Business And Economy Archive
Thread: A lot of people do not play anymore because..
Phaelyn
Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:40 pm
#14
Elurin wrote:
it isn't about gameplay..it isn't about things being way overpriced, or not being able to get uber everything on the same afternoon you roll a new toon. You will have that type of complainging always.
What I'm saying is that there is a core group of players that have a confidence issue, myself included. The confidence revolves around the fact that many people stopped playing because there was cheating going on, and they will not play on a server that is suspect.
The cheating is a matter of documented fact. Hell, I recall looking at offfical dev posts discussing the credit dupes, and showing graphs and stats on how they planned on getting those credits out of the system.
A new server would give those players at least the piece of mind that all known ways of cheating have been elminated and they are playing within a virgin economy that isn't suspect. Now, the time may arrive when a new exploit is discovered and taken advantage of, that would be a bad bad thing.
If you mean the Credit duping issue from last year around this time - That was a situation that has ALREADY been addressed, fixed, and had MANY accounts perma-banned. That is no longer an issue - In fact, if people remember it CORRECTLY, there was one specific server where the majority of Duping was occuring. It happened on many, don't get me wrong. But there was ONE specific server where the MAJORITY of the Duping happened.
I remember the graphs you are referring to. They were specific to the Server where the Majority of Duping occured, not to ALL servers across the board. Those of us who were around on the Forums know which server it was. Duping DID affect all of us - But it's been over for nearly a year now. As in, no longer an issue.
If the "Core Players" know all the facts, and read the Forums - They will be avoiding ONE specific server, not all. The "Core Players" who are leaving have a LOT of different reasons they are leaving. Economy isn't #1 on the list. According to the Devs, who question players who cancel subscriptions (It requires reading between the lines), they refer to "recent changes made" in relation to their exit polls. The Recent Changes we have are to the Tef situation.Doesn't take much imagination to figure out that was the #1 reason people were leaving.
Pawlin
Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:39 pm
#15
/agree Phaelyn
Anyway.. duping did occur but so what? How does it hurt anyone now? Does it somehow keep you from making credits?
SOE has removed most of the dupedcredits and banned most of the people who were duping. They didn't catch everyone but they did get the majority.
There will always be some cheaters / exploiters in these games and thats unavoidable and something we have to deal with. Of course its wrong, but you can't expect SOE to ensure you a virgin, 100% exploit free server just cause you "lack confidence" due to something that happened months ago.
KyberAntillies
Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:52 pm
#16
At least Galaxies has an economy. Not many other games can come close to this one.
Diaso
Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:12 pm
#17
KyberAntillies wrote:At least Galaxies has an economy. Not many other games can come close to this one.
True... World of Warcraft has an almost set economy with NPC sellers. I didn;t like it. SWG is more.. lets say.. free lol
Diorchas
Wed Mar 09, 2005 7:00 am
#19
If there's one single factor that led to supposed inflation it's solo groups, not duping. Solo groups is where the vast majority of in-game credits were generated. Duping was addressed. Solo groups have been addressed. And now the economy will be able to find the equilibrium that it had arguably been missing. If you leave now you're leaving right as it's getting BETTER, not worse.
Elurin
Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:45 am
#20
The problem is that the player base has been tainted.. sometimes it takes drastic measures to get people to take another look. I do not dispute that the game, and the economy are getting better (still need loot) but many issues have been corrected. The genre is getting more and more crowded and many of the games out there are all fantasy based. Star Wars in still in a unique situation. I think the SWG platform is the best one out there. It has more features, and is far richer as far as what it can offer than anything else out there. But a great MMORPG with no player base (and I know that at this point there isn't the problem of NO player base in SWG) isn't a whole lot of fun.
Does it not strike anyone as odd that this post.. with 20 replys, and on the forum for a week is still on the first page in the forum?
I'm not trying to be negative nancy.. I play eq2 everyday, and visit swg forums every day.. just hoping something will change. You might say, "why don't you give it a try and if you like what you see tell all your friends" I'm sorry though, me and my 5-7 friends that might try it are going to log in, find our server empty (as was the case a few weeks ago) and log out.
the problem is bigger than bug fixes at this point.. it will take a major shift in player mentality
Does it not strike anyone as odd that this post.. with 20 replys, and on the forum for a week is still on the first page in the forum?
