All Posts by Dundee

Originally posted by OldManSweeny

Hey, i don't know if you can or will answer this....  but just after the NGE went live and the SWG forums got soaked in petrol, at any time was the notion of a Rollback or Seperate Classic Ruleset Servers put forward? By that i mean was it (at the time i guess) ever a serious and viable option available to the Devs?

{ Mod Edit }

Originally posted by ShadowLords

Originally posted by Dundee

Originally posted by ShadowLords

Originally posted by OldManSweeny

Hey, i don't know if you can or will answer this....  but just after the NGE went live and the SWG forums got soaked in petrol, at any time was the notion of a Rollback or Seperate Classic Ruleset Servers put forward? By that i mean was it (at the time i guess) ever a serious and viable option available to the Devs?

{ Mod Edit }

This is one thread I have been watching, just to see if that guy calling himself Jeff Freeman had the intestinal fortitude to answer a very simple and direct question.

From the moment I saw this posted I knew he wouldn't reply. He might now tho. But he won't answer the question.

Oh, reverse psychology with all the loopholes covered. You must have had a clever DM with a special fondness for evil genies at some point in your gaming career.

I'm very carefully considering whither questions to answer, with a heavy bias for not.

LOL that sure didnt take you long to reply.

NOT reverse psychology, just stating a fact. And I see you are still blowing smoke (as in smoke screen).

I have other questions since you are afraid of answering this one.

No flaming ... just serious questions.

• Does it bother you to be one of the most hated former game developers in gaming history? (My answer, it would me)
• Does it bother you knowing that you were a significant part of the demise of SWG? (My answer, it would me)
• Do you have any remorse whatsoever? (I would) or ...
• Do you take the same stance as Smedley? That being ... the only thing they (SOE) did wrong was the way the NGE was implemented? (My answer, I would appologize publicly to the SWG playerbase. Why? Because, I would have been part of a company that sold them a bill of goods and then completely changed it against their wishes after they invested so much time and money.)

Those are MY answers to the same questions. But I am me. Even if my intentions were to make a better game, the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have left SWG pretty much says the NGE was the wrong thing to do. I, PERSONALLY, would not feel good about myself knowing that i was apart of the reason why so many devoted pissed off customers left. In all actuallity, I have left a company before because their path was not the same path I thought we should go. So I left to find employment elsewhere. (only happened once ..... thank the Maker)

You can skip answering mine if you would prefer to answer the OP's question.

But more than likely you won't answr any of them. But then silence would speak volumes.

 

Originally posted by Fishermage

Originally posted by Dundee

Originally posted by ShadowLords

Originally posted by OldManSweeny

Hey, i don't know if you can or will answer this....  but just after the NGE went live and the SWG forums got soaked in petrol, at any time was the notion of a Rollback or Seperate Classic Ruleset Servers put forward? By that i mean was it (at the time i guess) ever a serious and viable option available to the Devs?

{ Mod Edit }

This is one thread I have been watching, just to see if that guy calling himself Jeff Freeman had the intestinal fortitude to answer a very simple and direct question.

From the moment I saw this posted I knew he wouldn't reply. He might now tho. But he won't answer the question.

Oh, reverse psychology with all the loopholes covered. You must have had a clever DM with a special fondness for evil genies at some point in your gaming career.

I'm very carefully considering whither questions to answer, with a heavy bias for not.

hmmm yes indeed, and I am noticing you are still ignoring my question as well.

Originally posted by ShadowLords

Originally posted by OldManSweeny

Hey, i don't know if you can or will answer this....  but just after the NGE went live and the SWG forums got soaked in petrol, at any time was the notion of a Rollback or Seperate Classic Ruleset Servers put forward? By that i mean was it (at the time i guess) ever a serious and viable option available to the Devs?

{ Mod Edit }

This is one thread I have been watching, just to see if that guy calling himself Jeff Freeman had the intestinal fortitude to answer a very simple and direct question.

From the moment I saw this posted I knew he wouldn't reply. He might now tho. But he won't answer the question.

