willflynne

@Seldra

I don't know if it was as much of a threat as it was a potential distraction. Regardless of which numbers may end up being correct, a decent chunk of change has been dropped on TOR, and it makes sense that the folks involved would want as few distractions as possible when the game finally does launch so that they can make back that money.

SWG is an older game with a troubled and questionable history behind it, there's no denying that. But even with all the problems SWG has gone through, a lot of what the game offers still holds up and in some cases surpasses what's on the market and what's coming, TOR included. It's not perfect, but there's more than enough there to distract someone from TOR should that game not provide what a player is looking for.

Whether or not that factored into LA's decision-making is something that we'll never really know, though.

@Jagoss

For a game to have a substantial playerbase, it needs to have a good number of people playing the game.

TOR hasn't even been released yet.

It may have a substantial FANbase right now, but there isn't an actual playerbase yet.

Count me in the "essential" category.

One of the best outlets for player creativity in most of the games out there is how your character looks. An appearance tab gives the player more options to express themselves without having to sacrifice the protection and stat bonuses they want to keep.

It's also a great way to pass the time. If things are slow during a given play session I'll still find myself playing around with armor/clothing combinations, trying to find the right combo that fits the theme I'm going for.

Also, as others have said, sometimes there are outfits that you just can't stand and would wear in full. Best example for me is the Padded armor style in SWG. It's armor that looks like it could be clothing as well, and overall it's great. Except for the helmet. Kind of hard to look tough and intimidating when your helmet makes it look like you're wearing a swim cap with a frisbee disc glued to the top. LOL

It may not be 100% essential for some, but I can't see myself staying with a game for very long if the appearance options are limited.

Sounds like social interaction is (to a degree) being sacrificed at the altar of the every-so-important story.

Maybe it's just me, but cutting off communication between players in any form just seems counter intuitive to a massively multiplayer online game.

@ActiveNick

I don't know that I can put 100% blame on LA, simply because there is still so much that we don't know about what happened in the negotiations, and what part other companies might have played.

What doesn't help is that it took LA so long to make any kind of statement on SWG's closure. Had they made a statement sooner, or better yet made such a statement sooner in the SWG forums, directly addressing the players, perhaps they wouldn't be looking like the "bad guys" of all the involved parties.

@smg77

As long as people remember SWG, that clean slate is going to be hard to come by. Even with SWG gone, there will inevitably be comparisons between the two games as to what one game had that the other didn't. And heaven help EA/BioWare/LA if by some chance they have to do an NGE-level change to their game for some reason. Any sort of clean slate they gained would be gone if they did that.

Of course, I find the idea of TOR (one of the most hyped and anticipated MMOs on the horizon) needed a clean slate from other Star Wars games a bit odd. Seems as though they'd need a clean slate from all the hype that's formed around the game more.

I am glad that you put "good" in quotations, though, as it is a subjective term. After all, you might feel that SWG isn't a good game, but the efforts of those who are doing their best to make their voices heard say otherwise. They wouldn't be trying to save it if they didn't think it was good and worth saving.

@Alamar01

Something else to keep in mind is that Smedley hinted at the possibility of another sandbox-style MMO coming from SOE. It could very well be that some of the code in use for SWG will be used for future endeavors, and it would also explain the current SWG devs finishing up updates that they're working on.

It would give any dev team working on a new sandbox game a good starting point at the very least, and would make releasing the existing code highly unlikely.

@TheCasualSadist

You can blame me, I was the one that planted that little idea in the other thread. LOL

I'm not sure if it'd be LucasArts not wanting the competition, because at the end of the day they'd be getting cuts of the profits from both games. Having two Star Wars MMOs out there is a win-win for them, so long as both make money.

EA, on the other hand, would be looking at losing some potential profits for a Star Wars MMO to an existing game. And even though the other SW MMO out there is an 8 year old game with a troubled history behind it, it's still competition for money. And if the rumors of the budget on TOR are anywhere near accurate, they're going to want all the money they can get.

Also, EA has never really been shy about doing whatever they can to eliminate competition. Their grab of the exclusive NFL license to keep other companies from making comparable licensed NFL games kind of proved that point to me. That's why I had to wonder if EA might have been buzzing in LA's ear at all.

@Zimoon

Something I just remembered about the companies involved and competition, and that's EA.

Years ago, EA got some serious competition with another company releasing a licensed NFL game that was on par with theirs, but sold at a cheaper price. EA's response to the competition?

Get exclusive rights to the NFL for themselves.

Instead of letting the competition force them to do better, they just eliminated it. Makes you wonder if EA was buzzing in LA's ear about SWG's continued existence or not.

@(Unverified)

As far as PvP goes, in SWG you can PvP anywhere, and on some planets PvPing or being PvP enabled is the only way to switch a contested GCW zone if you're level 90 and there's no mission terminals nearby. And while you can only PvP with those willing to do so, the fact remains that it can be done anywhere.

Player housing not only allows you to set up your own home or shop and decorate it as you see fit, but also allows you to become part of a player-run city and build your own community. The player cities themselves can even be aligned with certain factions or have specializations that add bonuses to things like crafting.

There is no real set goal in the game, with the possible exception of getting to max level. You can decide what it is you want to do in your play session, whether it's finding the right parts for your starship, working on a collection or just wandering around the planets finding interesting spots to see.

Storyteller props and Chronicles allow players to set up their own events and content for other players to participate in.

The apperance tab allows you to create just about any look you desire for your character (barring species and faction barriers) while still wearing your top-of-the-line armor.

I'm sure there are other examples that I'm forgetting right now as well. Really, the only sandbox portion of the game that was ever removed was the old profession system. Everything else that made the game a sandbox persists to this day.