Teras Kasi Archive

"What we are talking about is the number of CHARACTERS..."

No, if you are talking about "social interaction" number of characters means absolutely nothing. Number of players determines this. In those old school RPGs (computer based) you had absolutely, positively no social interaction with anyone unless you played MUDs. I see the point you are trying to make and have seen it all along, but it addresses absolutely nothing that we are discussing. The power that a single player has in this game is comparatively nothing compared to that of those other games you quoted. You erroneouslyimplied in that last debate that SWG was trying to dumb its content down so that solo play was dominant over group play, which was the main reason that debate was started in the first place. This whole social interaction deal was simply a side track which you still haven't produced any non hair-spliting ideas to support your cause. Furthermore, with all the nerfs we've seen to damage the Solo PvE element of this game, its almost laughable to claim that "the devs are trying to do something different, somethinmg more solo oriented" with swg.

I have a hard time believing that our resident troll cannot grasp the idea of content. I find it even more unfathomable that she uses her ignorance as an assault on people who make the legitimate accusation that this game is currently very low on content.

Content is dynamic programming that is extra-curricular to the actual game mechanic. The players, worlds, skills and monsters are not "content". They are a regular, integral and static part of the game. Addition of player mounts, vehicles, space combat, etc. is not new content. Rather, this would be an extension of the game engine.

Examples of content would be: Quests, dynamic epic missions, Galaxy-wideor local "events", unique loot, "dungeon" locations which appear for short periods of time, etc. Basically, it has a lot to do with storyline (as was mentioned), it has to be dynamic, and it would have to be updated on the server end as opposed to patching the existing client.

Currently, this game lacks in content. I can see strides being made in that direction. However, as the client itself is still buggy as hell, content will be slow in coming. They need to fix the game before they enhance it.

This goes back, somewhat, to the original poster's question, what is content?

I suppose that what I'd like to see out of a game in this Genre is a world that feels alive, or more interactive. The NPCs in this world are, mostly, worthless. They either stand around like lumps of textured polygons in the Cantina, or in the streets, or they wander in a small orbit around a central location, either waiting to attack,be attacked or talked toby someone. They don't, at all, feel alive. They're standing in their locations 24/7 doing nothing at all until they get some sort of outside stimulus.

It can't honestly be that difficult to code a little life into these NPCs. Lord know there's enough vacant and/or unaccessible rooms in the cities to give every one of them a home. Why aren't pilots eventually moving off to the starport to hop on their freighters and disappear? Why aren't entertainers and artisans going to the guild halls/theaters/cantinas to do something? Heck, I don't even care if they just disappear completely, so long as they walk through a door before they do it. Why must NPCs justspawn in the middle of the street and then stand around waiting for someone to show up? Why not have them appear through a door, perhaps even one that's not accessible to PCs, and then walk to their nearby waypoint?

For example, when a guard or Stormtrooper is just standing there, and you target them, your head turns to look at them. It shouldn't be difficult, in this instance, to send a message to the server, which could cause them to turn and look at you in return and perhaps nod in greeting, or spawn a /say Move along, citizen. Or, perhaps a slave could cringe when you look at them and hurry along their way on whatever errand they have for their master. Creating that sort of thing, alone, for the various NPCs in the game would cause the game to become so much more alive.

Additionally, why is it possible for Smugglers (whose main job is, supposedly, to smuggle goods past Imperial customs and illegally hack/slice containers and weapons) to freely advertise their services, shouting at the top of their lungs, in the middle of the city square? The server processes everything that players say or shout, and who says it. Likewise, it has to maintain your current location. How difficult could it possibly be to trap for certain phrases and have Stormtroopers show up saying, "We'd like to have word with you, citizen. Please come quietly." These people should be meeting their customers in dark corners of the local cantina, whispering quietly over drinks at a back table, not trolling the city streets.

Likewise, it can't be difficult for the NPCs to actually spawn wearing appropriate clothing. What is a slave on Tatooine doing wearing what looks like clothing that would be appropriate on the highest class noble from off-planet? For that matter, why are slaves spawning on Naboo at all, whose Queen seemed surprised that slavery existed at all in Episode I? I realize it's some time later, but I find it difficult to believe that things would have degenerated so far.

All of these things would go a long way towards adding the feel of a living, breathing world. To my mind, all of these things are content, even though they don't really give the players anything new to do. New "quests" and interesting stories are also "content" butthose thingswill only go so far towards creating a real RPG.

I'd like to say that this thread is awesome. Here is a thread where different people disagree, but the discussion has been basically thoughtful and very interesting.

I don't want to take away too much from the debate thats going on, but just as an aside I want to answer one thing:

"Selwyyn, I want to hear what you have to say about it, I wanna know what there is to do besides kill **edit** for xp."

First of all, I've heard the argument about content vs. concept, and I thought it was very interesting. Don't know if I've been completely convinced yet, but I'm thinking about it. But this is not about content per se, this is just an answer to the question what is there to do besides kill stuff. Friend, I know this game has bugs and balancing issues galore. But if you don't see anything to do in this game besises kill things you are blind. Arguably the primary way in which SWG is struggling right now is in a) balancing combat and b) making the over-arching experience of combat more interesting. However SWG pioneers and leads the pack on its non-combat options, features and content.

Part of the problem is that in my mind, I have had far to limited a vision of "combat." I defined "content" as options for interesting gameplay outside of combat, i.e. livability options. I was defining content as what I believe Bulbous would call "concept." So things like player built and owned houses, a rich crafting and resource system, and player driven economy, options for player cities, entertainment gigs, customer characterazation, etc. - I was seeing that as content. What I meant by that was that the game was offering to a player ten times the number of options of a character that other games offered. And I really like that a lot. But now I understand two problems that I think others in the community feel strongly:

1) all of these options do not come from the combat side of the game - the combat aspect of the game is sparce and doesn't break any new ground compared to other games.

2) concept is not the same thing as content, and right now even in the areas where I'm excited about what I believe to be a rich concept, addmittedly there could be more done with those tools.

So I think in the end, I am not bored with the game or statred for things to do because the concept of the game really worked for me, and I'm still exploring those basic concepts. I like a game that puts as much or more emphasis on the non-combat aspects of gameplay as the combat aspects, and because of that, I've explored a lot of facets of gameplay that perhaps some of the rest of you haven't. BUT what I understand now is that a great concept isn't the same thing as great content - and eventually the newness will wear off, and everything will start to feel the same, without SOE getting agressive about a) adding new features and b) enhacing the exploration stories, GCW stories, deepending and sophisticating the methods, locations, and ways for people to engage in combat, etc.

So that's what I've learned vis the thread.

SWG has a severe lack of content by my definition. Here is why:

We play these games to have fun by experiencing something totally outside our everyday reality. I signed up to have adventures in the Star Wars universe. Instead I find myself working in a Star Wars environment where nothing exciting actually happens. Currently the SWG experience for me is to run missions to gather cash to pay for upkeep on my weapons and armor. I also hunt animals to get hides and sell those on the market. The first few times I did this it was fun. Now it feels more like labor. This is not exiting nor adventurous. How is this different than working and making my car payments? Why didn't they start the Staw Wars movies by showing Luke working a year on his Uncles farm? Because it would have been boring.

So basically I am working on the farm and waiting for something to happen. Nothing is happening however and there is no indication that anything will.

What we have here is a fantasy completely lacking in anything fantastic. This game sorely needs some adventure and exitement.. in other words more content!