SWG, some EQ, Smed and way to many Red Bulls

sarlen · Post by **sarlen** » March 24, 2006, 10:03 pm

So apparently Smed had to many Red Bulls this morning and in a single day his post count went from under 10 to 127. I have never seen the brutal truth laid out like he does across a 200+ page post. For a bit quicker access to some of his gems check the "Dev Tracker".

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... ing&page=1

Its long, its a bit boring most of the time but if you just skip thru and look for the red names and the responses they give it will be enough to understand whats going on. In a nut shell Smed admits he fucked up and they are trying to make it work again, and he also calls a few people liars which for a suit and tie guy is a bit out there..

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » March 24, 2006, 11:29 pm

oh my god, yeah he did nothing all day but post on that thread.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 25, 2006, 1:53 am

Anyone mind summarizing what came out of that which was new? I have stayed away on purpose ever since the "NGE" fiasco took place.

sarlen · Post by **sarlen** » March 25, 2006, 2:12 am

Clif notes

The next expansion is suspended indefinitely

Smed agrees the game sucks

Adding AA abilities like EQ

No space content any time soon

6-month focus on completing the bug fixes and new quests

Adding high end raid type content

New PVP ranking system going in

Instance zones for GCW battles with rank rewards (like WoW)

Itemization of loot coming

Dark and Light Jedi coming soon

In response to a request for a Pre CU server – Not a chance never going to happen.

Lucas Arts released a statement that the license for Star Wars Galaxies is in no danger of being revoked from SOE

Smed tells some smart-ass he’s a liar

Smed is accused of copying WoW, Smed accuses WoW of copying EQ (real general stuff, imo Smed is right on with the points he makes)

Crafters will be viable again soon

Entertainers still suck

Smed shoots for 6 months for ALL of this to be done or near done…the end.

Ohh and he says Quaid is still his friend.

**edit

Almost forgot. They are working on classes being more gear dependant, like wearing or not wearing your helm will make a big diffrence like it did in EQ. The way it is now I can fight half naked and it makes little diffrence.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 25, 2006, 2:26 am

So the original 6 month timeline to get shit working is out the window now?

sarlen · Post by **sarlen** » March 25, 2006, 2:34 am

Boogahz wrote:So the original 6 month timeline to get shit working is out the window now?

according to Smed, yes and no.

Yes because the scope has changed for the project. It went from changing the combat system to now revamping all professions and adding all this new content.

No to the small point that the combat system is in and near done.

Make no mistake, I dont like these guys one bit and frankly I should put a pistol in my mouth for even going back to an SOE product but.. All signs point to them actually doing the right thing this time (*gasp!). They just had a minor shake up in staff and pulled in a few new devs for content. LA is giving its full support (in print no less) for the action plan they came up with to implement these changes.

Side note, Smed mentions that he found the guy who made showEQ and hired him on the spot..

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 25, 2006, 2:43 am

Yeah, I cancelled all of my SOE subs within a couple weeks of the NGE going live. I recently activated one station pass to stop in on EQ and play some Planetside. I can't decide if it would be worth reinstalling SWG just to go see if Feyd kept Outland alive on Eclipse with all of the deserters.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » March 25, 2006, 3:03 pm

It was brought to my attention last evening by a fellow human being that bioware is currently developing a new star wars MMO.

I am not in a position to confirm or deny this statement.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 25, 2006, 4:02 pm

It's mostly speculation. Bioware opened up a new studio in Austin to work on a MMORPG. They have a very close relationship with Lucasarts (also in Austin), and they have recruited lots of ex SOE-Austin designers and engineers that worked on SWG. I personally think it is a mistake to hire people who were key designers in what could possibly be the worst MMORPG ever made but what do I know.

They haven't announced what game they are making yet.

Smedley is clearly melting down as he watches the company he st arted slowly fall apart as more and more of the revenue generated by EQ gets pissed away by fucking hacks like Raph Koster, who should be banned from game design until he personally refunds everyone's money for that abortion of a game.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » March 25, 2006, 6:42 pm

Poor Smedley

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » March 25, 2006, 11:14 pm

Maybe the problem is all of these 'old school' designers are just too "old school" for modern day gaming.

