Mailbag: Star Wars Galaxies

We Can't Ignore The Continuous Spill Of E-mails From Galaxies Players

(CBS) 
I know you understand economics. During the development and marketing of Star Wars: A New Hope, you were able to maintain the merchandizing rights to the Star Wars brand name, which turned out to be a multibillion dollar franchise. Keep in mind however, the Star Wars franchise exists only because of the imagination of those 7-12 year olds in 1977 that latched on to another galaxy far, far, away. The franchise was fueled by the hard earned dollars of our parents, who raided retailers for the popular Star Wars wares.

My question is why, now nearly 30 years later, are we are no longer a target customer group for a Star Wars game? Is our money no longer wanted? The hallways and rooms of our childhood homes once masqueraded as corridors of the Death Star or the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. They have been replaced with the cubicles, offices and boardrooms where we work. All the little Han Solos, Princess Leias and Luke Skywalkers, are now teachers, doctors, lawyers, software designers, and police officers, but in the hearts of each one of them, that 9 year old still lives, and still dreams of being in a galaxy, far, far away. But now, with these New Game Enhancements, that dream has turned into a nightmare. Although this new game may have been fun when we were 9, now that my generation is quickly approaching middle age, our wants and desires as game players are drastically different now.

In a letters to the community on November 15 and 25th, John Smedly and Julio Torres both said the changes were made to make the game more “exciting” “fun” and “Star Warsy”. Those terms are all subjective. What may be “exciting” or “fun” differs from person to person. I for one thought the detail and complexity of the game was what was most “fun” about SWG. The fact that I could create a character and explore the galaxy was very “Star Warsy” to me. At 37 years old, point and click twitch combat holds no excitement. I know this is true for countless others, because they have said so. They speak out in forum threads, in reviews posted all over the internet, and most importantly, with their wallet, as I estimate close to 60k subscriptions have been canceled. The comments I have made here are not just my feelings on this situation, but reflect what the majority, a very vocal majority, are feeling as well.

Unfortunately, the changes that were made to the game are only a part of a very disturbing situation. How the changes were done clearly shows a lack of respect and concern for the customer. And the timing of the implementation shows true cowardice from management. If one thinks things through logically, you can begin to develop a timeline of events. The game was released in June/July 2003. One year later, financial returns would have been reviewed. It is obvious that SWG did not generate the revenue that had been expected, thus the NGE concept was born. It was a wide held belief that the NGE had to take at least nine months to a year to develop. It is also known that the NGE was being developed in secret, even the current developers had no knowledge of this, and certainly the players did not.