SOE official owns Vanguard

[StabbyMcGee]

Also you all have to keep in mind that Lucas Arts demanded, and even helped with, the NGE. It was SOE's terrible communication on the matter which irks me, but the NGE was originally a Lucas Arts idea- and SOE could not say no.

I think Vanguard is going to be just fine under SOE. Most reviews I've seen online say that the game has great fundamentals- but it's too buggy. Once they fix the bugs, and get performance in check Vanguard will be a fantastic game. I think SOE will be able to do that, and add to the content available.

I do feel, however, terrible about the folks that lost their jobs.

[Ralsu]

Originally Posted by StabbyMcGee

Most reviews I've seen online say that the game has great fundamentals- but it's too buggy. Once they fix the bugs, and get performance in check Vanguard will be a fantastic game.

Sad thing about this to me is that the "big" media sites have already issued their reviews and will not be going back to update them. So some guy looking into Vanguard in August--a full 7 months after release but a prime time because summer is winding down and young people are getting cooped up in dorms all over the US--will go to, say, Gamespot and see the same mediocre rating and a review that says the game is very unstable.

[darkov]

Well both IGN and Gamespy will re-review it after 12 months, they do that with every MMO.

Smed has said before that NGE was a failure, he also diplomatically said they had no choice because of their partners (LA). And whilst they can't change the combat back, you will be glad to hear they are trying to add back in all the things the NGE got rid of, in some capactiy, now that LA isn't demanding things of them.

[Vlawde]

er...what is NGE?

[darkov]

It was a revamp to the core systems of SWG that made up combat, class structure, character progression and crafting. It basically gutted the heart out of the game. None of the players wanted it, though we all wanted better combat, this was worse, apparently most of the devs didn't either, but LA forced it on them.

[Galahad]

i do feel a lot better hearing him say they learned their lesson with NGE when referring to policy with Vanguard, and i still enjoy EQ and EQ2 occasionally, so i can say i'm pretty optimistic about this.

i just don't want another CU or NGE. there was nothing i would've changed about SWG pre CU. I quite the day CU came out and relogged once after NGE had been out for a few months and deleted SWG from my hdd about 10 minutes later.

[Ysharros]

The big issue many players had with the NGE is that it was sprung on the player base with no warning. One day the game is one way, the next day it's totally different. We're not talking tweaks here, we're talking major, major changes.

Whoever was responsible for that fiasco -- LucasArts, SoE, both of them -- the fact remains that the NGE was developed quietly, not mentioned to the players, and snuck in without any sort of notice. To a lot of people that implied knowledge that this wasn't a good thing and thus secrecy was maintained to prevent the player base from complaining. Extremely shabby treatment of players who, while vocal, had tried their best to be loyal to a rather limpalong game.

[SwordMage]

Unlike some of the combat revamps and other overhauls we have seen in games like EQ, EQ2, and earlier in Starwars Galaxies, the NGE was an attempt to make the game more "starwarsy" at the request of the franchize owner (Lukas Arts). It almost amounted to a change of game genre; gone was locked target combat and a nice sandbox environment for role-play--to be replaced with faster pace combat and an attempt to make all players think they were more playing the heroes of the adventure (also gone were non-star wars professions like creature handler and bio-engineer). Also, the game moved from a crafted item based game to a looted item based game.

It was a shock, to say the least, when it was released 3 weeks after it was first announced (right on the heels of the release of the Obi-Wan expansion, which SOE quickly offered to buy back from anyone who no longer wanted it).

[FEDS-91]

Originally Posted by darkov

Well both IGN and Gamespy will re-review it after 12 months, they do that with every MMO.

Smed has said before that NGE was a failure, he also diplomatically said they had no choice because of their partners (LA). And whilst they can't change the combat back, you will be glad to hear they are trying to add back in all the things the NGE got rid of, in some capactiy, now that LA isn't demanding things of them.

I'd like to see where you read that. I've read almost every post he's made at the official SWG boards and several interviews. Never seen him admit to it once. I'm guessing Julio Torres' leaving LucasArts was due to his utter failure at the NGE debacle as well. Honestly adding back in things isn't going to make that game any better. The 'snappy movement' garbage, the over the shoulder aiming targeting reticle and the click aiming thing are all crap. Nah, that game won't get any better.

[McTaggard]

I have seen how Sony "listens" to gamers in the past, but I will keep my dirty words and disturbing imagry to myself and stay caustiosly optomistic. I guess things could be worse... Sigil could have been bought by EA.