Well, here we go again!
About a year ago, I offered A Categorization of Every Documented Change to SWG. I thought this was a reasonably useful analysis of the changes that had been made to SWG as of that time, and several other people were generous enough to say so as well.
Since then, however, there've been some dramatic changes in SWG. They include:
- the Jump to Lightspeed space expansion
- the Combat Upgrade
- the Force Sensitive Village
- the Rage of the Wookiees expansion
There've also been many small changes which cumulatively have added up to meaningful differences in SWG's gameplay.
It would have been interesting to apply these changes to my data, but I wasn't able to do so because my original dataset was lost. The idea of having to rebuild all my original categorizations, then adding the thousands of new documented changes, then categorizing all the new stuff was daunting. (Plus there's this day job they expect me to show up for.)
And yet... I kept thinking about it. So when Elyssa (our excellent Merchant Correspondent) encouraged me to consider rebuilding my analysis to include the changes over the past year, I decided to just go ahead and do it.
It's been a few weeks since then. It took that long to reassemble all the patch notes, to rebuild the categorizations, to add new categories as suggested by various commenters from the first version, and to make the appropriate categorizations for the roughly 3500 changes.
But now it's done, and ready to present to you in its shiny new up-to-date version 2.0 format.
I hope you find some value in it.
[Note: Obviously this was written before the imposition of the New Game Experience changes to SWG, which did away with many of the features and professions addressed in this analysis. This document is thus now interesting (if at all) only as a quaint historical study of a complex MMOG at its most complex.]
OK -- with that introduction out of the way, I'd like to return to my original presentation format. First, I'd like to explain the point of all this effort; next, I'll present the actual results; after that, I'll note some aspects of the methodology I used to generate the results; and finally, I'll make some observations about the results. If some result seems completely out of whack to you, please read the Methodology section -- the reason why is probably there. If not, I'd like to hear your concerns. And if you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
One important note: I spent a lot of time accumulating the data whose results are published here. I'd rather not see it show up elsewhere with someone else's name on it, so I won't be publishing the raw data or emailing the spreadsheet to anyone. I'm also keeping the original data private as a courtesy to SOE. I trust my objectivity, but if the raw data were made public it could be abused, possibly leading to SOE no longer making the patch notes public... and that would be a Bad Thing for all of us.
Thanks for understanding this.
JUSTIFICATION
I'm interested in the design and operation of massively multiplayer games. Not only can they be fun to play, I find it interesting to look at them in terms of how they serve their customers through their design. What makes a MMOG fun for a lot of different kinds of people? How can you maintain and even improve on the fun of a MMOG through the changes you make to the original design?
Star Wars Galaxies was a great opportunity for me to watch the design of an important MMORPG from the ground up. Although just a player like everyone else (in other words, I had no special access to SWG's designers), I was fortunate to be able to join the official SWG forum nearly a year before SWG launched. During that time, there were a lot of suggestions made by players and a lot of heated arguments, and SWG's design incorporated a remarkable number of the concepts that emerged from these discussions. (So much so that SWG has been considered an example of "participatory design.")
Then it launched. It wasn't perfect, but what complex system ever is? In terms of its overall design, SWG was superb, building on many years of accumulated theoretical and practical knowledge of what makes these massively multiplayer games fun. In particular, SWG's designers deliberately created in-game features to support multiple playstyles.
For the achievement-oriented player, there were PvE and PvP combat (as there most certainly should be in a Star Wars-themed game); there was loot; there was money; there were skill progressions; there were mastery titles. For the exploration-oriented player, there was a crafting system that was one of the deepest and most entertaining yet designed in a MMOG, as well as Points Of Interest on the various planets that could be discovered. And for the socially-oriented player, there were not only story-based quests and missions, there were two whole branches of professions (healers and entertainers) whose explicit function in the game was to provide social services to other players. Not merely an afterthought, entertainers were actually designed to be required by combatants.
This willingness to make SWG a game that respected and encouraged different styles of play, to explicitly code this welcoming attitude into the overall design of the game, was the best possible start it could have gotten. Sure, there were some bugs; yes, SWG probably shipped before all the features were fully implemented... but the design -- the design was great.
Since then, there've been a lot of changes. (Over 3500 documented changes as of this writing, in fact.) And every single one of those changes has had an effect on SWG. By the kinds of changes that have been made, which either enhance or diminish the original design, the nature of SWG -- as defined by the playstyles of those gamers who have joined SWG and those who have left it -- has also changed.
In some ways, SWG has changed for the better. Who wouldn't want more content? There are more quests, more planets and space locations, more and better loot, more dungeons, more schematics, and just generally more things to do.
But there are also ways in which the changes made to SWG have not supported and enhanced the original design. Everyone's got their own list, but my list of the top ways in which SWG has not improved since it launched includes:
- too few players per server
- too many bugs allowed to go Live
- too many Jedi
- too little sense of being part of an epic, galaxy-spanning conflict
- too little effort to retain the original balance of playstyles
Some of these aren't the fault of SOE/LEC; some are. From a design standpoint, it's the last item that concerns me most.
I believe that over the past couple of years SWG has added too many features that cater solely to achievement-oriented players, allowing other playstyles to stagnate (exploration) or actually nerfing them (socializing). I think this is a serious mistake. It alters the player population from being long-term stable through balancing the various playstyles to striving for marketing-driven, short-term subscription spikes through sporadically pushing achievement-specific content. That's bad for SWG (which means both its players and SOE/LEC) because it's a self-reinforcing trend that drives away valuable subgroups of subscribers, ultimately limiting the lifespan of this game.
