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Orphes 5/10/08 5:31:45 PM
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Elite Member
Joined: 3/18/07
Jag har en som passar i melodifestivalen också. |
Q: We saw Vanguard go through a tough launch period last year - how do you feel the game has developed since then? John Smedley: Actually Vanguard has been doing quite well, and since the team has been moved down here to our San Diego office, we've been rocking and rolling on it, we're real pleased with it. It was a bit of a rocky road at first, but we've sold a few hundred thousand units of the game, and it's doing quite well. Q: Looking back, would you have changed the launch? John Smedley: Well, the problem was that it wasn't our game when it launched, we didn't buy it until after, so we just weren't in a position to do anything about that unfortunately. It was a company that was being run into the ground, and we needed to come in and take care of it. Q: Does that provide learning experiences as well, things to take into partnerships, maybe advice to give to developers? John Smedley: Here's the problem - it all depends on the deal, and every deal is different. For example, Perpetual with Gods and Heroes - behind the scenes in that they were putting on a brave face to customers, but we were giving them advice all the time - which was ignored. At some point you get to this point in development...in fact with Perpetual that was a direct result of the learnings we got from Vanguard - at one point they wanted to try and put the thing out early, and we said "Look, we're not interested - we don't care if we lose money, but if you put this thing out there, users are going to hate it, and it's going to be a bad release." Q: It's a pretty brave decision to have to take? John Smedley: I wouldn't call it brave, you just have to learn those lessons from things like Vanguard. I would say that the circumstances sometimes dictate things, and as a company we are less and less willing to do anything that might harm our reputation, and we want to make sure that our games are super-high quality.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/mmo-week-soe-president-john-smedley |
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Aethios 5/10/08 5:37:04 PM
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Elite Member
Joined: 7/18/05
I come here |
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Orphes 5/10/08 5:39:41 PM
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Elite Member
Joined: 3/18/07
Jag har en som passar i melodifestivalen också. |
Originally posted by Aethios Oh... make shure you are sitting down if you plan toread the full interview. If you smoke cigarettes, light one.
I mean if you react that way on that ;) |
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brostyn 5/10/08 9:07:55 PM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 1/29/04
Cynical? Me? Never. |
Originally posted by Orphes Talk about putting a brave face up to the customers. Since when does SOE care about its reputation with gamers? A little too late for that. |
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Orphes 5/11/08 4:22:17 AM
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Elite Member
Joined: 3/18/07
Jag har en som passar i melodifestivalen också. |
Originally posted by brostyn Cynical? You? Never.
:) |
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damian7 5/11/08 11:42:59 AM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 4/20/06
WTS - a clue. cheap. I do not support stupidity or weakness. Sorry. |
Originally posted by Orphes weird... because the folks from vanguard stated, NUMEROUS times that the release date was driven by the publisher, which would be SOE, which would be the ass clown of the ages - smed. guess it's ok to just lie and make up your own history. that's cool, not like anyone holds a grudge against SOE and smed for MANY games they've trashed. nope. not anyone at all. the second part is also odd, this IS the same smed that HAS made comments along the lines of "our goal is to deliver a bunch of average MMOs on the station pass", commenting that they weren't shooting for anything ground-breaking or superbly done, just average games to be bundled on the station pass. same smed right? damn, i'm glad no one remembers things and goes, "what an ass hat that can't even keep up with his OWN lies." good thing. hate to think that he would get a rep as being a buffoon to all the game players out there. |
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damian7 5/11/08 11:55:37 AM
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 4/20/06
WTS - a clue. cheap. I do not support stupidity or weakness. Sorry. |
hmm...
Q: What have you learned about the community aspect - Star Wars: Galaxies, for example, went through a difficult transition period. John Smedley: The lessons we've learned from our community have just been extraordinary. For years now we've been running something called the Influencer Summit, where we pull 100 people, and 50 of those people will be our worst critics. So one of the things we're trying to do is listen better as a company, and over the past few years I think we've done that - I'm really proud of the strides we've taken in that direction. Listening is a very important skill.
orly?
Q: Why do you think there was that response?
John Smedley: Because we didn't listen. I think we were a little too arrogant as a company. We thought we knew what was best as a company, and we should have listened more. That's really the biggest lesson we've learned as a company in the last eight years. Listening to our customers is everything.
is that why there are those pre-cu SWG servers up and running currently? because they're listening to their customers? oh wait, that would mean that smed both tells the truth and has a clue about the "players". my bad. |
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demo3210 5/11/08 12:21:45 PM
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Apprentice Member
Joined: 11/17/07 |
How could their reputation possibly become any more ruined than it already is? What reputation do you have Smed other than being a troll mongering MMORPG ogre that sucks the life out of everything good in this world? It's impossible. "super-high quality". Good use of vocab Smed, you piece of....
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Orphes 5/11/08 12:38:53 PM
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