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Star Wars Galaxies Reviewed
Tark writes "Want the inside scoop of what SWG is like? Well, Warthog has written a review for all of you, entitled 'Warrior, Brawler, Hairdresser' with his insights on the game. Sort of. Let's just say you won't find a review anything like this one anywhere else."
A copy/paste job of the body text would be appreciated.
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Which sounds like a pretty fair summary of the SWG login process.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Now the warcry servers are just like the SWG ones during launch.... impossible to get on.
meep!
Warrior, Brawler, Hairdresser
Written by: Warthog
This isn't our site's official review. Heck, I don't qualify for official duties of any kind. No one here at Warcry really ever even knows what my column is about, most of the time. If you wonder why that is, feel free to read my prior articles. That will make everything very clear.
Our own Kegyen did a fine review of SWG just a few short days ago. It was Warcry's official review, to be exact. He did a great job of describing the game, and had a number of very interesting insights regarding features, etc. If you haven't read it, go over to his "Wisdom of the Jedi" column, and check it out. It's really worth a read.
Let's consider this an "alternative" review, shall we? Writing an organized essay, evaluating the most important features of the game? No way. I can't keep on topic for more than about 3 minutes.
You are probably saying to yourself , "Enough of this drivel, pig-man! You've played every massive online game ever made. How does Star Wars Galaxies stack up?"
Keep your pants on, fellow game geek! You read; I'll ramble.
***Character Design***
Ok, this is a big feature of SWG. You can build a character that looks any way you want. And I mean it, too. Your avatar is highly customizable, much more so than in any other game in history. You have more hairstyle choices than a teenage girl, living in Los Angeles, with liberal parents. If you see yourself as a punker, a beauty queen, or a troll that lives under a bridge, you can pretty much come up with a look that suits you. There are so many variables that I'd bet no two characters will be exactly the same.
Want to build a Mon Calamari with purple skin and yellow markings? No problem. Want to make the shortest, fattest, little Rodian in the game? Go ahead. Want to build a giant white Wookie, and name him Abominable? Knock yourself out. Do you just need to play some sort of goth chick? Fine. Eyes, facial features, tattoo patterns, hairstyles - every bit of it is customizable. And it's all pretty fun to do, too.
Next you have to choose a profession. You get to choose from six starting career paths. These rapidly branch out, to give you dozens of more advanced professions down the road. But more on that later.
After customizing your look and choosing your profession, you can modify your stats. There are nine stats, and they do affect the game quite a bit. However, they are all really unconventional. If you up your strength, you do not hit one bit harder. Improve your stamina, and it does not help you run for longer or swim further. Instead, strength affects how much energy you expend when you use strength-based maneuvers. Your stamina determines how quickly you recover from fatigue or damage to your "action" pool. I'll write more about this at another time, but most players will find the use of these stats pretty confusing. However, once they are understood, adjusting your stats can be a useful way to tweak your character and his performance.
All you regular readers of my column know me pretty well by now. You know I have to play a big, ugly tank in every MMOG I play. He has to be nasty, and be able to suck up damage like Rasputin. And he has to be named after some sort of pig.
I went completely crazy this time. I became totally imaginative. I got highly creative. I named him Pig.
And SWG allowed me to design him the way Pig was meant to be. He's a big, strong, ugly, nasty, brawling lizard man. He's got purple eyes, and red skin. Scales. Whatever. He's got pole arm skills, and ugly bone armor.
Perfect.
Overall score for character design: 98%. It's good enough to satisfy hard core role-playing geeks. Heck, it's even good enough to satisfy young tormented artist types going to design school.
***Graphics***
Holy Megapixels, the graphics are good. No, they're way beyond good. They're great. They're phenomenal.
How good? Let me put it this way. I'm on Naboo, in the city of Theed to be exact.
On the other hand Planetside (another SOE game) looks pretty average (at best) for an FPS game, but it is the most fun I've had gaming in a long while. If you like FPS games but you haven't tried Planetside, find a friend who has and see if they still have their 7 day "give to a friend" code so you can try it out.
You do need a pretty beefy computer and network connection to play it, but some of the large scale 100+ person battles with troops and vehicles (both ground and flying) have to be experienced to be believed.
I wonder when this one becomes the next http://www.progressquest.com/ ?
That's a quite a positive review actually. Sounds like he really enjoyed the game :P
This is the very same as Everquest, with the same disadvantages (repetitive actions, huge timesinks) it had at launch, the same kind of community handling (*we* decide what is in *our* game and how you should play it) -- only better graphics, and the swords are now laser enhanced. I lasted about 3 hours in the beta before uninstalling it. Those who coped with that in EQ will prolly love it though.
Two birds with one stone! This is also a good review of Pear PHP framework.
How is this review so original? I've seen this before when viewing a link posted on Slashdot :)
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It looks nice, but the key mappings are hard to learn, and you get a blaster in the tutorial but then its replaced with a sword (Not a lightsaber).
I liked the part in the tutorial when you are using the blaster you can run away but shoot over your shoulder which looked cool.
Maybe I just need to play it more.
Its just everyquest with star wars races. Seriously! You have an admiral ackbar race running around in bone armor with an axe.
You want a quick idea of the game?
No spaceships (no ties, no x-wings, nuttin), no stars (all planetside), no wars (no open PvP servers).
So, the game doesn't have stars or wars. Its everquest with a star wars theme.
I'd rather play an MMORPG version of X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter before playing this piece of garbage.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I watched my little brother play SWG this weekend. I don't see what's so exciting about running around outside a city, killing womp rats and taking their 'treasure' (skin & bones). Run, fight, heal...***YAWN***. SWG is just Malibu Stacy's new hat. It has all the appeal of a slot machine.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
And here I thought this article was going to be about the theoretical plausibility of the layout of the Star Wars universe...how silly of me.
-uso.
Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
Interesting character types they have these days. Almost as interesting as the Halfling Barbarian that the rules allow for in D&D 3...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"It has all the appeal of a slot machine."
And yet Las Vegas and Reno casino's florish.
The game haven't even been out for a month? How can they properly review the game already? They can't possible have seen more than a glimpse of what the game has to offer. Reviewing MORPGs take time, and whatever you say about the game a few weeks after release probably aren't very valid when time has come to properly review the game.
...as if a million incoming HTTP requests were suddently silenced.
"That's no moon... it's a slashdotting!"
Laugh at my Lisp and I keeell you.
This guy must be a Linux user...
Regardless of whether or not it's a positive or negative review, don't buy a game based on what other people think about it. Personally, I think SWG is the best thing since sliced bread, but there are plenty of people with the exact opposite opinion. As for facts... If you don't like bugs, wait a month or two before buying.
Funny, I got "Could not connect to remote server." That is as accurate a review of SWG right now as one could write.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
Because new casinos attract new gamers. The new gamers are intimidated by the table games, so they play the easy slots. Slot machines have an incredible amount in common with MMORPGs...it's the same "skinner box" mentality that's being stroked.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I've seen this done before you unoriginal fuck
Why should he post anonymously? So what if he got some karma. No, really, what's wrong with it?
So what's the big deal about karma whoring. It's not like it means anything.
I read this review over att guru3d before. The guy has a very honest take on SWG. Review here
Mod Parent -1, Flamebait.
never did i claim originality. and my karma took a hit yesterday, so if i'm gonna continue being the well known troll that posts at +2, then I need some quick karma whoring. Nothing like flaiming at +2, much more rewarding
Want to build a giant white Wookie, and name him Abominable? Knock yourself out.
