by Nicholas Wynne
With the advent of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, a crossroads has been reached in regards to relations between the developing company and the customer. Specifically, the controversy centers around the companies Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts, and their online world of “Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided.†In the fabled saga of the “Star Wars†Universe, there exists an evil Empire bent on oppressing the free denizens of the galaxy through the means of cruelty, totalitarianism, and sheer force. The only people standing in their way are the Rebellion, a small group of intrepid freedom fighters who battle on against seemingly insurmountable odds. When Sony Online Entertainment, “a recognized worldwide leader in MMO games,†purchased a smaller company, Verant, it also acquired the project to bring this saga to life in the form of SWG (Business 2). Originally launched with great promise, though lacking in many of the features that were advertised for launch, SWG held the title of the fastest growing MMORPG to date. Then, rival company Blizzard released World of Warcraft, which quickly rocketed to five million subscriptions. That, coupled with the added pressure of gradually declining subscriptions, other competing games, and severe problems with the in-game mechanics led to both companies feeling pressed for success. SOE/LA decided to revamp SWG, first through the Combat Upgrade (CU), then through the New Game Enhancements (NGE). SOE/LA specifically misled their online community throughout the launch, Combat Upgrade, and New Game Enhancements to Star Wars Galaxies, leading to a breach of contract between the customer and the corporation.
One of the major problems with SWG since its inception has been that it was released early, when it was not ready. Initially, customers were promised space travel, battlefields, player vehicles, and player cities, amongst other things. It is important to note that SOE/LA did not deliver these things as promised when the game was launched, and even charged customers to pay for an expansion for space travel, when it was promised as a feature at the outset. When SWG went live, it included only the battlefields, which were disabled shortly thereafter due to technical problems, and were never reactivated again. Other aspects like space travel were added later in SWG’s first year. Another blatant lie to customers was that they would be able to begin the path to becoming a Jedi Knight, the fabled protectors of the galaxy, at launch. Jedi in the game were an Alpha-class character, meaning that they were superior to other characters in their skills. Balance was achieved by making the path to the class secret, making it extremely difficult to become. However, after months of people searching for the path to become a Jedi, SOE/LA announced that they had not included Jedi in the original launch and were doing so in the next scheduled publish. SOE/LA left out an important advertised feature and misled their customers into thinking that it did exist. Also, a monthly story arc that promised customer’s participation in the fate of the galaxy was also advertised as one of the game’s features, and it did indeed run for several months. But, SOE/LA decided to suspend the story arc, and have not reinstituted it since.
Despite all these issues, Star Wars Galaxies was initially a success, and attracted large amounts of customers to its’ unique style of gameplay, coupled with the experience of being part of the Star Wars saga. Business Wire wrote that “Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided quickly became the fastest growing MMORPG in North America†(Business 1). The players of the game were especially devoted to it, defending it against it’s early critics. The initial success of SWG was due largely in part to three things. The first was that the game was extremely unique and complicated in its mechanics. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times wrote that “Previously [before the subsequent changes], the game was unabashedly complicated, appealing to mature, reflex-challenged gamers with its strategic combat style and deep skill system†(Schiesel 1). No other game had ever presented such a broad skill system. It allowed players to customize the professions of their characters to an extent that made sure that everyone was an individual with different qualities that allowed them to excel in their area of choice. In addition, the number of playable professions, which was thirty two at launch, gave players free reign to choose what they wanted to be. The second reason for SWG’s initial success was its community. SWG attracted players that were mature and desired a challenging, entertaining experience. This led to people bonding together to mutually accomplish their goals, forging a strong community that was unequaled in the history of MMORPGs. The third and final reason for its initial success was that it was Star Wars. While this is somewhat of an obvious point, many players would play any game regardless of the quality as long as it allowed them to take part in the adventure that is the Star Wars universe.
As the game developed, there were some underlying problems that were leading it to decay. Parts of SWG were “fundamentally flawed,†and the constant maintenance and updates needed to balance it out were taking their toll on SOE’s resources and fan’s patience (Adams 1). Problems with the balance of combat in the game led SOE/LA to begin development of the Combat Upgrade, or CU. The original intent of the CU was to balance, not change. It is important to note that SOE/LA once again did not deliver what they promised the customers, changing the nature of the Combat Upgrade as they saw fit with little to no feedback from the customer. SOE/LA saw an opportunity to use the customers desire for something new to sneak in other features that they thought would help improve the game. This reflects the “extremely weak lines of communication that developers and players had,†leading to updates that often were the exact opposite of what the players want or what the game needed (Adams 2). In contrast, upper management at SOE/LA stated that “A lot of positive changes have taken effect since Star Wars Galaxies first launched,†showing that the discontent of the customers with the changes were not reaching high enough into the corporate infrastructure (Lucasarts 1).When it was released, the CU changed combat almost completely, as well as affecting aspects of the Galactic Civil War (GCW), crafting, and the Jedi Village. All were important gameplay mechanics that instead of being fixed were broken even further by this first attempt to change the game in midstream.
