Originally posted by Nikoz78

Honestly, do you think he had a choice? "Star Wars" doesn't belong to him. LucasArts/SOE told him to change the game. He did. He was an employee. Read between the lines.

He said he wanted to change the game and make it better, but he also said he did not get to do a lot of what he really wanted and that he did not want to remove the skill system or the classes.

Again, he was an employee. He was not allowed to do just whatever he wanted.

And he said something I have been saying for years: Pre-CU was better, but it was FAR from perfect. Also that they were losing 10,000 subs a month BEFORE the changes.

Anyway.

It is funny how they (SOE or former SOE) will spout sub numbers when it supports their rant. 

Just think if they put forth the same coding effort to correct some of the issues of pre-CU as they did on doing the NGE where they could have been compared to today...

Originally posted by Gutboy

And in case you did not know who he is, here is the "about" on his blog:

 

rubenfield.com

About

I’m Dan Rubenfield. I make video games. I’ve been a game designer for around 12 years and have worked on things like Ultima Online, Deus Ex, Star Wars Galaxies, Home, DC Online, and a bunch of other stuff throughout the ages.

I’m currently living in Cambridge, UK and in the process of moving to Helsinki, Finland.

I live with my wife and 3 cats.

 LOL I read this. I tell you people's level of self denil just floors me. He starts off saying basically don't blame me I just make what I'm told to and then the next paragraph he says I was told to reimagine the whole game.  He  recognises that NEG was a huge screw up, but seems to think nothing was done wrong. What a loser.

Originally posted by Nikoz78

Honestly, do you think he had a choice? "Star Wars" doesn't belong to him. LucasArts/SOE told him to change the game. He did. He was an employee. Read between the lines.

He said he wanted to change the game and make it better, but he also said he did not get to do a lot of what he really wanted and that he did not want to remove the skill system or the classes.

Again, he was an employee. He was not allowed to do just whatever he wanted.

And he said something I have been saying for years: Pre-CU was better, but it was FAR from perfect. Also that they were losing 10,000 subs a month BEFORE the changes.

Anyway.

Yes but the reason it was losing subs was the game launch incomplete and instead of finishing the things that didn't work at launch they just kept adding new content (which most of was also broaken). the just kept adding crap to a game that never had a good foundation. As people said before SWG was horribly mis managed from start to finish.

Originally posted by Fishermage

 

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Originally posted by Valeran
He certainly has a foul mouth...LOL
All laughing aside...he stated it...the reason was $$$...which was NEVER realized. 
Next time maybe you (Dan) shouldn't listen to a focus group and maybe listen to the players who actually paid to play the game.  I bet that 150k - 200k is looking pretty good now in comparison...
 
Regardless of how you feel your work was your objective FAILED.
 

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Also, what he fails to recognize or admit was the game was not successful due to his mismanagement, and the mismanagement of the people above him.

The NGE was one big fat blameshift.

As well as not understanding why people were leaving early on. It seems that he doesn't remember that the game was incomplete in many ways at launch, and that had a very negative effect on many people. Also, players not having a clear indication of what the game was designed for (i.e. squad based combat with vulnerabilites to some professions, as opposed to a more 1 on 1 style of balance).

Originally posted by bverji

Originally posted by Gutboy

And in case you did not know who he is, here is the "about" on his blog:

 

rubenfield.com

About

I’m Dan Rubenfield. I make video games. I’ve been a game designer for around 12 years and have worked on things like Ultima Online, Deus Ex, Star Wars Galaxies, Home, DC Online, and a bunch of other stuff throughout the ages.

I’m currently living in Cambridge, UK and in the process of moving to Helsinki, Finland.

I live with my wife and 3 cats.

 LOL I read this. I tell you people's level of self denil just floors me. He starts off saying basically don't blame me I just make what I'm told to and then the next paragraph he says I was told to reimagine the whole game.  He  recognises that NEG was a huge screw up, but seems to think nothing was done wrong. What a loser.

The fact is, SWG is currently not a fun game, and it will never be a fun game because it is built on a horribly conceived and implemented core game.  The changes that comprised the NGE are the reason the game is not, nor ever will be, fun.

Here is my take on this. We know the designers were just doing what they were told. Remember what happened when Tiggs said no? Of course everyone was going to say yes Sir to corporate. Bottom line is SOE should have fixed the issues with the original game and not of screwed over 200k subs. Then they should have relaunched SWG (with all the bug fixes) and worked on gaining subs from there. I remember pre CU very well. Yes it was buggy but people put up with it because we believed SOE would fix a game we loved. All along while they should have been adressing issues they were working on a new game altogether. Pre NGE was not perfect but compared to all other mmo's i have played it was number 1 in my book.

If NGE was released as it's own game and pre cu never existed yes it would be by todays standards be considered a decent mmorpg. It's not about all the hard work this guy put into NGE it's about a jack ass sitting at his desk (Smed) who decided to screw over 200k subs to go after a WOW market.  SWG was ahead of it's time. Currently all we have our cookie cutter MMORPG's Perhaps if original SWG plans had not been scrapped it would be a bigger game for the simple fact that it would be the only thing on the market that is different.

People are getting sick of cookie cutter games. The SWG we all know and loved was not this.

Originally posted by bverji

mis managed from start to finish.

I can tell you why the game was never a success: they had a Farmer profession in beta - but it never made it to live. If they had added Farmer the game would have been HUGE.

Originally posted by bverji

Originally posted by Nikoz78

Honestly, do you think he had a choice? "Star Wars" doesn't belong to him. LucasArts/SOE told him to change the game. He did. He was an employee. Read between the lines.

He said he wanted to change the game and make it better, but he also said he did not get to do a lot of what he really wanted and that he did not want to remove the skill system or the classes.

Again, he was an employee. He was not allowed to do just whatever he wanted.

And he said something I have been saying for years: Pre-CU was better, but it was FAR from perfect. Also that they were losing 10,000 subs a month BEFORE the changes.

Anyway.

Yes but the reason it was losing subs was the game launch incomplete and instead of finishing the things that didn't work at launch they just kept adding new content (which most of was also broaken). the just kept adding crap to a game that never had a good foundation. As people said before SWG was horribly mis managed from start to finish.

Added to that, they seemed to think constantly changing the mechanics of the professions, without any sort of discernable logic behind it, was 'content'.  The constant nerfing and tweaking (taking a sledgehammer approach) of how the different professions worked comprised the vast majority of the game updates.  It is a pattern that is repeating itself with the current dev team.

Originally posted by DrEvil263

Here is my take on this. We