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Vindictive?
xPaladin
Member UncommonPosts: 741
I read up on the housing packup. Initially, I just skimmed it since I hardly give a crap about SWG anymore. If anything, checking up on SWG takes all of 2 minutes of my time: the vets still say it sucks, the people actually playing are generally gaming vagabonds and/or star wars fans looking to retain their community, and SOE is still hopelessly clueless. I've come to accept the above as status quo for SWG.
At any rate, a few weeks later, I stumbled on an article speculating about server merges which talked about the packup and, in particular, a point I overlooked: how the actual demolition was taking place.
FTA (located here):
Demolition ProcedureStarting on June 5, 2007, those structures that have not been reclaimed will be marked as abandoned. An abandoned structure will then be subject to demolition by your fellow citizens. Citizens will be rewarded for each structure demolished.
Demolition Rewards
Junior Wrecking Crew Worker Badge - Destroy 10 abandoned structures.
Wrecking Crew Manager Extraordinaire - Destroy 100 abandoned structures.For each successful destruction of an abandoned structure, you will recieve one reward point. Reward points are redeemable at the Luck Despot for cool in-game items that you can use to decorate your own structures.
Reward Items (one point apiece):
... etc etc ...
update: I hopped on to poke around a bit and (sigh) didnt see a single person. As usual. What I did see was that houses are already labeled with the (Abandoned) flag, so you can know for certain whether your house is slated for demolition. I took a walk around my neighborhood outside of Theed to get a sense of how much damage Ill be able to do in a few months, and I stopped counting after fifty or so. Assuming I move quickly on the first day the event starts running, I should be able to catch that 100-buildings-destroyed badge no problem.
I'm not against the clean up of abandoned account structures at all. I understand the need for players to have control over their servers. But, and perhaps this is just me, but this seems a little vindictive.
It almost seems like SOE is hellbent on kicking the corpses of "dissidents," the majority of which have long since left the game. Where the folks at SOE could easily flip a switch (ironically the same switch flagging the structures as abandoned in the first place!) and remove structures, they're leaving it to the players to perform the cleanup themselves.
Let's face it: both sides of the whole SWG playerbase are at odds (to some degree). Vets want the old game back, current players just want to play a SWG MMO. Two distinct beliefs, contradictory, yet neither are polars on the moral compass. Yet, the tension was (is) enough that the flaming and countering reached such epic proportions and the only resolution is to segregate the communities. In some cases -- as with these boards -- there is physical segregation.
One thing that really gets me is that, and correct me if I'm wrong but, SOE is implying that structures will be deleted permanently. I remember a long time ago that players were able to store a structure in their datapad to facilitate moving structures with items already in them. Yet there's no mention of this at all.
But what really breaks my balls about packup is the irony of it all. Directly affecting another player's equipment/character/etc is considered "griefing" by SOE standards (in case you were wondering why player corpse looting was always considered a sin by SOE). But since the packup suits their agenda, it's considered acceptable enough to be encouraged with rewards. It's as if to say "Well, kids, here you go: have a bat and take free swings at those nasty anti-SWG naysayers and quitters, on us!"
Honestly, I almost can't wait to see what happens when a structure is wrongfully marked for demolition and the player is active. Knowing SOE, this will happen many times over.
Occam's razor granted, this whole thing is really some awful and misguided attempt on SOE's behalf at player content: to make a game with cute rewards out of server cleanup whilst offering a one shot ultimatum toward vets. A desperate attempt to get those sub rates going back up and get a good month's worth of revenue out of it.
Overall, though, I just think it stinks of vindictiveness. I'm not worried about either vets or current players. I'm worried about everyone else caught in between: the Joes and Janes that took a break for a while only to have their crap deleted because SOE, too lazy to come up with a reasonable solution for all parties involved, wanted to stick it to vets. I really think Sony's moral compass is guided by one of Smedley's refrigerator magnets.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
Comments
You're reading far too much into this and making a mountain out of molehill.
First: Players that have quit have given up all their rights to any items within the game.
Second: Yes, SOE could make it automatic. Instead, they made a way for the players to get involved and get some rewards along the way. And this is bad?? If they had just done it, people would bitch they didnt get to help!
