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Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided Ships
TJPile writes "After months and months of beta testing and years of waiting, the Star Wars version of Ever-crack is now shipping. Order your copy today. There are already plans for an expansion pack in 2004 that will feature more character races, worlds, and even the ability to buy, fly, and fight in your own spaceship. The game will set you back $50, come on 3 CDs, require Internet access, and will cost around $10 a month (service subscription fee). Right now it's Windows only." Yep, I'm hoping to play as the Pit of Saarlac: The Ultimate Camper.
You have entered Cantina_1
You are struck by force for 15 points by Da4th_Vad3r_P1mp
You have been slain by Da4th_Vad3r_P1mp
Da4th_Vad3r_P1mp says: kekekeke
Pit_of_sarlac5116: roooaaar *chomp* *chomp* *digest*
Machine9dotNet
/me watches as productivity around the globe grinds to a screeching halt
And I thought we were in a recession now..
I think I'm going to go to the local EB and pass out some NA cards along with the game... looks like my cigarette vending ice-cream truck business will finally pick up..
I can't wait to see the look on Sony's faces with hoards of new subscribers turn their servers into a steaming pile of goop... *puts tin foil hat on* time to start playing, unibomber status
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Not to burst anyones overhyped bubble on this one, but this game is really, really boring. And, the only people who are goign to do good at it, are the huge guilds who have dolled out jobs and will be working together to become the powerhouses in the game VERY fast over people who are not.
I killed jarjar many times in beta, i think thats good enough~
"Stuff... In my home!? NEVER!" - Zim on Invader Zim
"I want the toilet seat!" - Little Dog on Two Stupid Dogs
So I went out and picked up the game yesterday at my local EB...they had apparently been selling it since the 24th, which came as a bit of a shock....was nice to see that I got one of the last copies as apparently all but 2 had been pre-purchased or reserverd (the guy next to me said his kid had asked for it for his birthday 2 YEARS AGO)...
:(
Of course, imagine the utter disappointment of getting home and fniding that I could only create my station login and couldn't get a little jump on everyone
(Oh well)
I can't wait for this to go live today...should be really exciting (in a "i'm so lame, i have another life online which spends more time interacting with women than I do" kinda way)...again, disappointing that the addon won't come until 2004, but I imagine all the dedicated Star Wars nutters out there will find ways to keep busy until then...
Now I wonder how long until the Mac OS X port (now that EQ has finally arrived for Mac)
"Life ain't interesting till you blow something up" --Anonymous
The monthly fee, I believe, is going to be $15/mo. A new high for MMORPGs.
Having been in the beta for a long time, I'm going to suggest staying away from this one for at least a few months. Even in the last two weeks, servers have been going up and down daily an most things still don't even appear to work correctly. The game is not nearly completed.
From what I did play, though, I had fun with... I just won't be picking it up for a while. Besides, I've still go DAoC to keep me busy.
subscription rates are closer to 15 a month. They offer packages that allow pay more months up front, get a discount, all the way down to 12.00 a month for 1 year.
However, there are flaws with this game... look for a post further down...
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
I wonder if the game is logged well enough that Lucas will use it as a source for story ideas.
Hmm, maybe I should patent that idea.
Or maybe I should patent the idea that I thought of that idea.
Or#Y($(HJbnkHkjhgb ek7y732924283925
NO CARRIER
I participated in Beta 3 and I can tell u the game is not yet ready. There were some major patches in the past 2 weeks and there was no way near enough testing of those patches. Balance needs major tweaking in some areas, some of the elite professions have had some major issues, immersion is lacking, missions are lame and content overall is weak. However, the grafx are beautiful (if u got a top of the line machine) and the devs have been very communicative with the beta players so hopefully they will get their act straight when paying customers start complaining. Also, pricing ranges from $12-15 a month depending on how many months you purchase in advance.
...and now something better than EQ could have ever been(for me) comes out. My core group of friends are all big star wars geeks, and we pretty much quit EQ together, got girlfriends, etc. Now, with this coming out, we are going to have to band together and not get this as a team, lest we fall prey to our baser(geekier) desires.
But shit man, a wookie dark jedi.
(me to girlfriend)Baby, you know I love you, but I need some me(starwars) time, you know, to sort things out(become dark jedi). I'm glad you understand(please dont sleep with anyone else).
Love, Nadadogg(Sith Lord Grwararar-bacca)
i use linux and windows oh god how can i have an opinion
If you sit down for drinks with Han Solo ...
Shoot First!
The monthly price is actually higher than the 10$ listed in the blurb. For a single month, you're paying nearly 15 bucks, though I believe you can knock it down to 12 bucks by paying a year at a time.
... some folks say it's a lot of fun but not a traditional MMORPG, others feel like it's too much of a traditional MMORPG and not enough like Star Wars.
:)
Varying rates plans apply depending on your subscription.
I've heard really mixed reviews of this
Personally, I'll play the "wait and see" game. With NWN SOU just being released, I have enough game content to fill up my spare time
Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
Disclaimer, I haven't played the beta at all, simply going on comments from others, and I fully realize gaming forums aren't the BEST place for opinions. I'll probably wait for a buddy to pick it up and check it out then... in the meantime, I'll stick with Dark Age of Camelot.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
how to release a massmog that underpromised, overdelivered and was reasonably stable at launch.
I mean, cmon. -microsoft- of all game developers has done it right -twice- now with the Asheron's Call series, and hitherto unknown Mythic Entertainment pulled it off with Dark Age of Camelot.
in my unprofessional opinion - this game is not going to strike a fire in the casual gamer market like they hope. any casual gamer will immediately be turned off by having their wookie bounty hunter continually chased all over tatooine by some fscking crab smaller than his head. the casual gamer doesn't want to spend 100 hours getting to the point where he can hunt banthas or dewbacks or sandpeople. they want to do fun stuff now.
not to mention travel. everything was laid out assuming you'd be able to get your own speeder bike or landspeeder, or bum a ride from someone. but now player-vehicles are out until god-knows-when, and the result is that the town to town running makes EQ's seem reasonable.
if star wars was an action game like planetside, that could maybe catch on - if only sony wasn't pricing it out of the realm of reasonability. $12/mo for a FPS?
SWG looks like a market dissappointment in the same vein as Sims Online.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
They aren't releasing it yet overseas, however the Devs have stated that there won't be a problem importing it (will accept foreign credit cards).
I regret to inform you that I cannot praticipate in this travesty. I will only participate in the merchandising for good movies. Episodes I and II fail to qualify. The tought of you recieving any money for those is too horrible for my participation.
I've beta tested SWG for several months now am I am just one of the MANY beta testers who are really suprised to see this being rushed so badly. This game may be going on the shelves but it will be in beta for a very long time to come still.
The name is The Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon.
official lore here
I suppose that there would be other Sarlaccs in less famous pits, if you don't manage to camp Carkoon, which is like the beverley hills of pits.
