The Saga Of Star Wars Galaxies Recounted 63
Thanks to GameSpy for its three-part article discussing the 'long and storied history' of PC-based MMO Star Wars Galaxies, noting: "Regarded as one of the most ambitious MMOGs ever launched and greeted with hype spawned from decades of movies, no other game has had a more difficult road than Galaxies." The piece goes on to argue: "The most conservative estimates of Galaxies' stable player base estimates approximately 100,000 active players", although Sony Online's chief creative officer Raph Koster disagrees with that figure on Waterthread.org, countering: "GameSpy is way off. We get more uniques in a day than that, much less subscribers." The article concludes: "Star Wars: Galaxies attracted many, many people to MMOGs who had never tried one before. Many were put off by the initial lack of content. Despite the oft-stated fantasy of 'living in the Star Wars galaxy,' what many players truly want is to have a Star Wars adventure." Update: 03/16 16:49 GMT by S : John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, has mailed us with official comment: "Star Wars Galaxies has much more than double the number of subscribers quoted on GameSpy. For the record, the title is doing very, very well and is the second largest MMO in the North American market."
golly (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess, thinking about some of the fan responses to Episodes I and II, there's something about Star Wars that shuts off peoples' criticial faculties.
Re:golly (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:golly (Score:2)
I am a subscriber to SWG and I hate it. Rant to follow.
I still have a subscription, and trust me, there is not much intelligent life to be foun
Re:golly (Score:5, Interesting)
It's the same with most games. People keep saying "This game sucks worse than anything else I have ever played! I should know, I play it 24/7!". One can only speculate as to why people keep playing games they allegedly hate so much...
Re:golly (Score:5, Insightful)
The same reason people complain about tons of other things that they still use every day: They're problems, but not deal breakers. For instance, DirecTV does a lot of things that annoy me. They force well over one hundred pay-per-view advertisement channels onto my service, they send me "mail" that causes the green mail light to light up, but the mail is never anything more than pay-per-view advertisements, and they leave channels that are inaccessible in my channel list just so I'll see their little advertisement that tells me that I could have the channel if I paid more. All of it is very annoying and I've definitely griped about it a couple of times. But am I going back to cable? Hell no. It's still WAY better than cable, and even though those little problems are annoying, the rest of the service is still excellent.
That's probably the same way it works with Star Wars Galaxies. Most of the people that complain about the way Jedis are implemented are probably still enjoying the other fighting classes a whole lot. That enjoyment is enough to keep them playing, even though they wish the game were a little more polished.
Re:golly (Score:2)
The difference (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:golly (Score:1)
How about I convict him with his own words? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well duh. No one wants to take virtual dumps. Just like no one wants to see Luke on the space-crapper in the movies, or really long fart jokes for that matter. No one wants to be a faceless extra in a digital crowd scene in the on-line version. Quite the epiphany, perhaps if he'd payed any attention to story telling over the last 5000 years or so (how old is Gilgamesh anyway) he might have saved himself and everyone else the trouble.
Tedium and challenge are not the same thing. There should be tedious tasks. They should be the window dressing on the world, things that can be picked up and left off without consequence that hint at a bigger world. A world the heros are too busy to live in but not so busy they can't visit. The challenges, the real obsticals to ends shouldn't be tedious. They should be challenging, and engage people with more than mindless repetition. The social element of MMO's can alleviate some of that, allowing people to step back and trade some of the tedium in for the challenge of teamwork. But if every MMO just wants to be the last 2 levels of the original Ninja Gaiden without the cinematic sequences, they've missed the whole point.
If anything the continued patronage of their customers is a testiment to the durability of the brand, and their connection with it. It's said that a person can learn to tolerate almost anything. And just because they'll accept extreme mediocrity over the short term in now way implies that it is a worthy end to be aspired to.
Re:golly (Score:1)
has there ever been a game that's criticised by so many people, most of whom continue to play it?
