A Fascinating Read: The Decline and Fall of SWG

[Havelock]

SWG was why I got into MMOs. I played EQ for awhile before SWG came out, but that was largely because I knew SWG would be out soon and I did not want to enter the game a complete MMO noob. When I left last fall after about 14 months in-game, I left a lot of friends there with whom I stayed in touch. Many ended up following to WoW, then went back to SWG as WoW lost its lustre, and now are either back in WoW or fiddling around with CoV because apparently SWG committed game suicide with the utmost finality.

The story is bizarre and still involves a lot of speculation, but there's a great thread (http://www.fohguild.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17242&page=1&pp=15) over at FoH (especially if you ignore the back-and-forth running ad hominems that lace the thread) that recounts the basics of what happened and why people think it happened like it did. This is going to be one of those historical touchstones of the MMO culture, something that will be referenced for years if not decades to come. You definitely ought to check this out (I realize this is in OOC and not news; that's intentional, in case any of you wondered why I was putting this here).

[Razorwire]

I am one of those that had high hopes for SW:G only to have them ripped down and soiled. The game for the first few months was alot of fun, then the double wammy of no content (Dathomir and Endor had no spawns on over 95% of the planets due to some bug, in addition to just not having any content) and the first combat revamp (I was a pistoleer/CH) destroyed my character.

I do have to give the game it's due though, probably the best crafter system ever.

[Feyshtey]

I also had really high hopes for SWG. I was a beta tester from fairly early on, and by the time it was to go to release, it was obvious that the development really wasn't taking a direction that I found entertaining, let alone that I felt was stable. There were major issues during beta that were unresolved, and large scale system changes being made up to the last minute.

I can understand releasing with some problems. But when the design philosophies are being modified during the last week of beta, it's apparent to all involved that the product is not ready to ship. I chose not to purchase it, or really even follow it beyond release. Which is really unfortunate. I wanted so badly to love that game...

[Oakenfall]

I was also in beta, and played some after launch also. I saw the developement evolve. Originally there was some very visionary ideas, large corporations where to evolve, yadda yadda yadda. They had to cut out a bunch of stuff. It never really delivered, and I waited a 4 years for the release (I was in fifth grade when Star Wars debuted, Which makes me a huge Star Wars fan.) I guess it was to much to handle for the time.

My view on MMORPG's is that, we as an industry, are still in infancy in reguards to developement. Project this Genre out 10 or 20 years from now. Don't forget to apply Moore's law. My only regret is that I only got about another 20 to 30 years of gaming in me before I die. :cool:

[beyond]

My best friend and I were both SWG players from beta and for us, it was probably the first time we dedicated large amounts of time to an MMORPG(we were textbook "casual" players before playing SWG). The unfortunate part about SWG is that it seems the devs drove the players away more then anything. My friend was a CH which was massively overpowered at the time of launch. The devs greatly overcompensated for this causing the class to become almost useless two patches down. As for me, I was a BH and found advancing a specific one of my trees (I think it was investigation) to be extremely tedious and frustrating. The devs did little to alleviate this while I played. After talking to a friend of mine who recently quit SWG due to the most recent changes made, it seems as if the devs did it again.

[Feyshtey]

As for me, I was a BH and found advancing a specific one of my trees (I think it was investigation) to be extremely tedious and frustrating. The devs did little to alleviate this while I played.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing...

Why would they? They had a whole system revamp under works the whole time. So why spend any real time, effort, or funds on game balance, or polish?

That's the part that most bothers me about this whole re-dux. Some level of Sony/LA employees knew full well that there was a total system overall in progress. They knew with certainty that they were going to gut the whole thing and start over. And they had to have been working on it for months (perhaps even years...) before it was announced, or there's no way that it could have been released so quickly. But they allowed their senior community representatives to continue the dog and pony show about having forums and a formal process by which changes were discussed within the community. They deliberately deceived the fanbase and allowed them to beleive that they were an integral part of the process of change, and that their suggestions were being reviewed. And then they yanked the carpet out.

If I had been a paying customer during this time, I can almost bet that I'd have been banned for my 'responses'.