SWG needs achievers. Achievement-oriented content is good to have. But it's not the only good thing worth having. SWG needs socializers and explorers, too... and it's my contention that while they've gotten some new content, it hasn't been equivalent to the new content given to acheivers. The original design's remarkably balanced gameplay has not been maintained, and this continuing imbalance is making SWG less fun for all its players (and probably less lucrative for its publisher) than it should and could be.
To back up this claim, I collected the evidence that was available -- the patch notes -- and analyzed them to see whether there was a real trend or not. If there was a trend, I'd be able to say so with some confidence; and if not, I'd be able to correct my mistaken belief.
I pulled together every patch note that SOE has made available to us. And then I looked at every single change, and I tried to characterize it by change type (new feature, bugfix, etc.), player ability affected, game feature affected, and profession affected. Once I had every change categorized, I calculated the numbers and percentages of each change.
I believe the initial results supported my claim. The changes made to provide new content for achievement wasn't being matched by equally strong new content for socializing and exploration.
Well, that was a year ago. How has SWG changed since then? Has the balance been improved? Or has the balance tipped even farther toward "kill monster, collect loot"?
You decide.
SWG CHANGE STATISTICS AS OF 2005/09/15 (Publish 23.04)
TOTAL CHANGES: 3520
FIRST PUBLISH: 2003/06/29
MOST RECENT PUBLISH: 2005/09/15
CALENDAR DAYS BETWEEN FIRST AND LAST PUBLISH: 796
CHANGES PER DAY: 4.42
ALL CHANGES BY TYPE
TYPE
|
DESCRIPTION
|
CHANGES
|
PERCENT
|
ADD
|
(major new feature)
|
121
|
3%
|
ENP
|
(minor player enhancement)
|
253
|
7%
|
ENW
|
(minor world enhancement)
|
668
|
19%
|
MOD
|
(minor tweak)
|
1010
|
29%
|
NRF
|
(nerf to player capability)
|
106
|
3%
|
FIX
|
(bugfix)
|
1362
|
39%
|
CHANGES BY PLAYER CHARACTER ABILITIES
PLAYER ABILITY TYPE CHANGES PCT ADD ENP ENW MOD NRF FIX
-------------------------- ------- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Combat 1277 47% 72 66 172 458 52 457
Force 69 3% 0 6 5 28 4 26
Pets 284 10% 10 20 42 82 16 114
Crafting/Manf/Repair/Sales 599 22% 14 93 100 151 11 230
Sampling/Surveying/Mining 91 3% 3 15 10 29 4 30
Medical 105 4% 0 9 9 45 3 39
Entertaining 132 5% 2 41 20 28 4 37
Political 14 1% 1 5 3 1 1 3
Exploration 68 2% 4 6 4 27 2 25
Rogue 97 4% 1 7 21 39 4 25
PROFESSION CHANGES BY TYPE
PROFESSION TOTAL ADD ENP ENW MOD NRF FIX
------------------------------ ----- --- --- --- --- --- ---
PROFESSION: ARCHITECT 113 2 13 16 25 1 56
PROFESSION: ARMORSMITH 153 3 16 15 43 2 74
PROFESSION: ARTISAN 192 7 19 22 48 5 91
PROFESSION: BIO-ENGINEER 104 1 11 13 25 7 47
PROFESSION: BOUNTY HUNTER 593 52 29 86 204 20 202
PROFESSION: BRAWLER 532 50 25 75 174 15 193
PROFESSION: CARBINEER 523 51 24 73 171 16 188
PROFESSION: CHEF 116 2 13 15 30 1 55
PROFESSION: COMBAT MEDIC 56 1 5 5 24 4 17
PROFESSION: COMMANDO 540 51 23 75 181 16 194
PROFESSION: CREATURE HANDLER 621 57 30 96 185 25 228
PROFESSION: DANCER 65 2 17 6 20 3 17
PROFESSION: DOCTOR 53 1 6 7 19 2 18
PROFESSION: DROID ENGINEER 158 3 26 24 31 2 72
PROFESSION: ENTERTAINER 62 2 12 8 16 3 21
PROFESSION: FENCER 512 51 23 74 165 16 183
PROFESSION: FORCE SENSITIVE 266 15 7 44 83 11 106
PROFESSION: IMAGE DESIGNER 32 1 7 10 6 1 7
PROFESSION: JEDI 496 29 28 73 170 28 168
PROFESSION: MARKSMAN 525 50 25 75 172 15 188
PROFESSION: MEDIC 53 1 4 5 22 3 18
PROFESSION: MERCHANT 71 4 7 18 9 4 28
PROFESSION: MUSICIAN 65 2 12 8 19 3 21
PROFESSION: PIKEMAN 516 51 23 74 169 17 182
PROFESSION: PILOT, IMPERIAL 169 10 7 33 50 4 65
PROFESSION: PILOT, PRIVATEER 192 10 8 44 57 4 69
PROFESSION: PILOT, REBEL 184 10 6 35 56 4 73
PROFESSION: PISTOLEER 523 51 24 75 172 17 184
PROFESSION: POLITICIAN 32 2 7 8 4 4 7
PROFESSION: RANGER 62 3 12 4 28 3 12
PROFESSION: RIFLEMAN 532 51 25 74 173 19 190
PROFESSION: SCOUT 56 3 9 3 23 3 15
PROFESSION: SHIPWRIGHT 57 4 2 6 20 1 24
PROFESSION: SMUGGLER 552 51 26 80 183 17 195
PROFESSION: SQUAD LEADER 503 50 23 74 159 16 181
PROFESSION: SWORDSMAN 516 51 23 74 169 16 183
PROFESSION: TAILOR 105 1 15 11 17 1 60
PROFESSION: TERAS KASI 528 51 23 73 177 16 188
PROFESSION: WEAPONSMITH 156 2 20 15 44 1 74
PROFESSION CHANGES BY STYLE
