Smuggler Archive
Thread: Why I'm quitting the game, and some serious questions for smugglers to ask themselves.
WesBelden wrote:
I'm a one time XvT fanatic
Ok here's my n00B question of the day. What's Xvt?
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse!
Smuggler_Caylin wrote:X-wing vs TieI think.
thanks now I really feel like a n00b!!!
Re: the hope for an XvT style game
I wouldn't hold your breath. I don't think the engine can really handle it. And to the extent that it can, how can it handle that kind of stuff plus supporting a real smuggling system? If Caylin's notion of instanced dungeons is what ships will be, how will we be dogfighting from within such dungeons? Dungeons fighting dungeons? I just don't see how that'll work technologically, but then again, I'm not a programmer so what do I know. Still, it seems like more vaporware promises.
Re: the overreaction thing
Yes, you're right that the devs have been telling us here and there that certain systems probably wouldn't work, but no one ever formally came out and say "no" to player smuggling. When we asked them POINTEDLY for the past two or three months what was on the table for the revamp, when we could expect it, and what was doable and not doable, what did we get? Silence. Tumbleweeds blowing down the street. What we did NOT get is an answer, explanation, or a "You'd better get that idea out of your head FAST" style post. THAT's where the deception comes in for me. It's a customer service issue, or in this case, a customer disservice issue.
Solo4114 wrote:
Re: the hope for an XvT style game
I wouldn't hold your breath. I don't think the engine can really handle it. And to the extent that it can, how can it handle that kind of stuff plus supporting a real smuggling system? If Caylin's notion of instanced dungeons is what ships will be, how will we be dogfighting from within such dungeons? Dungeons fighting dungeons? I just don't see how that'll work technologically, but then again, I'm not a programmer so what do I know. Still, it seems like more vaporware promises.
Re: the overreaction thing
Yes, you're right that the devs have been telling us here and there that certain systems probably wouldn't work, but no one ever formally came out and say "no" to player smuggling. When we asked them POINTEDLY for the past two or three months what was on the table for the revamp, when we could expect it, and what was doable and not doable, what did we get? Silence. Tumbleweeds blowing down the street. What we did NOT get is an answer, explanation, or a "You'd better get that idea out of your head FAST" style post. THAT's where the deception comes in for me. It's a customer service issue, or in this case, a customer disservice issue.
Well EN, it'll be sad to see you go.
I'll likely stick around until after the revamp and see how it goes. IfI like it... I'll stay. If not, there's always WoW, CoH or something else... Heck even FFXI.
There may not be a reason to wait for the SE if the SRV (Smuggler Re-Vamp) isn't up to snuff. Caylin seems at least juiced about it so there must be something worthwhile, but it's a person to person basis now.
/shrug
I seriously can't believe that everybody wants to smuggle for players that much. Even if they implemented player smuggling, it wouldn't last more than a week. Somebody would figure out a way around it or some smugglers would abuse (grief) to the point that the rest of the community would have such a uproar that we would never be asked to smuggle in the first place.
Im fine with NPC smuggling and mission terminals. So what if it is boring, smuggling is a job not a adventure. This is afreakin RPG.The thrill is being chased down by the authorties or maybe even a bounty hunter (hopes).
Solo...
I have always read your posts with anticipation and have always admired your honesty. I say that so that you will know that what I have to sayis not intended as a personal attack or a flame, but just as an observation from my slanted viewpoint.
I think your decision was predestined. I find it hard to believe that the only reason you stayed in the game was in the hope of smuggling contraband. The game has so much more to offer than that, but if that is all you really wanted then I think you would have left tomorrow if not today.
Also, concerning your main point as to being mis-led: Ever since I started reading these forums back in July of last year, it has been apparent that SOE misleads us. Sometimes in little,"not really important"ways, sometimes inlarger ways. The worst I saw was several months agowhen the Rifleman correspondent left and a new one was needed. There were three or four CLEAR choices to replace him - people who were always present in the forums with fair opinions and tons of knowledge (much like Caylin was and is here). The Devs came to the rifle forum and asked us who it should be. Of course, the three or four expected names were immediately placed at their feet. Suddenly one day, the devs announced our new correspondent: Klawlegna. A person with maybe a total of 20 posts in the forum that no one had heard of. Now, Klaw has turned out to be a SOLIDcorrespondent, and I mean to take nothing away from him, but it was blatantly obvious that the opinion of the rifleman community meant total squat, and that SOE's request for our opinion was a total sham.
So Idon't believe forone second that this is a new revelation to you. Maybe it is just that this is the first time they have mis-led you on something near and dear to your heart.
Well, with that said... the bottom line is thatwhatever it was that pushed you over the edge obviously meant a lot to you. Your knowledge and support of smuggler will be missed.
Good luck in all endeavors.... I salute you!