Originally posted by Dvol

just tired of answering the same questions over and over...

Originally posted by Shayde
No.. answer one is clearly bullshit. They didn't use focus groups to MAKE the nge, they didn't use focus groups to decide it was necessary.. they used focus groups to JUSTIFY THE NGE AFTER THE FACT. They made it abundantly clear in their own posts. They made it clear in the actual focus groups (yes, some broke their NDA and posted what happened.. and $OE's lawyers attacked them). They used the data to justify that the complete abortion that was the nge could be explained as a lame attempt to satisfy some vague statements made by focus group members.

That, and anywhere from half to 3/4 of the focus groups weren't even SWG players.

The only focus groups that focused on players and ex-players were the ones AFTER the nge was launched. They ALL said "rollback"

They wanted to know why people WEREN'T playing, not why they were. They threw out everything that made the game worth a damn to cater to a mythical audience that never was interested in the first place.

But I digress.

At least you admitted you aren't blameless. That's the first step towards recovery.

Originally posted by DarthOlomew

I remember back durring the pre-CU era, the heated discussions that did arise among the community when someone would say, "It's just a game. That person ended up getting pitchforks, stakes AND torches rammed up their backside, and rightly so. SWG WAS once more than just a game.

Regardless of WHO was responsible for the craptastic NGE, the bottom line is that all SWG is now IS "just a game".

Reminds me of the old joke, You know the definition of minor surgery?

Surgery someone else is having.

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I think that the point that people are trying to make here is that THE DEVELOPER should have known better. So should have THE PUBLISHER, but theirs has always been a detatched involvement with THE GAME.

Not really. Might have seemed that way because there's so much more player-developer interaction than player-publisher interaction, but they were always very involved. Typically the publisher - especially as the IP holder - reviews and revises everything, and nothing moves forward without approval. Approval over the publish plan, the individual designs, all the implementation, and then the publish as a whole: nothing goes into the game without approval.

Except when I gave Luke Skywalker a badge for blowing up the Death Star. That went in without approval.

And came right back out.

In a hotfix!

Jeff, in your professional opinion, what will it take for DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER  to realize that the key to saving THE GAME is to stop adding things that nobody asks for, start trying to add things that are being asked for and to address concerns?

I couldn't even make a guess. Both DEVELOPER and PUBLISHER have to be in touch with the community, or else at best there'll be schizophrenic publishes with some things some people wanted, and some things from left field that someone thought people wanted. Tricky, if only one or the other has a community manager in there.

You probably know all this stuff, but I'll type it anyway:

Generally a game only has one major acquisition period: when it launches.

So up to that, the focus is on acquisition: Advertising, marketing, merchandising, buzz-making, community-building, going open-beta and making beta-testers happiest at the very moment the NDA is lifted. From there to launch, pampering the newest community members, encouraging the pre-orders, responding to their concerns, and noticing the original beta testers are starting to grouse, because all game design previously (since beta, anyway) was to serve them, whereas now the game design consideration is also for Johnny-Come-Lately's satisfaction. Most of your customers are the shoppers, so they get the most attention.

Then launch, and lots of people buy the game. Almost all your old beta testers of course, mostly pre-orders, but just a drop in the bucket compared to the number late-comers, many pre-ordered as well. And those just a drop in the bucket compared to the number of sales to players you've scarcely seen.

And this is maybe your only major acquisition event.

Then focus shifts to conversion: Delivering what the brand new players are going to want, ensuring their experience is sweet, meeting their expectations, and delighting them. You're no longer focused on satisfying the random shopper's desire, but instead catering to these new players, game development focuses on your new priority: Most of your customers are the not-yet-paying players. You want to find out what that guy needs and  wants and what's going to keep him coming back.

Over the next few weeks and months, your focus shifts to retention. As the number of new players shrinks and the number of subscribers groups, the focus of development shifts over, too. Now you have a bunch of players and need to keep them for as long as you can. So you listen to them, address their concerns, satisfy their desires. Most of your customers are  the current subscribers, so that's what game development serves..

