Originally posted by Rednecksith

Originally posted by Enigmatus
Does this guy have a fake hair and beard stored away or something? Because I swear the last time I saw him on any videos, he had hair on his head, and other times a beard too.

No, but they do make things called 'electric razors' these days which can remove unwanted hair. Pretty amazing, eh? (JK)

Overall I think this is great news. Hopefully Ohlen is next.

Okay, but he better not pull a Superman on me and slap on a fake beard and wig to prove otherwise.

*squints beadily at Daniel Erickson*

Originally posted by Rydeson
     About time Bioware cleans house on TOR......... and I"m glad they started top down.. The problems with TOR have nothing to do with the peon's at Bioware, it was the  executive decisions that FAILED in my opinion..  Daniel, this month you are the weakest link.. goodbye.. lol  SWTOR could actually make money with turning it into a reality TV survior show.. Who gets voted off the island next? 

I'm guessing that the 200+ staff laid off in the first round of layoffs would disagree with your top-down categorizaton. The staff laid off in the second round of layoffs would probably agree with those laid off in the first round. The staff laid off in the third round...

Originally posted by tiefighter25

Originally posted by Rydeson
     About time Bioware cleans house on TOR......... and I"m glad they started top down.. The problems with TOR have nothing to do with the peon's at Bioware, it was the  executive decisions that FAILED in my opinion..  Daniel, this month you are the weakest link.. goodbye.. lol  SWTOR could actually make money with turning it into a reality TV survior show.. Who gets voted off the island next? 

I'm guessing that the 200+ staff laid off in the first round of layoffs would disagree with your top-down categorizaton. The staff laid off in the second round of layoffs would probably agree with those laid off in the first round. The staff laid off in the third round...

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Originally posted by Rydeson

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Except BW intended to KEEP all those people and James Ohlen repeated it in almost every interview through launch time.

There are now 3 waves BECAUSE SWTOR failed and they are cutting down expenses, but it still loses money so they opted for freemiun conversion, and next step will be maintenance mode.

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Rydeson

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Except BW intended to KEEP all those people and James Ohlen repeated it in almost every interview through launch time.

There are now 3 waves BECAUSE SWTOR failed and they are cutting down expenses, but it still loses money so they opted for freemiun conversion, and next step will be maintenance mode.

these layoffs are making me thing that we might not see f2p and this game might shutdown on or before december

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Rydeson

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Except BW intended to KEEP all those people and James Ohlen repeated it in almost every interview through launch time.

There are now 3 waves BECAUSE SWTOR failed and they are cutting down expenses, but it still loses money so they opted for freemiun conversion, and next step will be maintenance mode.

I'm not looking the quote up to provide proof but yes, BioEA stated they had full intention on keeping ALL the staff so they can keep the content coming. The old excuse that every game downsizes staff after launch thing does not apply here when BioEA made a loud point to say it will not happen to them. But it did didn't it?

They couldn't even live up to their content promise before the layoffs, and as a result the game tanked and layoffs were inevitable.

Originally posted by lotaparty

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Rydeson

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Except BW intended to KEEP all those people and James Ohlen repeated it in almost every interview through launch time.

There are now 3 waves BECAUSE SWTOR failed and they are cutting down expenses, but it still loses money so they opted for freemiun conversion, and next step will be maintenance mode.

these layoffs are making me thing that we might not see f2p and this game might shutdown on or before december

That would indeed be a gigantic disaster but I doubt that EA could afford to take the hit in terms of what the publicity would do to its already catastrophic share price. My own opinion is that the game will putter along with an ever decreasing staff until it's just twelve players, one server, a janitor and his cat.

Originally posted by lotaparty

Originally posted by mikahr

Originally posted by Rydeson

     Those two things aren't related..  I'm not defending TOR, but it is common in the MMO industry to lay off many of the staff after a game launches and development size is no longer needed..  Even if TOR didn't lose most of their subscribers as quick as they did, those layoffs were going to happen, fail or success..  I'm just saying It's nice to see that sh**t rolls up hill...  MMO staffing is alot like pre-season football.. You have 3+ years to impress the boss, because after launch, many will get cut from the team and they know it..  It's just the nature of the beast..

Except BW intended to KEEP all those people and James Ohlen repeated it in almost every interview through launch time.

There are now 3 waves BECAUSE SWTOR failed and they are cutting down expenses, but it still loses money so they opted for freemiun conversion, and next step will be maintenance mode.

these layoffs are making me thing that we might not see f2p and this game might shutdown on or before december

I'm just not seeing that here tho altho the subscription bleed continues.  I cked the server status last night, 8:30pm central " US prime time", of TOR and there was only 3 "heavy" servers and the rest were now standard.

