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Why Does Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) Have to Die?

EcnaliEcnali Member CommonPosts: 49

     SOE...Lucas Arts...have they lost their collective minds? I know, many of you are SWG haters...well, I never played pre-NGE and only started after - and I loved it.  My gods, the crafting is amazing - it's the best crafting system ever  and the one thing SOE didn't...tweak...and if I was an SWG hater I'd probably say that is the reason crafting in SWG remained great as SOE never got around to 'fixing' what wasn't broken.

     I had stepped away from the game for about a year -  guild dissolution, deployment overseas, real life stuffs - and then in summer of 2011 - I decided I really missed crafting - so I went back! I moved all my characters off Bloodfin which was dead onto Chilastra which was vibrant, created two new characters -crafters, obviously -  on Starsider which was just packed! I managed to pick up enough resources and in less than a week, with harvesting, the kindness of strangers who out of the blue gave me 10mil, I was able to start crafting!

     Bang...4 days later....the hack...actually, apparently the hack took place 2 weeks before that, but SOE didn't bother to tell me that was going on when they happily took my money....Sadness on my part. Madness... grief and SOE's inability to keep the paying subscriber informed. "check our facebook, check our twitter"  nothing there. Went 12 days without a single update.

     Finally, the light at the tunnel! SWG is back on-line! Yay! Back to crafting, back to questing - and then two days later, an announcment about the closure of SWG. In December. ...

     I stopped playing. I cancelled my accounts which I had just reopened.  I have made a vow to never buy another Sony product again in my life if there is an alternative within my means and grasp.

     SOE, Lucas Arts...they are wasting an opportunity here, and they are being blind, misled, or just plain ignorant.  Even with not having actual physical data, I'm sure there is enough room out in the real world, enough people who play games, for two Star Wars IP MMOs. I went back to SWG because of its crafting - and I'm not the only one who feels this way.  I have the means and willingness to pay a hefty monthly fee to play SWG if they would keep one server up.

     Why does modern game theory diss crafting? Why is no one trying to copy the SWG model of crafting? Why is it all classes are combat and why aren't there dedicated crafting classes in modern MMOs? There are people out there who would devote themselves to that if given the opportunity over combat classes - especially if it meant the ability  to make superior crafted gear equal to or better than drops was part of the design. SWG had it and now it's going...going...gone. (Oh, EVE, they too have a ... complex crafting system - but EVE Online crafting takes time and coordination among dozens, hundreds of players. Also, in EVE, you can lose everything you own in the blink of an eye - EVE is a very intense hardcore game [yes, I play it too but I'm a carebear...a very heavily armed and dangerous carebear...ergo, I play EVE to craft.] But even EVE is going through a rough patch right now....sigh.)

     I feel like crying. You go overseas, you do your duty, only to have your heart ripped out when you get back anyway.  Maybe I should take up paintball, or airsoft...but, now I'm too old, too fat...and that's too much like work anway.  I want to sit in my air conditioned room and be grumpy and play the damn game for fun. If only I lived in my parents's house...

     Oh well, life goes on.  As with everything, you got to take the good with the bad. Star Wars Galaxies, may you rest in peace...Crafting...I will miss you.  SWTOR, the King is dead, long live the King!

P.S. Maybe I should check out WoW more.....

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Comments

  • idgaradidgarad Member Posts: 174

    All MMOs (and businesses in general) have to grow. Inflation will slowly eat a company that can't grow at least enough to offset inflation. MMOs must indefinately grow to perserve their profitability. Eventually, a commerical service becomes a liability once the margin finally dies.

    If we are lucky they may open source the old system or release the server software so the community of fans can carry on their own private servers as they see fit. Too bad no MMO has taken that approach yet.

  • ericlatrelleericlatrelle Member UncommonPosts: 176
    Because it wasn't performing to a level that was generating the needed income to sustain it. It is time for it to go. Everything dies eventually.
  • bunnyhopperbunnyhopper Member CommonPosts: 2,751

    Because virtually no one wants to play it. Which considering the IP it has and the pull said IP has, tells you just how tragically bad the game has been for the last few years.

    "Come and have a look at what you could have won."

  • ElsaboltsElsabolts Member RarePosts: 3,476

    George Lucas

    image

    " Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who  Would Threaten It "
                                            MAGA
  • channel84channel84 Member UncommonPosts: 585

    They're probably shut down due to ToR releasing and probably get compensation for that.

    Business sense is that it's not good to have 2 star wars game competing for subs

  • gladosrev2gladosrev2 Member CommonPosts: 203

    It's an obvious. cheap marketing trick to get a boost of initial sales for SWTOR. The SW players won't have a SW game to play, so what will they do? Of course they will buy SWTOR, pay for the box and on top pay the sub. With SWG they would only pay the sub.. do not underestimate the addictive power of SW.

