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Star Wars Galaxies Technical Difficulties
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a SWGalaxies.net post summarizing the multiple technical difficulties on both registration and game servers for the PC MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, which launched within the last few hours. The registration servers were down or extremely slow through the afternoon of the 26th, and official word was "..a combination of hardware failures and some other unforeseen technical problems resulted in a severe load on the registration servers." These issues were resolved later on the 26th, and many were able to register their characters, but unfortunately all of the game servers are currently (11.30PM PST) down, as Sony "..found a serious problem with our database that is being worked on as we speak." We'd recommend watching the official site for more information as it happens..
Haven't bought a copy (yet?). Anyone out there who wants to say how their first evening of it went?
Note to Sony: do the load testing before release.
Nothing runs as expected. Give it a couple of weeks to settle down, and then get back to us.
I'm a longtime Anarchy Online player (although I have taken a few vacations, the most recent a 6-month romp), it used to bug me to no end when people would get on the public channels simply to rant and rave over how horrible AO was back in the day (it personally didn't bother me a whole lot, it certainly pissed some people off to no end though) and that SWG was going to be akin to the Second Coming. Seeing SWG fall flat on its face at launch makes me so happy. I know none of the fanboys will equate this at all to the problems that AO (and every other MMOG out there) had in its initial stages, but at least it's a bit of justice for me.
I also glanced over the videos of SWG on one of the larger gaming sites (no clue which it was), I find it hilarious how glamorous they try to make the game look. The video I watched was basically someone running a quest. They talked to a couple people, one NPC (I assume) went with the character while they hunted another NPC down. A big, dramatic firefight ensues. The two NPC's and the PC go at it (read: stand still in the field) with their pistols, while the player's doing all kinds of sweeping moves with the camera and such to try to make the fight more interesting than it was.
There's been a longstanding problem with MMOG's (at least MMORPG's) in that combat is always a pretty central part of the game (tradeskills in some are right up there though, but typically the tradeskills facilitate combat, so it all comes back to that) and it's really pretty difficult to make combat interesting... It's evolved from the early days of Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior where you'd have your good guys lined up on one side of the screen and the bad guys lined up on the other side, you tell everyone to ATTACK, sit back, and watch the fun. It really hasn't changed too much since then, either. Sure, it's gotten much prettier and a little more complex in terms of setup, but once your characters start doing their thing, there isn't a whole lot for the player to do. I wait for the day that someone finally comes up with this brilliant idea to really draw the player in to combat... AO at least keeps me somewhat involved since my character sucks enough that when soloing I need to frantically heal myself while trying to keep a constant flow of damage heading towards the object of my frustrations...
1. Game goes "live".
2. Players flood the servers.
3. Shit breaks.
4. Impatient nerds flood every line of communication with complaints.
5. More shit breaks. The nerds become as problematic as the original tech problems
6. Stuff starts to work again.
7. GOTO 2 (repeat a few times)
8. A month passes, and then the not-so-nerdy players sign up with no problem, and cruise into the game painlessly.
that you can only fire in certain positions (behind the MOB, to the side of the MOB)
that you can only fire after other special moves for combos
that you can only fire if you parry or block
that's the warrior ones I know about, other classes have their own.
Makes combat slightly more interesting
SWG combat is okay but it does seem silly two humanoids standing 2m away from each other blasting with guns until one runs out of hitpoints.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) are useless at server management and treat users with contempt.
As far as techincal support go:
Posts with complaints and bugs on the forums are frequently deleted by Technical Support and they constantly palm of users with lame excuses.
Most of the problems user have are user-side, but the could easily suggest fixes for them, or post known issues, but they don't bother.
As far as the developers go:
They don't bother to updated version numbers or the 'News' / 'Info' panels within the game after making significant changes, they just patch away. Recently they posted a patch and said 'we weren't able to get a test server up and running, so we just posted it live' in the announce. Of course the corresponding patch caused more issues than it fixed, and they had to release another patch shortly afterwards.
