You all should learn to whine less ,  FLS ( Flagship studios) havent said anything about selling out.

If SOE gets into this they will only handle the online account / billing system.

With all those SOE hate thread.  Show the board get it's own "We are angry at SOE" or something?

Just a suggestion.

I think if you post 5 times in 15 different SOE hate threads, you get a bumper sticker, and after 10 posts in 35 threads you can download a special "I hate SOE and am a whining loser" avatar.  Matching that in we hate EA threads gets you a 1337 signature download also.

Originally posted by Shannia

Ethion,

We are not talking about the game here.

We are talking about marketing and distribution.  SoE launched PoTBS's official pre-order campaign. SoE put those boxes together.  That is their job.   Boxes that people are buying at stores are all screwed up.  Some boxes are empty.  Other boxes have codes in them with no CDs.  Still other boxes have CDs in them without any codes.  Combine that with SoE's patching servers on the Stress Test weekend where people are taking over 18 hours to download a PATCH for a game and you are combining for a horrible experience.  All of this is/was SoE's responsiblity.  No one is bashing anyone.  We are just explaining facts.

The fact of the matter is, intentional or not, FLS and PoTBS is bent over the coals by SoE.

How on earth is that SoE bashing?

 

 

Regardless, there's a month or more till the game starts, plenty of time to straighten out any issues.....

Originally posted by kwai

You all should learn to whine less ,  FLS ( Flagship studios) havent said anything about selling out.

 

If SOE gets into this they will only handle the online account / billing system.

Acutally Flagship does Hellgate London.  We're Flying Lab Software :)

Originally posted by Shannia

Ethion,

We are not talking about the game here.

We are talking about marketing and distribution.  SoE launched PoTBS's official pre-order campaign. SoE put those boxes together.  That is their job.   Boxes that people are buying at stores are all screwed up.  Some boxes are empty.  Other boxes have codes in them with no CDs.  Still other boxes have CDs in them without any codes.  Combine that with SoE's patching servers on the Stress Test weekend where people are taking over 18 hours to download a PATCH for a game and you are combining for a horrible experience.  All of this is/was SoE's responsiblity.  No one is bashing anyone.  We are just explaining facts.

The fact of the matter is, intentional or not, FLS and PoTBS is bent over the coals by SoE.

How on earth is that SoE bashing?

 

 

Well I would guess if things are as bad as you are saying then FLS should switch to another partner for launching the game.  It is FLS's business and it is their success or failure to manage.  If SOE isn't performing then they need to decide to go with another company.

Honestly it is stupid to think that SOE is screwing up to cause FLS to fail so they can buy the game... I suppose SOE has people in black helicopters flying around shooting FLS developers up with drugs to numb there brains while they are at it...

If FLS is successful I'm sure that is a good thing for SOE.  If FLS fails I'm not sure that is a good thing for SOE....  Buying a failed game is also something I'm not sure SOE will do for every case I mean how many can you buy before enough is enough?

hi you're special. all i'm saying is that ppl are naive to think that EA or MS are going to be any better than SOE.  sorry didn't know that wasn't clear enough for you.

Originally posted by project8six

hi you're special. all i'm saying is that ppl are naive to think that EA or MS are going to be any better than SOE.  sorry didn't know that wasn't clear enough for you.

I'm not saying that M$ and EA are perfect.  Far from it.    More often than not, those two companies do get other people's MMORPGs to market without a hitch.  With SoE, you can't show me one example of where SoE was responsible with publishing/marketing/distribution of someone else's MMORPG where it was without problems, yet there own stuff shows up on shelves like magic most of the time!

Lol, this is old news...a very old old news. FLS doesn't listen to what we said before and do not hold your breath that they will now. PotBS will be ruin and thanks to SOE. Another SCORE for SOE!

To FLS, you guys better get a good marketing company. SOE stinks! And it's all over the net, almost all of the gaming board that I go to has issues about SOE. Goodluck, I hope I see you ingame!

Originally posted by Shannia

 

Originally posted by project8six

hi you're special. all i'm saying is that ppl are naive to think that EA or MS are going to be any better than SOE.  sorry didn't know that wasn't clear enough for you.

 

I'm not saying that M$ and EA are perfect.  Far from it.    More often than not, those two companies do get other people's MMORPGs to market without a hitch.  With SoE, you can't show me one example of where SoE was responsible with publishing/marketing/distribution of someone else's MMORPG where it was without problems, yet there own stuff shows up on shelves like magic most of the time!

 

 

lol. this game is going down hill, there going to take out PoTBS, i can assure you they will. with how the launch is going right now. EA/GWF would do a much better job then SOE.EA selling alot of good games and not having problems. GWF would have a good publishing and distribution.

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Originally posted by Bloodlust221
lol. this game is going down hill, there going to take out PoTBS, i can assure you they will. with how the launch is going right now. EA/GWF would do a much better job then SOE.EA selling alot of good games and not having problems. GWF would have a good publishing and distribution.

