Lucas Arts squeezes more milk from the Jedi Cash Cow

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:06 am

Gonna bitch about this in public.

Ok, now for those that do not know, Szul is one of the oldest unlocks in the game. My unlock date was 12:30 am on Nov. 13th, 2003. SOE activated the FS unlock on Nov. 8th, 2003. I was Sunrunner's 2nd unlock, the first Rebel unlock, and 13th overall, that was confirmed by in-game meeting with the folks in charge of the unofficial Unlock List. No I am not native to Starsider, I Char Trans to SS on Jan 22 2006, just a couple months ago.

Ok, so with that in mind... here is fucking undeniable PROOF that SOE and LA milk the Almighty Jedi Cash Machine:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/guides.vm?id=80105

Over the past 3 years, I have watched what once was a helluva achievment in my history of gaming, get turned into a Two-Bit Dog and Pony Show by Lucas Arts to try to draw business from the Star Wars fan jedi-wannabe losers, who were too lazy and/or incompetent to unlock their Special Slot the right way... by busting their ass to earn it with no freaking idea where to start or what to do, just pray you hit the right combo, just like I did. Yea thats right, I don't recognize any Village Jedi any more than I recognize NGE Jedi as earning the right to wield a lightsaber. I actually draw the line at refusing to recognize anyone who unlocked after it was realized that random masteries was the unlock method. I should get a special title, or something, for helping everyone else to figure that crap out.

But shit like this just ruffles my panties into a wad, and thought I'd share what its like to have your hard work trivialized by the Corporate stock worry machine. But every player who loves their non-Jedi profession should write Lucas Arts, not via the forums, but via the feedback... well nevermind, I just notice they've removed their Feedback link from the main webpage. Gee I wonder why they did that.

Oh well, sucks to be me. Rant done.

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sat May 27, 2006 4:10 am

Since I'm on a ride down Nostalgic Lane, I found my old Taelonet.net Jedi Forums sig with my original Dark Jedi code, that was copied throughout the lands.

I was Member #3 on that forum, just behind Taelo and Mraughh, the 1st unlock on Sunrunner, #5 overall.

My memory is a tad hosed since my surgery last year, but by god I can recall every tidbit about my Jedi that Lucas Arts screwed me over on. Notice I blame them and not SOE, because everything Jedi is decided on and OK'd by Lucas Arts.

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:12 pm

That is interesting but frankly I don't think anyone will do this lol.

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:25 pm

I was tired and cranky late last night, and saw the Friday Feature and it rubbed me the wrong way. Sinbce I couldn't bitch on official without a ban, figured I'd vent here before I went to sleep.

But if I played a non-Jedi profession as my favorite and chosen profession, I'd be irritated that SOE and LA used the Jedi class as a marketing tool and are always promoting it or doing special development things for it. I don't blame non-Jedi players for being jealous one bit. Hell I am a Jedi player and it irritates me to no end.

Apium · Post by **Apium** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:56 pm

Waucod Meesman wrote:That is interesting but frankly I don't think anyone will do this lol.

they already do. Remember starsider has the largest population of rpers.

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sat May 27, 2006 4:57 pm

It was written by a player, to make it worse. Freebie all the way around for them. TH just copied it from the forum post to the website, and slapped the words Friday Feature on it.

Also, as I understand it, Thunderheart has a character on Starsider, as do a lot of Devs, and some Devs play on SS almost exclusively.

So if any Devs should happen to wander across this thread, please understand that the crux of my frustration stems from having my reward, for an extremely difficult accomplishment at the time, become belittled and trivialized by the Corporate Marketing Machine.

Issele · Post by **Issele** » Sat May 27, 2006 10:47 pm

Szul wrote:Gonna bitch about this in public.

Ok, now for those that do not know, Szul is one of the oldest unlocks in the game. My unlock date was 12:30 am on Nov. 13th, 2003. SOE activated the FS unlock on Nov. 8th, 2003. I was Sunrunner's 2nd unlock, the first Rebel unlock, and 13th overall, that was confirmed by in-game meeting with the folks in charge of the unofficial Unlock List. No I am not native to Starsider, I Char Trans to SS on Jan 22 2006, just a couple months ago.

