Of all the MMO players who pine for the good old days, SWG players have the thickest rose colored glasses on. . .
I think your wrong I went back and played a private server and it was one of the funnest experiences I have had besides nostalrius. Quality of the game and content is far superior over BS endgame and glowing graphics especially when theirs a healthy population. Anyone who hasnt experienced the classics need to find one with a healthy community and try then instead of coming on here just to hate.
Of all the MMO players who pine for the good old days, SWG players have the thickest rose colored glasses on. . .
I think your wrong I went back and played a private server and it was one of the funnest experiences I have had besides nostalrius. Quality of the game and content is far superior over BS endgame and glowing graphics especially when theirs a healthy population. Anyone who hasnt experienced the classics need to find one with a healthy community and try then instead of coming on here just to hate.
hmm I'm curious which private server you played on. I am looking at two of the more popular servers and the highest population only as 1100 players, this isn't logins or concurrent players this 1100 is just how many accounts have signed up. Are you saying have a total population of 1100 is healthy?
I'll chime in with my opinion on it @Xxxusernametakenxxx. Absolutely 1k players is enough population for an mmo community. I look at it like this, I don't need nor want 100k players in my gaming community, let alone millions. Community is only community when you get to know, grow, and interact with people/players within said community. Smaller communities are generally more tight knit, not always, but generally this is true. So for me it's a preference. I'd rather have a deep meaningful community interaction with a smaller number of players on a more personal level, than a shallow community experience with millions.
Like I stated though. This is really personal preference and I feel there is no right or wrong answer to it.
Also, I know this is a stretch here, but take profit's and investor quarterly reports out of the equation. Now we have a new way to measure "success" and reexamine the same topic.
I'll chime in with my opinion on it @Xxxusernametakenxxx. Absolutely 1k players is enough population for an mmo community. I look at it like this, I don't need nor want 100k players in my gaming community, let alone millions. Community is only community when you get to know, grow, and interact with people/players within said community. Smaller communities are generally more tight knit, not always, but generally this is true. So for me it's a preference. I'd rather have a deep meaningful community interaction with a smaller number of players on a more personal level, than a shallow community experience with millions.
Like I stated though. This is really personal preference and I feel there is no right or wrong answer to it.
Also, I know this is a stretch here, but take profit's and investor quarterly reports out of the equation. Now we have a new way to measure "success" and reexamine the same topic.
I understand your point and it's valid. In most games we are only interacting with a fraction of the population a part of the population we choose to interact with that's why there are guild's/clans/groups. It's my opinion that swg was not a good game back when we all played it and it wouldn't succeed today. My opinion is 1100 players on the top emu server kind of proves that. Just my opinions that's all.
(Forthcoming Textwall. Read if you loved SWG, dismiss if you didn't, or whatever. I'm not aiming at convincing anybody of anything.)
SWG was great. I played it up until the CU then quit. It was an ambitious game. Had a lot of bugs, but it was just about as close to being the holy grail of sandbox mmo's as you could get.
As the OP's video says. It was largely the social aspect, and the wide range of freedom in developing your character and interacting with the world.
If you felt like you had to grind, then you are probably just of a different mindset on how to do things. I felt like I could progress at a steady rate, while the game never seemed "grindy", due to the fact that I was consistently doing different things in the game. My first class, I progressed in marksman really quick because I did faction rep missions with some new friends I met in the game. Doing the missions, I was also discovering a lot of different player houses, some belonging to established crafters, who sold some really awesome gear. I even talked to a crafter who was at their player home when I came in, and they showed me around and taught me about how harvested resource stats worked, and how it helped determine item quality, etc. Looking through their venders, I became ambitious "get gud" so I could have the stats required for some of the gear.
The same player I met out by coincidence back then, was a Rebel. At the time I didn't know, while I was doing imperial Rep missions. Well, she also hosted player events at her place, doing word games to win gear swag. Dropped by one night and there were about 40-50 players in her well lit, cozy looking guild hall, and we all had a blast chatting, and competing for prizes. This player was well known, liked, and sought based on her high quality resources, and higher quality gear she put out.
