General Discussion

Or CEO or whats that called. Seriously. I mean, I dont want to chime into the old SOE bashing, usually thats not my style, but recently I really have been wondering. There were times when it was impossible for me to think playing MMOs without something from SOE. I loved SWG and EQ2, and played them both for almost 3 years. While I was disappointed about NGE I was not furious and kept playing, but eventually they just failed to add enough new things to do for a vet player.

EQ2 was always a mixed bag, and essentially all expansions more or less were just more of the same old. More badgers to kill, more feathers to collect more gnoll paws to gather. Treadmill ad nauseam.

I know SOE is not responsible for the making of Vanguard or Pirates of the Burning Sea, but look at their forums here? If the deadness of their forums are an indication of the state of the game, they are pretty dead.

I say, SOE really has a good hand to ally with winners, havent they now? *evilgrin* Really, I know both Vanguard and PotBS werent made by SOE, no blame there. Buying ONE piece of trash like Martix wasnt enough huh? They found the experience so entertaining they bought THREE trash games? Wow, must be a very clever strategy, something like taking out the bad MMOs and someday merging them all into one big good? I dunno, its likely beyond simpletons like me. I mean, come on, they made a big investment in Vanguard buying it for a LOT of money and then do what? Take out customization and add helmets 90% of all MMO players deactivate anyway. Wow, clever thinking, really.

I mean, seriously, who the heck is MAKING such decisions? Isnt there ONE person saying Smed: "hey, most players deactivate helmets, so lets not take out character customization UNTIL we have a new system to instantly replace it"?? Maybe there are all zombies working there who are all just nod to whatever the big boss says? I dunno. SOE really starts to become the laugh of the gaming world - for everyone this time, not only a few SWG vets.

So I really wonder how long the Sony mother company will leave Mr Smed in his place. I dunno who exactly is responsible for all the crappy decisions SOE made, but hell, one or two bad moves are human errors, no prob, but so far almost ALL decisions from SOE were utter trash. I mean, how can this be? Its really beyond me how so much stupidity can amass in such a tight place. If I lived in the city where SOE has its headquarters I would seriously think about a relocation. An angry god may think how much idioicy he can wipe out with and launch a Sodom Version II upon it, just to be sure no one escapes this time.

Originally posted by Elikal

Or CEO or whats that called. Seriously. I mean, I dont want to chime into the old SOE bashing, usually thats not my style, but recently I really have been wondering. There were times when it was impossible for me to think playing MMOs without something from SOE. I loved SWG and EQ2, and played them both for almost 3 years. While I was disappointed about NGE I was not furious and kept playing, but eventually they just failed to add enough new things to do for a vet player.

EQ2 was always a mixed bag, and essentially all expansions more or less were just more of the same old. More badgers to kill, more feathers to collect more gnoll paws to gather. Treadmill ad nauseam.

I know SOE is not responsible for the making of Vanguard or Pirates of the Burning Sea, but look at their forums here? If the deadness of their forums are an indication of the state of the game, they are pretty dead.

I say, SOE really has a good hand to ally with winners, havent they now? *evilgrin* Really, I know both Vanguard and PotBS werent made by SOE, no blame there. Buying ONE piece of trash like Martix wasnt enough huh? They found the experience so entertaining they bought THREE trash games? Wow, must be a very clever strategy, something like taking out the bad MMOs and someday merging them all into one big good? I dunno, its likely beyond simpletons like me. I mean, come on, they made a big investment in Vanguard buying it for a LOT of money and then do what? Take out customization and add helmets 90% of all MMO players deactivate anyway. Wow, clever thinking, really.

I mean, seriously, who the heck is MAKING such decisions? Isnt there ONE person saying Smed: "hey, most players deactivate helmets, so lets not take out character customization UNTIL we have a new system to instantly replace it"?? Maybe there are all zombies working there who are all just nod to whatever the big boss says? I dunno. SOE really starts to become the laugh of the gaming world - for everyone this time, not only a few SWG vets.

So I really wonder how long the Sony mother company will leave Mr Smed in his place. I dunno who exactly is responsible for all the crappy decisions SOE made, but hell, one or two bad moves are human errors, no prob, but so far almost ALL decisions from SOE were utter trash. I mean, how can this be? Its really beyond me how so much stupidity can amass in such a tight place. If I lived in the city where SOE has its headquarters I would seriously think about a relocation. An angry god may think how much idioicy he can wipe out with and launch a Sodom Version II upon it, just to be sure no one escapes this time.

