Jedi Archive
Thread: PLEASE READ THIS SUMS UP ALOT FOR ME
well said.
I used to really love this game. But im to the point now of trying to find a reason not to cancel my account. It's not so much the changes (although i am upset about that), but its more the virtual lack of respect for all of us, the cloak and dagger way that all of this was handled, not telling us about it before the expansion, and the fact that there is no customer service in SOE.
Im extremly upset that i have spent all this time grinding my jedi just to find out it was all an enormas waste of time and money. I'm so up fed up with SOE ive lost interest in playing the game. I know that nothing i say will change it. The decision has been made and no matter how much we post, nothing will change that. I guess i just wanted to get my 2 cents in.
I dont want to quit, but i think im gonna
Cphyr wrote:
WRITTEN BY A FORMER CORO:
To the Developers,
While I cannot claim that I speak on behalf of the entire community, I do believe that my comments here will reflect much of what most of the veterans of this game feel at the release of the upcoming "game enchancements" information today.
To start off, for those who don't know me, I am a veteran SWG player. I tracked the game prior to release, and pre-ordered the Collector's Edition on the first day. I have played this game since day one. I own three accounts, all of which I have leveled myself. One is a Jedi, the others are non-Jedi characters. Two of those accounts are currently active (for the time being). I served as the Scout Correspondent from July 2003 until February of 2005, being the second longest serving Correspondent in the game. I attended the first Fan-fest in Anaheim (I live in Washington, DC) and I attended the Correspondent Summit in Austin, where I met Julio, Tiggs, and reintroduced myself to many of the rest of the design team that I had met at Fan-fest, including Thunderheart, Keldarin, GreenMarine (no longer with SOE) and many others. I alpha tested Jump-to-Lightspeed, and beta tested Rage of the Wookies and the Trials of Obi-Wan. I do believe that all of these experiences lend significant emphasis and credability to the opinions I want to express here.
I have reviewed the FAQ, as well as Julio's letter to the community. While it took a while to understand the magnitude of what is happening here, I have come to grips with it.
These game changes, in my opinion, represent a serious breach of trust with the community and fail to take into account the efforts that the veterans of this community have made in the game.
It is a slap in the face to announce these changes - changes which may take effect within three weeks or less to the game - ONE DAY after a new expansion that many of us have purchased copies of, some multiple copies of, was released. The dust has not even settled on The Trials of Obi-Wan, and now we are being presented with changes that will completely change the way the game looks, feels and is played. In my mind, this is little better than a virtual bait-and-switch perpetrated on the entire community.
I am well aware of the development process, thanks to my work as a Correspondent. I know that these changes must have been in the pipeline for months, particularly if all of the coding will be completed in less than one months time. The Combat Balance/Upgrade/Revamp that I assisted with and helped to shape in Austin at the Summit and throughout the process took over a year and half to develop, code and complete. Yet this entire process was done in secret, including all of the PR preparations made by Tiggs and the SOE Community Relations staff, and sprung on the community without an inkling two days after the expansion was released.
In real life, I'm a lobbyist, and I've been working in Washington for 10 years. So I've seen a lot of conspiracy theories come and go. And If I were a cynic, I would say that this was a carefully timed announcement, designed to hit the community right after the expansion was released, so that SOE and LEC could have gotten the money for the expansion from as many veterans as possible, hoping that that capital would keep the game going through the massive wave of cancellations from those same veterans when changes of this magnitude were announced. And once all the veterans are gone, marketing could focus on bringing new players to the game, who had no knowledge of the previous two years and wouldn't have a problem with what you've done here. I hope to God that that's just the anger talking here, because if any part of what I've said is just true, it would represent the biggest rip-off of an entire gaming community in the history of the gaming industry.
I feel cheated and ripped off. And I think I speak for a large portion of the community when I say that.
And this is how I feel strictly based on the timing of the announcement. The actual changes you are proposing are worse.
Changes of this magnitude, less than 6 months after changes of a similiar magnitude, make it hard for me to accept that this game will still be Star Wars Galaxies. If anything, these game enchancements seem to be attempting to turn SWG into some kind of amalgamation of World of Warcraft, Planetside and Knights of the Old Republic. This isn't why I play SWG, and isn't why I've stuck with this game for two years.
And while I recognize that we veterans will receive "elder" buffs and status in the game, that's not enough. How do you begin to repay someone for the hundreds and thousands of hours they've spent playing this game, building up credits, skills, guilds, equipment, etc. and then wiping away everything they've accomplished in less than a month? I can't tell you the number of days I've taken off work to play SWG, or ignored a deadline or got an extension on a project just to stay out a bit later in a great XP group. All of that is for naught - you are invalidating most of what I've accomplished in the game in two years and in return, I get a special buff. That's not enough.
