New Coke “Mastermind” Takes Job With Star Wars Galaxies by Toli Cefail
Clubware
Star Wars Galaxies – the once fantastic online role playing game where players could live in the Star Wars universe and pursue a myriad of goals much as one does in real life – has been invaded by what appears to be the ‘genius’ behind the creation of the New Coke formula.
If you play the game and have played lately, you’ve probably realized that the party is now basically over. What was once a fun & life-like game where one was free to choose one’s own destiny has become a boxed-in, restrictive, and limited “experience" that is destined for a short playing time.
For those of you who may be too young to remember, or may have forgotten, the New Coke fiasco, I’ll describe it here. Coca Cola, the world’s favorite beverage for about ONE HUNDRED YEARS, decided some time ago to change its flavor. Not only did they change the flavor, but they eliminated the original flavor from all store shelves world wide. The only flavor you could buy was the New Coke flavor. Needless to say it was a colossal disaster.
No one liked the new flavor. People were going crazy trying to find the old flavor. Coca Cola was flooded with complaints and inquiries from consumers, distributors & stores. It was a mess. So soon after this blunder, they reintroduced the original flavor with the face saving label “Coca Cola Classic" which, of course, outsold New Coke by leaps and bounds. This is why your coke cans say “Classic" today.
No doubt some “marketing whiz" told the Coke executives, “you’ve got to be ‘fresh’ to keep up with Pepsi!", “Out with the old. In with the new!", “We’ve got to do something major!". I can see the meeting now where this Madison Avenue “whiz kid" pitched this lunacy.
And so it is with Star Wars Galaxies. If you’ve been playing you know now that the entire game has changed. You’re now forced into a caste system wherein you may choose only one of a limited number of professions from which you may not change or expand without losing all you've learned & gained your single path is dictated by the game creators and don’t even get me started on the mouse control changes. (I’m still getting over my headache).
The only good thing about the SWG changes is the new quests and new abilities.
I’ll never understand this obsession to change everything instead of just changing a few things. I will also never understand the tendency of companies to make sweeping decisions that affect their customers (and profits) without first surveying those customers to see what they want exactly.
I’m sure there were some complaints about the time it took to achieve certain game perks and abilities. But did rectifying that require a radical and complete game change? Did that necessitate eliminating skills and abilities players had worked weeks and even months to acquire? I’m certain no.
Hopefully the “new" SWG changes will go the way of New Coke and their “mastermind" will again be looking for work.
Article submitted Saturday, November 26, 2005 & read 6316 times.
Leave your comments through Blogz:
» left by Ryan Lawless (5 years 152 days ago.)
Do you think they will ever change it back, or even...make a newer, better star wars MMORPG?
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» left by Bryan Stidham from united states (5 years 112 days ago.)
i agree completely with this article. but what i don't understand is why sony persists with trying to keep going forward instead of doing what the veteran players, or ones who know a difference in the old way and new way, and role back on the nge. i thought the combat upgrade wasn't so great, but it hurt nowhere near as bad as the nge..
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» left by John Smitty (5 years 92 days ago.)
SWG was very fun. Now it's horrible. I quit the game, as I'm sure thousands of others have as well. What a shame.
I hope they bring the old SWG back, pre-NGE. I would play it again if they did.
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» left by Silent Bob from UK (5 years 57 days ago.)
I read about the game pre-NGE but by the time I got around to playing it I discovered it was a completely different game. I did stick it out for about 6 months but it just wasnt what it was meant to be, I would have loved to try pre-NGE. Seriously? How many Jedi can there be!
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» left by CODELOCK from EURO-CINEMA (5 years 41 days ago.)
come on it had a great run right theres no other starwars game like it i LOVED IT
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» left by Dyno from Norway (4 years 323 days ago.)
I have never tryed this SWG "NGE" thing before, I've tried the "new" SWG, It is a bit good, but, when i hear what the old one was, I'd liked to try this "old" SWG instead of this "new" SWG :)
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» left by James Smith from Norwich (4 years 280 days ago.)
I have never played the Pre-NGE version but i like the NGE version as of i only played this one but i love SWG anyway so i hope a Pre-NGE version comes back in a different kind of case and all
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» left by AlandfsJR (swg name) (4 years 260 days ago.)
what they need to at least do is make new servers based on pre nge, called retro servers or classic like weve seen on other mmo's
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» left by AlandfsJR (swg name) (4 years 260 days ago.)
what they need to at least do is make new servers based on pre nge, called retro servers or classic like weve seen on other mmo's
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» left by Shar (SWG Name) (4 years 253 days ago.)
I agree totally. My friend used to play SWG pre-NGE and he quit when SoE came along. I've only played the NGE version, but I can tell you, it's a waste of time! NGE version may look good to the new people, but it's crap compared to the old one!
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