Star Wars Galaxies - No Crushbone Factor? 82
Tark writes "Over at Warcry.com, there's a new column from Warthog discussing his post-launch impressions of the PC MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, a month after official release date." This opinion piece is from the writer whose entertaining review we featured just after game launch, and it's interesting to see how his opinions have changed over time - he still says SWG lacks the "Crushbone Factor", referencing a particular area of Everquest which "..had quests... unique monsters... cool, level appropriate loot drops... [and] personality."
Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:5, Insightful)
While this all adds up to a bad experience I think the most telling factor is this. The most commonly heard question I've been seeing in game and on message boards is. When does World of Warcraft come out?
The Holy Grail (Score:1, Funny)
Those poor knights who wasted all those years hunting for the damn grail. If only SOE had been there at the end to "reset" things.
Re:The Holy Grail (Score:5, Funny)
C3PO says, "Your reward has been placed in your backpack."
You look in your backpack... there isn't anything there. You check your faction standing. It hasn't budged. You check your bank account. No new deposits.
You tell C3PO, "You lying rust bucket screw you rebels I'm going to tell the Emporer where your secret rebel base is!"
Re:The Holy Grail (Score:2, Troll)
first you guys bitch about how its not out yet and to "release it already"
then you complain about its level of completeness when it is finally released. when does the madness end?
Re:The Holy Grail (Score:4, Interesting)
If you can't get the reward you shouldn't be able to do the quest. Also the first missions are simply run here run back missions so there is no reason to limit who can do them and who can't. The message has been changed so that you don't see "Your reward has been placed in your backpack." when the only reward would be faction points and credits. The problem is that you didn't even get the faction points or credits.
first you guys bitch about how its not out yet and to "release it already"
This is completly out of context. I would never bitch about releasing it already. I jumped all over the funcom people for the state of Anarchy Online. I'm constantly griping about companies releasing games or other software that isn't finished and expecting people to live with it, and I'm always griping about people not telling these companies to go to hell. I cancelled my AO account when they started billing because the game still wasn't done. I just got billed the first time for Star Wars, and that is the primary reason I'm upset about the lack of content. They are telling me that the game is done, and that I need to be paying to play it. I don't think there is enough content and if at the end of the month it is the same way they can not count on my $15.
then you complain about its level of completeness when it is finally released. when does the madness end?
I agree there are people that fall into this category, but I would much rather wait an extra six months or a year to play a game if that means it will be done when it comes out. Since SWG is obviously lacking and it was sold to me as a finished product I have every right to be upset and bitch about it.
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:4, Interesting)
if you want to pvp, play quake.
SWG is a community game, and in order for you to enjoy the game, you must actually take part of communities, and do things together. trust me, its far funner. there are VERY few pvp things to do in SWG unless you want to play on a battlefield. sure you can knock the guts out of someone easy in the cantina but what fun is that? none. that's why you're not having any fun.
the fact that everyone always waits for the next game to come out tells me that no one is happy with any current game. lets not even get into the fact that you take what is said on forums as the pulse of the entire community - which it simply isn't.
the true test of a game is its replayability. if you're constantly eyes on the horizon for the next game you can never really, truly enjoy the one you're playing. I still play Quakeworld and I still love it. I don't give a crap what's on the horizon, i play what is fun. SWG is fun. don't like it, then don't play it. i'm quite sick of the arsewipes that introduce themselves to me by sending a duel request.
PVP in SWG was an afterthought. I wish it was totally skipped. PvP ruins the game for me, so thank God i haven't taken a side in the "epic conflict" yet.
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:2)
Your opinion and not worth a whole lot.
if you want to pvp, play quake.
Troll
SWG is a community game, and in order for you to enjoy the game, you must actually take part of communities, and do things together. trust me, its far funner. there are VERY few pvp things to do in SWG unless you want to play on a battlefield. sure you can knock the guts out of someone easy in the cantina but what fun is that? none. that's why you're not having any fun.
