Teras Kasi Archive
Thread: Fear & Loathing The Community-SOE Relationship, or My Cancellation Quandry
But, as I began to play and experiment with the recently changed skills, my excitement turned to surprise, a sinking feeling and -ultimately - outright anger. "They have broken my character!" I cried out, to my IRC friends.. In the forum for my class.
I was not the first to notice, as dozens (soon to be hundreds) of similar posts. Once able to fend for himself in a fashion I found challenging yet rewarding, my characters' hundreds of hours of playtime had suddenly been dashed against the rocks of a developer's
differing opinion.
Everyone seems to have opinions. The forums are by nature a gravity well for flames, rants, and outright hostility towards SOE, the "devs", or Raph Koster - the unfortunate target of player abuse (or nine-headed demon of hell, bent on discovering the source of players' enjoyment to crush under his boot heel, depending who you ask.) Raph adds fuel to the flame with provocative remarks, such as the recent favorite - "If you ignore a problem long enough, it will go away" (discovered by players on his personal webpage, and posted countless thousands of times in many of the forums here.) Mr. Koster's quote has done little to earn the trust of players who feel their professions are being unfairly targeted by developers, and skimming the Profession forums- nearly all of them - One can safely arrive at this conclusion:
People are getting mad as hell.
Star Wars is sacred. SOE knew that going into the project. Star Wars pulls at our heartstrings a little every time we watch one of the old films, whether it's the third time or the 103rd time. Childhood memories. All that good stuff. And for many of the people
I talk with, it seems that Star Wars Galaxies has been entrusted to designers that don't have a proper grasp of the Star Wars universe.
"EverQuest in Space", some say. "Anarchy Online's crafting & mission system", sniffs another. "If this weren't 'Star Wars', I wouldn't be wasting my time on this POS", says another. "SOE has hated melee players from day one, in every game they make" says one guy, dismayed that his Teras Kasi Master has had it's .. "balls cut off". I laughed to myself while reading his message, wondering if he thinks the SOE dev team sits around a conference table friday afternoons laughing over which class they think they should ruin next, huddled around a monitor cackling gleefully & wringing their hands while reading players' cries in the forums.
I don't know what to think myself anymore.
There seems to be lack of a clear vision by the developers. Some of the recent patch changes range from confusing to downright cruel. Like more and more of the players posting in the forums, it feels to me as though the developers are trying to conform Geore Lucas' Star Wars to THEIR vision, rather than making the game fit Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe. Developers are posting personal preferences and opinions in comments (repleat with witty remarks and emoticons) that tend to suggest that most profession balance issues stem from huge differences of opinion between themselves and the Lucas-envisioned SW universe. Worse yet, classes that the developers appear to favor (based on a large library of old dev posts) seem to escape the nerf bat every patch, while other professions continually get hit harder, and harder, and harder.
Then there's the communication problem.
"We feel 700 HAM for Teras Kasi Knockdown is a bit steep also guys. We're testing some fair alternatives right now." Wasn't that hard to say? Apparently so, as no SOE Dev has ever addressed this hot issue so directly (or at all.)
"We know that Droid Engineer hasn't been fleshed out quite well enough - Have faith guys, we're examining it soon."
"We changed the CON difficulty on all animals and NPC's across the board in the last patch to increase the challenge of game, but may have done so too hastily. We're examining this."
"X, Y & Z classes have _____ bugs that are being examine right now, and should be on TestCenter within __ days/week(s)."
This is more than you'll get out of the developers on nearly any subject. When they do post, they tend to be cryptic, vague, or laugh-off a problem players have been clamoring over for weeks. SOE radiates complete indifference, apparently believing it's huge player base will keep suckling the Star Wars teat no matter what. After all, it's Star Wars, right?
This leads me to the present. I have attained Master in an elite profession. I would probably enjoy playing the game beyond this point, but only if the developers didn't infuriate me with the constant short-sighted nerfing, lack of communication and forced class selection (read: choose an artisan, a ranged combat profession or SUCK.)
-- CONCLUSION--
I feel like cancelling.
This game is not fun.
The ultimate truth - If you read nothing else, read this:
I believe SOE grossly miscalculated how quickly players would burn through the initial content, and have intentionally enacted most of the recent skill changes to drastically slow character development, hence increasing the shelf-life of their product until more content is added in future patches or expansion packs.
This is NOT good design.
I believe they were pressured into releasing SWG too early. That it was released a month prior to the school year beginning in the United States is largely responsible for Truth #1, and the position they find themselves in now, largely Truth #3.
I believe that more people are cancelling than SOE would have you know. I personally know two people who have, or are talking about it. I bet you do too. I bet all of you do. How much "Churn" SOE is willing to bear to force their iron-fisted vision of Star Wars on you remains to be seen.
Personally, I feel that upon reaching Master in any combat profession, a player should stand a 50/50 chance of defeating any SINGLE animal Challenge Level 50 or lower. Presently, we are all Masters of Nothing.
Finally, Truth #4.
When my 3-Month subscription runs out, unless a miracle happens and the Dog (paying player community) wags the TAIL (PAID game company) - I will not be renewing my subscription either.
