Originally posted by cyrana

Before he came on board, the game was to be Heroes of Telara. Yes, the name was boring, but it was a lot more dynamic. Scott ripped most of the dynamic stuff out and made the whole thing a lot more like WoW and only kept the rifts.

Yes, but I am still wondering whether it was his decision. I suspect the decisionto to scale down Heroes of Telara was made just before he got hired and Scott just had to manage within those confines. Did they not fire a lot of people just before Scott was hired as part of scaling down Heroes of Telara to the size of Rift? Or is my memory playing tricks on me?

Originally posted by VikingGamer
As I have said similarly in the past, if I had a ship that was sinking like Trion I woulds sail it to my island made of money and enjoy the weather. Most companies can only hope to be half as successful.

Any talk of Trion being successful is pure speculation.

They had to get rid of 1/3rd of the staff on their only released game.

A game they were relying on as a publisher for some extra income turned out to be a no-go, and they decided to dump money into it to salvage it.

Their big project has gotten very mediocre feedback so far and its not exactly in a high-demand genre

And Rift is having a major identity crisis right now.  not to mention its been almost 3 months since SL and the only patch was a raid that was already done and just delayed a little, and the next patch on the horizon's big feature is PA tier 3, which has been in place for months.  Sure, they will likely retune it a little but its not like its a major addition.  So content has certainly slowed.  "quality of life" changes are being made where many feel they shouldnt be, and there is no indication whatsoever of a direction or 'vision' from trion.

And all this and Trion has that debt to pay off still.

Yes, they just did get the Archeage deal so its not all doom and gloom, but I would say Trion's status right now is shaky at best.  This is also speculation, but evidence points this way.

At least SOMEONE is talking about it. Conversation about this on the Rift forums is virtually non-existent. I guess most people don't have much to say. My guild seems to be completely ignoring it, although I can't blame them. They are playing Rift and enjoying the game as is. :-) 

Elsewhere it was observed that Hartsman isn't good at staying on for too many years after a product launch. Fine, he's gotta go, he's gotta go. With some good fortune the rest of us players staying behind will be able to look forward to a few more years of Rift. I hope.

Originally posted by GreenKnight1776

At least SOMEONE is talking about it. Conversation about this on the Rift forums is virtually non-existent. I guess most people don't have much to say. My guild seems to be completely ignoring it, although I can't blame them. They are playing Rift and enjoying the game as is. :-) 

Elsewhere it was observed that Hartsman isn't good at staying on for too many years after a product launch. Fine, he's gotta go, he's gotta go. With some good fortune the rest of us players staying behind will be able to look forward to a few more years of Rift. I hope.

There were two big threads (the state of the game threads) where there was a lot of discussion but Trion moved them to a board no one looks at.

Rift forums are a pretty volatile place right now (the falling damage debate is like world war 3)

Originally posted by GreenKnight1776

Elsewhere it was observed that Hartsman isn't good at staying on for too many years after a product launch. Fine, he's gotta go, he's gotta go.

he stuck with EQ2, post launch, for 3 years before he left in late 2007

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,67164/

I think Hartsman is a smart guy and think Rift is a far better product than EQ2 was. But EQ2 has improved since his leaving, and so I anticipate with smart decisions Rift can continue to improve also. 

And since I think he's pretty smart, I think his next project will be yet another improvement to the genre.

As a personal note, I was at an SOE convention in Vegas at EQ2's reveal (or at least I think it was the reveal). I remember Hartsman very well - he led the presentation and discussion. It was a good time.

 I wish him the best - 

Originally posted by Zorgo

I think Hartsman is a smart guy and think Rift is a far better product than EQ2 was. But EQ2 has improved since his leaving, and so I anticipate with smart decisions Rift can continue to improve also. 

And since I think he's pretty smart, I think his next project will be yet another improvement to the genre.

As a personal note, I was at an SOE convention in Vegas at EQ2's reveal (or at least I think it was the reveal). I remember Hartsman very well - he led the presentation and discussion. It was a good time.

 I wish him the best - 

When Hartsman left EQ2 it was a better game than Rift is now.  EQ2 was subpar at launch but by EoF and RoK it was great.