Smuggler Archive
Thread: Goodbye, fellow Smugglers...
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Shrendyc
Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:08 am
#1
Hello all,
Last weeks explosion has given me time to think about the state of this profession, my enjoyment of this profession and the treatment we as paying customers are getting as we play this profession. And as of last Thursday, I have dropped Master Smuggler and will continue to chip away at the useless bits of this profession as I pursure other interests in game. Because of how smuggler has been handled in the past 18 months of live gaming, it has sadly become, for me,an unviable profession to play.
We've done everything the people at SOE have asked us to to. We've generated documents large and small, we've discussed all aspects of our profession and listed our hopes and dreams, provided our wish list, alerted them to the problems we've had, and have been trying to get some attention paid to us just so we can be happier with this set of skills - which was released in an incomplete state and has been spiraling downward ever since. We've asked for fixed, pleaded for fixes, begged for fixes, and have simply been set aside each time as more important items moved up the schedule, and we continued to move down.
In short, the development team will fix us when they are ready to do so, and nothing we do or saywill change that. and moreover, they have proven time and again that they are willing to breaksmugglers without warning or explanation and leave smugglers that way indefinately. They broke Panic shot, they shattered spice sales, once with the chef revamp and again with the downer change, and the autopull issue is outstanding as well. Simply put, anything that we have to say is disregarded. We are meaningless.
Thunderheart once said "I just have to juggle time, manpower and scheduling as well. What I do is I keep track of all the issues, label them and sort them. That way when I go to Blair, JustG and Runesabre and say "players need this fixed", its based on how many players are being effected." which means that by this logicyou will never see development time becauseyou don't command enough of the player base to ever make it to the top of the heap. There will always be something to work on that effects more players than things that are strictly smuggler. And given the lack of attention the profession is getting, it will continue to get only worse, not better. Also, ask yourself this - can you trust anything anyone from SOE says anymore regarding a schedule or a timeframe? The damage is done and the history speaks for itself.
So in saying, I have lost all hope of seeing this profession reach its potential, and have decided that I want more for my money than a bunch of lies, false hope, and an 18 month wait. At this point, the revamp has been put off for so long that I seriously doubt it will be worth the time people have wasted holding onto the dream. There is only so much they can do, due to balance reasons. In my opinion it would be better to find something else to occupy time with rather than play this profession and be a second class citizen.
To those that wish to stay and wait, I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you have plenty of patience. I thought at one point I, too, would be a smuggler till the day they pulled the plug on the servers. But lately I have decided that as cool as it is to be a smuggler and a part of this community, I also want to get more out of my limited time online which has gotten more limited due to real life work issues. I am not sure I will return.
Good luck, guys. I mean that with all sincerity.
SpinningCloud
Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:37 am
#3
Take care and good luck. Your logic is flawless and your ability to act on it despite an emotional attachment is enviable. Now all I have to do is use inspiration like this to delete my smuggler and cancel my account and be free of this poisonous relationship. 
Vyko
Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:40 am
#4
(repost, as this is more relevent)
One word....
Azeroth. 'nuff said.
After 8 months of paying for masochistic drudgery, I found somewhere where nobody uses the word grind. Everything, and I mean everything works. Groups aren't a necessary evil, they're fun. Load times? What load times?
Sorry folks, I've enjoyed the hell out of the community, but I'm done. Going to go have some actual fun now. :/
I haven't been the most prominent member of the Smuggling community, but I'm happy to say that I'm retiring with my Master Smuggler tag fully intact.
/smugglerhandshake
(end repost)
To add to this.. I have to say that while I've never been totally convinced that this is all the dev's fault, at least where I'm going, and I've seen this with my own eyes.. if more than FIVE players report the same problem... it was fixed in less than two hours. From report to patch. Done.
That's what I'm talkin' about.
One word....
Azeroth. 'nuff said.
After 8 months of paying for masochistic drudgery, I found somewhere where nobody uses the word grind. Everything, and I mean everything works. Groups aren't a necessary evil, they're fun. Load times? What load times?
Sorry folks, I've enjoyed the hell out of the community, but I'm done. Going to go have some actual fun now. :/
I haven't been the most prominent member of the Smuggling community, but I'm happy to say that I'm retiring with my Master Smuggler tag fully intact.
/smugglerhandshake
(end repost)
To add to this.. I have to say that while I've never been totally convinced that this is all the dev's fault, at least where I'm going, and I've seen this with my own eyes.. if more than FIVE players report the same problem... it was fixed in less than two hours. From report to patch. Done.
That's what I'm talkin' about.
Boycarino
Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:53 am
#5
/sigh
Bye!
/salute
Man...these forums are depressing me today. Mostly I just get mad in here...then find something funny...but today...
/sigh
I need a beer.
WesBelden
Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:37 am
#7
Good luck out there, I hope you can find something you enjoy to occupy your time.
As for the revamp, I can only and remain to hope that it will be worth the wait. If it is, maybe we'll see you back here some day; until then, fly fast and shoot straight 
Bzzzz
Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:36 am
#8
I'm sorry to hear that, Shrendy.. but I totally agree with you. I've never believed that any mythical revamp would be up to our expectations (nothing more than a few recipes and a FD nerf), and now it's so far off the map that it's pretty much irrelevant. SOE business as usual, right?
Sorry to see you go, Shrendy. Go outside and play! 
