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 | State of the Galaxy Report |
 "Time heals all wounds." Or so Sony Online Entertainment and Star Wars Galaxies were hoping. SWG is approaching the first anniversary of its much-publicized NGE. (New Game Enhancements) Veteran players still brave forum bans to plead with the developers for a "Classic" server. Numerous new subscribers, after hearing the tales of Galaxies glory days, are often curious and also desire a chance to play the original game. The game is failing but the war wages on.
Brief re-cap. Star Wars Galaxies was released in June 2003. 32 professions were offered in a skill-based system. Players could mix and match professions creating a custom character. The New Game Enhancements were put into play November 15, 2005, much to anguished cries of current players. The NGE simplified the game from 32 mixable professions to 9 "Iconic" non-interchangeable professions. The details of the new system are of no consequence. The NGE is a failure.
Over the past year, the Star Wars Galaxies team has traveled to major cities, in my mind, as a peace offering. Promises were made, and broken. Hopes were lifted only to have them fall over the recent months. Changes are being made to the game. One could say from suggestions and ideas of the players but realistically, the majority of the changes are adding back some of the game mechanics that were lost while implementing the NGE. These are good steps backwards but can hardly be considered forward momentum.
Developers, Managers, Public Relations have all managed to say exactly the wrong thing in the most public of places. Recently Chris Cao preformed the flame of all flames against SWG subscribers. Raph Koster (Original SWG game designer) Jeff Freeman, among others, were quick to blog the errors of his ways.
The Empire is at war. Battles are fought on the Star Wars Galaxies Forums between Veteran players, new NGE players, Moderators and Developers. Blasters are aimed from other arenas as well. Previous employees of SOE, competitors, and general gaming gurus closely follow the battlefront.
"Who is winning?"
Unfortunately, the competitors. Blizzard and its World of Warcraft gathers the wounded and comforts them in a bug free game. A simple game yet consistent and respectful of its subscribers. New online ventures have already captured the eyes of Star Wars Galaxies players. Many have jumped ship and more are walking the plank.
SOE keeps quiet about the games player base numbers. Subscribers guess at the total. One fact is known the numbers are small. To use Chris Cao's formula, 20% of the player base posts on the forums. After sampling the online forum totals (These numbers are viewable from the Star Wars Galaxies forum) an average of 1,000 people are logged into the forums. The remaining 80% is spread over 26 servers. Not a great slice of the pie considering World of Warcraft has over 6 million players.
The answer to the Galactic dilemma should be open a Classic server and maintain the NGE on the majority of servers. SOE states it will not happen. Once again the details matter not. With every reiteration of "No Classic server", Sony Online Entertainment edges closer to forever encasing Star Wars Galaxies in carbonite.
So we come to the final question. "Are you still playing Star Wars Galaxies?"
Of course however I tend to play Galaxies from the surf side. The conflict, drama, predictions and news of Star Wars Galaxies I find much more exciting than the actual game. Truth is, the NGE doesn't appeal to me. I am not a 9 year old child that dreams of being Princess Leia. The classic game allowed a player to create his or her own adventure in the Star Wars universe. The NGE, with its simplified mechanics, boring combat, the lack of diversity, loss of subscribers and recent push towards PvP (Player vs Player) continue to detour my logging in to the game. My usual SWG gaming consists chatting with the few remaining friends that still play, testing any additions or reverts and logging out.
I would like to say "Happy One Year anniversary" to the NGE but the date more closely marks the decline of Star Wars Galaxies. Time heals all wounds, unless the wounds are fatal.
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http://blogs.starwars.com/ehope/8 |
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nob01
Oil Bath Bubbles
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date Posted: Oct 22, 2006 11:21 PM
An excellent post and an entertaining read.
I spent many long and happy days playing SWG when it first came out, then as the new elements were introduced and it segued into the NGE, the fun dissapated quickly.
Blizzard and its World of Warcraft gathers the wounded and comforts them in a bug free game.
And that's what happened to me (and the other 20+ members of our all-Trandoshan city of Retribution). We ended up at WoW, and continue to be treated well and have fun.
Now, I'm not playing now, but that is because I'm too busy, not because I don't want to, but if I ever return to an MMO, it won't be SWG. I think your closing comments summed up my own reasons perfectly.
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Megawolf
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date Posted: Oct 23, 2006 4:15 AM
AMEN!