    My Guild Wars 2 First Beta Weekend "reviewette" : http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/4944570/thread/349125#4944570

  • KalmarthKalmarth Member Posts: 443

    It died the day the put in the CU, for the last few years its just been a rotting corpse stinking up the MMO world, time to bury the body and finally let it rest, SWG we still miss you.....

  • TUX426TUX426 Member Posts: 1,907

    Originally posted by Ecnali

              I had stepped away from the game for about a year -  guild dissolution, deployment overseas, real life stuffs

    That right there is part of the problem...you, like MANY MANY MANY others "stepped away".

    Crafting is what you came back for, not the content, the questing, the combat...crafting. Others that didn't like crafting, simply stayed away.

  • ZarynterkZarynterk Member UncommonPosts: 398

    Originally posted by Ecnali

     I never played pre-NGE and only started after - and I loved it. 

     

    You think it was good after NGE/CU, man i wish you would have played before... one of THE best MMOs period...

    Also, I think SOE is losing the license, hence the reason for the shut down.

    image

  • RavingRabbidRavingRabbid Member UncommonPosts: 1,168

    The second NGE went into effect the game was toast and that SWTOR was coming out.  I would'nt be surprised if several other Sony games get chopped soon like Vanguard. I personally wont play sony games because I simply dont trust that  my private information will stay secure with them.

    I hope that someone decides to create SWG2 someday.

    ***Fires plunger at Sony cyber Security Dept.***

    All my opinions are just that..opinions. If you like my opinions..coolness.If you dont like my opinion....I really dont care.
    Playing: ESO, WOT, Smite, and Marvel Heroes

  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183

    Maybe the decided to die for their own arrogance?

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • Joshua69Joshua69 Member UncommonPosts: 953

    just play SWTOR and all will be fine...

  • BadSpockBadSpock Member UncommonPosts: 7,979

    I played SWG from day one to JTL and for me that was the final straw.

    The game was never polished, every patch would release twice as many new bugs as the ones it fixed, the balance was always horrible in terms of "flavor of the month" profession combos that were just ridiculously overpowered.

    The "content" available was a joke, Jabba's palace and the Rebel/Imperial Theme Parks barely worked or didn't work at all.

    Beyond that the game was nothing but grind, grind, grind repeatable missions.

    Hell, the Force Sensative unlock was nothing more then grinding through a random number of professions.

     

    The PvP was fun (except for the FOTM BS) and it was Star Wars in visual/audio but I don't think ever in "feel" and I never got into crafting because it seemed like such a chore/bore to have to set up all these facilities and gathering tools (I missed the simplicity of UO crafting)

    JTL was nothing like the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter games I grew up playing and loving.

    Animations were horrible, server-side performance was horrible, even going back as recent as a year ago they STILL haven't fixed any of the animation/rubber-banding issues.

    TLDR:

    SWG is the MMO that had the most potential for greatness of any MMO ever released ever.

    It NEVER lived up to that potential.

    They tried to change everything instead of working towards their original goals, which obviously backfired but I don't have any faith that even if the NGE and CU etc. had never happened, they never would have lived up to that potential.

  • Joshua69Joshua69 Member UncommonPosts: 953

    Originally posted by BadSpock

    I played SWG from day one to JTL and for me that was the final straw.

    The game was never polished, every patch would release twice as many new bugs as the ones it fixed, the balance was always horrible in terms of "flavor of the month" profession combos that were just ridiculously overpowered.

    The "content" available was a joke, Jabba's palace and the Rebel/Imperial Theme Parks barely worked or didn't work at all.

    Beyond that the game was nothing but grind, grind, grind repeatable missions.

    Hell, the Force Sensative unlock was nothing more then grinding through a random number of professions.

     

    The PvP was fun (except for the FOTM BS) and it was Star Wars in visual/audio but I don't think ever in "feel" and I never got into crafting because it seemed like such a chore/bore to have to set up all these facilities and gathering tools (I missed the simplicity of UO crafting)

    JTL was nothing like the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter games I grew up playing and loving.

    Animations were horrible, server-side performance was horrible, even going back as recent as a year ago they STILL haven't fixed any of the animation/rubber-banding issues.

    TLDR:

    SWG is the MMO that had the most potential for greatness of any MMO ever released ever.

    It NEVER lived up to that potential.

    They tried to change everything instead of working towards their original goals, which obviously backfired but I don't have any faith that even if the NGE and CU etc. had never happened, they never would have lived up to that potential.



    OMG X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. A very old friend and I actually got to play that simotameously, back with the first wave of Dell's and you had to directly connect to the person's IP, and it took like 90 tries and only worked for like 15minutes >_<

  • EliandalEliandal Member Posts: 796

    Originally posted by gladosrev2

    It's an obvious. cheap marketing trick to get a boost of initial sales for SWTOR. The SW players won't have a SW game to play, so what will they do? Of course they will buy SWTOR, pay for the box and on top pay the sub. With SWG they would only pay the sub.. do not underestimate the addictive power of SW.