Due to problems with the severs they now reboot them once a day. It's like it's running on NT. I can't see why their line managers let them get away with that (unless they are complacent or incompetant).
SWG, like PlanetSide, appears not ready to ship, and I'm sure it won't be up to scratch for a few months.
This could be down to commercial pressure from Sony, if so then the developers lives are problably hell and they will end up quitting at some point.
If that's the case then SOE mangement need to lighten up quickly before they loose staff and customers.
If it's down to poorly disiplined staff with no focus on customer care and/or bad management (imposing artificial deadlines, not ensuring QOS) then they need to start replacing staff. Middle managment should be the ones to be replace, as it's prmarily a process and attuide issue. If there are issues they need to flag them, if they arn't doing that, then they are not doing their job.
I really like PlanetSide, it's not a very deep game as the RPG elements are very thin on the ground (it's much more like a huge Counter Strike/Unreal Tournament/CTF game than an Everquest with guns in space), but it's exellent fun and I play it for around 4 hours a day (closer to 8 at weekends).
I wish they had more displine in managing the service. A lot of users don't bother subscribing after their first month because of all the hassles they've seen.
Don't worry, it's just a beta, next year when they release the full version of the game; you know, the version with the stars and the wars, these problems will probably be worked out.
The solution for the registration problems was to download Mozilla'a currect release candidate (1.4 something) and use that to register instead.
:)
So one benefit of all this is that thousands of folks have now downloaded and used Mozilla that had probably never heard of it before today
..game. There is alwasy a ' crtitical database flaw' that is discovered. Best to wait out the tide of new player.
At my university where I work at the computer help desk I got a call yesterday from a guy that lived on campus for the summer, bought SWG and couldn't connect to the servers.
SWG uses TCP/UDP 1023, which isn't blocked at all on the routes out of the university, but it also requires "bi-directional ICMP", which is blocked leaving the university so that DDoS attacks can be averted with simple ping on the whole campus.
The poor guy couldn't connect with his beand new game and seemed a little angry, but we're not unblocking ICMP just so that he can use his computer for 12 hours at a time killing wamprats.
My question is: why the hell would they need bi-directional ICMP?
They should just get one of the systems guys to go in and smack the server a few times - problem solved!
Seeing as they SWORE the game was ready to launch.
Another poster hit on a good point, this ISNT a 1st gen MMORPG, this is from the PEOPLE THAT RUN EQ!!
This game SHOULD have came off without a hitch.
And the "well, technically speaking blah blah blah" isnt an argument, because MOST gamers (not all) know only the following...
1) buy game
2) install game
3) play game
4) happy
if you take out step 3, step 4 becomes "gee I wasted my money on this crap?! wtf?! this sucks"
Keep in mind, MOST stores wont let you return an opened MMORPG, because the key is used, so theres no reimbursement from the vendor if its sent back.
Shame on SOE for not having a smooth launch. Its rediculous.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
I find your lack of faith disturbing...
*crushes AC's neck*
My website
I don't understand why anyone would buy a MMOG on the first day, especially experienced MMOG players. In particular attempting to buy a game as in demand as a Star Wars MMOG and expecting to play on the first day is just plain nuts!
Just wait a month or two - it'll be much better on your blood pressure!
I am sure that, technically, Sony learned from past experience with Everquest about the problems that plague the MMORPG genre of games. I would also be willing to bet that the release of this game was not due to the developers or technicians proclaiming that everything is running correctly. It is all about marketing and sales. With the number of MMORPGs that are due to be released in the near future, Sony needed to make sure that they got as much market-share of the techy geek crowd as possible. People are already getting excited about the prospect of Matrix Online. Because the Star Wars crowd and the Matrix crowd are probably the same crowds, Sony just wants to make sure that they are the ones getting the user's $12 month instead of someone else.... Even if it meant pushing out a product that is not ready.
http://www.tomandemily.com
More like personnel issues. You'd think all of SOE's collective experience in MMORPG's would make a difference. Obviously not.