I was there before NGE and I could say that I really didn't like the change. Yeah, there were good changes, but the profession change was horrible. They should put the profession system back, but keep some of the good changes (like no vehicle damage and such).
This is the only MMORPG I have (and bought it by accident, not knowing about the MMO part) and probably wont by anything else (because I can barely get by playing this with my parents). I'm currently not on because my subscription ended earlier this month and I don't have the money to resubscribe.
I really don't understand why SOE doesn't listen to the people. Why shouldn't they have the game the way they like it? They are the ones who pay $15 a month.
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LightSith94
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date Posted: Oct 23, 2006 7:30 AM
I had a Pre CU Jedi, Post CU jedi, and NGE Jedi... Wow what a difference that made. CU was acctually good once you got used to it, I think there were still tweaks to be made but NGE was just bad planning on SOE's part. They took a great Franchise and instead of improving what they had they completley changed the game... TWICE IN ONE YEAR. The first CU cut the player base by at least 30%-50%, but the NGE reduced their numbers even more and a game with a few 100k people playing is now at less then 30k. Instead of saying yeah we screwed up SOE Claims that its the players fault for a lack of patience. BAH. The only thing they did right was Space Single player, it was fun and intresting, just wish there was a reason to space PVP.
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yoda´s waiter
Not if anything to say about it I have!
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date Posted: Oct 23, 2006 7:34 AM
I've played SWG once or twice but never owned it. I was entertaining the idea of buying it when this hit. The general mood in the Games Forum on this site wasn't that cheery and I decided against.
I also had some problems with the fact that anyone could be Jedi and that SOE seemed to take some liberties with the Star Wars universe. It felt like SOE was shaping its own galaxy and that it doesn't fairly represent GL's vision, which I want to play.
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yoda´s waiter
Not if anything to say about it I have!
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date Posted: Oct 23, 2006 7:35 AM
I still check in from time to time, to see if anything might spark my interest, but alas.
It's becoming clearer to me that the ship has sailed for SOE and Galaxies. It was promising at first but it crashed and burned. A Star Wars MMORPG is a really good idea and I think that when this whole embarrasment is laid behind, a fresh start can beging, possibly with LucasArts calling the shots.
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matt_nz
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date Posted: Oct 25, 2006 10:57 PM
I find it interesting that you don't include LucasArts. LucasArts is just as much involved with the decisions in SWG as SOE are. You can't point the finger at one with out pointing at the other too.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:01 AM
What an excellent blog concerning the pathetic, dismal failure that is Star Wars Galaxies. I began playing at launch and was actually able to log in a play for about 20 minutes that first day. I struggled with game breaking bugs, unfinished play systems and poorly implemented mechanics for the last three and a half years. Just recently, in light of the developers of SWG blatantly ripping off game play ideas from Blizzards World of Warcraft, I posted a six page analysis of MMOs from Ultima Online to WoW and how they compare to SWG.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:02 AM
This post was met by community members with surprising acceptance and many players had constructive additions to add. However, SOE and the forum moderators did not share the views of their player base (as usual). I was summarily banned from the forums for a week. I immediately hopped on my second of my three paying accounts and posted that I had been banned and that I no longer knew how to deal with such a dictatorship that censored it's customers and silenced them when they were upset and vocalized their distain. My second account was instantly banned by the SWG Community Relations Manager, Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangle.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:02 AM
He banned my account saying that SOE was NOT a "dictatorship" and that my comment was unacceptable. My third account also had its forum privileges revoked. Thanks for proving my point Kurt! I have posted quite a few VERY constructive posts regarding play systems and most of them have gotten five star ratings from the community. But until that last post, I have NEVER gotten the attention of a developer let alone a response from one. So this is how SOE treats its paying customers? I guess I should have said that it was a "Fascist Dictatorship" as that would have been more accurate.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:03 AM
As far as I know, when you have thousands of people paying your salary, you listen to what they have to say. After reading Chris Cao's post, I am just sickened. Just in case anyone does not have access to the SWG forums, I will post his comments below;
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:05 AM
_________________________________________
"Roughly 80% of the people who play SWG never read these boards. We know this from our own internal metrics and it poses an interesting question. Are we talking to people who play the game or posters who play the boards?
I don't mean to imply that the people who post here don't play the game. Far from it. There are thousands of well-constructed, thoughtful, and insightful posts from people who obviously know the game very well.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:05 AM
Just read a few lines of these gems and you'll realize that, first and foremost, these people care about the game. Their focus is the game. I think the lion's share of the profession feedback in the last couple publishes is a fantastic example of these players who post.
