SOE Hacked

[Lexx Yovel]

Oh goody, might be up by my birthday... lol

But yeah, that's just crazy that SOE didn't even have basic security measures. It's simply gross incompetence on their part, which puts their very own customers at risk.

[Osar]

Yeah, and for that I would say they give you a good birthday gift by giving us all 1 TCG loot card of choice, make it a no trade card to ensure that no one takes advantage of noobs. I just hope this little endaver never happens again.

[Xoseh]

As do I. I will try to find a confirmation somewhere, but I've seen a lot of people on the "offical star wars galaxies fan page" on facebook say around the 15th as well. However, I won't truely believe it until I find a source from Sony or SOE, lol.

[Daiho]

This will kill the game.

[Lexx Yovel]

Hopefully not, but it certainly doesn't help, especially since this downtime seems to be lasting longer than expected.

The immediate effects of the damage done to SOE and its products might not be seen right away.

[Xoseh]

I didn't know this downtime could have been unexpected, since as far as I knew, there was no expected eta to begin with.

[Waucod Meesman]

This all sounds fun and dandy... everyone's switching when TOR comes out anyways, right?

[Xoseh]

Maybe not completely switching, but I'm going to try it.

[Osar]

Wow, Daiho stuck his head out for the first time in a while, lol. Anyways, I doubt this will kill the game, but it does mean that SS will be one of the SOLE surviving servers left in the game. I seriously doubt that any one else is gonna jump ship to another server now that this has happened, I think they will all want to come back.

[Lexx Yovel]

So long as they allow transfers back to Starsider.

Though I believe the Devs really want to work hard to move people off Starsider and spread them to a few others, like Chilastra.

I do think more server shutdowns are possible. I could forsee a future where there's maybe 4 to 6 surviving servers.

Before this whole hacking shenanigans, I created some temporary characters on servers like Gorath to see what they were like. I'm rather surprised servers like those are still being maintained. There was literally no one around.

[Osar]

Before this whole hacking shenanigans, I created some temporary characters on servers like Gorath to see what they were like. I'm rather surprised servers like those are still being maintained. There was literally no one around.

That's my point exactly, after this idk if there will be enough accounts left to keep up the other servers. As for Gorath, it more than likely will make it. Even though it's suppose to be an American server, it's main usage comes from Europe, so if you don't see players there, they are either at work or in bed.

[Lexx Yovel]

Interesting, I never considered the fact it was European.

I think Starsider and Chilly are the only really true populated server left. If worse comes to worse, SOE should consider some sort of free-to-play model.

[Osar]

Only reason I know it's use is cause I had a friend there, she is now mainly SS. She spoke with the numerous users there and from time to time she would say things to me in German by impulse. So it's possible that she left there cause the number of ppl left to go back to the European servers. That I am unsure of, and she wouldn't tell me either. Not that we are on bad terms, it's just something that she doesn't like to talk about.

[Aleemah]

In all seriousness, most people would have considered SWG to be dead long before this happened. Betrayed and murdered by its own creators (SOE's CU and then NGE). Though it was merely wounded, and it still lives on, though far more subtly than before.

All silliness aside though, I don't believe its going to "kill" the game at all. It'll lose a few players who can't be patient, or who panic about possible identity theft. But in all honesty, most of the people who are still playing, still enjoying SWG despite its current state, are still going to come back as soon as the servers are up again.

That also being said, I'm sure Starsider is going to become one of the only active servers yet again. Which is fine with me. Game doesn't have a large enough population for them to all spread out.


Also, I would just like to add, that those worrying about potential identity theft are in fact quite silly... The hack was done by Anonymous, which was targeting Sony itself because of their unjust lawsuits over the past few months. They don't care about the player's credit card information, they aren't after us or our identities, they were sending Sony a warning.

That said, I'd still love to kick them in the balls for causing SWG to be down for so damn long.

[Lexx Yovel]

That is a good point. Assuming it was Anonymous, it would be rather hypocritical of them to "stick up" for the players by stealing the player's credit card information.

Odds are that if they even wanted to steal credit card info, only a few people would be affected.

It is also true that most people who don't play SWG are either convinced its not around anymore, or that it died with the NGE. You can basically read forum posts from all over the Interwebs, such as on MMORPG.com where people still anguish over the NGE.

If SOE put a little more advertising into SWG, it might attract new people, but odds are they would never do that for an 8 year old product.

The important thing is that we were lucky in choosing Starsider. I never could have guessed 8 years ago that I would be choosing the best server out of the whole bunch in the years to come.