Ok, so with that in mind... here is fucking undeniable PROOF that SOE and LA milk the Almighty Jedi Cash Machine:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/guides.vm?id=80105

Over the past 3 years, I have watched what once was a helluva achievment in my history of gaming, get turned into a Two-Bit Dog and Pony Show by Lucas Arts to try to draw business from the Star Wars fan jedi-wannabe losers, who were too lazy and/or incompetent to unlock their Special Slot the right way... by busting their ass to earn it with no freaking idea where to start or what to do, just pray you hit the right combo, just like I did. Yea thats right, I don't recognize any Village Jedi any more than I recognize NGE Jedi as earning the right to wield a lightsaber. I actually draw the line at refusing to recognize anyone who unlocked after it was realized that random masteries was the unlock method. I should get a special title, or something, for helping everyone else to figure that crap out.

But shit like this just ruffles my panties into a wad, and thought I'd share what its like to have your hard work trivialized by the Corporate stock worry machine. But every player who loves their non-Jedi profession should write Lucas Arts, not via the forums, but via the feedback... well nevermind, I just notice they've removed their Feedback link from the main webpage. Gee I wonder why they did that.

Oh well, sucks to be me. Rant done.

I feel your pain. I actually push all this way deep inside and keep my anger capped on this issue. It is hard to deal with those long months of grinding Jedi, putting in the commitment to do it... heck even the cost of the grind was expensive because we could not grind without doctor buffs... foods... and what was the pay off? A ugly elder robe? I lost a lot of good Jedi friends when the NGE went live because they could not bear the pain of logging in there Jedi and seeing what the NGE did to them.

Jedi started going wrong when people could blow up Danthomir with a gernade and get mega XP and SOE did not fix it.

As for the Friday feature, I have had tons of people ask me to be there Master, being who I am ( A person who has trouble saying no) I said ok. Most would do one or two quest I would give them and then I would never hear from them again. Come to think of it none have finished to the level that the Friday Feature lays out.

SOE needs to bring back the FRS and give us a reason to visit the Enclaves. Those buildings are awesome but stand empty. I know it won't happen though.

Oh and you are very right about the Jedi Cash Cow. SOE and LA stated one of the reasons they made Jedi a starting profession was the new focus group players they were going after did not want to gring Jedi like we did but wanted to be Jedi, so to give them what they wanted so they would pay SOE $15 a month, Jedi was made easy.

Yeah, Szul, it pisses me off too.

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:00 am

heh, well like you, I've tried to fool myself into thinking I was above it all, and able to pretend that I wasn't cheated. I feel that all pre-NGE Jedi unlocks were cheated, and tried to group myself with them and think of it like I was getting fucked just like everyone else.

But I'm not. My unlock was one of the first. I had no path, no plan, no idea or clue WTF unlocked me. Even after I unlocked, people would ask me what I did, and I would write out a long ass list so they could compare. I visited POI, I wanted the 4 corners of every planet, I visited every NPC city, I did quests in every NPC city, I ground out a million credits, you name it, I tried it.

The only reason I started grinding out professions once they implemented the Holocron hints was because that was the only thing left that I hadn't tried. Turns out that was the ONLY THING UNLOCKING, but at the time none of us knew that.

My unlock was a big deal, for the time. Granted a few months later when it was discovered that it was just random profession masteries, it became nothing more than a race to grind through professions, but when the Village came out, that was the first slap in the face. I looked beyond that because it gave Jedi unlocking a roleplay purpose, whereas previously it had no roleplay value. But still, the path was there, it was just a different type of grind, and there was no mystery to it like when I unlocked.

So even though SOE has trivialized my accomplishment, I've always held to the memories of the mystery that I experienced, the puzzle solving that led to the accomplishment. For a few months, I'd accomplished the near impossible and pioneered the way for once in my gaming life.

But the Village was due to LA and SOE wanting to milk the Cash Cow, peopel cried that they wanted a fair chance to unlock and for it to have meaning. NGE was even worse, because people cried that they didn't want to earn their Jedi, they wanted to jump in and start swinging a lightsaber.

I should have went to that Seattle greet and meet deal. Because I've tried to look the other way, but I want to tell the LA and SOE people that they fucking owe me, because I am not grouped in with all the hologrind and Village elders. I am one of THE Elders, the First Ones, and they trivialized my accomplishment.

