Force Sensitive Archive
Thread: This is what Smedley thinks of us???
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CityHall
Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:26 am
#1
I think we have always expected way to much from video game companys... they have been a life long friend to us and in our minds we make them out to be kind and careing but in truth they are in what is soon to be the biggest entertanment busness in the world second only to film... and look what Hollywood has done to us over the years in the name of a bottom line.
As long as I can have fun playing the game and I can afford the expense I will continue to play... but I don't expect SOE to be my buddy.
P.S. I beleve the vocal minority bit... there is some serious "vocality" lacking athority here.
P.P.S. Why bring this to the pilot forum? this is like the last stronghold of functional community on the board... and has been for quite some time.
As long as I can have fun playing the game and I can afford the expense I will continue to play... but I don't expect SOE to be my buddy.
P.S. I beleve the vocal minority bit... there is some serious "vocality" lacking athority here.
P.P.S. Why bring this to the pilot forum? this is like the last stronghold of functional community on the board... and has been for quite some time.
TarkanArrant
Thu Nov 10, 2005 5:57 am
#2
Funny that I play runescape......it's a fun game when you're board, but I only play it if my friends in RL call me up to play it, but other that, the main reason why it's soo fastly growing is because it's free, but then there is also the membership pass, lets you do some things special, not a whole lot, but just a tad.
FLMOPE
Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:42 am
#4
I understand that you are angry that you don't run the world and that the entitlement and fairness you think you deserve are illusions.
Now go back and troll some other board. There is enough of your like minded people elsewhere.
Go and leave us in peace.
darmokVtS
Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:56 am
#5
PhatDhad wrote:
Smedley says [..] It's just a very small, very vocal minority."What do you think
I think that checking the NGE discussion forum will give everyone who looks a bit closer EXACTLY that feeling, the vast majority of complaint traffic there is caused by maybe 30 or 40 (if even that many) people posting the same stuff in different words over and over and over again
.Message Edited by darmokVtS on 11-10-2005 02:57 PM
CuchulainnDarklight
Thu Nov 10, 2005 7:12 am
#6
Funny thing is, with the Star Wars name SOE have a licence to print money if done correctly. All they had to do was make a *gasp*GOOD game, set in the Star Wars universe that would appeal to both old and young, star wars fans, and people who want to play a great MMORPG.
So take the preCU game, with its unique players with many different templates and crafting complexity and Star Wars situations. Now take that game and apply some balance in the form of tweaks to the combat system (removal of the uber buffs, the armour changes from the CU (i like em), the weapon classification system too, never put in a level system) and add in more and more CONTENT.
Now you have a good game with broad appeal.
What pays for it? Well 200k subs a month generates 2 MILLION dollars per month, that should be enough PLUS a healthy profit, unless money in the short term, niot the long term, is your ideal.
With the added subscriptions brought in by a game that is GOOD and has regular CONTENT additions there would be considerably more money around which means more profit for SOE and, perhaps, even a useful Customer Service division.
But all the above is just common sense, you dont get that from focus groups that consist of brain dead monkeys and SOE employees (the ones that find the CU game too complicated) and the focus group mentioned above (Smedley's ADD, spoilt child).
Message Edited by CuchulainnDarklight on 11-10-2005 06:30 AM
darmokVtS
Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:10 am
#7
CuchulainnDarklight wrote:
So take the preCU game, with its unique players with many different templates
I recall those times quite "a bit" different, the game I played back then was dominated by fotm-templating, non-fotms were a very small minority. However, this might (even tho that this is unlikely) have been different across the servers
.
CuchulainnDarklight wrote:
(removal of the uber buffs, the armour changes from the CU (i like em), the weapon classification system too, never put in a level system)
Did we really play a different game at that time? The game I played suffered heavily from a different issue, the only with quite some downsides healable mindpool that only could be attacked by a subset of professions (which lead to the fotm templates including a prof that had a mindattack). Your points that you'd change in the old pre-cu system leave out one of the major broken aspects of it
.
Halyn
Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:14 am
#9
How quickly everyone forgets what the original gameplay was like.
/ponder
There was a reason for the CU...and until the CU hit TC and people actually got to play with it, the vast majority of people looked forward to it because ground combat under the original system was, er, less-than-ideal.
The further away we get, the better it was? 
Higginsis
Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:25 am
#10
Halyn wrote:How quickly everyone forgets what the original gameplay was like./ponderThere was a reason for the CU...and until the CU hit TC and people actually got to play with it, the vast majority of people looked forward to it because ground combat under the original system was, er, less-than-ideal.The further away we get, the better it was?
Never a truer word said.
We asked for the CU, we didn't get what many wanted, but if the old system was so good, we never would of want a CU.
Also the majority of the people who enjoyed pre CU were the Swordsman/Rifleman/Jedi/Doc's/AS who had really learned to use the system to their advantage. Everyone else, was screwed.
JanuHull
Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:50 am
#11
Higginsis wrote:
Halyn wrote:
How quickly everyone forgets what the original gameplay was like.
/ponder
There was a reason for the CU...and until the CU hit TC and people actually got to play with it, the vast majority of people looked forward to it because ground combat under the original system was, er, less-than-ideal.
The further away we get, the better it was?
Never a truer word said.
