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The amazing 'Star Wars Galaxies' Jedi mode that never was
"Well, my opinion is Jedi are evil." That's how Raph Koster, creative director of the 2003 MMO Star Wars Galaxies, begins discussing the problems that faced his design team back in the day. Jedi were too powerful, too desirable and too canonically rare to be successfully implemented in Star Wars Galaxies as a standard class -- and this was precisely why so many fans ditched the game when its third major patch added Jedi as a starting character. Before launch, the Star Wars Galaxies creative team obsessed over ways to implement playable Jedi into the game, and one solution stands out to Koster as "the crazy idea I still wish we had done." Inspired by Diablo's Hardcore mode, it was a system "that effectively gave a different way to play the game. A method that kept Jedi rare, powerful, and yet allowed everyone a shot," Koster writes. This solution was, in a word, permadeath.
A Sense of Space...
For entirely unrelated reasons, I've been giving the Vanguard 14-day trial a go. It is a game that has many things, and lacks many things also, but one thing it certainly doesn't lack, is room. Its initial Isle of Dawn starter map is an immense place, and judging by the map tabs for the three different mainland continents, this theme of great open spaces and expansive countryside appears to continue throughout the game. Early quests send you off on lengthy runs to distant places and the minimap barely flinches, suggesting a very large land indeed.I found myself quite surprised at the distances and travel times involved, and in turn, surprised that I was surprised. Clearly, I have become used to a much smaller kind of vast wilderness in my online gaming, and for a self-diagnosed Bartle Explorer type I wonder if I haven't gotten a bit soft when it comes to all things distance related. Was this a trend that had crept up on me, or does size simply not matter any more, in our MMO gaming?
A Cycle of Change...
Logging into Guild Wars for the weekly guild night this Tuesday saw a bit of an unwelcome surprise; the personal fallout of the latest in a very long line of skill balancing patches. As a Mesmer, I'd generally done quite well out of these in recent months; a somewhat less popular class than most, they had seen quite a bit of improvement over a number of months, but this latest patch saw 'Visions of Regret' and 'Cry of Pain', two very potent skills I use almost all the time, significantly reined in.Of course the initial reaction was one of personal indignation, coupled with envy at the perceived winners of this round of adjustments. It isn't fair! A moment of reflection however and I began to consider more than just my own side of the thing, and perhaps for the improvement of the wider game, the changes to these specific skills might indeed have been warranted, and in any event, those imposing the changes were sure to have far more data at their disposal, and a view of a much larger picture than me.Balance is something all MMOs seek for themselves and their players, and yet very few achieve a state of equilibrium, in which all players share equal potential, equal possibility and equal enjoyment. Can the cycle of buffs and nerfs ever please everyone, or is an continual procession of patches a sign of life and vibrancy that the single player off-line game lacks?
Massively looks at MMOG's most influential moments
The MMO genre has come a long way in a very short time, but it's still important to look back at the events which brought us to where we are today. Michael Zenke over at Massively responds to MMOCrunch's list of MMO's most memorable event by citing what he feels to be its most influential, from the high points (Toyota's World of Warcraft commercial), to the lowest (the spontaneous and unannounced addition of New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies).Were there any obvious milestones in MMO history overlooked in these articles? Were you there when Lord British was assassinated in Ultima Online? Were you or someone you love affected by the Corrupted Blood plague of 2005? Let us know in the comments.
SWG gets a Galactic Senate, we get Community Managers?
I know what you're thinking over there. You don't care about Star Wars Galaxies. Maybe you played it for a while, caught up in the release hype -- or maybe you were too smart to get caught up in the hype in the first place. But either way, it's hard to see how SWG has many subscribers these days -- though they obviously have at least enough to keep the game running. However, despite the game's flaws, its recent implementation of a player-run Galactic Senate is an interesting idea. The senate is comprised of 32 players, nominated by the player-base, but selected, in the end, by Sony Online Entertainment's community team, so it's not a completely democratic process.And what can a senator do? They get to vote on "legislation" proposed by the SOE community team and can "request a redress of issues by the development team." Very nice -- and an interesting implementation of direct player interaction with the development team. In World of Warcraft, I suppose the system does work similarly -- enough reasonable player complaints on on the forums will get the attention of the CMs who will be able to bring up issues with the developers. And with SOE selecting the senators, they may have no more overall influence than our own forum posters.
