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Why the SWG: NGE sucked but SOE doesn’t
I am not trying to convince anyone of anything other than of my own experiences.
I played SWG, quite a bit, but that was several years ago and I have problems remembering if I washed my hair earlier, much less how my exact experience played out. I liked the game, but thought it was relatively ugly, and placed it on my shelf under "games I have played and liked." Not a big, complicated deal, just the way gaming goes.
Then, on November 23, 2004 World of Warcraft was released.
I did not really notice the launch because I was caught up with City of Heroes and a few other strange games. I tried as many games as I could get my hands on back then. Until, my brother began to rant and rave about WoW, as well as my friends that were caught up in SWG. I would hear more about it in every game I visited. Soon, every gamer was checking it out. It was obviously the next big thing.
WoW had an already-built-in success thanks to its incredible Warcraft series. I remember people being excited just to see the characters in a 3-D world, excited to play in the world that was introduced to them through the stand-alone game.
I was still skipping around, but soon enough my brother convinced us to try Wow. My wife, and me needless to say, had an experience like none other. The game simply ran better than SWG, CoH and most of the other games I was trying at time. It flowed better, too. You felt as though you were stepping into a story and could interact with other people like never before. I remember the clunky chat and options for SWG, many of which are still there in the game today. I remember it also giving my PC fits.
Around the holidays of 2005, the New Game Enhancements came out for SWG. To me, and it seemed to most players, it was a response to WoW. In fact, SWG was trying to BE like WoW. I think that was the case, as I have heard that directly from SOE employees.
Therefore, I let it go. WoW had me, but so did EQ2, EVE and many others as well. When a game is not interesting to me anymore because of the developer's mismanagement or if I simply grew used to the sights of the game, I just skip it for a while and check it out later. I do not really think much of it. It is hard to explain to someone that feels that the NGE was equal to corporate fraud that I do not really care.
I base all my feelings of SOE off the years of enjoyment that they have given to millions of players. There is no gaming other company that has released as many games, and continuing to release more, as they have. Granted, not all have met with the success of WoW, but then again NO North American company has yet met with the success of WoW. Why should SOE be any different?
In other words, the good simply outweighs the bad. The NGE was, and always will be, a mistake. A mistake can even be intentionally made, but predicting the outcome of that action is where the mistake comes into play. The NGE was a tragedy for many disabled gamers, literally turning a standard style action bar MMO into some sort of FPS hybrid of failure, which literally tossed out hundreds if not thousands of disabled individuals who called Star Wars Galaxies, home.
However, there were many pressures on SOE, and all gaming companies, thanks to the success of Wow. There still is that pressure today, thanks to the continued success of WoW. I think they responded to the success of WoW by not only trying to imitate the game in many ways, but in the hopes that the sudden success of WoW would somehow rub off on all gaming companies.
Moreover, it has. The success of WoW has created a flow of money and culture into gaming that benefits us all. I look at that as a good thing. Thanks to gaming being taken out of "the basement" and onto hip television shows like South Park, we all can find our games easier, and more games are being developed. So yes, in a way, what happened with the NGE was a result of something improved happening.
When someone tells me, they hate SOE for what they did with SWG, I just kind of shrug. What else do I say? Do I tell them that if SOE happen to make a game that they thought was cool that they would more than likely buy it, despite what they say? On the other hand, maybe I tell them that SOE has done many more good things than bad, and is one of the only 10-year-old MMO companies still doing big things like DCUO, Free Realms or the Agency?
Of course, they might say that I just like the people of SOE and that warps my vision. Well, SOE is made up of people. It is not one man, despite what many would say, that makes these games.
In fact, concentrating on one stupid mistake while discounting all the wonderful memories, artwork, hard work and adventure is, well, a little strange. We all make mistakes in our lives. Now imagine trying to make no mistakes while working with thousands and thousands of people emailing you, filling up your forums with varying opinions (and yes there were and still are varying opinions,) and while they all pay you money per month.
