Good and bad?

Shadowhand · December 2004

Im thinking of buying this game..Can anyone tell me in there opinion('s) the Good/Bad Pros/Cons of this game?

Scaris · December 2004

there is a free trial of it at fileplanet.com. 10 day, no credit card needed if I remember right.

- Fadeus Hawkwood

punkrock · December 2004

really no CC. dam sounds good for 10 days. but what if the 10 days are over and i still want to play? do i put the CC in then. i really want to play this game. if you can please give link.

Scaris · December 2004

You have to go buy the box set and enter a new serial for your exhisting account I beleive.

- Fadeus Hawkwood

punkrock · December 2004

oh that is not bad at all. can i have link please i would like to play asap thanks

Erillion · December 2004

Good :

HUGE world + space // plenty of professions (33) and after finding out all you want about a profession over time you become anything you want .. you are not fixed forever to a certain character class that can only be changed by creating a new character // Huge variability in races, stats and appearance // excellent add-on (Jump to Lightspeed ... now free 10 day trial JTL +SWG from Fileplanet .. try it first then buy the game) // very nice community (at least on my server = Naritus) // THE Star Wars genre ... better than elves and goblins in my opinion // grafics are stunning // crafting system is the best of any MMORPGs I have played so far // Music is tops // Mounts, vehicles, spaceships, player cities available // TONS of equipment and loot to fool around with or decorate your house

Bad:

Most combat related stuff (profession and equipment balance) needs a serious overhaul (They are working on it right now .. Combat Revamp ..2. quarter 2005). Rebel/Empire conflict so far pointless (Galactic Civil War Expansion pack coming sometimes 2005 to adress that) - if you win/lose has no effect on anything at the moment. CSR Support lacking (slowly getting better). Dev Team understaffed (they hired new people recently and many resources have become available after JTL has shipped - so I guess we will see more dev response early 2005). Problem with high end game (Jedi = high end goal = VERY bad idea !!). Needs more content, especially "instanced" so no jokers can interfere with your mission .. make no mistake, there is TONS of content, but some want to be spoon fed new content every day for months instead of creating their own .. and no MMORPG can deliver that !! Some problems with macroes and exploits ... but severity strongly dependent on what server you are playing.

In summary ... an excellent game with bugs, but those are being addressed (not as fast as we want, but they DO address them). Currently suffering some player drain due to new games out (WoW and Everquest 2), but many will come back after the upcoming SWG fixes and when the novelty of the new games has worn off (was the same with City of Heroes and will be the same with the upcoming Matrix, Middleearth, Star Trek, Warhammer etc. ).

Have fun

Erillion

(SWG : Novarider on Naritus galaxy)

Scaris · December 2004

Originally posted by punkrock
oh that is not bad at all. can i have link please i would like to play asap thanks

http://www.fileplanet.com

- Fadeus Hawkwood

punkrock · December 2004

this sucks i dont have SWG and it says i need it to play JTLH..... and they said the 14-day free trial for SWG is over sucks big time

punkrock · December 2004

oh and thanks Erillion for the info on the game dude looks like i ma going to like it. AH had some problems like this before when it got fixed it was a very good game.

milhoan6 · December 2004

Yeah i tried the trial again after quitting for about a year. I really love the space combat in JtL. Too bad I love it too much though, because my toon is only a novice brawler

________________________________
MMORPG's Im currently playing: City of Heroes, Anarchy Online and christmas...World of Warcraft!!!

MMORPG's I've played: Star Wars Galaxies, DAOC, EQ, WW2 Online, Knight Online, Sims Online, Asherons Call 2, and Risk Your Life

Shadowhand · December 2004

Originally posted by Erillion

Good :
HUGE world + space // plenty of professions (33) and after finding out all you want about a profession over time you become anything you want .. you are not fixed forever to a certain character class that can only be changed by creating a new character // Huge variability in races, stats and appearance // excellent add-on (Jump to Lightspeed ... now free 10 day trial JTL +SWG from Fileplanet .. try it first then buy the game) // very nice community (at least on my server = Naritus) // THE Star Wars genre ... better than elves and goblins in my opinion // grafics are stunning // crafting system is the best of any MMORPGs I have played so far // Music is tops // Mounts, vehicles, spaceships, player cities available // TONS of equipment and loot to fool around with or decorate your house
Bad:
Most combat related stuff (profession and equipment balance) needs a serious overhaul (They are working on it right now .. Combat Revamp ..2. quarter 2005). Rebel/Empire conflict so far pointless (Galactic Civil War Expansion pack coming sometimes 2005 to adress that) - if you win/lose has no effect on anything at the moment. CSR Support lacking (slowly getting better). Dev Team understaffed (they hired new people recently and many resources have become available after JTL has shipped - so I guess we will see more dev response early 2005). Problem with high end game (Jedi = high end goal = VERY bad idea !!). Needs more content, especially "instanced" so no jokers can interfere with your mission .. make no mistake, there is TONS of content, but some want to be spoon fed new content every day for months instead of creating their own .. and no MMORPG can deliver that !! Some problems with macroes and exploits ... but severity strongly dependent on what server you are playing.

In summary ... an excellent game with bugs, but those are being addressed (not as fast as we want, but they DO address them). Currently suffering some player drain due to new games out (WoW and Everquest 2), but many will come back after the upcoming SWG fixes and when the novelty of the new games has worn off (was the same with City of Heroes and will be the same with the upcoming Matrix, Middleearth, Star Trek, Warhammer etc. ).
Have fun
Erillion
(SWG : Novarider on Naritus galaxy)

Good post! Pretty much gave me all the info I was looking for. But you mentioned a "Galactic Civil War" is that an expansion? If so where can I get some info on it.