I can't see EA walking away from this investment without trying everything they possibly can to re-coup even a bit of it.  1st, will be F2P with cash shop, next will be P2W, but however, if that doesn't work for them, I have no doubt that EA will cut their losses and not think twice about it.  I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD.  Nor do I believe that any closure date will hinge solely on any blue-sky contract with LA.  If and when a decision like that is made, I would think that EA will hand it over to their legal dept. and nego a final settlement package with LA and be done with it.

I believe we can safely say that EA is not looking to rebuild the game into something that will sell to the populus.  By their actions, they seem to be more into "get whatever we can out of it the way it is without putting any more money into it" while minimizing costs in the process.

Not really surprising considering he and the other guy were the ones who directly were quoted as giving the idea that SWTOR's gameplay and features were not only different but the most epic experience anyone's had in mmo's prelaunch.

Time to clean house because the real talent left long ago. Multiple talented artists writers musicians all left the dev team shortly after launch. if that wasn't a sign i dunno what is.

Just like at Blizzard when they lost their main team and Ghostcrawler took over tho blizz never did anything with GC.

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD. 

SWG was never in maintenance mode. What I call maintenance mode is like Vanguard, servers running, not being shut down and no updates happening. There was updates being done to it virtually every other week, and major updates done evry month or two. After the breach in May 2011, they put in the Bounty Hunter Space update, and was working on GCW 2 Space update which got put in just after the closure announcement. Chronicles 2 was in the works to, but got cancelled. None of this would have happened if it was in maintenance mode.

SWG had more updates done to it in 2011 than SWTOR has done since it launched!

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD. 

SWG was never in maintenance mode. What I call maintenance mode is like Vanguard, servers running, not being shut down and no updates happening. There was updates being done to it virtually every other week, and major updates done evry month or two. After the breach in May 2011, they put in the Bounty Hunter Space update, and was working on GCW 2 Space update which got put in just after the closure announcement. Chronicles 2 was in the works to, but got cancelled. None of this would have happened if it was in maintenance mode.

SWG had more updates done to it in 2011 than SWTOR has done since it launched!

Sorry, but /disagree.  SWG was a great game I personaly miss, 1 that the wife and I played everyday for 7 years and still mention in passing at least once per/week.  But after the failure that was C6CD maintenance mode came.  Devs were stripped 1 by 1 until we were left with just 2, T2 and Hjal.  (not all of that was bad as it finaly got rid of Blixtev)  While the downgrade was even happening, devs such as AdeptStrain coded some of the best features that players touted ALL on their off, unpaid, personal time.

Those 2 were the ones that made it feel it was not maintenance mode.  I seen T2 and Hjal both working, loged on to the forums many times, and talking, at 11:00pm central time (their time as well).  These devs were the cream of the crop and determined to keep the game going, listening to their playerbase, and developing accordingly.  But they were only 2 and they said that as well.  Most of the new content was re-vamps, such as Night Sisters, as they got the most bang for the buck re-doing something existing and reusing development rather than starting from scratch with new.

Your feeling of not maintenance mode came in spite of maintenance mode and SOE San Diego and due to just the commitment of the remaining devs.

What did any1 really expect with TOR?  This was the NGE devs (Dallas Dickerson et al) and we already knew their MO.  All you had to do was remember NGE and the aftermath there.

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD. 

SWG was never in maintenance mode. What I call maintenance mode is like Vanguard, servers running, not being shut down and no updates happening. There was updates being done to it virtually every other week, and major updates done evry month or two. After the breach in May 2011, they put in the Bounty Hunter Space update, and was working on GCW 2 Space update which got put in just after the closure announcement. Chronicles 2 was in the works to, but got cancelled. None of this would have happened if it was in maintenance mode.

SWG had more updates done to it in 2011 than SWTOR has done since it launched!

Sorry, but /disagree.  SWG was a great game I personaly miss, 1 that the wife and I played everyday for 7 years and still mention in passing at least once per/week.  But after the failure that was C6CD maintenance mode came.  Devs were stripped 1 by 1 until we were left with just 2, T2 and Hjal.  (not all of that was bad as it finaly got rid of Blixtev)  While the downgrade was even happening, devs such as AdeptStrain coded some of the best features that players touted ALL on their off, unpaid, personal time.

