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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?
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
...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.
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.
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...
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
I'll assume a lot of people playing swg played UO or EQ and were around at rollout time to know what that includes. I'm not saying it's right of the company, or it's smart to spend your money that way etc etc but it's all your choice. So wait a year then sign up, that's your choice and probably in 6 months or a year this game will be great - right now you're getting more marketing info out of SOE than game stuff because it's a release time.
1GB of ram expensive ?? I had 512 with my machine and popped another 512 in. It cost me less than SWG and 6 months of service will ....
DAOC - DAOC is nothing but a big levelfest. All you do is the equivalent of macroing. my friend played for 6 months casually before he qualified to be able to PVP. I'm not saying DAOC sucks - but it's ignorant to say it didn't[doesn't] have it's share of problems. Take a look through their dev notes and archived forums posts and see them all - I never played the game and I can point out a handful from 4 minutes of surfing.
it boils down to whatever makes you happy. 15/mo for SWG is more than other MMORPG's but consider this UO bumped to 13/month and those are 5-6 year old graphics and gameplay issues. I'd take my wookiee over that any day ;)
Fear Breeds Knowledge