Star Wars Galaxies Interview
It is a dark time for the players...
July 20, 2004 - Imagine our excitement when we came in yesterday morning to find our inboxes filled with complaints about a recent announcement regarding Star Wars Galaxies. It certainly offered a nice alternative to our usual ritual of reading a weekend's worth of penis enlargement mails and scams from the wife of the former finance minister of Nigeria. The issue at hand is that the long-awaited combat revamp has been pushed back yet again, this time to make resources available for the upcoming expansion, Jump to Lightspeed.
Having read the letters sent to us and having looked through the Galaxies message boards, we decided to call LucasArts producer Haden Blackman to find out just where things stand.
IGNPC: This weekend, we got a lot of letters from kids who are really ticked off at you guys. First, I wanted to get the official timeline for the updates.
Haden Blackman: We don't have an official timeline yet. We're not announcing any dates until we know exactly the scope of what we're doing and are pretty confident in when we're going to be able to do it. We don't want to get in to the position again of over-promising. The only date that we have announced right now is the October date for Jump to Lightspeed.
IGNPC: You're definitely putting off combat balance and Galactic Civil War fixes until after that?
Haden Blackman: Yeah. "Fixes" is kind of the wrong term. Obviously we're going to continue fixing any bugs that crop up and there are some balance issues that we'll look at tackling. There are some additional feature massages and whatnot between now and Jump to Lightspeed. We're definitely going to continue to remain active with updating the game. Really, what we're talking about with the combat balance is that the expectation is so high and we have to make sure that we hit everything that we want to and that the community wants us to.
It became clear over the last couple of weeks that the scope of what we were trying to tackle wasn't as all-encompassing as it needs to be. We're taking a step back and figuring out what the design needs to be in order to hit everything that we need to. That's going to take some time and then it's going to take time to implement. It's not fixes; it's a revamp to the combat system. The Galactic Civil War is not so much a host of bug fixes as it is finding a way to integrate all players into the Galactic Civil War. It's pretty sweeping.
IGNPC: But it seems as if the problem now is that the development team is trying to do too much. Can you give the focus to the combat balance that it really needs?
Haden Blackman: Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why we waited. The team right now is pretty divided between Jump to Lightspeed and Live stuff. As we get closer to launching Jump to Lightspeed, we're going to try to move all hands onto Jump to Lightspeed so that we're positive that it's the most solid, engaging and enjoyable experience possible. We want to make sure that when we roll out space combat, that it's as fun as possible -- that we have enough content, that it's exciting, that there are as few bugs as possible. Bottom line, we just want to make it really fun to play.
We are trying to migrate more of the team to Jump to Lightspeedas we get ready for launch. Right after that, the entire team moves on to working on combat balance and the GCW. For the last several months, we've had half of our team working on Jump to Lightspeed. After Jump to Lightspeedcomes on, we're going to have 90% of our team working on combat balance and the GCW revamp.
IGNPC: It seems that you're neglecting the MMO side of the game in order to introduce a radically different style of game. Even though Jump to Lightspeed completes the Star Wars experience, it seems that MMO-oriented players would be more interested in seeing the ground combat revamp before getting their hands on the expansion.
Haden Blackman: That's completely not the feedback we're received from the bulk of our community. The bulk of our community has been waiting for this and, though not necessarily upset, frustrated that they haven't been able to jump into the cockpit of a starfighter and go into space.
In terms of the gameplay, the response has been overwhelmingly positive -- that it brings a sense of action to MMORPGs, that it captures the feel of Star Wars combat, that it resurrects the TIE Fighter/X-Wing feel that a lot of the Star Wars fans really enjoy. We did pretty extensive focus testing, not only at FanFest but also independent of that. All the current Galaxies players who've had hands on time with Jump to Lightspeed have said it feels great, they enjoy the fast-paced combat, and it's a nice departure from the ground combat. There are two different styles of combat so you can pick what suits you at the moment and switch between them.
