Slashdot Mirror
Sony & LucasArts Muck Up The Force
dakotamangus writes "Players of the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars Galaxies are feeling a bit like the films' besieged rebel army these days. To them, LucasArts is the evil Empire, raining down terror in their alternate universe. Says Nancy MacIntyre, the game's senior director at LucasArts: 'There was lots of reading, much too much, in the game. There was a lot of wandering around learning about different abilities. We really needed to give people the experience of being Han Solo or Luke Skywalker rather than being Uncle Owen, the moisture farmer. We wanted more instant gratification: kill, get treasure, repeat. We needed to give people more of an opportunity to be a part of what they have seen in the movies rather than something they had created themselves.'" These latest mainstream press articles are just the latest examples of the profound backlash the NGE has wrought among the SWG player community.
As though millions of nerds posted in terror, and then suddenly modded.
Step One: pick demographic
a) Fat nerds without lives or money looking for an escape
OR
b) Hyperactive, attention deficit teenagers who like destroying things
Step Two: create videogame
a) Cheap, unstructured role-playing game that runs on office computers
OR
b) Expensive shoot-em-up requiring $300 video card
Step Three: advertise to said demographic
a) Slashdot, Wired, etc.
OR
b) CNet, ZDnet, etc.
Step Four: profit!!!
I'll leave it as an exercise to see how Sony/LucasArts fscked this up completely.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
the fans might not be as - forgiving - as they once were ...
No no no...
The line is:
"We shall double our efforts."
"I hope so, Director, for your sake... The fans are not as forgiving as I am."