-Zz
fishbrains
Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:13 pm
#9
Don't be a stranger to the boards. I'll look forward to your return to the world of the smuggler
I'll look forward to your return to the world of the smuggler
LM
Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:48 pm
#11
Succinctly written, Shren, and your logic is impeccable. Five stars for you.
I am sorry it has come to this; you have been an articulate and passionate voice for the Smuggler Profession for a long time now. But I understand -- as my business-oriented friends would say "The ROI (return on investment) sucks." I know you are happier having done this.
As you know, I have two toons; one is a Master Smuggler. If my main toon was also a Master Smuggler I would be doing the same thing you are, and I am not sure how long I will hold on to the Master title of the other.
I know how frustrating it has been; we chose this profession based on the hype on the packaging and advertising -- smuggler is one of the select iconic professions of Star Wars! -- and we stuck with it despite its broken state based on what we perceived as its potential and on the many promises SOE Management made.
Many of us believed those promises -- and continued to play as Smugglers and pay our $15 a month based on those promises. All anyone has to do is read the historical posts in this thread, which span over a year and half's time, to understand how this happened:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=smuggler&message.id=81983&page=1
If we'd had the ability to make an informed decision regarding our choice of profession -- one that was based on the knowledge we have now; that this profession would be continuously a) neglected, b) mismanaged and c) nerfed (and once with no explanation at all *cough* the spice downer) -- we might have chosen a different profession or maybe a different game. Who knows. At any rate, we would have little room for complaint. But this was not the case. We made decisions based on what they told us.
We chose to believe what they represented to us (when they chose to actually communicate with us).
Whenever someone posts "Just quit then! Stop giving SOE your money!" I just want to smack them. It is SO much more than money to many of us. We did not just invest $50 + (X * $15) -- we invested our precious TIME, and of course, emotions. And because of Star Wars' unique status as a "modern fairytale" upon which many of us grew up, that emotional aspect is magnified. I think this is something that SOE does not understand or has simply failed to perceive judging by the way they handle the community.
Bottom line:this investment we made is hard to quantify, as it is not just money.
There are a few things that are amazing and wonderful about this game. I think that adds to the frustration, too. We see what could be based on the good things that have been accomplished despite what I perceive as poor project management (and frankly, poor community management) on SOE's part.
Lilac Moon
Message Edited by LM on 12-09-2004 01:49 PM
Smuggler_Caylin
Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:52 pm
#12
Sad to see you go Shrendyc. I can only hope things in the game and situations in RL will allow or even encourage you to return to this profession and the community. Not going to be the same here without yah. Take care!
One of the Four Horsemen of the Smuggler Apocalypse! 
HA-SuperNaut
Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:13 am
#13
Shrendyc wrote:
Hello all,
Last weeks explosion has given me time to think about the state of this profession, my enjoyment of this profession and the treatment we as paying customers are getting as we play this profession. And as of last Thursday, I have dropped Master Smuggler and will continue to chip away at the useless bits of this profession as I pursure other interests in game. Because of how smuggler has been handled in the past 18 months of live gaming, it has sadly become, for me,an unviable profession to play.
We've done everything the people at SOE have asked us to to. We've generated documents large and small, we've discussed all aspects of our profession and listed our hopes and dreams, provided our wish list, alerted them to the problems we've had, and have been trying to get some attention paid to us just so we can be happier with this set of skills - which was released in an incomplete state and has been spiraling downward ever since. We've asked for fixed, pleaded for fixes, begged for fixes, and have simply been set aside each time as more important items moved up the schedule, and we continued to move down.
In short, the development team will fix us when they are ready to do so, and nothing we do or saywill change that. and moreover, they have proven time and again that they are willing to breaksmugglers without warning or explanation and leave smugglers that way indefinately. They broke Panic shot, they shattered spice sales, once with the chef revamp and again with the downer change, and the autopull issue is outstanding as well. Simply put, anything that we have to say is disregarded. We are meaningless.
Thunderheart once said "I just have to juggle time, manpower and scheduling as well. What I do is I keep track of all the issues, label them and sort them. That way when I go to Blair, JustG and Runesabre and say "players need this fixed", its based on how many players are being effected." which means that by this logicyou will never see development time becauseyou don't command enough of the player base to ever make it to the top of the heap. There will always be something to work on that effects more players than things that are strictly smuggler. And given the lack of attention the profession is getting, it will continue to get only worse, not better. Also, ask yourself this - can you trust anything anyone from SOE says anymore regarding a schedule or a timeframe? The damage is done and the history speaks for itself.
So in saying, I have lost all hope of seeing this profession reach its potential, and have decided that I want more for my money than a bunch of lies, false hope, and an 18 month wait. At this point, the revamp has been put off for so long that I seriously doubt it will be worth the time people have wasted holding onto the dream. There is only so much they can do, due to balance reasons. In my opinion it would be better to find something else to occupy time with rather than play this profession and be a second class citizen.
To those that wish to stay and wait, I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you have plenty of patience. I thought at one point I, too, would be a smuggler till the day they pulled the plug on the servers. But lately I have decided that as cool as it is to be a smuggler and a part of this community, I also want to get more out of my limited time online which has gotten more limited due to real life work issues. I am not sure I will return.
Good luck, guys. I mean that with all sincerity.
I'm right with ya, only i went one step further I canceled my Master smuggler account. No point in paying whileI wait another few years for a re-vamp. maybe i'll re-activate him in the future if they make being a smuggler cool and worth while.
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