When I get pissed about something in the gaming world and have to let it out, I put it here. These are mostly opinions, and you can't say that I'm wrong, nor can I say that you are...unless you say something really stupid.

• 3Jul 06

  SOE and My Frustration with Online Game Companies

  Anybody remember Earth and Beyond? It was a space sim MMORPG a while back. Those who remember the game probably also remember how EA shut it down after just over two years to focus on their other smash hit MMO, Ultima Online. In case you didn't catch it, I was being sarcastic. Yes EnB wasn't the greatest game on the planet, and it was nowhere near perfect, but UO (which we were encouraged to play after EnB was shut down) wasn't exactly my nor the EnB crowd's ballgame. There was a lot of outrage over this decision and all of the ranting and raving that goes with a news story of that magnitude.

  However, EA is only one of several culprits that have little taste when it comes to online gaming, or at least they don't from the gamer's perspective. Something that I don't think I will ever understand is how some of these games end up like they do. And that's why I'm going to **** about it here. From here on in, I'll be bashing SOE.

  When I first got the demo for Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, I wasn't that impressed. Jedi was nearly impossible to attain unless you played the game 24/7. I played it for literally an hour before uninstalling the two-week trial. Now before I go onto my tenure with Galaxies, it should be said that SOE went about making a Star Wars MMO in the wrong way. All most fans want to be is a jedi, and setting the game in an era where there's about two...probably wasn't the best move. Yes, it's the height of conflict between stormtroopers and those poorly armored rebel troopers in khakis, a black vest, and a blue T-shirt. No doubt many would want to be a stormtrooper or soldier of sorts with no connection with the force, but the ability for choice would be much more accomidated had the game taken place in one of the more...diverse eras.

  Back to my adventures, my brother soon picked up the trial and started playing through it. He encouraged me to go back and try it again. with a friend it became much more addicting, and little did I know at the time, but the community would be one of the few reasons I stayed with the game for nearly two years (when everything else let me down). SWGs gameplay was an acquired taste no doubt, but if you stuck with it for a week or two, it was fun. There were triumphs and tragedies, and I had my fair share of frustrating moments that led me to have to take a break from the game for a time, but I always came back. Galaxies back around the time its first expansion came out was immersive, entertaining, and had a good community. One of its pitfalls was an unbalence combat system. Those familiar with that era in Galaxies would remember anyone wanting to be good at pvp grinding out melee professions for all of its special abilities leaving many ranged players in the dust. But fun was still had by most and the devs of SOE promised that a combat re-balence was on its way. How wrong we were.

  I remember the day the CU went to the testing servers very vividly. The devs had briefed us with all the new changes and needless to say I was worried. Many aspects of the game were being changed, including taking away the combat que, removed because of AFK macro users, but helpful to those who wanted to play a turn-based roleplaying game. Being in the game not as long as many others I still had the hope to give it a try. I was aghast with what had happened. The devs had decided to shove grouping down our throats leaving little entertaining facets of the game to soloing. Many professions were, for all intents and purposes, castrated in favor of the group combat mentality. I, as a pistoleer/scout/creature handler/ranger dabbler, had no place in the new system. If a player wanted to be any good at the game, or useful enough to be picked up by a group, they had to join the bandwagon and leave most of their dabbling in many professions and mis-matched professions behind. I had to change my template to pistoleer and smuggler because creature handler was deemed no longer useful in combat.

  The new system was in testing for less than two weeks before it went live. Many left, disgusted at the changes, but others like me decide to persist and see if we could tough it out and earn that acquired taste that the first sytem once held for us. It is at that point the game lost its soul. The only reason anyone played was to grind their way for months so they could become a jedi. I got tired of it and left...for a time.

  It was in November of 2005 that I heard there was going to be another combat system change in the game and that it would be more story-focused and allow solo and casual players to still have fun, so I tried it again. I went into the testing server and I suddenly found myself questioning SOE's sanity and ability to develop online games. Any remnants of the turn-based game were eliminated in favor of an FPS-style combat system, however it was a broken one at best. Between the lack of support for the "NGE" from the game's engine itself and the playerbase, I couldn't possibly believe SOE would push it to live. Yet again, an unfinished system made its way to my home server of Kauri in less than two weeks. The game I bought died a slow death over the course of a year. The game that had been pasted over the graphics and environment wasn't even beta-worthy, and most of those friends that had kept me in the game for so long, especially the tougher times, could no longer tolerate SOE's taking a jackhammer to an ice sculpture.

  It wasn' t long after SWG recieved yet another combat change that I bowed out. SOE could have slowly tweaked the small problems that had plagued the original game and Galaxies would have remained an average MMO. Perhaps not worthy of the Star Wars popularity, but like I said before, it was doomed from the start. Now the game is no more than a shadow of its former self, and an example to other MMO companies about how not to make an MMO. Many times when I reminice about Galaxies that I wonder what SOE was thinking, especially in the latter days of its existence. I wonder if perhaps it was the fault of LucasArts and its notoriety for pushing developers to the point where the game suffers for it, or just stubborness on SOE's part. Many decisions made were mistakes but Sony refused to back down, save but one time. Now the game is on its downward spiral into the abyss and little can be done to stop it. I miss the original Galaxies as I do Earth and Beyond. And when those nostalgic feelings pass, I tend to get frustrated with the pigheaded companies that decided to ruin games that many loved, and I have to vent by writing a blog.

  See you...out there...

  • Posted Jul 3, 2006 12:26 am PT
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