Those 2 were the ones that made it feel it was not maintenance mode.  I seen T2 and Hjal both working, loged on to the forums many times, and talking, at 11:00pm central time (their time as well).  These devs were the cream of the crop and determined to keep the game going, listening to their playerbase, and developing accordingly.  But they were only 2 and they said that as well.  Most of the new content was re-vamps, such as Night Sisters, as they got the most bang for the buck re-doing something existing and reusing development rather than starting from scratch with new.

Your feeling of not maintenance mode came in spite of maintenance mode and SOE San Diego and due to just the commitment of the remaining devs.

What did any1 really expect with TOR?  This was the NGE devs (Dallas Dickerson et al) and we already knew their MO.  All you had to do was remember NGE and the aftermath there.

Well glad to see there are other people seeing what TOR really is: the much desired LA NGE. 

Thing is they forgot a few thing in the equation

• If you sell it with a monthly fee it has to be a MMO
• V.O. content, unless you deliver it faster when what the players burn through it you loose.
• The game lacked many standard MMO features @ launch
• They never listened to the player feedback
• And the last and biggest issue was a really bad communication management.

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD. 

SWG was never in maintenance mode. What I call maintenance mode is like Vanguard, servers running, not being shut down and no updates happening. There was updates being done to it virtually every other week, and major updates done evry month or two. After the breach in May 2011, they put in the Bounty Hunter Space update, and was working on GCW 2 Space update which got put in just after the closure announcement. Chronicles 2 was in the works to, but got cancelled. None of this would have happened if it was in maintenance mode.

SWG had more updates done to it in 2011 than SWTOR has done since it launched!

Sorry, but /disagree.  SWG was a great game I personaly miss, 1 that the wife and I played everyday for 7 years and still mention in passing at least once per/week.  But after the failure that was C6CD maintenance mode came.  Devs were stripped 1 by 1 until we were left with just 2, T2 and Hjal.  (not all of that was bad as it finaly got rid of Blixtev)  While the downgrade was even happening, devs such as AdeptStrain coded some of the best features that players touted ALL on their off, unpaid, personal time.

Those 2 were the ones that made it feel it was not maintenance mode.  I seen T2 and Hjal both working, loged on to the forums many times, and talking, at 11:00pm central time (their time as well).  These devs were the cream of the crop and determined to keep the game going, listening to their playerbase, and developing accordingly.  But they were only 2 and they said that as well.  Most of the new content was re-vamps, such as Night Sisters, as they got the most bang for the buck re-doing something existing and reusing development rather than starting from scratch with new.

Your feeling of not maintenance mode came in spite of maintenance mode and SOE San Diego and due to just the commitment of the remaining devs.

What did any1 really expect with TOR?  This was the NGE devs (Dallas Dickerson et al) and we already knew their MO.  All you had to do was remember NGE and the aftermath there.

Well glad to see there are other people seeing what TOR really is: the much desired LA NGE. 

 

Thing is they forgot a few thing in the equation

• If you sell it with a monthly fee it has to be a MMO
• V.O. content, unless you deliver it faster when what the players burn through it you loose.
• The game lacked many standard MMO features @ launch
• They never listened to the player feedback
• And the last and biggest issue was a really bad communication management.

Oh, I seen that after about 10 minutes in beta for TOR, no matter who wanted the NGE, these guys made TOR the "ultimate NGE".  That's what they knew, what the thought worked, and they were SOE trained and approved.

And the best part of this is, they can't blaim it all on "marketing" this time as Rubenfield did with the NGE.  EA marketing did a bang-up job.  This time they have nothing to blaim except the development itself.  "It was the CHANGES, Mr Rubenfield".

All you point out, except for the VO, was all there with the NGE as well.  It's just what these guys do.

Smed must be laughing his tail off right now.  I'm sure he's aware that after all with TOR is said and done, no1 will even remember the NGE, much less talk about it anymore.  He's almost off the hook.

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 I doubt here that TOR will ever be put on maintenance mode for years like SWG after the repercussions of CU, NGE, and C6CD. 

SWG was never in maintenance mode. What I call maintenance mode is like Vanguard, servers running, not being shut down and no updates happening. There was updates being done to it virtually every other week, and major updates done evry month or two. After the breach in May 2011, they put in the Bounty Hunter Space update, and was working on GCW 2 Space update which got put in just after the closure announcement. Chronicles 2 was in the works to, but got cancelled. None of this would have happened if it was in maintenance mode.

SWG had more updates done to it in 2011 than SWTOR has done since it launched!

