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Pile On Star Wars Galaxies?
Thanks to GameSpy for their new feature called Star Wars Galaxies: Pile On!, where-in a multitude of GameSpy employees, and not just editors, either praise or trash their personal experiences playing Lucasarts' PC MMORPG. As the intro says, "We pretty much agree that Galaxies was the most ambitious MMORPG since Ultima Online. What we can't agree on was if it was released too soon, whether it's the second coming, or a big empty planet of bugs and tedium." The game doesn't seem to be getting any less controversial as time goes on, does it?
I'll just be happy to see it over in Europe. By the time it gets over here, the Jedi code will have been hacked, and the servers will be inundated with double-saber wielding nonces going by 'humourous' names such as 'Luke A55reamer' and 'Hung So-low'.
When IS the UK release date anyway? Amazon have it listed as 26th December, but that's just piss taking.
but I am not sure I want to. It seems like all the those who play and review the game are excusing the mediocrity every other sentance, example: "The missions may all be the same, but I really enjoy going on them with my friends." (made up example)
Its not just a few bugs either, players complain about the lack of fresh content, slow moving action, the cost (initial and monthly), etc. I am getting the feeling that player are only playing it for 2 reasons: 1) they forked out 50 dollars and so they are going to play their first month through, 2) its Star Wars, period
I think the 'crontroversy' has died down a lot. The very simple fact of the matter is that every day the servers are growing with more and more players, and after two weeks of play I have yet to see a single person complain about it 'sucking'... IN GAME. But forums? Weblogs? Sure, those people are often pissy. That's why they're not playing with the rest of us, who seem to be enjoying it immensely. The real question about SWG is how it will hold up over time, and right now that ball is in the air, heading for nothin-but-net -- and we're just waiting to see if it rolls off their fingers at the last minute before a score.
...here in this thread that was started by someone with access to the SWG beta-boards. He copied a post that gives well-argumented criticism about the bugs but more importantly, about the gameplay.
I was interested in a MMORPG called Neocron some time ago, but after playing the beta I found that it wasn't really worth the monthly fee. The game was plagued by nerfing sprees, exploits and the fact that there were skills or subskills that were so undocumented that nobody knew what they were for, not even the developers. I'm sure that the MMORPG genre needs a truly refreshing group of developers before it will catch my attention again.
So even though I'm quite the Star-Wars fan, I'll probably never play a Star-Wars MMORPG, although the SW universe is such a good base for an excellent (MMO)RPG.
Does it really matter if it sucks?
Fans are fans, and don't need anybody to tell them the game is great, because most of them will assume that it is great regardless of their actual experience. Maybe just being Starwars is enough for some peope in the same way that it was good enough to use that wiffle bat as a lightsaber when you were playing "Starwars" as a kid; Its not a lightsaber but its close enough.
In a way, I envy people that like the game, they are having a great time will those of us who think we have more complex tastes have to find other ways to entertain ourselves.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
The article was pretty good, touching on all the compliments and complaints people have been giving the game so far (although some of the specifics were weak - there are numerous bugs, some professions are having difficulty because of them, and those difficulties will last for another two weeks due to the QA process).
As far as SWG itself goes, it's really a lot more like The Sims Online, except there are things to do other than be a Sim (which was TSO's biggest flaw). Oh, and it's Star Wars. Sometimes. Depending on where you are and what you're doing. The power droids and mouse droids make the right noises, and there are miscellaneous NPCs to tie in with the continuity. Tatooine is there, too. But it's also possible to go places and almost forget that you're in the Star Wars universe.
I've been awaiting KOTR for a good long time, but after the enormous initial let-down of SW Galaxies, I can only say I'm not holding my breath. I've always loved RPGs and I've always loved SW, so the two just seem like two great tastes that taste great together; hence Galaxies & KOTR.
The character creation on Galaxies is actually pretty good. But, for me at least, that's where the fun ended. The physics models, simply put, make calling this game any more than BETAware an act of hubris and wishful thinking. See a table, chair, other character? I'm willing to suspend disbelief in Lucasland, but can't at least my character be corporeal? Can't he at least be a stumblebum and bump into things once in a while instead of doing the Casper the friendly ghost routine all the time?
The missions are tedious, dull and more often than not are broken. I had one mission that was waaay out on the outskirts of the 'main town' of the planet I was on. Trudge, trudge, trudge, trudge....trudge, trudge...are we there yet?...trudge and trudge some more. UNbelievably tedious. To make matters WORSE...the graphics break! I assume it's not a driver issue, because they seem to work fine when you are in the city. But if you go out really far it seems like you just sort of walk off the map! At that point the graphics start going so wiggy it is actually difficult to see yourself -OR- your enemies. To add insult to injury, when you finally get to where you're going and actually see the thing you are supposed to shoot...you sometimes get a cursos promt allowing you to attack, and sometimes NOT.