And  you stay just like that: with most of your players now "current subscribers", not "future subscribers".

Any game that revamps their newbie tutorial and new player experience two years after launch... Well, they are probably just finally getting around to touching it up. Probably, it has just taken so long to get to it because their focus has been on retention, with their development serving their customers, the current subscribers. They're probably not prepping for another acquisition event, probably not devoting their development resources and design consideration to their customer, the shopper.

 has it always been that THE GAMEs developments revolve squarely around what THE DEVELOPER wants and not what the customer wants?

Originally posted by suske
fallen earth is my only hope for mmo gaming right now.

Originally posted by Shayde
Answer one is bullshit.

Second one is just a cop-out.

The third one is actually refuted by Smed when he said AFTER the nge that he forced employees to start playing the game and found out it was "Nowhere near fun right now".

The $OE environment you are painting us is a complete dev team that KNEW that this was a bad idea,

 told nobody and followed orders that some mythical people in charge you won't name forced on everyone. (I say mythical, because every name we say who claimed to be "in charge" including yourself are blameless according to you).

That the whole nge was actually not only forced down every gamer's throats, but all the dev team's as well. That you were all forced to tote the company line and tell the world everyone loved the idea... continue to love the idea.. and nobody knows why we all left in droves.

Originally posted by Wildcat1984

Because Freeman has to silence his critics rather than debate them.

This forum should be called the Freeman Rebab Tour.

Originally posted by Obee
All that shows is after all this time you still think the problem with the old game was the system. It wasn't the old system that was the problem, it was what you folks kept doing to it.

Your imaginary revamp would have been just as bad because it would still have removed much of what made the old game fun.

 Outsied of the more vocal PvPers, the playerbase didn't want the constant nerfing and chasing of some mythical 'balance'.  We wanted the game we had, but with more things to do in it.  We wanted more quests, stories, and events.  We didn't want a revamp, and neither did the imaginary players your former company was trying to attract.

I know!

The whole idea of relying on looted equipment doesn't even make sense for a non magical fantasy type game.  SWG had the single best crafting system found in any MMO that has been released and you still think it needed to be made less useful?

Originally posted by Wildcat84

Originally posted by Dundee
You're a pretty hateful person, you know?

Yes, when it comes for people like you who only "find God" after you have helped murder people's pasttime.

Making a stand as you have now doesn't mean SHIT. Costs you nothing.

Especially since you have a paper trail of pushing and LOVING the NGE at the time (when it was in your intrest).

You are working for another company now and soon will have something else to sell, something you dont' want tainted by the CUNGE. Well, sucks to be you, because it's going to.

Taking a stand back THEN when it counted when we all did (got me 3 forum permabans) when Tiggs did (got her fired) would have made you a hero.

Words are cheap. You SO moralize. You SO speak what you think we want to hear.

Actions speak louder than words. You once held the "lead designer" title, which Dork Lord Heliass (not qualified to design a taco much less a MMO) and Blixtev "0 bugs in the publish".. Uh, MASSIVE bugs found, don't worry, the hotfix will get them... holds.

Where were YOU when WE needed your voice? When it might have mattered? When Smed dismissed US as the "vocal minority?"

You say your whole Dev team knew the NGE was doomed.

Yet NONE of you had the balls to stand up for us.

Sorry, I don't care what you say now. You will do the same to some future playerbase, if you are allowed to hold a similar position for another MMO.

My hope is you never make it there again.

Originally posted by Dvol
Wasnt SWG a mix of levels and skills? i recall before the CU a dev stated that the levels were there just hidden?See i dont mind that just how it appears to the gamer i suppose...

*skills-i think your confusing skills with skill points.I rather enjoyed being able to spend those points anywere i wanted..That had alot of content for me when i got bored with my current *Build*skills are in wow ie your back ground weapons and such gain in skill.Let me make sure were on the same page..when we say we want skills i guess we should add skill points to spend as we see fit.But your given x-amount no more no less..i

*both-hmm if you could answer the first line i think SWG was both?

*none-player wont feel like he accomplished something-None is kinda