Between this time, I was leveling the Commando skill tree, working specifically on the Flamethrower branch at the time. I would often join small raid groups of Imps who would run into AnchorHead, and enjoy some classic PVP as all hell broke loose. I was hardly a master Commando, but I could still one to two shot most players, and if that didn't kill them, I inflicted MASSIVE health, action, and mind wounds to players that would need to be healed by doctors before they could fight again. So yes, I was fairly viable in combat even though I was only partially leveled into the advanced profession. Which goes to show, you could participate in most social, group, and combat activities at pretty much any stage of progression.
Fast forward a month or so, and I had long since become a master commando, and the Imperial guild I joined was on the far eastern stretches of Tattooine. One evening our guild decided to attack a Rebel Alliance owned player city, so we hopped on our mounts (before speeders came out) and all forty plus players made our way across the entirety of Tattoine to the other far corner, where we set up a mobile respawn/combat tent, and we had a guild doctor on hand to tend to wounds. We then assaulted the player city, first targeting their combat outposts (which I had visited in the past, as well as their shops to buy things, and had chatted with members of their guild while exploring their city) Well now I had a special roll as commando, who had access to use the Rocket launcher. My specialized roll was simple: Shoot rockets at the base defense turrets, so that players could get in range without being blasted to smitherines in one shot. So me and a couple others who could use them took down the turrets, and destroyed the base while simultaneously fighting off a heavy player resistance of Rebels who belonged to the City we were assaulting. There was no shortage of curses being shouted, F U's and bullsh**'s being tossed around as players plopped to the ground incapacitated. The harshest words were usually poorly attempted "your mom" and "QQ bi***" insults thrown out just prior to a player receiving the final death blow. It was brutal, it was beautiful.
What I didn't expect though, really shocked me. The crafter I had met when I was new, who taught me about resources, and hosted all the events. Yeah, now belonged to the guild we were attacking, and she stood outside of her merchant stall, as we annihilated the city she was in. (She wasn't declared, so she was designated a non combatant. Plus, she had no combat ability as a crafter lol)
The game was pretty chill. You set your own goals, and depending on who you are. You could let the games progression infuriate you, or you could simply not even notice it, because you enjoyed the adventure. I sure as hell did, and they'll forever be some of the best times I've had in an MMO. I think the fact that I can remember my game play well enough to tell stories like this, is raw proof of how memorable and fun the game could be for people.
Ahhh, but not in SWG. We had Imperial players that were PROUD to be Imp's. Players, Guilds, Cities we had it all and enjoyed fighting the Rebels. Lot's of back and forth in chat on who really were the good guys, space battles, attacking Forts etc..... Yes many played on the Republic side, but there were a lot of us to oppose them.
Was it a good game? Oh yes. Did it have problems? Sure - rubber banding, the great speeder bike parking mess at Space Ports and a lot of other things. But just like now when you play through game bugs, we did too and we never let it stop us from playing. We left that up to SOE.
I loved SWG, played on Eclipse server back in the day. Imperial most of the guild I was in were from Netherlands. So much fun, so many great memories. I play the SWGEmu once in a while still love it. Earth and Beyond was another mmorpg that I played, was also closed down, and I now play that Emu as well. Good times!
In fact there was so many macro abuses both in leveling and in combat that the game could be put on remote for hours. Something you had to do as more than a few non-combat profs had a rather horrid grind.
While i admit the crafting was beyond solid (and actually one of the reasons i just laughed my arse off at WoW when it came out.) most other things did not really work they way they advertised it.
So i doubt we will see a game with such a vision again, mostly because it will cost way to much and be to complex. Most sandboxes seem to be doing the Minecraft or battle arena thing today.
When I first logged in a player ran up to me and volunteered to tech me all the race languages before they were taken out of the game, or you wouldn't be able to understand what some players were saying in chat. Another player ran a group of us out to the Tusken Village to level, this was before speeders so you had to run everywhere or travel to other major cities by spaceports to get a little closer to where you wanted to go or to reach other planets.