Galaxies, much as it pains me to finally admit this to myself and the world, is an enormous terd-burgler. Will I waste my money on KOTR? Bet your ass! It simply CAN'T be worse than Galaxies!!! If that makes me a 5ukkor, so be it.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
I've been playing SWG since it came out. I've only taken one day "off". I have a few observations...
1. The server caps are at 3500. If 3500 people are on a server then you can't log in and access your main character. I've found no way to transfer my character from a populated server to a less populated one.
2. Even When around 3500 people are logged on to a server, some of the planets/towns are empty. Most people hang out in the same main towns (Anchorhead, Mos Eisley and Bestine on tattoine) for example.
3. There are plenty of bugs other than the disappearing house. I've had things randomly disappear from my Inventory...Including a Vibro axe I bought for 2/3rds of my credits I've had my corpse disappear for hours and thought all my items were gone. There are parts of the map in town that you should be able to run through but can't (ie an invisible wall). If you use the "burst run" command in combat, your character will still stop and get into a battle stance when attack. So you try to run away, and a monster melee attacks you, your avatar will stop so the nice monster can get closer and kill you. On that note, monsters can melee attack from very far away for some reason while you can not.
4. It takes too long to walk around, or to do anything.
5. You are totally dependant on other players to have your wounds healed. So if you go into a hospital and there is only one medic there and 10 players you are in for a wait. Same thing goes for weapons. For example I am at "level 3" on the melee brawler skill tree. My weapon certification is for a "vibro axe". I need to find a artisan (crafter) who is at "level 8" (there are only 9 levels up) Once an artisan reaches "level 4" on the tree they can choose between 4 different elite professions, Droid Engineer, Architecht, Weaponsmith, and Chef. Then in the sub tree of Weaponsmith they can pick from 4 different branches, melee weapons, firearms, munitions and crafting techniques.
Since there are a lot more firearms users than melee, I had a lot of trouble finding that axe. Basically only two people were selling it, if that. The player driven economy is a fun idea, but having to find a level 8 artisan to get a level 4 weapon is a bit shortsighted. This might work out where there are hundreds of high level artisans running around months from now, or maybe not.
6. The missions are really boring, they come in two themes "destroy" or "deliever" They are pretty generic and mostly the same outside of the theme parks.
7. The grind. It takes forever to get anywhere, or gain any experence.
8. The Jedi scam. It's really such a joke that the devs are saying "well, for the time period, the Jedi were very rare so it will be hard to become one". Please. It's such a money making gimmick it's not funny. Let me tell you some of the things that are out of the "time period" in SWG.
We've seen 1 "creature handler" in the movies, in the game, I run into them all the time. We've seen once Rancor in the movies, all of the creature handlers I see are toting around 3 of them.
This is the one that bugs me the most..Here are some of the weapons in SWG: Stone knife, sword, dagger, heavy axe, lance, survival knife, curved sword, wood staff, metal staff, Fragmentation Grenade, flamethrower, ROCKET LAUNCHER...
Yes, that is right a rocket launcher in SWG. Welcome to Star Wars: Quake Strikes back.
Is it just me, or from watching the movies did it seem like a rocket launcher just wouldn't fit? Did I miss the scene where Darth Vader yells "Who's your daddy" at Luke and fires a rocket launcher at Luke? What is more out of character for the Star Wars Universe? 100 Jedi running around with different color lightsabres like attack of the clones, or 100 people running around mos eisley with rocket launchers and three rancors a piece yelling "N E ONE WANT 2 GO HUNTIN"?
I'll take the Jedi, thanks.
9. The lack of PvP support. It's such a pain in the butt to PvP and y
BUT...
I'm not sure if I want to play the game. I was excited about it, but then I started reading the posts from the beta testers. I also realized: if this takes place between ANH and ESB, there are only two jedi in the galaxy at that time - Yoda and Vader. Now, I realize that everyone would want to be a jedi, and that I would be part of a large crowd...but I was disappointed by the fact that I couldn't even try for it.
Plus, let's be honest: the storyline is static and stuck considering where this falls in the timeline. If it were after ROTJ then we could: 1) have Jedi since Luke could train a bunch; and 2) have a proper game going on! Wouldn't it be rather cool to see a true online RPG? There could be factions vying for the control of the galaxy - but it would be ongoing. Players would choose their faction and work to move it forward. A dark jedi could walk into a bar and start attacking people - if it brought points to his faction. A Rebel/New Republic force could find out (from spies - actual players acting like spies) about a new weapon and send a force to deal with it.
