A Former Correspondent's Farewell Letter
By: Ryutek, Teräs Käsi Correspondent August 14, 2004 to February 15, 2005
I have no doubt that my post will not be taken kindly, but I hope that SOE will at least allow the post to stay instead of censoring the views of a longtime player. I started with BETA 2, Iwould have to go back and find the packing information that came with my BETA Discs to give you an exact date. i was pleased with the game even though there were numerous bugs at launch, and waited a while to finally visit the forums (when I came to the forums it was due to the broken Bounty Hunter missions at the time, and things seemed to take a downward turn from that point forward). I chose to pursue the other profession I was most passionate after the Bounty Hunter missions were left bug-ridden, and that was Smuggler. During that time I experimented with many professions, and finally found Teräs Käsi to be my preferred method of fighting. It was after this time that I eventually became the Correspondent for that great profession.
During the time I was Correspondent I was involved with the Combat Upgrade "ALPHA" (and BETA). It was during this timeframe that I learned just how meaningless the Correspondent Program had actually become. We were ignored (as evident by my many posts asking for something as simple as feedback on the Meditation skill during the CU, which I hope I was a factor in managing to keep when it was all said and done even though I never received a response from the Development Team on the issue, and that is just one example). During that timeframe we were not only ignored, but lied to (quite blatantly) as well. It was after this that I chose to leave Star Wars Galaxies.
I decided back in August to renew my subscription and try to approach the game with an open mind, even though I still despised the way we were treated during the Combat Upgrade. I maintained hopes that the game would still be what we (the players, through the Correspondents and Blue Glowies) fought so hard to try to achieve. Recently, however, the NGE has been introduced. My account has, as a result, been cancelled yet again. This time, however, I know that I will never return. I now know what I feared all along, and that is the simple fact that the Developers of this game not only do not understand what a Star Wars Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game is, but do not really care whether they aliennate their entire playerbase as a result of changes that the majority of the players do not like or understand.
The NGE is not something the Veterans of Star Wars Galaxies fought to have developed, it is, instead, a new game that is being marketed to an entirely different playerbase than the Star Wars fans who wanted a world to live in, to become absorbed in, to feel as though we were a part of the universe that George Lucas introduced to us so many years ago.
Sony's obvious snubbing of their playerbase does not stop with those changes, however. At the same time they dissolved the Correspondent Program and created a "Community Leader" Forum that serves merely as a way to attempt to placate the Correspondents who were "in office" at the time of this change. Former Correspondents have also been left out, as apparently we are not worthy of the "Community Leader" program. This comes as no surprise when one looks at what the actions of SOE actually mean. Instead of utilizing the Correspondent Program adequately from the outset, which was actually a marvelous idea on their part, they choose instead to ignore those whorepresent the people that actually play the game and attempt to abolish its existence, handling the PR aspect quite well with the creation of the "special" forum for "Community Leaders."
You might ask, by now, what the point of this letter is. Really it is quite simple, I, as well as many of the former Correspondents and Glowies, have decided that Sony Online Entertainment cannot deliver on the promise of a true Star Wars MMORPG, and have resolved to leave the game without any intention of ever returning. Most choose to do so quietly, but when those who have been some of your staunchest supporters in the past migrate en masse away from the game, should you not ask yourself why?
Why then, Sony, have you decided to destroy everything we have worked so hard to accomplish as a collective?
/farewell
Ryutek
Former Teräs Käsi Correspondent, Circa 08/2004 to 02/2005
No longer holding out hope, SWG will never be the game we fought so hard for, that we believed so much in. Farewell friends.
jeseth@gmail.com