By and large the population was pretty friendly and players never hesitated to tell you who sold the best gear and weapons for your class. Pretty easy to remember all the adventures we had in the game or how you had to work doing quests before you could earn the right to come before the mighty Jabba.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Umm a complete overrated mess? Yeah there are plenty of those out right now.
SWG was not a good game back in the day and wouldn't hold a candle to any even the bad ones out today. SWG closed , shut down because of that fact. Move on already.
always fun when people throw out random theories which they have no idea about
It's a fact SWG shut down. It's a fact at the end the population was pathetic. There is not a chance in the world today's gamer of wanting everything now would sit through the grind swg was. These are not theories buddy they are cold hard facts. Deal with it.
Yet multiple indie efforts are trying to recreate games which will focus on in depth mechanics and dare I say it, yes even grind.
Some folks enjoy it after all.
What games are "trying" to copy swg? There has not been a game yet that has tried to copy swg and been remotely successful.
I'm not saying nobody enjoyed swg I played it for way too long and in opinion even today it's the most overhyped video game to ever exist and the player base was never that large.
I was referencing in depth mechanics, not saying SWG was being remade.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It was innovation that made SWG such a good game. Remaking it would make something far less interesting then the original game.
You can certainly be inspired by it though and evolve many of it's ideas like it's interesting crafting and resource gathering. Think what made those mechanics fun and figure out a better way to get the same result (or preferably a similar but better one) instead of blatantly copying it.
By and large the population was pretty friendly and players never hesitated to tell you who sold the best gear and weapons for your class.
The joys of a player run economy. Word got around who made the best stuff and prices. Plus getting to know the crafter's you could put special orders in.
Of all the MMO players who pine for the good old days, SWG players have the thickest rose colored glasses on. . .
I think your wrong I went back and played a private server and it was one of the funnest experiences I have had besides nostalrius. Quality of the game and content is far superior over BS endgame and glowing graphics especially when theirs a healthy population. Anyone who hasnt experienced the classics need to find one with a healthy community and try then instead of coming on here just to hate.
your post implies I never played the "classics" and I just want to belittle those that did.
here's news for you. . .I played them all.
but unlike most Bitter MMO players that pine for the good old days I took of my nostalgia glasses a long time ago.
The thread title should be "Will there ever be anything close to pre-CU/NGE SWG" The game after CU/NGE cannot be compared to what was before and I think some people commenting in this thread never played pre-cu/nge based on what they are saying.
Those were the days. I had a doctor and setup in a hospital. Random players would come in for healing and we had some interesting conversations. Fun times.
Here's a pic of my Master Swordsman from 2004 stopping in the middle of a fight to take a selfie. Armor was overpowered then but it still took hours to take this big guy down and if I remember correctly he dropped some minor junk. But still an epic fight.
Just seeing that waypoint light in the sky was enough to make me weepy. I loved that game, there will never be another, as a race humans are not worthy of it.
MMORPG players are often like Hobbits: They don't like Adventures
Comments
Like I stated though. This is really personal preference and I feel there is no right or wrong answer to it.
Also, I know this is a stretch here, but take profit's and investor quarterly reports out of the equation. Now we have a new way to measure "success" and reexamine the same topic.
SWG was great. I played it up until the CU then quit. It was an ambitious game. Had a lot of bugs, but it was just about as close to being the holy grail of sandbox mmo's as you could get.
As the OP's video says. It was largely the social aspect, and the wide range of freedom in developing your character and interacting with the world.
If you felt like you had to grind, then you are probably just of a different mindset on how to do things. I felt like I could progress at a steady rate, while the game never seemed "grindy", due to the fact that I was consistently doing different things in the game. My first class, I progressed in marksman really quick because I did faction rep missions with some new friends I met in the game. Doing the missions, I was also discovering a lot of different player houses, some belonging to established crafters, who sold some really awesome gear. I even talked to a crafter who was at their player home when I came in, and they showed me around and taught me about how harvested resource stats worked, and how it helped determine item quality, etc. Looking through their venders, I became ambitious "get gud" so I could have the stats required for some of the gear.