Are we trying to compensate for something here?
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
"Keep your pants on, fellow game geek!"
Hey, not all geeks get their jollies off on Star Wars Galaxy. I heard that some geeks use porn.
--- I'm Green Hornet's sidekick not Inspector Clouseau's!
I can""t believe how accurate this review was of SOE""s new SWG game. I""ll be waiting for the content to improve before I""m going to buy it. If Kirsten Dunst naked is "mediocre". Then I would be satisfied with far less than I previously imagined...
Hey thief, a little credit, wills ya? Sheesh. I go to all that trouble...
Where can I verify this? Ever since Spiderman...mmmmm, Kirsten Dunst....
http://www.jeffjimmerson.com
http://www.fohguild.org/forums/showthread.php?thre adid=7769p hp?cat=gamerevi ews&id=49&pagenumber=1
or
http://content.guru3d.com/article.
in other words, SWG sux
ooook.. this game has failed to inspire me AT ALL, I'm not a big MMORPG guy but I was excited for what this could have been.
everything I've seen is like nerf-herding... can you do that in the game?
I doubt it.
having a great game with a wonderful character creation system, and an amazing crafting variety... is what I call boring.
Pig is absoultly right, it needs content right now, but more then that, it needs to become star wars.
you MET thrawn and vader? and had tea and biskets with them? you know, I'm all FOR chilling with the dark ones, but... I doubt you were an 80th level imperial soldier when they let you in to the heart of the imperial palace...
did I mention that theres no space ships?
did I hear this was a star wars game?
thats right, NO space ships. no YT-3000 freighters, no XWINGS, no TIE fighters... nadda.
and, pig... you are fighting with a pole arm?
was this star wars, or jackie chans martial arts show?
RP games are great, and I've heard from my RP buddies that SWG is great. but, its STAR WARS!, Sure, RPing IN a star wars world is fine, but how about having some of the STAR WARS parts of the game.
I will admit I've never played SWG, but, I'm not going to either.
one more comment.
why hide the imperial palace? I mean... its on coruscant, and, its the seat of galactic power. you'd think you'd want to find it if you needed to pay a fine or something... not, that theres anything to screw up and get fined for, lacking any content.
jabbas palace, I can understand that one being hard to find... but, I have to ask.
did anyone at SOE ever see the movies ?
Yes, word for word.
Finding God in a Dog
i dunno how old you guys are, but i still think of kirsten dunst as the kid from interview with a vampire.
ed
Warthog has written a review for all of you ...
Warthog... don't you mean the 'puma'??
Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all the unhappy people.
I play SW:G, played it for a week, and so far, I really like the game. I play a rifleman armourcrafter, and am part of a 20 person or so guild, so I get a good feel for a lot of the different aspects of the game.
I started on Naboo, on the Chilestra (sp?) server. Hunting with a rifle on Naboo to me feels like African safari hunting in the Star Wars galaxy. With a crew of people, the blaster fire, and the animals - the animals! - it is just incredible. Seeing some massive creature stand from laying down and running at you is just incredible. The blaster fire sounds just so bloody cool - *exactly* the way it sounds in the movies. I like the lair aspect of hunting; animals spawn from a lair, if you shoot the lair, they rush you, if you kill the lair, they don't spawn. That makes sense.
I like the crafting aspect, as well - it is more interactive than the crafting of DAoC and people actually use your items! This was a huge problem with DAoC before spellcrafting came out - loot was better than crafts. Mind you, this is one of the problems with SW:G - no loot. People *have* to use your equipment, because if they don't, they hunt in their clothes. Luckily, SW:G has a workable in-game free market that seems to be good enough for buyers and sellers to meet. And, I get usage experience if people actually use my armour!
Mind you, I am slanted toward crafting, so I like the system that makes my skills in demand. But, for people that like loot, this game will hurt them. I would consider loot important - to me, the loot lottery known as Diablo 2 is still being played mainly because of this reason.
The experience system is new to me, and I really like it. I use rifle, and get rifle experience for using it. When I get enough rifle experience, I can train my rifle to the next level. That makes sense. I like how you can train people, and have other people train you - it beats paying for training, and the experience you get from training you need.
My biggest complaints currently are the number of bugs in the game, especially with the chat and trading. Chat is so buggy that when people join the guild channel, the greeting is "test?". Some things I could perceive as problems are the rarity of money and the lack of dungeons.
About the rarity of money - I never see any. I either find or am given the materials to craft. I never pay for training - except for purchasing the base level skill so I can start a profession - because for the most skills I need, someone will train me for free. I rarely use money for upkeep for buildings (miners) because our guild architect needs the building experience for building new miners. Our guild makes everything we need for the most part - I haven't bought a single item since I started playing. The only service I have purchased is tipping dancers in cantinas.
So far, it is a new game, and due to that, it is all bright and shiny. But, I really like the game, and hope to play it for some time.
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
You don't get Karma for +Funny posts any more.
See this for more info
You want Eve
Yeah, all that trouble to rip off a tired comedy sketch from the '70s.
I''''m of the opinion that Warthog''''s review is more imaginative than anyone else''''s. However, he''''s in need of a good editor, or maybe just needing a keyboard where it''''s possible to clean the sticky punctuation keys.
right, and replacing a few words in an old sketch isn't stealing? you give credit where credit is due, hack
YOU SUCK BALLS!
Which is worse, writing a parody of the original, or directly copying said parody with no credit?
I may be a hack, but you're the one copying _me_. That's pretty sad.
Overall score for goodies: So far, I'd say the loot system in SWG is like seeing Kirsten Dunst naked: pretty mediocre. However, this is all pretty unconventional, and it may yet prove to be a decent system.
I would really like to see Kirsten Dunst naked. If the game is as good as that, I would buy it today.
No reason to lie.
crap, oh well, there are lots of ways to karma whore
You can play any character you like based on the movies (the proper ones), but you just can't do anything - anything - that you saw those characters do? Dark Tailor of the Sith doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?
You know the Alliance grunts that got toasted at the start of Episode IV? Sounds to me like after paying this for a couple of weeks, you'll be wishing you could play one of them. Heck, you'll probably be wishing you could play the guy who maintains their blasters, rather than just making weapons for people to eradicate wildlife with.
"Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided" looks to me like it borders on deceptive advertising. It's not Star Wars, there are no Galaxies, and no Empire to be divided.
I note with interest the very careful wording of this advertising: "The chance to unlock the mysterious Force Sensitive character slot and attempt to master the most exhilarating and dangerous role in the galaxy...the Jedi"
I'll suggest that the "chance" here isn't the chance to become a Jedi, but the chance that they might get around to implementing it at some point. Don't hold your breath.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I've played a couple of other MMORPGs, and for the most part, I wasn't too thrilled. Last I played was Eve: The Second Genesis. Sure, it was like crack for a few days, and I even joined a corporation (New Eden Merchants Woo!)...
But it really turned out that after a while, it just felt like work to play. Go on, train a stat, mine, mine mine... log out. Repeat.
So SWG sounds pretty much like that. which makes it sound pretty much like every other MMORPG. maybe future releases will fix it.
"I still live in my parent's basement. Burrow. Whatever"
There is some degree of irony in the fact that the review cannot be connected to over the internet.
Neither can the game.
Jeremy
mod parent as +1 funny
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
Honestly, guys can be a lot more attracted to a fully dressed woman than a nearly nude one. The thrill of what might be under the clothing triggers the imagination, and that sets us going. With skimpy clothing, well sure, the girl's hot, but there's nothing to whet the 'ole imaginative appetite on.
