back to article Star Wars fans want Sony sued over game shutdown

Fans of the LucasArts' MMOG, Star Wars Galaxies, are so upset by Sony Online Entertainment's decision to axe the title this December, that they claim they're planning to file a lawsuit. Star Wars Galaxies was launched in 2003 and after several disliked updates, started to lose its popularity. Now, with the contract almost up, …

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  1. Thomas 4
    Thumb Down

    Meh

    I really wish I had seen the original galaxies when it was first launched, with the dozens of different classes and a very infrequent jedi here and there.

    From what I gather most people would have gladly seen it shutdown after the NGE & CE changes.

    1. Bluetoothh
      Unhappy

      SW:G was pure pwn... till the CU and NGE

      What a game SW:G was.... i played from launch.. to the CU... and then quit... SW:G was dead from the Cu imho, the NGE was the double tap to make sure that it was actually dead.

      I also never saw a jedi pre CU.. once the hologrind was done with (NGE) they were everywhere..

      God Bless SW:G a game with so much potential but SOE saw wow as the big money maker and condensed 52 playable classes to 9.. good job sony.. good job.. and you wonder why you got hacked =-)

      1. DrXym

        I don't share your memories

        I got a 14 day trial for SWG pre NGE and I was very excited by it. A Star Wars MMO! The idea soon came crashing down when had to spend the vast majority of that trial wandering around a vast featureless desert prospecting for ore and hunting small animals, performing menial tasks little different from other MMOs. I saw other players spending their lives dancing in cantinas or running shops in a wasteland of other shops.

        If SOE's intent was to create a Star Wars Service Industry Simulator then they succeeded otherwise no they didn't. I'm not surprised they tried to revamp the game. I never played after the NGE but I suspect it may have been a lot better for the change but clearly not enough to fix what was a broken experience from the beginning.

        1. asdf

          yep

          Yeah the early MMO really didn't get that doing the same menial task everyday for hours on end is only do for pay in the real world. Paying to do so in the virtual world for most is a no go. UOL was fun though because you could slaughter the people mining, their donkey and then steal all their stuff. Good times.

  2. Tom 38

    Meh

    I still play Counter-strike (not CS:S), which was released in 1999. Still got plenty of players.

    Still, I suppose it's a bit easier for FPS games, all Valve have to provide to support CS is the auth and content distribution, rather than thousands of servers.

    1. Ammaross Danan
      Coat

      Of course....

      They could just support community development of Open servers, such as is happening with the reverse-engineering people and World of Warcraft....but sanction it.

  3. Kyzeru
    FAIL

    Get Over It

    I'm sorry fanboi's that Sony is making a decision based on several valid facts. I'm sorry their contact with Lucasarts is almost at an end and they've decided not to renew it. I'm sorry, that Old Republic is coming out this year. I'm sorry you can't let go of your binky too.

    Fact remains, at least you're getting closure and not just having the servers shutdown suddenly because of lack of interest. If SOE does what they've done for a lot of their projects, I'm sure there will be something fun and interesting to see the servers off into the vastness of the Force.

    Look at all the games that other fans found great but their series plans were cancelled by lack of interest. Yeah, it sucks, but deal with it - that's the nature of the beast, at least it's not an overnight surprise.

    Lucasarts would not only have to renew their contract with SOE, but also give it's blessing to change things over to a Free-To-Play game... Not likely to happen with the cash cow that is to be The Old Republic, but who knows...you may be given a blankey after all.

    Your lawsuit will be fruitless in so many ways. Might as well try to sue the sun for shining a bit too much, or too little... the court proceedings will be held on Jupiter, two blocks east of the Great Red Spot.

    In the meantime, enjoy what you have...then go outside and get some fresh air for a change, play some games you've put on the backburner... try something new. Who know's maybe you'll get over it....if not, I'm sure there's a few good psychologists to nurse you back to good mental health.

    Wankers.

    1. glen670618
      Thumb Down

      Your as dumb as you look

      Then quit the game!

      1. Thomas 4
        IT Angle

        Sad to say it...

        ...but eventually all MMOs must die.

        I was really really sad to see the shutdown of Tabula Rasa. Admittedly, they could have worked on the endgame stuff more but it also had some really neat features (especially the Logos and class system). Same will happen to FF XI, Guild Wars 1 when 2 arrives. That doesn't mean to say they are not good games - they all have their merits.

        But nothing lasts forever.

