Star Wars Galaxies - Interesting

Author

Interesting

Eerfa

2006-02-26, 4:07 am

Players of the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars Galaxies are
feeling a bit like the films' besieged rebel army these days. To them,
LucasArts is the evil Empire, raining down terror in their alternate
universe.

Over the past month, countless longtime Galaxies players have quit
playing the popular online take on the ubiquitous film franchise. Their
grievance: a controversial, sweeping redesign of the structure of the
game that they say has ruined the fun -- and made irrelevant the years
of work they have invested into their in-game personas.

"It's now a shoot'em-up game for adolescents, not at all conducive to
our play style," says Carolyn Hocke, a web technician for Saint
Michael's Hospital in Wisconsin, whose character A'thena was mayor of
an in-game city on Tatooine and owner of a bustling shopping mall.
"People who we grew to know over the last couple of years are gone.
Cities are ghost towns, guilds are gone. My galaxy is gone, my game is
gone."

The changes to Star Wars Galaxies, developed by Sony Online
Entertainment, are aimed at bringing in new players and keeping them
around to pay the $15-a-month gameplay fee. To this end, the so-called
New Game Enhancements, or NGE, abandon much of the complexity of the
original design, which let players choose from more than 30 different
professions, then carve out an economic niche for themselves in the
Star Wars universe.

The number of professions under the NGE has been reduced to nine -- one
of which is Jedi. In the previous version of the game, only a precious
few dedicated, lucky players could hope to attain the use of the Force.
Now, any player can choose that path from the game's onset.

Greeting this influx of lightsaber-wielding newbies is a more
action-based experience, with a fast-paced, point-and-click battle
system that replaces the strategic encounters of the original.

So what's the big deal? It's not merely that Galaxies players -- some
of whom have been playing as the same character in the same virtual
world since the game's 2003 launch -- liked the old version just fine.
It's that the characters they've spent all this time building are gone.

"There is a sense of loss," says network security specialist Brian Orr,
who had been playing two characters -- a master bounty hunter named
DevNull and a Jedi Padawan named Chewbaccu -- for more than two years.
"I attempted to play by the new rules for a few days. However, the
gameplay was horrid, and the bugs were intolerable. Needless to say, I
canceled my account."

"Most of these games subsist on models of labor investment," says
Timothy Burke, associate professor of history at Swarthmore College,
who has written academic work on online games and contributes to the
MMOG blog Terra Nova.

"You put in a lot of time, your character changes and grows," says
Burke, a Galaxies player himself. "So to be told that in two weeks,
your labor investment, your year and a half's worth of work, is going
to be destroyed, is tough for some people to take."

"The NGE sounded like a cruel hoax," says Hocke.

Adding to the controversy, the NGE was implemented literally days after
the series' latest expansion pack, Trials of Obi-Wan, hit stores. The
pack promised significant upgrades to character classes that, in fact,
were scheduled to be terminated.

Sony Online Entertainment "marketed this expansion knowing full well
that the NGE was going to be released," says Orr. "Many customers
bought this expansion thinking they were getting enhancements to their
existing professions, when in reality the release of the NGE two weeks
later removed most of those professions."

LucasArts has since offered players a refund on the expansion pack.

Julio Torres, the game's executive producer at LucasArts who originally
announced the NGE on the game's official forum, notes that veteran
players will get other special enhancements in the new game, like
exclusive access to the game's best lightsaber models. These Elder Jedi
will also glow with a blue halo, like the ghost of Obi-Wan in The
Empire Strikes Back.

Of the disgruntled players, Torres says he finds their lack of faith
disturbing.

"We understand that change is hard sometimes," says Torres, "but the
new game we have is more Star Wars than ever. Players that actually
give it a real try find it immersive and more fun than ever."

Ultimately, LucasArts is banking on the NGE being irresistible to fans
of the series who want a more accessible, familiar, Star Wars-like
experience. "Playing a Jedi is fun," says Torres, "and games are meant
to be fun."

But many players have decided not to stick around and find out. How
many players actually abandoned their accounts is unclear.
Understandably, neither LucasArts nor Sony Online Entertainment is
anxious to volunteer the numbers, and Torres would not comment.

But, says Burke, "there are plenty of people reporting that they've
quit. There are forums popping up with ex-Galaxies players forming
guilds in new games."