I've installed and tried to play launch day on UO, EQ, Dark Age OC, Asheron's Call1, Anarachy Online, and now Galaxies. Galaxies was the second to worst launch.
I was at work while trying to attach the SWG subscription to my sony station account. It took about 5 hours. I wasn't at it continously. I just kept the browser in the background and gave it shot during compiles or other downtime. A couple workmates and I then gave it a quick runthrough. Created a character, went through the tutorial, and then did a short delivery quest. Ignoring the registration problems, I was impressed and thought it was going to be a great night when I got home.
Well, they pulled the servers down by time I ate dinner, yakked with the wife, and got everything setup. I was disappointed, but to their credit, they at least pulled the servers down instead of letting everyone suffer through them crashing every few minutes. If I recall correctly, that was exactly my experience with Anarchy Online.
I'm still looking forward to playing
So, it wasn't a horrible experience, but I'd be pretty embrassed if any of these troubles fell under my responsibility at SOE.
Since I've yet to see a MMOG "retire" I wonder what the process would entail.
I can understand that if one was ready to go away, the userbase would be probably be low and the cost to maintain would not be feasible - but what exactly would they say to the hardc0re gamers that stuck with them through the opening server nightmares etc., and contributed for years during the games lifecycle.
I guess it's no different than any other service, but it would probably have a pretty big impact on the dedicated and fringe who play religiously.
Should we blame the game companies, for pushing new MMOG's onto the retail shelves even though they are still beta-quality?
Should we blame the players, for buying new MMOG's even though they all know that game companies are pushing beta-quality games onto the retail shelves?
The player looking for a quality game will wait for at least 6 months to let the rest pay to test the game. If it still looks appealing, spend the money. That is unless you are a pure power gamer, then you must get in right away to take advantage of the bugs; exploit early, exploit often.
I think whatever video you saw must have been badly done. Just ranged combat alone, you can aim, kneel, stand, go prone, roll into a kneel, roll to prone, roll to standing, dive for cover and something else I can't remember, and that's not including any specials you get for a particular weapon. (Like Head Shot for Rifle, Point Blank Area for Carbine etc etc). Just letting you know.
Ive been playing the beta (and wont be buying the full version BTW). One thing springs to mind.. Isn't Star Wars about space and space battles.. Xwing ships shooting past and such.. And thats what's completely missing from SWG. So you pay your money and pay your subscription for 18 months before you can do what you really bought the game to do.. fly ships and travel freely.. Damn what a turkey... A case of marketing over content
This is so obvious that producers of the MMORPG should realize and plan for this, shouldn't they?
Don't blame the users for something that is the developers responsiblilty.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Galaxies? Who cares. I'm waiting for Tron 2.0. Sooner or later, someone's gonna hack Galaxies and fuck everyone up anyway.
- IP
Not that people are reading this thread much anymore, but to be fair, I got the game on Sunday, and managed to play it most of the day with no crashing or noticable bugs. Only real complaint was that the server I'd planned to play on was already full by then. Playing with friends has to come in the top three reasons, if not number one, as to what people want to do with these games, so that's a pretty big downer.
But, all things considered, a pretty quick recovery from the initial problems. Nobody will much care about a launch like this in 3 months time. More or less a non-event. Welcome to Slashdot As Usual.
So far, I'm finding combat rather uninteresting, but having a blast with crafting and entertaining, much to my surprise. Not sure if it'll stay fresh after months of doing it, but for now, I'm a happy dancing fool.
-- Kate
Neverwinter Nights, one of the first MMORPGs. This game was hosted by AOL. It ran in a DOS box and the server had a user limit of 500. It was almost always full. One day, AOL said "Ok, we're closing NWN down in X days". And everyone moaned and complained with good right. It was the only game of its kind out, and it was good. The next best thing was a MUD. But they closed it down anyway. The server was full to the end. And they replaced it with card games.