Lord British, Smedley, Koster, Aradune or whatever they all go by...

They peaked in the late 80s with thier single player games, then busted out with some nice genre firsts in the 90s with Ultima Online and EverQuest. Since then, if these same guys have tried to make something better it has just sucked.

Right now Lord British is working on some Fantasy Combat MMO, Aradune is working on the EQ Killer "Vanguard", isnt EQ dead already? Smedley is lost in space, who the hell knows where the others are at.... hell even Sid Meir cannot do anything but "remake" his old shit from the 80s.. Pirates and CIV 4.

These old fucks need to retire and let new creative minds have at thee.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 26, 2006, 12:34 am

EQ isn't dead yet! It's still fun although the last expansion.. Eh.. Still to early to tell. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play the past couple months.

Overall I think they're pushing out expansions too fast. Sure the 5-10% who finish each one before the next one 'need something to do' but the average player more than likely doesn't make it though even the content they can do in that six months.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » March 26, 2006, 9:04 am

Xanupox wrote:Maybe the problem is all of these 'old school' designers are just too "old school" for modern day gaming.

Lord British, Smedley, Koster, Aradune or whatever they all go by...

They peaked in the late 80s with thier single player games, then busted out with some nice genre firsts in the 90s with Ultima Online and EverQuest. Since then, if these same guys have tried to make something better it has just sucked.

Right now Lord British is working on some Fantasy Combat MMO, Aradune is working on the EQ Killer "Vanguard", isnt EQ dead already? Smedley is lost in space, who the hell knows where the others are at.... hell even Sid Meir cannot do anything but "remake" his old shit from the 80s.. Pirates and CIV 4.

These old fucks need to retire and let new creative minds have at thee.

Frankly, I think they're all stuck in corporate management quagmire.

Being a good game designer does not mean you're a good CEO or VP of a company.

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » March 26, 2006, 12:05 pm

Animalor wrote:
Xanupox wrote:Maybe the problem is all of these 'old school' designers are just too "old school" for modern day gaming.

Lord British, Smedley, Koster, Aradune or whatever they all go by...

They peaked in the late 80s with thier single player games, then busted out with some nice genre firsts in the 90s with Ultima Online and EverQuest. Since then, if these same guys have tried to make something better it has just sucked.

Right now Lord British is working on some Fantasy Combat MMO, Aradune is working on the EQ Killer "Vanguard", isnt EQ dead already? Smedley is lost in space, who the hell knows where the others are at.... hell even Sid Meir cannot do anything but "remake" his old shit from the 80s.. Pirates and CIV 4.

These old fucks need to retire and let new creative minds have at thee.
Frankly, I think they're all stuck in corporate management quagmire.

Being a good game designer does not mean you're a good CEO or VP of a company.

Just further proof that the DOLLAR is indeed the root of all evil. I agree, the bigname games always round the edges and cut the corners to meet the deadlines, to push the next build... ready or not.

Capitalism is great on one hand, but the greed that drives it can kiss my ass on the other.

Origin System was an Austin based GAME developer. They were sole owned, financed and controlled by Richard Garriot aka Lord British. They made all the Ultima games, product after product they just got better. Thier last true inhouse projects were Ultima 7 and Ultima Online, both looking very similar to each other. Then in came the corporate influences, speculative bidding of a buyout by Electronic Arts of Origin... they publish Ultima 8-9 which blew nuts thanks to EA. Ultima Online squeaks out and rolls for a couple years on its own design, in comes the EA affect... reputation patch to appease the masses... the game turns from being an ingenious pvp bases online game with real risk versus reward, to being a carebare game from hell, even customed with mirror worlds were you CANNOT even be attacked by other players.

EA is known to buyout competition, then just let thier line of products goto shit. It seems the only thing EA cares about its the EAsports line, the DICE series of game aka Battlefield and the sonsoles.

The best games are starting to come out of Europe and Asia, sadly.