Yesterday, Managing Editor Jon Wood had a chance to sit down for an interview with Chris McKibbin and Daron Stinnett from perpetual Entertainment to talk about the recent announcement that Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising would be put on "indefinite hold", as well as the future of the company and Star Trek Online.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down for a short interview with some of the people over at Perpetual Entertainment. In case you’ve been living under a rock, up until a short time ago, Perpetual Entertainment was developing both Star Trek Online and a game called Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. That changed, however, on October 9th when it was announced that the Gods & Heroes project would be put on indefinite hold. The sudden announcement surprised many in the community, which led to my conversation yesterday with: Chris Mckibbin, the co-founder of Peretual, Daron Stinnett, Chris Launius, Community Manager and Richard Zinser, the VP of Game Services.

When I asked the group why exactly they had chosen to put the game on indefinite hold, I was pointed back toward the official statement that the company issued back on the 9th. “The decision to put [the game] on hold was a result of looking at all of Perpetual's opportunities,” answered Mckibbon, “Gods & Heroes, Star Trek, and the Perpetual Platform Services business.”

“Why then,” I asked, “was Gods & Heroes in particular chosen of the three for the hold?”

Read it all here.

Another MMORPG Dead-Link

You're too quick for me. I was just putting that in! Done now!

Originally posted by Stradden

You're too quick for me. I was just putting that in! Done now!

Nice write-up, by the way.

One could also speculate :

*  They realized that RV had captured what little ancients market there was to be had.
*  RV had 'poisoned' the ancients market
*  They were not willing to invest THEIR money in the project (I think this most likely)

Good Hunting

I just think it's funny that I could go to my local Best Buy or gamestop and still pay money to pre-order the game.  They haven't taken the box off the shelf yet and probably won't for a while.  I feel sorry for people who do buy that pre order box now.

I beta tested GnH for a few months and I must say their handling of the cancellation of the game was quite poor.

While I can understand the reasoning of moving resources, developers and funds to STO since it has a better chance of being successful, I can't understand why they allowed pre-orders to be taken when they had to have *some* idea the game wasn't going to be released.

The dedicated beta testers of GnH were given no notice prior to the game being shut down.  As soon as the announcement was made, all game servers and forums were taken off line. No one was given a last chance to maybe play the game for a week, knowing it was going to close or even to touch base with the many new friends we made on the forums.  Not a good way to treat prospective customers.

While I had no intentions of playing STO, I certainly have no intentions of playing any PE games in the future based on the treatment of their beta testers.

Bad PR move, PE.

PE is going after the money, the "phenomenal" market for STO. The interview was just more corporate PR.

Remember, G&H was considered a "world-class" MMO by PE too.

Pepetual is doomed, they did not fire Daron Stinnett .  Every time that guy opens his mouth, complete nonsense spews forth.  He knows as much about how to make a MMO as my 3 year old niece, nothing.

Knowing the source it must have been a whing ding of an interview.

BTW if you think this will give Star Trek a boost, go spend some time on the STO forum.  They are almost completely ignoring the lore.  It is basically a space shootem up game with a Star Trek logo.  I cannot believe Paramount is letting them do this.  

Originally posted by JonMichael

I beta tested GnH for a few months and I must say their handling of the cancellation of the game was quite poor.

While I can understand the reasoning of moving resources, developers and funds to STO since it has a better chance of being successful, I can't understand why they allowed pre-orders to be taken when they had to have *some* idea the game wasn't going to be released.

The dedicated beta testers of GnH were given no notice prior to the game being shut down.  As soon as the announcement was made, all game servers and forums were taken off line. No one was given a last chance to maybe play the game for a week, knowing it was going to close or even to touch base with the many new friends we made on the forums.  Not a good way to treat prospective customers.

While I had no intentions of playing STO, I certainly have no intentions of playing any PE games in the future based on the treatment of their beta testers.

Bad PR move, PE.

 

I'm right with ya on this one.  As a former core tester of the game, I had nothing but positive things to say about how PE handled things during development, but this has turned out badly.  Not that I am really upset about the game being cancelled, I wasn't going to play it anyway (it was good, but Tabula Rasa is going to be better).  I just hope they can be a little more considerate to their fans of STO.

I think it's misleading of McKibbon to say that most people were moved to STO. PE laid off the majority of GnH staff, with no notice and no severance. To my knowledge, there were only five people retained.

The entire debacle was poorly handled.

Originally posted by teriaki

I think it's misleading of McKibbon to say that most people were moved to STO. PE laid off the majority of GnH staff, with no notice and no severance. To my knowledge, there were only five people retained.