PROFESSION CMBT FRC CRFT HRV MED ENT PET EXP ROG POL
----------------------------- ---- --- ---- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
PROFESSION: ARCHITECT 1 0 112 4 0 4 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: ARMORSMITH 5 0 149 4 0 4 1 0 2 0
PROFESSION: ARTISAN 10 0 171 18 1 4 2 0 0 0
PROFESSION: BIO-ENGINEER 2 0 75 19 0 2 22 1 0 0
PROFESSION: BOUNTY HUNTER 552 1 15 1 9 0 24 0 65 0
PROFESSION: BRAWLER 523 1 10 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: CARBINEER 513 1 15 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: CHEF 3 0 112 7 2 3 1 1 0 0
PROFESSION: COMBAT MEDIC 29 1 6 0 28 0 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: COMMANDO 531 2 15 1 9 0 11 0 3 0
PROFESSION: CREATURE HANDLER 509 1 9 1 11 0 144 1 2 0
PROFESSION: DANCER 2 0 7 0 7 61 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: DOCTOR 11 1 5 0 46 1 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: DROID ENGINEER 6 0 147 5 2 4 19 0 0 0
PROFESSION: ENTERTAINER 2 1 7 0 5 58 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: FENCER 503 1 14 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: FORCE SENSITIVE 246 11 13 1 7 2 1 0 1 0
PROFESSION: IMAGE DESIGNER 1 0 5 0 0 32 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: JEDI 432 60 30 1 22 0 5 0 13 0
PROFESSION: MARKSMAN 514 1 15 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: MEDIC 6 0 13 0 43 0 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: MERCHANT 1 0 66 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: MUSICIAN 2 0 8 0 7 60 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: PIKEMAN 507 1 14 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: PILOT, IMPERIAL 106 0 7 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: PILOT, PRIVATEER 124 0 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: PILOT, REBEL 120 0 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: PISTOLEER 514 1 15 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: POLITICIAN 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 13
PROFESSION: RANGER 5 0 3 9 1 0 3 46 0 0
PROFESSION: RIFLEMAN 523 3 15 1 9 0 12 0 2 0
PROFESSION: SCOUT 10 0 3 9 1 0 4 34 1 0
PROFESSION: SHIPWRIGHT 1 0 53 2 0 4 0 0 0 0
PROFESSION: SMUGGLER 516 2 17 1 9 0 11 0 34 0
PROFESSION: SQUAD LEADER 494 1 14 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: SWORDSMAN 507 1 14 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: TAILOR 1 0 103 4 0 4 1 0 0 0
PROFESSION: TERAS KASI 518 3 14 1 9 0 11 0 2 0
PROFESSION: WEAPONSMITH 4 0 156 4 0 4 1 0 2 0
TOTAL: PROFESSIONS 8354 94 1460 101 300 251 366 83 143 13
FEATURE CHANGES BY TYPE
FEATURE TOTAL ADD ENP ENW MOD NRF FIX
--------------------------------- ----- --- --- --- --- --- ---
MISSIONS/QUESTS 356 30 17 69 97 8 135
GROUPS 88 0 8 21 17 1 41
TRADING 15 0 2 2 1 1 9
LOTS 7 0 0 0 5 0 2
ADMIN/ACCESS/PERMISSIONS 51 0 5 5 17 4 20
INSURANCE 6 0 0 0 6 0 0
DECAY 22 0 1 2 16 0 3
AFK 3 0 0 1 2 0 0
ABUSE/GRIEFING 3 0 1 0 2 0 0
EXPLOIT 45 0 0 0 0 0 45
FRS 23 2 2 4 5 5 5
PvP/TEFs 84 3 5 9 35 7 25
GCW 175 7 12 39 52 10 55
FACTION 189 13 14 40 62 10 50
RANK/PERKS 35 2 4 8 9 3 9
BADGES 17 2 0 3 5 0 7
ROLE 5 0 0 1 2 0 2
CHARACTER MAINT 55 0 2 24 9 0 20
SPECIES/GENDER 69 1 10 12 15 0 31
CERTS 13 0 1 1 5 1 5
TITLES 12 1 0 2 2 1 6
SKILL TRAINING/TRAINERS/RESPEC 42 3 4 13 10 3 9
COMMANDS/SKILLS/ABILITIES/MOVES 560 9 61 72 188 27 203
TIMERS/CMD DELAY 131 1 5 26 70 5 24
DURATION 15 0 0 1 9 1 4
RANGE/DISTANCE 77 0 4 3 41 3 26
AREA OF EFFECT 16 0 1 0 8 1 6
DOTs 41 0 2 2 15 2 20
POSTURE 38 0 0 7 14 1 16
VISIBILITY/CONCEALMENT 64 0 4 2 31 2 25
STUN/DIZZY/BLIND/DAZE/SNARE/ROOT 33 0 3 2 20 1 7
WOUNDS/DAMAGE 167 4 11 14 78 6 54
INCAP/DEATH/CLONING 95 0 3 6 37 4 45
STOMACH 6 0 0 0 4 0 2
CON/LEVEL/RATING 102 5 4 22 38 9 24
ATTRIBUTES/HAM/STATS 162 1 6 18 82 4 51
BUFF/DEBUFF/INSPIRATION 104 1 18 13 43 1 28
XP 141 2 21 13 38 13 54
MONEY/FEES/TAXES 80 0 4 14 30 4 28
LOOT/QUEST REWARDS 140 7 7 26 41 9 50
BIO-LINK 5 0 0 0 1 2 2
SLICING 22 0 2 7 6 2 5
CHARGES 14 0 1 2 9 0 2
MASS/ENCUMBRANCE 15 0 0 0 8 0 7
INVENTRY/HOPPERS/CONTAINERS/STACKS 158 1 10 33 23 9 82
CRATES 34 0 0 6 6 0 22
RESOURCES 66 2 19 4 20 2 19
SCHEMATICS 76 1 20 7 18 0 30
LIGHTSABER 48 3 4 9 14 6 12
WEAPONS/MINES/TRAPS 207 2 20 21 89 4 71
ARMOR/SHIELDS 128 4 21 11 45 4 43
CLOTHING 64 0 8 6 10 0 40
STIMS/MEDICINES 37 0 2 2 17 0 16
FOOD/DRINK/SPICE 36 1 3 5 15 0 12
ATTACHMENTS 14 1 0 0 3 2 8