IGNPC: We often hear the loudest cries from a relative minority. Still, it seems odd that all the comments sent our way have been negative.
Haden Blackman: Yeah, all the guys who are happy with everything are playing the game. They aren't spending their time sending you guys letters or posting on the forums.
IGNPC: That adds some perspective but it's not very comforting to those who are upset by the delay.
Haden Blackman: We recognize that this is an unfortunate slip in our schedule, an unfortunate move. We really wanted to try and get the combat balance out before Jump to Lightspeed. This isn't something that we're happy about either but we really do want to take the time to get it right.
More and more the feedback we're getting, especially about the combat balance, has led us to the conclusion that our original plan wasn't all-encompassing enough and that we needed to step back and figure out what we were going to do and then communicate that to the community and get their feedback. With the speed that we've been moving in the past, we haven't been able to engage the community as much as would have liked to. I think we've improved that since launch but we still have room for improvement. That's another reason we want to take more time to do this combat revamp.
The other feedback we're hearing is that all work has stopped on the combat revamp. That's not the case. We still have a core group of designers, the same guys who were working on it before, working on it now. We have big meetings next week to discuss what it will entail and how we'll start involving the community more. Those guys are going to be working on this throughout. It's not like work has stopped, it's just that the scope of what we're trying to achieve has broadened a little.
We hope to have announcements in the near future about things that lead up to that, that will come out before Jump to Lightspeed. There are issues we're going to tackle before then but we just don't want to announce what those are until we're absolutely sure that they're going to happen.
IGNPC: So it's more of an incremental thing?
Haden Blackman: I think with MMOs that's always the case. No matter how much feedback we've gotten and how much playtesting we've done with our testers in test center, there's always things that we find after the fact. We constantly have things we want to add. We could be looking at expanding the conflict in the GCW from now until forever. I expect that, especially with the GCW, that we'll see a series of updates that continurlaly expand on it. Hopefully, over time, that adds new dynamics for the players. That's the hope anyway.
IGNPC: Thanks for your time.
-- Steve Butts
It is a dark time for the players...
July 20, 2004 - Imagine our excitement when we came in yesterday morning to find our inboxes filled with complaints about a recent announcement regarding Star Wars Galaxies. It certainly offered a nice alternative to our usual ritual of reading a weekend's worth of penis enlargement mails and scams from the wife of the former finance minister of Nigeria. The issue at hand is that the long-awaited combat revamp has been pushed back yet again, this time to make resources available for the upcoming expansion, Jump to Lightspeed.
Having read the letters sent to us and having looked through the Galaxies message boards, we decided to call LucasArts producer Haden Blackman to find out just where things stand.
IGNPC: This weekend, we got a lot of letters from kids who are really ticked off at you guys. First, I wanted to get the official timeline for the updates.
Haden Blackman: We don't have an official timeline yet. We're not announcing any dates until we know exactly the scope of what we're doing and are pretty confident in when we're going to be able to do it. We don't want to get in to the position again of over-promising. The only date that we have announced right now is the October date for Jump to Lightspeed.
IGNPC: You're definitely putting off combat balance and Galactic Civil War fixes until after that?
Haden Blackman: Yeah. "Fixes" is kind of the wrong term. Obviously we're going to continue fixing any bugs that crop up and there are some balance issues that we'll look at tackling. There are some additional feature massages and whatnot between now and Jump to Lightspeed. We're definitely going to continue to remain active with updating the game. Really, what we're talking about with the combat balance is that the expectation is so high and we have to make sure that we hit everything that we want to and that the community wants us to.
It became clear over the last couple of weeks that the scope of what we were trying to tackle wasn't as all-encompassing as it needs to be. We're taking a step back and figuring out what the design needs to be in order to hit everything that we need to. That's going to take some time and then it's going to take time to implement. It's not fixes; it's a revamp to the combat system. The Galactic Civil War is not so much a host of bug fixes as it is finding a way to integrate all players into the Galactic Civil War. It's pretty sweeping.