SOE is still making a lot of money so something must be going right for them.

SOE has actually created 3 major MMOs:

Everquest- Very successful, the king of the mountain for a long time

Everquest 2- Pretty successful game, still has a strong player base

SWG- they messed up this one with the NGE but they were trying for the WoW crowd just like everyone else.

2 winners and 1 loser isnt really so bad is it?

As you said they didnt make the other games that they offer on station pass, they are just keeping them alive for those who want to play. And Plantetside was never a major MMO, niche market all the way.

Im sure Smed is really sad that everyone on this site hates him. He is really sad while he is driving his very expensive car to his very expense house.

Originally posted by Elikal

Or CEO or whats that called. Seriously. I mean, I dont want to chime into the old SOE bashing, usually thats not my style, but recently I really have been wondering. There were times when it was impossible for me to think playing MMOs without something from SOE. I loved SWG and EQ2, and played them both for almost 3 years. While I was disappointed about NGE I was not furious and kept playing, but eventually they just failed to add enough new things to do for a vet player.

EQ2 was always a mixed bag, and essentially all expansions more or less were just more of the same old. More badgers to kill, more feathers to collect more gnoll paws to gather. Treadmill ad nauseam.

I know SOE is not responsible for the making of Vanguard or Pirates of the Burning Sea, but look at their forums here? If the deadness of their forums are an indication of the state of the game, they are pretty dead.

I say, SOE really has a good hand to ally with winners, havent they now? *evilgrin* Really, I know both Vanguard and PotBS werent made by SOE, no blame there. Buying ONE piece of trash like Martix wasnt enough huh? They found the experience so entertaining they bought THREE trash games? Wow, must be a very clever strategy, something like taking out the bad MMOs and someday merging them all into one big good? I dunno, its likely beyond simpletons like me. I mean, come on, they made a big investment in Vanguard buying it for a LOT of money and then do what? Take out customization and add helmets 90% of all MMO players deactivate anyway. Wow, clever thinking, really.

I mean, seriously, who the heck is MAKING such decisions? Isnt there ONE person saying Smed: "hey, most players deactivate helmets, so lets not take out character customization UNTIL we have a new system to instantly replace it"?? Maybe there are all zombies working there who are all just nod to whatever the big boss says? I dunno. SOE really starts to become the laugh of the gaming world - for everyone this time, not only a few SWG vets.

So I really wonder how long the Sony mother company will leave Mr Smed in his place. I dunno who exactly is responsible for all the crappy decisions SOE made, but hell, one or two bad moves are human errors, no prob, but so far almost ALL decisions from SOE were utter trash. I mean, how can this be? Its really beyond me how so much stupidity can amass in such a tight place. If I lived in the city where SOE has its headquarters I would seriously think about a relocation. An angry god may think how much idioicy he can wipe out with and launch a Sodom Version II upon it, just to be sure no one escapes this time.

With all due respect, you gotta give SoE some credit.  They dumped PE's Gods and Heroes:Rome Rising before the launch but after pre-order boxes were already on the shelves.  LOL  Also, they have turned EQ2 around a lot.  EQ2 of today is much, much better than the game at release.  The server populations prove it.  As far as PoTBS and Vanguard go, I honestly believe SoE did the vulture thing.  They bought Vanguard cheap and are slowly turning it around.  Soon, they'll be able to buy PoTBS cheap when Flying Lab finally says enough.  Besides, if you buy enough games cheap enough, all you have to do is just keep them on life support and you have cash cows with little of your own investment.  Think about it, they saved themselves $65 million on Vanguard development costs alone.   They don't cost much to maintain and you can milk die-hard fans forever.  Take EQ1 for example, it still to this day has a huge following.

If anything, Smed will be able to ride a golden parachute off into the sunset very soon.  Last fiscal year, SoE was the only profitable division of Sony.  He was obviously doing something right.

Give SOE credit for buying some failing games and killing any future development they might see?  For ruining the single biggest IP in the world by purposefully discarding their loyal dedicated subscribers.

Their only real winning title was designed before SOE really became an entity that was involved in the game making process. 

Their best effort to date is EQ2 which is a game the was merging servers inside a year and took years after launch to "become better than it was" in some twisted piecemeal game design.   I don't think a pay to beta game is really a crowning achievement to be thankful for.

