This new 14.99 pisses me off alot. I don't care about SWG what i care about is the other MMORPGs i play. Now that SOE has set the new 15 norm all others will follow suit. That what happened when they went to 12.99. Players of all the other MMORPGS should join in the fight with SOE they not only affect their customers but every elses.

Watch it i bet you, AO, DAOC, and EQ all raise to the 14.99 price within 6 months.

In other words, this game, after you have already purchased it at $50, will cost an additional $180 in order for you to be allowed to play the game, for only the next year. Or you can take Sony's generous offer and they will allow you to play your copy of the game for the next year for $144, again in addition to the purchase price.
And all this money garauntees that you can play a game that, by the nature of its current business model, will be buggy and nearly unplayable for at least that first $180 year you are paying for.

And what does this add up to? Paying almost $200 minimum in order to play a game that is nearly unplayable and 100x as buggy as a game that costs a fourth of the price.

This is why I don't like MMO's, and I'm guessing this is why so many MMO's are failing. Hopefully, the trend of failure will continue.

This comment was edited on Jun 17, 18:23.

Amen Hump.

Creston

R2! R2! Hurry! No shut them all down! The muppets are comming for tea!

RaZ0r!
Tweak Monkey and Gaming Extraordinaire =)
http://users.ign.com/about/Cutts

Time and time again these companies are doing the same mistakes that there previous competition did. In both of the recent games I beta tested (EVE Online and Planetside) all the beta testers tried to tell the developers ( I know it's not there fault but they have access to the higher ups) that the game is not ready and needs a few more months to be polished.

These aren't "mistakes". The term mistake implies unintended results. Sony, EA and several other high profile publishers weigh consumer goodwill against millions of dollars within a single fiscal quarter and it seems cash wins everytime. As long as people continue to buy unfinished titles they will keep shipping them because its profitable to do so. Upper management get incentive bomuses if a companys performance is over what it was the previous years at the same time, add that to the fact that shareholders could care a whit whether some sweaty-palmed geek (in their mind) is upset over his/her purchase...after all, its just a game, right?

If people truly want to send a message then this game should be boycotted, bottom line.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
PAH!

@45, you believe exactly what Sony want's you to believe. Good boy.

Believe what you will Scott, when you find yourself sitting in the game, stuck in a position and you can't do anything, and find you have to log out, go to the forum, post about the problem, then log back in and wait for them to come help you, all for your fifteen dollars a month, be sure to come here and tell us about it. I love telling people "I told you so".

And the things about the no GMs is not in any way exxagerated..

Creston

Creston,

I can't believe that customer service will be this bad for $15 a month. If what you say is true, then this game will bomb big time.

Instead, I believe you are exaggerating.

We'll see though.

Sling,

Jman mentioned you were working with it. Let me know where I can pick it up .

Zig

The release says 500,000 accounts....Does this mean they have half a million people who have already shelled out the $50 for this game and/or the monthly fees?

I think they will be lucky to make 100,000. Jeez, the most popular online game OF ALL TIME Half Life has 100,000 average players, with the rest of them less than 10,000.

I wish the entire SWG development team all the luck in the world. Im sure they busted their a$$ on this. Lets all hope this game really delivers and begins the trend of being the exception rather than the rule.

This comment was edited on Jun 17, 17:51.

Slingblade,

Actually, according to the Devs, they are targeting the "casual player", not the hardcore powergamers. This is why there is so little high end content in the game.
As for the money, it would be nice if some of it actually went to ANY content development, not even "continuining" content development....

Most of that money goes straight into the pocket of the company publishing it, ie Sony. Anybody who believes that running some servers and the bandwith costs millions of dollars per month is just fucking insane. Sure the bandwith is expensive, but for a hundred grand a month, you can buy enough bandwith to download the whole damn internet in half a second. And yes, the servers are expensive, but that's a one time investment. (albeit a big one)
Oh, and for those who will say that some of that money goes to paying the GMs, there will be NO, repeat NO GMs in Star Wars Galaxies.
And the guys maintaining the servers aren't onsite either, whenever their server crashes (which is still quite frequently I might add), you sit around waiting for hours for the fucker to come back up. And then you can try to get in for another hour, because the "that server is loading" or "Your connection to the galaxy has timed out" bugs haven't been fixed either.

I just wish that FOR ONCE, a fucking game developer would do the RIGHT thing, and FIX their fucking product before releasing it. God, I hope that one day we can just sue publishers for false advertising...

