Star Wars Galaxies: Holo speaks out!.. Part III

PicoTaco:

read your post holo and many many many times you said you want players to socialize in the community and blah blah blah. Why are you telling us, the people paying YOU how to play the game? one thing that i always liked about MMRPG's and other companies have said this too, in a MMRPG you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT. if you want to solo, fine, do it, if you want to be involved in the community fine, do it. I don't understand why your telling us, the players, who pay a monthly fee to keep the game running, how to play the game. To be honest, i will play the game however i want and as long as it doesn't violate the TOS it shouldn't matter to you how i play either.
It really upsets me that your trying to MAKE the community play a certian way to make the game look better than what it might really be. If someone wants a 10 person town, whats the big freakin deal. I don't understand why you care so much if its not some huge big town. To be honest, i like to solo and you might not care why but i will tell you, the fact is, most people annoy me. If i am involved in a HUGE player made town chances are there will be someone i DO NOT LIKE. if the community is smaller then i will know everyone in the community and the chances of someone i don't get along with will join it.

thats my rant, if i seem harsh, good, i mean to be, i don't like holo telling players how they should play the game.

PinkTaco
i will be banned sooner than you think

And Holocron's response:

You CAN have a clique. Just in the form of a PA, not a town. And that's because towns control space. I can't let a small group control a large area of space and on top of that be completely invulnerable. It's just practicality speaking there.
As far as "telling you how to play" goes... I am not a fan of trying to tell you how to play. At the same time, I have to be aware that every decision we make in the game design DOES "tell you how to play." Our inclusion or exclusion of features determines how you interact with one another and how you interact with the game. Whether I want that control over you or not, I have it. Ignoring that I have it leads to disaster.

I want you to have your own areas of the map. I also cannot give small groups exclusive control over large areas of the map. My safety valve for such a thing has been democratic votes. Players are asking to be able to skip democratic votes in favor of dictatorship-style towns ("we get to decide who can join or stay"). That removes my safety valve. Which means I can't really let you control territory.

-Raph Koster
Creative Director

The full article is here!