Archived from groups: alt.games.starwarsgalaxies (
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On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 02:39:11 -0500, Ringo <Ringo@noon.com> wrote:
>The one reason EQ was such a killer game pre-soe is the guys doing it
>belived in what they were doing and did not have to contend with an
>excess of corp mentality. We may never see the like again.
Yes, actually Verant/989 (know for it's sports console games) which
was a subsidiary of Sony Games made EQ and Brad and the guys (avid D&D
players who wanted that experience on the computer) had pretty much a
free hand for two reasons;
1. corporate didn't believe MMOGs, post UO, could be profitable. I'm
sure Corporate's (always the shining example of "out on the box"
creativity) MBAs, using a bunch of business formulas they learned in
school, argued that the market for MMOG couldn't support more than one
MMOG. So nobody in corporate wanted anything to do with MMOG.
2. It was a single Sony executive who decided to take a chance and
backed the game. He pretty much left them alone, sat back, and
watched.He was an older executive, likely remembered the days of
"chance taking".
Any folks from the old days of EQ remember how the splash screens in
the beginning were Verant and 989. Once EQ was a smash hit Sony found
MMOG religion same as many death row convicts find Jesus; after the
fact.
It was then that they rolled Verant and 989 back into Sony proper.
I do have to agree with Skinner, I wonder how much "the bottom line"
drives dev design. I often wonder when I play SWG if there wasn't a
conference where some of the executives had a conversation along the
lines of the brand name "Star Wars" will sell SWG and quality of game
would be secondary concern as developing that is 99% of your budget
and running this aspect "mean and lean" will get you a higher profit
margin. Anybody who has work corporate before and has had the pleasure
of the man power/budget cut followed with the shortened deadline. I
can tell you I never walked away from that situation thinking to
myself, "Wow, that was my best work!" Instead I and other took short
cuts, spent less time dotting "I"s and crossing "T"s in order to
finish by the deadline. The irony was even though we were left wit
that feeling that our work was ok but lacking in quality; we were
informed corporate was happy with the work because in the end,it
preformed within the budget/profit model. It was after that "Catch 22"
moment I stopped asking question.
In some ways I fear for EQ2 and hope I am wrong. I can only hope Sony
was hurt by their "short cuts" financially to the point they must
accept that quality is a fixed commodity and not sacrificial for
profit margins. On the bright side; there is always an out called
World of Warcraft if they fall short for a second time.
I played EQ for 5 years and found only in the last year that the new
material was becoming "same as before" and nothing of a "Lost Dungeons
of Nor.." quality and innovation. Most of my guildmates who had been
with me for four years played less and less till we started to quit
one by one. I came to SWG because I have friends there and I have been
playing for 3 months and I must confess, I like some of the class,
crafting, character abilities, but the game itself falls into a
"lather, rinse, lather again" feeling. It took 5 years for me to fall
into that rut in EQ. In the three months I have been in the game; my
friends tell me guildies are fading and I should have been in the
guild cantina on most eves in the past when it was filled with 30
people. Now if four are in there at once we are lucky. I find it much
easier to not login to SWG than through most of my EQ time. There is
something about this game that there is something there which could be
good, but it hasn't been realized yet, if ever...
I am beginning to smell the beginning of that same, "it's done",
stench in my friends guild that I felt at the end of EQ. JTL will do
nothing to draw people back for the long haul, it will be a novelty
that will lead to the same burn out for those people who said they
were waiting for it to rejuvenate their interest in the game.
Just my 2 credits worth...
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