SWG Idea: Ignore the Whiners

If SWG is ever going to evolve into a more engaging and exciting game, SOE must "bite the bullet" and ignore the potential whiners and crybabies and go forth, crack a few eggs and make one hell of an omelet.

Here are a few "controversial" changes that should be made despite encouraging the whiners to whine and the target audience to think.

• Species traits - Shouldn't Wookiees be stronger then Bothans?
• Decay - A new realization, not the previous incarnation
• Penalties for Death - It's currently a joke... or a means of travel
• Less Buffs - Only a few available slots: Profession, Doctor, Entertainer, Food, Drink, Clothing, Weapon, Group, and Misc. Stop the buff wars.
• Chef Foods - Speaking of which, put back in Filling and let players stack food and drink in the buff slots
• Enforce Canon - Severe penalties for non-human Imperials, no GCW points earned unless wearing appropriate attire, reduce Jedi visibility, so on and so forth
• No Magic Heal Spells - Seriously. It's stupid.
• Veteran Rewards - Stop counting non-subscribed months
• Housing Packup - Stop catering to non-subscribed accounts. 6 months unpaid = house packup
• One Character Slot - Stop pretending that you don't use the extra as a crafter monkey or mule
• Harsher Penalties - Ban griefers. Stop credit spammers. Perma-ban credit buyers.
• Crafter Combat Levels - Reduce their combat level OR add specials. It's currently crap.
• Space - Integrate missions with ground; stop dividing up the game... and the community
• Heroic Instances - No more.
• Player Cities - Full control for mayors and citizens; bring back /citywarn. Griefers are perma-banned.
• TCG Loot - No more. Too bad, SOE. Next time, make a card game that people want to buy for it not for another game.
• No Trade - Gone.
• Credit Sinks - More of them. I don't care how ridiculous and "unfun" they might be. Credits NEED to leave this game.
• GCW - Supercharge the Empire and make them the rulers of the galaxy; no questions asked. Then we'll figure out a way to have the Alliance stage a rebellion.

That's just a small list of things that came to mind over the last ten minutes. They're all very "high level", and clearly need much more thought. But what does it matter? SOE is far too scared to make any significant change; either because the code is too old or they fear that subscribers will take their money and go.

I may revisit this list. Future installments of "SWG Idea" may go into further detail. There are other less "controversial" ideas I've got floating around. You've seen the Ranger suggestion. I have a very cool Brawler/Teras Kasi system that I may be inspired to write up some day. (And if you thought TK was cool, you're going to love it.) But these are the ideas that I know will evoke the most amount of tears. So we'll start there.

And if you don't like the list: too bad. Actually, good. You've probably become complacent and satisfied to have mastered a simplistic game that's lost it's way. You probably fear the notion that you might have to relearn the system or -gasp - even need to think.

Get over yourself, if that's you. Star Wars Galaxies isn't all about you. Right now, it's really not all about anything. It's just a mish-mash of some game systems (some of which are entertaining, some of which... meh) that hold our interest from time to time. It has very little to do with that space opera in a galaxy far, far away; the story that we grew up with, dreamt about and imagined we could be a part of.

This game offers us the chance to be a part of the greatest story of our time. But until we stop behaving like we don't want to accept any changes to this game, we will be condemned to playing a shell of the games real potential.