Look, I'm all for a good star wars mmorpg... but this isn't it. I've played in the beta.
It looks and feels like Anarchy Online. It's actually a pretty boring game. So far, it's been plagued by the same kinds of problems Everquest had, including the same lack of customer support and generally shoddy game design. They've had several patches that were nothing but nerf-fests and introduced more bugs than they fixed. You've got about a one in one thousand chance of ending up with a force-sensitive character, so forget about ever playing a Jedi.
Sure, they'll iron this thing out eventually. Once a lot of people start playing it and player communities take hold, it'll probably be fun. Once they get the 100 or so feautres they left out of the initial release added, it'll be a better game. Once the playerbase beats them into submission and forces them to make a few obvious, common sense design changes that should have been in from the beginning, it'll be a better game. It'll also probably be 2007.
If this game ends up being fun, it will be in spite of Sony, not because of Sony. Just like Everquest. Remember that this is not truly a LucasArts game.
Honestly I'd hold out for Worlds of Warcraft. Blizzard will treat its customers far better than Sony does.
Hell is being intelligent in a world full of idiots.
I have tried several[1] MMP games, and I have yet to find one that didn't bore me to death within a couple of days play.
[1] WW2OL, Eve, Jumpgate, Allegiance, Earth&Beyond, etc...
Well, I'm no star wars fan, but I have enjoyed beta testing this game for the past month. As I've only seen negative opinions so far, I thought I'd say that the game is quite fun, and potentially a huge time sink.. which is the only reason I'm not buying it currently, have too much work to do! Yes, there are bugs but I believe all game breaking ones have been removed, some of the upper tiers of the professions need to be polished, but unless you're a power gamer you're weeks/months away from hitting any of those, and hopefully they will be fixed by then.
The whole crafting system I find quite interesting, and appeals to the RTS gamer in me.
The Dev's have been VERY responsive in the forums, and listen to comments people say, even the flamers.
The answer is... Nope. There won't be a Linux client. There also won't likely be a MacOSX either.
This game is put out by Sony Online Entertainment and for all intents and purposes Sony doesn't appear to believe in the existence of anything but Microsoft Windows and the PS2 in regards to producing games.
It could potentially hurt their bottom line to produce anything but a Windows or PS2 version of SWG or EQ. Since it forces someone wanting play such a game to buy a Windows PC or PS2, which increases the chances of Sony selling a PS2 or Vaio Computer System.
Hey, I wish it wasn't so, but that is the nature of the beast.
Of course, I am fairly certain that if you were to gather close to 100,000 close friends to not only sign a petition, but to also kick in a $50.00 "donation", you could likely persuade Sony to build a Linux client with the condition that you would be providing them with the big pile of money that you would then have.
Then again, there is likely a larger chance of Microsoft freely, with no strings attached, seeing the error of their ways and providind EVERY spot of source code ever produced as Open Source.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Well if you kept buying and playing new ones, they can't be that boring, can they?
I am alone, yet I also surf the universal backwash of undifferentiated Being, which is LOVE.
Did you ever get this starwars name algorithm in your emailbox?
It's the answer to all your problems.
Of course rules 7 and 9 mean that you'll be condemned to being a petty bougois bystander in the great galactic civil war who amounts to nothing in history. Just like your parents always said you'd be.
After 1.5 weeks of training he is supposed to work 12 hour days (including weekends) for the next couple of weeks due to the launch... then he shifts to a 9am-6pm PDT schedule.
One thing that he told me that I was very surprised to learn was how these games are specifically designed to be intensively psychologically addicting. (They are subscription-based games so they want you to keep on playing.) And many people do take the games extremely seriously... There have even been suicides over previous games like Everquest, and the Techs/Game Masters routinely get death threats, etc by the players. This was all brought out in his training...
One thing I never understood about these games is that if it is going to be over $10.00 per month, why would they still charge $50.00 for the software? They will cite server maintenance and bandwidth as the reason for the subscription, but I think we all know they will make a huge profit on the subscription alone. There is no way that cost is just to cover one person's bandwidth needs. Normal games cost that much and they don't have subscriptions, most even offer free services that users can connect to to play online (Blizzard's battlenet, for example). If the software is useless without a subscription.. they should just flood the market with CDs like AOL does or offer to mail you one. I guess the market will pay that much, but I would think that you could make more money in the long run by just giving away the software and charging for the service. That might also draw more people in that wouldn't consider buying this because of the subscription requirement.
Lets start with the Good, because there are Good things about this game.
1) Its pretty. The graphics are very well done for the most part, for a while you will really feel like you are "on a Star Wars planet".
2) I've never played MMORPGs prior to this, but from what I hear, the character customization blows the others away. I was fairly impressed when I got to choose my toons eyeshadow and nose size.
3) It sounds good. The blasters sound like blasters, Stormtroopers talk ('move along') as you walk by, jawas chatter.
Now the Bad.
1) Its not Star Wars. Its EQ in Space, only there is no Space, so its basically EQ with Wookies. Let me clarify. When I think of Star Wars, I think of sweeping adventures, romance, intrigue, blaster fights that get my heart pounding, SPACE. The battles in SWG are bland, and consist of little more than spamming you're best special attack until the creature is daed. The thing that bothered me most was that the Brawler (hand to hand) had more varied moves than the Marksman (pistol, carbine, rifle user). I found that I actually used 3-4 moves with the Brawler and just Bodyshot 2 (yes, thats the actual name of the attack) with my Pistoleer. Combat consists of fighting enemies such as "diseased Nunas", "tusk cats", crazed butterfly like things, ape like "squalls", and swooperless swooper gangs. You could pop off one of the gang members and the rest of them would generally just stare at you. Weee...
2) Roughly 90% of the world that isnt in a city is random. Compeltely random. It changes almost hourly, based on mission spawns, and rarely changes "back". Not very immersive, I'd say.
3) No loot (well, very little). Very little incentive to go out and fight stuff, other than XP. Well, if thats my sole motivation, then why bother? I mean, I could kill a womp rat 1,000 times 10 feet out of town and level up or I could walk 45-60 minutes to get to one bigger creature (more often more than 1 bigger creature) that I have no chance to take and get about 10 more XP points. Okay, so its not quite THAT bad, but there is little incentive to go out and hunt, after the first "I just want to see it" hunt.
4) Classes not finished. Classes such as the Commando were not properly tested because resources crafters needed to make thier weapons werent avaialable in the beta. That means they will probably be totally unbalanced, which puts them in with the other classes. Note there were hundreds and hundreds of topics about the Medic class having severe issues (any of you who buy this game, go medical forage and tell me if you can make a StimA) and they were never addressed.
