In a talk with Industry Gamers, President of SONY Online Entertainment and one of the creators of the Fantasy MMORPG EverQuest, John Smedley, shared some insight regarding the development of the recently closed Sci-Fi MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies.
Among his regrets are launching the game before space combat was ready and not listening to players more, stating:
“We would have encouraged more in-depth discussion with the community surrounding the idea of any game modifications.” This is a lessons-learned scenario, however, as Smedley views free-to-play as a way to help with player satisfaction, saying, “We think that ‘Free to Play, Your Way’ is our future. Giving players choices is the theme of how we’re moving forward as a company, which means greater flexibility for our player base.”