I think thats one of the reasons I just can't get into roleplay or GCW with the Jedi, is because I've pushed that resentment under the rug and its not gone, its just barely hidden, not quite out of mind. They didn't just rob me of hard work, they robbed me of a special memory.

But like I said, /boohoo sucks to be me. Just venting the pent up anger that the Friday Feature triggered, even if its as effective as pissing upwind.

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:56 am

The Master: The Master's role in the system is to help their apprentice advance. This advancement comes in three main ways:

Helping them gain experience points (XP) to increase their Combat Level.

I loved that part, especially because you get an exp penalty for being in a group

Ri'Me · Post by **Ri'Me** » Sun May 28, 2006 6:08 am

All I gotta say is I'm glad I didn't get that far in the grind. Far enough to get a robe and be pissed that my level got jacked up to 80 but the blow was not as great. Oh well.. what can you do?

Apium · Post by **Apium** » Sun May 28, 2006 9:17 am

I never unlocked but I understand. I had 3 of my 4 professions mastered when the village launched. I was like 2 days at the most away from unlocking. With the village it converted to like 4 out of 6 or 5 out of 6. I didn't even bother doing the village.

Szul · Post by **Szul** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:03 pm

Thanks for the supportive comments, but its actually my hope, that by some oddball Lotto striking chance in Hell, a LA or SOE Dev will stumble across this post... and get a glimpse of exactly how deeply they screwed over their original Jedi players. Not the hologrind or Village... the originals, the 2003 unlocks, before we had any clue what the path was.

I'm not trying to trivialize anyone's loss, they already done did that, but I swear if I could find some possible way to file a lawsuit, (which is worthless to bother, because they said that everyone's unlock info was long ago destroyed, well at least to those poor chumps who deleted their Jedi slot back then, all I have proof of anymore is my original announcement post) then I would.

No gaming company has ever had the audacity to pull something like this, and the only reason Lucas Arts did it... oh yea, I know its Lucas Arts behind all these Mickey Mouse decisions... is because they know they can rest on the populatiry of their Star Wars license to pull their asses through.

And all this Jedi marketing crap that they pull, like this Friday Feature, is proof of my accusations, and exactly why I am so incensed at this particular time.

Sales sliding down? Pull the Jedi wildcard. But... what about our veteran Jedi players? Bah, they'll take whatever we give them up the ass, then just smile real big and ask for 3 more inches.

And we do. And appropriately like in Brokeback Mountain, all we can say is: "I wish I could quit yoo."

Heh its Sunday and I'm still venting about this. Nope, no repressed resentment here. :lol:

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Sun May 28, 2006 5:54 pm

I see it as another example of their misjudgement of what players find enjoyable about this game. It wasn't living the star wars movie glamour players loved, they loved being thrown into this fantasy universe, given 250credits. a melon, and being told "sorry we blew up your ship, see ya!" The enjoyment came from making yourself out of nothing, achieving the great. Now it is all handed to you, its rediculous.

Apium · Post by **Apium** » Sun May 28, 2006 7:00 pm

Leviathen wrote:I see it as another example of their misjudgement of what players find enjoyable about this game. It wasn't living the star wars movie glamour players loved, they loved being thrown into this fantasy universe, given 250credits. a melon, and being told "sorry we blew up your ship, see ya!" The enjoyment came from making yourself out of nothing, achieving the great. Now it is all handed to you, its rediculous.

well true but some people's ego demand they be someone important. I think kurke pointed this out the first time but ill carry his argument. Some people won't settle with being just another person in the crowd. I love just being another person in the crowd. I suggested a game with giant battles but not with one guy killing 5000 people. I want to fight just as a soldier no one too important though.

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Sun May 28, 2006 10:10 pm

But isn't that all you can be now? Before you had that choice, you could strive to be the best if that is what it mattered to you. You could strive to be that person that everyone would "oooo" and "ahhh" at if you took out your lightsaber. Now, what does it matter?

R.I.D BASE OF OPERATIONS

Lucas Arts squeezes more milk from the Jedi Cash Cow

Re: Lucas Arts squeezes more milk from the Jedi Cash Cow