But, at the same time, these boards are constantly cluttered by the reverse. Posters who play. They use these forums to lash out at others, criticize wantonly, and generally feed their own egos. They regularly attack devs and moderators, clinging to past wrongs and imagined slights. They focus on themselves instead of the game. To them, the boards are the real game.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:06 AM
As devs, we aren't here to play the board game. We're here to play, and to make, SWG.
The upcoming chapters will see the remainder of the profession expertise systems implemented. We have a lot of work to do and the feedback from players who post is going to be invaluable. You aren't going to like every decision we make and we understand that. We have a limited resources and time to accomplish all that needs to be done. But, as I've said before, we will be here (on the boards) and we will be listening. If you're up for a focused discussion of ideas, we welcome you and you can bet you'll have our attention.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:06 AM
If, however, you feel the need to throw another stone, indulge a rant, whine, pick apart another poster, argue a dead point, rules lawyer, quote ancient history, or engage in any of the other classic board game moves, don't expect us to pay attention. We have better things to do.
We have some SWG to make.
10-05-2006 10:30 AM "
_________________________________________
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:07 AM
Devs that are flaming their own players? These people need to be fired! They have no comprehension of what customer service is, nor what Star Wars is really about. In my humble opinion, they do not deserve the privilege of developing ANY game with the Star Wars name attached to it. LucasArts made a grave error in choosing SOE for this project and an even bigger one by renewing their contract at the three year mark.
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:07 AM
So, because of SOE's ridiculous, unsatisfactory, and completely insulting customer service; I have canceled all three of my accounts. One of which is a day one account and the other two were purchased around a month after launch. The decision by LucasArts to continue with Sony Online Entertainment is completely unacceptable. Not only has SOE's inept handling of this project done immense damage to the Star Wars franchise, but has damaged the very idea of Star Wars in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people. I for one, now find the entirety of the Star Wars movies, books, games, and collectables much less enjoyable than I ever did before suffering through the debacle that is "Star Wars Galaxies: A Game Divided".
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:07 AM
I weep for my loss and the loss of thousands of people around the world. It is truly "a grave disturbance in the Force.".
If you have access to the SWG forums and want to read any of my posts, just search for the forum name "KonaiNobi" and choose "View All Posts".
May the Force guide and protect us all from inept developers and short sighted, greedy producers. 
Konai Nobi
Day-One SWG Veteran
SWG Player No Longer
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KonaiNobi
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:10 AM
To follow up on that last stream of posts, I apologize for it's length but I needed to get it out to a comunity that would not censor me or ban me for feeling the way I do.
I would also like to add that my MMO analysis thread has just been deleted by the SWG moderators. Censorship at its finest. If you want to play an MMO, play WoW cause SWG just sucks! 
Konai Nobi.
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Ehope
Fairy tales really do come true....kinda.
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:42 AM
KonaiNobi
date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:10 AM
To follow up on that last stream of posts, I apologize for it's length but I needed to get it out to a community that would not censor me or ban me for feeling the way I do.
I agree the censorship on the SWG forums is biased. While I understand "sifting" through a great many posts in order to gleam desirable and constructive ideas may be tiresome, blatant disrespect for non-NGE supporters is not the way to keep subscribers. SOE fails to realize due to lack of players on the servers, the forums are now a substitute community.
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Ehope
Fairy tales really do come true....kinda.
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date Posted: Oct 26, 2006 10:50 AM
matt_nz
date Posted: Oct 25, 2006 10:57 PM
I find it interesting that you don't include LucasArts. LucasArts is just as much involved with the decisions
Unfortunately, the only documented "nod" to Star Wars Galaxies and the NGE (That I have found) is an article from the Star Wars Insider - Issue 88, Comlink. This reply to a readers question "Points the finger" at SOE.
I have no doubt the decision to implement the NGE was a joint effort between LucasArts and Sony Online entertainment however, I also realize that LA maintains a pristine face to the public... which is expected.
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Jehann
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date Posted: Nov 05, 2006 11:52 PM
However much SoE censors the forums of dissenting opinion and insists the NGE was necessary and is a better game, the reality of the situation is they stole from the playerbase. What they stole is the most valuable commodity in the world, and the only one that is irreplacable: Time.
The time its player-customers put into the game to progress and achieve, whether that was mastering professions, acquiring superior weapons and armor, finding and taming rare creatures, unlocking Jedi. Whatever.