IGNPC: But it seems as if the problem now is that the development team is trying to do too much. Can you give the focus to the combat balance that it really needs?
Haden Blackman: Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why we waited. The team right now is pretty divided between Jump to Lightspeed and Live stuff. As we get closer to launching Jump to Lightspeed, we're going to try to move all hands onto Jump to Lightspeed so that we're positive that it's the most solid, engaging and enjoyable experience possible. We want to make sure that when we roll out space combat, that it's as fun as possible -- that we have enough content, that it's exciting, that there are as few bugs as possible. Bottom line, we just want to make it really fun to play.
We are trying to migrate more of the team to Jump to Lightspeedas we get ready for launch. Right after that, the entire team moves on to working on combat balance and the GCW. For the last several months, we've had half of our team working on Jump to Lightspeed. After Jump to Lightspeedcomes on, we're going to have 90% of our team working on combat balance and the GCW revamp.
IGNPC: It seems that you're neglecting the MMO side of the game in order to introduce a radically different style of game. Even though Jump to Lightspeed completes the Star Wars experience, it seems that MMO-oriented players would be more interested in seeing the ground combat revamp before getting their hands on the expansion.
Haden Blackman: That's completely not the feedback we're received from the bulk of our community. The bulk of our community has been waiting for this and, though not necessarily upset, frustrated that they haven't been able to jump into the cockpit of a starfighter and go into space.
In terms of the gameplay, the response has been overwhelmingly positive -- that it brings a sense of action to MMORPGs, that it captures the feel of Star Wars combat, that it resurrects the TIE Fighter/X-Wing feel that a lot of the Star Wars fans really enjoy. We did pretty extensive focus testing, not only at FanFest but also independent of that. All the current Galaxies players who've had hands on time with Jump to Lightspeed have said it feels great, they enjoy the fast-paced combat, and it's a nice departure from the ground combat. There are two different styles of combat so you can pick what suits you at the moment and switch between them.
IGNPC: We often hear the loudest cries from a relative minority. Still, it seems odd that all the comments sent our way have been negative.
Haden Blackman: Yeah, all the guys who are happy with everything are playing the game. They aren't spending their time sending you guys letters or posting on the forums.
IGNPC: That adds some perspective but it's not very comforting to those who are upset by the delay.
Haden Blackman: We recognize that this is an unfortunate slip in our schedule, an unfortunate move. We really wanted to try and get the combat balance out before Jump to Lightspeed. This isn't something that we're happy about either but we really do want to take the time to get it right.
More and more the feedback we're getting, especially about the combat balance, has led us to the conclusion that our original plan wasn't all-encompassing enough and that we needed to step back and figure out what we were going to do and then communicate that to the community and get their feedback. With the speed that we've been moving in the past, we haven't been able to engage the community as much as would have liked to. I think we've improved that since launch but we still have room for improvement. That's another reason we want to take more time to do this combat revamp.
The other feedback we're hearing is that all work has stopped on the combat revamp. That's not the case. We still have a core group of designers, the same guys who were working on it before, working on it now. We have big meetings next week to discuss what it will entail and how we'll start involving the community more. Those guys are going to be working on this throughout. It's not like work has stopped, it's just that the scope of what we're trying to achieve has broadened a little.
We hope to have announcements in the near future about things that lead up to that, that will come out before Jump to Lightspeed. There are issues we're going to tackle before then but we just don't want to announce what those are until we're absolutely sure that they're going to happen.
IGNPC: So it's more of an incremental thing?
Haden Blackman: I think with MMOs that's always the case. No matter how much feedback we've gotten and how much playtesting we've done with our testers in test center, there's always things that we find after the fact. We constantly have things we want to add. We could be looking at expanding the conflict in the GCW from now until forever. I expect that, especially with the GCW, that we'll see a series of updates that continurlaly expand on it. Hopefully, over time, that adds new dynamics for the players. That's the hope anyway.
IGNPC: Thanks for your time.
-- Steve Butts