Next time I write an article about my favorite SOE product, understand that I have heard how bad SOE sucks for what they did to SWG around 506 times, probably literally. I have been mentioning them in podcasts, blogs and conversation for a long time now, and really just want to get on with playing games.
Just get out all those NGE comments here, so I can get on with talking about Free Realms or DCUO! Also, know that SWG is actually doing pretty well and is a fantastic game despite what it was in the past. The game runs well, looks good, and has more options still than most MMO's out there.
In addition, please, understand that I know that having your favorite game ruined by a stupid greedy mistake is no fun at all. I am fully aware of the effects. I am not attempting to belittle or put down anyone that was hurt by what happened. There are many bitter people over what happened with the NGE.
In fact, it may be one of the only video games moves that are so infamous, no matter what game forum someone makes a post about the NGE on, people will respond. The NGE was a mistake that cost a lot of people's time and energy, and the people behind the move likely regretted the decision from the moment that mass exodus from SWG began. We all put a lot into these characters.
However, there are always more characters to make.
The big reason why we gamers have such bad feelings with SOE is because they took a Star Wars MMO that was loved by many and turned it into crap. I for one will always have a grudge against them for years to come. The NGE wasn't made because SOE was worried about WoW, it was made for one reason only, because they could.
I am not sure I get ya. Because they could what?
If you think they did it for whatever reason, it doesn't matter. The only official response came from SOE, and thus should be trusted more than any fan theory. Sure, any company can be lying about anyTHING, but when I have the choice of evidence presented by a company that actually made the game, and evidence presented by theories from gamers, I would wager on the company. I am not saying that they are absolutely right, just that it is more likely.
For example, many players have "heard" that the population of SWG is _________. In my time as a gamer, I have heard all sorts of numbers, depending on who says them. The simple fact of the matter is that there are very few times when SOE would release it's numbers, but those are the only times you will hear them. Getting numbers out of most MMO companies is pretty much impossible. Trust me, I have tried.
Point being that many theories exist as to why SOE has done many things. But every time I meet someone that has actually talked to someone that knows face-to-face, they always come out going "hhhmmm..that's not what I thought."
It was one dumb mistake. The company is going on, and so do I. That's all.
Beau
SOE has a long way to go before they win back my trust. I think the very ugly and dirty truth of the situation is that we all remember the game so fondly because it was taken from us without our choice. I give it 10 to one that all of us would have moved on to something else within a few months or year of when the NGE happened. Personally, I was bouncing between wow & swg when the horrible game experiment I mean NGE occurred. I would have eventually canceled my subscription but it would've been on my terms not theirs.
I think another reason so many people are hanging onto this is that there is not another game title that had a company changed its genre after being live, let alone for so many years. They literally changed the game from an MMO RPG to an FPS RPG. No one does that and there is a reason. You have to take the time to seduce your player base, when you change the core of the game after some players have already paid you multiple hundreds of dollars, that is why you are seeing such strong resentment.
At the end of the day, Sony learned a valuable lesson and it really doesn't matter if it was SOE or Lucas arts, they learned that if you want to make another game, make another game not change the first game.
Very nice article though, hopefully it will inspire some thoughts or conversation. As I told you in person, Beau, I completely disagree with you but I think a different viewpoint on an old beaten horse is never a bad thing.
I say judge each game on its own merits, but take into account the developer too. I, on the one hand, would be willing to try SWG today, yet on the other hand I am highly sceptical, having heard of Sony's management of it in the past (and also Sony's general public presence recently, which I personally find a little ham fisted and narrowminded, especially when it comes to their views on DRM and the internet).
Were NGE not there, I'd try SWG...
So you haven't even tried it?
Just being honest here, not trying to sound like a jerk but it's a free download, a free month, and about 6 gigs of space. That's nothing. No matter what SOE thinks, (remember it's made up of hundreds of individual thinkers) they cannot stop you from having a good time.
I mean, you have to be open to the possibility that SOE can, has, and in the future will make good games. It is very possible that you might enjoy some of their games. (Or that you might hate them.) But what I get from some players is that they would let a stupid mistake that happened 5 YEARS AGO ruin their possible fun now.
