Smuggler Archive

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BigLands wrote:

Hi folks - if you're looking for an uplifting positive post, stop reading right here.

Those of you who are still with me, obviously have grown accustomed to my venting on this forum.

What, you ask, could get this once meek and mild smuggler to post yet more vitriol?

Picture the scene - I'm on Tatooine and I visit the squill cave - to find a single Jedi going from top to bottom of the cave killing everything in , oh, about three minutes. Now before you jump to conclusions about this being a nerf Jedi post, it isn't. Don't blame players for playing within a broken system.

The thought occurred to me as I watched this -

HEEEY, I PAY THE SAME AMOUNT PER MONTH AS THIS GUY!

HOW COME HE GETS TWO PUBLISHES TO HIMSELF, PLUS THE ABILITY TO SOLO A LOCATION WHERE I CAN BARELY SURVIVE?

WHY HAS MY PROFESSION BEEN IGNORED FOR YEAR?

This is what hit me - we've grown so accustomed to being p!ssed upon that we don't really react to it anymore. We take it for granted that we're shafted and we live with it.

Let's summarise, shall we :

We can't smuggle

Most of our specials don't work

Slicing makes no sense

Spices are largely worthless

Our underworld tree does nothing

Our profession hasn't even been fully documented

This isn't recent - this has been the state of play for an entire year.

And do you want to hear the best part? We've been told we'll have to wait until the end of the year AT THE EARLIEST for anything to get done about our issues despite a year of assurances that we were the next priority.

Ladies and Gentlemen - we have been p!ssed on for a year - the choice as to whether we continue to be p!ssed on rests with us.

I think even the most reasonable voice here would now agree that we cannot continue down our current path.

Being reasonable and patient has resulted in us getting NOTHING.

Caylin has worked his rear off, doing the best job as a correspondent out of the whole lot of them, only to be repeatedly deceived and disappointed like the rest of us.

To sum up, once more:-

I've had enough of vague assurances

I've had enough of being left out in the cold

I've had enough of being told we're the next big thing

I've had enough of paying for sub standard support and customer care

What do I want to see coming out of this? Why have I posted this little poison passge?

Basically, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

and I get the impression many of you feel the same...

This is no longer about me just cancelling my account - if we , as a gaming community, continue to settle for substandard treatment, service and support we will only be doing ourselves more damage in the long term. As long as companies know they can get away with this treatment scott free they will continue to do it.

Contentious as this final word may be, think on this:

A MMOG lives and dies not because of the graphics or the setting, but because of the community that is built around it. Without an active, vocal and vibrant community this game will die. Due to shortsighted, cack handed decisions on the part of SOE It's already very ill now - and that's before any of the next wave of MMOG games come out.

Bizzarley, the power in this situation lies entirely with us. We just have to start using it. We have to stop accepting the pat assurances and 'we'll get round to it eventually' excuses of SOE. We have to post accurate reviews of the game on amazon. We have to publicly protest and publicize our protests with every available website and gaming magazine. Only when we stop taking it as read we'll get shafted and fight back will we, and other consumers of this product start to get the service we both pay for and deserve.

Thank you comrades, and goodnight.

We storm the Winter Palace at midnight

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I definately agree with you on a number of the above points but how do you proceed? Quit the game? I don't think that we have enough numbers in the Smuggler community to quit the game and cause a difference. It's just like a strike in the real-world. Unless enough do it there's no point in it other than symbolism I guess.

I was mad for a while about Jedi and then realized a couple things. Ok, so they can go through the Squill cave in a very short time But they aren't all powerful. I can stand right next to them and there is nothing they can do to attack me (I'm Neutral). I keep that in mind everytime I think about the power difference between them and us. It's kinda like envisioning everyone in their underwear when your scared of giving public talks. It works for me.

The other thing they can do to make all the Jedi in this point of the game is to advance the time line. I read a post from SOE that said they do have the ability to advance the time line in this game.

I really want to be a "Smuggler". I'm still having fun doing things with my other 2 professions so I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. If I stop having fun then I'll cancel my accounts.

Good post. i'll 4 star it.. the only reason you didn't get the 5th star is because even though you've presented a highly coherent, rational, and totaly objective post, but here's my counter-arguments...

Cancel your accout: sony loses a drop in the bucket, which is countered by preorders of
JTL

Post Acurate Reviews: ok.. we can post all we want about how broken 1/3rd of the classes are... all the buying public will see is "you can be Ub3r 1337 J3DI. B3 Ub3R Like US! **edit** NuB! OMGWTFBBQ!"

And how do you get major Gaming mags to even look at our emails/letters/what have you, when MOST of their advertizing revenues come from companies like SOE, Id, and any other i've missed?

Random Game Mag Editor (hypothetical)"lets see.. here's 200 emails from disgruntled players on how poorly SOE is handling the Class Imbalance in SWG.. and here's 100 that are singing the praises of the game... we might want to go with the first batch.. there might be a story there.[enter intern with phone msg from SOE, and hands it to Editor] Hmm? SOE is on the Phone? they want to buy HOW MUCH AD SPACE? (light bulb goes off) Tell them we'll do it. we'll even do a mini-publish add-in with all the best websites...no. even better, we'll dedicate 1/3rd of our mag to the new JTL coverage!!"

sorry to pee in yer campfire, but that's mostly how it goes. the main problem is getting everyone who reads the smugler forum on board with this idea. i wasn't around during the "Great Wookiee Uprising" so i don't know what happened. but if we could get everyone together on this we MIGHT have a chance...

aw hell, here's the fifth star anyhow... we all deserve some love.. and i'm not as heartless as a Beancounter
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I guess you just need to decide for yourself if you want to keep paying $14.95 or more if you have more than one account. I voiced my opinions on the issues, let them be known and then decide from there. We can't make them change the game but we can stop paying our money if we don't feel we are getting our $14.95 worth. I try and put things into perspective in order to make it easier to swallow. I have 2 accounts pure crafter and a Smuggler. That's $30 a month. I divide my $30 a month by 30 days and get $1 per day. I believe I'm getting a $1 a days worth of enjoyment out of this game. Do I want to get Smuggler the GCW the vehicle bugs etc..etc fixed. Definately!! But I'm getting definate enjoyment for my $1 a day.

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Sapperlight wrote:

Anem, I've stopped believing that I'm getting my $15 worth every month. At that rate, we should get a new game's worth of experiences/content every 3-4 months, but a year later, we're still waiting to play the game we originally bought. Adding an arcade-like space shooter with JTL isn't going to make me more of a smuggler--I'll have to wait until March by my estimates for that. By then, I will likely have moved on, as I suspect many others will have as well. I see people leaving the game on a daily basis, and it's only a (short) matter of time before I do the same. While JTL may inject more life into the community, I fear that most of the damage has already been done.

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I've quit several times already but then signed back up after a week or so. I've spent way too much time in this game doing things making friends. I'm afraid to lose my consecutive months of playing just incase we get some cool veteran rewards or something (other than the SoroSuub whic everybody will get) down the road.

I'll admit somedays I login in and just look at the walls in my house and say, "What am I doing here?". Other days I get completely lost in the virtual world and realize its 2 am and I need to go to work in 5 hours

It's a strange feeling.