Sorry, but /disagree.  SWG was a great game I personaly miss, 1 that the wife and I played everyday for 7 years and still mention in passing at least once per/week.  But after the failure that was C6CD maintenance mode came.  Devs were stripped 1 by 1 until we were left with just 2, T2 and Hjal.  (not all of that was bad as it finaly got rid of Blixtev)  While the downgrade was even happening, devs such as AdeptStrain coded some of the best features that players touted ALL on their off, unpaid, personal time.

Those 2 were the ones that made it feel it was not maintenance mode.  I seen T2 and Hjal both working, loged on to the forums many times, and talking, at 11:00pm central time (their time as well).  These devs were the cream of the crop and determined to keep the game going, listening to their playerbase, and developing accordingly.  But they were only 2 and they said that as well.  Most of the new content was re-vamps, such as Night Sisters, as they got the most bang for the buck re-doing something existing and reusing development rather than starting from scratch with new.

Your feeling of not maintenance mode came in spite of maintenance mode and SOE San Diego and due to just the commitment of the remaining devs.

What did any1 really expect with TOR?  This was the NGE devs (Dallas Dickerson et al) and we already knew their MO.  All you had to do was remember NGE and the aftermath there.

A MMO having updates  = NO maintenance mode. Even if 1 dev was working on updates, it is still not miantenance mode.

Maintenance mode is no updates what so ever, and just them turning on double XP weekends or seasonal events etc. T2 and Hjal made maintenance mode void.

It made cut backs but was never in maintenance mode. "cut backs" is the more accurate term

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 

Oh, I seen that after about 10 minutes in beta for TOR, no matter who wanted the NGE, these guys made TOR the "ultimate NGE".  That's what they knew, what the thought worked, and they were SOE trained and approved.

And the best part of this is, they can't blaim it all on "marketing" this time as Rubenfield did with the NGE.  EA marketing did a bang-up job.  This time they have nothing to blaim except the development itself.  "It was the CHANGES, Mr Rubenfield".

All you point out, except for the VO, was all there with the NGE as well.  It's just what these guys do.

Smed must be laughing his tail off right now.  I'm sure he's aware that after all with TOR is said and done, no1 will even remember the NGE, much less talk about it anymore.  He's almost off the hook.

I believe Smed will never be allowed a reprieve. If anything TOR adds to the "I told you so". It will not at all surprise me when Smed is gone and buried that some NGE fanatic ingraves LOL on his tumbstone.

People have gotten so use to the hate. It's been how many years since NGE and nobody has cut any slack yet. That's a case study on it's own and I must admit I'm in that crowd too.

lol this game will not get shut down unless if in several years from now it has almost no income coming.

I like this guy, he seems really cool and had a passion for the game. Regardless of how SW:TOR performed post-launch, someones going to pick him up for his experience. But as of right now he's still working at BioWare, on SW:TOR.

Originally posted by Bardus

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by Deewe

Originally posted by Esquire1980

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Esquire1980

 

Oh, I seen that after about 10 minutes in beta for TOR, no matter who wanted the NGE, these guys made TOR the "ultimate NGE".  That's what they knew, what the thought worked, and they were SOE trained and approved.

And the best part of this is, they can't blaim it all on "marketing" this time as Rubenfield did with the NGE.  EA marketing did a bang-up job.  This time they have nothing to blaim except the development itself.  "It was the CHANGES, Mr Rubenfield".

All you point out, except for the VO, was all there with the NGE as well.  It's just what these guys do.

Smed must be laughing his tail off right now.  I'm sure he's aware that after all with TOR is said and done, no1 will even remember the NGE, much less talk about it anymore.  He's almost off the hook.

I believe Smed will never be allowed a reprieve. If anything TOR adds to the "I told you so". It will not at all surprise me when Smed is gone and buried that some NGE fanatic ingraves LOL on his tumbstone.

People have gotten so use to the hate. It's been how many years since NGE and nobody has cut any slack yet. That's a case study on it's own and I must admit I'm in that crowd too.

Smed is off the hook for the NGE, as that was down to LA. Julio Torres (of LA) was the one who was headlining the NGE and talking in delight how it was going to be absolutely great and awesome, I can not find any thing from Smedley talking about it with the same delight

But he is back on the hook with this ProSieben deal.

He knows the best thing to do is allow existing customers the choice for SOE or go to ProSieben, but he can not do it, because he is gutless to approach Sony or PSS1 bosses with that request.. It is the same reason how he allowed the NGE to happen, he was too gutless to stand up to LA and say the NGE was a bad move.

SOE / Smedley does listen to the players, only when they are in full control, and do not have to do any negotiating with people who pull the strings. He did save EQmac and made it completely free,  and does their best not to shut down MMOs.