As far as SOE and how they are now, I can assure you they are in many ways as they have always been. They are a company, and a company's job is to make lot's of money. We all know that and support that, obviously.
But they are a collection of individuals. They are not a board of robots with human slaves. It takes 100's of people to make and run these games, and within these games are decisions made by all those hundreds of people. You might play a quest written by Joe, then turn around and fight a mob designed by Sally.
SOE messing up was the result of a few people making poor decisions. If you are hurt by those decisions, take it up with those people, and certainly don't punish those designers and coders and especially yourself by denying yourself the exploration of some (possibly) very fun games.
When I was a kid, I went to the fair. It would cost 5 bucks to enter. Now a days it costs 15, and the fairgrounds were moved farther away. Still, the fair is a blast and for an entire evenings worth of entertainment, 15 bucks is nothing. Wouldn't it seem a little silly to deny myself a possibly fun evening all because of the fact that it USED to cost 5 bucks and was closer to my house? Things change, and you won't know what you think until you look for yourself.
Fact is, they have put back into the game a lot of the things they took out with the NGE. Not only that, but the game plays better and runs better than ever before. Housing just got an awesome upgrade, and Hoth was released. It's actually the best time to be playing SWG.
Beau
Beau
best? o.O ......no. Now, when they decide to take the incredibly poor FPS controls out of the game intended to be used with an action bar, I would go back. I've also had 6, yes 6, different friends try the free trial since they put a lot of that stuff back in and they all said it still sucks 
Firstly, nothing free on the internet is actually free, at least in my opinion. 6 GB is half of my monthly internet bandwidth for a month (my ISP is crap, I know) and I'm not wasting what bandwidth I have for games that *might* be fun.
Secondly, SOE isn't a bad company. Everquest, another game thats a bit before my time (WoW was my first ever MMO), was (and still is, somewhat) hugely popular.
My point is that SOE broke our trust after building it up so well with Everquest, and now we are all a bit sceptical about them.
I admit, though, I wrote my first post out of ignorance. Like I said, all I know about SWG is through hearsay, as I use that most of all to judge whether or not I look into an MMO, so I'm quite prepared to be wrong in my views, and would love to see a better game from them. Though I'm having doubts about how good SWG is currently after seeing Bearstion's comment.
Yes, now is the best time to play it.
You can't go back in time till before the NGE, so you have to work with what you have now. Barring what the game was, the game is still really good. I think it might be impossible for some players to go back and enjoy it like before, but isn't that the case with art, music or movies?
EDIT: Don't know if I already put this comment. If so, delete the double comment! 
David: I can make you an install file and send you a DVD with it on it. I think it would fit, at least the trial. If not, I could send it on two DVD's. Of course, the offer is there for any game you wanna try..Ryzom, EQ2, whatever...hehe
Beau
Okay I feel the need to chime in here. SOE does not suck, I agree with that. I love EQ2 and I want them to be happy. I think what they did to SWG is a lesson in "How to kill a MMO" 101 as well as "How to destroy an IP that can not be destroyed" 101
I will forgive them. That is why Bioware is taking the IP and running with it. I hope they took the classes SOE created above. I have high hopes!
SOE is forgiven, some of my best days in gaming have been spent in SOE games. The have also broken my heart.
For me as a gamer, I'm interested in SWG as it used to be a more open-ended role-playing game, or so I heard. The NGE screwed that up to make it more like WoW, which I used to love, but now am sick to death of, for the most part. I'd be willing to give it a try, though, if SWG is now able to be a somewhat middle ground between the two extremes of open-ended and quest-based play, or at least was not so focussed on the endless levelling and grinding as WoW (which sucked all the fun out of being there, as you could never keep up with your friends).
Either way, thankyou, all of you who've offered to send me discs, thats very cool of you.
First a little about me...
Avid Gamer, HUGE Star Wars Dork, I have played most MMO's on the market and some that are now kaput!