I'm not trying to be negative nancy.. I play eq2 everyday, and visit swg forums every day.. just hoping something will change. You might say, "why don't you give it a try and if you like what you see tell all your friends" I'm sorry though, me and my 5-7 friends that might try it are going to log in, find our server empty (as was the case a few weeks ago) and log out.
the problem is bigger than bug fixes at this point.. it will take a major shift in player mentality
Phaelyn
Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:51 am
#21
Elurin wrote:
Th
Does it not strike anyone as odd that this post.. with 20 replys, and on the forum for a week is still on the first page in the forum?
Not odd at all - This particualr Forum happens to be one of the only Forums where people actually try to see each other eye to eye, instead of flaming. It's no more odd than a post I made at 5am this morning already has 29 responses.
Diorchas
Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:42 am
#22
Just out of morbid curiosity, what is it you would change about loot?
EdOWar
Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:48 am
#23
Elurin wrote:
I'm not trying to be negative nancy.. I play eq2 everyday, and visit swg forums every day.. just hoping something will change. You might say, "why don't you give it a try and if you like what you see tell all your friends" I'm sorry though, me and my 5-7 friends that might try it are going to log in, find our server empty (as was the case a few weeks ago) and log out.
the problem is bigger than bug fixes at this point.. it will take a major shift in player mentality
First, you complain of empty servers, yet you think startingmore servers will somehow solve the problem. It seems to me that all that would happen is the player base would just get thinned out more, so the servers would seem even more empty.
Sure, maybe new people would come back to play on the new servers...but then you say that "it will take a major shift in player mentality" to fix things. So if all it takes is a shift in player mentality, why do we need new servers? What makes you think player mentality will shift with a new server? Maybe because it's a fresh economy that's never seen duping? But I think a lot of veteran players will move from their servers to the new ones...and they'll bring all their mental baggage and economic assumptions with them.
I think you and your friends are blowing the problem out of proportion. The duping bugs of been fixed, most of the duped credits have been removed or have shifted out of the economy by now, and those who did the duping were banned. That's about asrepaired as the economy can get. EQ2 may seem to have a "tighter" or "untainted" economy now, but that's because EQ2 is a new game. Many of the same economic problems will develop in that game...only they'll be even worse because that isn't an player-based economy, and it doesn't have the inherent mechanisms to make adjustments. Player-based economies are far more flexible than static fixed economies like most MMORPG's have.
I hope your friends will give SWG another try...the more the merrier. 
Slim Vargo, Corbantis
shadowdefender
Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:27 am
#24
Noobs don't start out with 250 credits anymore they start out with 1000 and if they do all of the tasks their bot gives them in an hour they have 75000 credits in their pocket. I think that is starting a noob out on a much leveler playing field then when I started this game and had 250 credits and a melon in my pocket. It was at least a month before I could even afford padded armor.
Starcloud
Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:31 pm
#25
Actually, if they take all the tasks the starter droid gives them, they get 11500 credits.
The 75000 you're referring to is a one-time bonus for purchasing JtL, and you get that for just logging in with a character.
thegreywolfe
Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:05 pm
#26
Elurin wrote:
They have no faith in the fairness of the current galaxy economies. Devs, start a new galaxy that doesn't have a borked economy even if it means closing a server and angering some people. Then use all your marketing to publicize this.. I think you'll be surprised at the response.. I know of at least 7 people in my current group of friends that would love to come back, but won't because they have no confidence that the current economies are legit, and not the product of resource and credit dupe bugs.
A rather broad statement there, eh? Exactly what is wrong with the current economy? Are you advocating that SOE take the economy in SWG and convert it from player to static? If so, perhaps we should go ahead and tell all the crafters to stop working and start grinding out combat classes. Or are you suggesting price fixing and only allowing crafters to sell for a specific price? I haven't noticed any serious problem with the economy when I played. Sure there are numerous instances of me finding something for a price I feel unreasonable, so I don't buy it and look for a vendor with a price closer to what I'm willing to pay. I've noticed that the only serious problem in my ability to purchase anything in game, is that it is dependant on my willingness to go out and earn the credits necessary to purchase.