2007-05-07

The world that was Star Wars: Galaxies. . .

Ok, so most of us know what Star Wars is and at the very least have heard about the legacy that is Lucas Arts. I am also pretty certain that everyone knows, or have at least heard of, Sony. What some of you may not know is that back in 2003 Sony and Lucas Arts got together and made a game called "Star Wars: Galaxies" or "SWG" for short.

SWG has never and will never be on par with such giants in the MMO field as say World of Warcraft or Everquest or even Ultima Online. It did, however, enjoy some success and apparently has some longevity in it as here we are four years later and the game server are still up.

So what does this have to do with anything at all and why does it a deserve a, "Go home, nobody loves you" blog. Well recently the BBC published an article and spoke with a Mr. Jake Neri who is a spokesman for Lucas Arts. Mr. Neri made some statements that were at best incorrect and at worst, out right lies.

Take this gem for instance.

"Galaxies was one of the first MMOs," said Mr Neri. "There was no handbook on how to do these things."

-Jake Neri, Lucas Arts

Mr. Neri makes it sound as if they were out there all by themselves and misleads the reader into believing that SWG was one of the first MMOs on the market. Not only is this misleading but it is also an out right lie, while SWG was one of the first generation MMOs here in the U.S., there had been others who had done a much better job then the Sony/Lucas Arts diabolic duo. Let us list some of the games that came out before SWG, please also note that some of these games came out at about the same time as SWG, sometimes within a month, make of that what you will.

In no particular order,

Planetside May 19th, 2003
Dark Age of Camelot October 10th, 2001
Ultima Online September 1997
EverQuest March 16th, 1999
Lineage 1998
Anarchy Online June 27th, 2001
Asheron's Call October 31st, 1999
Earth & Beyond September 24th, 2002
Neocron September 9th, 2002
Runescape Classic January 2001
ShadowBane March 25th, 2003
The Sims Online December 17th, 2002

So for Mr. Neri to say that they didn't have anything to reference is just plain fucking stupid, and the BBC deserves to be riding the short bus for not doing any fact checking on this tool. Granted, the BBC isn't saying whether or not what they quoted is fact or fiction, they are merely reposting a statement made by a company representative.

Mr. Neri is either a complete idiot who is unfamiliar with his own games history or he is simply reading back what was given to him by the P.R. department. Let take another jewel out of his interview.

"The extensive tweaking has given Lucas Arts a "baseline" to keep everything balanced, said Mr Neri.

With that done, Mr Neri said, Lucas Arts had plans for a series of updates which included a beast master expertise system that would let players train and breed pets in the game."

-Jake Neri, Lucas Arts

Mr. Neri presents this as if it is some new feature that they developed for the players, what he fails to tell you is that this had always been a feature of SWG until the debacle that was the NGE or New Game Enhancement, in which they reduced the number of available classes and skills significantly, they did this with little to no warning to the players and simply release a statement about a week before it went live that these are the changes and if you don't like em, too bad. I am getting off on a rant here and moving away from the point. Besides, a simple google search for NGE debacle will net you plenty of information if you so choose.

The final gem I want to end on is this one.

"The game, said Mr Neri, was all about the players and what they do with it."

-Jake Neri, Lucas Arts

SWG hasn't been about the players since the first round of combat upgrades (CU), Sony and Lucas have been chasing a wet dream and have done so many things that alienated their player base that it is amazing that they are even still running the game.

You can find the full article here.

Needless to say, Mr. Jake Neri, please, Go home, nobody loves you. . .

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