Oh well, I'm really off-topic anyhow, so g'night.
...i thought it said "Star Wars Galaxies Reviled"
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
That's because the game was released too early for the space content to be included. I've heard repeatedly that there will be future programming that adds the options for space based battles, owning your personal spacecraft and travelling between the planets. But that's awhile away yet, since they have to finish the normal ground based part of the game first. I wouldn't be suprised to see a space expansion for sale in the not so near future.
lol
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
I'm playing Eve-Online, and although I enjoy it, it's not exactly a content-fest, either. It's a good game with great graphics, but it needs more work.
I mean seriously, what good is a spaceship vs. spaceship fighting game where you can't actually steer or maneuver your ship? You choices are 1) Point your ship in a direction by double clicking in space and adjusting your throttle, or 2) Right-click on a target and either select Approach or Orbit - although with Orbit you do get to control the distance at which you orbit...
Tie-Fighter vs. X-Wing it is not.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
MMORPGs have bleed into D&D a little too much. We old-school gamers found ourselves nerfing the hell out of the XP pay-offs, because we were finding that our characters were ascending to god-like high levels before we even managed to establish a story arc for them.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I don't understand, where are the pictures? I was doing a goggle search for "Kirsten Dunst naked" and I get this?
Anyone that says this is just Everquest in space has probably never played either of these games. Of course NO game will have universal appeal but as a long time player of EQ AND AO and now SWG I can tell you quite simply: this is not EQ. If you want to be a part of the Star Wars world you will love this game. If you want to craft you will love this game. If you want to explore you will love the graphics but hunger for deeper content.
People who toss of those dismissals are just an annoyance.
***Character Design***
Amazing, the amount of options you have is insane. You could walk around and never see the same looking person twice. Of course 90% of the people are either wookies or humans though.
***Graphics***
Very good for a MMO. Not the best ever, but for having so many people running around at the same time they are damn good.
***Interface***
It tooks me about 6 hours to get used to the interface. I still find new things every day, and yes I did read the manual. Think Ultima IV's interface only with holding down control and control shift sometimes, and the function keys sometimes, etc.
***Missions***
They are really, REALLY boring. Basically you do delieveries which means run from NPC to NPC... You can also do destroy missions which are equally boring.
***Combat***
Combat is aweful. NPC's can shoot you through mountains and trees. When you fight melee it doesn't even look like you are hitting each other sometimes. Melee fighters almost always lose duels to ranged weapons because melee was nerfed before beta was released. The ranged weapon character can just run circles around the melee'er and shoot him/her/it.
***Player Vs Player***
Aweful, there is no point since faction points are so hard to get. You have no hope of taking over another factions town, let alone planet. You mean nothing in the galactic civil war, and you have to run 20 of those boring delievery missions just to get into it.
***Theme Parks***
I've only seen one, Jabba's palace which was nice but I couldn't even come close to doing the missions with my brawler character.
***Crafting***
Awesome, the crafting system is insanly deep. The economy is totally player driven so the crafters have some real power. Not to mention, with the built in macroing system, crafters can get their materials easily when they are at work, or sleeping
***Content***
Doesn't seem like there is much. If you run into a criminal giving you a mission on Naboo in theed, you will run into a criminal giving you the same mission in Mos Eisley in tattoone. Go to watto's junkyard and you can laugh at how they blocked off anakin's old hut. God forbid you should have a cool chance at seeing what was left in there.
***Goodies/Loot***
There are none, you get everything from the crafters who have formed guilds and gouge prices. They charge insane prices for high level items.
***Classes***
The Classes are ok, but unbalanced. A marksmen has a big advantage over a Melee fighter, and a Artisan (crafter) has a big advantage over a scout. Basically the Artisans and Entertainers have very big advantages since their professions are easly macro-able allowing 24 hr play. Well, 20 hour play since the servers are down 4 hours a day (no, I'm not kidding)
***Immersion***
Other than being in Jabba's Palace and the Cantina in Mos Eisley, SWG is really lacking here. Most of the guys look like they fell out of a midevil game with swords, axes, stone knives and bone armor.
***Downtime***
Your character purposly walks slow, and you have three bars to recover, which makes it take longer to do anything, which means you sick around longer. Thanks Luca$.
***Jedi***
The biggest money making scheme in the game is to make Jedi an Unlockable slot that you can get randomly. They say it's because they wanted to make Jedi "rare" and they didn't want a bunch of them running around because of the time frame they didn't want to break story line. Give me a break, like there were guys running around in bone armor with stone knives everywhere in the star wars galaxy. Yeah, I'm sure you always saw wookies named "50 cent", "Smokebacca", and "Tu-Pac". The Jedi scam is just a money making machine for this game to keep fanboi's interested. Ooh, there is a secret way to unlock them that is different for everyone! Maybe just maybe if you keep playing for that extra month you will unlock that force sensative slot! Imagine the money you will make on EBAY!
I have to say, this was MUCH funnier when it was in response to the innocent question "Well, who expects a slashdotting?" Then it was brilliant.
I've been playing Planetside since release and it's definitely more fun that the MMORPG type games. Those games basically consist of clicking the mouse to gain exp doing some repetitive task, and socializing. With PS, being an FPS, you actually do stuff, and then occasionally you socialize.
A couple things to really like about it:
* MASSIVE battles - Literally hundreds of people all fighting in one place.
* Little stratification - Unlike in a MMORPG, where the noobs can't hang with the hardcore addict elite, anybody can play a part. If you can't shoot straight, be an engineer, a medic, or a hacker. Better yet, be a galaxy pilot and ferry people around to the battles, you will be loved by all.
If you want to try it, just one word of warning. If you decide to play as the Vanu Sovereignty, expect some frustration. They are the most complex to play, and they have some key weaknesses that make it very difficult for them to win when faced with equal opposition. If that doesn't sound like your bad, play the New Congolmerate or Terran Republic.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I beta-ed eve.
Eve is a GORGEOUS game graphic wise, but a boring game, playability wise.
The game is so open, that you get lost with what to do next. The tutorial gets your feet wet, and you travel through space and go to space stations, and mine, but what else is there to do?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I played Tribes 2, and the thing that PS manages, which Tribes failed at, is encouraging strong team play. I got frustrated playing Tribes 2 because I was never able to find a group that actually used coordinated tactics. In PS, because of the XP system, it encourages you to work in groups and to specialize (because you can't do anything and everything due to cert limitations).
That's why I pay a monthly fee.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
oOOoOoOOOOoOOOOOOOOOO He DISSED you!!!
Grow the fuck up, pale people. You're both unimaginative punks.
gives Secret of Evermore a bad name.
There are more mission types, *MUCH* more. Even at the mission terminals you can do delivery mission. Which are basic pick this up here and drop it off there. But they are a good way for non-combat classes to get money. NPC also give out lots of missions with different goals. Some require you to look for certain materials, or craft different items.
Also, must of the economy is player driven, so when the characters start to get up in level and explore more of the world, the economy will get better and more impressive 'loot' will be had.
My karma is in a nose dive
I beleive you're comment deserves a Belt of Dexterity +4...uhmm..uhmm
mod parent as -1 redundant
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
I've heard the ships are coming in a future expansion pack.
Why do I M2 everything negatively?
I'm one of the biggest fans of MMORPGS...