One such forum, called Imperial Crackdown, was founded by Brian Orr as
a home for "refugees" (who can no longer post on the official Galaxies
message boards) who want to keep their community active and find new
games to join.

Many, including Orr and Hocke, have begun to play the popular World of
Warcraft. Members of the forum report that their new WOW community
alone numbers 300 ex-Galaxies players.

Burke agrees that the NGE may draw in new players, but says the game
might not hold their interest. "The people they're aiming for are
casual players who enjoy fast-paced combat and who aren't looking for
overly complicated games.

"The design aspires to that, but it's sitting on top of the old game.
So when they get out of the game's new tutorial mode with Han Solo,
they'll be saying: 'Now what? How is this Star Wars? Where's Darth
Vader?'"

And Burke doubts that many former players will go back. He points out
that most were already frustrated with what they saw as LucasArts and
Sony Online Entertainment's poor handling throughout the years of the
game's many bugs, glitches and inconsistencies, and that the New Game
Enhancements "were the maraschino cherry on top of a sundae of
failure."

Whether Star Wars Galaxies succeeds or fails, the saga of the New Game
Enhancements has been a stark reminder of the realities of the new
online gaming medium. Traditional video games don't just disappear.
Gamers may feel betrayed if the sequel to their favorite game isn't as
good as the original, but they can play the original any time they
want.

Not so for those who enjoyed the original Galaxies. It's gone forever.

Dirk pfeiffer

2006-02-26, 4:07 am

Reply to message from "Eerfa" <andy.sheppard@total.co.uk> (Thu, 29 Dec 2005
16:46:44) about "Interesting":

/applaud

E> Players of the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars Galaxies are
E> feeling a bit like the films' besieged rebel army these days. To them,
E> LucasArts is the evil Empire, raining down terror in their alternate
E> universe.

E> Over the past month, countless longtime Galaxies players have quit
E> playing the popular online take on the ubiquitous film franchise. Their
E> grievance: a controversial, sweeping redesign of the structure of the
E> game that they say has ruined the fun -- and made irrelevant the years
E> of work they have invested into their in-game personas.

E> "It's now a shoot'em-up game for adolescents, not at all conducive to
E> our play style," says Carolyn Hocke, a web technician for Saint
E> Michael's Hospital in Wisconsin, whose character A'thena was mayor of
E> an in-game city on Tatooine and owner of a bustling shopping mall.
E> "People who we grew to know over the last couple of years are gone.
E> Cities are ghost towns, guilds are gone. My galaxy is gone, my game is
E> gone."

E> The changes to Star Wars Galaxies, developed by Sony Online
E> Entertainment, are aimed at bringing in new players and keeping them
E> around to pay the $15-a-month gameplay fee. To this end, the so-called
E> New Game Enhancements, or NGE, abandon much of the complexity of the
E> original design, which let players choose from more than
E> 30 different professions, then carve out an economic niche for
E> themselves in the Star Wars universe.

E> The number of professions under the NGE has been reduced to nine -- one
E> of which is Jedi. In the previous version of the game, only a precious
E> few dedicated, lucky players could hope to attain the use of the Force.
E> Now, any player can choose that path from the game's onset.

E> Greeting this influx of lightsaber- wielding newbies is a more action-
E> based experience, with a fast-paced, point- and-click battle system
E> that replaces the strategic encounters of the original.

E> So what's the big deal? It's not merely that Galaxies players -- some
E> of whom have been playing as the same character in the same virtual
E> world since the game's 2003 launch -- liked the old version just fine.
E> It's that the characters they've spent all this time building are gone.

E> "There is a sense of loss," says network security specialist Brian Orr,
E> who had been playing two characters -- a master bounty hunter named
E> DevNull and a Jedi Padawan named Chewbaccu -- for more than two years.
E> "I attempted to play by the new rules for a few days. However, the
E> gameplay was horrid, and the bugs were intolerable. Needless to say, I
E> canceled my account."

E> "Most of these games subsist on models of labor investment," says
E> Timothy Burke, associate professor of history at Swarthmore College,
E> who has written academic work on online games and contributes to the
E> MMOG blog Terra Nova.

