Star Wars Galaxies Forums Turn Player-Only

mwbay writes "A note from the Star Wars Galaxies Forums indicates that starting today, SOE will be hiding the PC MMORPG's forums from the non-paying public. Raph Koster submitted this response [on the now-inaccessible forums]: 'It isn't really that we have anything to hide. We spend a lot of time on the boards here talking to you, and I don't think we have been shy about confronting controversial issues... But yeah, publicity is at the heart of it. The heart of the matter is will a game's Internet forums ever be a source of positive publicity post-launch? And I'd suggest to you that the answer is no... Someone who isn't a player has no idea exactly how widespread a given issue is.' It is certainly well within SOE's rights to do what they want with their boards, but isn't this a bit extreme?"

Comments

Agreed - MOD PARENT UP.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a fairly regular Planetside player - I started when the game went retail after my friends who played the beta said that it was great. They've long since stopped playing, and I'm on the verge of giving up myself (I would have already if I'd not gone and brought a 6 month subscription in advance).

I agree with everything you said and have experienced the game problems you mention first hand. Here's a list of the Planetside bugs that are annoying the S$%T out of me and I have zero confidence that SOE is trying to fix:

• Placeable turrets are STILL BROKEN. 4 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE (combat engineering, required to place these is one of the most expensive specialities in the game. And is almost completely worthless).
• Equipment terminals that DO NOT WORK for the first 20 seconds after you spawn if the base is crowded - just when you need your weapons the most urgently.
• Players are often INVISIBLE for the first 20 seconds when they spawn. Nobody can see them, but they can shoot enemies. The reverse is also sometimes true - camping enemies can see and shoot the spawned player, but the new player can't see any enemies.
• Doors that DO NOT OPEN. You've painfully organised a 20-person assault force to invade and enter an enemy base and you are thwarted by the FRONT DOOR STICKING SHUT.
• The broken collision system causes random damage to players. Walk around a base for 2 minutes and you're down to maybe 80% health. Why? Walk down some STAIRS and you get hurt.
• Aircraft landing has ALWAYS been broken due to bad ground collision. A Galaxy transport aircraft landing is often a lethal affair. The pilot does a feather-soft slow, controlled touchdown and the collision system decides to slide the vehicle sideways at 50mph, running over and killing half the squad that was about to get on board. ARRGGH! Oh, and then the game tells you that a huge and perfectly flat concrete courtyard inside the base is an invalid landing spot and won't let you touch down. Instead you have to land outside the courtyard, where three people are hit by snipers before they could jump in.
• Frame hitches. This is the worst-programmed POS I've had the misfortune of playing. Just about ever. You're roaming around a base. An enemy appears around the corner. But because your computer hasn't got the model for the gun that player is using loaded it has a think, pauses for a couple of seconds, then when you unfreeze - you're already dead. The game does this a lot.
• Crashes. Sometimes it will crash after you've been playing for 2 minutes, sometimes it will crash after 2 hours. But it crashes EVERY SINGLE TIME I've played. These people have NO quality assurance.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. And I haven't even begun to touch the poor graphics (the game does not - under any circumstances - look like the screenshots on the site) or the horrible balance issues. SOE hasn't fixed any of the above in 4 months, and is now getting the first expansion pack ready, completely neglecting the cries of players who're trapped playing this (because they've already paid) but are sick to death of the bugs. At this rate, nobody will renew when their paid period is up.

I'm guessing that they're going to use the same tactics with Galaxies - some bugs will always be there and they'll NEVER fix them. Just like Everquest. I really hope that someone else comes along and destroys their current lead in the massively multiplayer market. And you can be damn sure that World of Warcraft won't crash straight out of the box.