Are you worried that this may drive away those who have stayed loyal?
Put that in past tense and in exclamation rather than question, you got yourself an answer buddy.
We wouldnt be whining if these changes were actually good dude, that is a message that you should tell your fellow NGE lovers, all 50 of them. i say this not as an insult but a rough estimate based off of feedback on the SWG forums. But just so i dont come off as a troll, i will link my rant to this page.
http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=167896&t hreshold=1&commentsort=1&tid=101&mode=thread&cid=1 4001024
I thought that the CU was a good change, but there was definatly room for improvement. People wont whine about the changes if they, as the player base, had a say in it. If anything it's SOE's ears that are deaf.
The FPS gaming is innovative, the problem is everything else. Sure the classes are being combined into 9 but with only 3 specials a char, what fun is that? While like i have said in other posts that Jedi, as a star wars fanatic, would be cool, but to say thats the only reason why people play star wars games is a falsehood. There is a rich universe even without jedi to be explored and RP'd. The tutorial is a cool concept and i recognize it from eq i might add (one of its better brought over elements). But if anything SOE has screwed up big this time, and that breath of life will only keep this game from flatlining for so long.
Since we are on the topic of percents, hate to break it to you but its like 15% fudge and 85% crap. The FPS concept is very inovative indeed but alas, there are too many things wrong with the NGE
The only problem is that they are being nerfed to oblivion as a cost of making it available to casual players. I have arguments why you dont need a lightsaber to not be one of the little guys and why its simply bad for the lore for this to happen aswell, but as a star wars fanatic i cant blame you. We all want to wave around lightsabers, just that there are unfortunate conciquences for that.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1557&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0
Smedley Explains Galaxies Overhaul
By Christian Svensson
Why has SOE made so many drastic changes to its MMOG Star Wars: Galaxies? Company president John Smedley spoke to Next Generation about that factors that forced the changes, feedback from the community and ramifications for the future of the franchise.
For up-to-date game industry news and challenging opinion, delivered to your in-box every weekday morning, subscribe to Next Generation Morning Bulletin. It's simple and free. Go to http://www.next-gen.biz/registration/
---
Image Smedley says, "LucasArts and SOE took a very close look at Galaxies to find out what we could improve and what needed to change to make the game more fun for existing players and what would make it appeal more to a wider audience. We did a lot of research and focus testing before we undertook these steps."
SOE and LucasArts pulled in Crompton and Associates (which handles product focus testing for a number of top publishers) to conduct the initial studies. Unfortunately, SOE isn't able to divulge the exact data that came from these efforts, but it came to the conclusion that the game wasn't living up to its potential (both in terms of fun and as a market opportunity).
"We got a lot of feedback about what was wrong and what wasn't. We saw early on that people weren't satisfied with the combat, so we decided to try something pretty radical."
The combat changes to the game went live some months ago and as with most MMOG changes, there was much public outcry on the forums. But SOE didn't experience any drop off subscriber numbers. On the contrary, Galaxies continued to grow faster than any other title run by SOE.
"The combat [change] was really just the first part of it," explains Smedley. "The overriding [issue] was the sheer number of professions in the game."
He adds, "In a sense that was one of the strengths of the game because you could be just about anything in the world, but it also had an impact on our ability to balance these professions and make them fun and unique. The feedback told us that there wasn't enough diversity and that people's choices [with regard to their professions] should mean something.
"So we decided to shrink down the number of professions and concentrate on more prototypical Star Wars iconic elements. A bounty hunter is a very iconic thing. Everyone immediately thinks Boba Fett. So we made that mean something now."
Jedi Exclusivity
The original design of the game was very much influenced by the Richard Garriot (Ultima Online) and Brad McQuaid (early EverQuest) schools of MMOG design. That is to say that the very best experiences in the game would come from massive time investment, trial and error and endurance of hardship. The rewards that come from that are significant but highly exclusive.
Along those lines, it was incredibly difficult to become a Jedi. In fact, the mechanism for which it is accomplished (which was secret for a long time) is that a character has to master five specific professions (out of more than 20), and those professions were selected for that character secretly by the game at the moment of creation. The player never knew which specific five would unlock the Jedi path. It was an incredible time sink, to say the least.
In the new design philosophy players can start on the path of Jedi as one of the nine selectable professions at the moment of character creation. In this way, some of the previously secret "cool stuff" is going to be more accessible to a lot more people. Smedley is keen to point out that characters can be "force sensitive" from day one rather than necessarily a Jedi instantly. "There are a lot of different levels within that [profession], so the people who've been [working do
Slashdot Mirror
Are you worried that this may drive away those who have stayed loyal? Put that in past tense and in exclamation rather than question, you got yourself an answer buddy.
