What do I mean by that?
SWG is the ex that you were with for a long time, convinced yourself the relationship was better than it was, but finally let go of because you had had it. And then a little while later, you hear of some new things about your ex, nice things, that make you wonder if you made the right choice. But finally when you see her again, you are not only reminded of why you broke up with her, but also gain new perspective that those “good times” you remembered weren’t really all that good in the first place, and you wonder why you stuck around.
Yes, SWG is that ex-girlfriend.
Now that I set the scene, let me explain how I came to that conclusion:
I am an old SWG vet. I was there since Beta 2, and in the forums since the forums launched a year and a half before release. I was one of the original groundbreakers back in the days when the dev team would bounce ideas off of us, and take some of our suggestions into play. So I’ve been around, and remember all the promises.
One of those things talked about was how SWG graphics would “scale” as technology improved.
All this feeds into me coming back during the free trial for vets, after hearing about Hoth, and the appearance tab, and the idea of dressing my character really appealed to me. Personalizing it. See, I had quit back last summer, and now was logging into SWG to check things out. I had distance, I had perspective.
My first impression was this:
“Wow, I don’t remember SWG’s graphics being that bad.” Bad might not be the right term. Dated is more apropo. The game looks like an early 2001 video game; dull and lifeless colors. Don’t get me wrong, I knew SWG’s graphics weren’t the best, but with time away, I finally appreciated just how far behind SWG had been left in that department; the scaleable graphics failed to do so – the environment is as dull and lifeless as ever.
But hey, the game is still fun, right?
Well, not as much as I remember. I wasted 3 hours dressing my character, didn’t really do much of anything else, and really felt listless, like “ok, what do I do now?” It was a sobering reminder that SWG really isn’t that good a game, and for all it’s improvements, they still have horribly missed the mark on the one that truly matters – making you feel like you matter in the universe, that you are important. There’s no real story in SWG, and even with the dumbing down of systems with the NGE, SWG still remains a total sandbox.
Don’t get me wrong, I love some of the sandbox qualities of SWG when it comes to systems and personal customization – SWG still shines heads and shoulders above the rest here. But as far as a story goes, as far as making things matter, as far as allowing a totally new player, or one just coming back, feel like they can just drop in to an adventure and feel like they accomplished something, SWG has completely, totally, and utterly failed.
I used to get into fights that SWG wasn’t a dying project. Yet I can’t deny it any further. SWG just isn’t fun on its own. What SWG is is the ultimate time sink. You lose hours doing absolutely nothing, which is fine as long as you are aware of that, but that’s the issue – you can lose hours just getting dressed, when all you want really is to grab some quick gear and seek out an adventure. There’s no hook to SWG – nothing to really grab you. You are left to find things on your own, which ultimately, leads to failure.
There was one really redeeming thing about SWG that I would be remiss to not mention, and it has always been the #1 greatest thing about SWG. Ironically, it also is the one thing the devs didn’t do. That is community. Upon coming back to the game, I had 3 people on my friends list ask me if I was coming back to the game. Now I hadn’t spoken with them outside the game since I left, so it isn’t so much like true friendship, but at the same time, it shows a real, undeniable bond there of comrades who have played this game together for quite some time. Ultimately, it is the communities that make this game a good one, even in spite of itself.
All I can say now is that I hope that Dotanuki and the team are keeping a close eye on The Old Republic from BioWare. That game will feature story, has fresher and more vibrant graphics, and wisely is going with a design that won’t allow the game to be dated as time goes on. And they are putting story and the adventure first.
If this dev team was smart, they’d put together another “Hoth” type effort and install a real story system into the game (not the “kill 20 nerf-herders, run to this npc, kill 50 nerfs, run to that npc” variety), where what you do matters on a galactic scale, and you feel a part of the fabric of the Star Wars universe, rather than merely just playing with that universe’s toys.
And they’d do it now, so that they have it in place before BioWare launches what is almost sure to be a better product. Because only then might you not only retain some players, you might be able to convince people to play both and not leave.
Story has always been SWG’s achilles heel. And I don’t think, despite what’s best for them, that they will ever really focus in on that. I think it will be more systems and even more systems until SWG finally sunsets. Which may not be too far off, if BioWare outshines Galaxies by a significant margin.
So yeah, SWG is that ex-girlfriend. She just isn’t as pretty as I remember, the relationship was never as good as I thought it was while I was in it, and a brief reunion reminded me of all the reasons I left and confirmed that as a good decision.
Nonetheless, just like some of those old ex’s, you certainly hope they can get their act together enough to be happy and have something that truly lasts. I wish the SWG team and devs well, and hope they will improve upon Galaxies’ glaring weakness. I just know that I won’t be around to be a part of it, and for that, I am thankful.
