Oh and btw, I love Turbine, but the ONLY reason Turbine has so much support for these low-grade contests is because Turbine is the ONLY company that actually sprays these things all over their main website page and their forums.  I went to the other developers and did not see any advertisement for this on ANY of them except Turbine.

Originally posted by Trevalon00

Well they ahve released 2 expansions packs this year.  Thats more than Blizzard and Turbine has done, so that alone is reason for them to be on there just as much as those games.

 

There thats your reason, and you cannot argue that logic either.  2 games, 2 xpacs is doing more in the industry than 1 game and 1 expac.

 

Oh and btw do you even play Everquest and EQ2? EQ2 EASILY has more active players than LOTRO does, EASY its very obvious if you actually play both games - in fact its pretty obvious that EQ2 has more subs than LOTRO, City of Heroes, and Eve.

So EQ2 is bigger than those 3 games which are the cornerstones of 3 of the companies on this list (Besides GW for NCsoft, but Guild Wars isnt even a true MMO.  ITs as much an MMO as freaking DDO was.)

The ONLY reason I could think of that SOE would be on the list for, is for the worst developer .   They don't have a major MMO in any category.  All they have left is a bunch of small niche games struggling to exist.  Even their flagship, EQ2, is not competitive any more, even though  it does still have a small, but dedicated following.

Yeah they still release expansions, does not mean they listen to their playerbase at all.  Probably the most out of touch developer in the market right now.

Been with Turbine games since AC1 Beta.  Tried EQ, DAOC, SWG, Horizons, COH, AO, WoW,  and several others.  For customer service, game quality, fun factor, free content update, et al... Turbine still wins hands down.  Yes, I did see a blurb on their website saying they were one of the companies nominated.  Glad they did.  They wouldn't get the votes if they didn't earn them.

Originally posted by Trevalon00

Oh and btw, I love Turbine, but the ONLY reason Turbine has so much support for these low-grade contests is because Turbine is the ONLY company that actually sprays these things all over their main website page and their forums.  I went to the other developers and did not see any advertisement for this on ANY of them except Turbine.

 

 

This is one of the things that imho makes Turbine fun and sets them apart they actually seem to care what people think of them and the product they make which in entertainment is pretty important and certainly does give a person the sense that they are actually involved intimately in the community and are in fact not just guys grinding out code trying to make it into the "nerd" hall of fame like Brad McQuaid or Gaute Godager. I'd reason that others in the industry probably feel the same way since so many other magazines and sites like these enter promotional endeavors with them quite often.

I will say this I hope with Sonys recent realigning that they can turn things around because I'm a product junky and I love to mark out for companies that I respect and sony is one of them but when I compare what we have to deal with from SOE to the offerings we get from this companies films and console games it just boggles my mind that some of the things that happen there do happen from the SWG debacle to the crap fest that Vanguard started out as and I forgot to mention POTBS wether they are the developers or backers far too often soe has thrown there lot in with substandard or unready products and that isn't something that an industry leader does maybe they are the superhero of mmo studios haha.

But in conclusion I do once again think maybe they should be added because it's obvious there are more than a few of us out there that would vote for them and again that would be good to see how people vote for them.

+1 to CCP :D

Can't say I'm a big fan of any of those studios. I would be a fan of the old Mythic, but the one being run under EA has no originality.

I'd have to say I'm a little surprised not to see SOE in the list and although its not a major company, PlayOnline and or Square Enix should have their place too imho.  Oh and you also forgot Ubisoft, creators of Shadowbane

Originally posted by Trevalon00

Oh and btw, I love Turbine, but the ONLY reason Turbine has so much support for these low-grade contests is because Turbine is the ONLY company that actually sprays these things all over their main website page and their forums.  I went to the other developers and did not see any advertisement for this on ANY of them except Turbine.