The same player I met out by coincidence back then, was a Rebel. At the time I didn't know, while I was doing imperial Rep missions. Well, she also hosted player events at her place, doing word games to win gear swag. Dropped by one night and there were about 40-50 players in her well lit, cozy looking guild hall, and we all had a blast chatting, and competing for prizes. This player was well known, liked, and sought based on her high quality resources, and higher quality gear she put out.
Between this time, I was leveling the Commando skill tree, working specifically on the Flamethrower branch at the time. I would often join small raid groups of Imps who would run into AnchorHead, and enjoy some classic PVP as all hell broke loose. I was hardly a master Commando, but I could still one to two shot most players, and if that didn't kill them, I inflicted MASSIVE health, action, and mind wounds to players that would need to be healed by doctors before they could fight again. So yes, I was fairly viable in combat even though I was only partially leveled into the advanced profession. Which goes to show, you could participate in most social, group, and combat activities at pretty much any stage of progression.
Fast forward a month or so, and I had long since become a master commando, and the Imperial guild I joined was on the far eastern stretches of Tattooine. One evening our guild decided to attack a Rebel Alliance owned player city, so we hopped on our mounts (before speeders came out) and all forty plus players made our way across the entirety of Tattoine to the other far corner, where we set up a mobile respawn/combat tent, and we had a guild doctor on hand to tend to wounds. We then assaulted the player city, first targeting their combat outposts (which I had visited in the past, as well as their shops to buy things, and had chatted with members of their guild while exploring their city) Well now I had a special roll as commando, who had access to use the Rocket launcher. My specialized roll was simple: Shoot rockets at the base defense turrets, so that players could get in range without being blasted to smitherines in one shot. So me and a couple others who could use them took down the turrets, and destroyed the base while simultaneously fighting off a heavy player resistance of Rebels who belonged to the City we were assaulting. There was no shortage of curses being shouted, F U's and bullsh**'s being tossed around as players plopped to the ground incapacitated. The harshest words were usually poorly attempted "your mom" and "QQ bi***" insults thrown out just prior to a player receiving the final death blow. It was brutal, it was beautiful.
What I didn't expect though, really shocked me. The crafter I had met when I was new, who taught me about resources, and hosted all the events. Yeah, now belonged to the guild we were attacking, and she stood outside of her merchant stall, as we annihilated the city she was in. (She wasn't declared, so she was designated a non combatant. Plus, she had no combat ability as a crafter lol)
The game was pretty chill. You set your own goals, and depending on who you are. You could let the games progression infuriate you, or you could simply not even notice it, because you enjoyed the adventure. I sure as hell did, and they'll forever be some of the best times I've had in an MMO. I think the fact that I can remember my game play well enough to tell stories like this, is raw proof of how memorable and fun the game could be for people.
Was it a good game? Oh yes. Did it have problems? Sure - rubber banding, the great speeder bike parking mess at Space Ports and a lot of other things. But just like now when you play through game bugs, we did too and we never let it stop us from playing. We left that up to SOE.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
But it was not very well put together,
In fact there was so many macro abuses both in leveling and in combat that the game could be put on remote for hours. Something you had to do as more than a few non-combat profs had a rather horrid grind.
While i admit the crafting was beyond solid (and actually one of the reasons i just laughed my arse off at WoW when it came out.) most other things did not really work they way they advertised it.
So i doubt we will see a game with such a vision again, mostly because it will cost way to much and be to complex. Most sandboxes seem to be doing the Minecraft or battle arena thing today.
This have been a good conversation
By and large the population was pretty friendly and players never hesitated to tell you who sold the best gear and weapons for your class. Pretty easy to remember all the adventures we had in the game or how you had to work doing quests before you could earn the right to come before the mighty Jabba.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You can certainly be inspired by it though and evolve many of it's ideas like it's interesting crafting and resource gathering. Think what made those mechanics fun and figure out a better way to get the same result (or preferably a similar but better one) instead of blatantly copying it.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
here's news for you. . .I played them all.
but unlike most Bitter MMO players that pine for the good old days I took of my nostalgia glasses a long time ago.
same for my old good warhammer online and vanguard
Just seeing that waypoint light in the sky was enough to make me weepy. I loved that game, there will never be another, as a race humans are not worthy of it.