Massive Star Wars Galaxies Revamp

Shockeye writes "Over at f13.net we have posted an on-site report on the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies overhaul. SOE and LucasArts are changing the entire core of the game in order to make things more fun and make you feel like you really are a part of the Star Wars Universe." Indeed, F13 has the goods, and a lot of analysis in their forums. Available elsewhere is the community letter that unveiled the changes, commentary from Aggro Me, and a breakdown of what exactly is happening. From F13: "I don't know how else to explain it other than SOE has done the right thing. They've revitalized combat in an MMOG. It's a huge step in the right direction. Do I think they'll perfect it here? No. But it's by far the most interesting thing a studio has done. They've taken a gamble, and from what I've seen it's paid off. In other words, they've added the 'Wars' back to Star Wars. It's been in the works for over a year now. In fact, the expansions could probably be called smokescreens for the launch of the real game. It'll shake things up."

Comments

Good to see a publisher step up.

[flipper65]

Good for SOE, it takes a lot to swallow your pride and admit that your game is not up to snuff. Then to suck it up and put the time, effort and money into improving it shows some backbone and character. I haven't played galaxies for about six months now, but I may very well give it another shot.

Woo, Combat.

[ivan256]

There are so many forms of competition that multiple humans can engage in. Why the obscession with combat in MMORPGs? Are we all savages? I can only think of one massive game out there that breaks the mold, and is marketed as a mainstream title. With all these competing developers trying to differentiate themselves, why aren't we seeing more games where the focus is something other than combat? While they're at it, they can try to come up with something where the number of hours you've logged in the game (experience points) and how quick your reflexes are, or how big a group you can coordinate as the sole characteristics that determine victory.

I think it's time we look back into the history of multi-player online gaming and start to pull some concepts from BBS doors. Sure, some had combat... Real-time even; but many had other forms of competition as well. Trading, creative construction, logic, politics, etc...

Re:Woo, Combat.

[EngineeringMarvel]

Trading, creative construction, logic, politics

I'm not sure if you have played SWG before, but I did for about 6 months some time before the first revamp. SWG actually does have political and economical competition. More so than any other MMORPG I have played. The very fact that players in SWG can setup their own stores and market their own crafted items through those stores makes it unique. The political arena in the game is different too. Player created towns have their own mayors that are actually elected upon by the citizens who belong to that particular town. I have seen on many occassions in the town my toon lived in having a very active mayor race. I can't tell you how many times the the players in the race would chat with me about what I wanted the town to be and what they would do as mayor. You really picked a bad topic/game to make a point about how games are combat centric.

Re:Woo, Combat.

[bugbread]

Yet the video games on the shelf at your local game store focus on combat almost exclusively.

And yet you've chosen a genre (MMORPGs) known for having much more than combat as your venue for this complaint? I played and rapidly quit SWG. It wasn't, for me, much fun. But I don't hesitate to point out that it offered not only fighting, but crafting, economics, politics, dancing, music, and role playing. Not all beautifully rounded out (dancing and music weren't implemented so great), but some of it was quite full (read any forums about price gouging, merchant guilds in price collusion, and the like for insight about how important the economic sphere was to the game...and remember that it wasn't just gouging for combat related things, but decorative clothing, home furnishings, vehicles, mounts, and the like).

It's like complaining about how violence is all you see on TV in a discussion about an episode of the Golden Girls where one person slaps another.

Re:Here we go again

[EddieBurkett]

The first CU taught me that sometimes you have to ignore everyone bitching about the change to make a better game. Once you got past the fact that certain people were screwed by the CU, it was easy to see that combat had improved. (Of course, the best part of the first CU was that when I finally did get fed up with SOE and cancelled my subscription, I already had an understanding of how to play WoW.)

Also, since they've already been losing people, why not completely gut the system and rebuild it? It can't hurt anymore than it already is; they can only gain subscriptions at this point.

If there's anyone I feel bad for, its the people that have stuck with the game since launch. This is now the second time they've had the rug pulled out from under them. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... we won't get fooled again" notwithstanding, Sony REALLY bit them in the ass by launching the newest expansion in the last week, and NOW revealing what is going on. How many people purchased that expansion only to find out that they won't be able to use it like they thought in the upcoming game? That's quite the low blow.

Despite all that, I was about due to resubscribe to SWG to keep my character 'alive' and check up on the state of the game. I doubt I'll play for more than a month, but this certainly sounds like an interesting month to check in.

Its a shame that a game with such promise as SWG is being run by such clueles asshats as they have at SOE (and apparently LucasArts, as well.)