Driving SWG into the ground

Games
1

I guess it’s, what, 12 weeks or so after the initial launch, and again today they released a completely not-ready-for-release patch, with test center community members warning them for the last few days that there were some game-stopping bugs in the release. Little things like, oh, say… armor not working. At all, on anything… you know, small stuff :P

The game already suffers tremendously each patch (especially large ones), with various bewildering and glaring bugs slipping through due (apparently) to the small test population, and yet the biggest problems in today’s patch were well-disclosed, well in advance. Someone signed off on it anyway.

Just ship it!

But hey, if disappearing houses or the bugs in this release weren’t enough of a deterrent to continuing to play, there’s one nice little catch-all: you’re not logging in anyway. They have failed miserably at getting the servers back online since this morning’s patch – it’s now 8PM PST and many of the servers have yet to be up for more than a few minutes before backfiring, grinding, and wheezing to a halt. That’s an entire day of players not in-game. Those people are instead attempting to complain on the official game forums, which themselves seem rather not up to the task.

Players are already leaving the game in droves after maxing their professions (if they get that far), and yet SOE serves up another unmitigated disaster of a patch. It should be mind-boggling, but, sadly, it isn’t anymore.

2

Does the player population really seem to be dwindling? I know it would really bug me to only be allowed one character per server. I usually sustain longer interest in these games by creating new characters, but I like to play on the same server where I know people, can do a little twinking, etc.

3

I can only speak about my corner of things but we seem to have a core group that’s determined to stick around no matter what. Then there are people that drift in and out. I don’t know if the overall server population is growing or shrinking but in my local player city community it’s slowly growing as more people find us.

Yeah, there are serious problems and I’m probably more philosophical about these things than more experienced MMORPGers are. They may be used to a smoother experience. But the fact is most MMORPGs I’ve played, issues or not, bored me very quickly and the communities didn’t do much for me at all. Subjective, yes, but I’m willing to take some hits to see this thing evolve - both the community and the gameplay.

4

I’m sorry, I shouldn’t even be writing this, but I really need to ask…does that mean what I think it does or do you mean “tweaking?” If not, I hope to God I learned the wrong slang meaning for that word…

-Kitsune

5

It seems to be high turnover, Mark - new players seem to be coming in as many old familiar ones vanish sooner than you’d expect them to. I can’t say what the balance is, and they’re not about to tell us, I don’t think.

A comment sentiment is that some people are determined to hang in there for player cities, transportation, or even the far off space expansion in the hopes that it renews interest for them.

6

Kitsune: Do some searches, it has a gaming definitition, eg:
http://www.gamegrene.com/rants/twinking_you_didnt_earn_that_armor.shtml

When I first decided I wanted to write an editorial on twinking (loosely defined as providing a character with equipment they would not normally be able to achieve at their level),

I assume there is a sexual slang meaning too?

7

Twinking refers to using your more established primary character to give a development boost to a new player character, through items, hunting companionship, money, etc.

I don’t think I want to know what you thought he meant :)

8

It has sexual undertones in certain urine-drinking circles.

I’m surprised that SOE has done such a poor job with SW:G. EQ team or not, there’s gotta be some kind of knowledge base somewhere built up about the right and wrong of MMORPG development. I’m of the opinion that there are basically fundamental flaws with the execution of all MMORPGs, and have written them off completely until at least another wave of games. The idea that we deserve better has to sink in eventually, doesn’t it? I’m not so sure.

9

Oh, I see. That’s very good to hear. I’ll note it in my slang dictionary. (I keep a huge dictionary of English slang and expressions by my laptop so I can incorporate them into my posts and practice them.)

I found out about the word, BTW, from Nuklear Power, and I FINALLY understand why the Red Mage’s column is called “Twinkin’ Out.” Previously, after research, I just thought it meant he was gay, because first I looked it up in a dictionary, and that didn’t really give a clear definition, then I tried searching on google with the word “twink”…in any case the sites that showed up pretty much convinced that that’s what it meant.

Thank you for dissolving what is…let’s see, an eight-month mystery?