But the funnest thing I did in galaxies was create a:
Fat man with a mullet
Strip him to his wife beater and skivvies
Teach him dancing
Take him to the cantina
And give everyone who came in lapdances and grinds
"Its my fueltank for love."
"I'm dead sexy."
"Buisness in the front, party in the back"
And random in your face comebacks.
God spoke to me
...I'm still waiting for my chance to win the golden challace from the "Swordquest" RPG series on the Atari 2600... Atari promised that back in, what, 1983? Maybe there'll be an update in the next edition of Atari Age Magazine...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
... You would know that on Theed, Queen Amidala's AND Palpatine's homeworld, you would know that Emperor Palpatine keeps a retreat on that planet where he meets with the highest of Imperial advisors. Soooo... It makes sense that Vader and Thrawn would be located at this retreat, being that they are both known as advisors and confidents to the Emperor.
You would also know that there are no levels perse. That a very poorly outfitted long played character could be potentially defeated by a VERY well equipped nearly beginning character in combat. (Which is more realistic and much like real life then any other MMORPG I have played beside Ultima Online.)
Your statement condemning the game as boring paints you as a power leveling kind of person that is disinterested in personal interaction and more interested in just running around slaughtering who and what you can... Which is a valid gameplay style, just not one that SWG was really designed for...
As for Starships. First, those are VERY expensive, which means not a single player will be able to afford one for quite some time. So, why exactly are they needed from the launch? Even with power "leveling" and working together with others to buy a ship could still take more then 6 months of time to gather up enough credits for a ship large enough for the group to all crew.
Plus, they are still working on that aspect of the game, to make sure that it works right. I am all for having access to what works today and then access to ships, when I can afford them... Traveling the starlanes on freighters is no big deal at all, when you are unable to even hope to afford a ship for at least several months.
Find a friend with the game, "Force" yourself to play it for an hour or so, with some assistance from your friend and then reformulate your opinion. Until then, making false negative claims about something you barely even know anything about lays little credence to your claims.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
I think a major aspect is the strong communities it forms. For all the people who just want to go out and kill, they often get killed. There *are* battle tactics and not using them generally results in death. This leads to groups forming and if you cause problems, people no longer want to group with you. This is why I enjoy the game so much. I've got a group of friends whom I've been on numerous hunts and can trust them to fight to the end, if need be. Also, I *LIKE* the fact that there isn't any loot on creatures because then when I manufacture stuff people have a reason to buy it. The trade system economics are a little up/down, at the moment. But, that's understandable until people find a good value to place things. Finally, as far as credits not being available, here is the trick: Get two non-faction, search-n-destroy missions each that pay well (i.e. 1000+ credits), all are in the same direction (i.e. N), and get three friends (NOT twenty) and run the missions. You can make some EASY money. Trust me, I don't have money issues.
Bel, the mostly sane.. "Of course I can't see anything! I'm standing on the shoulders of idiots." -- Me
You want original reviews? Go check out some of the articles Jade has written on Ars Technica. Now those are uniqe. This is just a mildly humorous review of a video game.
As my first real forray into the MMORPG arena I was rather disappointed. My only other similar experience has been There which while never intended to be much more than a 3D chatroom still has far more in the way of content than SWG. Which is very sad.
The graphics are beautiful but for the most part wasted on randomly generated and meaningless world features. Character customization is excellent and impressive as is the skill tree. The potential seems to be there for this to be an absolutely amazing game, if they had finnished it before offering it to the public. Player generated content is a good concept, but some content needs to be seeded into the world. Otherwise you just have a lot of people paying a monthly fee to finnish Sony's job. That makes very little sense to anyone except Sony as far as I can tell.
I cancelled my subscription and passed the game on to someone else who thought they were interested. I may take a look again in 18 months or so to see if things are better.
Or to see if Kirsten Dunst the Naked Jedi shows up.
Sig? What if I prefer Glock?
Seems to be the finiest online multiplayer Womprat hunting simulator in history. Seriously folks, after all the jokes I'd cracked about rat hunting in EQ I laughted my ass off when I found out the first dozen hours is spent hunting the Star Wars equivalent.
:)
This game was obviously thrown on the market to make money from fan boys. I saw a story on CNN the other night that said as much (thier wording was the launch was "low key" for the "hard-core fans", and what's a story about SWG doing on CNN anyways?).
This game may look like Star Wars, but does it feel like it? I want to defend Hoth, or run weapons for the Rebels, or hunt those same Rebels, or maybe hunt Jedi. i.e. do things that are unique to the Star Wars universe. If you took all the Star Wars out, would you still have a game? Yes, yes you would. It'd be Everquest. But without any content to speak of.
The lack of content is probably because they're hoping the player's will generate content. This sound great on paper. In practice I think the company's just using it as an excuse to be cheap. In the long run I think this'll fail. Hardcore Star Wars fans who aren't also massive multiplayer game fans will lose interest with what is at best a half hearted dungeon crawl. Oh well, KOTOR's on the way
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I know this is a "review" of the game. But let us not forget how horrible the launch was! We should let SONY know about this and make an example so other games don't make the same mistake. I mean when will enough be enough with crappy launches??? You pay for a game you should be able to play the game...
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This guy summed up some of my thoughts during launch. Check out what he has to say launch was just HORRIBLE:
http://www.omgthissucks.com/modules.php?op=modloa
Im surprised that Sony didn't expect everyone to want to be a jedi. That's the only reason most people want to play.
Thats not that strange a concept to me. You see, I played this great game by Simutronics for years, it was called Dragonrealms. They also made Gemstone III btw. Anyways, there was an empath guild in town, which was the hospital. People would go out, fight, and come back to get patched up unless they could find an empath somewhere else in town. The empaths could not fight, they'd lose their abilities if they hurt a creature. Only rarely did you see an empath in the wilderness, and only then they were in a very high level party, and VERY well guarded. Think about it.....if all you had was a bag of bandages and a needle, would YOU want to be out fighting monsters?
This system works fine in practice, and it just means that instead of staying out till you level, you need to come back to town every now and then. It gives a much more normal flow to the game.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
...is some good ol' fashioned "Ewok Bowling". We could have 10 storm trooper players stand about 100 feet away and let the fuzzy ones roll...
Even as the reviewer points out, he is still a complete newbie. He hasnt see anything in the game. I think he forgest what the first month of EQ was like. You killed the same stupid snake over and over and over. The graphics were bad even for those days. A mage would spend 75% of his time watching his mana bar on a blank screen.
The first couple of days of SWG is a better experence than any other MMPORG ever made. Fewer bugs. Less confusion. No gimping. You get into the game and are doing interesting stuff with interesting graphics right away.
As for more varied interesting stuff, it is there, he just hasnt seen it yet. The Tusken lair for example is quite a thrill to conquer.
game was dull
Ooh i think I'll be a droid engineer, oh driods carry stuff great, 3 months of driod building to get a big backpack
I WANT MY COMBAT DROIDS
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
There are theme parks...Jabbas palace is -6000, -6000. Emperors retreat on Naboo, and dozens of other random NPC's who give out these type of missions ranging from criminal to heroic.
There are plenty of static spawns to be found.
Again on tatooine, there is the jawa-city, tusken raider outpost, krayt dragon graveyard...all of which have those types of creatures spawning there for you to hunt. Heck, you can even get faction points for tuskens and jawas and do missions for them!
The developers are working on the issues of no vehicles, creature mounts, and player cities, which will be released in a decent amount of time. True this game might have benefitted from waiting to get some of these features in first, but investment doesnt last forever and Lucas is the emperor himself. Space expansion is also in the works so you can be that scoundrel.
