A Categorization of Changes to Star Wars Galaxies, v1

[2008/04/28 Note: This was my initial analysis of the changes made to Star Wars Galaxies. It covered Publishes 0.1 (the first patch) through 10.0, and was superseded by "A Categorization of Changes to Star Wars Galaxies, v2" which covered all publishes from 0.1 to 23.04, which was the last patch before the New Game Enhancements.]

I've repeatedly claimed over the past year that SOE plays favorites by spending most of its development time tweaking combat skills instead of improving crafting and other skills I think are (at least) equally worthwhile. But recently I got to wondering if that was really true. How do I know whether the facts support this charge?

Well, I didn't know. So I decided to find out.

I've spent the past several weeks reading every single Update Note that SOE has made available to us, categorized every single change by type, player ability affected, game feature affected, and profession affected, and calculated the numbers and percentages of each change.

This statistical breakdown is the result. Instead of guesswork and speculation, these numbers provide reasonably good factual information for us to base our opinions on.

Why did I go to all this trouble?

Because although there are some developer decisions with which I disagree, I still think SWG is a good game, and I want it to succeed. So when I say something critical about the kinds of changes that have been made to SWG thus far, I want that criticism to be based on facts, not speculation. Not only is that simple fairness, it's what gives weight and validity to a point of view.

Just to be clear about this, I want to stress: I did not go into this process with any intention of reaching a predetermined conclusion, nor is any of this information provided as an attempt to annoy or embarrass SOE or LucasArts or anyone else.

Just the opposite, in fact; my intention is to be as honest and thorough as possible in categorizing each change in order to avoid being unfair to SOE/LucasArts. And my hope is that each of us will be able to use these numbers to inform our discussions of the changes SOE makes. Our observations and suggestions will carry more weight if they're based on factual data instead of on feelings and guesses.

So if any of these numbers confirm or refute certain beliefs you hold about SOE's intentions toward this game, so be it. If nothing else, they're a starting point for moving us toward a more accurate understanding of SWG's evolution and current status. (If you have doubts about the honesty of my statistical breakdown, well, you're always free to create your own.)

SWG CHANGE STATISTICS AS OF 2004/08/31 (Publish 10.0)

ALL CHANGES BY TYPE

TYPE	CHANGES	PERCENT
Add	269	14%
Mod	874	45%
Fix	792	41%

CHANGES BY PLAYER CHARACTER ABILITIES

PLAYER ABILITY TYPE	CHANGES	PERCENT	ADD	MOD	FIX
Combat	599	45%	88	287	221
Crafting/Manf/Repair/Sales	376	28%	53	163	154
Medical (Healing)	50	4%	6	27	15
Sampling/Surveying/Mining	49	4%	4	26	19
Entertaining	24	2%	4	13	7
Force	23	2%	5	10	8
Other Abilities	211	16%	32	115	64

CHANGES BY PROFESSION

PROFESSION	CHANGES	PERCENT	ADD	MOD	FIX	LOVE
Jedi	82	10.0%	30	29	23	231
Creature Handler	99	12.1%	6	47	46	170
Droid Engineer	45	5.5%	12	12	11	95
Ranger	40	4.9%	5	23	12	83
Scout	39	4.8%	3	29	7	80
Merchant	31	3.8%	9	10	12	77
Bio-Engineer	43	5.2%	2	22	19	73
Bounty Hunter	39	4.8%	3	20	16	71
Armorsmith	38	4.6%	3	19	16	69
Artisan	29	3.5%	7	9	13	66
Commando	31	3.8%	2	21	8	60
Image Designer	19	2.3%	8	7	4	58
Brawler	31	3.8%	2	18	11	57
Weaponsmith	33	4.0%	1	19	13	56
Chef	14	1.7%	6	6	2	44
Politician	13	1.6%	5	5	3	38
Medic	20	2.4%	1	13	6	37
Architect	14	1.7%	4	7	3	37
Combat Medic	19	2.3%	1	12	6	35
Rifleman	14	1.7%	1	12	1	30
Smuggler	16	1.9%	1	9	6	29
Teras Kasi Artist	15	1.8%	0	11	4	26
Pistoleer	13	1.6%	1	9	3	26
Entertainer	12	1.5%	2	5	5	25
Doctor	8	1.0%	2	4	2	20
Musician	12	1.5%	0	7	5	19
Dancer	8	1.0%	2	3	3	19
Tailor	9	1.1%	1	5	3	18
Pikeman	8	1.0%	0	8	0	16
Carbineer	10	1.2%	0	3	7	13
Marksman	6	0.7%	1	1	3	10
Fencer	5	0.6%	0	4	1	9
Swordsman	4	0.5%	0	4	0	8
Squad Leader	2	0.2%	0	1	1	3

