Ranger Archive

This has the ability to be a good thread. Lets see if we can do that. Ok here goes.

My guild and I have been talking about this on our forums. It was brought up yesterday off of mmorpg.com. And I kind of took it lightly. But now all of a sudden its gone to stratics which I kind of, for whatever reason, hold in high esteem. And its looking a lot more believable. At first i wrote off the directors job opening as simply meaning he was going to a new project. Because the devs have made hints that they were working on a new game. But you have to admit Lucas saying this doesnt fit his vision seemed pretty darned credible after the DVD release doesnt it? I mean we have gone so far off the Star Wars tangent as to be ridiculous. And thats not even counting our current jedi issue. So that leaves the question of what would happen with the split? You can't get rid of the current player jedis without finacial consideration so it won't happen. So how do you fix the game without just killing off player characters?

We know they wont kill the game. We may be bleeding players but our player population is still way up there and it would be finicial suicide. Add that its a licensed title that has the ability to be great. So do they go all out and make it what it should be? Or do they completly let it go the way the players are pushing it? So many questions. Since JTL's ETA (according to EBWorld and some other mumblings) is 10/27 which isnt that far away.

It is a rumor...

Yes it is. But rumors are fun Calc not like we have much else to talk about today.

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Fodder650 wrote:
Yes it is. But rumors are fun Calc not like we have much else to talk about today.

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Well, here is another 'rumor' that squashes the other rumor.

Well heck that just proves its true. I mean why else would they come out and say that if it wasn't? There obviously hiding it.

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Calculus_Entropy wrote:
It is a rumor...

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yes of course it is a rumour -but rumours have the potential of coming true .....

I have noticed a big increase in Devs and CSRs spending "quality time" with us players over the last week or two, and I think that may be related to these rumours one way or the other.

i.e. a last ditch effort to prove the current team are doing a good job because they have been given final warnings, or an attempt to head off a potential disagreement with LucasArts, or even maybe that SOE are admitting to problems and are trying to fix them.

I personally think that LucasArts have a valid case if (and a big IF here) they are saying that SWG has deviated too much from the "vision", but I don't see that it can get fixed in any radical manner, only that the game can be gently steered back towards "the light". Remember a lot of this can be waved away by saying there's so much of life that you don't see in the films .......

If LucasArts think SOE are overall doing aterrible job of this game, that's a diferent issue, and one which is not so easily dealt with. There are not many (if any)companies that could come in and take over seamlessly and put everything right.

My guess is that LucasArts have sensed the growing concern amongst the playing community and are moving in to keep a closer eye on things. The job spec we (I) saw was a very good description of an "overseer" role from a client to a contractor.

JTL looks good, and I'm sure SOE will throw all their resources at it to make sure it goes live without a hitch. This will draw many new players in over the next few months up to Christmas ...... what they need to do next is keep introducing content - content which will now have to match up to LucasArts expectations.

This game is fixable (if we could only see the damn documents for the combat revamp as promised .... )and I am sure that SOE have the ability to eat into their profit margin at times to throw extra resources at this game to help it out - so I personally see SOE continuing, albeit under closer scrutiny from LucasArts - for the forseeable future - with one caveat : "The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is"

Anyway - that's just me reading between lots of lines !! lol

BTW we can't see the combat docs. Because we'll want it to happen the next day or curse for weeks and months about it. It would be really ugly. Can you imagine if they had released these after the correspondents meeting? We would have been chewing over every line of it for that entire time. Add that we would be working on hoarding credits, materials, organics while we prepare. And i think you can see why it would be bad idea

/Slam alright topic lets shove you in another direction

Additionally, the Combat Docs are not finalized yet...they adjust them quite often... Wait what I just said implies that they are NOT putting all their resources into JTL! I know no one will believe that, but it is true.

Nemo understands things...y'all should listen to him .

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Nemo0 wrote:

This sort of rumor is extremely unlikely to be true, for legal and technical reasons.

Legally, LucasArts have approved the content of this game. They have a contract with SOE that SOE will develop the game but Lucas has to approve it before they can release it. LucasArts haveapproved the games progression. I don't think the Devs would have done the whole Jedi quest thing without consulting LucasArts (if they did, you would probably have a breach of contract and so Lucas could take over).

Approving a set of changes is one thing - seeing the impact of those changes later is another ...... It all depends on how those changes were "sold" to customer (LucasArts in this case)

SOE has developed all the technology for this game. That sort of stuff is a huge trade secret. If LucasArts tried to take over, they would have to go to court to get SOE to agree to give them the code and such (LucasArts owns the copyright of the characters and such but the code likely belongs to SOE). It seems extremely unlikely that Lucas could take over without SOE making a fuss with a strong legal backing.

It is common (or has been) for large software development projects to have clauses in them that the Prime Contractor is obliged to hand over all source code to the customer on completion of a term of service or termination of the contract. Thiscan get messy of course if "termination" is discussed, but nonetheless it is a practise that has happened in Industry - so the Games Industry might also apply. Don't forget this is not just some fantasy game we're talking about, this is probably onr of the biggest franchises in the entertainment world !! I can see other Software Development companies salivating at these rumours !! lol

Not to mention that LucasArts has even less of a clue on how to make these servers work than SOE. If you give them everything, things are likely to turn very pear shaped.

Indeed - LucasArts are not a game develpoment company, but there is another Skywalker .......

I mean development company out there .... lol

Shug_Ninx has been around since the beginning as the LucasArts contact on this game (well, he's been around for a VERY long time if not from the very beginning--it's been a very long time since the pre beta boards came up and my memory isn't perfect). He has been working really hard to make this game as close as possible to Star Wars. Has he succeeded? I don't know. But I'm guessing that this new job post might just mean he is moving on (which is a shame). I remember certain comments from players that the screenshots had the size of certain items off. He made sure they were fixed to the right size (as seen in the movies). I can't see them making changes this huge without consulting him (and, therefore, having the implicit or explicit approval of LucasArts).

True - this game carries the badge, but if behind the scenes, certain execs are unhappy about the long term implications of some of these decisions, then it may well have been time for the previous imcumbent to move on and a new one to take his place. The gaming community is the barometer for these types of events - and of late, has been pretty stormy.

In reality, I think LucasArts is probably happy with the way this game is going.

I'm not so sure ....

It's definitely not perfect but nothing ever is. This game has gone a long way to letting people "live" in the Star Wars universe. Some changes to continuity have been made for the sake of having a fun game. The simple fact that so many people were willing to ruin the game (and their game experience) to obtain Jedi is a sign of that. Making Jedi a bit less destructive to the game is a good thing (most people can become Jedi while still playing normally--the people grinding all the xp out are likely to have been grinding missions or other professions anyway). The game has a lot of problems. But continuity problems are not just the fault of SOE. LucasArts has been there with the veto power from the very beginning. Tradeoffs have been made but everyone working on this game is trying to make it the best they can.

There you have it - everyone working on the game IS trying to make this the best they can - no doubt about it.

If SOE execs are underfunding the CSR department .......

If SOE execs are forcing code through into live without proper testing ......

If SOE don't have the people in place to try and futureproof the major game decisions ......

well - here we are.

All I'm saying is that I've noticed changes recently. Changes in communication. Changes in CSR attitude to people. Changes for the better.

That sort of impetus comes from a management reshuffle internally, or some external influence ...... and given the rumours abounding, it's not hard to imagine that there is some dissatisfaction from the LucasArts side of the equation.

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