TISSUES/ADDITIVES 18 0 4 5 4 2 3
CYBERNETICS 12 1 1 3 4 0 3
ART OBJECTS 5 1 0 2 0 0 2
OTHER OBJECTS 202 5 33 48 53 7 55
FACTION PETS 28 0 1 3 11 0 13
DROID PETS 184 2 24 28 46 5 79
CREATURE PETS 200 7 11 25 60 8 89
MOUNTS 26 1 6 2 7 0 10
VEHICLES 64 3 6 11 13 2 29
SHIPS/COMPONENTS 124 3 6 12 47 0 56
CAMPS 11 0 2 0 6 1 2
FACTIONAL INSTALLATIONS 95 1 6 11 31 6 40
HARVESTING/CRAFTING TOOLS/STNS 36 0 7 0 8 1 20
VENDORS 91 2 5 22 9 4 49
HARVESTERS 60 0 7 10 13 1 29
FACTORIES 62 0 3 11 15 1 32
HOUSES/TENTS/HALLS 140 3 12 20 36 5 64
CANTINAS/THEATERS 40 0 3 7 11 4 15
GARAGES/OTHER BUILDINGS 36 0 5 8 7 5 11
SHUTTLEPORTS/STARPORTS 37 0 2 8 9 3 15
PARKS/GARDENS/MONUMENTS 20 0 2 3 7 3 5
PLAYER CITIES 66 1 9 13 12 6 25
CITIZENSHIP/VOTING 23 0 3 11 5 0 4
PLAYER ASSOCS 30 1 0 8 10 0 11
PERSONAL LIGHT 6 0 0 1 4 0 1
LANGUAGES 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
MACROS 4 0 0 1 1 0 2
NOTES 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
MAIL 22 0 4 12 1 1 4
TEXT 295 0 5 123 59 3 105
CHAT 48 0 1 16 13 0 18
EMOTES 6 0 2 2 1 0 1
UI 547 3 14 192 134 4 200
ICONS 38 0 2 14 9 0 13
HUD 9 0 0 2 3 0 4
TARGETING 61 0 4 8 14 1 34
TOOLBAR/HOTBAR 11 0 0 3 3 0 5
DATAPAD/DEEDS/JOURNAL 98 1 8 22 18 2 47
MAPS/RADAR/WAYPOINTS/ARROWS 79 0 2 25 16 1 35
TRAVEL/MOVEMENT 180 3 8 21 46 3 99
LAIRS 33 2 2 2 10 0 17
CREATURE/DROID MOBS 186 11 6 33 62 8 66
NPCs 359 33 6 82 102 5 131
CONVERSATION 30 0 1 6 6 1 16
AGGRESSION 34 0 2 3 17 0 12
AI 52 0 0 8 17 0 27
SPAWNING 85 4 3 18 25 1 34
TERMINALS 67 4 4 11 12 1 35
BAZAAR 37 2 2 12 6 1 14
BANK 10 0 1 0 6 0 3
MINIGAMES 8 1 0 2 3 0 2
THEME PARKS 74 3 0 16 14 2 39
DUNGEONS 58 7 1 7 22 1 20
BATTLEFIELDS 12 0 1 3 1 1 6
PLAYER EVENT PERKS 13 1 0 6 3 2 1
TECHNICAL: VISUAL 245 0 3 44 44 0 154
TECHNICAL: SOUND 14 0 0 5 3 1 5
WORLD: ART 28 2 3 11 9 0 3
WORLD: AUDIO 10 1 0 3 5 0 1
WORLD: SPACE 279 14 22 50 86 4 103
WORLD: PLANETS 132 31 9 30 26 2 34
WORLD: KASHYYYK 59 4 4 8 22 3 18
WORLD: NPC CITIES 52 15 1 13 7 2 14
WORLD: FS VILLAGE 47 1 0 8 9 1 28
WORLD: NPC BUILDINGS 36 3 1 5 5 2 20
WORLD: TERRAIN 16 0 0 7 4 0 5
WORLD: POIs 7 0 0 4 0 0 3
WORLD: ECONOMY 3 0 0 1 1 0 1
WORLD: RACETRACKS 4 3 0 0 1 0 0
WORLD: EVENTS 27 9 1 6 7 1 3
GIFTS/VET REWARDS 20 0 0 14 1 0 4
TUTORIAL/NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE 32 1 1 11 8 0 11
TRIAL ACCOUNTS 3 0 0 0 2 0 1
CHARACTER TRANSFER 3 0 0 2 0 0 1
LOGIN/LOGOUT/LOADING 63 0 1 12 15 0 35
KEYBOARD/MOUSE/JOYSTICKS 36 0 0 11 14 0 11
LOCALIZATION 24 0 0 12 6 0 6
CLIENT 93 0 2 42 3 0 46
SERVER 77 0 0 29 7 0 41
BETA/TESTING 2 0 0 0 2 0 0
CUSTOMER SUPPORT 9 0 0 2 2 2 3
TECHNICAL SUPPORT 6 0 0 2 0 0 4
DEV SUPPORT 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
HOLOCRON/KNOWLEDGE BASE 9 0 0 7 0 0 2
WEBSITE/FORUM 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
CORRESPONDENT/FAN FEST ISSUES 98 0 19 13 39 5 22
FEATURE CHANGES BY STYLE
FEATURE CMBT FRC CRFT HRV MED ENT PETS EXP ROG POL
--------------------------------- ---- --- ---- --- --- --- ---- --- --- ---
MISSIONS/QUESTS 251 4 17 3 2 7 1 0 37 0
GROUPS 36 1 0 0 2 1 12 0 1 0
TRADING 1 0 3 0 0 1 2 0 0 0
LOTS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ADMIN/ACCESS/PERMISSIONS 18 0 9 2 0 4 2 0 4 0
INSURANCE 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DECAY 8 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AFK 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ABUSE/GRIEFING 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
EXPLOIT 23 0 8 3 1 0 8 1 0 0
FRS 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
PvP/TEFs 79 3 0 0 2 0 4 0 13 0
GCW 154 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 0
FACTION 151 0 1 0 3 2 3 0 8 0
RANK/PERKS 22 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 1 0
BADGES 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
ROLE 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
CHARACTER MAINT 2 0 1 0 0 5 0 0 0 0
SPECIES/GENDER 18 0 10 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
CERTS 11 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TITLES 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SKILL TRAINING/TRAINERS/RESPEC 12 1 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 1
COMMANDS/SKILLS/ABILITIES/MOVES 234 30 19 8 43 38 87 35 18 1
TIMERS/CMD DELAY 59 6 21 1 7 13 9 3 0 1
DURATION 7 2 5 0 2 0 0 1 0 0
RANGE/DISTANCE 47 1 2 4 2 1 4 4 0 0
AREA OF EFFECT 15 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