Third: Noone is losing anything other than a spot on the map. Their goods are being packed up the datapad. Chances are, there aren't enough players around to fill up around the cities anyway.
Griefing? Get real. Who is griefing? The players that quit long ago and were inconsiderate enough to leave their houses / cities in place keeping other players from having a nice spot (or even a city/shuttleport)? Or the company doing something about it so the PAYING customers can enjoy the game more fully?
Just goes to show there's no pleasing some people and no matter what SOE does, they'll never make some people happy.
Actually, I thought it was a very clever way for the devs to get the subscibers to do their work.
I mean, honestly, did you really expect the devs to go searching for abandoned structures? Why do the work when you can get your paying customers to do it for you?
Thanks for the clarification. Though, again, SOE makes it seem like the structures will be permanently deleted. It honestly won't surprise me if some database conversion error crops up leading to lost items or worse. If you've been playing long enough you know precisely what that means and SOE's track record as such.
The problem is that this doesn't guarantee all structures will be found and destroyed, and it includes players in a rather inconvenient way. Therefore, it's not a complete solution. One flick of a switch on the database side of things lets SOE store the houses to their respected datapads without any further ado.
IMO, from a developer's standpoint, it's a cute idea -- but one that will be remarkably short lived. Instead, the folks running the show could've spent the month (or more!) they spent working on the cleanup "event" and put in some real content with a degree of longevity.
But seeing how the entire SWG "experience" is based on recycled or imaginary content, I suppose this event is a little more ironic humor. Other MMO players get new dungeons and quests, SWG players get to repeatedly clean up SOE's mistakes.
I actually do agree with you, however, it's not their inconsideration. The left behind houses are an inherent design flaw which really ought to be SOE's mess to clean up.
And about griefing, I'm just laying out the letter of the "designers' law." There'd been numerous debates about the definition and scope of griefing, so I won't get into that here.
However the point I make is that I can definitely see a couple of cases in which some bitter players will strike back at former nemesis in childish ways -- especially if the process of demolition is bugged. I'd say it's so inevitable as to just watch the forums and wait for an occurance.
If it were any other company it'd be a minor footnote. But SOE has a reputation for taking proverbial dumps on it's players and ex-players alike. This is just another example, even if it's not a shot at vets. If it is, then it's a double-whammy.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
You imply that ALL vets don't still play and that ALL current players are post-NGE players. I've played the game since 2003 and still play it.
Not to mention the TONS of people who quit the game even before the CU because they thought the game was a steaming pile crap (real life friends of mine and even my cousin). And yeah, there were a LOT who quit even back then.
If old players would log into the game for more than 30 min., actually PLAY IT, then you'd know that there are still a lot of vets that play ("Elders").
Face it. The game was NEVER a success. Hence the constant changes.
Not saying your completely wrong, just generalizing a bit too much.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
You imply that ALL vets don't still play and that ALL current players are post-NGE players. I've played the game since 2003 and still play it.
Not to mention the TONS of people who quit the game even before the CU because they thought the game was a steaming pile crap (real life friends of mine and even my cousin). And yeah, there were a LOT who quit even back then.
If old players would log into the game for more than 30 min., actually PLAY IT, then you'd know that there are still a lot of vets that play ("Elders").
Face it. The game was NEVER a success. Hence the constant changes.
Not saying your completely wrong, just generalizing a bit too much.
Speaking of generalizing, I've played enough of post-NGE to go from lvl 80 to 87 and I still haven't seen my friends list come alive again.
Of course some vets are still playing. I'm just saying that none of my pre-CU friends have been online during the time it took me to go from 80 to 87.
But the quote above remind me of true sad , sad story ..happend in the 30's ..IRL..unwanted shops labeled .with .."jews"...and ...for everyone in town was free to maraud.... bah i dont like the analogy and better stop it here..nah forget my above statements $OE isn't like that...i am very wrong..wait....if you look at it ..isn't it like THAT ? ..hm ..but only ingame..well...or !?
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
and hatred of 200k vets that payed thier salaries for years.
lets hope this packup crashes the servers.