I don't personally care much for PvP. Howe
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:1)
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:1)
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:1)
Re:Talk about hitting the nail on the head (Score:1)
Personally I have never felt that S
MUD (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:2)
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:1)
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:3, Informative)
You should also notice from the slashdot summary of the previ
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:1)
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:2)
Re:What about the dupe factor? (Score:2)
I've now fixed the URL in this story, so it at least points to the original review, which now has an different, archived URL on the Warcry site. How confusing.
Told you so 8) (Score:2)
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?
game was dull
KOTOR (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:KOTOR (Score:1)
Re:KOTOR (Score:1)
-- Alex
Re:KOTOR (Score:1)
Re:KOTOR (Score:1)
And, yes, you do get party members to control, despite what the poster below says.
I've played the game for about 12 hours now, and I'm looking very much forward to the next 50 or so I'm sure I'll put into it. I don't have to deal with idiot duelists, spamming l33t speakers, down servers, or monthly fees. If only they could chur
Best Quote of the Article... (Score:5, Interesting)
I went to one of the very few locations with some content today (the Tusken Fortress), and hunted for a while. The tuskens located there spawn much, much more slowly now. There is less to hunt, basically. It was frustrating.
That's right, folks. SOE took a game with little content and, by reducing the spawn rate of static spawns, actually reduced the amount of content, hunting, and other things to do.
Pure genius."
oh god... I was in Beta 3... (actually, I was BANNED from beta 3 near the end because I was a little miffed when medics got the shaft, and suggested that if marksmen had to go through the same crap to shoot as medics were forced to in order to heal, people would tell SoE to shove the game up their ass... or perhaps it was Holocrons (Raph Kosters) post about "how they had decided to drop vehicles at launch in order to focus on 'content'" and my subsequent posting of a WoW screenshot showing players on horses... who can say?)
Regardless, the games "content" has been 0 since the day I got the beta, and it seems like it hasnt gotten any better. Sad really, THIS is that SW MMORPG we get. There wont be another one 6 months from now (like, AC and EQ are both fantasy MMORPGs, so there IS "choice")...
oh well, WoW will be out in a year or so...
Re:Best Quote of the Article... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Best Quote of the Article... (Score:2)
There. Is. No. Content.
Re:Best Quote of the Article... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Best Quote of the Article... (Score:5, Funny)
Is it just me, or does that seem to be the general feeling of ANYTHING that has been associated with George Lucas lately? No content for more money than everything else in the same category.
Content is expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
SWG had to go toward randomly-generated content in the world because they simply could not generate all the needed content by hand. Especially with more modern players expecting a wealth of new content at launch and on a regular basis. New games have to compete with EQ's content, which has been added to over the years.
In the end, content is expensive. Generating some of the content randomly helps create more content that doesn't feel repetitive, but it loses a bit of soul in the process.
My view on things,
Re:Content is expensive (Score:1)
Re:Content is expensive (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2)
I'm okay with it, but it would be nicer if they gave the software away for free also.
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2)
I was billed for my first month a couple days ago as I'm sure most people were. This is thier final month to fix things. If there is nothing to do at the end of the month they will get no further funds from me. Unlike so many people I won't stick around if it isn't fun for me. However, while I am a paying customer of a supposedly finished product with monthly updates I feel I have ev
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2, Informative)
And, $15 per month is hardly "gouging". Consider that you couldn't even see 2 movies in the theater for that price. Anyway, there a
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2)
Re:Content is expensive (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? I would beg to differ. You see, I have played numerous free MUDs, a handful of free graphical MMORPGs, and currently play on an awesome UO shard called Darkenwood. Free gameplay, and unbelievable content. The people who run Darkenwood have added whole new mechanisms to the game. What about NWN? Content is not as expensive as you think it is. Nor is maintaining it said content. The real expense is in managing large numbers of players. But then expl
Re:Content is expensive (Score:1)
So the MUD model is pretty good, right? And a lot of what made that work was delegating building tasks to the Wizards, and from them to some other experienced players (I remember spending weeks doing MUSH code for Dune MUSH). So how about bringing player-generated content to SW:G or the other MMORPGs? It sounds like SW:G creates a market for goods and services; make a market for content and throw some bennies to the builders with popular regions.