The truth of the matter is... SOE went into a co-venture with LucasArts (LA) to put SWG out. With the release of WoW, it was LA, NOT SOE, that decided to make the NGE happen. SOE's control was stripped from them by LA, after the Combat Upgrade (CU) hit. LA said that SOE was guilty of making SWG not "Star Warsy" enough. So LA took over and made it a dumbed-down, 9 profession, over the shoulder, FPS-style pile of crap. To comment further on LA's accusations of not "star warsy" enough... LA, if ANYONE should know... the time period that SWG is set, there aren't thousands of Jedi running around, so why make it a starting "profession?"
Most of you who were nerd raging and /gquiting faster than you could rip your subs from SOE... should take some time to find out what the real deal was. SOE devs and community reps were put on a strict hush order when LA took back what was rightfully theirs. LA bastardized the franchise as they saw fit. "We're losing out to WoW, we must make this MORE like WoW." Also, why do most people want to play a Star Wars game? To rock a lightsaber, that's why! So of course they made Jedi a starter "profession."
None of this is excusable, but along with Beau I'm tired of people wrongfully blaming SOE for al of this. Fact of the matter is, while under SOE's rule... SWG was unlike ANY other game on the market. It cut new ground, forged new paths, and was an ultimate Star Wars experience. I'm sorry if it wasn't a hand holder MMO. It was a poor business decision by LucasArts, NOT Sony Online Entertainment...
The problem with SWG was that it wasn't Star Wars in the beginning it was a Sim Game and was likely the most in depth Sim Game ever conceived. It didn't belong in the Star Wars Universe. Crafting and Economy, while broken at launch, were an amazing experience still not achieved by another game. The people who came to play Star Wars stuck around for the Sim Game or left because it wasn't the experience they wanted but the people that stayed and got hooked were a legion of the most passionate and dedicated gamers any MMO has ever seen and when change happened, which included Bait and Switch and complete upheaval it was simply too much disrespect. In fact, the 1st CU system, before it was switched out at the last second for what we ended up getting, was scoring higher than the PreCU system for combat.
SOE was just a clustering mess of people all wanting something different. Raph was right to get out because SOE didn't appreciate his vision and SOE was right to can and blackmark Kai Steinmann. SOE is a great company that went through soem bad decisions.
You can't separate SOE from the NGE. Nor can you untie the NGE from The Agency or DCMMO. Why? Because most of the same mismanagement that went with the NGE and who kept going in the NGE direction months after it was obvious that 11/15/05 was "Waterloo" for SWG are or have been IN CHARGE of developing those titles!
Indeed, DCMMO has had not one, not two, but THREE former lead Devs from the NGE in charge of it. To think that it and other in development SOE titles will be free of the lunacy that influenced the NGE would be lunacy.
Also, if SOE actually "regretted" the NGE, as the author puts it, from the moment the mass exodus started, why did they insist that the solution to the NGE was, well, more NGE? Had they reinstated the game within the first weeks and apologized, they'd have a better reputation, as well as a more successful Star Wars MMO than they have currently, which is depopulated aside from one server.
And have you played the NGE recently? It does NOT look great, it's not polished, and bugs that date back to the NGE (and before) are glaring. For instance, did you bother to notice that the combat system STILL doesn't actually... well, WORK, due to the massive lag that 4+ actions a second cause?
SOE made their bed with the NGE. Now they must lie in it. They've not had even ONE successful new title since the NGE, nor are they going to. Where they were once #1 in the industry, today they probably don't even crack the top 10 in publisher relevancy.
you clearly have not done your research for this article.
its fine if you do not know the issues surrounding the nge at depths, but you cannot claim to have heard it 500 times and ignore key arguments to defend soe's position.
first, you should know that it is corporate fraud. they charge people a subscription which can last up to a year and they have removed critical game features almost without notice. they sold an expansion weeks before the changes were made.
those changes came about by asking a focus group of ramdom people, not the players who actually play the game.
it wasnt just ONE mistake (ie the nge). it was hundred of mistakes - not getting player feedback, not offering pre-cu servers, or an outright roll-back of all servers after the gaff; releasing the nge in a state which was hardly playable...
for a whole list of SOE "gaffs" read this: A Complete History of SOE's Lies. You might get some more insight on your article here.
