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Raph Koster On Star Wars Galaxies

Posted by simoniker on from the kooky-wookies-and-wifi-jawas dept.

Thanks to UGO.com for their interview with Raph Koster, creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, discussing the launch period for the much-discussed PC MMORPG. He suggests that: "The launch was a little rockier than we'd like, so we've tried to be really proactive.... We're making a real concerted effort to constantly improve the game", and talks about new features: "Another big thing that's going in is gambling. So we're working up to Sabbac [the game in which Han Solo wins the Millenium Falcon from Lando]... We're gonna be adding slot machines and roulette." Also touched on are the mission diversity complaints: "The missions were never intended to be rich and complex and deep... they're intended to only take a little while, not be incredibly complex. But, of course, players have found them to be a great way of making money."

3 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Best Game by Chasuk · · Score: 3, Informative

    Star Wars Galaxies is the best MMORPG I have ever played. Period. It is still buggier than I would like, but its depth and innovation astound me.

    Aspects I love about the game:

    1. The skill-based economy. This eliminates what I hated about EQ: the camping and the farmers. No more reading Harry Potter or Robert Jordan over the weekend while I wait for Something Special to drop.

    2. The player houses and PA Halls. The player-vendors whose places of business appear on the planetary map.

    3. The HUD. Waypoints. The well-designed and attractive cities, and the efficient/easy-to-use shutte/starship transportation system.

    4. The mission terminals, the spendable faction points, the bazaar.

    5. The amazing variety of Professions, and the ability to mix-and-match Professions, and even the ability to change my mind and surrender my skills to take up Professions that hadn't seemed attractive initially.

    6. The loving attention to detail evident in the way NPC's even fidget convincingly.

    7. The slightly Political Incorrectness ot the game: some of those dancers are hot almost to PG-13 standards, and a Slicer will sell you designer narcotics. George didn't succumb to any Disneyfication, which was startling to me, considering that this man was also responsible for Gungans and Ewoks.

    8. Creature Handler. They can give creatures they've tamed to their friends, and one day those creatures will (probably) be available as mounts. Cool stuff!

    9. Percentage-wise, I've encountered fewer griefers in this game than I have in the other MMORPG's. In other words, fewer losers, despite what one might think based on the lack of imagination in character naming.

    Aspects I dislike about the game:

    1. The lousy chat system that still stops working periodically.

    2. The defective mission system, with missions that mysteriously vanish, and move too frequently.

    3. The bazaar isn't as easy to use as it should be.

    4. Trading items between players is still prone to malfunction.

    Aspects I hate about the game:

    Nothing here to list.

    Anyway, my congratulations to Raph and his team, who have done a great job despite the impression you might get reading messages from anonymous whiners on the forums.

    Thanks, Raph!

    --
    Neopets - the best free game on the Int
    1. Re:Best Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Star Wars Galaxies is the best MMORPG I have ever played. Period. It is still buggier than I would like, but its depth and innovation astound me.

      How many MMORGs have you played other than EQ?

      Aspects I love about the game:

      1. The skill-based economy. This eliminates what I hated about EQ: the camping and the farmers. No more reading Harry Potter or Robert Jordan over the weekend while I wait for Something Special to drop.

      Reminds me of UO and since there are UO people making this game I'm not surprised a bit.

      2. The player houses and PA Halls. The player-vendors whose places of business appear on the planetary map.

      Not the first game to offer player housing, Asherons Call even added it at one point. I'm not sure about the faction halls, but I believe they are in shadow bane if not others.

      3. The HUD. Waypoints. The well-designed and attractive cities, and the efficient/easy-to-use shutte/starship transportation system.

      The game is pretty, the HUD is nice, but has a steep learning curve, and I'm not really sure what they gain over other interfaces if anything at all. The transportation system again is not unique. It could be compared to the portals in AC or the shuttles in AO.

      4. The mission terminals, the spendable faction points, the bazaar.

      Again, all things we have seen in other MMOGS.

      5. The amazing variety of Professions, and the ability to mix-and-match Professions, and even the ability to change my mind and surrender my skills to take up Professions that hadn't seemed attractive initially.

      This is a good point. I haven't seen any other games with this much diversity. The problem is that many of the character classes are flawed or not working as intended.

      6. The loving attention to detail evident in the way NPC's even fidget convincingly.

      Good NPCs for the first two days, then they seem all the same. Do deliver missions for an house and you'll never car about an NPC again unless it has to do with the plot.

      7. The slightly Political Incorrectness ot the game: some of those dancers are hot almost to PG-13 standards, and a Slicer will sell you designer narcotics. George didn't succumb to any Disneyfication, which was startling to me, considering that this man was also responsible for Gungans and Ewoks.

      Nothing differant from what you see in the movies except you can actually partake in the various vices such as drugs. Remember episode two when Kenobe turns down some death sticks and convinces the guy he doesn't want to sell them anymore.

      8. Creature Handler. They can give creatures they've tamed to their friends, and one day those creatures will (probably) be available as mounts. Cool stuff!

      You are very limited in what creatures you can have if you are not a creature handler, and it remains to be seen what skill is required for mounts. Initially there was a bug where you could get just about any creature from your friends, but this has been fixed.

      9. Percentage-wise, I've encountered fewer griefers in this game than I have in the other MMORPG's. In other words, fewer losers, despite what one might think based on the lack of imagination in character naming.

      It is early, give it time. There are already plenty of griefers and there will be more later as the game grows.

      Aspects I dislike about the game:

      1. The lousy chat system that still stops working periodically.

      This is a bug I haven't seen reoccur in over two weeks, but then again that is probably server specific.

      2. The defective mission system, with missions that mysteriously vanish, and move too frequently.

      The missions for the most part aren't disappearing. Some do, but for the most part you are seeing other people destroy your mission while you are enroute. Read the official forums and you will see people saying it's great, others that hate it etc. Also, wh

  2. much better info by joe094287523459087 · · Score: 2, Informative

    much better reviews here - http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/05/ 1847238