SOE: Star Wars Galaxies Fans Will Feel "At Home" in New MMO

StewShearerOld

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Jan 5, 2013
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SOE: Star Wars Galaxies Fans Will Feel "At Home" in New MMO



SOE president John Smedley says that SOE's next MMO project will incorporate "sandbox elements" similar to those featured in Star Wars Galaxies.

Arguably one of the most painful MMO closures of the past few years was Star Wars Galaxies. While the game wasn't always beloved by all, it managed to accumulate a sizable and dedicated fan base that was heartbroken when Sony Online Entertainment announced that it would be <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111549-SOE-Bids-Fond-Farewell-to-Star-Wars-Galaxies>shutting down in 2011. That being the case, SOE president John Smedley <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131692-SOE-EverQuest-Next-Absolutely-Coming-to-PS4>recently revealed that the company has an unannounced title in the works that, according to his statement, will be "dedicated to" fans of Star Wars Galaxies.

According to Smedley, the new MMO will be "a game that many of the old [Star Wars Galaxies] players will feel right at home in." The "at home" appeal will apparently come from the new game's freedom-based mechanics. "It's got a heavy amount of sandbox elements that made SWG what it was," explained Smedley. Sadly, Smedley was also able to confirm that the new MMO is "not a Star Wars game.

Not that we were expecting it to be one. It wasn't that long ago, of course, that Electronic Arts <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123783-Electronic-Arts-Signs-Exclusive-Star-Wars-Game-Deal-With-Disney>signed a long term deal with Disney giving it exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games. Put shortly, it would have taken some intense finagling on SOE's part to get the required permission needed to make a new MMO based in that universe. Add in the fact that EA is still trying to make money off of its own <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115306-Analyst-EAs-Spent-500-Million-On-The-Old-Republic>extravagantly expensive Star Wars MMORPG and we feel safe in saying that a Star Wars Galaxies 2 was never going to happen even if SOE wanted to make it. That said, the absence of a preexisting license almost makes this new game more interesting, as its creative options are arguably wider. In turn, we'll be watching and waiting to see what Smedley and friends have up their sleeves.




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Quazimofo

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Aug 30, 2010
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I wonder how this will take form. If I remember correctly (I never got into SWG, tried a pre NGE emulation server once but not for long) you could do quite a bit without ever actually picking up a weapon. You'd have to hire a couple mercs to run security while you go harvest resources depending on the area, but you could be a dedicated musician if you wanted. You could be a friggin' architect and build a city if you wanted!
It really was something special, no doubting that. I'd love to see something similar but, you now, with resources behind it so the game doesn't feel like an alpha (as the server I played on did). It'd be kinda like eve but smaller in scale and with more options for non-combat careers, which would be friggin' sweet.
 

Therumancer

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Nov 28, 2007
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Meh, see my basic attitude here is that what made SWG was the community and long-term projects and such people were involved in. SoE in particular loves to go swinging it's axe around and cutting down any game it doesn't feel is making them enough money right at the moment. The fact that Sony is going to pretty much nuke 4 MMOs in the upcoming year is evidence of that.

At the end of the day Sony's plea to SWG players is likely to fall on deaf ears, because who wants to put months or even years of real time into building some of these cities and communities only to have Sony come along and turn out
the lights. I mean seriously, when you look at the sheer amount of time people put into SWG to get things "just so" and felt the sheer sadness when you wandered through the empty towns and such as people couldn't bear to play anymore with the announcement... well... SOE doesn't have the trust to get this kind of thing going again.

SWG is one of those things that reinforced my belief that MMORPGS should be required by law to be backed by a trust to ensure perpetual operation. In SWG's case there was admittedly less of a concern over virtual property real money was exchanged for, but it still represented a huge investment of time and effort.

The way I see things is that if SOE wants to be taken seriously, if would do whatever finagling is required to get the rights to re-open SWG and let people pick up right where they left off. Similar to my statements about EA/Bioware in that I will not be running out to pre-order their games anymore, and chances are I'm going to wait for massive spoilers, simply because I do not trust them to deliver a satisfying experience. I simply cannot bring myself to live through another ME3 debacle, and that means having to ruin the fun of being surprised for myself. Not to mention not even being able to trust the general quality of the games... it takes money to make money so to speak, and when a corporation that burns people wants to be trusted it has to make good on the things that caused them to lose trust to begin with. If SoE wants me (and probably a lot of people) to risk getting invested in their MMOS, it has to prove that it's not going to turn the lights out on thousands of players that put in the money, time, and effort. Likewise if EA/Bioware wants my respect and trust back, it's going to sit down and fix what went wrong with their previous games, specifically re-doing ME3's ending entirely.