Thanks in advance.

milhoan6 · December 2004

Currently, the Galactic Civil War is in the game, and, as the other person said, it realy is pointless. It gives you a chance to become part of the imperials or rebels and besides PvP serves no other purpose. However, they have added searches in which the stormtroopers scan you for contraband, and they didn't have that when I was a player of SWG long ago

________________________________
MMORPG's Im currently playing: City of Heroes, Anarchy Online, EVE Online, and World of Warcraft

MMORPG's I've played: Star Wars Galaxies, DAOC, EQ, WW2 Online, Knight Online, Sims Online, Asherons Call 2, and Risk Your Life

punkrock · December 2004

i have a copy of SWG but everytime i install it it says i am missing a file. then when i re install it it does not help. should i buy a new SWG?? i really want this game so if i have to i will. it says i am missing the file everytime i press luanch game<sorry for miss spelling things haha kind of sleepy>

thanks for info

admriker444 · December 2004

lOL, you few who are on the fence over this game crack me up. One person, One says something good and that gives you justification to buy the game. How about the half million players who quit, do you want to hear their opinions as well ? Doubtful, but to summarize...

Bugs still in game since launch and no hope they'll get fixed because the remaining player base would rather have stupid crap added to the game. Before I quit, I posted my feelings of frustration over devs making next publish dedicated to adding posters for your house while gungan sacred place missions remained broken since launch 18 months ago. Response showed me the apethy of the players and why SOE wont ever fix a dam thing....nobody cared and flamed me for wanting some dumb ole gungans fixed. They all wanted their dumb posters and to hell with gungans.

Lack of content, maybe the positive poster feels its up to player base to provide their own content but it doesnt work that way in most other mmorpg out there. Here's the total content of the game, geonosian cave, corellian corvette, hermit quest (awful grind and wait for spawns), jedi village, JTL missions which get old in 2 weeks, and ground missions which are all the same run some where and blow up something....thats the total content of the game. No hidden quests, no great loot, no mysterious things to do and discover...nothing for content.

Combat revamp is something seriously needed and will never happen. SOE has been dangling that carrot in front of those who stuck it out for over a year. It was supposedly being worked on last christmas, then players were told staff was feverishly working on it over spring, summer, then the hammer dropped and we were told JTL would come first (depsite previous statements) 2nd quarter this year ???? No way, they are completely redisigning the combat (basically a complete redo because it was so screwed up) and havent even entered alpha testing yet. You'll be lucky if its done by christmas 2005.

Customer service, you left that part out. First time you have a problem you'll see why many rank SOE the worst ever.

I could go on and on, but I left the game forever and wont go back no matter what. However I will try and save a few from the aggravation thousands suffered at SOE's hands

RavenStJ · December 2004

Originally posted by punkrock
i have a copy of SWG but everytime i install it it says i am missing a file. then when i re install it it does not help. should i buy a new SWG?? i really want this game so if i have to i will. it says i am missing the file everytime i press luanch game<sorry for miss spelling things haha kind of sleepy>
thanks for info

i bypassed that by copying the install files to my hard drive.. the disk 2&3.

milhoan6 · December 2004

Originally posted by admriker444

lOL, you few who are on the fence over this game crack me up. One person, One says something good and that gives you justification to buy the game. How about the half million players who quit, do you want to hear their opinions as well ? Doubtful, but to summarize...
Bugs still in game since launch and no hope they'll get fixed because the remaining player base would rather have stupid crap added to the game. Before I quit, I posted my feelings of frustration over devs making next publish dedicated to adding posters for your house while gungan sacred place missions remained broken since launch 18 months ago. Response showed me the apethy of the players and why SOE wont ever fix a dam thing....nobody cared and flamed me for wanting some dumb ole gungans fixed. They all wanted their dumb posters and to hell with gungans.
Lack of content, maybe the positive poster feels its up to player base to provide their own content but it doesnt work that way in most other mmorpg out there. Here's the total content of the game, geonosian cave, corellian corvette, hermit quest (awful grind and wait for spawns), jedi village, JTL missions which get old in 2 weeks, and ground missions which are all the same run some where and blow up something....thats the total content of the game. No hidden quests, no great loot, no mysterious things to do and discover...nothing for content.
Combat revamp is something seriously needed and will never happen. SOE has been dangling that carrot in front of those who stuck it out for over a year. It was supposedly being worked on last christmas, then players were told staff was feverishly working on it over spring, summer, then the hammer dropped and we were told JTL would come first (depsite previous statements) 2nd quarter this year ???? No way, they are completely redisigning the combat (basically a complete redo because it was so screwed up) and havent even entered alpha testing yet. You'll be lucky if its done by christmas 2005.
Customer service, you left that part out. First time you have a problem you'll see why many rank SOE the worst ever.
I could go on and on, but I left the game forever and wont go back no matter what. However I will try and save a few from the aggravation thousands suffered at SOE's hands

Whoops i guess we did forget to mention the customer service. Yes it does suck, but luckily I had few times where I had to contact the CS about anything so I was fine with it.

On a side note, I think the CS in Planetside is awesome. Must be a different team working at that Customer Service department

________________________________
MMORPG's Im currently playing: City of Heroes, Anarchy Online, EVE Online, and World of Warcraft

MMORPG's I've played: Star Wars Galaxies, DAOC, EQ, WW2 Online, Knight Online, Sims Online, Asherons Call 2, and Risk Your Life

Motorhead · December 2004

While I completely agree with admriker444's assesment of the game, I gave up bashing this game well over a year ago (although I do fall off the wagon now and then). But if you really want to play SWG, then I say good luck to you. Do me a favor, come back here in 8-9 months and give us a recap of how much fun you're having.

Here's an interesting post I found on the SWG forums recently.

This represents fairly well the feelings of the community of the game you're about to play...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=54398&page=7

Here's the post:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I'd like to take a moment to give you my "State of the Game-Closing Out 2004" Comments.