Sorry, I just don't see them worthy of much credit, but I do see plenty of chances where they could have made different choices and I would be right next to you cheering on SOE if they had chose a different path.  Instead, I see a company that just throws darts at the business decision dart board and hopes something works, because they have long since stopped caring about their customers and make decisions based solely on accounting metrics.

Originally posted by safwd

 

There are people playing these "Trash" games as you call them, so if SOE is willing to keep them afloat so the people who do enjoy them can continue to play them why do you, I or anyone else care.

 

SOE is still making a lot of money so something must be going right for them.

SOE has actually created 3 major MMOs:

Everquest- Very successful, the king of the mountain for a long time

Everquest 2- Pretty successful game, still has a strong player base

SWG- they messed up this one with the NGE but they were trying for the WoW crowd just like everyone else.

2 winners and 1 loser isnt really so bad is it?

As you said they didnt make the other games that they offer on station pass, they are just keeping them alive for those who want to play. And Plantetside was never a major MMO, niche market all the way.

Im sure Smed is really sad that everyone on this site hates him. He is really sad while he is driving his very expensive car to his very expense house.

EQ2 and SWG have both had dismally low player bases for half their existence. SWG from the NGE and poor launch. EQ2 from a very poor launch. They have turned around EQ2 I am happy to hear and it is a much better game. But it took them 3 years.

Not saying that I wouldn't play an SOE game. I just think they don't know what they are doing 95% of the time when they try to "shape" an MMO.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Give SOE credit for buying some failing games and killing any future development they might see?  For ruining the single biggest IP in the world by purposefully discarding their loyal dedicated subscribers.

Their only real winning title was designed before SOE really became an entity that was involved in the game making process. 

Their best effort to date is EQ2 which is a game the was merging servers inside a year and took years after launch to "become better than it was" in some twisted piecemeal game design.   I don't think a pay to beta game is really a crowning achievement to be thankful for.

 

Sorry, I just don't see them worthy of much credit, but I do see plenty of chances where they could have made different choices and I would be right next to you cheering on SOE if they had chose a different path.  Instead, I see a company that just throws darts at the business decision dart board and hopes something works, because they have long since stopped caring about their customers and make decisions based solely on accounting metrics.

So what you are saying is you would have rather seen Vanguard, PoTBS (eventually), the Matrix all just shut down so the fans of those games never got to play them again?  I'm sorry, SoE did these folks a favor by keeping these games around as long as they did.  Sure, it isn't the glory days for those games, but at least the die-hard fans of those games get to stay in their universe.

Originally posted by De4th_M0nKee

 

Originally posted by safwd

 

There are people playing these "Trash" games as you call them, so if SOE is willing to keep them afloat so the people who do enjoy them can continue to play them why do you, I or anyone else care.

 

SOE is still making a lot of money so something must be going right for them.

SOE has actually created 3 major MMOs:

Everquest- Very successful, the king of the mountain for a long time

Everquest 2- Pretty successful game, still has a strong player base

SWG- they messed up this one with the NGE but they were trying for the WoW crowd just like everyone else.

2 winners and 1 loser isnt really so bad is it?

As you said they didnt make the other games that they offer on station pass, they are just keeping them alive for those who want to play. And Plantetside was never a major MMO, niche market all the way.

Im sure Smed is really sad that everyone on this site hates him. He is really sad while he is driving his very expensive car to his very expense house.

Well, first off SOE didn't create EQ, they bought it. And right away started pissing off longtime players when they started changing things.

 

 

EQ2 and SWG have both had dismally low player bases for half their existence. SWG from the NGE and poor launch. EQ2 from a very poor launch. They have turned around EQ2 I am happy to hear and it is a much better game. But it took them 3 years.

 

Not saying that I wouldn't play an SOE game. I just think they don't know what they are doing 95% of the time when they try to "shape" an MMO.

 

 

Verant Interactive was always part of Sony. I thought this lack of information arguement was actually dead. EQ from day one was property of Sony, true the name on the box changed a few times but it was always Sony, and it was always Smed.

Wiki it yourself. Knowledge is a beautiful thing.

The changes that pissed people off actually started after Brad McQuaid left Sony because he didnt like the direction the game was going. So yes, Sony did make changes to the game that the player base didnt like ( I was one of them) but they also created the game in the first place.

And i never said EQ2 was always  a success, i pre ordered the game, so trust me, i know what i was like at launch. But it is successful now.

I do blame SOE for deciding to WoWify their games in hopes of getting the huge numbers that WoW got but then i also blame pretty much every other developer for doing the same thing.