Uh... Everquest? :)
Re:golly (Score:2)
Problem with MMOGs in general (Score:1)
Where this works out with far better is in the single player realm, where you arent competing with thousands of other people. MMOGs eventaully dilute down into a pissing contest, where people d
Getting better... (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, I can't comment on the Jedi saga, but there was one factual error in the article I'd like to correct: The economy is quite broken, and everyone from the players to the devs knows it. Fonrtunatly, steps are being made to fix it, and several other positive changes in the works tells me that the devs are actually listening now and seem to care.
I think I'm going to stick around this time. I hate the Powergamer model ( ala EQ ) and I've been adrift for some time trying to find a new MMORPG I can call home. ( AO, DAOC, Shadowbane, FFXI, Horizons, even the Sims Online for God's sake! ) Hopefully, I can continue to call Galaxies home.
Re:Getting better... (Score:2)
I recently checked in to see how it's doing and although there's a lot more features, the quality of the player base has taken a big dive. Unless you like playing in an environment full of the mentality behind phrases like "OMG! WTF? LOL", I'd suggest finding another source of entertainment.
I think what I miss t
It was worse than that! (Score:5, Interesting)
I was a coder at Verant/Sony Online while Galaxies was in development. I even did a little work on that project. (Bug fixes in the network code, mostly. Not enough to get me credited, damnit.)
In an average 9 hour workday, we usually spent about three hours playing Starcraft, and two more on Half-Life, and probably some more time on Quake or Diablo 2 or whatever happened to be new in a given month. On top of that there was the daily 2 hour lunch, that we usually took at a strip club. Add in plenty of time for checking your email, or leisurely wandering the building "looking for the producer" (actually avoiding him like the plague), and you could easily get through the day without so much as opening Visual Studio.
That's how it was for about the first year and a half of "development." Very little actual work got done. The first thing that made the team start coding was when Planetside, the rival project, finally got off the ground. (Your average game coder has an ego the size of Jupiter. When they heard that Planetside actually had parts of a working game, their egos made them get off their lazy asses and start working, because they didn't want to get beat by some bumpkins in the St Louis office.)
Re:It was worse than that! (Score:2)
Re:It was worse than that! (Score:3, Funny)
I KNEW IT! [netjak.com]
Here's the relevant quote from the review:
"Animations are very nice. (the guys at SOE must have logged countless hours in exotic dance clubs...all under the guise of doing research for the Entertainer class.)"
I was SOOOO onto you guys...
Re:It was worse than that! (Score:2)
Re:It was worse than that! (Score:1)
"Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door--that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh. after that I sorta space out for an hour.... Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work" - Office Space
Re:It was worse than that! (Score:2)
I think it is pretty clear why SWG requires daily reboots to maintain the stability of the servers.
The joys of creative editing. (Score:5, Funny)
- Dave A., Jedi, Ahazi
Looks like an editor clearly chopped off part of this quote.
The missing part probably goes something like this:
"I did every possible thing you could conceive of except change professions and I still hadn't unlocked my jedi slot. Then I found one of those holocron thingies after killing about a million local toughs outside a starport on Corellia. It told me I had to be a master dancer. So I'd log in every morning after server reset and AFK macro in Theed. Once I made master dancer I still hadn't opened that %^$&**(%$# FS-slot. Back to killing local toughs outside the starport. Finally after 2 weeks of this I got another holocron. It told me I had to become a master chef. I wanted to shoot myself. Anyways I ground my way to master chef and surprise, surprise, I still hadn't unlocked the FS-slot. I decided that rather than wasting any more time hunting for a holocron I'd just grind my way through all the professions. After grinding through armorsmith, weaponsmith, swordsman, TK, tailor, image designer, carbineer, fencer and finally architect I managed to open a force sensitive slot."