It's not opinion. It's reality.
SOE is in the fix it's in BECAUSE of the NGE, and because they never did anything concrete to make amends for it. Which is why SWG is going to die the moment TOR releases, the only reason they still have any players are because there is a certain number of people that will play it because it's the only Star Wars MMO. They lose that the moment TOR is reality. The SOE fanboi segment is in reality the true "vocal minority" (the term they always tried to hang we, who hated the NGE and gave SOE every level of hell we could throw at them for it).
The NGE was beyond mistake. It was out and out international wire fraud. They sold us an expansion and marketed features that they knew were coming out of the game within 2 weeks of release. They charged us for that expansion literally THE DAY BEFORE the NGE was announced. Yes, they later offered refunds for that, but not everyone (myself included) who requested them got them. Nor did they refund ANY prepaid game time, and I'd subscribed for a year just 2 months before the NGE.
I'm sorry, but a company that does all that and continues to do similar things, such as to EQ2, back when SOE started offering RMT servers a couple years ago, they claimed that those would be it, that RMT would not creep into the other servers. Then, suddenly, as SOE always does with controversial changes, one day a RMT store suddenly appeared on EVERY EQ/EQ2 server!
SOE hasn't learned a damn thing from the NGE, and their actions since prove it. Why isn't there even ONE classic SWG server? Why isn't there even ONE EQ server free of SOE RMT? Why is John Smedley, who is a serial liar, still in charge of SOE? One would think at the very least if SOE wanted to improve their image, the Smed would have to be the FIRST out the door!
Free Realms has failed. The Agency has practically lost it's whole Dev team and is probably going to fail. DCMMO? Will fail. SOE has too much competition in all areas they cover that have at the very least, the virtue of not being... SOE. Which gives them a leg up.
Seriously, what Sony should do is kill off SOE, keep the EQ IP rights for their consoles, then sell the PC rights to it to anyone who is willing to take it off their hands. That's the only asset they have worth anything, and even that is only a shadow of what it once was.
people hate soe and sony in general for much more than ruining one game. they have mismanaged most of thier mmos and lied repeatedly to their customers so much you could write a freakin book on it. rootkits in CDs, using pirated server software,driving developers off their own console....most divisions of sont suffer from near criminal management policies we would all be better off without.
people hate soe and sony in general for much more than ruining one game. they have mismanaged most of thier mmos and lied repeatedly to their customers so much you could write a freakin book on it. rootkits in CDs, using pirated server software,driving developers off their own console....most divisions of sont suffer from near criminal management policies we would all be better off without.
In fact, concentrating on one stupid mistake while discounting all the wonderful memories, artwork, hard work and adventure is, well, a little strange. We all make mistakes in our lives.
Yes the NGE was the single largest mismanagement DECISION in the mmo history. It was a deliberate act of trying to replace the current playerbase with a mythical larger playerbase. The only "mistake" was that it did not succeed.
However you are just as guilty of what you are complaining in others do to you in discussions. The NGE was absolutely the pinnacle of what not to do to an mmo and that intentionally trying to replace your current customers is the worst thing a company could do. However, it is not the only bad act that soe has been involved in and that is all you reference as if soe has never done anything else.
Soe as a company is constantly surrounded by controversy. You can almost set a clock to it as every couple of months there is some new scandal.
Just a short list of examples:
*Thrusting a cash shop in their subscription based games and not telling the playerbase about it until AFTER it was patched into the game. This is the action of a company that continually promises to "listen to the customers and not repeat the mistakes of the past"
*Cramming microtransactions down the players throats through virtual card games in all their major games. Loot cards! Loot cards! Loot cards! They actually have rules against talking about the card game on certain forums. WTF!
*Introducing cash sales between players for in game items so they can take a percentage of the sale.
*All of the above breaks the promise that they would never put RMT into several of their games... which they did.