What a year 2004 has been! This year we revamped the Jedi system (beginning with Holo's for christmas... this effectively killed my guild of over 80 members and decimated Capital City Naboo-Ahazi. Our guild dropped to 20 actives and the city became a wasteland and eventually.... gone. Ask New Roseholme they watched it happen), enhanced the droid profession (ok, fine, I have 1 new droid, thanks.), launched the Imperial Crackdown (How dare you. How can you call that crud a crackdown? Did I miss the Scout troopers patrolling on speeder bikes? The AT-AT's? The Imperial oppurtunity to gain faction? Nope, just gave Rebels a faction farm until you nerfed that too. Liar!) , added a tremendous amount of new content to the game (Corvette, Deathwatch bunker, and Geo caves hooray for the l337 dud3z and thanks for nothing. Oh yeah 90% Kinetic resists.. appreciate it. Oh, I forgot you fixed the Hermit Quests after how long? Oh yeah, and I can finally wear my Imp Hat.) , released Jump to Lightspeed (I do like JTL but space is pretty devoid of content past Ace not too mention chat is nearly impossible and you can't even use /setformation.. etc...) and fixed many issues with the game. (I'll give you this one, a lot got fixed... took you long enough though. Just like you fixed the FRS, Jedi bounties, nice Jedi path fix btw.. grinding... grinding.. grinding.. never knew you guys could be so imaginative!)

The team's main focus these past 8 months has been to concentrate on getting Jump to Lightspeed finished for release (While ignoring anyone and everyone that was not a part of the beta. Dev's flat out disappeared until the Beta boards went away and you know it!). Once JtL was out the door we spent the past month polishing it up - making it easier to get into Space, fixing outstanding bugs and adding new missions as well as a new playable ship in the pipeline (nice save btw. Got it in just under the wire! Good to see you guys using that amazing imagination again to slap a turret and more mass on a Kimagila) . It is truly nice to see both ground and space finally in Star Wars Galaxies. The bookends are done and now it is time to fill in the content in between. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath you bold faced liar.)

We have only just begun and in the upcoming months you will see even more changes and additions take place as we pick up the pace. This will be reflected in more regular publishes to Live that include both bug fixes and game enhancements. (Pardon me again if I don't hold my breath, you bold faced liar.)

My major disappointment this year was not getting the Combat Upgrade done before JTL was out (Join the club! Only been waiting since what.... 2 months after launch? ) . That was our original plan but after reviewing the initial design we realized that combat was going to be a deep change that would affect the majority of systems in the game. This combat upgrade is requiring lots of implementation, iteration, and testing time and we have been working on it since the end of Publish 9. Our goals are that it will be fun, engaging and rewarding before we release it to our players. (Well as I am under an NDA I will not comment as to the quality of what I know right now..... I will say this, you know how much of this game is riding on it so you better not try to polish a turd and tell us it's a diamond like you did with this State of the Game 2004.)

The Combat Upgrade team is working hard at getting the sandbox ready for the first phase of alpha testers. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.) The Combat Upgrade forums have been buzzing with great feedback and suggestions. Once we have all of our documentation in place with details of the changes that will be made, these will be posted to the public for review. You are invited to a part of the Combat Upgrade Beta Testing by registering here.

What are some other goals for next year?

Add more directed content in the game that enhances our Star Wars experience. (Details? Oh yeah.. you don't like to give us something to hold you acountable too do you?)
Make the gameplay experience well paced and rewarding throughout advancement (Yeah, just like the Village. Grind, grind, grind, grind... then we'll give you some "rare" picture at the end you can sell for a million credits. Thanks for turning SWG into EverQuest 1, nicely loot driven guys. Plenty of great campsites.)
Help players understand goals and have directed experiences to achieve those goals (You people have only one idea when it comes to goals. Jedi. Oh, and then you screwed that Prof up too.. nice FRS btw.)
Concentrating on more bug fixing (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.)
We want to make combat faster, exciting, and rewarding. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.)
Work on improving all the non-combat professions. (And leaving us with a broken GCW, unbalanced NPC's/MOB's, and a completely loot driven game where I can loot better components than the best shipwrights could ever make.)

The work I've seen so far shows that the team is focusing on the fun factor of combat and content. (And I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!) You will see us pick on the pace next year and provide rapid changes to the game. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.) We look to you for your feedback while we continually improve the game (Feedback my #%^&*!). Have a safe and happy holiday. You Too! MERRY CHRISTMAS! (<== Filtered in-game thank you as well...)

See you in the game!

Rich Vogel
Executive Producer
Star Wars Galaxies

Oh.. one last thing so you can't say we didn't make this fair... I'm pasting last years State of the Game Here too..... gee.. same ol' story buddy, bunch of lies....

State of the Game

I'm very excited to talk about the direction of Star Wars Galaxies in 2004. We've got some great things planned for the game this year.

Let me start by talking about 2003. In late June, the team released the initial boxed version of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. The game was highly anticipated and had a high bar to reach. To make our dates, we had to make some tough decisions regarding game features. It took several months, but I'm pleased to say that we have delivered on our promised post launch features (Mounts, Vehicles, Player Cities and Dark Jedi). Each has been well received by the fans.

The game had a bit of a rocky start, but I feel my team resolved the most pressing issues in good time. The biggest Customer Service complaints and most gating bugs were put to the top of the list and most of them were resolved within a few days as "Hot Fixes". Major exploits have been closed within two days, hundreds of illegal auctions have been closed, and hundreds of cheaters have been banned from the game. We have greatly improved the stability for our game worlds, chat servers and support systems. Hundreds of other enhancements and bugs fixes were added as part of the monthly publishes. We had to enact some "nerfs" (changes made for game balance that generally are not in the favor of the individual player) for the greater good of the game, but the code enhancements and fixes clearly outnumbered the "nerfs" by a huge percentage (see the complete update notes from any given publish).