I don't think things are going to get better... (Score:2, Interesting)
Publish 7 goes live today, and for the non-subscribers today's theme is the "Droid Invasion". This will consist o
Re:I don't think things are going to get better... (Score:2, Funny)
Gameplay description? (Score:2)
When the article talks about "grinding through" professions like tailor or whatever, what does it actually entail? Is it literally just:
1) select "make trousers"
2) click on raw material slot in inventory
3) wait
4) goto 1
until you get enough XP? Or is there more to it than that. It doesn't seem much fun paying $15 to be a keyboard macro.
Re:Gameplay description? (Score:1)
Worse than work, and you pay for it instead of getting paid. People are weird...
Re:Gameplay description? (Score:5, Interesting)
Step 1. Stock up on X resources
Step 2. Set macro to constantly use X resources to gain skill levels
Step 3. Leave computer on for a few hours AFK
Step 4. Repeat
Step 5. ???
Step 6. Jedi!
Not very fair for those who don't know/care/want to take the time to set this up is it? On top of that, people who did this would damage the player run economy. You might have momentary gluts of a certain product or have momentary shortages of a certain product leading to a very unstable economy.
'Cheating' in SWG and just how screwed up SWG is.. (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, I know two players IRL with multiple accounts, one with 4 accounts, another with 2. Both use software (e.g. Visual Basic tools) to simulate mouse clicks to 'train' characters while they are AFK, even at work (they can use VNC to check on them from time to time). They have multiple accounts because of the limitations on the number of skill points an individual character can have, and because it's so hard to find someone you want with the skill you need to team with, even at peak time. It's also a lot easier to make money in game when you are your own little production firm.
This is what the Jedi's, and those seriously chasing the unlocking of the 'Force Sensitive Slot' are doing. In fairness, it's actually the only sensible way to progress in the game, because it's such a tedious grind.
I just think, to hell with that, if I want to do that I'll spend my time writing productive, open source software, or writing battle bot scripts. I don't want to write Visual Basic scripts to play an RPG for me! It's certainly not what SWG is billed as. It's certainly not an RPG in any classically understood sense of the word. As an RPG, it's the single WORST RPG I have ever played.
It's as if someone had written a text based MUD, and all the items were so expensive, and levelling was so difficult, the only way to progress and keep up was to write a shell script to play it for you (go north until you find a troll, kill troll, retreat/use health vial if damaged, repeat). Now that can be fun in itself, but that's hardly the game it's been billed as at any point, but that's exactly what it is, and exactly what you need to do to stay even remotely competative with market prices and in Player V Player combat.
I don't think the development team have any idea how much this game is completely dominated by the behavior of power players, they don't know, or they don't care because it means players either have multiple accounts and are power players, thus earning them lots of money, or they have one account, but find it so hard to progress they are subscribed for months before they can start to get on their feet. I would be they know this is a formula which works with EQ and they have no interest in creating a 'game' in the traditional sense.
The only massively multiplayer title that SOE have that's remotely close to a modern game is the FPS game PlanetSide (and that's got it's problems atm).
I think every man and his dog is currently looking forward to World of Warcraft and hoping they get it right (they've started with a good engine, the Unreal Engine, which is a great first move). It's a shame, I _really_ wanted to play a multiplayer Star Wars RPG like the single player KoTOR. SWG certainly has the content, but not the engine or the gameplay.
Re:'Cheating' in SWG and just how screwed up SWG i (Score:2)
Re:'Cheating' in SWG and just how screwed up SWG i (Score:1)
Re:'Cheating' in SWG and just how screwed up SWG i (Score:1)
Re:Gameplay description? (Score:2)
Only, you have to do other similarly tedious stuff to make money to get enough raw material or go and collect small amounts of it yourself (this would be fun and immersive, if it didn't also involve quite so much grinding in itself IMO).