*slowing down the development cycle of their expansions to "work on quality" and suddenly coming out with the 3 brand new real money transaction systems above.
*Promises of fixing systems and bugs for years that go unfulfilled, but they seem to have more and more time to work on cash for virtual items systems. The broken engines and mechanics still remain unfixed.
*Developers getting caught exploiting player submitted bug reports to get legendary items for their in game guild.
*GMs moving their friends players from servers that do not allow transfers off of and then yelling at players for being upset about it.
*Customer relations managers openly flaming the customers on the official forums. Calling them crybabies, whiners and telling them to stfu and they still keep their job.
*Lead Producers leaving the mmo they are in charge of without even saying goodbye or even mentioning that they have left.
*Several currency exploits in several of their games have resulted in such horrible mass bannings of the innocent players for things that were so far beyond their control it wasn't even questionable and forcing them through an appeals process that was a joke.
*not to mention it doesn't seem like they can keep any lead developers for more than a year. Do they even have a game that hasn't changed leadership in the last year or so?
*Now they are moving the lead producer of an mmo to "another project" and putting all the content development on hold for that game. What kind of company tells their customers that they are essentially freezing development of their game so they can work on some unrelated project?
Soes reputation isn't limited to just the NGE. It is defined very well by the actions of the NGE as those same methods and actions can be seen repeated through all of their games to various degrees.
Honestly it doesn't matter how many good things they do, when they have a long history of repeatedly crapping on their customers, breaking promises and mismanaging their products.
Is SOE a company that does good things, yes.
Is SOE a company that has a long history of disrespecting their customers, yes.
Ignoring all the bad things soe does except for the biggest and most obvious, doesn't make this a "good" company. Their reputation is well earned from across all their games. Yes SWG is the big ugly wart on the nose of SOE, but there is much more to their bad complexion that that.
I think a previous poster already summed it up nicely on SOE's long history of "controversial" behavior but forgot to mention the "Planes of Power" expansion in everquest being released before they had finished writing it. SOE didn't count on players being able to reach the final levels of the expansion before they had a chance to actually write them so they allegedly introduced a "bug" to prevent players from entering the levels and then "fixed the bug" once they had it complete. All of this is rumor but fits the facts better than their lame explanation. The biggest problem with SOE is that you can't trust them at all. People who play mmo's are trusting the game company with literally years of their time. If they wake up one morning to find that the months or years they spent building a charcter and his gear etc are just suddenly gone....imagine how they feel. That's exactly what happened with the NGE. It's quite simply an unforgivable offense by an mmo company that already had a stained reputation. To top it all off what did SOE do about it? They kept the prepaid subscription money from angry players. They issued NO apology ever. They continue lying to customers of their current games all the while saying that they've "learned from past mistakes". They haven't learned a thing and they haven't changed a bit.
Simple answer to the whole question is this - google "swg pre cu" and see how many open source privately (gamer) funded development projects and servers there are to put swg back the way it used to be.
That there is such passion, dedication and effort, without any financial reward, 5 YEARS on from NGE to basically put everything back to how it used to be should be all anyone needs to see how wrong LA / SOE were.
As someone that played SWG from beta I can say my opinion is this : pre cu swg is still unmatched today as an mmo, cu swg wasnt as good but still rocked, NGE is just plain wrong. That in itself wouldnt mean much, but the fact that pretty much every other swg subscriber that remembers pre NGE would say the same thing with greater or lesser degrees of swearing does.
The thing SOE, and I mean SOE not LA, is guilty of, and always has been, is not listening to their community at senior management level. The professions devs and game devs were generally great, but as for Community Relationship? No. LA were guilty of doing what any large corporate is going to do - wanting to copy the market leader to make money, that's understandable - SOE were guilty of rolling over and agreeing this would be a good idea rather than presenting any kind of detailed prediction of the catastrophic effect this would have on the player base.
How anyone can fail when they have the greatest franchise ever to base their game on I dont know, but Bioware and SWTOR will indeed remove any purpose for NGE's further existence.
And until it's release I'd recommend everyone to have a look at SWG EMU, get on TC Nova, and support the game swg should still be.
