Smedley posts open letter

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 January, 2006

To Star Wars Galaxies fans.

As resentment towards the "New Game Enhancements" in Star Wars Galaxies continues to grow, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley has invited the community to highlight the issues which urgently need addressing.

In a post on the SWG forums, Smedley wrote: "Obviously the NGE has stirred up a lot of strong feelings among the SWG playerbase. There is no denying these changes have upset some of our players.

"While I can certainly understand and respect these feelings, I assure you we approached them with a longer term strategy in mind and with the best of intentions. That strategy is to lay the foundation for a longer term vision of the game that will keep people playing for the long haul."

Smedley went on to assure players that he and his SOE chums are "not sitting in our offices thinking of ways to upset our paying customers" before inviting said customers to chip in and have a good old moan.

"In this thread, could you please list the top issues you see needing to be addressed in the short term," Smedley wrote.

"We will be watching this thread carefully and taking notes, and posting an ordered list of stuff we'll take care of (and we'll try to say how quickly we can do it as well)... If you really want to help, here's your chance."

So far, responses have been mixed. As in, some posters are a bit cross ("How about fix all the ways you SCREWED PEOPLE OVER") and the rest of them are really, really cross ("YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY LEFT MR. SMELLY - YOU LOST THAT A LONG TIME AGO. ANY LETTER FROM YOU MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.") Someone's even come up with an idea for a new profession featuring Smedley himself. How marvellously bold.

Another poster did write: "Nicely said, I hope people will use this as an opportunity to be constructive," but they forgot to add that anything to do with Star Wars is inherently flawless by its very nature. No, we haven't played it. We just know.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eldritch #1 6 years ago

    "Obviously the NGE has stirred up"

    If NGE stands for "New Game Enhancements" shouldn't it be "have stirred up"?

    You see, that's exactly what's wrong with STAR WARS. Oh, and there's no sound in space. And Han shoots first.

  • kangarootoo #2 6 years ago

    I dispair at the internet nation sometimes. Here they are being invited by some head honcho to feedback directly on a game they are currently paying for, any they squander it by engaging their caps-lock key and having a hissy fit.

    I'm sure not all the posts aren't like that, but I'm not going to read the forum to find out.

    p.s. I chuckle everytime I read someone stating that some hugely successful business has "LOST ALL CREDIBILITY" because of some minor infraction.

  • MrAtheist #3 6 years ago

    Man, why is everyone posting this as "news"? The letter is from two bloody months ago!

  • kangarootoo #4 6 years ago

    "And Han shoots first"

    LOL, damn right. Now there is example of where you could have used your caps-lock key and been fully justified.

  • kangarootoo #5 6 years ago

    "Man, why is everyone posting this as "news"? The letter is from two bloody months ago!"

    SHHUUUUUTTTT IITTTT!!!!!!

  • Eldritch #6 6 years ago

    YOU'VE LOST ALL CREDIBILITY, EG, BY POSTING OLD NEWS AGAIN!

  • kangarootoo #7 6 years ago

    hehe, nice one

  • Teeth #8 6 years ago

    ANY NEWS FROM YOU MEANS YOU HATE MICROSOFT

  • kangarootoo #9 6 years ago

    I JUST HAD A BAG OF CRISPS FROM M&S THAT WAS MADE WITH PARSNIP INSTEAD OF POTATO. THEY WERE AWSOME AND I RECOMMEND THEM TO EVERYONE.

    Unless you hate parsnips, in which case THEY SUCK BIG!

    p.s. I bet EG don't like parsnips, 'cos they are in the pay of the mighty potato empire.

  • Scientist #10 6 years ago

    "I JUST HAD A BAG OF CRISPS FROM M&S THAT WAS MADE WITH PARSNIP INSTEAD OF POTATO. THEY WERE AWSOME AND I RECOMMEND THEM TO EVERYONE. "

    THAT'S SUCH OLD NEWS. I HAD THEM AGES AGO AND ALREADY RECOMMENDED THEM!!! YOU ARE THE EUROGAMER OF THE CRISP VARIETY WORLD!!!!!!!!
    ;-)

  • Eldritch #11 6 years ago

    It's not just that old caps-lock business. Those fans don't have any imagination or originality left. I mean, to call this guy "Mr. Smelly"... What about "Mr. Smegma"? That'd have him on his knees sobbing for mum in no time.

  • Sko #12 6 years ago

    "I dispair at the internet nation sometimes. Here they are being invited by some head honcho to feedback directly on a game they are currently paying for, any they squander it by engaging their caps-lock key and having a hissy fit."

    I expect it's nothing more than a token gesture to stem the bad blood from the older playerbase affecting the new, larger playerbase they were hoping the NGE would attract.

  • kangarootoo #13 6 years ago

    An opportunity to feed back is an opportunity all the same. Of course companies play the odds with their customers, but no company wants to piss of a source of revenue if they can help it.

    If some constructive comment from the userbase helps them to find ways to keep the old school happy as well as the new players, then everyone wins. I'm sure its hard not to feel cynical if long term players have seen the game deteriorate in line with new a new business angle (perceived or otherwise), but sometimes you have to bite your lip to get the best thing for yourself. Cutting off your nose to spite your face and all that...