In closing from reading this, I'm guessing SoE is actually whipping itself up into a rabid cash devouring frenzy based on the success of Richard Garriot's current MMO project. Basically Richard's big idea with his new MMO is to become a virtual real estate tycoon, he wants to encourage old school UO community building and such, but with the twist that you can only build things on specific plots of land, and those plots require you to pay real money to rent them from Richard's company in addition to in-game currency, and what's more you also need to buy the buildings and such from him. So basically if you want a residence you pretty much pay Richard say $100 for the house, and another $200 for the plot you build it on (this is going by pre-order/pre-sell prices stuff can actually be that expensive and is expected to go up). The thing is though that after you pay Richard you have to keep making payments with in-game money on your property or you lose the right to the plot of land and it goes back to the "bank" for someone else to buy. So basically if you pay him money for a plot of land, and more money for a house, but get sick for a few months or whatever and can't play to make rent, your out your investment of real money (though your house and the stuff in it, will re-enter your inventory, but cannot be accessed until you buy another plot to put it down). Despite this rather "WTF" idea the entire online aspect of the game seems to be built around, this MMO is still getting a lot of positive hype and people dying for it to be released. I'm not surprised companies like SoE are looking at this and going "wow, look at this, we can charge people for the same thing...".
 

Sheo_Dagana

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And just to make sure players feel right at home, SOE will drop an NGE expansion that will completely change gameplay and infuriate many.

I'm pretty sure SOE won't be winning back any SWG players, or likely any others in the future after they get done axing even more MMOs. SOE has pulled a lot of dick moves with their MMOs in the past and that's the reason I'll never get involved with one again.
 

Icehearted

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Jul 14, 2009
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Sheo_Dagana said:
And just to make sure players feel right at home, SOE will drop an NGE expansion that will completely change gameplay and infuriate many.

I'm pretty sure SOE won't be winning back any SWG players, or likely any others in the future after they get done axing even more MMOs. SOE has pulled a lot of dick moves with their MMOs in the past and that's the reason I'll never get involved with one again.
This was my thinking. SWG was painful from the beginning, never mind how it ended. I rather enjoyed watching the whole thing burn from my vantage point, it was an amusing exercise in the concept of the fantastical existence of player rights and control vs reality. Characters were being teleported into outer space, and the NGE; every time people thought they'd seen some shit more shit just fell right on them.

I disagree with your last thought though. Gamers, like goldfish, have short memories. Barring a small margin, most people forget who burned them or how they were burned. It's like "boycotts", which amount to little more than windbags having tantrums about subjective trivialities. It's also why companies get away with pulling all kinds of bullshit with clockwork regularity.
 

mirage202

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Mar 13, 2012
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I want to be excited, I really really do.

Yet I can't be. No matter what else is said or done, all these new SOE MMO's are being designed with PS4 in mind.
 

IceStar100

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Jan 5, 2009
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Sheo_Dagana said:
In closing from reading this, I'm guessing SoE is actually whipping itself up into a rabid cash devouring frenzy based on the success of Richard Garriot's current MMO project. Basically Richard's big idea with his new MMO is to become a virtual real estate tycoon, he wants to encourage old school UO community building and such, but with the twist that you can only build things on specific plots of land, and those plots require you to pay real money to rent them from Richard's company in addition to in-game currency, and what's more you also need to buy the buildings and such from him. So basically if you want a residence you pretty much pay Richard say $100 for the house, and another $200 for the plot you build it on (this is going by pre-order/pre-sell prices stuff can actually be that expensive and is expected to go up). The thing is though that after you pay Richard you have to keep making payments with in-game money on your property or you lose the right to the plot of land and it goes back to the "bank" for someone else to buy. So basically if you pay him money for a plot of land, and more money for a house, but get sick for a few months or whatever and can't play to make rent, your out your investment of real money (though your house and the stuff in it, will re-enter your inventory, but cannot be accessed until you buy another plot to put it down). Despite this rather "WTF" idea the entire online aspect of the game seems to be built around, this MMO is still getting a lot of positive hype and people dying for it to be released. I'm not surprised companies like SoE are looking at this and going "wow, look at this, we can charge people for the same thing...".
Tell me you joking, FOR THE LOVE OF THE MAKER TELL ME YOUR JOKING!! *Goes off to google.* Your not joking. I know a fool an his money are soon parted are so they say but.... How are these people alive? I mean how can they remember to breath with out someone to remind them. This is like the Nigaugwin prince scam but 1000 time more stupid. I mean at least this there is a chance greed over came smarts.

