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Could a game with SWG's Mechanics, but not the SW IP be successful?
TheLizardbones
Member CommonPosts: 10,910
Title pretty much asks the question. Would game written using the best of SWG's mechanics be successful, without actually being based in the Star Wars Universe? What if the game was a straight up Fantasy Western, instead of a Space Western? What if it was a straight up Medieval Fantasy game? How much did the IP contribute to peoples' fond memories of SWG?
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Comments
A game with one of if not the biggest IP in the history of IP's could never crack 300k. If it didn't have star wars attatched to it, I doubt it would have had 1/3 of those players.
Edit: The game launched in April of 2003, and on August 25, 2005 Sony announced they had sold 1 million boxes. So it took them almost 2 1/2 years to even sell a million units of the game.
To be honest, even if another game took up SWG's game mechanics, it won't be successful; simply because wow has all of those mechanics.
mmo players have evolved over the last decade, combat wise they're no longer satisfied with point and click; content wise they're not longer sated with just endless grind in limited number of dungeons and open world pvp. WoW has spoiled alot of mmo players.
Personally if the next mmo has a combat system akin to TERA, questing system and dynamic world events of GW2 and WoW's end game pve and or pvp content I think that game has a chance. Obviously graphical fidelity has to be there as part of the formula.
It will take a very experienced team to craft this game and frankly no studio in the world right now can do that except Blizzard; NCsoft? well every game they put out has been a flop in the western gaming market or maybe it succeed in its own niche market. Many of the studio are going to Free to play for one reason or another. Bottom line, gaming has evolved; even Blizzard can't retain all of their customers due to losing their grip on the old magic that kept their customer for close to a decade.
Thats like comparing a 2013 ferrari to a model t.
You can not compare 2003 to todays market. In 2003 only 35-40% of people had internet to begin with. 2nd MMO's were designed for adults, not kids. 3rd 300k in 2003 was a huge number.
Then the release of WOW brought a lot more people into the mmo fold, but they targeted the younger crowd. Thats what steam rolled MMO's into the dumbed down mmo's they are today.
Many people have been screaming for a new sandbox like SWG, and it would be huge. It would give many here a new awspect/look at mmo's. For many people they havent tried nor had the pleasure of enjoying a true mmo with all its features.
I wish it would happen. Star Wars is my favorite IP, but I have so many preconcieved notions on how to do SW correctly that it is almost impossible for a game to meet my expectations. Don't misunderstand me. I love playing SW games, but I would prefer a swg like game to not be SW simply because so many peoples ideas of what is Star Wars differ from one another.
It launched in a time when two very successfull mmos had been created, actually 3. Sony themselves expected a million subs. But they couldn't even match an unknown IP's popularity.
If the reason people fondly remember SWG were the IP rather than the game mechanics, don't you think they'd be content playing SWTOR rather than wanting SWG back?
If a game did match SWG game mechanics but not the IP, I think a lot of supposedly SWG fans would try it out, declare that it wasn't as good as SWG, and quit. You can't compete with nostalgia. A lot of them also would play it and be happy for a while, of course.
whats forgotten about is that Lucas Arts pushed SWG out the door 6-12 months too early. The PvE 'content' was putrid at launch, and the balance was probably the worst in MMORPG history. SWG was a complete disaster in many, many aspects.
Except the social and crafting ones.
I think if EQNext were to borrow heavily from SWG it would be a hit. Maybe not a smash hit, but could top 500k.
WoW did appeal to an early-mid 20s player more than a game like EQ did, but WoW merely set out to make a MMORPG based on Warcraft IP. the appeal to a somewhat younger crowd was a side affect of it being a blizzard game and having more sway with PC gamers.
I feel that it would be a huge hit. I have been trying to fill the SWG void since it shut down. But, there will never be a replacement for it in my mind.
I was thinking about SWG's tatooine sand storms earlier today. SWG did weather effects so well...along with so many other things.
How am I going to /slap Darth Vader in any other IP and get force choked unconcious?
Well. t really depends on the mechanics to be used in said game : game using pre-cu mechanics would have a better chance at success in my opinion, while it would be extremely hard for a game with post-cu mechanics to succeed, especially without the SW IP.
In any case, I'd be all over a game like that, if only for the superb crafting system. Have heard people saying The Repopulation is using a lot of elements from the original SWG, so I can only hope the final product is similar.
Still sad SWG is gone. It was my primary reason to keep my SOE Station Access.