There is a smuggler profession, though it is severly lacking, you can get the ability to pick locks, and hack terminals to give you more money per mission, as well has hack your weapons and armor to boost its features.
The missions from the terminals do get a bit blase as the article said. Go here kill this, or go here and deliver this. But there are some decent missions in game you get from NPC's(Non player characters) that are a bit more complicated. Some missions require you to escort an NPC and hope they dont get killed. I have also seen multi-part quests back in beta where finishing a mission would spawn part2 of that mission...for instance kill some bandits for a mission and he might drop a disc with the location of some hidden loot. You get to the spot and it spawns some guardians you need to kill before you can claim your finders keepers.
True there are no mages per se...but there are for some lucky people who figure it out, jedis. And who would not want to be a jedi, although their live expectancy is short in this game. Basically you unlock another character slot, and that character is a jedi. But unlike your normal character, they can be permanently killed after 4-5 deaths, meaning you have to start them all over again.
The review also didnt touch on the PVP aspect of the game which is important. You can chose to be Rebel or Imperial. If you are openly factioned, you are fair game to be killed by anyone of the opposite faction. Likewise you are free to blast anyone on the other side as well. In addition, the game also supports PA's(Guilds/clans) who can declare war on each other as well. There are battle fields where you can build and fortify a base, and there are no innocent bystanders. You have to chose a side before entering a battlefield. You can place mines, throw grenades, place gun turrents,and wipe out the other side.
You can also chose to be a covert rebel or imperial, meaning you are kind of like a sympathiser. Normal overt imperials or rebels do not know you are on the opposite side unless you do something to give your self away, in which case you are temporarily attackable by the other side. Add on the fact that you can command squads of stormtroopers, and wear the armor, and its pretty darn cool.
This is not my sig
Y'all keep modding funny instead of posting links. That's not helping. The google results for this sort of query are, shall we say, somewhat unreliable.
There's what, half a million of you horny bastards out there? I just know somebody's got what we're looking for. Paparazzi photo, youthful indescretion...share the love, dudes! Power to the people!
I keep seeing that people forget to mention these. These are areas designated on certain planets where anyone, I mean ANYONE can walk in, choose a side (imperial or rebel) and just go at it. Of course, if you've already joined the Rebel/Imperial faction, you'd be assigned to it. You can even place things like turrets and such. I guess they're not in the retail now? (I played all through beta).
Also, nobody ever mentions that they have a team put together who's sole responsibility is to write up content for the game. As long as the game exists, they will go in to their jobs and just write out content.
I just don't see much credibility in his review, since he's only a Master Polearm, yet considers himself "hardcore". If he were say a Master Bounty Hunter/Droid Engineer, then I would listen more. (You would have to master 4 entire skill trees to get that, whereas he only has 1)... hence his experience is limited at best.
I was in the Planetside beta...I haven't played SWG, but from what I've seen of it (I've read the manual and a few reviews), it looks very similar (not coincidentally, since they are both Sony Station MMORPG games). For example, it seems based on the same type of infrastructure (many servers, each a seperate "universe" such that one character can only be used on one server), and the same (or a very similar) game engine (localized battle zones, "certifications" that can be acquired or released, similar graphics and terrain). I haven't seen any official (or unofficial) statements saying that they use the same technology...does anyone know if they do?
Imperial Star Destroyers are closing in on the Millenium Falcon. We join our heroes as the hyperdrive has once again failed.
Leia: Well, flyboy?
Han: It's not my fault!
Chewie: Neuuurgl
C-3PO: Sirs! R2 says that there is a malfunction in the alluvial dampers and... oh dear...
Han: Spit it out, goldenrod.
C-3PO: And... the telephone is... unsanitary.
Chewie: Rrroaaargh!
C-3PO: We're doomed!
f4t_c0k69: I SATNIZE FHONE! I MASTR PHONE SANTISER!!!!!!!!
Leia: Uh... hello. OK. Can you, uh, sanitize our phone?
f4t_c0k69: 2 WOMPRAT SKINZ!!! TR4DE 4 2 WOMRAT SKINZ!!!!
Han: What the...? Chewie, do we have any womp rat skins?
Chewie: Nuhhhrr!
f4t_c0k69: U GAYS = TEH LAMERZ!!!! N E 1 WANTTRADE 4 WAMPRAT SKINZ??!!!
Han: Chewie? What's that pus in your ear? Did you use an unsanitized phone? Chewie, old buddy, what's wrong? Speak to me!
Chewie: ASL? ASL? ASL? ASL?
f4t_c0k69: 15/m/NY!!
Chewie: NO WAY, I = 15/m/NY 2!!!
f4t_c0k69: NO WAY!!!!
Chewie: NO WAY!!!!
Han: Right, that's it, I'm aiming for that Star Destroyer.
C-3PO: Sir, the odds of surviving a frontal assault on an Imperial Star Destroyer are...
Han: I'm not planning to survive.
Leia: Um, you do realize we're just sitting in a bar and pretending to be in a spaceship? They haven't been implemented yet.
Han: Who wants to play UT2003?
C-3PO: Yeah, this place blows.
My childhood dreams are about to come true! Oh, how I have waited.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I read another review over on UO Stratics (http://boards.stratics.com/php-bin/uo/showflat.ph p?Cat=3&Board=uochesapeake&Number=4094063&page=0&v iew=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&what2=postlist&fpar t=)
(Warning, Stratics ain't stable on the best days, let alone a slashdot barrage). Basically it said that the game was lacking depth, like many of the other MMORPGS out there. In terms of visual appeal, most other games of this genre beats the pants off of UO, but UO is the oldest one, and most people who quit UO eventually come back to it for the depth. I quit myself recently after three years of suffering many changes that older players were not happy with. Many reports from older players say that they try other MMORPGS and then come back to UO. Problem is that UO is losing its older fan base due to its changes. I keep looking around looking for the next great game, but haven't found it yet. It's sure to come due to advances in technology and lots of information on what players want in a persistent world. Part of the problem seems to be that companies rush to bring out the next big thing and suffer a devestating cash (Sims Online comes to mind). For my money, the best hope that online role players have is the D&D online game coming out in 2005. They are taking their time to develop it (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/press/press.5593. html) has some info on it - its an Atari/Turbine production. I don't care if I am swinging an axe, a lightsaber, or a chicken at enemies. What I want to see is a game that will hold my interest for years (like UO did) and listen to its player base (which UO didn't). One of these days that game will come, and that will be the next great online game.
Eat recycled food - it's good for the environment, and OK for you.
I loooved UO for it's simplicity and the fact that it didn't 'lock' you into any single profession. My first, main and more or less only character started out as a plain ole swordsman.
In time, he morphed into what I dubbed a "Battle Bard", he would travel the dangerous regions where the undead dwelled and aggro Liches and other vile undead to attack him, in order to help others that weren't doing so well. He also knew enough magic and was skilled enough to pull a few quick spells off, if something terrible happened and he was suddenly attacked by a force of evil doing PK'ers. It was a serious blast.
I had more fun in that game then any other game ever. I left it for one reason... One long weekend out of town and my house went poof. I spent two weeks attempting to place another one and could NEVER find a single place and I walked all over the friggin' map. So, I cancelled my account and advised them why...
I missed the Great Lakes server immensely, but I had to take and keep my stand. If I had been able to place a new house, then I would likely still be playing that today and probably wouldn't have given other MMORPG's a go.
