SOE lose Star Wars Galaxies license?

ben_j_davis · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:09

Well it been rumoured for the last week or so that SOE might lose its license for MMO Star Wars Galaxies, two possible contenders are Cryptic Studios and Bioware. I really really hope SOE lose it, they managed to turn SWG from something unique into an shadow of its former self. People have been leaving in droves for over a year now, surprised there are people still playing.

http://www.mmorpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10077&newsid=47261

Edit: And talk of a completely new SWG

.:MBK:. · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:12

1. supposedly not
2. the nge was LA's brain child from memory so why would LA take it from SOE when it was just SOE following orders and thus taking a **** load of flak for it (if this is wrong and SOE did indeed concieve the nge then i can always hope they lose it)

Elrein · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:18

This can only be good for the game, like its been said as @ the moment its a bugged filled horrible game with a million jedi running around

SOE made a great game and then slowly pulled out all the hairs 1 by 1

xander_uk2 · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:21

I played SWG for over a year just after it's release.
I remember running it on my Duron 1.3, Ti4200, with 256 meg of RAM

It was awesome, and looking back now it was the best online experience I've ever had in a game. I loved it

I went back to it about 3 months ago for a free trial to see if I could get back into it and it was just a completely different game :confused:

Dumbed down isn't the word. Whats happened to the combat system? Whats with starting on a space station?

Is anyone still playing this game? Would really like to know more about what other changes have been made. Only played for 2 hours

ben_j_davis · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:21

At the moment there is talk of a completely new Star Wars MMO RPG, think this might be sensible in some ways.

.:MBK:. · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:24

xander_uk2 said:
I played SWG for over a year just after it's release.
I remember running it on my Duron 1.3, Ti4200, with 256 meg of RAM

It was awesome, and looking back now it was the best online experience I've ever had in a game. I loved it

I went back to it about 3 months ago for a free trial to see if I could get back into it and it was just a completely different game Dumbed down isn't the word. Whats happened to the combat system? Whats with starting on a space station?

Is anyone still playing this game? Would really like to know more about what other changes have been made. Only played for 2 hours

nope for some reason smedley + co all love the nge to bits...and are calling it a success. i guess they have a really low definition of success as the nge is dire, i didnt like the cu at 1st but it grew on me as it wasnt too disimilar from the old system however i have given the nge a fair shot and i hated it.

barney · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:30

I loved SWG. I played for almost 2 years since the release then they started destroying everything good in it. Making the jedi changes took away people holo grinding but instead made everyone just grind xp instead and ended up with just a whole server full of jedi's or people grinding to be jedi's.

The crafting system in SWG was the best i have ever seen in any game, I actually got a 2nd account just for weaponsmith/armorsmith and ended up playing that about 95% of the time. Even that element has gone now.

I left SWG once they changed the path to becoming a jedi from hologrinding to just doing quests and grinding XP. A few people i know who still play it or have gone back say its now complete crap.

ben_j_davis · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:32

barney said:
I loved SWG. I played for almost 2 years since the release then they started destroying everything good in it. Making the jedi changes took away people holo grinding but instead made everyone just grind xp instead and ended up with just a whole server full of jedi's or people grinding to be jedi's.

The crafting system in SWG was the best i have ever seen in any game, I actually got a 2nd account just for weaponsmith/armorsmith and ended up playing that about 95% of the time. Even that element has gone now.

I left SWG once they changed the path to becoming a jedi from hologrinding to just doing quests and grinding XP. A few people i know who still play it or have gone back say its now complete crap.

Being able to mix and match different skills/professions made SWG soo diverse, but again all that has been taken away.

afraser2k · 3 Apr 2006 at 13:18

The biggest mistake SOE had done was make the game original trilogy when all the hype was for episodes 1 to 3, if they did that then there would be no problem with the amount of Jedi in the game. The NGE seems perfect for a younger player base with the Clone Wars era.

I reckon the game didn't meet the expectations of LA for a subscriber base and that forced SOE to keep churning out major combat "upgrades" that has eventually seen the game die especially with disgruntled customers at the way the recent one was handled. I don't know how SOE are going to recover from this PR disaster, they're the laughing stock of the MMORPG developers in my opinion.

I hope they do lose the license and LA take notice of why it died.

.:MBK:. · 3 Apr 2006 at 13:59

afraser2k said:
I hope they do lose the license and LA take notice of why it died.

AFAIK, LA are the reason this was a PA disaster it is what smed and jullio had invisioned as "star warsy and iconic" and was developed behind the player bases backs probably to avoid the hell that rained down when they announced the CU, the difference being that with the CU a lot less left and some returned to stay, with the unannounced NGE everyone packed up and left after giving it a shot finding it more bug ridden and generally it had just become a very sub-standard game.

whilst this is just a view of it being sub-standard it is a view shared by a lot of players who know what the game used to be...but unfotunately any attempts to voice this opinion generally results in bans on their forums or are just not voiced to them as you have to give them money for that privilege

daz · 3 Apr 2006 at 14:17

Bioware are favourites I believe to get the licence.

speeduk · 3 Apr 2006 at 14:23

Any thread (constructive or not) that puts the NGE in bad light gets isnta locked/deleted on the sony forums.

Thats just wrong. Its a public forum for christs sake. All they allow is the usual "how do I get a glowstick" or the NGE is great threads.

Its quite sad really.

But imo its too late to resurrect SWG - we need a fresh start in a brand new game.

