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No pansy
"set to stun" orders here.
Stargate fans will
want realistic combat.

I Don't Know.
Something about
Chevrons
.

The quick and dirty truth first: I don't know much about the style="font-style: italic;">Stargate franchise,
and I simply don't care. I saw the movie that started it all back in
1994 and enjoyed the film, but I have never felt compelled to watch any
of the series that resulted from it. From my brief interactions
with some of the Stargate
Worlds

(SGW) fan base, I don't know that I'd ever want to try the game. I'd
rather get href="http://writtenword05.blogspot.com/2005/01/my-boyzilian.html"
target="_blank">a Boyzilian.

My bias aside, I am first and foremost a fan of gaming, so I
recognize that Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME) might have a small
hit on its hands. Even so, I see it as "the unpopular kid versus the
bullies at best." SGW will likely launch before TOR and STO, which will
be critical for it to have any chance of success. The same fans who sit
around in pajamas watching the popular style="font-style: italic;">Stargate series on
the Sci-Fi channel are likely also fans of style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars and style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek. If those
fans latch onto SGW first, they may be less inclined to leave when the
other franchises land on store shelves.

I see the fate of SGW playing out one of two ways. If CME can
create a game that is fun to play and does not feel like a style="font-style: italic;">Call of Duty
clone, Stargate fans will be thrilled and present a consistent,
profitable player base. A few other curious MMOG players will get drawn
in by friends and the lure of a game that plays different from the
rest. If CME produces Tabula
Rasa
with a different skin, the result will be much the
same as it was for NCsoft. A few hardcore style="font-style: italic;">Stargate fans will
love the game, but it will be on life support in short order. I'm
willing to bet href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_British">Lord British
has greater influence over gamers than href="http://www.rdanderson.com/" target="_blank">Richard
Dean Anderson, so I don't see a lot of non-fans coming to
this game regardless of the outcome.

EVE for Dummies

One early criticism of the last game, style="font-style: italic;">Jumpgate Evolution
(JGE), is that is seems like it is designed to be href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve"> style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
Lite. That is, I've heard several people complain that developer
NetDevil seems to be making its game a more accessible version of CCP's
EVE.
Admittedly, the most I know about the game came from the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/40416">Ten Ton Hammer
VIP Access interview.

If JGE really is EVE
Lite,
it's not a horrible move. New players find EVE hard to get into because
of established guilds that essentially run the galaxy in style="font-style: italic;">EVE's single server
and because skilling up in the game takes real time that no amount of
grinding can reduce. Despite the href="http://www.sgnonline.com/vb3/upload/1347da2b7fd4659.jpg"
target="_blank">steep learning curve in style="font-style: italic;">EVE,
the game is very steady in its popularity, and it certainly seems
successful. NetDevil would do well to try to capture the gamers who
crave a good science fiction MMOG and cannot handle the massive hurdles
in EVE.

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It may lack
the mass appeal of an established IP, but JGE could be the most
innovative space MMOG of 2009.

But then, I doubt NetDevil is really trying to make style="font-style: italic;">EVE Lite. I'm sure t href="http://wiki.tentonhammer.com/index.php?title=NetDevil">he
newcomer on the block
wants JGE to be its own game with standalone qualities. I don't know
many people who get into the industry to be lazy hacks. But few people
have heard of NetDevil, and those few who have remember only the failed
style="font-style: italic;">Auto Assault.

JGE probably has the steepest hill to climb. The franchise is
new.
The developer is relatively unknown. NetDevil lacks a built-in fan base
like the other IPs have. That doesn't mean the game will be bad or that
NetDevil sucks. It just means they have to work to overcome the subtle
bias gamers have for the unknown.

If JGE is as thrilling as its
makers would have you believe it will be, it's possible that several
sci-fi geeks will give it a whirl. But don't expect established super
powers to quit EVE
to start back at zero. And don't expect style="font-style: italic;">Star Wars, style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek, or style="font-style: italic;">Stargate
fans to pass up their flagship titles to explore the universe in JGE.
The game will need to be a runaway hit and get rave reviews from the
word go to stand among the giants it competes with in 2009. The good
news is that JGE could be the most innovative of the 2009 space titles,
and it likely has the smallest budget of the games. That would mean a
small but dedicated fan base could keep the game profitable.

Parting Thoughts

What have I accomplished? Well, I've stated the obvious by
asserting
that Star Wars
and Star Trek
are popular IPs. I have pissed off a lot more style="font-style: italic;">Stargate
fans than I had previously, and I hedged my bet with JGE by saying it
could be good but won't ever be very popular. Just remember my words
when the games mentioned here all go live. I don't consider myself the
ultimate expert on all things MMOG, but I'm no slouch. I've been
watching trends for a long time, and I called AoC a flash in the pan
before most anyone else ( href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showpost.php?p=259260&postcount=9">Exhibits
A, B, and C all rolled into one). style="font-style: italic;">The Old Republic
will be a critically acclaimed hit. style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek Online
will do well enough just on Trekkie subs to make Cryptic money. style="font-style: italic;">Stargate Worlds
will struggle to survive18 months, and JGE will suffer crippling losses
to the other three titles. BioWare wins the next space race.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Stargate Worlds Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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