Another of our big objectives post-launch was to quickly add content to the game. While we are always driving to add more (and have an aggressive plan to do so every month), we currently have a good depth of content. Players can easily find six different types of mission terminals, hundreds of story driven NPC quests, dozens of dungeons and after our next publish, the three major Themeparks (which all will function correctly and offer good rewards). Additionally, our live event team is in the game nearly every day promoting and enhancing player hosted events and well as running their own.

At the end of 2003, we improved our community communications pipeline and have the many of top issues of the profession correspondents added to the current development schedule. Nearly every design meeting has your assistant community manager, Thunderheart, attending to fight for the will of the players. Our latest addition includes a Jedi Correspondent. Based on the feedback we are getting, we are making plans for a complete Jedi system revamp. This will take many months, but the first step will be to work with the community to see what they like and don't like with the current system.

Going forward, 2004 is looking to be a great year for us. With the launch and post launch features behind us, we can concentrate on three major elements. The first is adding more content and features to the game. We are solidifying our monthly publish schedule and I'm excited by the things that are coming up. Expect to see a new publish Theme every month and well as a new dungeon. This will include the Imperial Crackdown this month and the Droid Invasion next month.

Our next priority is working with the community to enhance the quality and fun of the existing systems and professions. Several of them are getting revamps including the Droid Engineer, Smuggler and Chef (see update notes). Our Lead Designer is making certain that every designer has time scheduled to deal with community issues that come up.

Our final priority is to release a first-rate expansion involving crafting and flying space ships. The work I've seen so far shows that the team is focusing on the fun factor of space combat. It will likely be a few months before we talk more about Space, but I think the players are going to enjoy the experience.

I'm very confident that SWG currently represents the bar in MMOs. To back that claim up, a few weeks ago we created a Win Back program where we gave free playtime to those who discontinued their account. We also offered Buddy Keys for players to give their friends to try before they buy. I expect us to offer the Buddy Keys again in a few months. I think you'll find that the game is worth playing and sticking with.

May the Force be with us all!

Rich Vogel
Executive Producer
Star Wars Galaxies

--------------------------------------------
I'm like a Superhero without the powers or motivation.

Unknown · December 2004

Originally posted by admriker444

lOL, you few who are on the fence over this game crack me up. One person, One says something good and that gives you justification to buy the game. How about the half million players who quit, do you want to hear their opinions as well ? Doubtful, but to summarize...
Bugs still in game since launch and no hope they'll get fixed because the remaining player base would rather have stupid crap added to the game. Before I quit, I posted my feelings of frustration over devs making next publish dedicated to adding posters for your house while gungan sacred place missions remained broken since launch 18 months ago. Response showed me the apethy of the players and why SOE wont ever fix a dam thing....nobody cared and flamed me for wanting some dumb ole gungans fixed. They all wanted their dumb posters and to hell with gungans.
Lack of content, maybe the positive poster feels its up to player base to provide their own content but it doesnt work that way in most other mmorpg out there. Here's the total content of the game, geonosian cave, corellian corvette, hermit quest (awful grind and wait for spawns), jedi village, JTL missions which get old in 2 weeks, and ground missions which are all the same run some where and blow up something....thats the total content of the game. No hidden quests, no great loot, no mysterious things to do and discover...nothing for content.
Combat revamp is something seriously needed and will never happen. SOE has been dangling that carrot in front of those who stuck it out for over a year. It was supposedly being worked on last christmas, then players were told staff was feverishly working on it over spring, summer, then the hammer dropped and we were told JTL would come first (depsite previous statements) 2nd quarter this year ???? No way, they are completely redisigning the combat (basically a complete redo because it was so screwed up) and havent even entered alpha testing yet. You'll be lucky if its done by christmas 2005.
Customer service, you left that part out. First time you have a problem you'll see why many rank SOE the worst ever.
I could go on and on, but I left the game forever and wont go back no matter what. However I will try and save a few from the aggravation thousands suffered at SOE's hands

I would like to warn all readers, lurkers, and posters, to ignore everything Admriker444 says about SWG. He repeatedly for the past months claimed he dislikes SWG, has quit playing SWG, but then makes posts about how he is still playing SWG. Then, like he did in this post just now, claims again he has quit playing SWG "forever".

-Personal Website
http://www.geocities.com/xplororor/index.html
-AC, AC2, AO, EQ, SWG:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
http://community.webshots.com/user/captain_sica_xol
-EverQuest II:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_eq2archives01
-EQ, Dungeon Siege, Diablo II, *UXO*:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
-EVE Online !!!
http://community.webshots.com/user/sica_xol_archives01
DAoC
http://community.webshots.com/user/sica_xol_archives02

Erillion · December 2004

Yes, I find the posts from the eternal "I quit the game" people fascinating. They all supposedly quit the game months ago .... no matter which post you check over the year 2004.

EITHER the game is not as bad as they decribe it as they seem to be still playing it OR they are rehashing old arguments which are partially valid, but non the less are worked on .. slowly yes, but things DO change.

>>>>>

No hidden quests, no great loot, no mysterious things to do and discover...

>>>>>

Well, this person has obviously not looked very hard. There are many hidden quests (e.g. Krayt Skull quest .. not hard, nice story, perfect for beginners) and many SW insider jokes to discover (check out the inmates of the Imperial prison on Dathomir). And if a +22 rifle accuracy while moving is not great loot , or a mind dot pistol thats ticks with 750, or the Firespray ship (aka Slave I of Boba Fett) (just examples I saw) then YOU tell me what you consider great loot.

Customer Support ... is not the best. I was once a very harsh critic of CSRs in SWG. And it has been getting better recently. Most likely because they hired more people and/or train them better. And the "Knowledge base" you can access in game now is much improved over the "Holocron" help database they had a year ago. Still a long way to go but I see improvement.

