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Lucasarts Through With Sony?

Posted by Zonk on from the hang-in-there-little-wookies dept.

pdawerks writes "Heard through the grapevine: Apparently Lucasarts is displeased with the way that SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) has handled Star Wars' MMORPG Galaxies. The day after the JTL expansion goes live, they plan to announce the second expansion pack and the divorce between SOE and Lucasarts." This appears to be a complete rumor. However, I found corroborating rumormongering at SWG Warcry and Second Life Herald. Lucasarts has previously lessened their developer stable, casting doubt on this idea. I can't imagine Lucasarts could do a worse job with the game than SOE has, though.

7 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. No jedi - I hope this is NOT true by Captain+Kirk · · Score: 1, Interesting

    There are many players devoting all their gamepaly to the jedi quests and ginding jedi xp. The notion that that all this work will be simply erased amounts to a complete breach of trust.

    --
    1000s Warcraft Gold while you sleep
  2. SWG by mabu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I played SWG early on. Ironically I found the game to be so immersive and creative when it came to the realism of the world, that the gameplay itself took a back seat. I think this is a case of some great softare that has critically flawed game design.

    Then again, it's entirely possible that SWG may be the most incredible MMORPG ever conceived, and because it seems to rely so much on player-generated content, it may take years before the game matures and shows what it's capable of.

    However, the brilliance (or lack thereof) of the game may be moot. The other night I was in a club with a group of people and there was a Ms. Pac Man cocktail table game in the bar that people were lining up to play. Sometimes I think today's games have become so complex they've negated their value.

    When you're playing a game that has 5000+ pages of documentation, with a minority hardcore community that considers you a n00b if you don't know that ALT-SHIFT-PgUp in combination with the alternative UI loaded and the spatial relativity ability received from completing the Lord Eladril quest will improve your defensive attack posture, you have to begin to wonder whether real life demoralization isn't preferable?

  3. Track record by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Because if your consider SOE's track record with working with SWG, its not too hard to believe. After SOE pissed everyone off with their mass banning/kicking, Lucasarts was no doubt pissed off at SOE without even mentioning other disagreements (Jedis? Space combat? The fact that everyone jokes about being a cantina dancer?)

  4. Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As an ex-employee of SOE, I would like to say that I haven't ever seen a more incompetent group of people. The company is short-sighted, money-grubbing, disrespectful towards their customers, and has management filled with more idiots than the RNC.

    The developers churn out bloated crap that runs poorly on even the most powerful PCs. The developers have little concept of fun anymore... the original EverQuest development team - the people who made the company what it is today - are gone. They have largely moved on to form their own companies (such as Sigil) or to sit pretty on top of large royalty payments. SOE as it is today has no merit as a game company. Their games are too expensive, not entertaining, and so poorly performing that one is surprised that ANYONE would pay for such a product.

    I hope that SOE tanks... I left those bastards because I had no sense of pride in my work. I know a lot of people there feel the same way.

    1. Re:Great! by Taulin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I thought SOE was just a publisher? EQ, SWG, and all the rest, were developed by a different company wern't they? Perhaps SOE owns those companies and you are just simplifying by grouping them under one name? I personally think EQ and SWG have been ran and developed pretty well taking into consideration the amount of people that play the game and how immense they are in terms of scope and functionality.

    2. Re:Great! by mabu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As an ex-employee of SOE, I would like to say that I haven't ever seen a more incompetent group of people. The company is short-sighted, money-grubbing, disrespectful towards their customers, and has management filled with more idiots than the RNC

      I respectfully disagree. I suspect the poster was probably a disgrunted volunteer-guide who got pissed when he was fired because he got caught ressing his friends in game.

      SOE has gone through a number of changes since their inception, and they still IMO are the best MMORPG development group in the world -- at least the Verant portion. They're probably having to play more politics these days than they used to, but Everquest has no equal in terms of logevitity and game balance. No other MMORPG has come close, and no MMORPG is even near to encroaching into SOE's dominance in this area. As an ex-employee who has no great motivation to boast, I cannot deny this fact.

      This doesn't take away from my contention that many of these MMORPGs are becoming too complex to attract the mainstream, but the developers are light years ahead of everyone else.

  5. Conspiracies abound by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This rumor could simply be a great marketing move by SOE. I (as well as many other folks) have been planning on dumping soon. I was gonna give JTL a try, but after playing the beta I'm not so sure. But, man, if we know that Lucasarts might be taking it over, I might keep my account for a few more months to see... that's just what Sony wants you to think.