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SWG: The New Game Experience
There's been a lot of talk about the controversy surrounding the NGE changes to Star Wars Galaxies, but very little substantial analysis. Darniaq has commentary on the sweeping changes made to SWG, looking at how they've affected each system and what it means to the players. From the article: "Oh, hunting animals to sell their organic resources was a lucrative business, but that was combat as a means to an end. I didn't do it because fighting was fun. Even a number of attempts at combat revamps did not result in a markedly different game. They felt mostly like tweaks to a system most of the players had long since accepted. That it wasn't that fun for the average gamer didn't mean SWG wasn't fun for players. So why truly change a game when you're making money?"
From all accounts, it was a sucky MMORPG on release, was revamped into a suckier MMORPG, and is being revamped again into something even worse. Obviously anybody still playing doesn't give a crap about gameplay, and just wants to "be a jedi" or hang with on-line friends who haven't yet agreed on another game to migrate to.
Okay, maybe that wasn't the most insightful observation ever. I was just in the mood to post a comment using "suckier" as a word.
P.S. WoW pwns, bee-otch.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
While I think the author writes a good and thorough review of the changes, He fails to recognize that the NGE removed some of the critical elements which made the game special. It's now just EQ-in-Space. For example, I used to greatly appreciate the ability to group with almost anyone, regardless of how far they had progressed in their combat abilities. We'd sometimes get our whole guild together for hunting trips, from the Master Bounty Hunters to the dancers who had just a little bit of rifle skill. We'd all go out hunting, and everyone would have fun, earn money, and gain experience. However, with the new system (and the previous Combat Upgrade) you had to face the same old problem of finding other players who were close enough to your level, then finding the monsters closer enough to your level, in order to actually do anything. My lvl 80 Doctor can no longer play with my wife's lvl 56 Spy, except to follow her around, fighting mobs that are gray to me, dropping the occasional heal on her. Another major problem is they've removed the ability to dabble. I used to love having just enough crafting skill to run my own harvesters and craft a few things, without forcing me to do nothing but that. My wife was a Master Image designer because she loved doing it, but can't do it all the time. Sometimes she'd like to grab her pistol and tour the Galaxy with me. Now, I can't craft, and she's had to give up Image Design, as it's been rolled into the Entertainer profession, which is strictly non-combat. Don't get me wrong, I like EQ-style games (we play EQ2 quite a bit as well) but SWG kept me playing because of it's unique features. Now, the lack of content and removal of unique features may drive us away entirely.