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SOE's John Smedley expresses regrets over SWG mishaps

Justin Olivetti — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, Star Wars Galaxies, Free-to-play

Star Wars Galaxies may be no more, but its legacy lives on in memories, discussion, and hindsight analysis. Sony Online Entertainment's John Smedley had a frank talk with Industry Gamers in which he owns up to the mistakes of how the studio handled the title, particularly surrounding the much-maligned Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancements.

What would Smedley do if he could go back and give it another try? His first regret is launching the game before the space combat system was done, and his second is that SOE didn't talk and listen to its players more. "We would have encouraged more in-depth discussion with the community surrounding the idea of any game modifications," he said.

Smedley is highly optimistic for the studio's future, particularly in its fervent belief in the free-to-play business model: "We think that 'Free to Play, Your Way' is our future. Giving players choices is the theme of how we're moving forward as a company, which means greater flexibility for our player base."

SOE's John Smedley expresses regrets over SWG mishaps originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions

Beau Hindman — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Vanguard

Vanguard is somewhat of a unique beast among other "AAA" MMOs; it's a forgotten child that still offers great adventure, open-world excitement, and hardcore raiding. While we all have heard of the botched launch and practically dead-in-the-water development cycle of the game, the fact of the matter is that players are still playing it. You can't force a player to enjoy himself, so why are the members of the Vanguard community still playing?

Is it possible that they are having a good time? Or do social ties mean more than great adventure? Could it be that players simply have not found a game that they enjoy more than Vanguard, warts and all? We asked the players on the official forums and received a total of four responses. The thread was immediately pushed down by standard complaint posts. Could it be that the community has been the worst thing for the game, a game that needs, more than anything, positive word-of-mouth?

Click past the cut and we'll look into it.

Continue reading Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions

Vanguard's fourth anniversary raises new questions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Free Realms officially hits 5m users

Shawn Schuster — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Free Realms, Massively Event Coverage

Even though Free Realms had been rumored to hit 5 millions users last month, it was made official today at the Austin Game Developer's Conference. During John Smedley's keynote, the SOE President discussed the history of the game's development, as well as some demographic numbers. As you might imagine, it's difficult to create an MMO for kids, with an average MMO player age at 33.

There was also some interesting data released about the top five marketplace items and jobs in the game. Not surprisingly, all of these top five jobs are available to free players, with Brawler taking that number one spot. Look for our complete write-up of Smed's keynote, which involves much more than just Free Realms, coming soon.

Gallery: AGDC09: John Smedley keynote

Free Realms officially hits 5m users originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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