To the long posts listen bugs and broken promises. YES, some of it IS true. Hell, you are talking to a droid engineer (once a profession for masochists, now a perfectly workable enjoyable profession where you can earn nice money .. and they added much more than "one droid") and a master smuggler (smugglers got kicks in the marbles for 1.5 years now ! ... our new content : we can craft Jabbas snack bowl .. YEAH !).

And still : I see improvement and I enjoy the game every time I log on.

For too long SWG has been called a failure here in the forum ... and its simply not true. It has often been stated that hundred thousands of players have left the game .. and thats simply not true. Because I see the very same people coming back to SWG after months of absence and suddenly those people - after having tried other games which they at first believed to be the Holy Grail compared to the "shitty SOE trash" and finding out that they are at best equal to SWG - do enjoy the game again. Usually because they do not repeat their mistake of stupidly grinding themselves into burn out. And in fact even a break of several months in SWG is okay as you can put your character and assets into hibernation - they will still be there half a year from now (a tip .. give a friend adminstration rights to your houses and structures ... either you dont come back and he has some additional assets in game, or you DO come back and you lost nothing).

So here I am ... someone who LIKES Star Wars Galaxies and is not afraid to say it out loud

(and also playing other games like EVE Online or CoH or AO ...)

Call me a mutant if you must or "stupid as a stone" as one poll on this forum suggests, but I think its worth to check out SWG and **gasp** you might even enjoy it. Concentrate on Jump to Light speed space expansion at first and go deeper into the ground game after the Combat System Revamp.

Visit me on Naritus (Novarider or Delos) and I will gladly help you get started (and I am sure many other people on other servers would do the same, because there ARE great communities able and willing to help you through your first steps in SWG).

Have fun

Erillion

Red_Rider · December 2004

I am glad you are enjoying SWG. Why do people like me who do not enjoy still read posts and even respond, well I think it is because for us SWG was such a deception we still are in shock. I was an active poster on the pre-release forums for a good year before release, and was expecting SWG to be what WoW seems to be today. The top MMORPG on the market to which all others will now be compared.

For experienced MMORPGers it takes about 2 weeks to max a character and then what do you do to pass the time ? Sorry there is a bit of higher level content but not much. Within a month I and my friends found ourselves with less and less desire to log on. A few of us came back last automn to give things another try, again a month later there was a mass exodus.

So instead of the top MMORPG on the market, we have a niche product searching for itself. The biggest problem is Lucasarts and SOE were not aiming for a niche product and will probably end up messing it up for those who like it now, while trying to make the game into something it isn`t.

A lot of us still dream of a great Star Wars MMORPG and will still come to the boards occassionally and even re-suscribe once a year to give it another try. Call us dreamers .....

admriker444 · December 2004

Originally posted by Erillion

Yes, I find the posts from the eternal "I quit the game" people fascinating. They all supposedly quit the game months ago .... no matter which post you check over the year 2004.
EITHER the game is not as bad as they decribe it as they seem to be still playing it OR they are rehashing old arguments which are partially valid, but non the less are worked on .. slowly yes, but things DO change.
No, I quit the game 2 months ago but I do read their forums and no the daily stuff happenings cause my friend at work still plays. It is bad, the fact that many of us were willing to play so long was for one reason only...star wars. Unfortunately this game has nothing in common with Lucas' unniverse.
No hidden quests, no great loot, no mysterious things to do and discover...
>>>>>
Well, this person has obviously not looked very hard. There are many hidden quests (e.g. Krayt Skull quest .. not hard, nice story, perfect for beginners) and many SW insider jokes to discover (check out the inmates of the Imperial prison on Dathomir). And if a +22 rifle accuracy while moving is not great loot , or a mind dot pistol thats ticks with 750, or the Firespray ship (aka Slave I of Boba Fett) (just examples I saw) then YOU tell me what you consider great loot.
Please, I hardly call a krayt skull a quest. I finished that one in 45 min. I did every possible quest for every single npc on every planet. I at one time owned every possible piece of loot in the game. I did it all, and the sad part was it took me, a casual gamer maybe 3 weeks total to do everything possible.
Customer Support ... is not the best. I was once a very harsh critic of CSRs in SWG. And it has been getting better recently. Most likely because they hired more people and/or train them better. And the "Knowledge base" you can access in game now is much improved over the "Holocron" help database they had a year ago. Still a long way to go but I see improvement.
How is customer service getting better when they changed the submit ticket option to where its impossible to understand. I stood over my friend's shoulder and laughed when he spent an hr trying to figure out how to submit one (instead of SOE forcing him to read frequently asked questions or an outdated database)
To the long posts listen bugs and broken promises. YES, some of it IS true. Hell, you are talking to a droid engineer (once a profession for masochists, now a perfectly workable enjoyable profession where you can earn nice money .. and they added much more than "one droid") and a master smuggler (smugglers got kicks in the marbles for 1.5 years now ! ... our new content : we can craft Jabbas snack bowl .. YEAH !).
"Some" of its true ??? Even the most hardcore fan will admit the game is horribly bugged. Lag is still an issue despite numerous attempts to fix it. In fact it got worse with the addition of JTL. I know many who spent 1+ yr trying to become a jedi only to quit in shock over a bug that prevented them from finishing the village quest. They all submitted tickets, got deleted. They all posted on forums, deleted. SOE's answer to customer service is deletion, getting better my *%$#
And still : I see improvement and I enjoy the game every time I log on.
For too long SWG has been called a failure here in the forum ... and its simply not true. It has often been stated that hundred thousands of players have left the game .. and thats simply not true. Because I see the very same people coming back to SWG after months of absence and suddenly those people - after having tried other games which they at first believed to be the Holy Grail compared to the "shitty SOE trash" and finding out that they are at best equal to SWG - do enjoy the game again. Usually because they do not repeat their mistake of stupidly grinding themselves into burn out. And in fact even a break of several months in SWG is okay as you can put your character and assets into hibernation - they will still be there half a year from now (a tip .. give a friend adminstration rights to your houses and structures ... either you dont come back and he has some additional assets in game, or you DO come back and you lost nothing).
It is a failure, a game with that franchise name should have been the greatest game of all time. Instead it wasnt even average. If it were even the least bit tolerable, thousands of us would still be playing. Check the servers, forums, etc everyone know the game peaked at 295k back in Oct. 03. Im betting SOE is lucky if 100k play now. The game is turning into a small-market niche game that only hardcore blind fans will love.
And as far as Explorer goes, well he can say whatever he likes. And guess what, he should respect my right to do the same. My opinion is well known and I will continue to speak my mind. Dont like it Explorer, go somewhere else like maybe SOE's official censored forums and read fanboy only posts.

