Star Wars Mailbag: The Sequel

Former Star Wars Galaxies Players Are Still Crying Foul

(CBS) 

Update:
Mr. Vitka,

Thank you for contacting me in regards to the piece in the second SWG mailbag at cbs.com. You are right, there is a lot of talk in the MMO community about some things that were written (I conducted a search after getting your email), so allow me to make one clarification.

The piece on page 5 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/20/tech/gamecore/main1146894_page5.shtml) was not written by me. My piece, as shown in our respective email files, begins on page 6 and extends to page 8, and was written on December 17, 2005 to cbs.com. I stand by what I wrote concerning the state of the SWG: NGE and Community Relations problems as of that date (December 17, 2005). Although the piece was published over a month later, I have admittedly not been a player of any SOE product since that time (even though the account(s) physically expired around January 13, 2006 or so), nor have I been a reader of any SOE forums to know the state of the game as of the publication of the SWG Mailbag 2.

Unfortunately, while I "signed" my name at the end of my piece in good faith, the individual (apparently an ex-SOE volunteer) did not for the page 5 piece. This has apparently lead to some confusion as to when one piece ends and the next begins, within the community.

The most involvement I have had with SOE, or the SWG product, since December 17, 2005 was to respond to an email survey sent to me stating that LucasArts had contracted Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, to ask gamers to tell them what we thought about Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan, which also went into some questions concerning the NGE later in the survey.

However, I am not the author of the page 5 piece which discusses SOE’s business parctices on the releasing of unfinished products, and et cetera. I would have no knowledge in that area. I am the author of the piece that begins on page 6, and ends on page 8, discussing my own problems with the NGE, the Rage of the Wookies and Trials of Obi-Wan expansion packs, and Community Relations.

Of course, that was as of December 17, 2005. I’ve no idea as to the current state of the game.

Thanks,

Lee F. Szczepanik, Jr.