-Kitsune

10

Where do you think the MMORPG term came from? Come on now. As gamers, we all should know that “gay” or a derivative thereof can describe just about anything.

11

I haven’t played in almost a month. I’m seriously considering finishing out Master Scout, maybe get Bounty Hunter, then sell (already Master Marskman) the whole kit and kaboodle…

Just can’t drum up enough enthusiasm to play any more.

— Alan

12

Kitsune, “twinking” refers to using your more established primary character to give a development boost to a new player character - through items, hunting companionship, money, etc. - in exchange for same-sex virtual buggery and urine quaffing.

13

Kitsune, “twinking” refers to using your more established primary character to give a development boost to a new player character - through items, hunting companionship, money, etc. - in exchange for same-sex virtual buggery and urine quaffing.

For a moment there, Cryptie, I actually thought your were making normal post. :P Just up until the horrific segue into debauchery. Awesome man. :lol:

I stopped playing the game after two months. Most of my friends and coworkers have as well.

I guess my main gripe with the game, technical issues and bugs aside, was that it foreced you to play a certain way. Let me explain:

While player based ecomies, and services are great, they often spawn a new kind of treadmill. Here is an example. Okay, so I am a brawler/scout , and I just want to create a one dimensional fighting character who likes to hunt, and sell the stuff I loot or harvest.

I need armor weapons , but I must buy player made armor and player made weapons . Over time I have to pay someone to repair this armor, or else it will degrade and I will have to replace it Also my wounds and battle fatigue must be healed by another character, and in the spirit of the game, I should tip for services rendered.

Now anything I loot or harvest must be sold to another player, I just cannot sell to an NPC. For me there is the constant stress of dealing with this minutae, and trying to find someone who will help you, sell you something, or putting your goods on the market and hoping they will sell.

Now one could argue that well, learn some other skill, become self sufficient. Fine, but I don’t want to be an artisan, I don’t want to seek out resources, I don’t want to dance.

For some this may be gaming nirvanna, but for me was a constant source of aggravation. While the mission system is a way to make money, you spend half your time running from point A to B which in most cases is a time sink by itself. And that shuttle wait is just absurd.

14

Well, according to Raph (in an IGN interview by way of Stratics), SWG has just surpassed 300k subscribers (reference: http://pc.ign.com/articles/452/452616p1.html). So, I would say they have an adoption/retention problem if so many people are leaving, but they can claim so many subscribers.

15

That won’t have much value - you can create a BH character in a couple of days.

16

Ah crap.

— Alan

17

Does anyone have any idea if the 30-day or whatever the limit was on canceled characters still exist? I played for 2 months and had considered selling my master architect on Scylla (complete with some high level mining equipment on my person, though some of it had rotted when I lost my net during an electrical storm). Even though money is still useless I guess, he did have half a million credits on him as well.

I have no desire in restarting for another month if he’s gone, but would do so to get screenshots for E-bay if there’s a chance he’d still be there.

18

I seem to recall that they were only guaranteeing they would keep the character for 30 days, but it might be for longer.

19

I wonder if they have just bitten off more than they can handle with the game. They want so much in the game with personalized items, the economy and such they for every problem they fix another crops up.

20

When you quit the page tells you the guarantee 3 months of storage. HOWEVER, they clarified that ‘guarantee’ in the forums to be - we keep them for ONLY 5 days. Then they changed it to ‘We keep them for an unspecified amount of time, we need the hard disk space, you go poof’

Even after all that, when I did cancel, the cancellation page stil ‘GUARANTEED’ 3 months.

So, basically, noone, not even SOE, has any clue how long they will store your character. It’s not like you can peruse the SWG forum to see if it is worth coming back anyways, so just accept that they do not want you back, and cancel. Worked for me.

I’m checking back at space expansion time, and then promptly quitting again because it will suck, because it’s a mmorpg and nothing can redeem them once the devs hide under the coverall of ‘all mmorpgs have these crippling serious issues, so they aren’t issues’

Somebody will do it something close to ‘right’ someday. These devs aren’t the ones you are looking for.