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;)

The problem with SoE is they pick up all these games but put no effort or money into them. They ditched G&H because they weren't willing to invest anything into the development. So basically they were willing to publish a crappy game as long as they make money off of it but they aren't willing to take the risk. They forced vanguard out about a year ahead of what it should have been for the same reason. To cash in and take over the game knowing it would never succeed in the shape it was in. Why anyone would play any game that has anything to do with SoE is beyond me. They have been screwing over their customers for years with all their piss poor management of MMO's. They don't give a flying fuck about putting out a solid game they only care about the bottom line. It's too bad they can't figure out that making a good game would make them alot more money than all these bullshit deals with all the games they destroy.

Originally posted by skeptical

The problem with SoE is they pick up all these games but put no effort or money into them. They ditched G&H because they weren't willing to invest anything into the development. So basically they were willing to publish a crappy game as long as they make money off of it but they aren't willing to take the risk. They forced vanguard out about a year ahead of what it should have been for the same reason. To cash in and take over the game knowing it would never succeed in the shape it was in. Why anyone would play any game that has anything to do with SoE is beyond me. They have been screwing over their customers for years with all their piss poor management of MMO's. They don't give a flying fuck about putting out a solid game they only care about the bottom line. It's too bad they can't figure out that making a good game would make them alot more money than all these bullshit deals with all the games they destroy.

As for Vanguard, as has been covered numerous times, they didn't *force* anything.  Sigil, and it's CEO Brad McQuaid, were the ones who chose to ship the game before it was ready.  SOE was just left to pick up the pieces after Sigil imploded.  SOE should get credit for the fact that Vanguard is still operating at all, not blame for Sigil's mistakes. 

Rick,

You're going to have to stop interjecting logic, reasoning, an facts in your posts. The anti-SOE folks won't know how to deal with them. 

/tk

''Microsoft had wanted to launch this thing in July of 2006,'' Mr. Smedley said. ''We felt like the game needed more time, and we have given it more time, but at some point enough is enough, and we have to ship the game and start generating revenue.'' -John Smedley

Sorry Rick,   SOE pulled the trigger on the release date.  Saying the Sigil "chose" to launch is about as far from the truth as one could spin things.

SOE had all the bargaining power in the deal and I'm sure John is no dummy seeing what the likely outcome would be if the game failed.

Originally posted by RickSaada

 

Originally posted by skeptical

The problem with SoE is they pick up all these games but put no effort or money into them. They ditched G&H because they weren't willing to invest anything into the development. So basically they were willing to publish a crappy game as long as they make money off of it but they aren't willing to take the risk. They forced vanguard out about a year ahead of what it should have been for the same reason. To cash in and take over the game knowing it would never succeed in the shape it was in. Why anyone would play any game that has anything to do with SoE is beyond me. They have been screwing over their customers for years with all their piss poor management of MMO's. They don't give a flying fuck about putting out a solid game they only care about the bottom line. It's too bad they can't figure out that making a good game would make them alot more money than all these bullshit deals with all the games they destroy.

Actually, SOE wasn't ever an investor in G&H.  That was all Perpetual's baby.  Just like us, Perpetual contracted with SoE Platform Publishing to do distribution (although they chose to do their own billing).  SOE was only going to make money off the box sales, and spent quite a bit on marketing for ship dates that Perpetual kept failing to meet.  Eventually they chose to distance themselves from the game because they could see where things were going.  They *did* put money and effort into the marketing (magazine and web ads) but not into the development.  It's not that they ditched G&H because they cut off Perpetual's money, that was never the arrangement.  They may have had an opportunity to step in when Perpetual started to implode that they chose not to take (I don't know about that), but they distanced themselves just because they *didn't* want their name on the crappy game G&H was looking to be.

 

As for Vanguard, as has been covered numerous times, they didn't *force* anything.  Sigil, and it's CEO Brad McQuaid, were the ones who chose to ship the game before it was ready.  SOE was just left to pick up the pieces after Sigil imploded.  SOE should get credit for the fact that Vanguard is still operating at all, not blame for Sigil's mistakes. 

I agree w/this completely, even as a long time SOE customer w/mixed emotions (Eq1 and Eq2 are superior and the benchmark for the ENTIRE industry, yet look at what they did to SWG which could have been the finest video game in the known universe).

Look at SWG.  No advertising for the game whatsoever until the NGE hit.  Then it's all over the TV and internet.  Too bad they didn't promote the game when it was in its greatness. 

hawkeye74, looked at your sig and see you love Star Wars. Shame G&H or STO wont be making it to launch.

To me... SOE's mistake with SWG is hard to ignore since I was directly hit by it. I dont care about Vanguard or EQ. I was always a UO guy anyway. Even owned a boat in that game too.

A company that can ignore a playerbase and not even bat an eyelash at losing 75% sub base doesnt scream "trustworthy quality game makers". So of course people are hesitant to deal business with them. The whole problems with the pre-order didnt help either.

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Originally posted by Rekit
Flying lab came back saying that they were looking for a publisher and said it would not be likley SOE would be involved. Then when it was publicly known that SOE got the contract, they defended the choice saying SOE has experience, funding, knowledge, resources and that they would not be involved in development to reassure the public SOE could not ruin the game.

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I'm very curious of how POTB will turn out a year or so later, I'm not going to even try this game anyhow.