 

 

But that's part of why Turbine is good. They don't look at it as low grade or make judgment calls. They are very much part of the gaming community. They are a small dev company here in Massachussetts. If you look at their forums, they are there! Not only with "go here for help" or "send in a ticket" but making comments, making jokes, being part of the community.

If anything, my respect goes up for them many times more precisely because they get excited about this stuff. They are human. They are a community (and business of course) of people who like games. Are they perfect? Oh heck no. I can make an extremely long list of things that I dislike or hate about their games.

but they seem to be genuinely interested in the entire pie, not just the filling.

When I was playing, Lineage 2, even though we had great cm's, gm's etc, there was very little communication going on. It was only at the end with Mystryl and Alyra that it started opening up a bit.

I love NC games but they do come across as a "company". They make business decisions. Not to say that other companies shouldn't but at least Turbine seems to be a bit more.

Anyone that doubts Turbine is part of the community and watches what is going on in game, take a look at the jewlled bell example.

I love Lotro so I'll have to vote for Turbine.

I have to chose between Turbine and Mythic. Both are not great choices for me though. As EU customer I hate having to wait for patches that I read about in the released US patch notes. I wont support MMO's anymore that divide EU and US that way. Im totally fed up with this (with The Chronicles of Spelborn distribution being the ultimate failure in this).

If instead of NCSoft it would list Arenanet (from GuildWars, where NCSoft is publisher), I would go for them.

Mythic does however listen to the playerbase and address their issues in their patches. They also patch quickly. Just EU distributor GOA is not that fast to follow that up (EU servertransfers anyone?). So I guess I could say that Mythic is the least worse of the companies listed for me.

Edit: Changed my mind, I wont vote.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Trevalon00

Well they ahve released 2 expansions packs this year.  Thats more than Blizzard and Turbine has done, so that alone is reason for them to be on there just as much as those games.

 

There thats your reason, and you cannot argue that logic either.  2 games, 2 xpacs is doing more in the industry than 1 game and 1 expac.

 

Oh and btw do you even play Everquest and EQ2? EQ2 EASILY has more active players than LOTRO does, EASY its very obvious if you actually play both games - in fact its pretty obvious that EQ2 has more subs than LOTRO, City of Heroes, and Eve.

So EQ2 is bigger than those 3 games which are the cornerstones of 3 of the companies on this list (Besides GW for NCsoft, but Guild Wars isnt even a true MMO.  ITs as much an MMO as freaking DDO was.)

 

The ONLY reason I could think of that SOE would be on the list for, is for the worst developer .   They don't have a major MMO in any category.  All they have left is a bunch of small niche games struggling to exist.  Even their flagship, EQ2, is not competitive any more, even though  it does still have a small, but dedicated following.

Yeah they still release expansions, does not mean they listen to their playerbase at all.  Probably the most out of touch developer in the market right now.

I have to disagree. What they did since the NGE fiasco was pretty good imo. SWG has been improved loads since NGE. So has Vanguard.

More important for me is that as EU player I dont feel like a secondgrade customer like with WAR and LOTRO (patch delays and seperated official forums ftl!!).

I voted for Blizzard..

This isn't a poll about who have the best devs and customer support for there MMORPG games. (Even though this is a MMORPG site), but its a poll about who has the BEST STUDIO.

All I hear is about how Blizzard = WoW. Yes WoW is one of there biggest games ever, but they have also made Starcraft series, Warcraft series (the RTS), Diablo series, successful books and board games, and products steaming from all there successful games.

Blizzard might be best known for WoW now but go back to 2002 before WoW and mention blizzard and you would hear how GREAT Stracraft and Warcraft (RTS) is.

For that Blizzard gets my vote, $OE would be my 2nd choice though.

Now if this was What studio makes the best MMORPG games then Turbine would get my vote...

Originally posted by jaxsundane

Originally posted by Wizardry

Umm Square Enix and there Final Fantasy series is the 4th best selling series of all time and they are not in the voting list? lol.Bested by ONLY non MMORPG genres such as SIMS/mario.

