Ha! This just in, the day after I cancel my SOE Access Pass subscription:

Aggro Me: SWG Combat Upgrade Upgrade

Plenty of comentary abounds.

On the one hand, I respect and admire a MMO that no longer gives a toss what it's players think anymore, and who are now committed to drastically changing the game beyond recognition, over and over, until they get something that sticks. On the other, I've been burned a few times now, and at this stage, couldn't care less how much more patronising they intend to make SWG...

Welcome to SWG! Please select a character class:

  • Han Solo [ ]
  • Luke Skywalker [ ]
  • Princess Leia [ ]

The rather nebulous 'fast action' combat might warrant more investigation nearer the time though, which could mean anything from Quake III, Starwars: Battlefront, through Planetside, Neocron 2, to The Same As It Is Now, But A Bit Faster. I suspect the Planetside model will prevail; it's another SOE game, so sourcecode access would be easy; it's a proven, if not massively popular, technology, and would probably be ideal for the remaining few hundred players per server left in SWG; PS regularly supports nearly 400 players per server per night!

I can't help but think that despite what everyone seems to want, there is a reason why Neocron 2 and Planetside are massively less popular than Everquest 2, World of Warcraft and even present-day Star Wars: Galaxies. For all the talk, do we really want games that require us to be skillful? Or just games that require us to put the hours in?

All in all, probably too little, too late, but I guess we'll see in due course...