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Mind still boggled 2

Submitted by Abalieno on November 4, 2005 - 13:38.

Consolidating two comments (one on F13, one here) to summarize my point of view concisely:

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My current opinion:
1- SOE is handling this transition in a pissy-poor way.
2- "Twitch" isn't a guarantee of "good".

I think these are good points. About the first what is really odd is not that they are discarding all Raph's work, but that they are dismissing even his current one. You know, every time they had some conflict with the playerbase Raph was there for post mortem, mea culpa and consequent promises. This time I find really hard to excuse what is going on and he isn't probably going to say a word. But even if he doesn't say anything it's obvious that he is restraining.

About the second I'm just sceptical. My opinion is identic to Haemish on multiple points (community got shitted upon, the game needed this, and if it goes wrong it will be at least worth it) but the promise of "twitch" isn't enough for me to be confident about the new overturn. A system is never better than the other, it's just about how you pull things together and we have zero guarantees that the game will be better this time. "Twitch" for me is just a pretty cover.

I do hope that things will go well and the game will be good. But, for now, we cannot say that it's what is going to happen.

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As I told a guildmate that left SWG about the same time I did, SWG has (always had) a lot of great ideas, but unfortunately poor execution.

I totally agree.

Hell, even Raph would totally agree. SWG needed reiterations and needed Raph to commit to the game and drag it along when his view was more needed, instead of fleeing to greener, well-protected pastures.

The point is *exactly the opposite* of the one you write there. We have no concrete reasons to assume that SWG is going to get a better execution now. And what is happening for sure is that a lot of those great ideas are going to be erased.

This is similar to what I wrote about Blizzard. This is a radical change and I'm all for it. For the fact that a radical change was needed, not specifically what they decided to change and how. But whatever will happen cannot be related to the past. And we have still no guarantees that it is going to be better. There's no evidence that it will be good.

What actually worries me isn't the change. But the fact that if the change will be executed badly, people will believe that change is bad. Always.

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Re: Mind still boggled 2

Stranger (not verified) on November 4, 2005 - 23:49.

I'm starting to wonder if the truth is, in fact, simpler. There were rumors, about 8 months ago, that LucasArts was unhappy with SOE's performance with SWG. In any event, the success of WoW had to make some of the people at LucasArts a little unhappy -- few MMORPG's have the potential base Galaxies had, and to see some little RTS-knockoff beat them so easily......I don't doubt questions arose, fingers were pointed, and blame was assigned.

The timing here is really off -- there is no way SOE could have coded this new revamp in the time since the CU. That leaves two real alternatives:

1) Much of the code already existed, and what was lacking was artwork and associated things like questing.
2) This was in development BEFORE the CU was released -- possibly as far back as January when the decision to throttle back and radically alter the CU design was made.

If it's 1, then I suspect SWG is being used as a test-bed for their new code system -- the one they plan to use for the new Marvel game.

I heavily suspect, however, that it's number 2. I think the dustup with LucasArts back in January -- and the subsequent changes to the CU -- resulted in the high-level decision to expand Galaxies to the new PS3 and probably the XBox360. It's certainly an appealing thought to LucasArts -- their console games (even the crappy ones) sell well enough and it's a large and burgeoning audience.

Fact of the matter is, I don't think this change is aimed at fans of MMORPGs. It's aimed at fans of Diablo II and Battlefront, who want to play something a bit more persistent on their shiny new consoles.

MMORPG-Lite. Bet on it.

Galaxies never had the numbers, never made the profit that LucasArts expected. Rather than just pull the plug, they'll see if they can use what they've got to make something that works with consoles to expand their market.

And there's nothing wrong with that -- Diablo II was fun enough. But it's NOT an MMORPG.

I don't think this is a bold new step. I don't think this is a new paradigm in MMORPG's -- because I'm not sure what SWG's is going to become will BE an MMORPG anymore. Now, it might be hugely popular -- it depends on how well SOE does the code.

I've learned not to expect very much from them, though.

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