Wow brags about there 10 millions subs lol and most of them are cafes/gaming pubs and RMT farmers.The Final Fantasy series only has 85+ Million copies sold.To top that off,there are MANY who have claimed it is very hard to purchase/ find a final fantasy game at times.Square does not market nor push there game to the public at all,they rely on QUALITY over marketing.

Funcom=weak,Turbine until LOTR =very weak...Blizzard =WOW success,size of there staff and money spent is an embarrasement to there final product.I see better results from the two Teenagers who made crash Banicoot.Sure WOW is a large game but each individual piece is very weak and would take nothing for a small time developer to easily top.

CCP=??? you kidding me?very weak developer,they are far behind even some small developers.

NCSOFT=RMT/RMT/botters/botters and a staff that couldn't care less to clean up there games.You can bet your ass they have staff involved in RMT or paid off by the RMT sites to turn the cheek.I have ZERO respect for NCSOFT,well there staff/managers.I guess there coders/artists/mappers deserve some credit,it's not there fault there heirarchy is so lame.

How SOE is not also in the list is too funny to mention.They have the most contraversy surrounding them in the whole world.There Everquest was the cornerstone of this whole MMORPG market.So much so that Blizzard chose to copy Everquest when designing there game,and MANY others still follow/use the exact same template.SOE also set the COST standards when charging for online services.Nobody charges more than the 15.99,witch has become standard.SOE is also the first to incoporate MANY new ideas to the MMORPG genre and the first to have there own RMT activity,keeping it safe for users and taking it out of the hands of the ILLEGAL sites that have no business making money off there hard work.

 

I love Square Enix as well but they have one mmo if I'm not mistaken so all those facts you point out mean moot since you are obviously adding in non mmo figures. And though you do differentiate between second party rmts and in house rmts what difference does it really make when they are asking you (in cheap ways I might add) to pay more money for a lame ass product you already bought I speak mostly on this subject in regards to that awesome TCG that has been incorporated into SWG what a joke. I think you just set back the argument that SOE should be included in this poll btw what exactly has SOE done this year to deserve a nod? And it's also questionable what SOE had to do wih the creation of Everquest anyway if I'm not mistaken the game was near release before they outright bought the company developing it. Read carefully this is a poll for mmo studio of 2008 not 1999 wasn't SOEs last release Vanguard? I rest my case.

Blizzard and WOW were released this year?LOTR and TURBINE were released this year?the original GUILD wars or Lineage2  this year? umm i am sorry but you are being biased talking about SOE when all the other ones listed are in the exact same boat.Funcom is new so they can be in there but up until AOC,they would not even be considered let alone listed to vote on.This is a poll for 2008 studios ,yes SOE is a studio in 2008 and will be for a VERY LONG time.

SOE is the innovator far above all these others.If you want SOE news for this year they have announced a game that will compete against Runescape[F2P].They have a game that hired a student [female]to work on it outside of their firm,that hit news.They are FOREVER in the news,a lot more than ALL these other developers.Blizzard keeps riding WOW and that is ALL they have going for them,they are a weak developer,if not for the money they made off of WOW they would still have Starcraft2 in the scrap heap.

To the guy wondering about Square Enix,they are the FIRST to have a MULTI platform MMORPG and they are the FIRST to have in game language translator.Why can't Blizzard make WOW for PS2/3? or Xbox360?no money?lol..no smarts?afraid?.This is why the pole asks WHO YOU TRUST,i have seen what other developers do, can't do or might do,Square is the one i trust foremost by a longshot.They also are building rpg games for ALL platforms not just the marketed ones like PS3/Xbox360.Square is a BIG mover in rpg games ,so i would trust them bigtime moving ahead to the future.

I would perhaps give Turbine a second chance after they botched everything else up,just because they show promise again with LOTR,the other developers ,i would most likely not buy any of their poducts.The only success story of them all is Blizzard but i see them stuck back in 2003,not moving forward at all,and they have the manpower and money to make it happen,they just don't.I think it lends to the fact that Vivendi almost went under once,so now that company is very cautious.