The final aspect of the game that led to its destruction was that even after the CU, which was meant to curb subscriber loss, the game continued to slowly lose subscribers at a percentage that was larger than normal. Why? Changes from the CU had not reached the desired effect, and had indeed made things worse, which led customers to hit the cancellation button. Those customers were migrating to other MMORPGs. Upper management at SOE/LA made the decision that more drastic measures needed to be taken. In Gamespot’s interview with John Smedley, he said that “Right now World of Warcraft is certainly owning a lot of online play†(Feldman
. He was later asked why the decision was made to change the game, and he responded that “we always felt like we had under delivered on the Star Wars experience†(Feldman 1). In their effort to save SWG, they instead ending up destroying it.
The ultimate result of the clandestine meetings between SOE and LA’s upper management led to the release of the NGE, which stands for New Game Enhancements. In essence, the NGE changed the game that customers had paid to play for more than two years, and did so by giving them only several days notice. The NGE came to exemplify the point that SOE/LA did not care what they had promised, and instead worked only in terms of future development, not for the current customers. Dallas Dickinson, an SOE producer, said that “it felt like a better idea for us to break with the past and develop the game it should have been to begin with†(Adams 2). John Blakely, the Vice-President of Development at SOE, said that “It was a tough decision we had to make†(Musgrove 2). In retrospect, it also turned out to be the wrong one. Computer Gaming World wrote this of the ineptitude of the management: “SOE tossed everything (including the good parts) into the garbage chute, wholly replacing it with a dreadful set of new game enhancements that actually make things much, much worse†(Davis 1). Dan Adams of IGN.com wrote that “The answer from SOE and Lucasarts is a sweeping change to the core gameplay elements of Star War Galaxies†(Adams 1). The skill-based system of professions was totally replaced with a set of nine iconic professions. Old professions were combined into these new ones, and some were eliminated completely. SOE officials justified this by saying “The only other profession [besides Bio-Engineer] we didn’t absorb into one of these iconic templates is the creature handler, and only 1% of our players play that character type†(Adams 3). While this could be true, they still have essentially eliminated months of work for that 1% of players. Computer Gaming World’s review of the changes stated “Veteran players will also feel cheated by the bland class selection, which replaces SWG’s deep and versatile skill system†(Davis 1). The games interface was completely changed, as was the combat system. Instead of a complicated turn based system of combat, a pseudo FPS, or first person shooter system was introduced. Also, the removal of item decay coupled with the increase in quality and quantity of loot drops destroyed the player-based economy and left those players who pursued crafting professions to be nothing more than a novelty, as opposed to the integral part of the game that they previously were. Even the entertainers, who were one of the most popular professions, were so changed, or nerfed, that they served no purpose any longer. CGW summed it up quite ably when it said “the game’s devoted fans…find themselves spurned by the developer’s hope that a dumbed-down gaming experience will appeal to wider audiences†(Davis 1).
The reaction of the customers to this bait-and-switch has become something of a legend in the ferocity in which they displayed their new opinion of SOE/LA. Directly after the announcement was made, many players were banned from the official SWG forums for protesting the NGE, or questioning the business ethics behind it. Instead of using this single line of communication to gauge the opinion of the players, and form a suitable plan for future development, the forum moderators crushed any protests and removed those who even mentioned any criticism of the NGE. Instead of containing the anger, the move spread it to other online destinations devoted to gaming. “On Gamespot.com, 50% of players rating the new version of the game have rated it as abysmal,†signaling to the potential players that the NGE was meant to attract that this new version is not worth playing (Schiesel 2). Another destination for many fans of MMORPGs is MMORPG.com, and even though the game is rated around a 7 on a 10 point scale, the content of the reviews from the players are sometimes so explicit in their dissatisfaction that they are not fit to print. The New York Times reported that former players “are swapping tales on “refugee†Web sites like Imperial Crackdown†(Schiesel 1).
An extremely important and more direct measure of customer satisfaction, the subscription base, or number of people currently paying for the game, was the primary reason for the changes. Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post said of his interview with SOE that “Blakely said that the changes have already won over a fresh supply of players, though longtime observers of the game say they see a lot less traffic on the game’s servers.†(Musgrove 3). Rumors abound about the game’s population tanking from around 200,000 players to somewhere south of 50,000 players. The New York Times wrote that “many Galaxies players are canceling their accounts and migrating to other online games†(Schiesel 1). SOE/LA has publicly admitted that they expected to lose some veterans. The game’s senior director at Lucasarts, Nancy MacIntyre said that “We knew we were taking a significant risk with our existing player base†(Schiesel 2). However, this amount of cancellations should have shocked them to their core. MacIntrye went on to say that “[I] expect the game to return to its previous subscriber levels in the next six months†(Schiesel 2). If this had been the case, SOE/LA should have been touting their subscriber numbers monthly after the NGE, to show upward growth. Since then however, SOE/LA has refused to admit the current server populations, and made the statement that “SOE does not and has never released server populations.†This is in direct conflict with the numerous statements made by SOE/LA employees that SWG had upwards of 500,000 players in its heyday only a year or so ago.