Unknown · December 2004

Originally posted by admriker444

Originally posted by Erillion

Yes, I find the posts from the eternal "I quit the game" people fascinating. They all supposedly quit the game months ago .... no matter which post you check over the year 2004.

EITHER the game is not as bad as they decribe it as they seem to be still playing it OR they are rehashing old arguments which are partially valid, but non the less are worked on .. slowly yes, but things DO change.

No, I quit the game 2 months ago but I do read their forums and no the daily stuff happenings cause my friend at work still plays. It is bad, the fact that many of us were willing to play so long was for one reason only...star wars. Unfortunately this game has nothing in common with Lucas' unniverse.

Dude, let's see here, you say you QUIT the game. What does quitting mean? It means you NO LONGER want anything more to do with the game. That is why you quit it. NOW you give the excuse "my friend at work still plays it". Yes? And? So? I know I do not like Nsync. There are people I work with, I know, who do like Nsync. Does that mean I am forced to go buy the CD? To listen to it? Excuses, excuses. Do you really want me to post the link to your thread in which you ON PURPOSE went out and bought the SWG expansion, even after you claimed you dislike SWG, no longer play it, even after everyone here told you to NOT buy it? And what do you do? You come back bashing SWG again, saying how much you dislike it. I get the feeling you like S&M. That you are a Sadist and Machochist.

It is a failure,

Then WHY do you keep on playing it? Why did you buy the SWG expansion? Why do you keep playing it? It is a failure to a person here - YOU. Stop playing it!

Next, according to Mr. Reality, SWG is not only a hit, it is a runaway success. After more than 1 year of being out, it still has 200,000+ accounts.

a game with that franchise name should have been the greatest game of all time. Instead it wasnt even average. If it were even the least bit tolerable, thousands of us would still be playing. Check the servers, forums, etc everyone know the game peaked at 295k back in Oct. 03. Im betting SOE is lucky if 100k play now. The game is turning into a small-market niche game that only hardcore blind fans will love.

Many have posted proof from the media, press, other game sites, major newspapers, magazines, that show SWG definatly had 330,000 accounts. Your only reply has been "SONY and LucasArts are lying! The press and media are lying!". Please post your source for "295,000" accounts.

Most people learn by age 14 that 100,000 means hundreds of thousands. SWG has 200,000+ accounts. "Thousands of us" are not playing. HUNDREDS of thousands of us ARE playing. You can bet all you want... SONY does not care, LucasArts does not care, Mr. Reality does not care. Yes SWG will continue to be around and live, no matter how much you want to bet.

Next, just because something has the "Star Wars" franchise on it does not mean it will be the greatest. *roll eyes* Ever hear of the Star Wars game "Galactic Battlegrounds"? It had sub-par sales. Same with the Boba Fett console game.

Next, no computer game in the history of computers has ever pleased everyone. That is why there are many choices. Why haven't you picked another choice from the menu on the left side of this page? Why?

And as far as Explorer goes, well he can say whatever he likes. And guess what, he should respect my right to do the same. My opinion is well known and I will continue to speak my mind. Dont like it Explorer, go somewhere else like maybe SOE's official censored forums and read fanboy only posts.

Dude, others here have posted asking why are you still here posting. Others here before me have called you out asking why are you still playing SWG when you keep saying you quit SWG. I never say whatever I like. I say what is proven. What has been proven. What can be backed up aka valid points. And it has been proven that you have repeatedly claimed you quit SWG. Then you post you play SWG. Then you post you quit, you play, you quit, you play.

Even other posters who dislike SWG, have told you to go away because you no longer make any sense. They have said far harsher things about you than I have. And they also dislike SWG.

-Personal Website
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http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor
http://community.webshots.com/user/captain_sica_xol
-EverQuest II:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_eq2archives01
-EQ, Dungeon Siege, Diablo II, *UXO*:
http://community.webshots.com/user/xplororor_archives01
-EVE Online !!!
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DAoC
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Shadowhand · January 2005

Originally posted by Motorhead

While I completely agree with admriker444's assesment of the game, I gave up bashing this game well over a year ago (although I do fall off the wagon now and then). But if you really want to play SWG, then I say good luck to you. Do me a favor, come back here in 8-9 months and give us a recap of how much fun you're having.
Here's an interesting post I found on the SWG forums recently.
This represents fairly well the feelings of the community of the game you're about to play...
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Developers&message.id=54398&page=7
Here's the post:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, I'd like to take a moment to give you my "State of the Game-Closing Out 2004" Comments.