We asked for the CU, we didn't get what many wanted, but if the old system was so good, we never would of want a CU.
Also the majority of the people who enjoyed pre CU were the Swordsman/Rifleman/Jedi/Doc's/AS who had really learned to use the system to their advantage. Everyone else, was screwed.
Lets not forget the stackable1500+ tick mind poison and 800 tick Mind Disease. There were just the right pops on Kettemoor, that one CM became alegend for being able to utterly destroy Rebel armies with a hookshot or two.
Stawei_Idow
Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:21 pm
#12
The combat changes to the game went live some months ago and as with most MMOG changes, there was much public outcry on the forums. But SOE didn't experience any drop off subscriber numbers. On the contrary, Galaxies continued to grow faster than any other title run by SOE.
If that's true, then how do you explain approximately 80% of my friends on three different servers disappeared when the CU went live?
Some probably did move on to a different game, or had other issues in life, work, family, etc, but not 80-100 of them all at the same time.
If you belive that, I got a bridge I'd like to sell you in Brooklyn.
Along with the fact that before the CU, I'd estimate that of all the houses around Coronet (Ahazi, Eclipse), about 60-70% had vendors listed (on the overhead map), and now perhaps 30% of those houses have vendors listed.
I know a lot of people flocked to Jedi, but not that many.
Further evidenced by the number of harvesters that are in flames now. I rarely saw a harvester fall into disrepair pre-CU.
Was the original game perfect?
Certainly not.
Did it need all the changes that were implemented in the CU?
I don't think so.
Nor does it need to be pared down to 30% of the current professions, which your character is locked into for life.
I can understand trying to simplify the professions, and thinning the number does make some sense, but locking a character into one profession for life is mindboggling.
The vets get their respecs, but new players and characters don't have that luxury.
Seems to me that if the only option for a character is deletion if I get bored with my profession, it would be a lot easier to just cancel my subscription when I feel I've 'done it all'.
Whether I really had done it all or not is not what matters. It's my perception that I have done everything I can with that character or profession, so why should I stay?
I haven't been able to try the new changes much as the servers are usually down, or going down, when I get the chance, but I have found a few things that I definately do not like, some of which may be bugs, or may be intended, but since I haven't been out of the tutorial station yet, I can't say for sure.
I never intended to buy ToOW, but was going to pick up RotW last week, and based on what I've seen so far, I'm glad I waited.
I'm not a doomsayer or the 'vocal minority' screaming that I'm quitting, but depending on how things change, I'm in a good position to leave if I don't enjoy the game anymore.
Even though I haven't come close do 'doing it all', I have done a lot and while I would be disappointed to leave, if it's not fun anymore then there's no point in paying for it.
The NGE may end up being the best thing that ever happened to the game, but whether it is or not, SOE/LA purposely waiting until ToOW went live (to make sure their bank account was full) is the lowest, and least customer friendly tactic I have ever seen.
CuchulainnDarklight
Thu Nov 10, 2005 12:58 pm
#13
Higginsis wrote:
Halyn wrote:
How quickly everyone forgets what the original gameplay was like.
/ponder
There was a reason for the CU...and until the CU hit TC and people actually got to play with it, the vast majority of people looked forward to it because ground combat under the original system was, er, less-than-ideal.
The further away we get, the better it was?
Never a truer word said.
We asked for the CU, we didn't get what many wanted, but if the old system was so good, we never would of want a CU.
Also the majority of the people who enjoyed pre CU were the Swordsman/Rifleman/Jedi/Doc's/AS who had really learned to use the system to their advantage. Everyone else, was screwed.
Umm, I was a Ranger/Pistoleer/bit of Rifles predominately, and I had no trouble in participating (to some degree) in everything. You just needed tactics and forethought, that was more fun than bashing a button, waiting until another button lights up, then bashing it, rinse and repeat. And the CU didnt balance the professions, it just made them more similar and made new fotm templates.
However, as I said above ( the bits most people omit when quoting) was balancing all the professions to stop the fotm stackers and removal of the uber (god I hate that word) DOT loots with the addition of some of the CU (the good bits) would have made the game appeal to a broader base, which equals more subscribers, not less. That is what the majority of people wanted and asked for preCU. You have the fun, and easy (easy to do, not necessarily easy to win) but varied combat (and it was against NPCs, with balanced professions PvP would be the same) an attainable, but difficult to reach Jedi profession and the complexity of mixing and matching your template to the way you like (not fotm thanks to balance) as well as the crafting complexity and you have a game that offers options to whatever you want to try. The more options the more players.
Though saying that, even with only 200k subscribers, 2 million dollars a MONTH is more than enough to pay for the continual addition of content to the game and produce a large amount of profit.
But as I said before thats the common sense way to do it, with a long view towards generating greater revenue, I guess that isnt SOEs way.
In hindsight it is safe to say that the CU was the first step towards the NGE. They dumbed down crafting, made templates less varied, had already made Jedi easy to get, made combat so easy you can do it by randomly striking your F keys. Once that was done they just waited a while and "improved" upon these changes when the majority of the CU furore had died down. Had they tried the NGE insteadof the CU the uproar would have been much more noticeable.
Message Edited by CuchulainnDarklight on 11-10-2005 11:59 AM
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