Because as it stands, yeah, it sounds like I'd much rather p
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2, Insightful)
I should have also stated that quality content is expensive. Sturgeon's law and all that. Especially since I have the au
Re:Content is expensive (Score:2)
The content was already there. The reason none of it was in game is that there was a business or design decision not to use it.
Parent is wrong about why SWG went random (Score:1)
Another person looking for Everquest Clone #7889 (Score:5, Interesting)
You want Everquest? Go play Everquest and stop trying to turn every other game into a Everquest clone.
Re:Another person looking for Everquest Clone #788 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Another person looking for Everquest Clone #788 (Score:1)
I absolutely hated every minute that I played Metal Gear Solid, then I see reviews that equate it to the second coming of Christ.
To each their own I guess.
Re:Another person looking for Everquest Clone #788 (Score:5, Insightful)
You spend an hour or two a day in game so you can make a new coffee table. I spend an hour or two a day in game fighting the same old garbage so I can have enough money to purchase your coffee table. Eventually I'm going to get tired of the boring and repetativeness of this portion of the game. I'll leave and when you've mastered building that armoire there won't be anyone around to buy it. There isn't enough content to keep the people that don't want to be crafters entertained. Without this portion of the player base the economy will collapse.
Now don't get me wrong, to a certain extent I like the fact that there is dependance on other players for the game to work. I don't like playing at 2am and coming into town to find there are no entertainers in the cantinas and no medics in the medical center. I don't like the fact that I can't find an upgraded weapon because MOBs don't drop them and the stuff on the bazaar is junk. The weaons crafters and armor crafters that were providing these services are quiting because they are tired of "being weapons whores" etc. There is no easy way to find out where players are building thier houses and setting up thier vendors so you spend hours running around aimlessly outside of cities looking for these vendors. You find one or hear of one and check the vendors there. Only to find out that there is either no stock or the weapons are equal to or below the quality of your current weapon (more of a problem for melees than ranged, and then mostly a problem for pikeman in the melee category).
Now, this isn't the case on all the servers. I'm hearing about how there are tons of crafters on Starsider and you can find plenty of what you need. There are so many damn servers though there doesn't seem to be any consistancy.
Now lets talk missions. Missions on the starter planets are designed to match your skills. However, they are way too easy, too time consuming, and the reward is rarely worth the effort. You spend 80% of your time running from the city to the mission area and back again. Now, the missions on some of the smaller planets or moons are much more difficult. In some cases impossible without huge groups. This is better, except that once you do get a big group together they become just as easy as the standard missions and the rewards are just as poor.
I don't want this game to be like Everquest, heck I didn't like Everquest so I really don't want it to be like Everquest. There just isn't much there for anyone to do right now. There are people that are having fun, but the people I play with on a regular basis are already losing interest. The game is just over a month old, and in my opinion that is a very very bad sign.
Re:Another person looking for Everquest Clone #788 (Score:5, Insightful)
His "main beef" is that it's missing the "crushbone factor". This isn't "I want Crushbone in space with Jedi", this is "I want a story, a big dungeon, and interesting items with side quests to back it up".
He spent quite a while explaining the Crushbone Factor. Perhaps if he named it "The Content Factor" you would have less to complain about. Perhaps you would have spared us your mini-rant about how much you hate Everquest, and your insults to mmorpg players.
I'm sorry, this is definitely news to me. SWG was made as a world, not a game. Of course, it all makes sense now! It's not a game in anyway! That's why it's not marketed a replacement for this world, Eart- oh, whoops.
It's obvious that you like the SWG. Please, write up a rebuttal designed take apart Warthog's main argument, the lack of content. Don't segway off and bitch about Everquest. When your rebuttal is written, post it... I'd like to read another article that shows SWG in a more positive light.