Goberpiles316 · 3 Apr 2006 at 14:24

I hope that SOE lose SWG and the game is laid to rest, played it for near two years, SOE killed it and dont deserve to run any other online games.

sc(+)pe · 3 Apr 2006 at 15:08

Jedi being a player class destroyed SWG.

Zefan · 3 Apr 2006 at 15:11

YES. YES. YES.

/sits down.

afraser2k · 3 Apr 2006 at 15:19

.:MBK:. said:
AFAIK, LA are the reason this was a PA disaster it is what smed and jullio had invisioned as "star warsy and iconic" and was developed behind the player bases backs probably to avoid the hell that rained down when they announced the CU, the difference being that with the CU a lot less left and some returned to stay, with the unannounced NGE everyone packed up and left after giving it a shot finding it more bug ridden and generally it had just become a very sub-standard game.

whilst this is just a view of it being sub-standard it is a view shared by a lot of players who know what the game used to be...but unfotunately any attempts to voice this opinion generally results in bans on their forums or are just not voiced to them as you have to give them money for that privilege

True, which is why I'm hoping LA will pick up why this all happened to them.

ben_j_davis · 3 Apr 2006 at 15:43

About a year back they rumoured that LA was looking for another company to run SWG after being disappointed with their performance, lets just hope that after 70% of peeps leaving they will actually do something.

MNuTz · 3 Apr 2006 at 16:36

I played way back when and i still count it as one of the best games ive ever played, i left it after 8 months because like any MMORPG you get bored, leave and then rejoin 2 months later.

However, i never rejoined because of the bad reports its been having.

My friend gave me a brand new copy of the SWG: The Total Expereince a while ago as he didnt like the game. I installed it last monday and im currently playing my 1 month free trial.

Not the game it once was thats for sure.

I can live with the new combat system as its not that bad however, everything else it terrible. My old master creature handler would now be totally useless and my old guild has totally disappeared.

It has far too many bugs now, a lot more than it used to have.

For me it seems nothing more than a cheap console conversion. I logged in and chose jedi as a profession (to see how jedi like it was) and within 10 hours of solid game play i had reached level 19 out of the 90 profession levels available. I was attacking NPCs 2-3 levels higher than myself without a problem. On those occasions that i was overwhelmed by NPCs and died, i just respawned with no penalties to my health or items. Im currently up to level 34 and have even managed to take down a Rancor, something that was nearly impossible after a couple of days of playing in the original version.

The quests can be very good but also infuriating as to do one mission you may need to run off and do 4 missions for someone else just to get the original bit of info you needed! After just several days of playing i have just under 1,200,000 credits, far too easy!

Due to the fact that there is no wear and tear on items and clothes i cant see the point in following these Artisan career paths. Due to the lack of people playing SWG now trying to buy either a new spaceship or even a large house is near impossible because there is no one to make them. Why spend days levelling up and crafting if there is no one to buy the items you create?

As for the space side of SWG, i was a big fan of the Xwing games and its good to see that nothing had changed in the years between these two! I was expecting graphics and controls similar to that of EVE or X3, maybe even Freelancer but all i got was a cheap and bad remake of an Xwing game. The graphics are terrible, the controls are just plain stupid and the navigation system must have been designed by a drunken monkey!

The only way to save this game is to split it into two games. Rerelease the original game, bugs and all but keep this one going for those that like it.

At the least they need to remove the set profession paths, as part of the fun of the original was that everyone had different skills. They need to totally rebuild the space side of the game and they need to create a more player based economy like EVE's!

Personally, id like a completely new SWG game to come out!

kdd · 3 Apr 2006 at 17:09

SWG is going to be a ps3 launch title, apparently that was why soe dumbed down the pc one in advance, to test the formula.

stoofa · 3 Apr 2006 at 17:25

The biggest mess-up was how they went about introducing Jedi to the game.
Initially we were told that the path to Jedi was going to be extremely long, extremely mysterious and individual to every single character created.
We were also told that not all characters could be "Force Sensative".

When the game went live I, like a lot of others, decided that we'd like to try and find out about the Jedi side of the game.
Mainly because we'd been given the impression it would be difficult to figure out and if you managed to get there you'd be rare.
I spent weeks and months visiting areas on the various planets, areas that might generate clues to the Jedi path.
I visited anything even remotely force sensative, spoke with every NPC I could find in the hope another clue maybe found and I'd be sent to find something else.

After these weeks/months it is suddenly revealed - How to become a Jedi.
They hadn't lied, the patch was difficult and yes, it was different for most players.
However all we had to do was collect some holocrons that would tell us 4 professions we had to master.
Then we had to keep on mastering professions until we hit a pre-determined first profession where upon our Jedi slot was unlocked.
Before you knew it loads of people were unlocking this rare character slot.

This game was set during episodes 4-6 where Jedi were not just rare they were more or less extinct.
Yet I've seen screen shots of groups of 5-6 of them running around together.
I "ground" my way to a Jedi slot as I'd wanted one since the very beginning when I decided I would spend my time following leads to try and unlock this slot rather than adventure in a group.
Last I'd heard they had made "Jedi" a starting profession....

I have my account with Jedi slot, well I'm assuming it could be reactivated as I haven't played the game for a long time.
It had so much potential and I so wanted to be one of the few to unlock the Jedi character, so have something that would take a long time to develop and be rare.
Instead I spend a month just grinding professions and then joining the mass ranks of them already in the game.