     

      SoE's license was expiring.  The cost to renegotiate VS the subscriber revenue made it financially unviable.  That much has been publically said by SoE.  Of course, there ARE numerous conspiracy theories one could choose to believe - however I've always found that the most logical explanation is usually the right one.

  • KazaraKazara Member UncommonPosts: 1,086

    $OE mismanagement foisted two unwanted game revamps (especially the NGE) onto a playerbase that was considered expendable in a failed quest of grabbing WoW players. What kept SWG going despite its problems was the fantastic community, and the NGE mortally fractured it as players left in droves. In the end, there just wasn't enough players to justify paying LA for the license. It was mutually decided to not renew the license.

    If you think the crafting is awesome now with the NGE, you would have absolutely loved crafting before the CU/NGE. The revamps marginalized crafting, watered it down and shifted the economy to a loot & token based one. TheTCG loot cards only further margnalized the crafting. Crafting didn't drive players away.....negating all the time and effort players had put into their characters and their communities with the very unwanted NGE revamp did that.

     

    image

  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614

    Originally posted by Kalmarth

    It died the day the put in the CU, for the last few years its just been a rotting corpse stinking up the MMO world, time to bury the body and finally let it rest, SWG we still miss you.....

    Doubt SOE will ever get hold of a SW license ever again, seeing they have the well earned reputation of 'game-breakers'.

     

    "going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"

  • bbates024bbates024 Member UncommonPosts: 99

    Galaxies is closing more due to lack of intrest from the public then any other game being released. I dont know why they wont keep one server operational, maybe charge a 5 dollar fee no CS&S no gm's. They could charge the fee just to keep the server running maybe make a tiny bit of income for those who still want to play. I personally wont be joining you but it sucks when a game you love dies.

  • Billr00Billr00 Member UncommonPosts: 135

    does anyone know if there is a emulated server out there?

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593

    Originally posted by ericlatrelle

    Because it wasn't performing to a level that was generating the needed income to sustain it. It is time for it to go. Everything dies eventually.

    Highly doubtful, it had still a larger subscriber base than many other MMORPGs.

    The more likely reason was that it was not making enough money to make SOE suits happy and Lucasarts wants to maximize profits for SW:TOR so the suits got together and decided it was in their, rather than the players, interest to kill of SWG.

  • stayontargetstayontarget Member RarePosts: 6,519

    Originally posted by Eliandal

      SoE's license was expiring.  The cost to renegotiate VS the subscriber revenue made it financially unviable.  That much has been publically said by SoE.  Of course, there ARE numerous conspiracy theories one could choose to believe - however I've always found that the most logical explanation is usually the right one.

    This^^

    I also hear that BW's license agreement with Lucasarts states that the game must launch this year or they could possibly lose the license?  Is this correct ?

    Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...

  • nerovipus32nerovipus32 Member Posts: 2,735

    Sonys star wars licence runs out at the end of 2011. Sony are too tight to renew it so the game will be shut down.

  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614

    Originally posted by Yamota

     

    Highly doubtful, it had still a larger subscriber base than many other MMORPGs.

     

    larger then which MMO's?

     

    I can't remember any 'alive' MMO's that had more barren servers then SWG post NGE.

    Whole worlds where you played for hours and you actually saw 5????? people at most during a whole week of playing during Prime time.

     

    "going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"

  • pwnasauruspwnasaurus Member UncommonPosts: 71

    Originally posted by Eliandal

    Originally posted by gladosrev2

    It's an obvious. cheap marketing trick to get a boost of initial sales for SWTOR. The SW players won't have a SW game to play, so what will they do? Of course they will buy SWTOR, pay for the box and on top pay the sub. With SWG they would only pay the sub.. do not underestimate the addictive power of SW.

     

      SoE's license was expiring.  The cost to renegotiate VS the subscriber revenue made it financially unviable.  That much has been publically said by SoE.  Of course, there ARE numerous conspiracy theories one could choose to believe - however I've always found that the most logical explanation is usually the right one.

    It boils down mainly to what this fine poster asserted. Even if the player base is large enough to sustain a normally operating MMO and turn a profit, the licensing involved would overtax even a moderately populated game. 

    I'm not sure if people are aware, but the licensing fee for Star Wars affiliated products is absolutely exorbitant. The company that creates those ForceFX lightsabers payed(if I recall correctly) something near 100 million dollars for the rights to produce the likeness of Star Wars items.

    With competing MMOs such as SWTOR ponying up what I'm sure is the fully expected market value for their license, why should SWG recieve a discounted price? It's fairly easy to see from that perspective that the continuance of SWG was simply unfeasible depsite the dedicated community.

  • JTJT Member Posts: 401

    Originally posted by Joshua69

    just play SWTOR and all will be fine...

    SWTOR is not a replacement for SWG.  They are two totally different beast.  Anyone leaving SWG and hoping to find the same thing in SWTOR will be disappointed.  Anyone coming from current mmo's such as WoW, Rift and other similar mmo's will enjoy SWTOR.  There is nothing wrong with SWTOR, but is nothing like SWG.

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