These aren't difficult things to pull off. Basically, it would have been part The Sims, part Rogue Squadron II, part Jedi Knight II and part Everquest. Conssidering how old some of that technology is, it shouldn't have really been that hard. I could have made the choices for my character that would have meant something in the greater scheme of the game.
Eventually, in the future, when SWG's servers are finally taken down, it would be interesting to see what type of storyline would be created by such a game...but that isn't what is happening. Instead, all I've read about, and seen on a friend's machine, is an empty game that, like one of the GameSpy reviewers said, is a chatroom where you kill monsters. If that does turn out to be the case, then SWG is a failure, because it didn't do what people love the movie for: fulfilling the idea that, in a fantasy, a nobody can become a major force in the world...
Maybe SWG 2...
Maybe just being Starwars is enough for some peope in the same way that it
Although I thoroughly agree that this is true, I have a number of problems with this...
1. This only asserts that many people are too blinded by their own opinions to see the obvious. If we found an alien civilization that turned out to live in a communistic society, would we immediately hate them simply due to memories of the Cold War? I'd really like to think that the majority of people can overcome their own personal biases to see the truth behind something, but this is not the case.
2. I find it morally reprehensible that a company can profit so greatly without really having to work hard to do it. If the game was amazingly fun and thoroughly addictive, then kudos to the designers, who are then slightly more rich. However, when designers can still get slightly more rich off of a mediocre game that was rushed through development, then it provides no incentive for them to do any different.
3. The fact of the matter is that they all they had to do is make a half-decent MMORPG, slap the Star Wars name on it, and nerds flock to it. Instead of profiting off of their own work, they're really only profiting due to the brand name. If Daikatana had been a Star Wars themed game, perhaps it wouldn't have gotten nearly as much flak.
Although I bear no ill-will against MMORPG's, or Star Wars, or the developers, I sincerely hope this game is a failure... if only to teach the gaming industry the three lessons I just mentioned*. Of course, the chances of this happening is doubtful. I fully expect to see numerous SWG expansion packs that make the game incrementally less crappy, and bring in more money for the company. Hooray.
(* - Who am I kidding? If companies ever actually learned from their mistakes, Acclaim would be a model company by now...)
-"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -EH
How'd that get mod'd troll? It's true; the article is a modicum of medicrity :P No one strays far from "It's a cool concept, but it's not entirely together yet.". And then we have cheerleader Fargo both repeating and rationalizing after every opinion.
We have brains. We can read and comprehend.
There were 2 MMORPGs that I was looking forward to, SWG, and World of Warcraft. The first week I played the SWG Beta, I hated it (I dont play MMORPGs), but since I was submitting bugs, I kept going. Eventually, I got a few friends in, and I started learning the game, and seeing it, and it was amusing. Then after about 5 weeks, it was back to being "this sucks". The game is NOT "fun". While its breathtaking to walk into someplace like the Theed starport and see a Lambda class shuttle (a disproportionate Lambda class shuttle, btw) surrounded by 3-4 stormtroopers the first 3 times, after that its like "well, okay, great". The game has SW elements, like aliens and blasters, but it doesnt "feel" like SW.
Remember, THIS is the SW MMORPG we got. I for one am not happy with it, as it contains neither Stars nor Wars. Remember, EQ wasnt "the greatest" MMORPG when it first came out, but it was one of the only ones out at the time. It had a chance to get a player base, grow with it, and learn from its mistakes. SW came out with crap servers, little to no content, broken systems, unbalanced classes, and just about anything else you can name. Worst part is, the Beta testers KNEW it and TOLD them what was wrong, and they STILL didnt listen.
Hopefully Blizzard can come through on WoW. To Sarlacc's belly with SOE, I'm done with them.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
4. It takes too long to walk around, or to do anything.
:-) It forces you to interact with other characters. If you don't want to interact or travel to a more populated city with better doctors, then learn to become a medic and heal yourself, it's your choice. If you want free instant healing from an NPC with each town visit, play a different game.
No arguments here, although it shouldn't move as fast as other games do (since it's so complex it'd be wrong to rush past things and experiences).
5. You are totally dependant on other players...
That's the idea, and it makes it the most pure MMORPG to date
8. The Jedi scam. It's really such a joke that the devs are saying "well, for the time period, the Jedi were very rare so it will be hard to become one". Please. It's such a money making gimmick it's not funny.
It's not a scam. Jedi's just aren't as cheap and boring and common as they have been in other Star Wars games. Too many games (diablo II comes to mind) make it way too easy to become an uber-elite character in just a few days. I think it's great that the only Jedi in the game will be people who really care and work very hard to become one.
