Verant shows its true colors

[Crusher]

In a move that should wipe out any false hopes harboring in the minds of consumers that Verant Interactive and Sony Online Entertainment were capable of producing the Star Wars Galaxies game in a satisfactory manner, they have removed from the final release and postponed:

several significant systems ... The most important of these systems were:

-Player Cities
-Player-Owned Vehicles
-Player-Generated Missions
-Dark Jedi (okay, this is really a "feature", but still…)

At that time, we also began work on our Live Team schedule, which provides a plan for implementing the postponed systems within the first seven or eight months after launch.

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/100801.html

I said it when I first heard the announcement of SWG, and I'll say it again. Not even a game based in the universe of the Star Wars stories could pursuade me to buy another game made by Verant. This set of feature/functionality/system cuts just the beginning.

[BoddoZerg]

"You don't need to see our papers. These aren't the MMORPGs you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along."

[Ty]

Verant no longer exists. SOE is the new name so it really should be, SOE & LucasArts.

Afaik, it's actually LucasArts who wants this product out at that date.

[Crusher]

Eh, they can call it Love Pudding for all I care. It's the same people, and the same design philosophy that's turned EverQuest into a glorified slot machine. But hey, that's probably why George picked them in the first place.

[Grall]

Did you manage to miss the blurb about them adding these features after the game's launch by any chance, or are you simply ignoring it on purpose to add more "punch" to your bash-post?

*G*

[Crusher]

Did you manage to miss the past 4 years of Verant/SOE's history? For example, EverQuest was supposed to have buildings that could be purchased by guilds and used by them exclusively. They didn't implement it at launch, saying they were focusing on other things at the time, and would implement it later. Eventually, some many months after it was launched, they finally said they would never be implementing it. Hmm... player owned property, wonder where I was just reading about that... oh yes:

-Player Cities
-Player-Owned Vehicles

Also notice it says "a plan for implementing the postponed systems within the first seven or eight months after launch." It doesn't say they would do it for free for the people who purchased the original game. 10 bucks says it doesn't show up until the first expansion pack (if they show up at all), and you have to buy the expansion to get them. Of course, they won't ever let you know this ahead of time. 7 or 8 months after launch they'll just say they're still working on implementing/bug fixing/tweaking these features. Next thing you know it will be a year after launch and the expansion will be announced, touting the much-desired features of player owned vehicles, etc.

Once you understand the nature of the beast, you know what it's capable of...

[Ty]

Well considering that the design was handled by Vogel, Koster, & crew from Origin and NOT SOE then this must not just be limited to SOE.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending SOE or the removal of said features but at least they are telling you before you bought the product.