Star Wars Galaxies

Originally posted by Suvroc

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

SWG may be dying, but not being part of the E3 show doesn't mean much. Hell, Planetside, Matrix Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea aren't listed either. So from your perspective on things, all 3 of those games are dead too.

 

Who knows, it could also mean that SCE is looking at streamlining their catelog of MMO's now that the online division is under new leadership.

Trimming the fat so to speak.

I'd also like to note that I believe it was Jestor that pointed out that Smed didn't include SWG in one of his speaches recently.

All I can say is that if SWG was a stock I certainly wouldn't be investing in it right now.

    Why yes I did and that became reason number 7 in my countdown challenge and this E3 exclusion of SWG will have to be an addendum to that reason - SOE desinvolve themselves from SWG.

I still would think that SWG will "clunk" along at least until the "new"  SW MMO is launched.  Even if they only have 20K subs, at this point, those 20K will be looked at as the "base" for the new MMO.

Mergers most probably, will not be done as they just simply do not have the dev "man power" to do them.  Anyone that uses the fact that a server mergers have not been done as a "healthy" sign of SWG is just not informed or has rose colored glasses.  Make a toon on Kauri and ask yourself if server merges are needed.

I just had a pm convo with a guy still on bria who says bria is now DEAD after the latest exodus to AoC.  Dead may be relative, as bria almost can't be as dead as Kauri, but that did show me exactly the road that  the SWG population is taking.

Originally posted by Obee

Originally posted by Daffid011

Right now shutting the game down does no one any good, SOE, LA or the few fans left. 

 

I strongly disagree with that statement.  If LEC has another Star Wars MMO in the works, with Bioware or someone else, closing SWG as soon as possible is a benefit.  Having SWG open at the time of the new game's launch will taint the new game with SWG's history.  LEC has avoided most of the backlash caused by SWG, but if a new Star Wars MMO is in the works, that will change, in a major way.  Having the lightning rod that is SWG still around will serve little more than a reminder of everything that was done wrong over the past five years (and however much more time there is between now and a new Star Wars based MMO).

If the folks at LEC have any interest in another Star Wars MMO, they would be best off putting SWG out of its misery as soon as possible.  At this point, it would be a mercy killing anyway.

 

 

I'm not a marketing guru by any means, but I suspect they don't want to shut the game down without some sort of announcement to soften the negative publicity.

I suspect if and when Lucas Arts decides to announce a new Star Wars MMO, they will then have a very credible reason to announce the sunsetting of SWG.  Anyone not familiar with SWG history will look at that as a normal sort of thing.   Vets will feel vindicated and cheer for the new game which should generate lots of positive talk for the new product and even rally some former disgruntled players back to LA side as they cut ties with SOE.  If played right they might even come out looking like champions.

Shutting down SWG without some new MMO announcement just opens up the field to a flood of blog-press-magazine stories about the long ugly history of SWG and its final demise.  Flooding the interwebz with negative Star Wars MMO stories is not exactly the best situation as you are ready to launch a new star wars game.

For all we know Lucas Arts might have forbid SOE to demo the game so it just goes away quietly.

All just speculation on my part though.  Who knows what these nut jobs will do.

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

So basically, what most of you are saying is. If an MMO doesn't attend the E3 show every year, it's on it's death bed?

No it means if a mmorpg company attends E3 but leaves out what is arguably their biggest IP there is something very wrong.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Obee

Originally posted by Daffid011

Right now shutting the game down does no one any good, SOE, LA or the few fans left. 

 

I strongly disagree with that statement.  If LEC has another Star Wars MMO in the works, with Bioware or someone else, closing SWG as soon as possible is a benefit.  Having SWG open at the time of the new game's launch will taint the new game with SWG's history.  LEC has avoided most of the backlash caused by SWG, but if a new Star Wars MMO is in the works, that will change, in a major way.  Having the lightning rod that is SWG still around will serve little more than a reminder of everything that was done wrong over the past five years (and however much more time there is between now and a new Star Wars based MMO).