The entire debacle was poorly handled.

 

  It shows PE will lie about anything for anyone. Over the course of the last year, PE fired nearly 100 employees who were working on G&H. About 30 were fired last Christmas, and about 40 this spring. During that time, PE released statements that the firings had nothing to with G&H problems but rather because the game was in polishing stage and needed less work.

  PE is not a truthful organization. Now they are saying the staff was mostly moved to STO, impossible!

  PE wants to get STO released and screw the Trek fanbase. It's sad because the last 10 years the Trekkies have been screwed royally, their undying interest in Trek expoited by cheap and derivative corporate products (Voyager, Enterprise, Nemesis, Star Trek: Legacy).

I learned nothing new from this interview.

Mr. Wood, I feel that PE should apologize to you for wasting your time.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Pepetual is doomed, they did not fire Daron Stinnett .  Every time that guy opens his mouth, complete nonsense spews forth.  He knows as much about how to make a MMO as my 3 year old niece, nothing.

Knowing the source it must have been a whing ding of an interview.

BTW if you think this will give Star Trek a boost, go spend some time on the STO forum.  They are almost completely ignoring the lore.  It is basically a space shootem up game with a Star Trek logo.  I cannot believe Paramount is letting them do this.  

Here Daron Stinnett have a cookie and everything will be right as rain 

Still think TheOracle should put that in his sig.  

Amazing interview.  Amazing that it really doesn't say anything.  No matter how McKibben or Stinnett spin it, this is a major debacle of galactic proportions.  The Gods and Heroes situation reflects poorly on their management.  It appears that these guys have no clue how to manage software development and are truly  poor stewards of the Star Trek franchise license.

If I were an investor in PE I would be plenty worried right now.  They have had the Star Trek License for over three years and NOW they are realizing it has potential and that it should be the game that has priority?  What kind of judgment does that indicate?  It appears that they have a problem with priority and with software development project management.

If I were CBS, the owners of the Star Trek license, i would be very concerned that my valuable intellectual property was being handled by people who have demonstrated that they have not taken said property seriously and have squandered three years of "pre-production" time.  If they are just now starting true development on the STO game then it will be additional years before this title even enters a Beta state. 

How are any of us who are Star Trek fans, and potential customers of STO, going to have confidence that the team that just screwed the pooch on Gods and Heroes is going to be able to successfully develop the STO game?  The purpose of the interview should have been a confidence builder.  Instead, I have more questions and less confidence.   My sensors indicate that "She canna take any more!  The warp engines are gonna blow!"

My prediction for PE and STO:  Imminent warp core breach.  To quote Commander Kor:  "A pity, Captain.  It would have been glorious!"

G&H was an all right idea I suppose, but nothing so earth shattering that I'd have paid to play it (a minion pet doesn't strike me as novel enough). If it had come out when DAOC came out, THEN I might have looked into it.But alas, that's what it reminded me of, 5 years later.

I've always regretted STO being in the hands of PE. How in the world did they get it anyways? Have they ever released anything? Who is their sugar daddy that they can afford to hire (then fire) so many people, waste 3 years+ on a game only to dump it, AND afford the STO license?

[quote]when I asked him for a response to theories of STO’s demise (which seem to be greatly exaggerated).[/quote]

This has yet to be seen.

Anyone who beleives the lies coming from PE is either already dead or should be locked up for their own safety.  The only optimism at PE is how they're going to lay people off or piss off as many people as they can in one announcement.  Yes I am ranting and I don't care.  PE WILL PUT STO IN THE GRAVE!  In the words of one of the most intelligent thinkrs of our time (sarcasm) Eric Cartman, "Screw you guys, I'm goin' home"  Good night now!

I was a beta tester of this game, and it's sad to see it had to end like this, even though they might take it up again, i doubt though.

R.I.P GnH

I completely understand the decision they made and the only people i feel sorry for are the people who had actually pre-ordered the game and the people who lost their jobs.

They don't owe beta testers anything... testers aren't doing them a favour, they are doing it because they are enjoying it.

I expect it was one of those things that someone was trying to prevent from happening for a while, fought the battle right upto the deadline and lost at which point the server went down. No chance for notice and no funds to prolong the servers.

I actually respect the decision. Nothing worse than an unfinished release and to me it expresses just how much in the way of resourses they are going to put into STO. If they do a bad job, it will be an unforgivable tragedy and i think they realise that.

Good luck to them, and i can't wait for STO!