I played a little Anarcy Online, but found the constant hunt for leveling up more then trying on the patience, the difference in power between a "Newb" and a guy that simply put in the time, since there was NOTHING to lose by dying, was absolutely the most silly of all things I have ever witnessed.
The crafting system was TERRIBLE, the vehicle system, while cool was so unforgiving in terms of stat requirements, just to be able to drive and then the early vehicles were no better then walking slightly faster...
The personal dungeons, while a nice touch became SOOOO Boring overtime. The "official" Static group dungeons were no better either. Everything cost to many credits to buy or had such of the wall requirements that the only way to buy something slightly better was to buy it and then level two or three times and adjust your stats to be able to make use of this or that weapon. (You had to buy it if you could afford it, because if you came back twenty to thirty minutes later, you might never see that weapon, armor or other equipment ever again. It was a randomly generated and regenerated shop system...)
Sure, the graphics were great, sure there were some very interesting story elements, but something big was lost in the translation and casual gamers as well as RP'ers were left in the dust of the Power levelers that just walked around chatting about American Idol and how '733t' their character was now that there were cresting level 150... Talk about boring...
SWG brings to life a greatness that could have existed in UO, if they evolved the engine enough, had a science fiction bend and opened up enough servers to make it possible for everyone to be able to place at least one house, no matter the sice, SOMEWHERE...
The RP'ing aspect of SWG is also far greater, especially with the prominent nudging to make people interact with one another. I can honestly say that the very basic role-playing I have been able to do in SWG far outsteps the RP'ing opportunities that existed in Anarchy Online and at least equals the RP opportunities that existed in UO. (When not near the bank chatting next to "naked" characters screaming about all the 733t and p4at 700t they had for sale...)
SWG has brought me back to the fold of MMORPGs and will likely keep me for SEVERAL years, depending upon how it all unfolds.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
so what the hell are those sentence groups with additional lines separating them? Oh no, he didn't indent, but considering he hit "enter" an extra time, it doesn't really matter, since it's pretty damn easy to see where the paragraphs are separated.
Just sit down in front of it and give it a go. If you refuse, based on the rather flimsy premises that you provided, that's fine.
Personally, I have played several FPS games and see no reason to pay a monthly charge in order to play one, which leaves Planetscape out of the picture. I have also played a level based MMORPG based upon the amazing graphics that I had seen as well as a few of the promises that weren't kept. In the end, the level based system turned out to be diametrically opposed to what I consider fun in a MMORPG.
I see neither of those problems in SWG and thus really enjoy the game. I suspect that if you gave it a chance, instead of brushing it to the side because there aren't any starships in it right now, then you might find yourself enjoying it a little.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
In the FAQ it says, no you cannot become a stormtrooper because these guys are just fodder and are boring to play.
Hahahaha! I have news for you SOE, i FEEL like a stormtrooper, not a hero. My character gets beaten 10m away by melee attacks, skills are mostly useless, i can't be a Dark Marauder like in the D20 DND version (Now THAT was cool).
Melee combat is buggy, characters position themselves all wrong, and sometimes i hit stuff without seeing the animations. I pay 20$ CAN per month for a game that crashes with my ATI card if i do not
1) Play without shadows
2) Play at the default graphical options.
This is like the SW universe but without anything that makes it heroic and interesting. No epicness. Boring. At least if your character could develop the Force Slot on himself... You know, i play games because i want to feel greater, more heroic, than myself in reality.
Now, if i compare myself to my char, i don't really think she could take me in hand on hand combat, and i'm not even close to being powerful IRL.
In general, i'm disapointed.
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
Unfortunately MMORPG devs are infamous for promising all kinds of things "in the future" that either never arrive or take literally years to get in game. If you want SWG with ships I'd suggest waiting until they're in rather than getting the game now on some empty dev promise that they will be in...someday.
Repeat after me...
Luke is a Jedi... A lightsaber is an awesome weapon in the hands of a Jedi that can be used to deflect blaster shots... Few Jedi are struck with blaster bolts, unless there are overwhelming numbers of blaster bolts aimed at them...
Storm Troopers are exceptional shots trained in an accelerated fashion to utilize their Storm Trooper Armor and Blasters at the utmost efficiency...
(Stop repeating... Just read from this point on...)
In the movies, the main characters kinda had to survive, otherwise the whole point of moving the story forward, having the audience fall in love with the characters and character continuity would kind of be lost, right? (Yes)
Remember that first scene in Episode IV? You remember... When the Rebel Troops were lining up in the corridor and the Imperial troops blasted a whole in the Tantive IV Blockade Runner? Remember what happened? The Storm Troopers came out a blasting and more Rebel Troops fell then Storm Troopers. Why is that? The Storm Troopers were better trained and equipped. (Plus it kinda moved the story forward.)
Role-Playing games are always meant to capture the essence of a genre or franchise like Star Wars and add some realism to it. That has most always been the case in all RPGs, from the classic Pencile, Paper and Dice games to the modern computer based systems. Without that 'realistic' chance that your character could bite the dust, then the whole challenge of the game is taken away and fun is then had by none... It just becomes a boring excersise in futility...
(Okay, so the bad guy cleaved me in two and I reform? Okay, I blast him into atoms with my atom blaster... Okay so he reforms instantly... Okay, so he cleaves me in two and I reform? Okay, so I blast... You get the picture...)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Because I loved playing Diablo II and I looove First Person shooters and often got 'most accurate' and 'best soldier' when playing RtCW:ET...
I just see no friggin' reason to spend 13 a month to play a FPS when I can, you know, like play one for free?
Besides, they charge like beyond a friggin' arm and a leg for what you get in Planetside. I played the beta, while it is fun, it simply doesn't justify that monthly price they want. If they were to drop that price in half... Then MAYBE I would be more interested...
However, they won't...
I must have fallen through the cracks of their Anti-Diablio II, Anti-Charging-to-damn-much-for-a-FPS field... They must have seriously failed in their plot...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
It doesn't matter how 'ready' they are... Even the most ready of teams are simply unable to anticipate every possible issue that can and will crop up in a MMORPG, even Blizzard.
If Blizzard honestly never released a game until it was ready, then why would they have patches to fix game issues, problems and bugs? Those things makes games, not ready for release, yet even Blizzard has had them.
Look, Blizzard has made some great games in the past and will make great games in the future. However, nobody is perfect, especially with MMORPGs.
One thing that I can state for a fact is that SWG has so far proven to be superior to UO and AO and likely many other MMORPGs in terms of client stability at release and quite frankly the ramping up of server stability.
Day one, they had some problems, it happens to the best...
Day Two, MOST of those problems were resolved and they did some testing with two or three of the servers...
They then had a little scheduled downtime and badaboom-badabing, there have been no noticeable issues that I have seen. Which is a helluva lot better then I could say about AO.
I waited two months before buying my retail copy of that game and I tell you what... It was terrible the number of client crashes, server crashes and bugs that I witnessed. The game felt so dang beta it was silly!
I understand that EQ was quite like that at the beginning as was UO and even DAoC and others...
SOE has done a bang-up job with SWG and I applaud them for releasing such a stable product. Hopefully, Blizzard will do the same without being to trying on their fan's patience...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
But come on! You get to pay more money for those features! It's fun! See! Spending money is fun! Especially if you get to go to work to get money to get a game where you have to go to work in the gameto get money in the game to buy stuff in the game!