E> "You put in a lot of time, your character changes and grows," says
E> Burke, a Galaxies player himself. "So to be told that in two weeks,
E> your labor investment, your year and a half's worth of work, is going
E> to be destroyed, is tough for some people to take."

E> "The NGE sounded like a cruel hoax," says Hocke.

E> Adding to the controversy, the NGE was implemented literally days after
E> the series' latest expansion pack, Trials of Obi-Wan, hit stores. The
E> pack promised significant upgrades to character classes that, in fact,
E> were scheduled to be terminated.

E> Sony Online Entertainment "marketed this expansion knowing full well
E> that the NGE was going to be released," says Orr. "Many customers
E> bought this expansion thinking they were getting enhancements to their
E> existing professions, when in reality the release of the NGE two weeks
E> later removed most of those professions."

E> LucasArts has since offered players a refund on the expansion pack.

E> Julio Torres, the game's executive producer at LucasArts who originally
E> announced the NGE on the game's official forum, notes that veteran
E> players will get other special enhancements in the new game, like
E> exclusive access to the game's best lightsaber models. These Elder Jedi
E> will also glow with a blue halo, like the ghost of Obi-Wan in The
E> Empire Strikes Back.

E> Of the disgruntled players, Torres says he finds their lack of faith
E> disturbing.

E> "We understand that change is hard sometimes," says Torres, "but the
E> new game we have is more Star Wars than ever. Players that actually
E> give it a real try find it immersive and more fun than ever."

E> Ultimately, LucasArts is banking on the NGE being irresistible to fans
E> of the series who want a more accessible, familiar, Star Wars-like
E> experience. "Playing a Jedi is fun," says Torres, "and games are meant
E> to be fun."

E> But many players have decided not to stick around and find out. How
E> many players actually abandoned their accounts is unclear.
E> Understandably, neither LucasArts nor Sony Online Entertainment is
E> anxious to volunteer the numbers, and Torres would not comment.

E> But, says Burke, "there are plenty of people reporting that they've
E> quit. There are forums popping up with ex- Galaxies players forming
E> guilds in new games."

E> One such forum, called Imperial Crackdown, was founded by Brian Orr as
E> a home for "refugees" (who can no longer post on the official Galaxies
E> message boards) who want to keep their community active and find new
E> games to join.

E> Many, including Orr and Hocke, have begun to play the popular World of
E> Warcraft. Members of the forum report that their new WOW community
E> alone numbers 300 ex-Galaxies players.

E> Burke agrees that the NGE may draw in new players, but says the game
E> might not hold their interest. "The people they're aiming for are
E> casual players who enjoy fast-paced combat and who aren't looking for
E> overly complicated games.

E> "The design aspires to that, but it's sitting on top of the old game.
E> So when they get out of the game's new tutorial mode with Han Solo,
E> they'll be saying: 'Now what? How is this Star Wars? Where's Darth
E> Vader?'"

E> And Burke doubts that many former players will go back. He points out
E> that most were already frustrated with what they saw as LucasArts and
E> Sony Online Entertainment's poor handling throughout the years of the
E> game's many bugs, glitches and inconsistencies, and that the New Game
E> Enhancements "were the maraschino cherry on top of a sundae of failure.
E> "

E> Whether Star Wars Galaxies succeeds or fails, the saga of the New Game
E> Enhancements has been a stark reminder of the realities of the new
E> online gaming medium. Traditional video games don't just disappear.
E> Gamers may feel betrayed if the sequel to their favorite game isn't as
E> good as the original, but they can play the original any time they
E> want.

E> Not so for those who enjoyed the original Galaxies. It's gone forever.

Bye
Dirk pfeiffer <dirk@dbx501.de> Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:59:56 +0200

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 2.2.0.8

Asharin

2006-02-26, 4:07 am

Dirk pfeiffer wrote:

quote:

> stuff

zomg you lurk here too?

Dirk pfeiffer

2006-02-26, 4:07 am

Reply to message from Asharin <gkorbey@sphotammail.com> (Wed, 04 Jan 2006
18:25:21) about "Re: Interesting":

A> Dirk pfeiffer wrote:[vbcol=seagreen]

A> zomg you lurk here too?

I?ve been here forever. You know...freedom of speech and stuff....

Bye
Dirk pfeiffer <dirk@dbx501.de> Thu, 05 Jan 2006 14:23:06 +0200

=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 2.2.0.8