5) Its not very innovative. Right now, we're already looking at one expansion (space due 0-18 months from now) to provide features that should have been there since day one, vehicles. Its just a MMORPG, with a Star Wars skin. If I wasnt in town, I would have never known I was in the Star Wars world. Except for the Womp Rats and Dewbacks, there were very few Star Wars feeling moments in the wild.
6) Get ready to hoof it. It takes about 20-40 minutes to get from town to town (or town to mission, one way) if you dont take a shuttle, and at the moment there are no land vehicles (and shuttles dont go everywhere). So you hit autorun and point.
I wont go into the roleplaying features, because we could role play here if we so choose. Roleplaying, while part of the game, is only part of the game as much as the players want it to be.
SWG was a huge disapointment, I look forward to WoW.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
You know, I just mentally pictured a game with all these characters in it... and it was awesome.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
A 24-hour a day, 15,000 person, lightsaber-wielding melee over who gets to buy the Millennium Falcon.
Sounds great.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Drizzt
"Drizzt?!" "Drizzt" is a "Fantasy-oriented name that is easily recognized from popular existing media" in the same class as Gandalf, Pikachu, and Godzilla?
That's an over-the-counter nasal decongestant, that's not a name!
"Drizzt?"
"I AM DRIZZT! Kneel before me, lest I smite you with my +3 Sword of Nasal Membrane Leakage!"
"Drizzt?" "Elric of Melnibone," "Thulsa-Doom," "The Gray Mouser"... now *these* are Fantasy Names! "Drizzt" is a sound-effect. Or, at most, a Silver Age superhero team's cute alien mascot.
Sorry for the rant; guess I'm just feeling a little "old-school" today...
It is the Pit of Carkoon!
The Sarlacc is the creature at the bottom of the pit.
What kind of non-Star Wars geek are you anyway?
Even the much touted expansions never fixed the fundamental faults in the game choosing instead to put uber gear to keep hardcore addicts playing but ignoring the mid game and low level experiences, or doing much to fix the disasterous RSI inducing UI. One expansion in particular actually was so disasterous (Luclin) that it killed performance and was bugged for months even for people who didn't buy it but who had to upgrade to the new engine.
Now online games don't have to be like this, so perhaps Verant have learned from experience. Or perhaps they haven't. Once bitten twice shy? Perhaps. Star Wars may become a wonderful game, or it might be eye candy wrapped around a compulsive (and not in a fun way), flawed design as EQ. Given there is already a plan for expansion pack in the works (Verant feebly justifies it as benefitting players to have less features in the basic game to give them time to explore their reduced world) and given it takes months to establish a mature world, perhaps its better holding off to see what the story is. Fools rush in as they say.
Go to Mos Eisley Cantina: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Go to Mos Eisley Spaceport: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Go to Aunt Beru's kitchen for some blue milk: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Hide from stormtroopers in the Millennium Falcon's hidden bay: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Go to appeal to the Imperial Senate for trade rights: mass of people randomly firing blasters
Jump in the X-wing to defeat the Death Star: fly through a trench filled with a mass of people randomly firing blasters to fire proton torpedos.
(Three months later, after everyone becomes a Jedi, replace "firing blasters" with "waving lightsabers")
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
Gabe of Penny Arcade posted his thoughts, as well as a comic.
I was looking forward to playing SWG too and have been waiting for a MMORPG to truly immerse myself in since I was too late to join UO and EQ. I had high hopes for SWG and I was surprised Sony lifted the NDA before the game was actually released. Once the NDA was released I checked out the Sony Station boards for SWG which already had some reviews posted by the beta testers.
The beta testers' reviews of SWG weren't complimentary at all. There were a lot of negative posts and the most damaging evidence of that is how Sony has removed access to the old message boards (http://boards2.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars). However, forums at SWG fan sites have preserved some of these original, honest reviews. Check it out: SWG Fan Site with Honest Review Deleted by Sony. My compliments to Stratics.com. And I'm sure other SWG fan sites will have honest reviews too.
Rangers Lead the Way!
2. Kids: Military school. Check.
3. Dog: Euthanized. Check.
4. Cats: Who cares? Check.
5. Friends: Gone. Check.
6. Phone: Disconnected. Check.
7. Doorbell: Ditto. Check.
8. Food: $500 worth on Top Ramen in pantry. Check.
9. Breaks: 10 cases of adult diapers. Trash can with lid next to computer. Extra liners. Check, check, check.
10. Power bill, ISP; Paid ahead for the year. Check, check.
11. Job: Hmmm. Reconnect phone. Dial. Ring. "Hi, Dave? It's me. Yeah. Yeah. Listen. I quit. No, no time to explain. Do whatever you want with the crap on my desk. Later." Re-disconnect phone.
Well, that's about it. Time to rip open that CD. Good-bye cruel world and all that. Hmm, I wonder if /. karma erodes due to lack of use. Guess I can check that in a couple of years.
Mycroft Kenobi, Obi-Wan's smarter (and better looking) brother is about to kick the Force's ass!
And this has at LEAST 3 months before its worth the $15 a month. $12 a month for a full year though which is pointless because its a casual gamer version of EQ with blasters. Instead of spending 30 hours killing rats and butterflies you instead spend 10 hours killing rats and butterflies. That enables the casual gamer to make a decent character faster.
The engine/world is the best part. Wait for 3-6 months though for them to fix the thousands of bugs, put in the features they cut out to ship it early, and perhaps wait until the space expansion which will make it a full game instead of this hacked down overpriced one.
Also, like I said this game isn't like EQ where you could play it for a year and not see everything. I imagine that in 2-3 months you will see just about everything and have a complete character. So when you decide to buy try to think of how complete of a game do you want.
A purchase right now will get you a game that doesn't have a space, vehicles, player cities, some cut professions, less worlds, no space expansion, and THOUSANDS of bugs that you will be reporting left and right.
A purchase at Christmas should get you everything above.
Think about it.
For what its worth, about 3-5 weeks ago Q-3PO one of the lead developers (I think I forget all their positions) had to come up with a list of "whats the point of the game" because so many people complained that there was nothing to do.
The list included....
learn the game so as to not look like a newbie.
master your class
visit all the planets
do a theme park on every planet (theme park = mission generated by someone like "jabba")
there were others, but (and this is quote from the Beta boards)
"in a product designed for my amusement, I shouldnt have to go looking for fun."
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Considering they put out Mac OSX version of everquest, I wouldn't rule out Mac version completely.
:)
PS2 wont be able to handle the game. They might do a bastardized version with same name, but it wont be the same game. X-Box version was in the cards, but it's development was recently halted (temporarily?) - one would assume it'll come sooner or later, but...
