by Jeff Woleslagle on Sep 16, 2009
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SOE just announced the shutdown of nearly half the Star Wars
Galaxies servers. Is there another hope (besides Obi-Wan) for the game?
I think so, and it comes right out of SOE's playbook. Also, yet another
subscription-free MMO dings the multi-million marker. Are
these users well-earned, or has this become a race to see who can
loosely justify their PR first? These are our topic for today's
Loading... Million Man March.
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"Biggest movers today:
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/265"Important
Dates
You heard it here first,
SOE is planning a more casual Star Wars MMO using the engine developed
for Free Realms. Between that news and the heady emphasis put on Star
Wars at this year's FanFest, it surely seemed like SOE was going all in
with LucasArts. Despite the hype, there's no glossing over low
population numbers, which are no shame for a six year old game
(especially one that came to be known more for its mistakes than its
successes). So maybe the only thing more surprising than SOE having 12
servers to close for Star Wars Galaxies is that 13 servers remain.
Instead of consolidating servers, I'd much rather have seen SOE take
the EverQuest tack and rollback some of these servers to SWG's
launch version, minus the ghost towns and busted equipment tables.
While some disparage the original SWG as being mad Raph's
sociological laboratory, I personally found a lot to like about the
game when it came out. Jedi were awe-inspiring instead of
ubiquitous, persistent player-created structures like stores, homes,
and harvesters gave the world a lived-in feel (for perhaps the first
time in a 3D MMO), the Galactic Civil War felt active and real, and the
class structure, while a skill-based grind, was refreshingly different
than the typical experience treadmill. Scores of players
formed much more of an attachment than I ever did, and would
probably flock to a retelling of the original game.
As it stands, SWG is probably more widely known as the first MMO to
truly break faith with its playerbase, at least in a way that a
malcontent can adequately describe in the course of an elevator
conversation. We'll probably never know the full story as long as
LucasArts holds sway, but whoever drove the game towards the mainstream
with cupcake Jedi and cheeseball interactions with the Star
Wars cast did this, the greatest IP ever to grace the MMO stage, a
great disservice.
Or SOE could make SWG subscription-free, as that seems to be good for a
few million registered players these days.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/74388">Combat Arms
is the latest MMO(FPS) to join the million man march, announcing that
over 3 million have signed on. SOE's own
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/287">Free
Realms pushed past the 5 million mark shortly before San
Diego ComicCon this year, according to SOE, and KingsIsle (makers of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1186">Wizard101)
likewise claimed the same number at AGDC, more than the total
population of Ireland, as its own.
Note that we have no way of confirming these numbers, which come
straight from the developers and likely include include a vast
percentage of "Facebook" players that might register but spend no
appreciable time with the game, but there's no denying that a "free
game" sign works just as well as a flyer announcing free beer
at your next party. For developers who, like big car
dealerships, care only about volume first and quality of the customer
second, it's a good way to make PR fireworks and thrill the
investors. Whether it pays off in the long run remains to be
seen, and I'd love to find out what percentage of these users become
profitable customers. If any bizdev types are brave enough to share
their conversion rates, email
me and perhaps I'll eat my skepticism.
What think you of the latest Star Wars Galaxies news? Are the
million-plus numbers for every free-to-play MMO that comes down the
line are justly deserved or wildly inflated? Your thoughts welcome in
the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46318">Loading...
forum.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142">WoW
News Discussion
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46280">Blizzard
announces next MMOG to have "broader appeal"
We
know very little about Blizzard's top-secret MMO project except that
it's a new IP (not Diablo or Starcraft), and it's not a World of
Warcraft clone. And at the Deutsche Bank
Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco,
Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick announced that the next MMOG
would
have "a little more broad appeal."
Kotick has said a few strange things lately (like how Activision games
such as Guitar
Hero will likely bypass consoles
altogether in the future), but he's definitely managed to keep things
interesting. I'm waiting to see what Blizzard has up their sleeve when
they say that their next MMOG will appeal to a broader
audience--broader than the existing 12 million that inhabit WoW, that
is.
Our community members have lots of ideas. Perhaps you have some, too.
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46280">Make
yourself heard!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I like broads, they
appeal to
me. The new game is aimed squarely at me! Or do they mean they want to
appeal to more broads? I confuse easily."
- Medeor
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
Today's New MMO Coverage, Features, and Guides
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/new/playerresource">Aion- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team