Creston

Edit : In fact, just to put the whole "bandwith costs millions of dollars!!!!!!!" bullshit to rest, I've looked up some prices. AT&T can provide me with an NxT1-6Mbps for $2.750 dollars per month. You can buy a REALLY huge amount of 6Mbps lines for that one hundred thousand dollars...

This comment was edited on Jun 17, 17:58.

god what a cash cow.

one char slot only = more accounts, more money
high box price = more start money
high monthly fees = more money

whats next? being able to buy good stuff for real money?

that would be the only thing worth doing in this boring game i guess.

The $49.99 is paying for some of the development of the game (3 years in this case) and the monthly fee is essentially paying for the live services.

cough *bullshit* cough

It doesn't cost six million a month to run some servers. Not in this lifetime.

I totally agree that the only way I'm going to pay a monthly fee for a game is if the initial release is either free or only costs the same $14.99 that the first month would cost.

Oh, and I'd NEVER pay a monthly fee to wave a lightsaber around and pretend I was a "Jedi Knight." I'll just wait for Raven's new game, which if it's as good as the last one, will make it 100 times better than pay per play online wookie harvesting crap.

Z,
I agree. Even at the yearly price of $12, thats $144 that could by you 3 additional AAA titles (see Deus Ex, Half-Life 2, Doom III).

What I think they are missing here, atleast at this point, is some idea as to what that $15 a month goes towards...Is it continuing content development? Server maintenance and bug fixes? In game real time support? What can the gamer expect for the money? Obviously I am not a real heavy MMORPG player or I would know this.

They are obviously banking on the hardcore RPG fan for this. But, with so many MMORPG games in the pipeline, how are they going to capture and hold their share?? It seems like the average opinion on this is that its a bit steep

http://www.forumplanet.com/gamespy/topic.asp?fid=1422&tid=1074143

Sling

BTW the new Battlecraft app is a breeze...I built my first test map this weekend in about 4 hours. Check it out.

"but I guess the greedy morons decided money was the only concern. "

correct me if I am wrong, but making video games is a business...

..if people don't like the higher fees, then don't buy the game.

... but you know a lot of the complainers WILL buy the game.. and they will continue to complain.. and post their complaints on every single forum...

... with the launch of every MMORPG comes the servers crashes, the lack of content, and the complainers. It's a sure thing.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Just don't ruin it for the others who do.

- Dr.Del
"What if there were a cake that made you orgasm? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Isn’t that worth dying for?"

Oh, Christ. I guess I can't say I'm surprised that they're doing this, but I am disappointed. Like all the other beta testers are saying, it sure as hell is not ready for release. This could have been such a cool game, but I guess the greedy morons decided money was the only concern.

*sigh*

----

Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds...

-Bhagavad Gita

Well I am not going to pay that much to play this game. Greedy ass mothers I hope your game flops and goes the way of WWII on line, your not even getting me to purchase this game let alone one months fee out of this consumer.

I was thinking about getting the $100 (CAN) version... I haven't bought a game in a while.. along with NWN:Shadows of Undertride (or whatever) will be my two games to buy this month, I figure... got nothing to spend my money on lately...

- Dr.Del
"What if there were a cake that made you orgasm? Isn’t that worth fighting for? Isn’t that worth dying for?"

I'm trying to rationalize the $15/month subscription price in addition to the upfront payment of f$49.95 and it is really difficult. In know there are some who feel like $15 a month is nothing compared to a night at the movies, 18-holes of golf, out drinking with your chums, but I think they are missing the point. It's all about relative value. What does SWG offer that other games don't? And is it worth it? The answer is ultimately up to each of us, but for me, I can get alot more bang for the buck by spending my $100 (= 4 months of SWG) elsewhere (ie 100+ hours of Morrowind for $30, 5 years of Cstrike, Team Fortress Classic, Halflife for $45 and on and on.)

I don't care that SOE spent 3 years and $Xmm on development. Valve has spent 5 years and just as much on HL2 and it will only cost me $50 total, and not a penny more (oh, well there will be expansion packs, but I digress . . .). And it includes multiplayer, mods, usermade maps and all that other stuff as part of the package. I think of the value I've gotten from the original Halflife. I've had that installed for close to five years and i still play CStrike, Day of Defeat, Natural Selection, Sven, and more. And I paid less than $45 bucks for it.

This reminds me of the fleecing id and Activision tried when they released Return to Caslte Wolf. at a pricepoint of $65 and we all know how average that game was (multiplayer was pretty cool, imho).

Normal work production will fall not because people are playing this game, but because people will be committing suicide on George Lucas's front lawn because the game is so lame.


This comment was edited on Jun 17, 17:03.