If the folks at LEC have any interest in another Star Wars MMO, they would be best off putting SWG out of its misery as soon as possible.  At this point, it would be a mercy killing anyway.

 

 

I'm not a marketing guru by any means, but I suspect they don't want to shut the game down without some sort of announcement to soften the negative publicity.

I suspect if and when Lucas Arts decides to announce a new Star Wars MMO, they will then have a very credible reason to announce the sunsetting of SWG.  Anyone not familiar with SWG history will look at that as a normal sort of thing.   Vets will feel vindicated and cheer for the new game which should generate lots of positive talk for the new product and even rally some former disgruntled players back to LA side as they cut ties with SOE.  If played right they might even come out looking like champions.

 

Shutting down SWG without some new MMO announcement just opens up the field to a flood of blog-press-magazine stories about the long ugly history of SWG and its final demise.  Flooding the interwebz with negative Star Wars MMO stories is not exactly the best situation as you are ready to launch a new star wars game.

For all we know Lucas Arts might have forbid SOE to demo the game so it just goes away quietly.

All just speculation on my part though.  Who knows what these nut jobs will do.

I'd bet that was the thought process at LEC.  The problem is, the bad press is going to occur whether it is done along with an announcement of a new MMO or not.  The shutdown announcement (the announcement itself won't say these things obviously, it'll be us and the rest of the gaming community) is going to bring up every mistake, misstep, and outright fraud that comprises SWG's development history.  Trying to bury it in the press of announcing a new game is just going to connect the two games in more and more people's minds.

LEC's best bet for a new MMO would be to throw SWG under a bus as soon as they can, and then refuse to ever comment on it again.  Get rid of it and pretend it never happened.  When they announce their new MMO, do it in a way that treats the new MMO as their first attempt at an MMO.  Nobody would buy into that belief, but it would help give the impression that the new MMO is not, in any way, going to be SWG.

Galaxies is going to be an albatross around the next Star Wars MMO's neck.  LEC is going to need to limit the damage SWG's history is going to do to a new MMO.  LEC has been insulated enough from the backlash from SWG that I doubt they even realize there is a problem.  I fully expect to see LEC representatives praise SWG while discussing the new MMO.  The impression it will give is that they see nothing wrong with what happened over the course of SWG's development history.  That will be the exact wrong message to send.

Well it is a tough sell either way.  I think waiting to announce a new game first will soften the impact, especially if they do things right this time around.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Well it is a tough sell either way.  I think waiting to announce a new game first will soften the impact, especially if they do things right this time around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only people who will be negatively impacted by SWG shutting down are the current subscribers.  They have already shown their willingness just bend over and take anything thrown at them then ask for more.  They will be the first in line to buy the next Star Wars MMO (as Star Wars is the only reason anyone still plays SWG), regardless of any firestorm surrounding it.  It could be announced as Ewok Island Adventures, and the current subscribers would flock to it, be sad that they are the only ones playing, and come to these boards and lie to everyone about how much fun they are having in the hopes that having more people playing with them would turn an unfun mess into a fun and thriving game.

Star Wars Galaxies has been a PR nightmare for most of its existence.  It is bad enough that John Smedley feels the need to claim SOE will never do another NGE in almost every interview he gives (yes people who are constantly telling us to 'get over it', even the president of SOE isn't 'over it').  LEC has avoided almost all the negativity due to the fact that they avoid talking about SWG as much as they can.  It's going to be brought up during the promotion of the next MMO.  They will be better off with SWG a distant memory, rather than a current one.

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It could be announced as Ewok Island Adventures, and the current subscribers would flock to it, be sad that they are the only ones playing, and come to these boards and lie to everyone about how much fun they are having in the hopes that having more people playing with them would turn an unfun mess into a fun and thriving game.
 

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HOW STAR WARSY AND ICONIC!

You can...... swing from branches that apparently HOVER IN THE AIR!!! ooooOOOoh! Oh! and.... fish...