Linux version? You must be joking
Hyped up prior to release, "Enter The Matrix" is the worst game I have played in a long time on the PC. It began with the HUGE bug of not working on a display with greater than 85Hz refresh rate (no patch for that). I mean come ON, it's 2003 for pete's sake! Talk about your sloppy programming! After finally changing my refresh rate down from 100Hz to play the damn thing, it then turned out to be a boring and bad looking third person shooter with the worst AI I have seen in a long time! If that is all the Matrix can muster, us humans won't have too much trouble when push comes to shove!
Now I know why there was such a veil of secrecy and no reviews permitted prior to launch - if there HAD been reviews then no one would have bought the damn thing! I learned one valuable lesson though - from now on, wait at least two weeks after a game has come out before buying it, unless there have been lots of favourable reviews PRIOR to release from reputable gaming sites.
Quizo69
Visceral Psyche Films
bwahahaha. that was the best commentary ever. my two favorite sub-paragraph (the second being quite accurate as to the mmorpg genre) is "Tycho had talked me into playing my first MMORPG and I told him that if he ever did that again Iâ(TM)d kick him right in his cream and crackers. After an hour or so of hitting spiders with a bat I was ready to write off the entire genre."
Cream and Crackers is without a best euphemism for a man's private area EVER!
Oh yeah, mad props to MAUS
I can see that the Beta posting trolls, being denied access to the SWG:Beta boards, have migrated over here now.
.. it was all constructive. It wasn't until the last phase of beta when they let all the shitheads in.
w ith-(their character class)[dozens of !'s].
..ill just tuck *THIS* one away for later.'
.. finish it.'
/. *TESTING*
I was in beta pretty much from the beginning, and while there were naysayers from the get go
The people you hear griping about this game, while allowed their opinion, are also the people who were more intent on *PLAYING* the game in beta instead of testing, were the ones who would complain *BITTERLY* about the constant character wipes, and the folks who would *WHINE* on the development boards about how the Developers were hell-bent-out-to-get-them-by-ignoring-this-issue-
In the last 4 weeks of beta I saw *SO* many posts along the lines of 'if you don't do X, I'm not buying the game.' This was from the folks who when discovering a flaw in the game, would say 'hmm
In all honesty, SWG has the feel of Ultima Online more than EverQuest. Its open ended, there is no defined way to 'WIN' the game. It, like the theory behind ANY MMORPG exists so its fun to *play*.
Saddly, many folks were taught that level based games like EverQuest were the mold. And unless you have 'SuperSword, AwesomeArmour, and UberSkillX' your simply a looser.
Does SWG have bugs ? yes. Will they be fixed ? yes. Will new ones pop up ? yes. However the developers for this game have been more open and upfront about Star Wars Galaxies than in *ANY* other beta I have participated in. [And I have been in almost every MMORPG beta except Meridian59] They care about this project, most of them are HUGE fans of the films themselves, and they have been pulling 24 hour days ever since Sony Online Entertainment announced 'You have no more time
All these sour grape X-Beta posts you are reading, are people who lost track of what they were supposed to be *DOING* in beta. Something im shocked to see people admitting on
How can you form an opinion of a game thats not finished ?
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
Considering they put out Mac OSX version of everquest, I wouldn't rule out Mac version completely.
Yeah, but I'm kinda afraid that some marketing hack
at SOE pushed that out the door as a bone to Mac
users and also in the hopes that it would fail so
they could say, "see? there's no money in Mac gaming"
The whole Mac-only server setup, stuff like that,
it doesn't bode well.
But hey, on the off chance it is a success, maybe
it won't take them four years to port SWG.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine...
$10 is going to piss a lot of people off when they buy the game and find out its $5 more.
As a beta tester for SWG, my advice to everyone is to wait a month, AT LEAST, before trying this game.
1) A lot of people have been saying it, and believe it or not, it's true: This game is not ready for release. Can you play it and have fun? Yes. But there are innumerable problems that should have delayed release for a few weeks at least. These include stability issues (they just got to 1 day of uptime in the last 2 weeks), class/balancing issues (many have not been tested thoroughly), and, of course, bugs. I know that any MMO that's released, or any game for that matter, is going to have bugs. SWG just seems to have a large number, including several that have been around for weeks without being fixed.
2) The price! $15/month is, IMHO, outrageous. SOE feels that because their game is "Star Wars", that intitles them to charge more than other MMO's. I think we, as consumers, need to send the message that this is not true. Unfortunately, there's enough Star Wars zealots out there that I think they will never get this message.
Is it a waste of time to go out and buy this game right now? Absolutely not. It is fun to play, as long as you keep one caveat in mind: it's not quite done yet. This was easy to do in Beta, especially since I didn't have to pay for it (except for the cd's, and shipping). Be prepared for a game that's going to go through many bug fixes and balancing adjustments in the first couple months.
I was thinking about giving this game a try, but I'm having an extremely hard time finding anyone with positive things to say. Did anyone like it?
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
The _only_ thing to do in a MMORPG is to run around beating rats with a stick (or goblins with a sword, or whatever), to hopefully level up in the next 6 months. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam. Only the next level-up will require even more hours of beating bigger rats with a bigger stick.
It's repetitive, it's boring... and generally it's not a game, it's _work_. Only I'm supposed to pay for the privilege of doing boring repetitive stuff each day, instead of being paid for that.
What's the point? Do my actions advance the plot? No, because there's no plot and no story. Does it exercise my gray cells by requiring some cunning and strategy? Well, no, because you only need to click on enemies. Repeatedly. That's the only strategy involved. Ever. Does it require reflexes, accuracy or some other skill? Well, no, because the "skills" are just a bunch of numbers on your character. As long as you can click on a rat, that's all the skill you'll ever need. Etc.
The _only_ MMORPG so far which I could somewhate enjoy was Ultima Online. And you know why? Because I could ignore the MMORPG part. The UO interface makes it wonderfully easy to communicate with people, even in the middle of combat.
So basically you can treat it like a glorified chat room with graphics. And predictably it had attracted a lot of social people, who actually used it as a glorified chat room with graphics. It was fun.
That is, until I realized that I could just go back to IRC and save the 10 bucks a month fee.
So here's my proposal. You want some online life having to do with Star Wars? Well, go find an IRC channel about Star Wars. It's free, it's got a less lot bugs than a MMORPG, and generally a far more rewarding online social experience. And it doesn't make you hit rats 50 times with a stick, either.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I've beta tested for close to a month now, and I have no previous beta testing or MMORPG experience. I think I represent the mass of people out there who will be attracted to this game just because it's Star Wars.
Let me say that as a n00b to this whole genre I think this game is awesome. Sure there have been some bugs and glithces, but wth? it's been beta! There are supposed to be bugs and glitches and the beta testers find them and the devs fix them. And that is what has been happening.
Don't believe the negative hype from beta testers who are pissed that they are going to have to start paying for a game they have had for free for the last several months. The game is what you make of it and I'm dying for the CD's to arrive tomorrow so I can get back in.
