Slashdot Mirror
LucasArts Announces First Massive Multiplayer Game
Nastard writes "LucasArts announced that they will be partnering with Sony and Verant (the guys who brought us EverQuest) to bring us a massive multiplayer RPG based upon the Star Wars universe. The article doesn't give any dates, but I'm sure we're all gonna be in line for this one. "
Good and bad...
Verant strikes me as a pretty good gaming company (I'm an EQ addict myself) overall...they're very active within the community they created, have a good deal of direct contact with the players, and make a pretty darned neat piece of software.
But.
Everquest's main problem (IMO, of course) isn't gameplay imbalances or quest bugs or any of the directly game-related issues that are thrown about. To me, the biggest turnoff about EQ is the sheer volume of 12-year-old brats that're running around. (I'm generalizing, of course - some people on EQ are surprisingly younger than they seem for their maturity, and some 35-year-old parents are worse than clueless kids could ever be, but you get the general idea.)
I'm sure Verant's Star Wars game will be a hit - they haven't advertised EQ in months and sales still climb - but I'm not gonna place any bets on what their player base ends up like.
--- "No matter who or what, a box of flowers is better than a smack in the belly with a wet fish." --RAH
Refreshing to see that the gaming industry hasnt totally abandoned the industry (although it seems close), and the Star Wars series has always been a prime setting for rpgs with its huge universe (I'm still holding out for hopes of a multiplayer Fallout though). But it also reminds me of another complaint that I have with the gaming industry today
What does annoy me is that like Everquest and UO, is that this game will most likely be another "Pay-to-play" game with ridiculous monthly charges. Yes I can afford $10-20/mo, but the money adds up, and it is ridiculous to expect a consumer to pay regular fees for a game, or so to speak. One thing I would like to know is why all online RPG's charge for playtime. I never see it occuring in the action, wargame, or real-time strategy field. If I buy Starcraft, Quake III, or even Diablo, I wouldnt have to pay anything extra for online play. Granted, I'm not knowledge about the workings, but I doubt RPG's require such additional online maintainence that it merits a continuous charge. I do realize that the characters and settings are stored, unlike the average strat/shooter game, but again, I hardly see how that would account for any additional expenses.
Maybe it's just me, but once a game is purchased, you should be able to play it out of the box and enjoy it as intended without having to fork over more money. Even the occasional ad would be sometimes acceptable as an alternative, IMHO. I think that if online RPG providers would stop absurdly charging fees, even more customers would sign up, and idle ones who already bought the game would play more often. I see the high numbers of people that dont seem to mind the charge, yet I also have many more friends who would be dying to join the online RPG world but are sickened by the notion of an extra charge.