  • kazuya69 #14 6 years ago

    I can't be arsed to read his open letter, I wasted enough time downloading, installing, patching the game before spending one hour on it which was more than enough.
    The initial puzzles are just plain broken, if they can get that right then there's no hope for the rest of it.
    If he needs to ask the public what is wrong with the game then he should be sacked.
    It should be the biggest and best MMoRPG ever, instead it must be an expensive embarrassment for SoE.

    Oh and the opening space battle was about as exciting as those parsnip crisps.

    Help me Obi Wan....

  • Eldritch #15 6 years ago

    "It should be the biggest and best MMoRPG ever, instead it must be an expensive embarrassment for SoE."

    That's what I always think about STAR WARS games. "Surprisingly good" at best. The same goes for STAR TREK games. You'd be thinking they'd throw all their money at good studios to create superior content and release it, "when it's done". Instead, it seems like they couldn't care less. The last truely great STAR WARS game I completed was "TIE Fighter".

  • kangarootoo #16 6 years ago

    "Oh and the opening space battle was about as exciting as those parsnip crisps."

    Whoah, that good?!

    /orders game

  • towser #17 6 years ago

    parsnip crisps?! thats voodoo I tells ya..voooooddddooooooo!!!

  • kazuya69 #18 6 years ago

    "The last truely great STAR WARS game I completed was "TIE Fighter""

    couldn't agree more.

    They should have stopped at 3 movies & stopped games after Tie Fighter.

    I was hopeful for Empire at War, but I'm unconvinced after playing the demo. Multiplayer may still save it, but the single player was more like heroes of might and magic then C&C.

  • gaijin #19 6 years ago

    two words.

    beetroot crisps.

    the true next gen.

    (which I realise technically brings the total to 8 words, not including this addendum. But you take my point. I trust.)

  • manic_mouse #20 6 years ago

    "That's what I always think about STAR WARS games. "Surprisingly good" at best. The same goes for STAR TREK games. You'd be thinking they'd throw all their money at good studios to create superior content and release it, "when it's done". Instead, it seems like they couldn't care less. The last truely great STAR WARS game I completed was "TIE Fighter"."

    The Knights of the Old Republic games are excelent, and exactly what a Star Wars game should be. Heck, KOTOR has a better story than all three of the prequels.

  • paulomatic #21 6 years ago

    You know this is two months old, right? The letter is dated 11-25-05. Good to see you checking your sources!

  • Mr_Whacker #22 6 years ago

    Now we just need an apology from Lucas for Eps 1-3 and the circle will be complete.

  • BootLace #23 6 years ago

    "You know this is two months old, right? The letter is dated 11-25-05. Good to see you checking your sources!"

    Witchcraft! How can there be 25months in the year? :D

    This is not the post you were looking for.

    Sorry.

  • Drakron #24 6 years ago

    From what I seen in forums there appears to been a large loss of players when CU come out and NGE made things worst.

    This appears to be a desperate call trying to keep the game before LucasArts decides to pull the plug of the whole thing.

  • zozart #25 6 years ago

    Honestly, why doesn't SOE just give up and make SWG2 already, using that spiffy EverQuest II engine. The SWG engine is, and always has been, rudimentarily flawed. You can't even JUMP*, for goodness sake!

    * Jumping in SWG just plays the /jump emote. It's not a proper jump and it just emphasises just how old and flawed that engine is.

  • Khanivor #26 6 years ago

    If I had been playing SWG for a couple of years only for this NGE to come along and negate those twoyears I'd be mighty pissed.

    Fortunately I stopped playing SWG after I maxed out the levels and got bored to death.

  • kangarootoo #27 6 years ago

    @paulomatic
    " You know this is two months old, right? The letter is dated 11-25-05. Good to see you checking your sources!"

    Shut. Your. Cake. Hole.


    Never let it be said I am not even handed. If I ever miss one, someone to sure to give me a poke OK?

  • Hunam85 #28 6 years ago

    TBF, you have to pay more a month for SWG and it really is a cheap cash in

  • Drakron #29 6 years ago

    I dont want to talk about something I never played but this game gone not one but two major changes, that is going to piss off the players.

    Also I think adding Jedi was rather idiotic move since almost everyone will want to play one and you start to see a drastic class inbalance ... the fact this is supposed to be after the Jedi Purge makes things worst (universe inconsistence).

    It does not matter if it was written 2 months, in fact it shows that SOA have not acted on the feedback/recived feedback/cares about feedback and its only a matter of time before they either moved towards a free model (with advertisement) or just pull the plug.

    And as for why not Galaxies 2 ... well remenber who calls the shoots is LucasArts, not SOA.

  • Sko #30 6 years ago

    I stopped play SWG years ago so I wasn't present for the implementation of the NGE. Did Mr. Smedley explain and discuss the changes the NGE would introduce with the existing player base beforehand?

  • ali-uk #31 6 years ago

    SWG SUCKS AMIRITE?

  • shamblemonkee #32 6 years ago

    After all the empty promises and letters virtually identical to thisone over the years, I am surprised anyone would take it seriously and really think that any constructive criticism would be taken on board.

    when you have over two years of missed targets, forgotten promises and countless fudged revamps behind you a silly letter like this following deployment of a game rewrite that was anounced and not openly discussed a day after releasing an expansion pack...... well it doesn't exactly instill trust....