What a year 2004 has been! This year we revamped the Jedi system (beginning with Holo's for christmas... this effectively killed my guild of over 80 members and decimated Capital City Naboo-Ahazi. Our guild dropped to 20 actives and the city became a wasteland and eventually.... gone. Ask New Roseholme they watched it happen), enhanced the droid profession (ok, fine, I have 1 new droid, thanks.), launched the Imperial Crackdown (How dare you. How can you call that crud a crackdown? Did I miss the Scout troopers patrolling on speeder bikes? The AT-AT's? The Imperial oppurtunity to gain faction? Nope, just gave Rebels a faction farm until you nerfed that too. Liar!) , added a tremendous amount of new content to the game (Corvette, Deathwatch bunker, and Geo caves hooray for the l337 dud3z and thanks for nothing. Oh yeah 90% Kinetic resists.. appreciate it. Oh, I forgot you fixed the Hermit Quests after how long? Oh yeah, and I can finally wear my Imp Hat.) , released Jump to Lightspeed (I do like JTL but space is pretty devoid of content past Ace not too mention chat is nearly impossible and you can't even use /setformation.. etc...) and fixed many issues with the game. (I'll give you this one, a lot got fixed... took you long enough though. Just like you fixed the FRS, Jedi bounties, nice Jedi path fix btw.. grinding... grinding.. grinding.. never knew you guys could be so imaginative!)
The team's main focus these past 8 months has been to concentrate on getting Jump to Lightspeed finished for release (While ignoring anyone and everyone that was not a part of the beta. Dev's flat out disappeared until the Beta boards went away and you know it!). Once JtL was out the door we spent the past month polishing it up - making it easier to get into Space, fixing outstanding bugs and adding new missions as well as a new playable ship in the pipeline (nice save btw. Got it in just under the wire! Good to see you guys using that amazing imagination again to slap a turret and more mass on a Kimagila) . It is truly nice to see both ground and space finally in Star Wars Galaxies. The bookends are done and now it is time to fill in the content in between. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath you bold faced liar.)
We have only just begun and in the upcoming months you will see even more changes and additions take place as we pick up the pace. This will be reflected in more regular publishes to Live that include both bug fixes and game enhancements. (Pardon me again if I don't hold my breath, you bold faced liar.)
My major disappointment this year was not getting the Combat Upgrade done before JTL was out (Join the club! Only been waiting since what.... 2 months after launch? ) . That was our original plan but after reviewing the initial design we realized that combat was going to be a deep change that would affect the majority of systems in the game. This combat upgrade is requiring lots of implementation, iteration, and testing time and we have been working on it since the end of Publish 9. Our goals are that it will be fun, engaging and rewarding before we release it to our players. (Well as I am under an NDA I will not comment as to the quality of what I know right now..... I will say this, you know how much of this game is riding on it so you better not try to polish a turd and tell us it's a diamond like you did with this State of the Game 2004.)
The Combat Upgrade team is working hard at getting the sandbox ready for the first phase of alpha testers. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.) The Combat Upgrade forums have been buzzing with great feedback and suggestions. Once we have all of our documentation in place with details of the changes that will be made, these will be posted to the public for review. You are invited to a part of the Combat Upgrade Beta Testing by registering here.
What are some other goals for next year?

Add more directed content in the game that enhances our Star Wars experience. (Details? Oh yeah.. you don't like to give us something to hold you acountable too do you?)
Make the gameplay experience well paced and rewarding throughout advancement (Yeah, just like the Village. Grind, grind, grind, grind... then we'll give you some "rare" picture at the end you can sell for a million credits. Thanks for turning SWG into EverQuest 1, nicely loot driven guys. Plenty of great campsites.)
Help players understand goals and have directed experiences to achieve those goals (You people have only one idea when it comes to goals. Jedi. Oh, and then you screwed that Prof up too.. nice FRS btw.)
Concentrating on more bug fixing (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.)
We want to make combat faster, exciting, and rewarding. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.)
Work on improving all the non-combat professions. (And leaving us with a broken GCW, unbalanced NPC's/MOB's, and a completely loot driven game where I can loot better components than the best shipwrights could ever make.)

The work I've seen so far shows that the team is focusing on the fun factor of combat and content. (And I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!) You will see us pick on the pace next year and provide rapid changes to the game. (Pardon me if I don't hold my breath.) We look to you for your feedback while we continually improve the game (Feedback my #%^&*!). Have a safe and happy holiday. You Too! MERRY CHRISTMAS! (<== Filtered in-game thank you as well...)
See you in the game!

Rich Vogel
Executive Producer
Star Wars Galaxies

Oh.. one last thing so you can't say we didn't make this fair... I'm pasting last years State of the Game Here too..... gee.. same ol' story buddy, bunch of lies....

State of the Game
I'm very excited to talk about the direction of Star Wars Galaxies in 2004. We've got some great things planned for the game this year.
Let me start by talking about 2003. In late June, the team released the initial boxed version of Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. The game was highly anticipated and had a high bar to reach. To make our dates, we had to make some tough decisions regarding game features. It took several months, but I'm pleased to say that we have delivered on our promised post launch features (Mounts, Vehicles, Player Cities and Dark Jedi). Each has been well received by the fans.
The game had a bit of a rocky start, but I feel my team resolved the most pressing issues in good time. The biggest Customer Service complaints and most gating bugs were put to the top of the list and most of them were resolved within a few days as "Hot Fixes". Major exploits have been closed within two days, hundreds of illegal auctions have been closed, and hundreds of cheaters have been banned from the game. We have greatly improved the stability for our game worlds, chat servers and support systems. Hundreds of other enhancements and bugs fixes were added as part of the monthly publishes. We had to enact some "nerfs" (changes made for game balance that generally are not in the favor of the individual player) for the greater good of the game, but the code enhancements and fixes clearly outnumbered the "nerfs" by a huge percentage (see the complete update notes from any given publish).
Another of our big objectives post-launch was to quickly add content to the game. While we are always driving to add more (and have an aggressive plan to do so every month), we currently have a good depth of content. Players can easily find six different types of mission terminals, hundreds of story driven NPC quests, dozens of dungeons and after our next publish, the three major Themeparks (which all will function correctly and offer good rewards). Additionally, our live event team is in the game nearly every day promoting and enhancing player hosted events and well as running their own.
At the end of 2003, we improved our community communications pipeline and have the many of top issues of the profession correspondents added to the current development schedule. Nearly every design meeting has your assistant community manager, Thunderheart, attending to fight for the will of the players. Our latest addition includes a Jedi Correspondent. Based on the feedback we are getting, we are making plans for a complete Jedi system revamp. This will take many months, but the first step will be to work with the community to see what they like and don't like with the current system.
Going forward, 2004 is looking to be a great year for us. With the launch and post launch features behind us, we can concentrate on three major elements. The first is adding more content and features to the game. We are solidifying our monthly publish schedule and I'm excited by the things that are coming up. Expect to see a new publish Theme every month and well as a new dungeon. This will include the Imperial Crackdown this month and the Droid Invasion next month.
Our next priority is working with the community to enhance the quality and fun of the existing systems and professions. Several of them are getting revamps including the Droid Engineer, Smuggler and Chef (see update notes). Our Lead Designer is making certain that every designer has time scheduled to deal with community issues that come up.
Our final priority is to release a first-rate expansion involving crafting and flying space ships. The work I've seen so far shows that the team is focusing on the fun factor of space combat. It will likely be a few months before we talk more about Space, but I think the players are going to enjoy the experience.
I'm very confident that SWG currently represents the bar in MMOs. To back that claim up, a few weeks ago we created a Win Back program where we gave free playtime to those who discontinued their account. We also offered Buddy Keys for players to give their friends to try before they buy. I expect us to offer the Buddy Keys again in a few months. I think you'll find that the game is worth playing and sticking with.
May the Force be with us all!
Rich Vogel
Executive Producer
Star Wars Galaxies