DOTs 35 0 1 0 8 0 2 0 0 0
POSTURE 31 2 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0
VISIBILITY/CONCEALMENT 29 12 1 1 0 0 1 32 0 0
STUN/DIZZY/BLIND/DAZE/SNARE/ROOT 33 3 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0
WOUNDS/DAMAGE 115 5 26 1 27 5 21 0 4 0
INCAP/DEATH/CLONING 68 1 2 1 1 1 12 0 5 0
STOMACH 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CON/LEVEL/RATING 65 0 9 1 0 0 35 5 8 0
ATTRIBUTES/HAM/STATS 85 14 24 2 28 18 27 1 1 0
BUFF/DEBUFF/INSPIRATION 39 6 25 0 14 36 3 2 1 0
XP 49 2 29 5 6 25 20 9 2 2
MONEY/FEES/TAXES 17 0 16 4 0 6 0 0 6 3
LOOT/QUEST REWARDS 104 0 21 2 0 1 2 0 4 0
BIO-LINK 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
SLICING 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 21 0
CHARGES 4 0 4 0 0 1 4 0 8 0
MASS/ENCUMBRANCE 7 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
INVENTRY/HOPPERS/CONTAINERS/STACKS 14 0 63 4 0 0 0 0 3 1
CRATES 4 0 21 0 0 0 2 0 5 0
RESOURCES 5 0 32 29 0 9 1 1 0 0
SCHEMATICS 2 0 74 0 1 0 1 0 0 0
LIGHTSABER 24 3 20 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
WEAPONS/MINES/TRAPS 125 1 72 0 1 2 1 5 9 0
ARMOR/SHIELDS 40 6 66 0 0 2 2 0 9 0
CLOTHING 5 0 25 0 0 2 0 0 1 0
STIMS/MEDICINES 7 0 15 0 22 0 2 0 0 0
FOOD/DRINK/SPICE 6 0 20 0 3 2 1 0 2 0
ATTACHMENTS 4 0 2 0 2 2 1 0 1 0
TISSUES/ADDITIVES 0 0 17 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
CYBERNETICS 6 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
ART OBJECTS 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
OTHER OBJECTS 38 1 110 3 3 9 7 9 5 0
FACTION PETS 22 0 0 0 0 0 20 1 0 0
DROID PETS 49 0 60 1 5 1 106 1 17 0
CREATURE PETS 61 0 5 5 5 0 182 3 0 0
MOUNTS 1 0 0 1 1 0 19 0 0 0
VEHICLES 11 0 9 1 1 1 4 1 0 0
SHIPS/COMPONENTS 67 0 29 2 0 1 1 0 0 0
CAMPS 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 7 0 0
FACTIONAL INSTALLATIONS 82 2 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0
HARVESTING/CRAFTING TOOLS/STNS 1 0 34 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
VENDORS 1 0 79 1 0 1 0 1 0 0
HARVESTERS 2 0 24 23 0 2 0 0 0 0
FACTORIES 2 0 40 8 0 1 0 0 0 0
HOUSES/TENTS/HALLS 15 0 19 5 0 4 2 1 2 0
CANTINAS/THEATERS 10 0 2 0 1 2 1 1 2 0
GARAGES/OTHER BUILDINGS 4 0 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 2
SHUTTLEPORTS/STARPORTS 6 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
PARKS/GARDENS/MONUMENTS 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
PLAYER CITIES 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 11
CITIZENSHIP/VOTING 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
PLAYER ASSOCS 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
PERSONAL LIGHT 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
LANGUAGES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MACROS 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
NOTES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MAIL 0 0 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 4
TEXT 62 2 60 2 5 6 18 7 9 1
CHAT 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
EMOTES 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
UI 94 6 65 11 6 13 30 11 7 1
ICONS 14 2 1 1 1 3 3 2 0 0
HUD 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TARGETING 46 3 0 0 2 1 5 1 0 0
TOOLBAR/HOTBAR 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
DATAPAD/DEEDS/JOURNAL 22 1 15 3 1 1 28 1 0 0
MAPS/RADAR/WAYPOINTS/ARROWS 15 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
TRAVEL/MOVEMENT 66 4 4 1 2 1 19 5 4 0
LAIRS 21 0 0 5 0 0 3 1 0 0
CREATURE/DROID MOBS 117 1 1 16 1 0 23 16 0 0
NPCs 258 1 8 1 1 1 11 3 12 0
CONVERSATION 14 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AGGRESSION 18 0 0 2 1 0 14 3 0 0
AI 36 0 0 1 0 1 4 3 0 0
SPAWNING 63 0 1 0 0 0 7 1 3 0
TERMINALS 23 0 7 1 0 2 0 0 3 1
BAZAAR 0 0 31 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
BANK 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
MINIGAMES 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
THEME PARKS 53 5 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
DUNGEONS 46 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
BATTLEFIELDS 9 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
PLAYER EVENT PERKS 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TECHNICAL: VISUAL 68 5 18 6 5 8 6 1 1 0
TECHNICAL: SOUND 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
WORLD: ART 9 0 3 0 0 5 3 0 0 0