MMORPG.com stated in their review of the current state of the game that “the changes that were made were too little, too late†(MMORPG 2). John Smedley, the game’s producer, said that “with the changes we’re making with Galaxies, I think we’re headed in the right direction†(Feldman 2). However, regardless of the merit of the changes brought on by the NGE is the manner in which it was delivered, clandestinely and with total disregard for the same players that had supported the game up until that point. This only goes to prove once again that during SWG’s history, SOE/LA have a track record of not delivering what they promise to the customers. Whether that is through technological incompetence, like bugs that prevented armorsmiths from making factory runs of the correct color armor for months, or blatant lies, such as the path to Jedi at launch and the months of secret development of the NGE, they have broken the contract between the customer and the corporation. In the agreement that customers sign to play the game, there is a clause that states that the game is subject to change. However, it is doubtful that customers knew the extent of the corporate lies and money-grabbing schemes that would be protected by this clause. In addition, this EULA, or End User License Agreement, of a game has never been tested in a court of law, which leads to the speculation of whether or not SOE/LA’s conduct can be challenged in that venue. Only time will tell. But whether or not that is needed to prove to other customers to stay away is doubtful, since the disenfranchised fans that were alienated by the mistreatment they faced have spread the word to every corner of the digital world that no matter what promise Sony Online Entertainment and Lucasarts make, you can expect it to be broken.
Work Cited
Adams, Dan. “And the galaxy was changed for all time…†Star Wars Galaxies. IGN.com 4 November 2005. 8 February 2005. www.pc.ign.com/articles/664/664704pl.html
Schiesel, Seth. “For online Star Wars Game, It’s Revenge of the Fans.†The New York Times. 10 December 2005
“Lucasarts announces new Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack as franchise unit sales surpass one million.†Lucasarts.com 19 August 2005. 8 February 2005. www.lucasarts.com/press/releases/104.html
“Lucasarts celebrates Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided One Year Anniversary.†Business Wire. 28 June, 2004.
Feldman, Curt. “Q&A: SOE’s John Smedley on Galaxies’ outer limits.†Gamespot.com 15 December 2005. 8 February 2006 www.gamespot.com/news/6141213.html
Feldman, Curt. “Q&A: SOE’s John Smedley on the kinder, gentler Galaxies.†Gamspot.com 9 December 2005. 8 February 2006 www.gamespot.com/news/6140991.html
Musgrove, Mike. “Sadness in “Star Wars†World.†The Washington Post. 2 February 2006. D01.
“Star Wars Galaxies.†Computer Gaming World. 9 February 2006.
Hinman, Rob. “SWG: New Game Experience Review.†MMORPG.com 23 November 2005. 8 February 2006 www.mmorpg.com
Formerly:
Natalya Ba-an
Master Armorsmith
Star Wars Galaxies
NGE refugee.
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NCsoft Announces Publishing Deal with Spacetime Studios
Newly formed company with Sci-fi pedigree to make massively multiplayer game for world’s top online game publisher
AUSTIN, Texas, March 8, 2006—NCsoft® Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today its latest partnership with a new company in Austin. Spacetime Studios™, composed of a core team with previous leadership roles on successful franchises such as Privateer, Wing Commander and Star Wars Galaxies, will publish its next game under the NCsoft brand.
Collectively the Spacetime group has shipped 14 previous titles, two of which have been million-unit sellers.
“Having the Spacetime team on board is a great step forward for NCsoft,†said Robert Garriott, CEO of NCsoft North America. “This group has a proven track record in creating games in the space genre. They’ve also been successful in developing massively multiplayer games and we believe that’s a winning combination and a perfect fit for the NCsoft lineup of products.â€
“Spacetime and NCsoft is a great match,†said Gary Gattis, Spacetime Studios co-founder. “They are a top-notch publisher that really cares about their developers and the quality of their games. NCsoft has shown us strong support and a willingness to provide a great balance of direction and freedom to develop a game that we have been dreaming of doing for years.â€
About NCsoft
NCsoft’s North American business is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company launched two massively multiplayer titles on the same day in 2004: Lineage® II and City of Heroes®, and 2005 released the highly anticipated, Guild Wars® and City of Villains™. NCsoft expects to launch more massively multiplayer titles in 2006. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.
About Spacetime Studios
Spacetime Studios is an independent game development company located in Austin, Texas. They have just begun a next-generation, AAA-scale MMO with an original IP. The company’s focus is on making a killer, top-of-the-line competitive game, with the technology, design and art creativity needed to make it happen. Spacetime Studios is an experienced, extremely successful team of veterans in the genre, with 14 shipped titles under their belts, two of which are million-plus sellers. More information about the studio can be found at http://www.spacetimestudios.com.
NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage, Guild Wars and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes and City of Villains are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. Spacetime Studios, the Spacetime Studios logo, and all associated artwork and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spacetime Studios, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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