Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
It's going to be six months and at least $30 for the expansion packs before you get to fly a ship in SWG. Screw that. $80 bucks ? EVE-Online is $40 at www.ebgame.com and you can fly a ship now (the strategy guide is based on beta 5 btw).
I've been playing EVE-Online since beta. And so far, it's more Star Wars than anything else. I fly around in a ship, hunt pirates and sell their goodies. PvP is always possible, but moderated in-game by NPC cops, who will whack someone with battleships. No action out of the ship, but you do trading and such at stations. The storyline hasn't kicked in just yet, so no comparison there. It's like Star Wars out on the Rim, away from the Empire/Republic where space is full of freelancers.
Besides Star Wars, EVE is reminiscent of Elite and Escape Velocity.
Oh, server uptime is good. Usually 3000-3500 people are logged in 7-10om PST and over 6000 on weekends. It's got bugs, they mostly get fixed. Some segments need to be rewritten completely (agent missions) and will be.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
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.
$8.95/mo web hosting
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