IGN survey: Customization is the most important thing?!

[Xanthippe]

I didn't play long enough to find out, but based upon this survey, one would think that the hairdresser, plastic surgeon, fashionista - or whatever they are called - in SWG would be very popular.

Is this true?

I have never been able to figure out why MMOG designers don't put more crafter customizer abilities into these games.  People like to look different; people like to create.  Seems like a perfect synergy.

[Bunk]

Those proffessions had a level of popularity with the social gamers for a while. Then they fiddled with things and tried to make those classes "more useful". As in putting in benefits related to combat for having the skills. A week later, every Cantina was full of dancers and musicians macroing up thier skill 24/7. Most of the social gamers then left.

[Pococurante]

That and adventurers/PvPrs refused to play the "come to town and interact" mini-game.

[Merusk]

On Scyllia nobody who was a musician/ dancer/ hairdresser really cared about the interaction or lack therof with the combat characters.  There were a few who came in and interacted a little bit, but for the most part each cantina 'scene' had it's own little community and play revolved around those characters.  Then, when Hologrinding came in it started to die off because you had bots cycling the profession including "Tip me" spam.  Then the buffs the classes got made this even worse, and people started quitting.

   I quit around this time so I don't know what happened after that, but I do recall hearing several hairdressers being pissed that they couldn't do changes anywhere they pleased.  Forcing people to come to a specific building to do the customizations really hurt a class that was already hurting because it was such a gind to do each of the changes.  I understand they forced it so you couldn't make changes to yourself for xp anymore, so that had to REALLY kill the whole profession.

Social gaming was all but gone from SWG, and then they killed crafting.  That's sad because while Sim Beru was way too much work for me, I could see its appeal to others.

[Venkman]

I liked SimBeru in that it made SWG unique in a sea of EQ wannabes (which pervades to this day and has retroactively affected SWG).

Having been a Master Musician twice (on two different servers), I found the experience much as Merusk described it. Roleplayers liked hanging with Roleplayers. Combatants liked hanging with Combatants. The arbitrary system that forced these two together obviously predicted the AFKing that followed. It wasn't Roleplayers AFKing. It was the traditional min/max sub-group of Combatants rolling an alternate character on a separate account specifically to fill a need defined by their core play group.

So the Roleplayers packed up and either formed travelling Vaudville groups or took up residence in a player city.

Like anything, Roleplaying in SWG's system requires dedication. Macroing the professions were easy, but not worth the time unless you actually planned to put on shows. But this, too, is expected. Why bother macroing Armorsmithing or Architecture unless you planned to make a fulltime business of it?

In my opinion, the only flaw in this particular part of SWG was the attempt to make these very different types of players mingle.

[Pococurante]

In my opinion, the only flaw in this particular part of SWG was the attempt to make these very different types of players mingle.

From the time Raph first outlined their plans of the model I was skeptical.  I've simply never seen enforced dependency work to the satisfaction of the customers.  I'm not sure what the answer is though.  In SWG's case I think it would have made more sense to keep it solely PvE and have watered-down Jedis in from the start.  By watered-down I mean more like CoH characters with great effects/animations but nothing imbalancing by itself.

Bah I can't believe I just did a post mortem on a mainstream MOG.

[StGabe]

I didn't play long enough to find out, but based upon this survey, one would think that the hairdresser, plastic surgeon, fashionista - or whatever they are called - in SWG would be very popular.

Image Design, actually changing your appearance and such was -- in my experience -- very popular.  People really liked being able to change their appearance, etc.

Image Designers, the players who actually made the in-game changes to characters -- these weren't very popular.  Customizing YOUR character is fun but mindlessly clicking a few buttons to customize someone else's character is not.  There was a niche of people who were paid to pick new "looks" for other players but by and large most people wanted the control themselves and thus the actual profession of doing customization for others added a lot less to the game than the general ability for one to be customized.

Gabe.

[Xanthippe]

There are alternatives that I can see for that, though.  Like Image Designers having shops, where players come in and design their own look (like in CoH), but it must be done in a shop.  Or an interface that follows around an Image Designer (a trunk or booth or something).

[StGabe]

But then being an Image Designer still isn't fun.  It just means dropping a building that other people use or having a pet that other people use.

They did put in special huts where you got your image designed.  But a designer had to be there. And people screamed to high-heaven that they actually had to pay an image designer at the tent or to come to the tent to change their appearance.

Gabe.

[Numtini]

I was an image designer and I loved it when I had a chance to actually work with it.

However, the demand wasn't there. It was a great feature to offer clients, especially since I was a tailor. And at least according to my customers, I was good at the job. But there's almost nothing to do when you're not image designing and I might do two or three clients a week. That's an awful long time to wait for a tell. Especially with half my skill points devoted to it.

Also as the game evolved more towards an action game and social players left, the requests started to become more and more stupid. Instead of dancers looking for just that right look, I was getting doods who wanted pink skin and purple hair and to be made fat as possible who then cancelled after getting their giggles or tipped me a whopping thousand credits.

I think a lot of people liked having the options and probably got an image design done at some point, but once you look like what you want to look like, how often do you change?

[Sky]

If only they had seperated adventuring skills and social/roleplay skills into two distinct pools. Not like anyone ever submitted that idea *cough* That, plus a Planetside combat model, would have guaranteed my subscription until the lights went out. As it is, fuggedaboudit.

Then again, maybe it reflects reality. Maybe that's why The Nuge isn't putting out hit albums anymore, he needed the skill points for hunting.

[Pococurante]

If only they had seperated adventuring skills and social/roleplay skills into two distinct pools.

Combine that with SCS and it's really not surprising what happened.

Well to some of us anyway who /boggled when Raph patiently explained ad nauseum that we social/roleplayer types don't understand our own behaviors and preferences.

[Sky]

I'm an antisocial roleplayer.

[Venkman]

The idea that roleplayers needed the very same advancement model as Achiever combatant types is what I always questioned. People attracted to the concepts of virtual dancing or musician, both very cool features in a genre otherwise all but lacking them, arguably are not as interested in the raw Diku-inspired advancement schema as the traditional Warrior.

There's a bunch of ways to bring people together that already work. Basic zone design can funnel people together to areas of convenience during down time. Arbitrary separation of abilities ala everything since 1973 has long proven effective. Compelling features like central bazaars or teleportation points too.

But penalizing their activity in a system with stat loss (Wounds) and item decay was sort of a slap in the face. It was counter intuitive to what a type of player wanted to do. And that's really important in my opinion. In a game designed to appeal to so many, well, we know how it turned out.

There's no reason to force people together. Compel them. Some will come. Others won't. You're getting double the monthly fee as a result, and broadening the potential appeal to boot.