SWG in April - The Next Big Thing(tm)?

[Hikaaru Jones]

this game is horrible. there is absolutely no way they can improve the game as much as is needed before April. I uninstalled it weeks ago and do not plan on buying it.

Don't. Seriously I threw my beta cds away. I rather play www.neocron.com for crying out loud.

thats how dry the game is...

You two do realize that the SWG Beta 2 stage you guys are supposedly in is only the system testing phase right? Nobody is gonna get a real feel for the game till Beta 3.

[A Lizard]

Considering how even George Lucas butchered the lastest cinema contributions of his own story it's fitting that Sony shit all over this game. If the title's own origonal creator has stooped so low why should anyone else even bother.
$$

[off_world]

I have been beta testing SWG and all I can say is this: Star Wars mod for EQ. I am not really interested in this game since testing it and I eventually uninstalled it from my box. Granted the graphics look great and some of the settings look fabulous, but it is basically EQ. Recently SOE announced SEVERAL cool things removed for the game to make a release for April. Please! The time they have been in development with this thing you think they would have something completed. And, with less than two months away from release I highly doubt that it will be a smooth one. There were times I could not even login because the servers were always down; I even checked the beta page for the weekly updates to see when they would be up; nothing. If you are a hardcore SW fan boy: you’ll love it. For the power gamer: stick with EQ.

The one game I am really interested in is WOW. Blizzard has top notch developers and I don’t care how long they take to finish the game. SWG will be a success, but it will run out of steam after a year.

[Iannis]

DAoC is still running strong...and EQ...despite everyone putting serious h8 vibes out on them. It'll be a success. Heh.

[Ukerric]

Originally posted by Hikaaru Jones
You two do realize that the SWG Beta 2 stage you guys are supposedly in is only the system testing phase right? Nobody is gonna get a real feel for the game till Beta 3.

How many games, how many betas have you played in?

I can tell you. Every single game I played beta 2 months before launch was nearly unchanged when it went live. I think the biggest pre-live change I ever saw was DAoC's adding of the horse lines (which I think was very late in the last beta).

2 months before launch, the feature set is frozen. There's so many bugs to fix already, they cannot afford to add loads of completely untested features that will require intensive bug fixing.

The game you get live is always essentially the game you beta tested for the last two months, plus or minus a few fixes, and a couple minor adjutments.

If there are real changes in the way SWG plays, then SWG will not launch in 2 months.

Tweaking skills here and there, sure. But change in the way it is played? In your dreams.

[Vaclav]

Seriously how many people that know Raph Koster's history (AKA Designer Dragon in his UO days - I think he's Q3P-O currently, not 100% sure though) expected anything more from him?

Only took UO about 3-4 years over his projection to add in the Paladin and Necromancer "classes", he's a dreamer - great ideas, but never been a timetable guy. That and he tends to buckle instead of sticking to a Vision (tm).

If I ever made a dream team of MMO developers he'd definately be there, but I'd keep him leashed from speaking to the public about his ideas until they were already in the end stages of testing.

[Regime]

of course it will be a success. That doesnt mean it will be worth a shit.

sadly many star wars fans will buy it and play it 2 hours a week

peace

[Zarloth]

Considering how the beta appears to be progressing, I suspect they'll either a) push it back 1-2 more months or b) cut more features.

[Jarnin]

Seriously how many people that know Raph Koster's history (AKA Designer Dragon in his UO days - I think he's Q3P-O currently, not 100% sure though) expected anything more from him?

He's Holocron I believe. You also have to remember, just cause he's the lead designer it doesn't mean he has full control over the games development. LucasArts makes all the calls.

Only took UO about 3-4 years over his projection to add in the Paladin and Necromancer "classes", he's a dreamer - great ideas, but never been a timetable guy. That and he tends to buckle instead of sticking to a Vision (tm).

I'd rather not have "A Vision" to deal with. Everytime EQ had a problem when the old crew was running the show, they'd say "X doesn't work with the "Vision" of the game". It's a lame way of saying no.

