In the interest ferreting out whether it was negligence, ignorance, a commie plot, a ZOG conspiracy, or just a real shitty chain of events, I tranferred my post and Jeff Green’s post* from another SWG thread:
That is what I say. It took me 12 posts in 3 different threads, but…
So if all creatures great and small, in the biz folks and regular folks, Jews and non-Jews all agree that they flubbed it and shoulda known better, the big question is [drum-roll]…
Why?[/quote]
Is it not bad press, bad business, and just plain bad for this to have occured?
Discuss. Or don’t.
[size=2]*Completely without his permission…Muwhahaha![/size]
If you look at Lucas Arts’ track record over the past, I don’t know, 5 or 7 years, it’s become apparent that despite releasing crap game after crap game, if anything, instead of getting them to focus on quality, it resulted in them just slapping the star wars name on every single piece of shit, and then relying on the name to sell enough of each piece of crap to keep them floating.
They push developers to have unrealistic schedules, working on the “Ship it anyway” philosophy, despite obvious quality problems with the games (I mean come on, some of them are just so horribly bad that realistically they should have been canned instead of adding another black mark to their name). They keep milking what isn’t complete crap (see all the rogue squadron games), and it seems they just want to put as much star wars on shelves as possible.
The few developers who can work in a really short period of time (like Raven) can put out a reasonable game, but they always end up being titles that fall short of what they could have been, given more time and effort.
I highly suspect that the first quality Star Wars title in ages will be KOTOR, since it appears that Bioware has the power (or self-respect) to push the date back even in the face of Lucas Arts (talked to a Lucas producer at GDC back in march, and he seemed pretty miffed that KOTOR wasn’t out… wonder what he thinks NOW). I’d imagine it’s not from lack of Lucas Arts steaming down their neck, but Bioware’s dedication to quality.
But for every other title, Lucas Arts seems more inclined to zip and ship than they are to make a quality product that will rekindle interest in their projects.
Sony Onine has much power to resist LucasArts as Bioware does, if not more. They’ve done online RPGs before - LucasArts hasn’t. Their experience with Everquest means years of expertise and lessons on what works and what doesn’t.
It’s more than a little disingenuous to assume that LucasArts pushed Sony around.
That’s crazy…would a successful launch not mean exponentially more people drawn to the game and longer subscription and better financial statements in the long run? SOE and LucasArts cannot possibly need a fat cash inflow this quarter to help their financials. I do not believe either has hung around as long as they have by running their companies from quarter to quarter.
Them not caring, I could buy, but hurting a possible long term cash cow for a quick windfall is not bloody likely. 3DO they ain’t.
That’s crazy…would a successful launch not mean exponentially more people drawn to the game and longer subscription and better financial statements in the long run? SOE and LucasArts cannot possibly need a fat cash inflow this quarter to help their financials. I do not believe either has hung around as long as they have by running their companies from quarter to quarter.
Them not caring, I could buy, but hurting a possible long term cash cow for a quick windfall is not bloody likely. 3DO they ain’t.[/quote]
It isn’t necessarily hurting the long term though. Since these games ARE works in progress anyway, there isn’t anything to say that they can’t milk some of them now, and then make sure everything is sweet for the space expansion (which will be a major draw in the game).
And who knows, lucas could just have a contract with sony that stated that they had to start paying monthly cuts starting around now, and Sony had no legal choice.
I never played them, but did Anarchy Online and WW II ONline recover from their shitty launches? That is a big reason why I did not try them. DoaC had a relatively smooth launch and it is doing better than those, I believe.
I do not know what was forecasted when compared to the numbers of subscribers that AO and WW2O have levelled off at, but they are not titles on the tip of everyone’s tongues. Also, with SWG, I know I may be comparing apples and oranges because SWG is the largest fanboy magnet on the planet and has a built-in draw for even casual gamers that know Star Wars. Without hard numbers I cannot say for sure, but I would think AO and WWIIO would have definitely been better served with smoother launches. Long term, I would have to theorize that the same would have held true for SWG.
LucasArts has explained to us that Sony Online, the game’s developer, had planned for the first-day rush of players by installing more servers than the company has had for any previous product launch. However, not so many players were expected to have the game so early in the day, as soon as the servers went live.
followed by
Once players are able to register, the game is said to be running fine. At last count, there are more than 1,400 players in the game.
I know they are both still going, Meridian 59 is still going, but how many people did they turn off never to return after the shoddy handling of the games’ online debuts and the pissed off initial subscribers who felt unfairly treated? Once most gamers get soured on something they have ~100 other choices to turn to immediately and will.
SWG will draw and keep tens of thousands if the game ends up being SWG: The Sim’s Barbie Dress Up Edition with furry wookie and storm trooper outfits and stick people to put them on. I just think an early, unprepared debut can do nothing, but subtract profits in the long run.
So my question of why it has been released in this manner has resulted in:
“'Cause SOE and Lucasarts are uncaring, money-hungry scum.”
I think they already had SWG in thier profit predictions for this quarter and were not willing to postpone fearing the wraith of the shareholder. Coinkidink being released just days before the end of the quarter? Not.They know that people are going to buy it like Clones…er drones… so why not release? They also know that Verant can fix any of the issues still in the game. The hardcore will stick around, they always do.
I don’t understand why people expect quality in SW. There hasn’t been any quality in the franchise since 1985.
OK that wasn’t fair- except Dark Forces series,X-wing, TIE Fighter ,the showpiece lightsabers and the cool helmets for sale at MGM.
Can I get a “you suckers?” Hello, it was obvious this was going to happen.
IMHO, MMORPG buyers have made it quite clear over the years that they’ll buy fucking anything. It wouldn’t increase profits to wait and release it in a finished state; the dipshits will buy it now and send LucasArts their subscription dollars to fund finishing the game, no matter how unplayable it is. It’s entirely a rational business decision.
Because Verant and LucasArts have learned that they can get away with it.
Corporations are like huge, hungry animals that have mastered a single trick. Consumers ultimately are the ones who decide whether or not to reward them for that behavior. If a company produces crap, or steps on its customers, their punishment is no revenue. Problem is, consumers have become so lazy / cynical / apathetic that they fail to exercise their most important power - the ability to Vote With Your God Damned Dollar.
“Ah, that movie looks pretty stupid, but I’ll probably end up seeing it anyway.”
“That game can’t be finished yet, but what the hey it’s STARWARS so I’ll probably end up buying it.”
Every time I hear something like that I want to crack a fucking head in.
The big bad evil publishers (and the lazy, incompetent devs they control) will continue to produce shit if shit continues to sell. So every time another train wreck of an MMO launches or another barely adequate SW game hits the shelves, I lay that squarely at the feet of the shitwits buying these things.
ahem I have the feeling I’m mostly preaching to the choir though. Class, you may have an extra 5 minutes of play time to-day.
I’m going to give SOE the benefit of the doubt and guess that the registration and login problems were unexpected. They’ll likely have it fixed in a day or two and will probably start the timer on the free 30 days after they do. That’s what they should do, at least, even for the lucky 1400 that have managed to get in and play now.
I’m more concerned with how ready the game is after the login issues are fixed and people get in and start playing.