WORLD: AUDIO 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
WORLD: SPACE 161 1 37 2 0 0 4 0 0 0
WORLD: PLANETS 81 0 3 1 0 0 2 6 1 0
WORLD: KASHYYYK 34 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0
WORLD: NPC CITIES 18 0 1 0 0 3 1 0 0 0
WORLD: FS VILLAGE 38 4 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
WORLD: NPC BUILDINGS 10 0 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 0
WORLD: TERRAIN 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
WORLD: POIs 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
WORLD: ECONOMY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
WORLD: RACETRACKS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0
WORLD: EVENTS 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
GIFTS/VET REWARDS 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
TUTORIAL/NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE 3 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0
TRIAL ACCOUNTS 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CHARACTER TRANSFER 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
LOGIN/LOGOUT/LOADING 12 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 3 0
KEYBOARD/MOUSE/JOYSTICKS 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
LOCALIZATION 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CLIENT 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
SERVER 6 1 10 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
BETA/TESTING 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CUSTOMER SUPPORT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
TECHNICAL SUPPORT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DEV SUPPORT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
HOLOCRON/KNOWLEDGE BASE 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
WEBSITE/FORUM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
CORRESPONDENT/FAN FEST ISSUES 62 20 7 0 12 7 4 0 3 1
TOTAL: ALL FEATURES & PROFS 12362 265 2898 285 546 534 1191 282 411 49
METHODOLOGICAL NOTES
1. These numbers were obtained by entering every officially documented change (as described in the Publish Archive 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 sum the number of changes made for each category.
2. 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). Basically, if they made a change without explicitly acknowledging it in a publish note, it won't be included in this analysis. (If I started fishing for undocumented changes, I'd never finish this thing!)
3. Changes were broken down into four "classes":
- changes by type: (new features, enhancements, tweaks, nerfs, bugfixes)
- changes by playstyle (combat, crafting, entertaining, healing, etc.)
- changes by game feature (missions, GCW, vendors, NPCs, vehicles, etc.)
- changes by profession (Marksman, Architect, Dancer, etc.)
4. The previous version of this analysis considered only three types of change: Adds, Mods, and Fixes. Based on suggestions, this version expands on that classification system to track six types of change:
- ADD: major new feature
- ENP: minor player enhancement
- ENW: minor world enhancement
- MOD: minor tweak
- NRF: nerf to player capability
- FIX: bugfix
5. Some explanation of the definitions of change types is probably in order. I considered an "addition" to be a significant new feature, complex new content, or a new player capability available to most or all players. Some examples of this would be the Corellian Corvette, the Deathwatch Bunker, the initial release of mounts and vehicles, and new epic quests and events. A minor player enhancement would be a new capability whose impact was restricted to one or two professions or specific player abilities -- examples include new weapons, new tamable creatures, and critical fails on assembly no longer destroying components. Minor world enhancements are basically enhancements to the game that aren't player capabilities -- new system messages, UI enhancements, and client/server stability improvements are examples of this type of change. Mods are changes that aren't really enhancements but merely modify some existing feature or numeric value. Changing the stats of the T-21 or clarifying the text of a system message are examples of mods. (Note that a stats change that's good for one player but bad for another player will typically be considered a "mod," since it wouldn't be fair to both players to call it either an enhancement or a nerf.)