See you on Corbantis,
Lasugod
I fully intend on buying the game. To help offset some of the common fears of the MMORPG gaming experience, let me offer these tidbits:
Graphics - DAMN THAT'S PRETTY. Skies from Morrowind, landscapes that I cannot compare. And the detail on the Avatars... WOW. The different planet land scapes will blow you away. This game is an upgrade retailers' dream! Get RAM. Get video card. GO NOW!
Name filter - No lame '1337' names, no 2,000 'Han Solo' characters runnin' around. Sure, there are some creative names out there (one guy I met and ran around Tatooine spanking the Imps with was named "Thisgame Isnotready"... He was crazy tho!)
Missions - In beta they were a little redundant. Destroy this, or deliver that... That was the purpose of beta however, live there promises to be monthly special mission events, theme parks, like the Rebel HQ and the Emporer's Retreat, will be a little different evey time you go there.
Camping MOb's - STAY AWAY FROM MOUNTAIN SQUILLS. Trust me. Krayt dragons, evil force sensitive NPC's (random MOb, not named characters), they will all hurt you bad. Camping is not an option since most spawns are random based on who is in the immediate area. Even if you did want to camp, you really couldn't... I'd tell you why, but I'd rather see the campers suffer! Muhahaha!
Single Charater Servers (SCS) - No mules. One character per galaxy (server cluster). Intended to cut down on greifing and bad behavior. You're never trapped in that one character, profession-wise, as you can sell back skills you don't want on the fly. Handy for all those bounty hunters that'll have a change of heart and want to become Creature Tamers without losing their mansion(s)!
Pets - Sweeeet. Have 3 Stormtroopers be your beeyotch, or find a baby Rancor and feed it Stormtroopers! Can't say enough about pets, try it, you'll love 'em!
"Sims" Style professions - Underestimated by ALL of us Unreal Tournament vets! Dancing, singing, and playing instruments, Image Designer (Plastic surgeon/hairstylist) are all very well implemented into the game. And you'll be THANKFUL that there are players in those professions... If you don't become one yourself!
I'd love to tell you all more, but CompUSA just opened, GOTTA GO!
I remember surfing the SWG official site a couple of months ago and, while reading the FAQ at this time, I suddenly realized that this game was going to suck like hell! The expansion they now seem to market with the personnal starfighter and etc.. wasn't going to happen like this. The expansion would introduce only personnal planetary vehicles and travel ships from which you buy a ticket, sit down and enjoy the ride.
So ? Is this a marketing move with false promises ? Or, could it be that Lucas realized no one would ever play a Star Wars game without the X-wings and Tie Fighters everyone loved in the previous Star Wars games. No matter what it is, if i'm a dev and i hear my boss say that the expansion will have to offer the star fighting feature, and that wasn't expected a couple of months ago, i'm either a very good developper for cutting down dev time or i'm already searching for a new job.
IOW: I'll believe it when i see it and i will play it only when starships with multiplayer crews are available. Going for anything less, would be a lack of respect for the Star Wars universe IMHO.
I thought this was fantastically insightful. I've got all the Karma I could ever need, but I'm sure this would be considered Whoring. Either way, this rang true to me.
This was written by Gabe, the artist (not the tracer) a few days ago
Now that the NDA is no longer hanging over my head I thought I would elaborate a bit on why I wonâ(TM)t be purchasing SWG right away.
I do not personally feel like SWG captures the look and feel of the Star Wars universe as well as Iâ(TM)d like it to.
I decided right away that I wanted to be a bounty hunter and so with blaster in hand I began working my way up that particular skill tree. This involved a lot of shooting of rats, bugs and crabs. At one point on Tatooine I was standing next to a mission terminal waiting for my turn to use it when I saw a large wookie run past me firing wildly over his shoulder as a tiny crab no bigger than a dinner plate chased him through town. How sad I thought to myself. I spent countless hours wandering the hillsides in search of new rats and crabs to shoot. Sometimes I would inadvertently stumble upon too large a rat and be forced to high tail it back to town. I placed my character in auto run and pointed him at the nearest town. As I sat there staring at my Trandoshan bounding across the uneven Tatooine landscape with some kind of super rat closing in on him I thought to myself âoeThis is not how I want to play in the Star Wars Universe.â As I sat there watching this rat slowly gaining on my character my mind flashed back to a conversation I had with Tycho months and months ago.
Tycho had talked me into playing my first MMORPG and I told him that if he ever did that again Iâ(TM)d kick him right in his cream and crackers. After an hour or so of hitting spiders with a bat I was ready to write off the entire genre. He said âoeWhat about Star Wars Galaxies?â At the time I told him that Galaxies would be different because it was Star Wars. âoeItâ(TM)s not like theyâ(TM)re gonna make you spend hours hitting Wamprats with a stick.â Oh irony, thou art a harsh mistress.
The more I think about it the more I think that there may very well be nothing wrong with Star Wars Galaxies. This just isnâ(TM)t my kind of game. I think Iâ(TM)m just better off getting my Star Wars fix from games like Jedi Knight and Rogue Squadron. Maybe some day a developer will combine all the best stuff from games like X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter and Jedi Knight into one game that doesnâ(TM)t involve the poking of rats with sticks. Essentially my fantasy has not changed. I still want to play in a fully realized Star Wars universe. I want to fly a ship I own through space smuggling goods and outrunning Imperials. I want to land that ship on the planet of my choosing and do battle with storm troopers and rival smugglers. I want an action game because the Star Wars movies to me are action movies. Thatâ(TM)s why I never liked the Star Wars RTS bullshit. Star Wars for me is not about running around Naboo shooting bugs in order to build up my blaster XP. It is about adventure and I donâ(TM)t feel like SWG delivers that.
Even after youâ(TM)ve reached a level where you can take on larger adversaries the battles still arenâ(TM)t any fun. You click on the thing you want to shoot and then you select from your menu of different attacks. There is no strategy required. You simply choose your best attack and cue it up a couple of times and then wait while your guy shoots the target. If the target comes after you just run away until it stops chasing you and then turn around and repeat the steps above. Stirring Star Wars music plays during a battle and is intended to make the event seem more epic I suppose. The classic arrangement blaring as you take pot shots at a lizard who seems oblivious to your attacks just makes an already absurd situation all the more laughable.