What CCP has done right:

Streamlined organizational issues for people who were incapable of doing it with Factional warfare.

Created an interest in pvp among those who didn't think they would enjoy it.

Worked long and hard to reduce latency issues and now players are able to get into fleet battles without 20 minutes worth of lag.

Tech 3

What CCP has done wrong:

Failed to follow up on warnings that Factional warfare isn't sustainable. Faction fleets are now hemmoraging members.

Continued to disrespect its members in an effort to gouge them for money with the GTC changes and lies to support removal of ghost training.

What Mythic has done right:

Deliver on features as promised.

No one else has communicated with their members as strongly, varied and effectively as Mythic even with their lack of official forums.

What Mythic has done wrong:

While the features are present the implementation has proven to be wrong and the intended effects are not occurring.

Made PvE more of a focus in the game than it was expected to be.

What Blizzard has done right and wrong:

This is a mixed bag for Blizzard. In many ways they are listening to their community and adding changes many want. The problem is that they have now acquired a community with very different tastes and anything to please one clique is intolerable for another.

Blizzard is in a catch 22 scenario unlike any other company.

What FUncom has done right

Fired/Released incompetent people to fix leadership problems.

What Funcom has done wrong

Too long to list but thing have improved with the one thing they've done right recently.

I can't comment on Turbine or NCsoft.

Turbine is the maker of the MMO which I have the fondest memorys for, Asheron's Call which was my first MMORPG and the one where I have had the most fun to date and played for the longest time (4 yrs or so). Every month they would have huge monthly patches where they would add new dungeons, new quest, new world events, new items, and lots of other goodies instead of "mini game" events like Blizzard does with World of Warcraft.

Its too bad that they never decided to remake AC3 remade like AC1 but with better grathics (not like AC2 which was a total failure) ... ah well

for this reason I think the company that listens to players more then any other company is Blizzard even though they make some pretty annoying moves like releaseing SC2 in 3 seperate games they always seem to make quality games that their players enjoy for years and years (I still play warcraft III custom games myself since it was released)

Turbine gets my vote.  They try to listen to the community, which is very hard as you can't please everyone and some would be impossible to please.  But they give it a good try.

I am so glad I went with the lifetime it is great.

My only big disappointment is being unable to play with my friends in EU.  I don't like separatation like that.

Ive had positive experiences with Blizzard and CCP. I haven't played any games from the other companies on that list. So im not voting.

Something to think about for all the people who only care about subscriber numbers...

World of Warcraft is the biggest. Nearing 11 million.

But what i'm wondering is what people think is the second biggest (Western) mmo. I know which one it is, and i know that people will never believe it, going by the fanboyism here^^

On another note, i'd recommend people to check out the Fanfest videos of EVE. CCP is pretty much one of the technology fore-runners of the industry, believe it or not.

Originally posted by Trevalon00

EQ2 has less subs than LOTRO? What makes you think that?  Now I could say that personally I play both games very actively and my LOTRO server is Silverlode (Which is a pretty active LOTRO server) and my EQ2 server is Mistmoore (Which is a pretty mediocre sever for EQ2) and my EQ2 always has more people than my LOTRO server on at max times (I have done /who tests on level ranges just out of curiosity on multiple occasions to test this theory .. Sure its not scientific but its a good indication).

So Assuming both games can house about the same players per server (And guarantee they can, I would even go as far as to say EQ2's can hold MORE players than LOTRO's can) then you could jus tlook at how many servers each game has as a good indication of playerbase.

LOTRO has 11 servers

Everquest 2 has 22 servers.

 

At least 3 of LOTRO's servers are almost completely dead and should have been merged years ago.

At least 6 of EQ2's servers are dead and should be merged.

Now that is not scientific in any way shape or form, but it is a VERY good indicator.

