Virtual Worlds #7: When Galaxies Implode

Whatever SOE's reasons for pushing through the changes might be, by this point it's clear that satisfying their current subscriber base isn't high on the priority list. Despite the protestations of SOE president John Smedly on the official boards, even the most perfunctory look at the situation indicates their subscription numbers must have plummeted, and the situation has descended into a debacle.

Reading between the lines of his statements, it's possible to discern a little of his motivation. Star Wars fans are legion. Galaxies players are not. If Galaxies can be made to appeal to Joe Lightsaber instead of hardcore MMO players, Sony will make more money. With that in mind, the necessary changes are obvious. Open up Jedi for all players, instead of requiring a drawn-out and tedious process to enable the character class. Simplify and overhaul the combat system so new players are faced with something familiar and straightforward.

In other words, if you're a current player of SWG, you don't matter all that much. He implies you'll end up playing something else in the end anyway and the only way this game is going to stay live is to attract an influx of new, less hardcore players. Smedly tries: He dangles the vague possibility that guilds might one day be able to own Star Destroyers, and promises the return of a fan-favorite profession, the creature handler. But possibilities and promises aren't going to cut it with this game any more.

If your subscriber base is tiny, you have little to lose by reinventing yourself or experimenting with techniques (like the ads in The Matrix Online as test-beds for future, higher-stakes projects). If your subscriber base is large, their needs have to be balanced with the desire to attract new players. At best, Galaxies was stuck in a muddy no-mans-land in between these extremes, and in reinventing itself, it's just torn itself to pieces.

Whether SOE can put it back together again, and whether anybody will still want to play it when they do, remains to be seen. There's certainly room in many Star Wars fans' lives for a casual-friendly Galaxies, but so far the rollout has been handled so badly that the only sensible advice on the subject is to stay well away for now. Galaxies never quite managed to pull itself out of beta status, and these new changes seem to be a step back rather than forward.

This one's done, SOE; take it out back and shoot it, or roll it back a few weeks and leave it running as it was, with a minimal support staff. That way, at least you can build your new Star Wars MMO without wrecking the community you've already built. Companies that innovate in growing markets can rarely sustain their initial success for long, and with strong competition from the likes of Blizzard and NCSoft, Sony Online's once strong position looks increasingly shaky.

Virtual Worlds provides a regular in-depth exploration of thorny issues, news, analysis, and commentary on everything happening in the massively multiplayer world.

Recent columns:
- Virtual Worlds #6: A Glimpse of Things to Come... Maybe
- Virtual Worlds #5: A Plague Hits Azeroth
- Virtual Worlds #4: Have you been duped?

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