  4. HP Cynic

    Did not deserve the Star Wars name

    The worst MMO I've ever played and one of the worst games full stop. Absolute drivel before the NGE clusterf**k and an amusing mess afterwards.

    I sold mine on to a friend days after receiving it - I warned him it was dire but he wanted it for the Star Wars name regardless. He hated it but got months of entertainment watching the game implode afterwards.

    But I agree that with a bunch of people still playing it they should leave it running and just stop developing for it. As long as it's breaking even of course but I presume there's external pressure to let it die too....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Little wise ?

    or wise little ? Anyhow, I don't remember Kermit the Frog saying that.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    but will the courts be with them?

    Love it, absolutely love it. God I love el reg. that's all carry on

  7. Darren Coleman
    Thumb Down

    Peerless pre-CU

    Before the Combat Update the game was imo peerless. It had an exceptional skill tree system where people could choose their own specialism instead of being forced down arbitrary "you are a Bounty Hunter, you can do nothing else" paths. Then the CU hit and dumbed down the combat, and the NGE followed which made Jedi ubiquitous (and thus neutered - can't have a starting class be any more powerful than anything else).

    Raph Koster's original vision for the game was awesome, it's a shame SOE didn't have the guts to perservere with it and instead tried - as many others have - to emulate the WoW model.

  8. Ashton Black

    SWG

    I played this in beta and for about 6 months after it went gold. Some fantastic ideas, some utter shite but it felt pretty good. Looking back I'm glad I dumped it when I did and returned to Eve Online. (Which I've since given up again!)

    As to the OP, if people want to waste money on lawyers then that's up to them. Nil chance of it working, though.

  9. Len Goddard
    FAIL

    Put it out of our misery

    The original game had some great features - especially the way you could mix'n'match the classes and drift from one to another. The "Star Wars" ambience really came through. Unfortunately it also had some horrible bugs and a crafting & housing system which made it more like a job than a game - don't play for a week and your house fell down (OK, I exaggerate, but only slightly).

    Unfortunately the bug fixing and class balancing became too much for Sony and they scrapped the innovative class structure and replaced it with something traditional and boring. From then on all was downhill.

    RIP what might have been a great game.

  10. Tom Servo

    Easy solution here

    If all these geeks need proper closure, just set off virtual nukes everywhere in the game, have a popup come up saying "you're dead" and shut the servers down.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Stay calm, dont panic!

    I am sure some peeps out there with a server will be happy to host this in the near future.

  12. DrXym

    Their contract is expiring

    Star Wars is a licenced brand. When the rights are up I doubt anything short of a large pile of money would convince Lucasfilm to extend and let's face it the game doesn't have the user base to financially justify that. The game never caught on for a number of well known reasons so it's no surprise it's finally put out of its misery.

  13. Paul RND*1000
    Facepalm

    The moral of the story?

    If you want to use a piece of software (or data) "forever", it best not be something that's dependent on servers that someone else is in control of, or that has a means to be remotely disabled or removed. MMOs, cloud apps, phone apps, e-books...all can and have been killed off at the whim of their owners (you, the paying user, are not the "owner", sorry).

    Even stand-alone software can meet its demise. Several old, good games went the way of the dodo with the move to Windows 2000 and newer. But plenty more still work.

    Overall, don't get too attached to your digital stuff. You'll probably outlast it all.

  14. jai

    crazy

    I can understand to a point that if you've invested so much time into a game, it's a bit disappointing when it shuts down. but surely the new one looks so much better that you'd be itching to play that instead and so wouldn't be playing to ages old game anyway.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    Level Up

    Why not simply "upgrade" all the accounts and give them access to The Old Republic when it becomes available for the same price as their current subscription? I'm sure a lot of the upset users will quite happily accept that instead of all this court stuff.

  16. Lamont Cranston

    The perils of online gaming, eh?

    No wonder certain members of the industry are so keen on all this on-line verification stuff - lets them dictate what you play, when you play it, and for how long (want people to buy a new game? switch the old one off!). Old, off-line games last forever.

    I suppose they could always hand it over to the enthusiasts, but would they still want it after all of the licensed content had been stripped out?

  17. glen670618

    The whole trueth

    Hello all, and I would like to thank this site for posting this information on SWG. Myself and others have started a facebook cause and a ipetion that is the start of stopping Lucas Arts, not Sony from shutting down the game.

    First of all Lucas Arts has lied to all of us and you can read this lie at: http://www.shacknews.com/article/55548/star-wars-galaxies-wont-die

    Secondly, both Sony and Lucas Arts have made a bad decision and a mistake that will cost them. They sold items. The consumer will not be able to access their paid items if they shut down the game. You cannot charge someone something for an item and then take it away.

