SWG is a silly silly place
by Alphaville Herald on 02/11/03 at 9:30 am
Game Girl Advance, has linked an excellent article concerning the failings of Star Wars Galaxies to do nearly anything right. Please take a moment to read The Mystery of Star Wars Galaxies.
On another note, I continue to stand in awe with the rapidity with which essays and observations like these are popping up, it makes mea little self concious. . .
Peter Ludlow
Nov 2nd, 2003
Wow! Great article. A couple lines stuck out. First this passage, which made me think of the new jobs here on TSO…
“to shunt people into non-persistent activities when they want to have fun, and to insist on making them grind when they want to make a mark on the gameworld, when they want to matter within it, is to indulge in an ultimately self-destructive sense of the genre’s possibilities.”
And then the following line which takes it as a given that TSO has been a failure as well. It’s like the ultimate insult for a MMORPG is to compare it to TSO.
“Whatever the reasons—and I’m sure there are others beyond those I have listed—the fact is that Star Wars: Galaxies is a major disappointment. Combined with the failure of The Sims: Online, it more than justifies Mythic head Mark Jacobs’ characterization of this moment as a gloomy one for MMOGs. Even with my faith in the potentialities of the genre, it’s hard to look ahead with any anticipation: all I see in other games are small tweaks and adjustments in a general formula whose possibilities are demonstrably exhausted. For SWG itself, my early optimism about the development team’s capabilities is completely gone, and my account cancelled. If SWG is ever going to become a decent, enjoyable gaming experience, let alone something that confidently pushes the design envelope, it’s going to be a long, long time in the future—and maybe it never will feel as if it is a long, time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.”
Ouch!
Peter Ludlow
Nov 2nd, 2003
hmmm, there is a nice discussion of this article over on Terra Nova, where some folks like Castronova think the criticism is a little harsh. Seems Castronova even likes his job as a butterfly hunter there. LOL. Here’s the link:
terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2003/10/star_wars_galax.html