I think the game has an amazing wealth of content and huge potentional, but over reliance on mission terminals has runined the game and it's not an RPG in any traditional sense IMO. Y
Re:Gameplay description? (Score:1, Informative)
The draw distance is set very low by default. If your machine can handle it, turn it up all the way... it makes a huge difference in the way the world looks. I can see the Coronet starport across the ocean from my house, about 2km away. Forests actually look like forests, not a constantly spawning bunch
Re:Gameplay description? (Score:2)
I know what you mean, it's not the draw distance that's the problem though. NPC buildings appear from way in the distance (so cities, starports etc are just fine). Even certain player
What can I do? (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, and the mobs are dumb as stumps, so regular hunting is even more boring than games like DAoC, where there's some rhyme or reason to mob's responses.
-Jeff
P.S. Not to mention the baffling decision to let Jedi off-the-hook. Now all the powergamers will have a Jedi, and that will become the standard for PvE and PvP content.
Re:What can I do? (Score:2)
Re:What can I do? (Score:2)
Re:What can I do? (Score:1)
Re:Closed SWG forums? (Score:1)
I played the first month and I wont go back... (Score:5, Interesting)
The mood of the game was all wrong too. It never felt like the galatic civil war was going on. You never felt when you were in a rebel city that imperials might just storm the place and kill everyone. You never had too much fear running around a neutral city if you were a rebel either. It never felt like a bounty hunter might be hunting you...It felt more like the sims online, with all the dancers and artisans around. The game was more about socializing and economy than war, they should have called it "Star Sims" and made everyone an ewok or a gungan.
Re:I played the first month and I wont go back... (Score:1, Interesting)
and also a group of players who are using bothans to emulate jawas.
Re:I played the first month and I wont go back... (Score:1, Funny)
somehow this doesn't suprise me considering who their user base is.
The SOE way of producing games (Score:4, Insightful)
This is clearly true in SW:G, where being a Jedi makes no sense and yet SOE declares it "meets their design goals" but they'll change it in the future to gamer demand.
In other words - they didn't really spend much forethought into how jedis should work in the game, they just slapped it in there and let the gamers sort it out - at cost.
PlanetSide has the exact same issues - it's gameplay has changed significantly twice since I left that game.
I'm all for developers listening to gamer feedback - but it's way different when the developers seem incapable of getting it done right without that feedback.
Re:The SOE way of producing games (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that the game sucks, no doubt about that. I played it for a surprisingly long 2-3 months before they shot the economy to hell by cutting the mission rewards in half. However, I think they thought about how jedi's would play in their perfect world, not how REAL players WANT to play as a jedi. They assumed that jedi players would w
2nd Largest MMO? (Score:3, Insightful)
So, according to this, it's doing better than FFXI, which just cleared 1 million users, right? I'm sure that they are including all of their european users on US servers. I'm just kinda curious as to how he can make that claim when even DAoC is doing better than SWG, or it was the last time I checked.
well, (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, then i would like to see the hard number of subscribers if this is such a marketing issue that this person feels the need to actualyl email about this.
As for the part about being the second largest in the N American market - where does it rate in the asian market. If you want a hungry mad mob of people wanting to play MMOGs - you would be focusing hard on the asian market. The asian market is nuts for all things online....
For example Ragnarok is an extrodinarily successful game there - and with a *free* *small* client - it has found a perfect market entry point. They still charge a monthly fee which the people are happy to pay.
Here in the US - the market is very fickle when it comes to the games we will play online from a loyalty standpoint. We have the luxury of higher income and more accessible broadband to our homes - but the asian market is different in the way they play the games because 95% of the games are played from internet cafes. Many of the internet cafes have slow access, and because of this many games are played locally.
This is not true of South Korea however, where high speed internet access is available at many internet cafes and homes - but the community of playing the games at the internet cafe is still there.
The thing I don't get (Score:1)
For example I have a friend who plays EQ, he has played for years and has a high level character. I hear him talking about this game and all the fun he has, battling monsters, exploring dungeons, pushing his character to the limits. I think that sounds like fun, so I go out a buy a copy install the game, hand over m