--------------------------------------------
I'm like a Superhero without the powers or motivation.

I found this part very interesting, It seems that sony's promises from last year still have not been done. So I dont really see whats going to make them keep any promises this year. THE main reason I wanted to play this game was because of the "Star Wars" theme..but if it "has nothing to do with starwars im not so sure ill play it...i'll give it a try on fileplanet...Thanks all for the information!

Erillion · January 2005

>>>>

...i'll give it a try on fileplanet...

>>>>

Yep, the easiest way to find out if you like it.

Cause whatever we tell you here, its all our personal view and ultimately you have to find out yourself if its the game for you.

If you want to some kickstart doing the trial, start on a server from one of the SWG players here and let us help you with some stuff (e.g. I play on Naritus as Novarider, but there is a whole 5 page thread of names and servers).

Have fun

Erillion

Erillion · January 2005

Hey Admriker,

I think I now understand why our opinions about this game differ so much. I think you are playing it like you would a solo game ... find, defeat and loot everything the game has to offer , meet and greet all the hard coded "content" .. and if thats not enough then you get bored and the game no longer appeals to you (and a 2-3 months of solid gameplay is more than you get out of ANY solo game I know ... so basically it means there is PLENTY of content in SWG).

I on the other hand think that the "content" of an multiplayer game are its players. The hardcoded content is the icing on the cake. The best content is always player made. And as there are thousands of players, always changing, there is NEVER a lack of content. Everyone I meet is different so gameplay is also always different when I want it.

I think for YOU personally SWG would be best if you play a few weeks or months, put your character into hibernation (no monthly cost) and come back when new content comes out (like JTL lately or like the planned combat upgrade or the announced Galactic Civil War expansion). Then you play another few weeks or months until you have "beaten" THAT content. And back to hibernation. And then I think you will like SWG much more.

Just a suggestion

have fun

Erillion

Erillion · January 2005

How is customer service getting better when they changed the submit ticket option to where its impossible to understand.

--> eermm, because YOU cant understand it does not mean others cant understand it. I have no problems with it.

"Some" of its true ??? Even the most hardcore fan will admit the game is horribly bugged. Lag is still an issue despite numerous attempts to fix it. In fact it got worse with the addition of JTL. I know many who spent 1+ yr trying to become a jedi only to quit in shock over a bug that prevented them from finishing the village quest. They all submitted tickets, got deleted. They all posted on forums, deleted. SOE's answer to customer service is deletion, getting better my *%$#

--> You like to speak for others .. and in fact these others often do NOT agree with you. Try a bit less generalizations and more posting your OPINION. This games has bugs. A fact. Every MMORPG has bugs. A fact. SWG is not horribly bugged, otherwise it would be unplayable. A fact. Lag is a problem in any MMORPG. A fact. "It got worse with JTL" ... not true .. at least not IMHO .. for me lag has reduced significanly since JTL.

--> I know the bug with the village exit quest you speak about. Happened to a friend of mine too. Has been resolved by a CSR within two days, even in a time period with announced reduced customer service due to the holidays. He is now a happy Jedi padawan. So yes, CSR support was lacking in the past and YES, it is getting better. It was awefull that your friend had to wait, but he just should had to contact a CSR supervisor if the first CSR was not helpful. Seems he was a bit impatient and most probably already burned out as he grinded himself into this very same burnout. And then his "reward" was not forthcoming ASAP and he called it quits. /shrug

If it were even the least bit tolerable, thousands of us would still be playing. Check the servers, forums, etc everyone know the game peaked at 295k back in Oct. 03. Im betting SOE is lucky if 100k play now. The game is turning into a small-market niche game that only hardcore blind fans will love.

--> LOL. Thousands ARE still playing. And even 100 k players is not exactly a nice game. EVE Online, which I consider a successful and well made game, has 52k players. Peak numbers are not significant .. they always level off in any MMORPG. Take WoW ... may be half a million players now, which does not mean that half a million will play WoW in a year. And SWG has some 300k accounts, but many are in hibernation. 100 k active playing accounts that log in day to day is about right. And you cant even say that WoW is more successful than SWG cause the MMORPG market is growing fast and 300 k acounts peak in SWG 18 months ago is about the same market share as WoW has these days.

Have fun

Erillion

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