Naoki Yoshida recent interview

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Did you actually play the game? Yes, players did start dropping off when Holocrons came out very slowly, however when CU was released HALF the playerbase up and left.

Also.. Ultima Online, Everquest, DAOC, WOW, WHO, SW:TOR are all very themepark related games. None of them are even close to what SWG:Pre-CU was.

SWG lacked content but its strength was all the content it has is extremely replayable. The Holocrons were not much content. However instead of adding more content and things to do. THEY changed the entire game.

It's your word versus people who were intimately involved in the product, but no, I never played it, I can only relay what people say. However, the bold part is important, because that is the number 1 sign an MMO is in death throes. The reason Yoshida pulled it off is that he shut down the game and basically launched a completely new one. He didn't change it in flight.

That was not directly what they stated. You took something out of context in an argument. They simply started it started losing playerbase when holocrons came out. It was a long time, almost a year and a half with little to no content being added to the game. OF COURSE THEY WOULD START LOSING PLAYERS!

Then, instead of content being added to the game they learn that they are taking everyones hard work and making it WORTHLESS. When CU came out:

EVERY ITEM IN THE GAME BECAME WORTHLESS, they redid the game. They pretty much removed it from the game.

Imagine grinding for months for Dreadwyrm gear, being the best in the game and the next day they change the game into a facebook game and Dreadwyrm armor is not only given away, but worthless.

Now imagine some of those pieces of gear, not only being worthless but ALSO deleted, removed from the game because its a new game.