So I don't see where you could even logically THINK that LOTRO had a larger subscriber base than EQ2.

Actually LOTRO has over 22 Servers.

11 US/Oceanic and 11 EU servers. Plus they have seperate Servers for Japan, and seperate servers for China.  Im not sure of the exact numers for those though.

There was a poll about this recently

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/212952

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Turbine , wins this hands down.

Turbine is an abomination. They lost my respect, and the respect of thousands of others, when they NGE'd Middle Earth Online about 5 months from release and transformed it into LotRO almost overnight. They took an awesome concept, that people had played, and they had advertised for years, and flushed it down the toilet. Only reason you don't hear of it more is because no one that was looking forward to playing Middle Earth Online is currently playing LotRO. And during development, their PR was almost worse than Darkfall's, actually it was quite possibly worse. 

Blizzard is just a parasite that sucks ideas out of other games instead of inventing any. 

EA and SOE are MMO killers, when they aquire a game, it dies. 

So who does that leave? 
 

As much as I'd like to say Turbine, I find their games polished but boring.  They've never put anything out as fun as AC was, and they seem uninterested in redoing that game to bring it up to date.

Blizzard is good at taking other ideas and improving on them.  If they'd put out a game that didn't look like a cartoon, but had as much care and polish as WoW, I'd most likely be playing it right now.

SOE seems to make irrational decisions without much interest in what their player base thinks.  They've saved VG by putting it on life support, but that's about it.  They really haven't impressed me since EQ1.

NCSoft is meh.  I don't really like L2 other than the graphics, CoH was good but they didn't make it, and TR was a complete failure.  They might win me back over with Aion though as that's looking pretty good so far.

Cryptic might be good with CO and ST, but we'll have to wait and see.  I'm not much of a an Emmert fan as he seems to steam roll the players if they get in the way of his vision.

Honestly, I guess I don't have a favorite MMO studio at the moment.  They all kind of suck in their own ways.  If we could mash all of them together, we might actually have a good MMO company (or a complete disaster).  Who knows?

Like the last poster I really don't like any of them. I was thinking yesterday about how much fun eq1 was back in the day when druids and wizzy's were taxis and exploring the world of norrath was so very exciting. The market is saturated with crap now. Here's hoping 2009 reveals something new that is not rushed.

Not a very good list...

You Missed SOE with some of the best games out there including EQ2 and Vanguard.

Maybe you need to fix this?

Originally posted by WallisHall

Not a very good list...

 

You Missed SOE with some of the best games out there including EQ2 and Vanguard.

 

Maybe you need to fix this?

Had you actually read the other posts you would have seen this:

Originally posted by Stradden

Stradden: " Some have lost our trust or confidence entirely, while others have impressed us and gained our loyalty. "

NCSoft's President of Publishing, David Reid, 24 Sep 2008: "and we see improvement happening in Tabula Rasa. We're encouraged by it. ....It is a game that is very much in the wheelhouse of what NC West and NCsoft globally are all about"

NCSoft 21 Nov 2008: " So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009."

Yup, that just makes me gush with loyalty. Come on now be honest, you knew if you would have put SOE in the list the SWG Vets would come in with their alts and spam the living crap out of the board, so to bypass those boils you just dropped them. For all the glowing reports you all write on EQ2, The Agency and DC Online regularly, offers more variety in generes under a unique payment plan system like no other company, a company that incorporates Trading Card games into their MMO's or can be played seperately, how does the studio not impress you all?

Honestly, I'm really curious here.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

We wanted to narrow it down to six nominees. We talked about SOE, but in the end, we decided to go with NCsoft instead. The cancellation of Tabula Rasa aside, they are currently running two games that our readers tend to enjoy (GW and CoH) and have a big gun on the way with Aion. They have engendered a lot of loyalty from some folks and deserved to be on the list.

I'm not saying that there aren't arguments to be made for SOE's presence here, and I'm not trashing them, but in the end we decided to go with NCsoft.