Publish Plan

The Six-month Publish Plan - the outline that will dictate development focus for the rest of the year - was released last Friday and has been the topic of much discussion ever since. Some argue that it is the "light at the end of the tunnel" for a troubled game. While others insist that it symbolizes the consequential failure that is the development of Star Wars Galaxies. With two very different interpretations of the six-month plan which one is correct? While it is only speculation at this point, I have every reason to believe it is in fact the latter.

Up until the release of the publish plan I was overly optimistic about the direction of Star Wars Galaxies. Though at times I have not been in favor of the New Game Enhancements (NGE), it did bring a lot of credibility to the game and the Star Wars franchise. Anyone who participated in the game before the launch of the NGE a few months ago realized that the Star Wars "feel" was lacking in many respects. With the addition of the NGE came a lot of "iconic Star Wars feelings" and as such the game improved tremendously because of it. The best examples of this are the class reduction of over 30 to 9 and the legacy quests that were made available. So with all of this momentum, and the rumblings of PvP enhancements on the way, I couldn't be anything but overly optimistic. Unfortunately that optimism was misplaced.

This is not to say either that everything in the publish plan is a pile of cow dung, no. The bounty system, easier ways to enable PvP and of course enhancements to the Galactic Civil War bases are all significant commitments. These are all very positive factors and will have a tremendous impact on the game but it is not enough. Too much is being ignored which includes the mid-level game progression and the often bugged legacy quests. In addition to all of that, the bulk of the publish plan involves "re-writing what parts of the NGE did." Though what exactly do I mean by that?

If you'll recall, one of the items that the NGE did address was the broken armor system. Aside from the constant need to be buffed in order to use armor, commonly only one armor set was utilized: composite. With the NGE came restrictions based on class and penalties were evident so that a higher level would be able to effectively use it better. This is no longer the case. In the upcoming publish, armor restrictions will be done away with (with a few exceptions) and the penalties will be erased and this could bring with it many problems.

One of the reasons why there was armor restrictions to begin with, based on class, is to diversify the player base, so not everyone would be wearing the same armor. Not withstanding the minor exception, we risk the problem in publish 28 of nearly every armored player being identical. The other issue that we must ask is: what was the point of armor upgrades in the NGE? With the change that is proposed, there is a good chance that we will effectively be turning back the clock to before the NGE. For opponents of the NGE this is even more fodder to suggest that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) doesn't know what its doing, since they're just re-writing changes.

The other "re-writing of the NGE" that is evident lies in the major component of the publish plan: the major overhauls of classes. What I would like to emphasize upon is that class improvements are very important to the success of any MMORPG, but not to the point that Star Wars Galaxies has done it. One of the major arguments supporting the NGE is that class imbalance will finally be fixed and the developers can focus on delivering fun, exciting content for the players. If, months removed from the launch of the NGE, class improvements - significant ones at that - are still going on, then you are certainly not providing "fun, exciting content" for your player base. So I guess one has to ask: did the class overhauls of the NGE irrevocably fail and that is why we must bear more now? It is not difficult to answer yes to that question.

Thus far I have spent most of this editorial criticizing the Star Wars Galaxies development team quite heavily for the decisions that they made in regards to its future. As a result, I wish to describe, in brief, what the development team should focus on. Some of this is further compounding what has been stated outside the class overhauls but are worth mentioning nonetheless.

The Galactic Civil War

What the development team is proposing in the realm of Galactic Civil War base enhancements are a very good start. Couple that with the changes to the Officer and Smuggler class, it could really breathe some life into the now dormant Galactic Civil War. Unfortunately, however, this is simply not taking the case far enough. The only thing that the change represents is a "good first step" and that is all. To be specific, the development team is taking the first step in setting up a solid system for the Galactic Civil War but have failed to provide meaning or incentive for players to participate in it.

So I suppose the question that remains is "what could possibly be done to bring meaning and incentive back to the Galactic Civil War." The answer is plain and obvious, as other games, specifically World of Warcraft has utilized it quite well. What they have done through the honor system (essentially a method of ranking players) is giving players a reason to participate and do well by giving them both tangible and intangible rewards. In regards to incentives, they have emulated the "epic war feel" through their introduction of battlegrounds. As a result, World of Warcraft is known and accepted as one of the best PvP games out there. This is what Star Wars Galaxies needs to do: give players tangible rewards for taking part in the Galactic Civil War ("I am better than you" and city control are not sufficient) and emulate an epic feel to encourage greater participation. This will not happen anytime soon.

Mid-level Game Progression

As someone who has been playing a mid-level character recently I can vouch for that fact that there are some serious problems that plague part of the game. Just so that it is understood to its fullest, I define the "mid-level game" as the point when the legacy quests are finished (level 30 or so really) and when players enter the high levels of the game, where the classes really fall into place (level 60 or so). It is at this point, especially since the legacy quests are done, that players have a lot of freedom to go where they like and are no longer restricted, contrary to the legacy quest phase, on what to do or where to go. While this can be very beneficial in many respects, the player is left lost, not really knowing where to go to gain additional experience points at their level and this can be incredibly frustrating at times.

I am not asking for an addition to the legacy quest, no, all I am asking for is some "direction" so to speak so if players want to grind or get better quests, they know where to look. In addition, even when one knows where to hunt in the mid levels - say the north-western reaches of Tatooine for example - the spawns are sparse and sporadic at best. Going forward with player retainment this is very important but the development team doesn't seem to think so.

Political Structures and Community

One of the most innovative features that Star Wars Galaxies has to offer is player cities and the governance of such cities by player politicians. Unfortunately, the usefulness of such cities has been in serious decline in recent months and is in need of serious assistance. What is even worse is that there is no mention of any attention to player cities in the six-month publish plan - a grave mistake.

The main problem with player cities at this time is that they're ghost towns. They're ghost towns because they serve no useful purpose, except to organize player housing in one convenient area really. I won't go into too much detail about ways it can be improved, but things like making player cities declare faction (therefore attackable) and make cities more player-dependent (the return of decay, battle fatigue and wounds) are all such ways of making them work. Though, once again, no attention is being paid to them.

If I were to describe the publish plan for Star Wars Galaxies in as few words as possible I would say "status-quo." While the changes that are being made to Star Wars Galaxies are significant they are surely not enough to satisfy the needs of the game so it can be competitive in the face of EverQuest II, World of Warcraft and other upcoming big name titles, including Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. In fact the only thing that the publish plan will do is convince current players who are enjoying the game to stick around - it will not lure in new or older players to re-subscribing at all.

Earlier in the week, as I have stated before, I was overly optimistic about the game's future, promise and upcoming success. In the span of one short outline all of that has fallen. I never really worried about the title's future until now. I can only hope that the developers can re-evaluate their plans and push for more radical, aggressive changes outside of class overhauls. If this is not done, the subscriber base will shrink and shrink in the face of new titles that will offer more then Star Wars Galaxies can ever dream of.