A nerf is a change that explicitly removes or weakens a player capability. From a developer's point of view there's always a good reason to nerf something, but it's still a nerf. That said, I exercised some subjectivity here, so not everything that someone might consider to be a nerf will be included... but most things that are clearly nerfs are definitely included. Examples include removing the ability to slice lightsabers, adding a delay to equipping armor, and removing the ability to give player actors text to speak. Finally, a bugfix is anything explicitly stated in a publish note to be a "fix" or a change to correct a bug or exploit. Note that this means some changes that people might consider to be nerfs actually get counted as bugfixes -- if the developers considered it to be an incorrect implementation of some feature, then it's classed as a bugfix whether it nerfs some capability or not. Examples of bugs (and this is just the tiniest fraction of the kinds of things considered to be bugs) are graphical glitches, mob warping, using abilities when you're dead or incapped, and typos in conversation text or messages.
6. Here's the full list of the ten "playstyle" categories:
- CMBT: combat
- FRC: Force usage
- CRFT: crafting, manufacturing, repair, and sales
- HRV: harvesting, surveying, sampling, and fishing
- MED: non-offensive healing
- ENT: entertaining
- PET: pet usage (Creature Handlers and pet owners)
- EXP: exploration (Scout/Ranger non-combat skills)
- ROG: rogues (Smuggler/Bounty Hunter)
- POL: political actions (Politicians)
7. A little explanation of the ten playstyle categories is probably advisable as well. Some of these are obvious: If it involved combat, it got a tick in the "Combat" column; crafting and entertaining got similar ticks in their columns. Any change related to healing skills got a tick mark in the "Med" column, but changes to purely offensive medical skills (Combat Medic DoTs in particular) went into the "Combat" column. I broke out Harvesting/Surveying/Sampling/Fishing from Crafting/Manufacturing/Repair/Sales because it's possible to do harvesting without being a "crafter"; lumping that with crafting would have lost some useful results. I also debated whether to split out Sales from Crafting, but ultimately left them together as they're done together so often that there's little value in splitting them. (I'm open to other viewpoints on this decision.)
Any change related to a Force ability got a tick mark in that column. Any change related to pet usage -- creature, droid, or faction -- got marked in the Pets column, and any changes to features that support the Explorer playstyle (mostly Scout/Ranger) got a mark in that column. Smuggler and Bounty Hunter features (mostly slicing and bounty missions) got a tick mark there. And finally, any change to Politician abilities got a tick mark.
8. Note that not every change got characterized as a playstyle change. Only if it affected a particular playstyle capability did it get marked. Things that affect all players (such as travel or UI options) didn't get a mark, nor did general changes to the game world (such as graphics or server stability). This is why the totals from the playstyle columns don't add up to 100% of all changes. It's also why the counts of changes per profession aren't higher -- changes that affect all professions aren't marked as significant.
9. It is, however, very important to understand that changes affecting a key game system -- crafting, combat, and entertaining in particular -- affect all the professions directly associated with that system. For example, the bugfix in Publish 5 that allowed the use of ingredients in backpacks during crafting was a change that affected all crafters, so every crafting profession got a tick mark. (Bio-Engineers didn't always match up with generic crafters, but did most of the time.) Likewise, any change related to combat actions generated a tick mark for every profession directly associated with combat. This includes Smugglers and Bounty Hunters, but does not include Scouts and Rangers (which I considered Explorer professions), or Combat Medics (which I grouped with the other two Healing professions of Medic and Doctor).
So if you're wondering why the number of changes for all combat professions is so high, and each combat profession has a similar number of changes, this is why. General changes to the combat system (including things that you can do only through combat, such as looting corpses) affected all combat professions, general changes to the crafting system affected all crafting professions, and so on.
10. Among the professions, I took the suggestion made by MsNil and Phaelyn to break Force Sensitive out from the Jedi profession. However, if you're interested in seeing the effect that Force use is having on SWG, then you can just average the numbers for these two professions to get a more accurate picture of that. This won't be perfectly accurate since there are some changes counted for both the Force Sensitive and Jedi professions. But it'll be close enough.
11. 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. Another was a breakout of changes made to support the new Force Sensitive system in Publish 10. By far the most significant breakout, however, was the list of changes made for the Combat Upgrade (Publish 15). This required converting official CU change descriptions from various places into specific change notes. Being as fair as possible to describe the key changes to how combat works, I wound up with 27 specific change items, which I then characterized just like every other change. Although I freely admit there's a certain amount of subjectivity here, I believe my breakout of the Combat Upgrade changes accurately captures the significance of those changes.
12. 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 a particular type (Add, Modify, etc.) could also be categorized as to game feature or affected profession. Some changes only affected the game world, for example.
b. Although I did my best to be accurate and objective 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%.
That said, the totals for the six change types (addition, mod, bugfix, etc.) do add up to 100%. Every change has exactly one tick mark in one of the six types, so adding up the totals for each of the six change types will exactly equal the total number of changes made.
13. Some changes were listed more than once in the official update notes -- they're duplicated word-for-word in more than one publish. In a few 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 allowed both changes to stand. This may incorrectly inflate the effect of duplicated changes, but I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the developers that their patch notes are accurate.