Iâ(TM)m not go
There is commentary at the bottom, but here is the important part:
Top Ten Reasons:
Why YOU donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
10. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot fight Darth Vader so you can show youâ(TM)re l337, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
9. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot play a Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker or some other SW character, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
8. If youâ(TM)re mad that you cannot jump âoefor real,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
7. If you ordered the game âoeagainst your better judgment,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
6. If youâ(TM)re mad because you are choosing to pay $15 a month, but you live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to spend $144 for $12 a month, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
5. If youâ(TM)re mad because you have to give up lower skills to attain higher ones thus preventing you from having your uber-ultra-hella-mule-bounty-hunter-survey-medic character, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
4. If youâ(TM)re mad because you may or may not get your game on the 26th because of limited quantities, then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
3. If youâ(TM)re mad because you did not like something in the beta, vented on the board, but refused to saying anything âoebecause of the NDA,â then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
2. If youâ(TM)re mad because the server you decided to join will not be up in first batch of galaxies and all your friends are dumping you to join other servers (hence really arenâ(TM)t your friends), then you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
And, the top reason why you shouldnâ(TM)t be playing SWGâ¦
1. If youâ(TM)re so mad over a frickinâ(TM) videogame, because you have so little perspective on life, that you have to vent your rage on a web page, you donâ(TM)t want to be playing SWG.
Two friends of mine were in the beta and I wish I had been. I'd go over one of their houses and watch, play and talk about the mechanics of the game. The one thing we all always walked away thinking was how refined the game mechanics are compared to UO. Here are some important points:
1. Combat is "real-time, turn based." Having the fastest connection with a machine at 270 fps is no better than one with 15 fps. If you're smart, though, you'll use the MULTITUDE of combat moves to appropriately shift your stance for range, weapon, defense, etc. You don't have to be fast, you have to be smart about your combat and you will have to interact as teams to take down big creatures or goals.
2. You cannot have an uber-character. Another cool thing is that you have to give up lower skills to continue to gain higher ones. The days of all the characters you have making you self-sufficient and having no reason to interact with lower characters is gone. You will have to interact with lower characters to continue your trade.
3. The skills are interwoven such there isnâ(TM)t an unimportant trade. You can heal yourself, you can learn new skills and you can get things you need yourself, but to do it well and fast requires other people. Dancers to remove battle fatigue, combat medics to support you in combat, artisans to make better weapons (there are no lootables on creatures as far as weapons, shields, etc), leaders group squads and, of course, combat specialists in hand-to-hand, pistols, rifles and carabineers. You will have to interact with other characters to get things done.
4. There are NO NPCs that can sell goods. Players must craft all goods and there are taxes on various things. The rampant inflation that is common on other MMOGS, in theory, should not happen because it will based on the actions of the players. It will not be forced up people using tricks in the game to force up generation of money, plus the richer you are the more you have to do to support tha
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
Welcome to business 101
Maybe they want a nice big front load on their investment? The life of a game is maybe 3-4 years if they can keep up the interest with âaddedâ(TM) features and expansion packs. Yes at $15 a month for maybe 48 months times the average of however many players they get to play the game through its life. That is a lot of cash. The rub is that lot of cash just covers the server and bandwidth costs plus some to keep the updates for the content and code maintenance going with a sliver of profit left over.
You skipped Math 101 before you took your business courses. Sony makes most of their profit on Everquest from subscribers that stay for 6 months or more, which is roughly $110 on the older subscription plans and would be $140 on the worst-case SWG plan (ie someone paying monthly), nevermind the $75 deluxe edition (or whatever it's called). The profit on Everquest has been estimated at 40% for subscriptions, which wouldn't even count the initial purchase. The initial cost incurred by Sony before the game is released is a fixed amount, recovered by selling X number of boxes at $50 a pop (some of which goes to Lucas Arts in this case, some of which goes to the retailer, and so on). If they did their estimates properly and setup their servers (and tested them) to handle Y number of users * 1.5 (or 2) so that they had enough load to handle the number of boxes they expected to sell in the first month plus some overhead just in case their load estimates were off or more people bought in, then they wouldn't have increased costs in their first month to deal with the server load. More than likely with a game like SWG that has been long anticipated and has large numbers of pre-orders, they'll recover most of their initial costs in the first week, if not all of them. From that point on, their $50 sales are mostly profit, and some of it is going to cover the first month they gave everyone, plus the initial round of fixes that is always going to happen when the largest number of players you've ever had hits your servers.
Think about it. How much do you pay just for your internet connection? I pay $40 a month for my cable modem. The servers have to have a connection to the net too. They have to pay by the amount of bandwidth they use and pay at a lower rate than you or I could get.but they have to pay access fees for 30,000+ users at a time for years.
You have no idea how much bandwidth costs when you're getting into the realm of needing to connect 30,000+ users with 5-10K/sec streams, do you? At the lowest, they'll need a 150,000K/sec connection for each server (assuming individual servers with individual connections, which isn't the case, but would actually cost more than having small load-balanced servers with multiple connections through the same provider). For that kind of bandwidth you'd probably be looking at $100-200K/year, give or take depending on the kind of deals you strike up with the provider and who your provider is (and what kind of bandwidth they have to give you). 30,000 users at $15/month is $450,000/month, subtract 5-10% at the most for the credit card authorization/collection (in fact it's usually more like 2%). Even if they're paying $1-1.2M/year for bandwidth for 30,000 users they still recover the money with 2 months of subscription revenue (but none of that revenue starts coming in until one month after launch), and most of that bandwidth cost is actually going to be factored into your initial costs, because a good amount of that payment will be up front, especially in setup fees. You could even increase your bandwidth in the second year at the same price under many circumstances, because bandwidth costs go down over time, as do hardware costs for the servers that all of this crap runs on, and your support costs also decrease over time as more users know what they're doing and actually help each other instead of forcing every user to come to you for every little problem.
SOE spent a couple of years developing the game engin
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Actually, it's the "Pit of Carcoon" the Sarlacc creature lives inside it. I think the idea may have come from a creature called an "antlion" but just added tentacles for fun.
Strangely it seems, the spelling of "Carcoon" has at some time in the past 20 years (1983!?) been changed to "Carkoon" (check google). I know this happens from time to time in the starwars universe...
you can get more info about the Sarlacc here:starwars.com
Dude, it's a Sarlaac.
Think about it. It's basically a big huge cock stuck in the ground. I mean, the boy is hung! The huge Sarlaac cock just travels underground until finding a nice female Sarlaac (coincidentally, stuck in the ground in a big HOLE, so it's not as if she can run away) and just tags that booty from the subterranean angle.
Spores indeed. WTF is the point of living if you can't get some poontang every so often. Being asexual would SUCK!
Although, now that I think about, I'd never have to pay for dinner and a movie again...hmmmm
Spread the RC luvin'
Don't bother with SWG. If you want a space adventure, try Eve Online. There's no FPS component to Eve, but from the complaints I've read on SWG that's not a bad thing. Like all other games Eve was released a little to early, but they have done a spectacular job in crushing the major bugs. It's stable enough now that I don't worry about crashing to desktop in the middle of a heated battle. I've found that EVE is really what I was expecting SWG to be in the first place. SWG won't allow you to fly ships for another year or so. Even then you'll have to buy another 50 dollar expansion pack. Originally Eve was pretty boring because it's foundation is built on player actions. Now that there's over 4000 users on at most hours of the day, there's plenty to do. There's a PK group that has become a very serious blockade. The game has a full blown market with company stocks and trade goods. The potential of this game is unreal. Another reason I really beleive in Eve is that it was developed by a crew that can be considered a mom & pop development shop. Like any business arena I think it's important to support the little guys.