Can you tell that mmorpg's don't capture my attention too much?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
The real point of SWG is that it's another one of these "game purist" attempts to have a "living" online world that you can be a small part of. With the advantage in this case being the star wars name to lure the crowds and give a reason why you'd want to be a part of that world.
At the moment everyone seems to be excited by checking out the game system, the options and the paths to advancement, but what happens when the thrill of discovery fades?
A character has only 250 skill points and you only have one character per server. If you become a master architect (a tedious task) you've invested a huge number of points that you'll use very rarely. You can build the largest house in the game, but so can lots of others, probably enough to glut the market demand. Especially since the dominant architect is likely to be one with a guild supporting him. Such a person, who knows how to powergame and has a guild full of surveyors feeding him resources, profits by being first to master and being able to undercut most sellers.
How many architects does the game need? What do you do if you're a master architect and no one needs your skills? Is it fun being a new architect when there are bored masters around?
Sure even a master architect still has the points to be something else. But all of the craft, support and entertainer skills have the same problem.
Combat has similar problems. An expert at the top of the tree isn't all that much tougher, although superior weapons give them great offensive power. This combines with bad grouping XP and risk reward to mean the pinnacle of the combat character is decimating trivial space-vermin. Sure you can go hunt uber mobs, but there's little strategy, poor risk vs. return and no particular reason to do so. Same with PvP to a large extent.
SWG is a really exciting experiment in game design. I'll be extremely interested to see how "interesting" the endgame and mature economy prove to be. Because with no content they are surely hoping that being a small cog in the world machine is thrilling enough in itself.
There's a scathing review at Penny Arcade (scroll down to the middle of the page).
Tycho had talked me into playing my first MMORPG and I told him that if he ever did that again I'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 "What about Star Wars Galaxies?" At the time I told him that Galaxies would be different because it was Star Wars. "It's not like they're gonna make you spend hours hitting Wamprats with a stick." Oh irony, thou art a harsh mistress.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Anyway, anyone knows the Spanish Inquisition sketch is from Monty Python.
But believe me, some things were so bad that I really wanted to throw the game away and never touch it again after only 3 hours. That tells you how extreme it is ! Once again, some people (hardcore gamers and SW fans mostly) may like it.
Yea, I beta tested the game and can contest. It's a fun RPG game.
Content always seems to be the problem in MMO games. It doesn't come often enough, and when it does it's too little too late. It's expensive for the company running the game to keep adding it.
Some company needs to create an MMO game which can let the players directly create content for the game (with some accountability, of course).
Figure out how to do that without the griefers having a field day, and you could make an MMO out of any genre and it would be overwhelmingly successful.
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
Surely you mean attest. To contest would be to dispute what he said. :)
So I won't be playing it... just on principle...
You fool! You've given cheese to a lactose intolerant volcano god! Do you know what that means?
I think that he means to concur.
The Big Yuan - tracking mainland China
Sony did an excellent job with SWG because they brought in big name talent that had several years of MMORPG experience. Perhaps Blizzard will do the same, if they don't then they are definately looking to walk on thin ice.
It doesn't matter that they released games with a multiplayer content previously. My understanding of their system was that most of the 'server' processing was actually done on each client system and they only had to worry about up to what maybe 6 players at a time?
That is EXTREMELY different then have ALL of the 'server' processing actually happen on the servers. It has to be that way, otherwise it would be next to impossible to track the thousands of people that could be logged into any one cluster of servers at any given time.
They will have tremendous hurdles to leap in network coding, tremendous work to ensure stability and gameplay balance and they will need to create more random and compelling content then they ever have had to before.
For instance, a great number of people complain that all the Star Wars missions are nothing more then Go Hunt, Kill Bad Guy/Mob, Get paid; Rinse and repeat...
If oversimplified and boiled down to the basics, yeah that is what it is all about...
However, there is much more to it then that.
Just last night, I approached an NPC; Captain Stryke (I believe). He told me a story about how they were attempting to stop some Smugglers from taking animal carcasses off of Theed and that it appeared that the animal carcasses they recovered had been killed in some kind of illegal ritual. He sent me off after a Gungan Smuggler that I made short work of.
Upon returning, he paid me and said that he had some more information about the smuggling operation. It appeared that the creatures were killed to locate some virus that causes them to go mad and that the Smugglers were likely attempting to get them off world in order to create some kind of Bio-weapon. He asked me to hunt down and kill a few of the creatures that appeared to be suffering from this virus before the Smugglers could get to them, he wanted a sample brought back for comparison and testing.
He also said that there was reason to believe that the Smugglers were likely working for someone more inteligent then themselves, since there was little reason for the Smugglers to find such a virus for their own reasons and advised me to keep on my toes since there would likely be trouble...
The story being developed through this one chance encounter is quite compeling, more so then the real basic, but higher paying, missions that can be retrieved from the mission terminals.
Coming up with such stories takes some serious talent, not only in imaginative writing but also in putting together all the events, tying those events together and tracking what was already completed in the series of events.
I could leave that mission alone for a few weeks and come back to pick it back up and take it to its completion...
If Sony didn't have the right team, then they simply wouldn't be able to put together such 'side' stories to follow.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Check your facts!
If the developers really go all-out with the crafting, it could be a great way to attract more of the DIY crowd from places like head-fi.org I'll could be wookie and call myself Tyll or Xin or Cmoy and work my way up to Master-class Audiophile DIY Amp-Builder. Once I figured out how to build a soldering-iron and where to get/make some breadboards and capacitors and the like, I'd refine my skills and build amps to rival the Blockhead to use with some of my HD600, specially modified to fit the shape and number of your avatar's heads and ears! I'm sure there will be a market for it eventually since it is a player-driven economy and different characters will have different interests.
There is one thing about Lucas, he does his best to be the only one to taint or tarnish his franchise. He simply wouldn't allow SOE to damage the reputation of Star Wars, which is why there has, so far, been a very strong developer community relationship developed that will continue to exist for the forseeable future...
While it is possible that in the future SOE will take a different view to Star Wars, I don't believe that will happen anytime soon and it may likely never happen. Star Wars isn't a franchise to be tossed around lightly. If they are seen as tarnishing or otherwise putting the hurt on people's perspectives of Lucas's Baby, then heads will roll...
Much more severe penalties would be levied on SOE then when Sony Pictures attempted to completely co-opt Stan Lee's creations of the 60's. (Spider-Man and The X-Men.) Lucas is no slouch when it comes to controlling his franchise.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
What else is there to do? Well there's...
:) I'm not talking about the corps that force you to go mine, either. I'm talking about the ones that are actually interesting.
:)
Pirates - Either kill some to make cash or kill other people to make cash.
Playing the market - Either sell to NPCs the stuff that they want or buy it from the NPCs and sell it to PCs when they can't get it (or are just too lazy)
Join a Corp, meet new people - Internal corp politics easily fill the boring spots.
Among other things such as factories and research (when you can find a station, of course). The biggest problem EVE has is it can be too open ended for some people
Intro:
/reconnect for Quake, please let me know.
Ok, I have never played a MMORPG. I have no idea what the game play entails or even how these games work. But I have a few friends at work who do and I enjoy the Star Wars Mythos, so I thought I would take a chance and pick this one up.
Now unlike others, I got the game the day AFTER it hit the shelves, so I had no problems logging in and creating an account. I was able to quickly create a human scout character, name him Knynetic Flyingsky (or some thing like that) and get in the game. Oh yeah, I was able to do this after about a 20 minute wait downloading patches.