10. The inventory is horrible, you can't sort it in anyway, and it seems to move stuff around by itself.
You can sort it...click Change View to get a spreadsheet style view (as opposed to the standard Icon style view), then click the column titles.
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too many people whining. the game is what you make of it
when you first start a char in ANY mmorpg what do you do - mind numbing macroing until you uber out your character - that's to be expected
If all you're doing is destroy and delivery missions - who's fault is that ? your own - there are other things you can do on other planets. [take a trip to the SWG forums and check out the theme park stuff and other hidden places posts]
now the game is indeed full of bugs - and IMHO the most annoying features of the game are it's upto5minute bootup time and it's 3 minute log off time. If you're graphics are bad or your town lagging add more ram or get a better video card. I have 1GB of ram and an FX5900 and everything looks great to me on
anyone who plays an MMORPG knows that the first 6 months usually sucks off any game because it's rushed out, bugs needs squashing and other elements not deemed 'priority' still need to be added. but the rewards years down the line usually pay off with veteran rewards etc etc
Fear Breeds Knowledge
"when you first start a char in ANY mmorpg what do you do - mind numbing macroing until you uber out your character - that's to be expected"
I'd say that means your expectations are -way- too low.
"anyone who plays an MMORPG knows that the first 6 months usually sucks..."
If I know full well that a game is going to suck for the first six months I play it, I'm not going to waste that half of a year. I'll either write a macro to level my character for me so I can get to the "good" part, or I'll buy a leveled character on E-bay so I can get to the "good" part. Or, I'll just pass on yet another sub-standard Everquest clone of an MMORPG.
" the rewards years down the line usually pay off with veteran rewards etc etc"
Years. You're saying that I should invest -years- playing what is essentially a beta-test (and paying for the privilage, mind you) because it will get better? I'll be rewarded somehow?
A game should be fun and rewarding to play in its own right. If it isn't, why are you playing?
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So what's involved in becoming a Jedi? Is it attainable? With Sony's history, I'd have a really hard time believing that it works on release. Take a look at EQ's big quests - great idea, but they were broken for months or years even before they were fixed.
So what's involved in becoming a Jedi? Is it attainable? With Sony's history, I'd have a really hard time believing that it works on release. Take a look at EQ's big quests - great idea, but they were broken for months or years even before they were fixed.
As excited as we all are to become Jedi, the devs are just as excited. If you were one of the developers, wouldn't your heart make you want to work to make sure the Jedia class was in? If Jedi truly are not attainable at this point, there's be a lot of SW loving programmers lying to everyone in writing, and I just don't believe that.
That said, it doesn't mean it'll be easy.
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Aradune was very excited about the flaming swords in EQ - and yet, they were not attainable for some time, even after they said that the quests were fine over and over. It'd just be history repeating itself.
No, what I refer to here is merely the well known customer relations and "not help" desk issues of Verant and Sony Online. As the two became one it was clear that they did NOT inherit the best of both parents. It seemed that as time wore on, the negligent and outright malevolent nature began to grow. Long are the accounts of rule abiding customers being treated as criminals and having accounts terminated due to blanket nuke policies or just simply from daring to point out Sony's inept handling of the game.
Like the game mechanics, graphics, interface, story, etc... or not, but I think people really need to do a better job of research into the actual genre and company hosting the game before spending money on it. Then again, that would go for just about ANY product out there. OK, now for some cynacal comments: Seems to me that once again people are being rather sheepish in accepting that THEY have the veto and voting power for consumer products. Yet they willfully relinquish that power and then later bitch about the problems inevitably caused by such stupidity.
Now for a clue... guess what happens when companies like this are faced with wise and informed consumers? Well in the short term they loose a TON of business and those companies that do provide superior (or in this case just "adequate") service prosper greatly. This of course leads to it becoming trendy to provide service and something that customers demand. Guess what folks? Yes, that's right! This results in companies like Sony providing good service.
Just think, eventually someone will provide a game that is released in a complete state or at the very least stable. If given a choice I personally would like to see stability and a robust design, then content could be added later. However, I do have to wonder... if I am buying a house and I can tell you that if my AC, gas, water and carpet were not put in that house for say another 3 to 12 months then that would be a breach of contract. I would still tell you that I prefer those missing items (being added later) to that of say, the roof collapsing or the walls caving in.
Don't get me wrong... the idea of actually adventuring within the Star Wars universe is one of the best fantasies a man could have (clothed of course). Just as the potential exists to exploit and bring to life that universe and all its possibilities, there is also the potential to sully and ruin not only the dreams and hopes of those who have ever wished to adventure with others in the Star Wars universe. It can be said that the very franchise could suffer as well... well thats a whole other debate.
However, sadly enough it was a better release than any other MMOG to date. Improvement is still improvement.