SOE Prez Bats Eyelashes At, Shows Leg to SWG Exiles

As I mentioned in this post John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, took part in a Reddit AMA following the announced closure of four MMOs. I skimmed it and this stood out:

[–]Cranks0 If you could relaunch a shutdown title which one would you pick and what would you do differently this time? permalink [–]j_smedley[S] SWG. I would do everything differently. SWG PLAYERS - OUR NEXT GAME (not announced yet) IS DEDICATED TO YOU. Once we launch it... you can come home now.

So, this guy representing the company that first HUGELY screwed up the game and eventually shut it down due largely to that screwing up wants do-overs?

 Huh.

It would be hard to overstate the popularity of the Star Wars IP.
Owning those MMO rights is a liscence to print money, and I'm sure whatever they release will do massive launch numbers. As a game it's in another, uh, galaxy from CoH, an original property with no preexisting audience aside from a presumed affinity with generic "comic book fans". But SWG exiles and CoH exiles are on the same diaspora, along with every other orphaned community from a cancelled game. Many respondents in that thread expressed their excitement and joy at a potential homecoming, and I don't blame them.

 As contemptuous as I am of NC, if they hinted in a similar fashion at a CoH sequel I wouldn't be able to contain my excitement- that sort of irrational loyalty is a fundamental strand of the geek genome, which explains my nostalgic affection for AD&D even though I haven't played since the Player's Handbook looked like this-
 

 I hate NC as virulently as you can hate any faceless corporate entity, I wish them ill and will laugh when they go under.

 But....just like those anonymous SWG players, I'd come running back if they re-opened CoH or turned out a viable sequel, even knowing that things would, sooner or later, end up in the same place, with opaque corporate logic dictating the destruction of my world.

 Again.

 Knowing I'm prone to these uncontrollable responses when it comes to games I love is the main reason I've sworn off corporate backed MMOs. Relationships with games are like relationships with people- it does no good to go on a date thinking you've got it all figured out and that it's just a casual thing so whatever. I mean, that's how I met my wife and it's been nearly 20 years since that first casual date. While you can safely have a one night stand (so to speak) with a single player game, which are essentially finished products by the time you play them, MMOs are constantly evolving, deepening and expanding, and that's what makes them seductive and potentially dangerous.

 The game we were playing at the end of CoH had very little in common with the game at launch other than surface cosmetics. A corporate MMO is like that archetypal Bad Girl who you know is no good, who just wants you for your money, but who only has to snap her fingers to make you come running.

 And the only viable defense against that sort of attachment is complete abstinence.