Dump SWG, try Eve.
WURD!!
I think the problem here is even more basic than that. When you are developing a software product for profit, you go to the largest paying market for the product first where you are most likely to make returns on your investment. Right now, except possibly in pro audio and graphics design, targetting the Windows PC gives you the best chance of making money on most products.
With that as a given #1, writing good maintainable multiplatform software is going to add at least 25% to 50% more effort to a large real-world project and double the testing requirements, especially in games where you have to deal with proprietary graphics and music subsystems like DirectX. Yes, OpenGL and similar technologies can alleviate some of this, but it is still a lot more work to make things run on multiple platforms. And no, Java would not solve this problem yet.
Adding this extra work onto your development team means they're spending less time fixing problems and improving the product for the initial platform's customers - so you really have to think you're going to do a lot more than just recoup your losses when adding support for another platform - you also have to think you are adding enough customers that you can pay less attention to the initial customer base or hire a larger team.
Right now, Macintosh has a pretty small market share, and I have yet to see a lot of shrink-wrapped Linux software really selling in computer stores outside of the distros like RedHat and SuSE. I've seen some games that tested the waters, but if they had sold really well I'd expect to see a Linux Games section at my local computer dealer...
At any rate, once Star Wars Galaxies has proven itself on the first platform, if they hear enough requests for other platforms that it looks more profitable to add in multiplatform support than to jump onto the next product, they'll likely do it.
I've met one of the lead coders on the project, and I can definitely say they've got more than enough talent and skill to go there, and the majority of the code was probably designed to be platform-neutral and easily portable from the beginning. But unless it looks profitable to spend the extra money to do a port, it ain't gonna happen. That's called business.
I write code.
This may seem ludicrous, but I predict that SOE will suffer harshly from it's overwhelming interest in the MMO* games. The notion of getting people to pay for a game on a monthly basis seems good but there's a huge problem with it: market saturation. If I'm paying up to $15/month to play a game I'm only going to play that one game. I'm not going to accumulate multiple subscriptions because I only have time for one game.
Eventually Sony is going to dump huge money into some MMO game and it's going to be a disaster. They'll blow huge amounts of money on some great idea and then nobody will show up to play. The only way they can achieve revenue growth in MMO games is by getting subscribers they don't already have and by jacking up fees.
Furthermore, with everybody rushing to make new MMO games, there's going to be increasin competition for these subscribers. So you'll see the subscription base fragment, thus making it even harder to make a buck because you'll have effectively less subscribers per game. So you either have to scale back the games or raise the prices.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
which one of these buttons calls your mother to come pick you up?
Anyone who actually took the time to read the SWG forums before they were switched over saw plenty of both Pro AND con posts from beta testers. There was no overwhelming consensus on either side and all comments were generally well thought out. :P
Of COURSE the boards were not taken offline to avoid the criticism being spread. They were being switched over to a new system that was read only for non-subscribers. That's all, end of story, no conspiracy. It was well publicized in the forums prior to the switchover.
I for one found the beta testers comments to be very encouraging. I don't care about PvP, don't care about being UBER and power-leveling so it looks like this is the game for me.
Like anything it will not appeal to all people: how could it? But as usual one must sort through all the misinformation and stupid comments posted by ignorant boobs with no actual interest inthe subject.
Along come the clones, some from Magic's maker Wizards of the Coast. There were some very interesting games early on - Spellfire (an AD&D game from TSR who was bought later by WOTC), Middle Earth-the Wizards from ICE, ShadowFist, NetRunner (an excellent 2 player game) and many, many more suddenly appeared on store shelves. The only problem is that many people who play these games are on a limited budget. Hmmm, I have boxes of MtG cards and people to play with, do I buy ShadowFist cards and try to get my friends to play that game too? Well, some of these people bought the cards, but found that their friends were unwilling to shell out the cash to join them. Result, boxes of never-used cards from games that will never see the light of day again. There must have been 30-40 games out between 1994-1998. How many are still around? Magic is, can you name another?
The same thing is happening to MMORPGs. The success of Everquest has deluded executives and others into believing that there is a vast untapped legion of people waiting to play these games. The reality is that most of the people out there are already playing EQ and have invested heavily in it over the past 4 years. It took me a year and a half to convince my friends to try EQ. Then they were hooked, some even getting two computers and accounts. Think these people are going to be easily swayed into starting a new game where they can only have one character on a server when they have 12 on one now and a very mature game to boot? Just to kill rats for another 20-40 hours, I don't think so.
So where is your player base going to come from? I think the average gamer has a budget and way too many choices. And what is Sony thinking anyway releasing PlanetSide and SWG so close together? It seems like bad, bad marketing. And in a couple of months they will have EQ2 on the shelves. Do you really think all those EQ players are going to play SWG while they are waiting for that? Get real.
There will be an extreme shakeout of these games very soon, just like there was in the CCG market. Only companies with a lot of cash will be able to put out a game, and there will only be a few left standing. EQ will remain. They are adding some new content that sounds fantastic. But will any of the others? They will have to appeal to a whole new market because there is only so much time and money a person has to spend on these things. It will have to be something like SEX - THE MMORPG. Now you would get people crawling out of the woodwork for something like that I bet.
here, y'are - after months of beta testing here's my definitave guide to playing SWG.
Guide to Starting out solo in Star Wars: Galaxies, by
an_anonymous_eq_player00
Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) is a group based game, but it is possible,
and possibly more enjoyable for the casual gamer to make some progress
without banging too hard against the numerous artificial time sinks in
SWG.
Character Creation:
Even if you are planning on creating a combat based character (killing
things is why most people seem to play these games, a thought
seemingly lost on the design team), it's best to start out as an
artisan or medic in order to receive the crafting station and
surveying kits. It's important to note here that the starting stats
for the various profession templates are vastly different, so first
make a combat profession character (brawler/marksman), write down the
stats - then back up and select medic or artisan.
I chose medic when I started, mostly because I received the white
jumpsuit rather than the rather bland artisan clothing. Also the
medic starts with a wholly inadequate supply of stimpacks, which are
helpful in reminding you how annoying it is to play a medic in this
game.
Create your character, and BEFORE you select the travel terminal to
select a starting planet, take advantage of the free stat migration to
return your stats to the ones more suited for blasting or whacking
things, which you wrote down in the step above.
First thing you'll need to do in the game is find the trainer of your
craft of choice and train the profession you really want to play
rather than the almost as fun as paint drying selection you have made.