We wouldnt be whining if these changes were actually good dude, that is a message that you should tell your fellow NGE lovers, all 50 of them. i say this not as an insult but a rough estimate based off of feedback on the SWG forums. But just so i dont come off as a troll, i will link my rant to this page. http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=167896&t hreshold=1&commentsort=1&tid=101&mode=thread&cid=1 4001024
I thought that the CU was a good change, but there was definatly room for improvement. People wont whine about the changes if they, as the player base, had a say in it. If anything it's SOE's ears that are deaf.
The FPS gaming is innovative, the problem is everything else. Sure the classes are being combined into 9 but with only 3 specials a char, what fun is that? While like i have said in other posts that Jedi, as a star wars fanatic, would be cool, but to say thats the only reason why people play star wars games is a falsehood. There is a rich universe even without jedi to be explored and RP'd. The tutorial is a cool concept and i recognize it from eq i might add (one of its better brought over elements). But if anything SOE has screwed up big this time, and that breath of life will only keep this game from flatlining for so long.
Since we are on the topic of percents, hate to break it to you but its like 15% fudge and 85% crap. The FPS concept is very inovative indeed but alas, there are too many things wrong with the NGE
The only problem is that they are being nerfed to oblivion as a cost of making it available to casual players. I have arguments why you dont need a lightsaber to not be one of the little guys and why its simply bad for the lore for this to happen aswell, but as a star wars fanatic i cant blame you. We all want to wave around lightsabers, just that there are unfortunate conciquences for that.
No its not......for x-box that is. If anything its being dumbed down for the PS3
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=1557&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0 Smedley Explains Galaxies Overhaul By Christian Svensson Why has SOE made so many drastic changes to its MMOG Star Wars: Galaxies? Company president John Smedley spoke to Next Generation about that factors that forced the changes, feedback from the community and ramifications for the future of the franchise. For up-to-date game industry news and challenging opinion, delivered to your in-box every weekday morning, subscribe to Next Generation Morning Bulletin. It's simple and free. Go to http://www.next-gen.biz/registration/ --- Image Smedley says, "LucasArts and SOE took a very close look at Galaxies to find out what we could improve and what needed to change to make the game more fun for existing players and what would make it appeal more to a wider audience. We did a lot of research and focus testing before we undertook these steps." SOE and LucasArts pulled in Crompton and Associates (which handles product focus testing for a number of top publishers) to conduct the initial studies. Unfortunately, SOE isn't able to divulge the exact data that came from these efforts, but it came to the conclusion that the game wasn't living up to its potential (both in terms of fun and as a market opportunity). "We got a lot of feedback about what was wrong and what wasn't. We saw early on that people weren't satisfied with the combat, so we decided to try something pretty radical." The combat changes to the game went live some months ago and as with most MMOG changes, there was much public outcry on the forums. But SOE didn't experience any drop off subscriber numbers. On the contrary, Galaxies continued to grow faster than any other title run by SOE. "The combat [change] was really just the first part of it," explains Smedley. "The overriding [issue] was the sheer number of professions in the game." He adds, "In a sense that was one of the strengths of the game because you could be just about anything in the world, but it also had an impact on our ability to balance these professions and make them fun and unique. The feedback told us that there wasn't enough diversity and that people's choices [with regard to their professions] should mean something. "So we decided to shrink down the number of professions and concentrate on more prototypical Star Wars iconic elements. A bounty hunter is a very iconic thing. Everyone immediately thinks Boba Fett. So we made that mean something now." Jedi Exclusivity The original design of the game was very much influenced by the Richard Garriot (Ultima Online) and Brad McQuaid (early EverQuest) schools of MMOG design. That is to say that the very best experiences in the game would come from massive time investment, trial and error and endurance of hardship. The rewards that come from that are significant but highly exclusive. Along those lines, it was incredibly difficult to become a Jedi. In fact, the mechanism for which it is accomplished (which was secret for a long time) is that a character has to master five specific professions (out of more than 20), and those professions were selected for that character secretly by the game at the moment of creation. The player never knew which specific five would unlock the Jedi path. It was an incredible time sink, to say the least. In the new design philosophy players can start on the path of Jedi as one of the nine selectable professions at the moment of character creation. In this way, some of the previously secret "cool stuff" is going to be more accessible to a lot more people. Smedley is keen to point out that characters can be "force sensitive" from day one rather than necessarily a Jedi instantly. "There are a lot of different levels within that [profession], so the people who've been [working do
http://forums.g4tv.com/messageview.cfm?catid=59&th readid=515423&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=4
At that URL is my rant why Satan Online entertainment and its leader doesnt give a crap.