I'm in total agreement with the above poster, the fact is, SoE / LA worked hand in hand on this, they ruined a great and unique sandbox MMORPG in an attempt to capitalize on the WoW craze. The thing is, World of Warcraft caters to kids, SWG (The original game) catered to adults. It had a learning curve that made it challenging and more fun.
If SoE and LA announced tomorrow that SWG Pre-CU was returning or even SWG (The Combat Upgrade) was returning, I would drop my World of Warcraft account in a heartbeat and return, regardless on the mismanagement SoE and LA exhibited in the past, because when the rubber meets the road, the facts are the facts, SWG (the old game) was and still is in my opinion far more diverse, entertaining, and superior to WoW or any other MMO that has come out since that horrible day of the NGE.
1. RadinAt 4 life!!!
2. Was that really THE Necroz?
3. Seriously? Still commenting on this? The NGE happened 5 1/2 years ago and SWTOR is slated for launch this year. The NGE effectively killed SWG and we all know it, SOE finally admitted it was a huge mistake and they won't go back. Ever. Whether they refuse to as a technical matter, point of pride or something else is irrelevant. They won't go back and, frankly, with SWTOR on the horizon, there's no need. Want pre-CU SWG? Use one of the emulator projects.
4. I'm not defending SOE. I'm just pointing out that this happened 5 1/2 YEARS ago.
5. I know people who work at SOE. I've talked to a fair number of devs. I have friends who work there. The individuals I've dealt with are conscientious, hard-working, open to suggestion and all about making things fun. While the direction provided by Lucas and / or SOE management may be misguided, the people who work there don't always have a choice about what to do with changes.
6. I fail to see how the security issues are relevant to this discussion. At this time, there is no evidence indicating that Sony or SOE were negligent in their data security - their post-breach plan is clearly flawed, but - as yet - there's no indication that they were in any way negligent. I still think they should pay for my LifeLock account because their security was breached and I'm absorbing the financial impact of it, but that security breach is completely unrelated to SWG, the NGE or anything else discussed in this article.
7. The rest of it? In true RadinIte fashion, tl;dr tbh.
1. RadinAt 4 life!!!
2. Was that really THE Necroz?
3. Seriously? Still commenting on this? The NGE happened 5 1/2 years ago and SWTOR is slated for launch this year. The NGE effectively killed SWG and we all know it, SOE finally admitted it was a huge mistake and they won't go back. Ever. Whether they refuse to as a technical matter, point of pride or something else is irrelevant. They won't go back and, frankly, with SWTOR on the horizon, there's no need. Want pre-CU SWG? Use one of the emulator projects.
4. I'm not defending SOE. I'm just pointing out that this happened 5 1/2 YEARS ago.
5. I know people who work at SOE. I've talked to a fair number of devs. I have friends who work there. The individuals I've dealt with are conscientious, hard-working, open to suggestion and all about making things fun. While the direction provided by Lucas and / or SOE management may be misguided, the people who work there don't always have a choice about what to do with changes.
6. I fail to see how the security issues are relevant to this discussion. At this time, there is no evidence indicating that Sony or SOE were negligent in their data security - their post-breach plan is clearly flawed, but - as yet - there's no indication that they were in any way negligent. I still think they should pay for my LifeLock account because their security was breached and I'm absorbing the financial impact of it, but that security breach is completely unrelated to SWG, the NGE or anything else discussed in this article.
7. The rest of it? In true RadinIte fashion, tl;dr tbh.
There is no other game like pre-NGE SWG now and no coming in in any foreseeable future. It was only game for 'adult' people, where you had to actually read something about game before playing.
Yeah, i bought the SWTOR preorder and i'm looking for it.
But ... i have my reservations, so far what i seen, the game is pretty simple.
Soe screwed it up completely. They're now shining example to other game managements how to NOT do things.
Anyway, i'm tired of dumb games like wow a wow-like clones - like postNGE..
I'll see how SWTOR fares, but if its dumb like wow, it wont hold me for long.
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