Quick overview of the available professions at starting time:
a) Medic - contrary to the name of this class, medics don't actually
heal people very much and as a rule are not terribly needed in
fights. As a medic you'll spend most of your time either a) looking
for resources to craft medicine or b) crafting said medicine. Sure,
medics heal people - but usually by standing around in a hospital
begging for the solo player to pay them to continue their main task,
being crafting.
b) Artisan - the true soloers of the game, the artisan is the
profession which is the least dependant on the other professions. If
you really enjoy watching paint dry, this is the profession for you.
They gather their own materials for crafting (the only class capable
of doing so), usually as a result of long repetative macros which
allow a player to Survey through the night unattended. After mining
plants to death, the artisan then spends their time making shoes,
1,000s of necklaces, and 100s underpowered newbie weapons in order to
advance to their true goal - placing structures on top of your
favorite hunting grounds. If you see an artisan, the best thing to do
I find is help them out by ensuring that their profanity filters are
working properly.
c) Entertainers - somewhat similar to artisans in that they can be run
by macro's or with the assistance of a group - entirely while AFK.
The only difference is that they can act out lesbian porn much more
accurately. They also require people standing around watching them
while they go afk. Thus making them remarkably slower to level.
d) Scout - the scout is not really a profession in the standard sense
in that you can't actually advance in it unless you receive other
training. Scouts advance by harvesting resources from dead creatures,
which it turns out, are awfully hard to come by unless you have a
reliable method of making said creatures into the dead state that they
need to be in. As a result, the entire scouting profession is used
near exclusively by people like yourself who want to kill things, get
frustrated by the utter lack of objects which appear on the corpses of
the things you kill, and pick up scouting. Scouts can technicall
Triumph the insult comic dog vs. Star Wars nerds
A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.
So it's not just me then? I played in Beta 3. I take it the NDA has now been lifted so here's my mini Review. LordYUK's post further down this thread covers most of the points I'd make to be honest - but here's my $.02:-
The game is totally amazing to look at. Once I logged on and found 10 or so players just watching the Suns set on Tatooine. It really was amazing - the light actually looks like that of a sunset, and even the players' facial features cast shadows on their faces etc. I stood watching a bush blow in the breeze on Naboo for 10 minutes. When I first began to play, I spent 5 minutes fiddling with the brightness before a realised with a "doh!" that it was friggin night time.
The Character creation process is a joy - messing with all those sliders to change your appearance (from height, belly size, build, and age to eybrow shape, bushiness, nose lengh, width, protrusion, eye angle, colour, hair colour, style etc etc etc etc)
The sounds are authentic Star Wars from the inquisitive whistles of passing R2 units to the sounds of doors and blasters. I also really liked the way the game scans what you are saying to surrounding players and generates gestures to match - so saying "hi" for exmaple, will cause your avatar to wave, or typing "LOL" actually causes you to clutch your sides and er.. LOL.
The inventory system is quite nice allowing you to drag and drop items to put them in either hand.
I'm not sure I "get" this game though. Either that or it really is completely boring. As LordYuK said - this aint Star Wars. I mean, why, for example, are the inhabitants of the SWG world all expected to display a pathlogical dislike for passive grazing animals (or any animal life come to that) ? At first I thought - "that bloke's barmy - he keeps shooting at the local wildlife" until I realised that this was, bizzarely, the way your character advances - by shooting wamp rats and the like. "But I'm a friggin Scout ffs!" I thought. You seem to spend most of your time trudging about, shooting at furry animals that were minding their own business, and running errands for NPC's. I wanted to join the rebellion against the Empire! I wanted to team up with other rebllious players and smuggle guns, take out imperial installations, steal secret plans, fly an x-wing and all that. Not tame wamp rats, and manufacture cheap jewellry...
On one early session I had met up with 3 other new guys on Naboo and we'd wandered about a bit and murdered a few animals for no reason. We came across 2 storm troopers and an officer an went into a huddle. We decided after much discussion that we'd try having a firefight with them, so formed a plan and spread out in the surrounding bushes. We all leapt out.... only to discover you're not *allowed* to attack stormtroopers. Hmm not very free form then.
As a regular Quake/UT etc player I was also a bit frustrated that I didn't do the shooting myself. Choosing to attack some unfortunate creature causes your character to do the work - not you. This would be fine - but well - they suck at it! My avatar would generally not dodge incoming fire, but just spam it out with the opposition (which is usually biting your ankles) I found it bizzare that I frequently died from being repeatedly bitten on the big toe by a hamster that I'd shot 6 times with my blaster. Characters in the films were action heroes - I wanted to do all the acrobatics, blaster in hand and so on. What you atually end up being is a tourist in Sony's "Star Wars World" yeah sure you can go find the Pit of Carkoon and get your picture taken next to it, watch the twin suns set, visit the Royal palace on Naboo, or the shipyards of Corellia. Buy the t-shirt and send a postcard. Just being in the Star Wars world can keep you amused for quite a while, but evemtually, you want to actually do soemthing..
I've not played any other MMORPG's so as I said - maybe I just don't get it - but I didn't fancy being the guy who grows carrots. I mean - when you were a kid and Star
The main problems right now are that the economy is poor, with items being sold at a fraction of cost just to get rid of them, so no one can really make a living crafting yet. And the biggest problem is that combat in this game sucks bad. It is very, very boring, and this is coming from someone who has played many a MMORPG.
I'd wait until the space expansion comes out before thinking about buying this game. Maybe then they'll have fixed most of the problems.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
I'd assume you don't really have to worry about that too much anyway. =]
Karma: Dyn-o-mite!(mostly affected by Jimmy Walker reading your comments)
Don't click on items in the "Download List"
Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.
[city] Yo! Wassup ? Where's our bank ? /city /quitin this guild, youse guys are teh suk ! .LETS CAMPTHEIR TOL AND SEE HOW THEY LIKE IT
[city] Hey I just logged on.. what Guild has that Black tower on the red.. ?
[city] Hey - I just got attacked at our TOL
[city] Geez will you guys SHUT UP! We've got a spy in our
[city] Spy ? Is that a new Profession / Disc ?
[city] Hey I just spent 20 mins trying to log in and when I finally get on someone ganked my at our TOL !
[city] LAAAAGGGG
[city] Hey Can someone summon me ? I'm in Safe Mode at TOL after log on, and there's all these guys from BW camping and kiling us.
[city] Hey ! I just logged on and our Bank is GONE !
[city] Who toasted our town?
[city] These town guards SUCK.
[city] Where cna I gte trannin ?
[city] Whose da spy ?
[city] I'm
[city] EVERYONE LISTEN
[city] Stop SHOUTING !
[city] Your teh suk!
[city] No you are
[city] Hey ! Keep this channel clear for War Room.
[city] Yo ! Hey what happened to our Bank? Where's my stuff
[city] STFU. CryMoreN00b
Welcome to the wonderful plot that is Shadowbane.