Re:Another person looking for Everquest Clone #788 (Score:2)
That sounds fantastic (Score:2, Insightful)
If >50% of the people lead virtual lives that are NOT heroic, that means that BEING heroic actually puts you in the minority. That is, most certainly, how it should be.
We use Everquest as a benchmark now? (Score:5, Funny)
the "Crushbone Factor", referencing a particular area of Everquest
Great. We refer to part of Everquest to measure how good a game is?
That's like complimenting a game by saying it has the "root canal" factor.
Re:We use Everquest as a benchmark now? (Score:2)
I haven't played Galaxies, but I can't imagine enjoying myself if his portrayal of "dungeons" are accurate. It's fun advent
This is not the game you're looking for. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is not the game you're looking for. (Score:1)
Re:This is not the game you're looking for. (Score:2)
Who's a Jedi? (Score:2)
Re:Who's a Jedi? (Score:3, Informative)
To my knowledge, no players have unlocked Jedi slots yet, although there are a few Dark Jedi NPCs running around, as well as whole clans of force-sensitive witches on Dathomir.
Various responses (Score:5, Interesting)
I had this problem once back in beta. Toggling my "Chase Cam" fixed it. I think it's the numericpad decimal point key which toggles this.
The problem with being in-range to attack as a brawler is quite valid. Range for attacking purposes is calculated to the center of the beast you are attacking. Some of these beasts are HUGE, and you can be literally standing beneath them visually and still get "out of range".
I also heard from one player that the beasts attack from the space where their head is located, but since they can only receive damage at their 3D object center, it gets kind of difficult to battle in any sensibible way.
The worst problem with these unannounced 6-8 hour "emergency maintenance" sessions is that some people can't get to their harvesters during their gaming window that day, which can result in some seriously nasty losses, which the CSRs are very unlikely to rectify.
But harvesters are a very very sore point all their own in this game. Harvesters are horribly implemented and have irrational costs considering their hit-and-miss usefulness.
I wonder how much the Franchise Approval process is slowing them down. This could be a significant liability if it is not streamlined.
It's tradition (Score:3, Insightful)
Consider this: There are lots of complaints about bugs. Lots of complaints about servers being unavailable. Lots of complaints about cheating, poor gameplay, boring quests, etc, etc... But regardless of what specifically people are complaining about, the pervasive theme running through 90% of complaints is that SOE simply don't care about their customers.
I'm seeing cause, I'm seeing effect.
Re:It's tradition (Score:1)
Re:The problem I find is consequences (Score:1)
You can't please everyone! (Score:1)
Narglatch Lair (Score:1)
sounds like i haven't missed anything (Score:1)
Force sensitive (Score:2)
I've never played SWG, but if I did I would like to see at least a few Jedi out there. I don't care if I'm *not* one, the ability to hunt Jedi is jus
He obviously didn't play EQ for long (Score:1)
Wolfpack had the right idea with Shadowbane: make the players the content. Everything else about the game is mediocre, but it's still the only MMO out there that can keep me interested.
False Advertising (Score:2, Interesting)
No Wars
No Wars in the Stars
No Galaxies
No Star Wars Galaxies
WTF?
I think Star wars, I think of Cruising around in my Millenium Falcon shooting Tie Fighters.
I think of flying low on Hoth taking out AT-AT's.
I think of Lightsabers, blasters, and Stormtroopers in White Armor blasting everywhere.
When I heard that you couldn't fly anything, and how the PvP system was implemented, I was like, you're kidding right?
I want barfights, I want to jump in my spaceship and fly around.
I want my fellow rebels
Re:False Advertising (Score:1)
SWG is closer to UO than EQ (Score:2, Interesting)
While in looks and interface wise, EQ and SWG are very similar and either could pass for a clone of the other, fundimentally they are different games. I think it would be more accurate to compare post-launch SWG with early Ultima Online. If you look at the Dev team you can see why, I'd be willing to wager that half of the original UO dev team was recruited for SWG and that has an influence.
Anyway, Ultima Online had
last post again!!! (Score:1)