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Star Wars Galaxies Only to Allow One Character Per Account
frotty writes "The developers of Star Wars Galaxies recently announced that the game would only allow a single character per purchased account on any server. This has outraged some, and relieved others." Click on the link to see the reasoning behind this move.
Holocron very, very elegantly explained just why they're doing this. Read and find out.
u m3 /HTML/088000.html
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/For
After this article, I completely agreed.
The original post wasn't so clear about this. It's one character PER SERVER. There are 10 servers, so you can make 10 characters. Want to try out a totally different race, class, or whatever? Just make a new character on a different server. Don't like it? Use your other character on your other server. The only people this hurts are those who use mules, and I see that as a very good thing.
No, I have no idea how many character branch possibilities there are. I'm saying any one individual can try 10 character branch possibilities at any one time. However each character resides on a differant server. With most MMORGS you can have multiple characters on one server. This allows players to swap items between thier characters etc. Many people feel this puts other players at a disadvantage. So some games are starting to limit the number of characters a player can have on a particular server.
Of course you can get by this by simply purchasing an additional copy of the game and paying the monthly fees for two accounts.
It is not just the costs of the raw disk space,
but the enormous time and expense required to maintain/backup/restore a large database. Your 25 cents will not go very far.
Also, the access times would increase with more data to churn through, causing complaints about lag. These raise their CS costs and also cause bad word of mouth on the boards.
And, from my reading of the entire article (not just the bullet points), muling is a major reason for the change to SCS. Even more so than the storage costs.
They are trying to attract mainstream folks who have never tried evercrack and want something more than Sims Online. This means not catering to the muling that the average person would find unfair.
Please read the post by Holocron on the reasons behind SCS when you can.
SCS is critical to many aspects that are only unique to SWG and not other MMOs. This is not a SCS Vs MCS issue. But more of which will be best for SWG.
I am sure alot of old school MMO gamers will be put off by it but here's my take anyway
First of all, the customizability of SWG needs SCS. It's not only when you create your character but also after throught your SWG gamelife! The Image Designer Profession can alter your look, hairstyle, tatoos, cloths etc. There will be 3 layers of clothings. Your house and many other things can be customized and personalized. Your pets can also grow! Not just in its stats and skills but its size! There are many more other features of the game that can be customized. This customizability aspect of SWG is unseen in any other games. And it needs SCS to maintain a feasible server/CS cost.
SCS ensures a player-driven economy will not get destroyed by excessive muling and self-sufficient players. And it secures the roles of the crafter professions in the economy. Trading at this scale will also foster a tighter community.
SCS also means no more two-face cowards that play their main hero then logon their griefer char once in the while to just piss people off. With only one character per server, and such heavy emphasis on interdependency, every single actions you do in game counts. Griefer can still buy separate accounts, but he would have to pay to do that and that atleast covers the additional CS he caused.
There are many more reasons and benefits SCS will bring to SWG. The only benefit MCS I can see so far is satisfying the old MMO gamers "habit". I canforesee SWG's SCS concept will only be the first in the 3rd generation MMOs. As MMO becomes bigger, more detail and more complex, they will need SCS.
It all boils down to one question, do you want to play UO/AC/EQ-in-space, or do you want to play SWG? Those who gets put off by SCS and refuse to play SWG, I am sure a good portion of them will try out SWG when the others rave about it when its launched. Ya, I have that much faith in it. ;)
I will stop here before I carelessly break my NDA :p
P.S. In a nutshell SWG's SCS means, for each account you own, you can have 10 character but only 1 on each server.
SCS - Single Character Servers
MCS - Multiple Character Servers
CS - Customer Support
-Tang