News flash – Sony Online Entertainment still thinks we’re idiots.
A bit of their latest propaganda is here, followed by a long and amusing thread among gamers discussing how they must have arrived at these “impressive” statistics.
Thud drew my attention to this link several days ago. I still feel inspired to write about it because I was just thinking about Star Wars Galaxies again this morning. See, what happens is, every now and then I remember the game and wish I could play it. It was beautiful and had such great potential… potential which SOE has been methodically grinding into the dirt ever since it launched. We used to play the game and say to ourselves, “this is so cool, just wait until they fix ‘X’.”
There were a lot of “X”s. We played for a really long time, waiting for them to fix things. It was buggy. The grinding system didn’t make much sense. You had to set up macros and push the same two buttons for hours to progress in the game. The combat buff system made even less sense. You couldn’t do anything combat-related, not even equip your armor, without first getting a doctor buff, which involved a long wait in line at a starport, assuming you were there during peak hours and a doctor was even online. The aforesaid buff system mangled your attempts at group missions, since everyone had to acquire said buffs before returning to the meeting point so that you could finally get started. Meanwhile, the buffs were wearing off the people who got there first. When you finally went on yer quest, you would get loot items like ONE unit of hide. They made it a point that you could never loot anything useful.
The game launched without ground transportation of any kind – they added it later. Until then, everyone had to run everywhere from the shuttleports. There’s a scene in Spaceballs where President Scroob comes running onto the bridge of the massive flagship, and gasping for air, says “I had to run. If I walked, the movie would be over.” Yeah – SWG was like that when it launched.
Oh, but the potential it had. It was gorgeous. The player cities were amazing. You could have your own house! When you logged in, you could spend your time crafting items and putting them up for sale, doing combat questing-type stuff, or just playing space Sims – whatever you felt like. I spent hours visiting in other peoples’ houses and chatting. The detail and visual reality of it were incredible – you could strongly identify with your character, and you really got to be someone in another world for a while. I’m fond of World of Warcraft, but you always remember that you’re playing a toon in a fantasy game. In SWG you could forget. (That’s really saying something, because in SWG I was a Bothan.)
But, over time it dawned on us that the developers just didn’t have a clue, and weren’t going to get one. There was always another fix promised, that would just be a little longer in coming. Even when fixes and new content were introduced, it became clear that the developers were confusing “annoyance” with “challenge.” The game was full of “gotchas.” You think you can start on the Jedi tree? There’s one more thing you have to do, but you don’t know what it is. Gotcha. You think you’ve completed the quest? It was timed and it was physically impossible to complete from the place where you began it. Gotcha. You think “X” is going to be fixed in your lifetime? Gotcha.
One day we got fed up with being got, stopped playing, and eventually canceled. We still follow what people are saying about the game – as in the link above – and it looks like SOE has now finally broken the last of the game that many people hung on to and liked.
After giving them the benefit of the doubt for a long time – I was very forgiving and trustful that they really were working to improve the game until I finally realized they weren’t and quit – I have now learned to despise SOE and will never play another one of their games. They are clearly managed by a bunch of money-grubbing retards who have no idea how an RPG works or why people play them. They don’t get it, and aren’t interested. Put a famous name on it, people come with their money, lie to them to keep them paying, that’s all there is to it – right?
And so, I still miss the Star Wars Galaxies that should have been. I still think about it sometimes, and it makes me sad. I wish it could have been different.