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What game would you unmake?
Part of Keen's adventure in MMORPG, Random things

I've been meaning to take up this challenge of intellectual nonsense for a week now. Paul Barnett posed a question on his blog asking everyone: "What computer game would you unmake for the betterment of mankind?". That's a tough one. It would be too easy to say "Vanguard" which has almost ascended to the rank of cliche in mmo discourse. It would also be too easy for me to succumb to my immense dislike for what World of Warcraft has become and somehow wish it away into nothingness. No, that would be too easy and probably a mistake since it has, in a twisted way, done some good for mmorpgs.

Okay, I've finally decided on a game that I would unmake. I would unmake Star Wars Galaxies. But, once done unmaking it I would remake it into the game it should have been from the beginning. Now there's a project I wouldn't mind sinking my teeth into. And not all of the game was bad. I really like the socializing and community aspect of the game. But not to get sidetracked into listing all the glorious changes I would have made to the game, I want to talk about why I would unmake SWG. It had so much potential. It was the first Star Wars mmorpg! The IP alone was enough for them to drive in an enormous player base right from the beginning. Ultimately the downfall of the game was one bad design mistake after another. How Jedi were handled was so poor and the storyline was botched and molded then botched ten times over. The combat mechanics in the game from the start were all wrong and no miraculously patching some years later could have recovered from the hole they dug themselves into.

What could have been a long running and powerful mmorpg with almost limitless content somehow found a way to implode and lose a huge amount of credit in the mmosphere. It should have been the Star Wars game that everyone would want to model future endeavors after, and not on a pedestal of what shouldn't be done in a mmo. Lucky for us the Star Wars name hasn't been tainted too badly. If all these rumors are true we might have another chance at playing in a galaxy far, far away.

Alright, that was my serious answer. Now for a bit of fun.

I would unmake, just because:

EA Sports: all of them.

Red Steel: Wii launch title, ugh

Battlefield Heroes: Squash them in development I say!

Second Life: For Darren.