GAME FEATURES CHANGED

FEATURE	CHANGES	ADD	MOD	FIX
Missions/Quests	127	24	44	59
Grouping	47	5	20	22
Insurance	5	0	5	0
Cloning/Incap/Player Death	34	1	13	19
Griefing/Exploit	38	1	0	36
Character Maintenance	28	9	14	5
Badges	10	4	3	3
Player Associations	10	0	5	5
PvP	45	14	17	14
GCW	85	23	30	32
Faction	63	11	30	22
Loot	39	8	19	12
XP	64	2	38	24
Money	45	4	21	20
HAM/Stats/Buffing	80	8	47	25
Species	25	5	7	13
Skills/Commands	106	12	54	39
Skill Training	8	2	2	4
Macros	2	0	0	2
Inventory/Containers	79	6	24	49
Spice/Food/Drink	26	7	11	8
Clothing	28	1	11	16
Armor	64	8	31	24
Weapons	177	23	104	50
Other Objects	19	6	8	5
Faction Pets	15	0	8	7
Droid Pets	95	13	33	39
Creature Pets	143	5	70	66
Mounts	15	5	4	6
Vehicles	35	7	7	21
Factional Installations	69	3	33	33
Harvesters	40	2	20	18
Factories	38	2	19	17
Crafting Stations/Tools	19	0	6	13
Vendors	56	6	18	32
Houses/PA Halls/Cantinas/Theaters/Tents	83	8	33	42
Shuttleports/Starports/Garages	16	4	6	6
Parks/Gardens/Monuments	5	0	4	1
Player Cities	42	6	19	17
Creature/Droid Mobs	113	14	53	44
NPCs	128	33	43	50
AI	32	0	14	16
Spawning	52	10	18	24
Text	111	9	55	47
UI	216	32	105	79
Chat	21	4	7	10
Mail	12	3	6	3
Trading	13	3	4	6
Toolbar	2	1	1	0
Datapad	15	3	4	8
Maps/Radar/Waypoints	35	9	16	10
Travel/Movement	70	5	24	39
Bazaar	28	1	16	11
Bank	7	1	3	3
Theme Parks	16	3	4	9
Dungeons	40	17	7	16
Battlefields	11	0	5	6
World: Planets	62	27	17	17
World: NPC Cities	36	16	11	9
World: NPC Buildings	3	0	0	3
World: Objects	52	8	17	26
World: Points of Interest	4	2	0	2
World: Resources	29	5	13	11
World: Economy	16	1	8	7
World: Events	19	12	5	2
Tutorial/New Player Experience	14	1	6	7
Login/Logout/Loading	26	2	9	15
Technical: Visual	133	17	46	70
Technical: Sound	11	3	3	5
Client	49	4	17	28
Server	38	0	17	21
Gifts	6	5	0	1
Customer Service/Knowledge Base	19	9	5	5
Correspondent Issues	40	7	19	14

METHODOLOGICAL NOTES

1. These numbers were obtained by entering every officially documented change (as described in the Update Notes section of the Official SWG website) into an Excel spreadsheet, then going over every single item to categorize the type of change made and the game systems affected by that change. I then used Excel's calculation functions to count the number of changes made for each system, both as a raw number and as a percentage within that change class.

2. Changes were broken down into four "classes":
a. changes by type (new features, modifications to existing features, and bugfixes)
b. changes by player abilities (combat, crafting, entertaining, healing, etc.)
c. changes by game feature (travel, PvP, vendors, NPCs, vehicles, etc.)
d. changes by profession (Marksman, Architect, Ranger, etc.)

3. These numbers reflect only the changes that have been officially documented in the Update Notes section of the official SWG website. "Stealth" changes were not included (except as noted in Note 4).

4. In only a very few cases have I actually added a change that was not listed in the official Update Notes. One was the inclusion of the first swoop racing circuit (the Agrilat Fire Swamp circuit on Corellia), which I assigned to Publish 9.1 on July 19, 2004. The other two or three additions were clarifications of the changes made to support the new Force Sensitive system in Publish 10.

5. Not all numbers add up across the various breakdowns, or even with a particular breakdown type. There are three primary reasons for this:
a. Not every change that could be categorized as an Add, Modify, or Fix could also be categorized as to game feature or affected profession.
b. Although I did my best to be accurate and objecting in categorizing changes, there are without question some errors and subjective decisions, particularly with regard to which game features were affected by any given change.
c. Roundoff error may prevent some groupings from summing to exactly 100%.

6. Some changes were listed more than once in the official update notes. In cases where this duplication was obvious, I have removed one of the duplicate listings. In cases where there was any question of whether a second change listing was a duplicate, I have included both changes.

7. When deciding whether to categorize a particular change as a "bug fix," a modification to existing features, or a new feature, I've given the developers the benefit of the doubt. If they described the change using a word like "fixed," I categorized it as a Fix; if they used the word "added," I categorized it as an Add; if they used words like "adjusted" or "modified," I categorized it as a Mod. In all other cases, only when a change was clearly identifiable as a bugfix did I categorize it as such -- when there was any doubt, I categorized it as a Mod. Similarly, any change that added new functionality was categorized as an Add.

8. The "Love" statistic in the list of changes to professions is the one place where I'm being a little bit analytical -- basically it's just me having a bit of fun. What I'm trying to do here is show which professions have received the most valuable types of developer attention by giving different weightings to the three types of change. It's calculated as follows: Love = (Adds * 5) + (Mods * 2) + Fixes. Although I've ranked the professions by Love, you're free to use the raw Add/Mod/Fix numbers I've provided to generate your own weighted "Love" calculation.

9. Don't take these numbers as gospel. They are an honest attempt to fairly categorize the kinds of changes that have been made, but although I did my best to be objective, ultimately this is just my interpretation of how to categorize the changes made to SWG. So don't get hung up on specific numbers as absolutes -- try to look at the changes in relation to each other. For example, it's totally irrelevant that Faction Pets and Mounts both have 15 changes... but it's interesting that among the 241 changes to Creature/Droid Mobs and NPCs, only about one-eighth of those changes (32) concerned AI.

10. As of the most recent live patch (August 31, 2004), the total number of changes made was 1947. Given that there are 429 total days between the date of the first official patch (June 29, 2003) and the last patch, that's an average of nearly five changes PER DAY. (The average is even higher if you don't count weekends and holidays.) That's a fairly astonishing number of changes for any commercial product. We may fairly question whether so many changes are being made so rapidly that they're not all being tested properly. We may also reasonably question the focus and priorities of which particular changes are made rather than others. But given these numbers, it's clearly not fair to charge the developers with not doing enough to support and improve this game.