I want to let you know joking aside this really depressed me. I mean people are going to buy into this. It's like paying someone to kick you in the groin. No even that is not as bad some find sexual satisfaction in that act. This is just is there anything that matches this level of stupid.
 

Sanunes

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Mar 18, 2011
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Sheo_Dagana said:
And just to make sure players feel right at home, SOE will drop an NGE expansion that will completely change gameplay and infuriate many.

I'm pretty sure SOE won't be winning back any SWG players, or likely any others in the future after they get done axing even more MMOs. SOE has pulled a lot of dick moves with their MMOs in the past and that's the reason I'll never get involved with one again.
Yeah, to me it wasn't EA making The Old Republic that killed Star Wars Galaxies it was the NGE, I wasn't playing it at the time, but the game became a ghost town quickly according to a friend of mine, especially with how Sony pulled it off. I remember the outrage about it being released so quickly after a paid expansion.


Icehearted said:
This was my thinking. SWG was painful from the beginning, never mind how it ended. I rather enjoyed watching the whole thing burn from my vantage point, it was an amusing exercise in the concept of the fantastical existence of player rights and control vs reality. Characters were being teleported into outer space, and the NGE; every time people thought they'd seen some shit more shit just fell right on them.

I disagree with your last thought though. Gamers, like goldfish, have short memories. Barring a small margin, most people forget who burned them or how they were burned. It's like "boycotts", which amount to little more than windbags having tantrums about subjective trivialities. It's also why companies get away with pulling all kinds of bullshit with clockwork regularity.
I do agree that gamers don't fully remember what has happened in the past unless they want to (or if EA is involved), but Sony has done many things over the years that they have to regain my trust from the NGE in SWG just after a paid expansion, a laptop battery that burst into flames in my home, to the hacking of their online service and the lack of customer support during the first six weeks.
 

Pr0

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Feb 20, 2008
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Its been confirmed on Reddit that Smedley is not talking about EQN, it is a science fiction genre game and another project that is slated for production release after EQN itself is live.

Suffice it to say though you can expect them to try to garner as much profit as they can out of the Forge Light voxel tech as they can and the Forge Light voxel tech engine they're using in EQN is going to lend itself rather well to any kind of atmosphere which in some what emulates the old Galaxies game style as such.

Its a good stretch into the future so I think its kind of irresponsible for Smed to publicly knock on the doors of the old SWG core fan base with this kind of statement when hes got nothing to show for it and won't for quite some time.

To be honest EQN is more than enough to restart SOE's core fanbase and revitalize their online division. I'd have saved this nugget of info until there was something to show people honestly...cause right now it breeds a lot more disbelief than it engenders much in the area of interest.

We know they can't do Star Wars, but that doesn't stop them from making a science fiction based MMO, the problem is largely...what is it, and why do I want to play it? If its for free form crafting and player cities and sandbox related player generated content...then great. But if the IP isn't compelling, its a hard sell to be taking it to the Galaxies crowd this early based on nothing more than your word.
 

Pr0

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Feb 20, 2008
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I'd also go on to add that if they somehow found an IP to fuse together the combat gameplay elements of MxO and the sandbox crafting/content and social aspects of SWG, in a compelling world that made that fusion interesting, without requiring the IP rights of either previous title..that would be a very interesting game indeed, least for those of us a little burnt out on elves, dwarves, dragons and gnomes.
 

LordLundar

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Apr 6, 2004
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So it will have the typical problems an MMO launch will have then with every patch will cause more problems that will be fixed, implement a system that looks neat to start but will quickly become nerfed to the ground and JUST as you get the hang of thing will implement a completely new release that wipes everything you've done out and gives you a two week head start in exchange. Gotcha.