Once in the game, I opted to do the training mission. The mission laid out the basics of the game fairly easily and understandably and soon I was on the face of a planet in some city. I was then introduced to the "Lost Connection with Star Wars Galaxies" message. Now this message and I have become good friends over the last week or so. You see the fun thing about the LCSWG message is that there is no obvious way to reconnect other than quitting out of the game and relaunching. If someone is aware of a command such as
Hooking Up:
After logging in, the first thing I did was bring up the email system and message a friend from work telling him to come get me. I then moved around the starting city looking at various things until he got there. Once he arrived, he gave me $1000 credits and a carbine rifle. And then LCSWG showed up to make the game more difficult.
After logging in again, my friend and I went back to the city he was in originally and we hooked up with a couple other guys and LCSWG.
After logging in again, we went hunting for moths and butterflies as anything larger quickly smacked all 4 of us down. At this point I discovered that I could harvest resources from the fallen bugs and create traps that seem to do nothing at this point. So, I began trap making and bug killing with my friends. Until LCSWG.
That was enough for that night. I walked away and finished up reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I must admit that Harry never once LCSWG'd me.
So a few days later I though I would give it a shot again and I logged in to my account. After downloading more patches, I was in. Now this time my friends were not online, although LCSWG seems to never leave really. I decided to do some exploring as the prospect of killing moths and butterflies sounded just boring as hell.
During my exploration, I ran across a NPC who needed a task completed and was offering a handsome reward, so I accepted. The mission seemed simple enough. Go find this person and escort them back to me. No problem. I loaded up the way point and headed out. I walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. The creatures around me grew and grew and grew and became ever more aggressive. Once I was a great distance into the wilderness LCSWG showed up and said hi.
After I logged back in, I walked some more and had 6-7 very aggressive hedge hogs attack me out of the blue and quickly incapacitate my character. So I'm sitting there waiting to regain my footing, when, you guessed it, LCSWG. So, I walked away from the PC.
Mission 1:
After a few days I decided to give it a shot again. After downloading more patches, I was logged back in and standing out in the middle of no where. I brought up the world map to get my bearings and noticed that my mission objective was actually in another city. What a dumb ass I am! I didn't have to walk there, I could take a shuttle. So I turned around and began walking back to the city I had come from. LCSWG'd.
Logged back in and trekked all the way back to the city. Quickly bought a ticket to the other city at a shuttle port and waited the 6 minutes for a shuttle to show up. Once I arrived in the new city I quickly made my way to the giant beam of light god had decided to shine on my objective, and began a conversation with the NPC I was supposed to escort.
The NPC inf
Str8Dog
using System.Darkside; public
Trammel and Felucca(?) thing came to pass... That is when I lost my house and couldn't find a friggin spot to place a new one.
SWG has a great PVP system in place, if you wish to partake in it. The whole duel thing is a nice touch, the faction idea with covert and overt declarations being an excellent plus...
While it isn't my thing right now, it is something that I intend on partaking in down the road. So, it will be much like UO was before the whole Red, Blue and Grey thing... (Which was also quite nice as well...)
There is PLENTY of PvP in SWG. There just isn't any wild ganking like in the heyday of UO. If you want PvP, join the Rebellion or join the Empire... Then you have all the PvP you can handle. (I have seen plenty Overt members of both groups running all over the place...)
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Most of the time I had no interest in it and became quite skilled at evading such conflicts, even with Back-up. The group of people I hung with simply wasn't all that interested in PvP. That doesn't mean we never partook of PvP, it just wasn't our main thing.
Overtime UO evolved their PvP into something very similar to what is in SWG.
Personally, I don't know if there is any benefit to taking part in Faction battles on battle fields, other then the special bonuses one would get when he/she has enough faction points. (Like command Scout walkers and such...)
As for someone dropping their affiliation with this or that faction. It will happen, but it will also take some time. (Likely more then one day.) I have to admit I haven't joined or left a faction yet...
So, if you decide to hold a grudge against Jimmy Empirelover for several weeks or months and inbetween that time he dropped out of the Empire... Well, that's your problem.
You could have run into him several times before that, most people will likely stick to one planet and even then one area of one planet, forming a neighborhood, which is what I have experienced in several MMORPGs, from UO to AO and others...
Sure, they might adventure off to Planet-X or something, but when they want to return "home" they go back to their familiar surroundings... I have seen the same people hanging out in Theed for as long as I have been playing SWG. They do that because it's all about noteriety.
All of the reasons you are stating for disliking SWG and the rules that SOE have put into place have been argued for months and months... They came out with a wonderful system. It works very well and I haven't seen any major issues with it at all...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Then you are taking part in the conflict...
..and don't go saying how the Imperials showed that they were Chaotic Evil because they killed Owen and Beru... They were under orders to kill anyone that had those droids, in order to keep the "State Secret" a secret. That is VERY Evil, but not Chaotic... Chaotic would have been if the Storm Troopers were slaughtering EVERYONE on Tantooine because the droids landed somewhere on that planet... Did you see that happen? (Maybe it was in the Edition you saw...)
If you noticed in the movies (IV, V and VI), they really only the two militaries and very little of life outside of the galactic civil war. For the most part, the war didn't affect every single person and many never took a side. Most of this is elaborated in the Expanded Universe.
However, you do get some glimpses of life behind the curtain of war, such as the early scenes with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. They weren't busy fighting any war, were they? For the most part they were pretty safe where they lived, it wasn't until the Empire decided to kill anyone involved with those two droids that their safety became an issue...
So, NO, I don't see issues with people existing in Star Wars and not taking part in the conflict, nor should you.
Now, if EVERY scene of EVERY planet showed nothing but constant war, death and destruction, then yeah I would have SERIOUS problems with that. None of that was shown though... I don't recall seeing bodies everywhere in Mos Eisley, I don't seem to recall endless Rebel and Imperial battles raging at all times in all scenes of the movie...
Do you? Wait a second... Were you watching the Extra-Super-Special-Deluxe-Endless-Battle Edition of Star Wars? I heard all about that one... In Mos Eisley there was hundreds of Jawas battling it out with Storm Troopers on Dewbacks while Luke drove Obi-Wan through the streets of Mos Eisley...
Then there was the CRAZY Bar brawl that was happening when they entered the cantina... They even changed the bartender's line to say "More Blasters! More Blasters!!!" instead of "NO Blasters!!!"
Quit being so unrealistic... Sure, the Empire was Evil and the Rebellion was Good... Both were also Lawful, which meant they couldn't run about willy-nilly killing everyone and everthing all the time.
You seem to be advocating a madness of constant war and death. While you may find that fun and all, I prefer the whole Role-Playing thing and will join the conflict on my own accord. Which is exactly what SOE has provided with its current PvP system...
Full PvP would lead to a bizarre chaotic reasonless series of attacks, much like what happened in UO. There would be no rhyme or reason, nothing to fight for or against, just mindless attacks for the simple reason that it can be done... SWG is not some bizarre murderworld where every step could be your last...
No PvP would creat a sterilized world that would have no purpose or meaning. There might as well not even be blasters... SWG is not The Sims: Online.
The system that has been created allows a rhyme and reason. Rebels versus Imperials and not Rebels versus Rebels and Imperials versus Imperials, which is what would happen with Full PvP. Nobody would be safe then. There would be no reason for Factions...
If you are an Over Rebel, be prepared to be attacked by Covert and Overt Imperials and vice versa...
If you wish to be a neutral non-combatant, then you are fully able to do that too, just like in real life...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?