Solo4114 wrote:
I don't think so. I suspect that the arrangement works such that LucasArts licenses the use of the Star Wars trademark and copyrighted materials, grants SOE a limited license to produce a derivative work based on the films, and generally assumes an oversight role in making sure that SOE doesn't tarnish the franchise by, say, bringing Vulcans in or having wookiees walk around talking about the Forbidden Zone or somesuch. Aside from that, the ball's probably in SOE's court. Yes, Lucas CHOSE SOE to develop the game, and for that deserves some of the blame, but I think this is a case where the developer is generally given a free hand to design the game. LucasArts doesn't have the native talent to do a huge MMORPG, so they went to the guys they figured were the logical choice -- the developers of EverQuest -- and got them to do it. As a result, you've got Star Quest Ever Wars or whatever. (so I'm told -- I never played EverQuest) Not really a Star Wars game, more like an EverQuest expansion pack with Star Wars graphics and sounds. I do blame LucasArts for not pulling the plug on this crap, but then again, they're making money so why kill the goose who lays the golden egg, even if the people BUYING the egg keep complaining that it's iron pyrite.
Actually, you're wrong. The agreement was posted on the old SWG site. Holocron and other devs have said in the past that Lucas hired them, SOE gives them server space. Before everyone hated this game, the devs tried to get all credit to Lucas. Now that the game is hated, you don't see them correcting the mob. Holocron was hired by Lucas. Holocron picked the devs. Holocron is paid by Lucas. Holocron speaks for Lucas in all matters regarding this game. I don't see how SOE can be linked to control especially since everything is controled by Holocron.
Why would SOE stop supporting/production on EQ/EQ2 to make another MMO? Why would they take the dev team from EQ and place it in a new environment? This dev team is the rejects of so many previous failed MMO games. UO, AO, AC, etc. The devs for EQ are still supporting EQ, or they are working on EQ2.
It's funny how you can call this EQ in space, though you have never played EQ. This game is nothing like EQ. Doesn't come close to any aspect of it. Of course, if you played EQ you would know this, instead of spouting the garbage that you did.
Wayne,
Maybe it was predestined, come to think of it. This was really more of the straw that broke the camel's back rather than a single incident that in and of itself made me want to quit. When I started this game, I wanted to be a smuggler. I also wanted to be immersed in the Star Wars universe, and hoped to find some semblance of real roleplaying. What I found was a game that, while probably well-intentioned, seemed to cater less towards people with my tastes in gaming and more towards people for whom the grind WAS the game. I could live with that, however, if I could do what I wanted to do in my little corner of the game world. I could find an RP community (and did -- New Aldera' on Talus on the Kettemoor server), I could pursue my professions and gradually build up a business. But I still couldn't smuggle and that's what I wanted to do most in the game. I had other characters, you know. Medics, an entertainer, a Rifleman/Fencer combo that I was leveling up in the starter trees, a bounty hunter character that I was also leveling up, etc. But my smuggler was my main character and that's what I wanted to do. Even with all the other issues about SOE's design decisions for this game, even with all of the BAD choices I think they made, I'd have been able to handle it. But three things happened that put me over the edge:
1.) The REST of the game stopped being fun for me. Grinding, harvesting resources, shooting a pistol at stuff, etc. all just got, well, boring and repetitive. The GCW wasn't much of a war, and came across more like a playground fight between angry children, so I couldn't find much content there. I wasn't powerful enough as a fighter to go do things like the corvette, the geonosian lab, or go hunting on other planets. Over time, I just had less and less fun each time I signed on. The rewards were fewer and farther between and what WAS in between was just...dull.
2.) I got tired of being misled. Prior misleading actions by SOE would've been forgivable if they'd been able to deliver with the revamp. If they'd been up front with us all along, I'd have been able to accept it too. But the utter lack of communication or effort on their part basically feels like a slap in the face. It tells me "We don't give a sh!t about you as a customer." They took the time to pop in on all the other forums that were getting revamps, but not ours. TH's little blurb about "Oh we want to do X" was nice, and it was a start. But this was NOT Caylin's job to tell us about this. It fell on the red names to keep us informed about this. And they should've been FAR more communicative all along with us than they were. That they said and did basically nothing in terms of communicating just really bothered me and I didn't intend to keep paying for being in the dark about the future of the game constantly, especially when each new revalation came as a huge disappointment.
3.) The player smuggling issue. On its surface this is disappointing enough. But when you start digging deeper, it shows, to me at least, that SOE has some real problems. Their marketing department felt it was a good idea to put smugglers in the game, even if they didn't and wouldn't ever smuggle. That strikes me as borderline false advertising, but be that as it may. They've also talked up plenty of other aspects of the game which basically have fallen by the wayside. Interdependence for one thing. With a breakdown of forced interdependence, players feel less need to interact, and that leads to a game world where people are basically playing a single player game with other people in it. I don't like that design philosophy. I also see a lot of lofty ideals for things like the GCW and such, but which may NEVER come to pass. Will the war ever be meaningful and intriguing? I highly doubt it. Ultimately, what the smuggler revamp failure demonstrates to me is: a coroporate structure that doesn't value its customers; a development team that is either incompetent or stretched far beyond their capacity, given what they want to accomplish; and, a game that will never be what it really hopes to be. SWG seems to have been a noble, if highly flawed effort at creating a living, breathing version of the universe we saw in the films. But it keeps falling short in all the important places. As a result, you have what seems to me to be a fairly generic and boring MMOG (note I left out the "RP" part, since a LOT of players seem to do that) with Star Wars sounds and graphics. I wanted more from this game, and SOE couldn't deliver, time and time again.
So, yeah, the smuggler thing was important to me. Very important. But it's not just about that. It's what the smuggler issues tell me about the REST of the game and where it's going, and the fact that, for me at least, the rest of the game just doesn't hold much appeal.