This is not George Lucas' Star Wars.
SS
You've said everything I have ever wanted to say. /agree
This post needs to stay alive.
Thank you for your post.
"Like more and more of the players posting in the forums, it feels to me as though the developers are trying to conform Geore Lucas' Star Wars to THEIR vision, rather than making the game fit Lucas' vision of the Star Wars universe"
hmmm Vision,,, where have I heard that before. Oh yeah! the previous SOE game!
that word brings back bad memories.
Oh and the "ignore a problem" quote should read "ignore a problem enough and it could bite you in the ass!"
This is NOT good design.
I believe they were pressured into releasing SWG too early. That it was released a month prior to the school year beginning in the United States is largely responsible for Truth #1, and the position they find themselves in now, largely Truth #3."
this says it all....
in console RPG terms this was a game that was promised to be "60 hours of game play" to acutally 20.....
the nerfin made it worse....
is TKA unplayable : no
is it fun playing? for the most part prolly not....
does envy of other classes help? nope...
what else can a person do except change classes or just quit the game?
i think one already said if they wanted a shooter they would have gotten one?
i for one agree...
i have the hope that the DEVs are actually taking our concerns to heart but the recent changes dont reflect it and the result is a level of dissatisfaction that i think even SOE should take note of....
i said it b4...when all these people are saying we are going to a competitor b/c your product is subpar then you NEED TO REEVALUATE WHAT YOU ARE DOING
this isnt TKA's...i read it in the tech forum as well...
anyhoo...free country....if the game continues to blow for me then i will just stop playing
i got a new computer just for this game as well....makes me a bit sad to see it fail this way
"Fear & Loathing - The Community-SOE Relationship"
What relationship?
Best post ever.
Especially this..
"And for many of the people I talk with, it seems that Star Wars Galaxies has been entrusted to designers that don't have a proper grasp of the Star Wars universe. "
More and more everyday I believe this to be true.
Thank you, you have said everything that I have been thinking so clearly and perfectly. Honestly I could not have said it better myself. I agree with every word of your post. Thank you and hopefully the Dev's will see this and wake up.
Wolverine (Novice TK)
A wonderful Post.
I felt really bad about the whole thing, but me and the wife are going scuba diving in the Grand Camans soon, so I could care less.
I also downloaded the E3 trailer to WOW, and felt much better to. If any one has not seen this, go look at it. It looks freaking unbelievable!!!!
I already cancelled my account about 2 weeks ago, and I just cannot even play the game anymore. It just disgust me too much, especially the DEVS total denial. It seems with all the Cancs that they are finally waking up. I even called them about the whole thing, and a support guy told me that he doesn't even play the game, and he wont till about 6 months from now.
Even if they fix 96% of the stuff, I just cannot see playing this game for another 6 months or so, or at least till the things that they promised and were on the box come true.
I was one of the earlier posters of Raph's imfamous comments and I was banned for it. So I emailed about 50 different review and magazines sites about the whole state of SWG and the DEVS. I got back several emails from them and they all agreed with me. Even one prominent PC magazine, who was a really a good "gamer" got banned from the forums for complaining about the game.
It is really sad. I went from being a fanboy to the exact opposite. I got so infuriated about the game, because I cared so much, and I felt like the DEVS just spit in my face time and time again.
For instance: Teras Kasi main issue-----HAM COST
FIX=700+ ham cost for knockdown.
I won't even go into armour in this game either. If you have played for a month, you know the games problems so I wont elaborate. I am sure I will see alot of you in WoW or FF11. Maybe one day all of our searches will end with a MMORPG that we all love, where the DEVS care and listen, and where they FIX and not NERF. Sadly it was not SWG, and I am afraid it will never be SWG.
Here is a toast to finding that great game, and the fun and glory , and good times we will have!!!
Until then....it is of to the Caribbean for me. I need a vacation and relaxing diving trip after this mess.
-quote------------------------------------------------------------
I believe SOE grossly miscalculated how quickly players would burn through the initial content, and have intentionally enacted most of the recent skill changes to drastically slow character development, hence increasing the shelf-life of their product until more content is added in future patches or expansion packs.
This is NOT good design.
end quote -------------------------------------------------------
Werd. Every beta tester worth their salt was screaming this when we heard that the game was in fact going live after all. Unfortunately, all they care about is money. So, we need to hurt them where they will feel it most. Right in the wallet.
Excellent post. Sums up quiet a lot of things I thought just never said. There is only one thing I wanted to add.
Sony wanted to attract casual gamers into it with easy casual play style early game. Then they suddenly took it away because they felt people will not play if they reach the final level too fast because lets face it there is no content in the game for late game or for hardcore players. After master, you can either pvp or run circles around a building. Their solution was to increase dramatically how hard it is to play the game and get to the master level before more content is added and possibly make more cash out of it. However that backfired, a solution that creates another problem is not a solution. WIth lots of players unhappy, and casual gaming completely ruined a lot of players simply cancelled. I know I did and not going to reactivate unless they fix everything. Besides soon they will be forced to fix things, competition is coming out with wow and other games.