14. 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 Addition or Enhancement; if they used words like "adjusted" or "modified," I categorized it as a Mod (unless it was described as "significant," in which case it was categorized as a Player or World Enhancement). In all other cases, I made the most reasonable categorization I could.
15. The "Love" statistic that I calculated in version 1.0 is gone, gone, gone in this version. It was just too misleading. If you want to decide which professions or features the developers love the most (or least) and you don't like the rough assessments I made in the Observations section, then you should decide what matters most to you: new features or problems. If you think getting new features is what counts, then check the Addition, Player Enhancement and World Enhancement categories. If you're more concerned about not running into problems, then you'll want to examine the Nerf and Fix categories. Then you can decide for yourself whether your special interest has done well or poorly.
OBSERVATIONS
With as much data as there is here, there are bound to be a boatload of entertaining results that we can argue about. Here are some things I've noticed; feel free to agree, disagree, debate, or point out other things that you notice.
1. There's no question about it: no matter how you slice it, combat has gotten vastly more attention than other activity in SWG, and by a significant margin. Whether as a raw number of playstyle-related changes, or by comparing changes for combat professions to other professions, or counting up changes for features in general, combat gets radically more effort invested in it than even its closest competitor, crafting. And while it's true that "attention" isn't all good (combat professions have gotten a rough average of about 18 nerfs, compared to about 2 for crafters), the number of major content additions (roughly 50) for combat professions swamps everything else. Look at the groupings under "Feature Changes By Style" for Missions/Quests, Commands/Skills/Abilities/Moves, Creature/Droid Mobs and NPCs, and Space: nothing else even comes close to combat in terms of changes made. A lot of the changes for these features have been mods and bugfixes, but they've gotten plenty of major additions and enhancements as well. Creature pets have also done very well... but then pets are mostly about combat. Overall, the belief that Exploration and Socialization playstyle content has become unbalanced in SWG compared to Achiever content appears to be grounded in fact.
2. Bugfixes and minor mods account for just over two-thirds of all the changes to SWG. Minor enhancements to the game world account for one-fifth of all changes. New player abilities account for 7 percent of changes, while only 3 percent of all changes have been major content additions, and and only 3 percent have been nerfs. The ratio of major content to minor content and tweaks is understandable, but the number of nerfs seems low. What do you think?
3. Among the combat professions, the rogues (Smugglers and Bounty Hunters) have actually received special attention, while the Squad Leaders have languished. (The changes recently proposed for the Squad Leader profession, if implemented, will improve this situation somewhat, but not completely.)
4. Among the crafting professions, Artisans (as the basis for so many elite professions, and -- in the past -- having weapon and armor crafting abilities) have fared the best, while Bio-Engineers and Tailors have received the least positive attention. Bio-Engineers in particular have largely been forgotten except where their tissues are useful in armor for -- say it with me! -- combat players.
5. For sheer attention, you can't beat the Creature Handlers. For some reason, they have not only the highest number of major content additions and bugfixes, but the second highest number of nerfs as well. You'll have to decide for yourself whether all this attention adds up to being a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
6. Of all the professions, the Jedi are the most often nerfed, and the most painfully nerfed given that other professions (including Creature Handler and Bounty Hunter, the next most often nerfed professions) have also received access to more major content additions than Jedi. This does not mean that "the devs hate Jedi" -- it means that the game software governing what Jedi can do isn't working as well as the code for the other combat professions, and most likely indicates ongoing efforts by the developers to try to keep the Jedi profession balanced with other other professions despite the large number of people who (surprise, surprise) have picked up Jedi skills. It should also be noted that changes for Jedi did not begin appearing in patch notes until Publish 5, so combat changes generally did not affect players until then.
7. The game features that are the biggest losers in the "I Got Hit With the Nerf Bat!" competition appear to be Skills/Commands/Abilities/Moves, XP, and the GCW and faction. Most of these are related to combat. Important point: Other than XP, these features also received significant numbers of major content additions, so being nerfed didn't hurt them that much.
8. Of the objects that players can own (other than "Other Objects"), weapons and armor received far and away the most developer attention, including the most major content additions.
9. Among all structures, homes and PA halls received the most attention, while factional installations were the most frequently nerfed.
10. Oddly, Privateer Pilots have gotten slightly more attention than Imperial or Rebel pilots. Does this suggest that there's not enough of the GCW in space?
11. Take a look at the Correspondent/FanFest Issues category. Of the 98 changes identified as coming from Correspondents or FanFest suggestions, not a single one has led to the addition of major content. There have been 19 player enhancements, and 13 world enhancements, but no additions. On the other hand, you did get 5 whacks of the nerf bat courtesy of Correspondents/FanFest. (One related to the Nightsister Energy Lance way back in Publish 6, and three to Jedi and one to Riflemen in Publish 19.) I'm not pointing this out to beat up on Correspondents -- it's actually more about what suggestions by the Correspondents the developers have chosen to implement.
12. The devs are also apparently very interested your Correspondents have suggested regarding combat, the Force, and medicine: these got 62, 20, and 12 changes, respectively. By comparison, crafting and entertaining got 7 Correspondent/FanFest changes each, pets got 4, rogues got 3, Politicians got one, and Scouts/Rangers got zip. (Note: The Ranger profession is undergoing radical modification -- presumably with Correspondent input! -- so these numbers may change.)
13. An average of 4.42 changes per day (including weekends) is pretty amazing. If anything, maybe that's too many changes....