If I ever made a dream team of MMO developers he'd definately be there, but I'd keep him leashed from speaking to the public about his ideas until they were already in the end stages of testing.

Funny, It would seem you'd rather have people buying your games because you think the ideas are good, and not the public. The SWG team has basically gone over all aspects of the game with the people on the boards. That dev team has been more open with the public than any other MMO in development, and you think that's a bad thing? Interesting.

of course it will be a success. That doesnt mean it will be worth a shit.

Obviously if it's a success it's worth a shit to somebody, right?

sadly many star wars fans will buy it and play it 2 hours a week

Why is this sad?

It amazes me how fucking negative the people on this board are.

[Vaclav]

Originally posted by Jarnin
[b]He's Holocron I believe. You also have to remember, just cause he's the lead designer it doesn't mean he has full control over the games development. LucasArts makes all the calls.

LucasArts has no control over his mouth, he can claim they are doing X, Y, and Z - then the masses start drooling over the concepts before the reality catches up with him and features start getting cut, etc. Promising 20 innovative features then having 1 or 2 available at launch looks bad, promising just a few and sneaking in a few extra looks very good on the other hand.

I'd rather not have "A Vision" to deal with. Everytime EQ had a problem when the old crew was running the show, they'd say "X doesn't work with the "Vision" of the game". It's a lame way of saying no.

So a developer should buckle and make radical changes to the games core concepts rather than focusing on the things that make their product standout? Read the posts on the PVP that was supposed to be part of the original product - of any of the original plans for SWG that was the one that should've been focused on to keep the game as close to the source material as possible.

A good product stands on its own and has it's own shine to it - how many truly superb products can be almost completely described by comparing it to another product or two? Without some sort of vision that is not possible.

Funny, It would seem you'd rather have people buying your games because you think the ideas are good, and not the public. The SWG team has basically gone over all aspects of the game with the people on the boards. That dev team has been more open with the public than any other MMO in development, and you think that's a bad thing? Interesting.

Thinking the wrong people giving out information about things that haven't been considered for realism first is a bad thing? Yes.

To explain in the simplest possible terms, my opinions of how to make a successful product:

1. Not making false promises, future plans or not, people want what they expect to be included when they buy the product in the store not in a patch after a few months much less in a paid expansion pack. This includes keeping your mouth shut about feature sets until you know they're going to happen. Not to mention the poor saps that preorder something based on early information and don't really keep up with it.

2. Focus on keeping the core concepts to your product intact regardless of people's input on it a game needs a solid focused core to it before you start adding things and fooling with it - screwing with the core design concepts rarely ends up with a good final product.

[Blackdoom]

...but i have a bad feeling that swg is going to be a mmorpg on training wheels.

[Akral]

I take bets it will be 2-boxed while people wait for buffs or are not fighting.

[Blackdoom]

eq is a phenomenon, you can't plan or create success like this via vision.

- the beauty of eq was all accident...

and the improvements made by keeping an ear open to the players (here and there). it comes every once in a great while (least that's how i feel). if you believe in careful planning and trust in a core of devolopers (like swg) that's fine too. but no at sony says: 'it's a succes... exactly how we planned and visioned'

[Vaclav]

Heh you can't expect a good product when you have a vision to it?

Guess you've never heard of companies like Bioware, Origin(pre-EA), Blizzard, id, Sir-Tech, Firaxis, Lionhead, and dozens more.

Every single one of those companies has produced a product at some time with features that the public questioned when they were announced - and I'm sure that anyone with even a month of computer game experience can at least name one product one of those company made.

To use a stupid analogy like I love to do: Religion can cause people to do bad things, but religion itself is not a bad thing - a vision to game design is a good thing, but it can be abused sometimes. (Like what most of you are probably knee-jerking about over mention of the Verant 'Vision'(tm))

[teauvian]

and I'm sure that anyone with even a month of computer game experience can at least name one product one of those company made.

You lost me at Sir-Tech