    Thirdly, I am not sure who made this decision, a very poor one, but it would make more sense to do some or all of the following:

    1. Offer SWG as a life time purchase just as Star Trek has done.

    2. Offer free SWG to those who sign up for The Old Republic.

    3. Just make it a free game and continue selling the cards.

    4. Release the source so that we can keep what is ours.

    Though your site and others seem to think this is fruitless effort then I say only this: Freedom is not Free! Lucas Arts cannot high jack us and force us to play The Old Republic in fear that SWG will take away from it.

    Please go to these 2 links so that we can stop the madness of Lucas Arts. Please tell all your friends!

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveswg/

    http://www.facebook.com/dontkillswg?ref=hnav#!/dontkillswg

    Glen L. Blanton II

    MAJ, US ARMY RETIRED

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Hey Major...

      ...how about forgetting about these idiotic computer games...and GO OUTSIDE AND GET SOME FRESH AIR!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "how about forgetting about these idiotic computer games"

        I spot a TV fanboi....

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Reminds me of the SIMs

      and why my girlfriend will not pay real money to rent imaginary items for that game.

    3. Lamont Cranston

      Good luck with that.

      I'll try to imagine a world in which George Lucas gives a rat's arse about Star Wars fans.

      Seriously, though, I wish you well, and hope that you get to keep your game.

      1. Thomas 4

        @Lamont Cranston

        I tried that, then my boss came in to ask why I was laughing so loud. I managed to stop laughing when I realised we'll never see the theatrical release on DVD.

  18. Rogerborg
    FAIL

    Cupid stunts.

    Instead of giving the money to lawyers, why not offer to buy the source and rights to the game?

    Oh, it's not financially viable? Quell surprise.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    SWG Emu

    Have you people not heard about

    http://www.swgemu.com

    ?!?!?!

    Pull out your old install discs and prepare to enjoy some pre-CU goodness!!!

  20. William 6

    played from start uptil CU,

    QQ that is all.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EVE

    This is nothing compared to the shitstorm happening in the EVE Online messageboards atm.

  22. g7rp0

    Played since beta

    Love the game, was truly gutted when the death was announced.

    Would love to see it continue but I think its a vain hope

  23. g7rp0

    @AC

    EMU is truly unplayable

  24. Peter W.
    Meh

    RE: The Old Republic

    Much as the concept of being granted license/subscription into The Old Republic in lieu of continuing the service of Star Wars: Galaxies might be a happy dream for those who don't want it to die, this WILL NOT happen.

    Sony Online Entertainment is the current licensee of Star Wars: Galaxies. Bioware is the licensee for Star Wars: The Old Republic. These 2 companies are completely independant of each other. How can you remotely expect a different company who has invested significant resources into developing (and licensing for) a new game to offset the death of another game by a separate company because that other company has decided not to renew their license (or been told that it won't be renewed - this has happened to other companies in the past when dealing with LucasFilm, notably Decipher regarding Star Wars: CCG).

    In addition, for SOE to continue service for Star Wars: Galaxies in any form likely would require continuance of the Star Wars license from LucasFilm, and would also require a significant continual investment in the resources for providing the online service, which if the game is already dying why would they bother to do?

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This news is a case of trolling.

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveswg/blog/6509

    Not sure who is behind these "lawsuits", but my guess would be some irrationally angry people who are happy SWG is shutting down and would do anything to sabotage any effort to save SWG. If you're not a part of the SWG community, you'd be surprised just how negative people can be. It's really depressing. But as the drafter of the petition and an active member of the Save SWG Facebook, no one has mentioned anything about a lawsuit, and i suspect these news organizations have been "trolled".

  26. David Lucke

    A salutory lesson

    If you don't control the servers, its not your game and you can be shafted at any time. A lesson on cloud computing in general, I feel.

  27. Scott 19
    Unhappy

    Ideas

    I'd like to see the games industry come up with some new ideas at least, the big innervation this year was L.A. Noire and what a disappointment that was/is.

  28. Jacob Lipman
    Flame

    Rebuttal

    Face it, guys, Star Wars Galaxies is a spent force, it's time to let it go. As a little wise green thing once said: "Always in motion is the future." ®

    You seem to be contradicting yourself, sir. You state that it is time to go, indicating that the future is set and there is nothing that can be done to change it, then follow up with a diametrically opposed quote.

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