they would be in there. I didn't expect 15% downtime on the good days. Sure, I knew there would be some downtime, but 4 hours a day?
    • Hmm, that's odd. While I did get kicked out a couple times, it was only for a moment. Maybe five minutes max. I played the whole weekend, pretty much. Made it to Droid Engineer, got 200 Rebel faction, made enough credits to support my extractor habit over the week. All in all, I have not had very many technical probs, other than those "SWG Lost Connection" incidents. Annoying, but definitely not a big deal.
  • Speaking from wishing I had rented Bounty Hunter and being glad I rented The Clone Wars, I wonder if Star Wars Galaxies is any good?

    One thing I've noticed about the Star Wars franchise's games is that they take a genuinely interesting story and the outstanding Star Wars music and wrap them in a so-so game. I keep finding myself attracted to these games, but have resolved to steer away from them from now on. I don't know, perhaps these games are just dandy to teenagers--but, then, the violence in Bounty H
  • Its that simple.

    If you don't read the reviews, you don't realize its just everquest with SW races. When people find out you can't fly, let alone buy, spaceships, the game will tank.

    Honestly, how can you make a SW game without spaceships?!?!
    • The best analogy I heard is how can it be Star Wars when there are no ships (no stars) and no wars (no open PvP) The best part is the people running around with axes and knives and "bone armor" it looks more like a midevil setting than the star wars universe. but I'm enjoying it other than the downtime since its the first MMO I really played. :)
    • Actually, it's nothing like EQ with SW races. If anything, it's more like UO with SE races, and even that is not quite accurate. I posted above about it, and you can check it here [slashdot.org].

      Besides, player owned spaceships will be added. And there is, in fact a war going on, but it's a conflict that involves all the PCs, many of whom may be fighters, but aren't paid soldiers. They're more like mercenaries. Mercenaries don't get paid for randomly killing each other any time, so right now there's no open PvP. La
      • You can wrap shit in a box and call it a present...

        But the fact of the matter is, there isn't space combat. That's what all us 30+ year olds grew up think of star wars. The fact of the matter is, the game is a first person, planet based RPG.

        You say "but they'll add space later". That's like saying "Here's you star trek game. Its just an away crew on a planet, but we'll add the enterprise later".

        Now I have to pay $100 and wait X+N months (X is when they SAY it will be out, N is an arbitrary number
        • Why not get SW Rebellion or one of the X-wing or Tie-Fighter games if that's what you want, then? Those are pure space combat, since that is the 'definative' Star Wars for you. Above all, MMORPGs are RPGs. Role. Playing. Games. That means character building, and it's hard to do that other than in very specific ways when everyone is jetting around in their own fighter.

          Now look, I'm looking forward to interacting with people while hanging out on a Mon Calamari as much as the next Bothan, but there's more

  • If I had to make a summary of my SWG experience in one single emote....

    /bored angry yawn

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