- Time
- Post link
The Movies
The changes to the OT continue with the 2004 releases with rumors circulating on more changes for some future release, possibly 2007. The prequels are now even rumored to be receiving the special edition treatment, adding to the fact the very strong opinions as to the quality of the films when they were released.
The Toys
I've always paid attention to the SW toy situation. I used to regularly visit rebelscum.com to see what was getting released. Over the last year, there have been a lot of complaints about repacks of various figures while other seemingly important characters are going unnoticed. Hard to believe that as of the ROTS release, we still haven't had a carded release of Wedge Antilles, but we got scores of repacked Cantina Han Solos. I don't even collect this stuff and I know that. Comes from listening to constant complaints about who's running Hasbro these days. A recent visit to creaturecantina.com resulted in reading a list of the best and worse SW toys of 2005. Seems to be a bit of dissatisfaction with quality. Many toys are being made pretty crappy, it seems.
The Games
This is something I pay attention to as I like the SW games. First there's the KOTOR 2 poochscrew. They released the game last xmas when the game wasn't even completely finished and it was royally obvious that the game was finished either. Then there's the Galaxies situation playing itself out now. The game recently went through a total overhaul that negated much of the time and effort many players went through to build up their characters since the game's release 2 years ago. Then there's the Jedi Knight 2/Jedi Academy issue. Jedi Academy is basically a glorified mod for Jedi Knight 2. Jedi Academy was what Jedi Knight 2 should have been. JK2 was released in April 2002 and JA was released in August 2003 and featured scores of things that weren't in JK2. The funny thing is when you play JA, the saber moves are flawed majorly when the JK2 saber moves are pretty damn good.
The Books, etc.
I don't read them much anymore, but since the prequels came out and the EU shifted toward that time era, I noticed a lot of opinions that the quality of the EU has dropped sharply. From some of the stuff I've skimmed, I would agree. Why do you have to buy a book series to explain unanswered questions from the movies when the movies should have done that in the first place? Is it possibly to sell more books, I don't know.
Celebration 3
I was there and I can honestly say that it was not that great. Aside from Lucas being there, it wasn't noteworthy at all. They had a lot of guests signing autographs, but there weren't any of the BIG, BIG names. The dealers weren't that impressive with their wares. The exhibits were too crowded and you couldn't get in to see half the shows that were offered. The place was oversold and was WAY TOO crowded. You could barely move through it at all. Fan Club membership meant nothing. They were selling memberships at the event which meant that EVERYONE was in the fan club...all 36,000 people who showed up. So much for special fan club only stuff. The C3 store was a complete disaster. No one could get in at all. The line for it was 7 to 8 hours long and they closed it up when they realized they didn't have enough stuff. And the party held on Saturday night was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. If it wasn't for alcohol.....
This is all I an think of right now, but it seems that SW is on a general decline in terms of quality. The only field I can speak with authority is the games cuz I've played those and know of what I speak. The rest is just what I've heard from people who have experience in whatever part of SW they like (toys, books, etc). It just seems to me that the whole franchise has shifted to a cash cow kind of mentality....as in let's make the most amount of money we can.
What do any of you think? Are SW products and the franchise as a whole on a decline?
Sorry to post so long.....can't get to sleep.