Rangers were promised a complete revamp less than a month ago, with outlines and changes that got many of them excited about the game again. Now, Rangers have been removed. The profession that I advocated on behalf of for nearly two years, Scout, is gone. The hours and hours I spent writing and rewriting guides for the community on the profession are now worthless.
And worse than the fact that the changes can't begin to compensate for what I'm losing, you're destroying what has kept most people in this game as long as we've been here - the community.
And its already happening. I recently cancelled my World of Warcraft account (even after the news of their new expansion) to come back to SWG full time, and one of the main reasons I cited was the community. My guild on Bloodfin, which is comprised of approximately 60 players with probably close 150 accounts all-together has almost fallen apart IN THE SPAN OF FIVE HOURS. Just looking through my ventrilo, I see people with comments of "5 accounts cancelled", "3 accounts cancelled", "Anybody want to buy 100 mill credits", "3 Jedi for sale cheap, will take food for trade". These are all veteran gamers, guild leaders, beta testers, the kinds of players that MMO designers listen to and make games specifically for - and they're all unhappy. Not a single person I've spoken to is happy right now.
This entire process is fatally flawed. It's flawed because there have been consistent promises made to this community by the Community Relations staff that major changes to the game would be discussed in the community and that we would have some kind of say over them. There's a reason why there are "In Dev", "In Testing" and "In Concept" forums on these boards. But they weren't used here.
Do you even understand the magnitude of what you're doing? If you don't right now, you will when you get the metrics back on how many accounts were cancelled today.
Stop this process now. Get community feedback. Ignore the focus groups and the exit polls and LISTEN to your community. Focus groups and polling is all well and good - I use it myself. But nothing beats getting out in and amongst the actual people who play this game and hearing what they think about this. Make these changes gradual. Do them a little at a time, so that people can get used to them and integrate them into their playstyle. The game was made in a day, it doesn't need to be remade in a day.
Better yet, don't go forward with the changes at all - save them for Star Wars Galaxies II - The Search for More Money. (I hope you all get the reference).
For the sake of all of us who have put so much into this game, and even for those players who simply log in once in a while, kill a few stormtroopers but pay their $15 a month for it, reconsider these changes and allow the community a chance to respond and contribute to the process.
This is our game. It is our money and it is our free time. Respect us. Give us the opportunity to affect this process in a meaningful, cooperative way. It is the very least that we have earned through our dedication and loyalty to this game.
BRISC RUBAL
If money is all you love, then that's what you'll receive
Message Edited by Cphyr on 11-05-2005 12:16 AM
QFE.....FTW
Owen-Lars wrote:
Everyone can see it was a bad call to time this just as the expansion was coming out but personally i think the changes could be just what the game needs. It needs wow influences, it needs fps style fast paced combat and it needs knights of the old republic hints. To me the only time ive sat back and said wow this is star wars is when i stumbled on a random poi battle between some agressive storm troopers and some rebels who were being questioned. It took part in the battle and it was amazing. This was in the first week. Ive never really felt in starwars in combat since.
What the devs have planned should fix that and i simply cannot wait. I just want to see if they managed to pull it off or not. If they did then im going to playing for a very long time. If they dont then i wont be, simple as.
I love the direction and the ideas the devs have, i just dont know if they've managed to pull it off yet.
Message Edited by Dariane_Kamutsovy on 11-05-2005 06:15 AM
I would tend to say i have to agree with this post,
not that i am not interested in thechanges.
but more so that i liked the old game.. pre-cu to be specific,
and if if is great as heralded i would have bought it,
if it had been released as a NEW GAME... as it appears to pretty much be.
NIce post, I feel the same way. Ripped off. I think they are making this new CU thing is so that it will work with the new ps3 and xbox 360. But all the time I have spent on Swordsman and CH are gone. I am not going to pay to start over. I would rather play a game that doesnt pull this crap. I have spent the last 2 months catching new pets gaining there xp and training new abilities. Now they will be all usless. If they would have at least gave us a warning, I wouldnt have wasted my time. I also have 6 unlcoks for jedi but was taking my time, and enjoying the grind. Now it is to late to get my 2nd toon. And I have also spent about 60 mil on 2 handed aa's and RIS amor that is all useless.
SorryI could go on for a long time. I am just so pissed, this is complete BS. Its time to find a new game. It just makes it hard because of the people here. I have made alot of good friends here.
nice essay
i would love to see any of these guys pull this type of **edit** off, face to face