BBC reports on upcoming WoW competition
Slashdot is linking this morning to an article that BBC has posted today which gathers views from several game developers as they talk about what comes next when you have a behemoth such as the World of Warcraft dominating the MMO-verse. While somewhat light on new perspectives, it's just further showing that developers really do have to account for WoW when considering their existing and future software offerings. Though the article talks with people behind Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, and the upcoming Age of Conan, I find that Slashdot commenter JanusFury sums it up best with, "Instead of complaining about the lack of a strong competitor to WoW, how about making one?" What's on your MMO horizon as a WoW-killer? Does anything coming up, or existing on the market now, have a powerful enough hook to pull you away from the World of Warcraft? Obviously, if you look at the included image, you know what I'm waiting for. [via Slashdot]
Star Wars Galaxies: vacant houses to be crushed by empire
If you've been eking out a virtual existence in Star Wars Galaxies, the 2003 Sony MMORPG which thrives just as much on self-destruction as it does on landspeeders and lightsabers, you may wish to check in on your neglected home away from home. If your account is found to have been inactive from 17 April 2006, any of the houses, factories, player associations or harvesters to your name will be scheduled for digital demolition. If you built it, they will come on June 5th to wreck it. Unfortunately, the Empire is not interested in doubling their efforts to wipe out the last remaining signs of civilization (read: active players). Instead, they'll split the work with you and dole out points, badges and all manner of in-game items in return. Once the vacant buildings have been reduced to nothing, Sony Online Entertainment will have successfully transformed the world into a barren wasteland with the aid of their own subscribers. Some believe that's what they've been doing since the game launched.[Via Opposable Thumbs]
SWG reaching for the stars!
In a desperate effort to bring back fans, SOE has just announced that the MMO with the mostest, Star Wars Galaxies, will be starting an epic, server-wide event called "The Battle of Restuss" that could "permanently alter the Star Wars universe!" You know, just like SOE permanently drove away tons of subscribers by blind-siding paying customers with a major overhaul. According to *ahem* the press release, guards will be placed in major empty cities throughout the SWG land. Exciting details ensue: Guards will be found in Theed, Mos Eisley, Bestine and Coronet, and will direct players to Restuss, a small city on the planet Rori. There, players who have dedicated their allegiance to the Rebels or the Empire will work together with their fellow faction members to build up their base and arms in preparation for the upcoming conflict. I bet this is the kind of clutch content that will bring back players by the dozens to this tragedy of a game. I cry for Lucas bathing in his millions.
SWG: Three glorious years of mediocrity
When Star Wars Galaxies came out, I really wanted to like it. I really did. But, after about an hour or so I found myself asking one question: WTF? Well, MMORPG.COM reminds us that, three years later, SOE's bastard child is still alive and kicking -- though at this point, half dead and twitching may be more of an appropriate analogy. According to the SWG main site, the devs plan on celebrating this momentous occasion by offering "events, parties, in-game gifts and even a sweepstakes!" Color me non-affected. My only question is if anyone still plays this game after that combat-overhaul brouhaha a few months back. Does anyone here actually still troll around in this virtual snooze-fest or am I the only one still sleeping?
Star Wars Galaxies coming to PS3, say Amazon and Buy.com
If this product page for a Star Wars Galaxies strategy guide from Buy.com (and Amazon.com) are to be believed, then one could reasonably deduce that the troubled MMO will be making its way to the PS3 sometime soon. The evidence? First, that parenthetical platform designation of "Console" for the strat guide. As Galaxies was cancelled for the PS2 a long, long time ago, and there would be no reason to order up a guide for a non-existing game, it would stand to reason that Sony's main MMO not named EverQuest would be seeing some action on the next generation system. And next, that pre-order release date of 4/30/2006. There's a chance that means Prima and the major e-tailers you see here forgot to update their product pages to reflect the delayed PS3 launch (from spring to early November of this year). Either that or they're actually referencing the cancelled PS2 version with a random future date to avoid any responsibility for the thing. Sometimes you just gotta read between the lines. [Thanks, David A.]
Koster says goodbye to SOE
Massively multiplayer game designer and theorist Raph Koster has parted ways with Sony Online Entertainment, after being with them for six years. There's no word on where he is headed yet, although his blog hints that he is "getting interested in doing some stuff that is a bit off the beaten path", a direction SOE isn't quite ready for. About all that's clear is that it won't involve single player games, but MMO developers had better watch out.
WoW vs Star Wars Galaxies
Joystiq reports on an interview with Sony Online Entertainment's head honcho John Smedley, in which he enlightens us as to SOE's team spirit:One thing that I love about our company is that there is no "quit" in this company. It's about making sure that we have pride in what we do. People within the company feel so much pride in this game that they want it to beat the crap out of World of Warcraft.Unfortunately, SWG's new changes don't seem to be going down well with the community, and with only 250,000 recorded subscribers, we wonder quite which world this guy is living in. WoW subscribers can breathe easily, unless Sony have some dark magic up their sleeves.