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Jehann
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date Posted: Nov 05, 2006 11:52 PM
That was summarily wiped not once, but twice, not only without recompense but without apology and certainly without any respect or regard for its customers.
In this case one can only wish that time not only heals all wounds, but that it also wounds all heels. There are lots of them over at SoE and LA.
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MayorPrak
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date Posted: Nov 06, 2006 4:30 AM
Either LA has no clue (which I find hard to believe) or doesn't care (which unfortunately is beleivable) about how SWG is being developed and ran. I have survived the CU and now the NGE, each time I kept the city of Kestrel alive with the help of my guildies. It is a shame how many good players left because of the neglect and even outright attacks on them by SOE.
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Darth Obvious
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date Posted: Nov 06, 2006 11:53 PM
Ehope, thanks for a great blog entry about SWG.
I don't blame SOE for this mess, I blame LA. LA for some reason kept holding up changes to SWG for the better (or so SOE claims) but the NGE seems to have been developed without the knowledge of the "live" developers of SWG in 2005. The push to send things live according to a marketing schedule reeks LA interference, and the emphasis on "units" as opposed to "subscriptions" as a measure of success seems to be more in line with LA's business model than SOEs. The fact that they rely on "Star Wars" to sell things, as opposed to having a good game with a "Star Wars" theme, seems very LA to me.
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Esquilax1138
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date Posted: Nov 07, 2006 12:30 AM
No, the NGE mess is the sole responsibility of Jeff Freeman and another develeoper at SOE. Sure LA might have wanted a better game and more customers, but Jeff Freeman was the one responsible for cooking up the whole NGE idea, and he admitted it all, even saying he knew it shouldn't be done but he thought it was fun and pestered the management untill they let him do it.
It's all SOE's fault.
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Vyyk Drago77
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date Posted: Nov 09, 2006 8:41 AM
I have never, in my life, played SWG. I saw the game and desperately wanted it. Then I found out you had to pay a subscription fee to play an online game.
Lest we forget, Star Wars has made an obscene amount of money over the past 29years. Not just for George, but the execs at Fox, ILM, LucasArts and a veritable cornucopia of other companies. With the profits from books, comics, games, toys, conventions and, of course, the movies themselves, there should be no debate that this has been one of the most (if not THE most) successful movie franchises since Jolson first spoke on film in 1927.
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Vyyk Drago77
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date Posted: Nov 09, 2006 8:43 AM
The most ironic point about the entire NGE "snafu" is that these executives, including GL, don't speak Basic! You can't give them your opinion outright; they have no interest in listening to it. You have to speak their language: bottom lines. Money is the only arguing point, any of us have. If SWG goes down the tubes and their bottom line is hurt, then they listen. Try to remember, the Internet is free. LA and SOE are charging you a monthly fee for a free service! The money they spend for this game in way or another, is on development. They don't have to pay for "air time" and they don't have to lease or rent "their space."
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Vyyk Drago77
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date Posted: Nov 09, 2006 8:43 AM
Development is their biggest expense for SWG. If they're not developing the game the way you, the player-subscribers, want it, then stop paying for it. Believe me, George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch and Howard Stringer will continue to eat and sleep just fine.
MTFBWY - Always.
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Experiment13
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date Posted: Dec 30, 2006 2:58 PM
Here's a little food for thought for anyone who would care to partake of it...
I WAS one o the 80% of people who never visited the forums.... And then there was the CU...
A great disturbance in the force it was. My conclusion was that I should try harder to help "guide" those who were making such changes... I began to visit and contribute on the forums.... Then came the NGE... And it was as if thousands of voices screamed out all at once.
To make a long story short.... I no longer enjoyed the game.... It wasn't what I signed on for.. The features I loved so much were dumped... And reading the forums was actually MORE entertaining than playing! Something went seriously awry in that equation.
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Experiment13
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date Posted: Dec 30, 2006 3:09 PM
Chris Cao and Co. MUST be living in some sot of hermetically sealed dreamworld to arrive at the conclusions stated about players who post and posters who play.
In the very least it is a nice dodge to blame players who do not care for changes for the fact that they DO NOT CARE for the changes and say so on the forums!
Seriously, what is more tragic than taking relatively happy players and ripping a game out from under their feet repeatedly and then blaming THEM if they don't like it?
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tariqari
TariQari
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date Posted: Jan 28, 2007 1:18 PM
QFE on Experiment13's comments.
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