All Posts by Astralglide

Which Time Change is your Favorite?

I totally agree (I've been flamed for my posts calling for the head of Mark Jacobs). However, they are trying to make some very positive changes (free character transfers, w00t) and I am giving them until my next billing cycle (the 18th) to make a decision. This game would be much better had they not promised the moon and the stars only to deliver a telescope.

Originally posted by Myrdek

Originally posted by Antipopealan

Go play a game. Any game, any MMO. Stop trying to analyse these reports. Is anyone really interested if WAR had 750,000 subs or 800,000 subs, or even only 100,000 subs?

 

If you really want to spend your life analysing company reports, why don't you do it to blue chip companies and actually profit from you forecasts of doom or gloom?

 

You were obviously not the kind of kid who loved math in school  :)

Btw, I'm currently playing Tabula Rasa (I won the Exteel contest giveaway on this website and got it for free). I'm actually enjoying myself too, although i know its gonna get too boring for me to renew at the end of the free month

BTW- Mydek, I don't  care what anybody says, you're my fucking hero.

Originally posted by Antipopealan

Go play a game. Any game, any MMO. Stop trying to analyse these reports. Is anyone really interested if WAR had 750,000 subs or 800,000 subs, or even only 100,000 subs?

 

If you really want to spend your life analysing company reports, why don't you do it to blue chip companies and actually profit from you forecasts of doom or gloom?

Well, Antipop, when you are an adult and are trying to build a small investment portfolio from your wages as a janitor, then you too will read.

They never have accurate data as to how many copies were sold to consumers- they can only track what the retail stores themselves sold. They can accurately track how many players they have, but does that 800k include all of the players that are active, or the dead accoutns as well?

This Might Help:

Electronics Arts cuts profit outlook, shares fall

* Reuters
* , Thursday October 30 2008

* Lowers full-year earnings outlook
* Adjusted Q2 shr loss 6 cents, meets estimates
* To cut about 6 pct of workforce, or 580 jobs
* Shares fall 14 pct in extended trading (Adds outlook details)
NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc slashed its full-year profit forecast due to slowing demand at retail stores and a delay in the latest "Harry Potter" video game, driving its stock down 14 percent.
EA, whose popular titles include "Rock Band", said on Thursday plans to cut about 6 percent of its workforce of 9,671, or about 580 jobs, in response to slowing sales, after posting a quarterly loss on par with Wall Street expectations.
The company cut its forecast for fiscal 2009 earnings per share excluding special items to a range of $1.00 and $1.40, from a previous range of $1.30 to $1.70. Analysts were expecting $1.45 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
The forecast proves that even the video game market -- often thought of as "recession-proof" -- may fall victim to a global economic crisis that has forced many companies to scale back their outlook as consumers trim spending.
"We are not saying the sky is falling," Chief Executive John Riccitiello said in a conference call. "What we are bringing to the table is caution, a recognition that catalog (sales are) weaker, and a commitment to managing our cost...with the specter of a recession over our shoulder."
With the economy in mind, analysts questioned EA's adherence to its retail pricing plan, which calls for marquis games like "Madden NFL" to sell for $60 and special editions like the new "Rock Band" bundle, which includes accessories, can go for up to $200.
"For the the rest of us that live in the real world, $60 is a lot of money," said Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey. "The entertainment value is compelling, but it's still a large dollar purchase."
EA posted a net loss of $310 million, or 97 cents, compared with a loss of $195 million, or 62 cents per share, one year ago. Excluding special items, EA showed a loss of 6 cents per share, matching analysts expectations, according to Reuters Estimates.
Last month, EA said it would push the release of the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" game from November 2008 to next summer, to coincide with a delay in the film of the same name by Warner Bros Pictures.
Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown, when discussing the lowered profit forecast, noted that EA had already paid for development costs for the "Harry Potter" game. He also blamed a "dramatic" strengthening of the dollar for the new outlook.
"We are facing some foreign exchange headwinds," he said in an interview, adding that EA was keeping intact its full-year revenue forecast of $5.0 billion to $5.3 billion.
The company said it would take a charge of about $10 million in the third quarter for the cost-cutting action, and as a result expects to save about $50 million annually.
Net revenue in the second quarter was $894 million, up about 39.7 percent from a year ago.
The company said sales were driven by its major franchises, including "Madden NFL" and new title "Spore."
"There's a lot of reasons to believe that the sector will hold up better than most, if not almost all others, as we move through a recession."
EA shares fell to $23.80 from their Nasdaq close of $27.73. (Reporting by Franklin Paul; editing by Carol Bishopric)

* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
 

I agree to some extent. A lot of the games out these days do not provide much challenge. However, I do like to have something that is minless to do in an MMO (tired after work or just want to wind down). The problem is that games without a lot of the challenging aspects that your were talking about turn into grind- fest eventually. I love instancing, but theres only so many damn times you can do the same dungeon. LOTRO's end game grind was a joke; and I like WAR, but it's nothing to jump up and down over. (I think it'll be better 5 month from now). The trick is to have a game that has a lot more challenging options, but also allows for the menial and mindless.

And you, my coke addicted feline raver friend, are the wind beneath my wings.

Originally posted by frafra13

Op its ok to have your opinion but how ignorant are you of the economy right now that you blame the 30% drop on the game!  LOL

Have you noticed the DOW down just about the same or every other stock that isnt a miracle stock like dendrion which is getting ready to release a cure for colon cancer so there up 40%(there a lucky one if you happen to have money in them and know whats going on) .  But yeah the economy downfall is all because of this game for there stock  lol. 

If economy was normal they would be + or - 5 % which is normal for a game company to fluctuate.  As for the game itself, yeah its not what we dreamed of but they did try ad they are listening to there players from what i noticed noticed.  Everything we bring up they get right on it and let us know where they are on it.  Im not a big fan of warhammer but the game is entertaining for now and im having fun till something else catch's my eye.

 

p.s.  HAHAHA im still laughing about the stock drop you blame on the game.  Its pretty funny. 

Listen "FraFra13"- I'm either assuming the number stands for either your age, IQ, or number of times you masturbate each day to keep the thoughts of how lame you are away. At any rate, the Dow Jones Industrials, while a great tracker for the market, does not mean that all stock react the same way. For instance, if you were to look at Activision in the same period (09/18-10/10) while it declined, only did so by about 25%- a far cry from the 37% of EA. (I was going to buy in for the WAR bump) My opinion is that sharp of a decline occured because they didn't hit the million subscribers that they estimated right out of the gate and EA had stated that WAR was their primary source of profit for 2008. Try reading more than the headlines, if you can actually read.

My Bad. I was mostly ranting. (I do feel that there needs to be accountability and that the roll-out is, at very least, sub-par). Mark Jacobs is not the CEO of anything, but rather a VP and GM. And he should, perhaps not be fired, but firing those who failed him. Yes, everybody's stock is down, but if you read anything other than headlines- you will realize that ERTS is down 30% because they banked on this game being their major source of profit for 2008. The game was delayed an additional 6-8 months to put on "polish"- and even those who are die hard in love with this game have to admit that they are still far from a completely polished product. This game will make a metric fuck ton of money for EA--- in 2009.

They probably won't announce it. But it'll probably be out as soon as WoW dies off. Probably Starcraft Universe or something.

Originally posted by star.buck

Your issue is the Low population server. And I do agree with what's been said, to counteract the postlaunch surge of players, they really need to merge some of the lower population servers together. RvR is pretty nonexsistant on the lower pop servers.

My reccommendation - switch to a higher pop server. I'm currently playing on Phoenix Throne (Core-RP) and both Scenarios AND Open World are really active. There are -at least- 2 keep seiges a night (in T3 at least), and Scenarios pop every 5-6 minutes.

Thank you.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

Originally posted by Astralglide

Originally posted by crunchyblack

i dunno, i like the game and im still having as much fun, if not more than i did the first week.

in my book that deserves a pat on the back.

i voted to promote dude, hes has done well

sure we all wanted everything they talked about put in the first release, but how many people would rather them push out a bunch of buggy and half finished content?

they had historically solid release, especially after the AoC release, did you really expect them to put anything that wasnt near perfict into the game?

mabey hes a bad developer but he sure made a solid business decision.

Plus we get to look forward to a LOT of almost done content comming out in the near future.

with the rate at which they are patching bugs and fixing the little stuff you can bet that the watched the AoC launch and started to panick,  they did a great job in releasing a solid game, i think we can thank AoC for that.

i dunno why i even respond to flamebait like this

 

 

I'm mostly pissed because of all the hype (that I admittedly succumbed to). From what they were promoting to what was delivered are two very different things in my book.

 

Really? where you expecting a pve quest based game, only to have those dirty stinkin liars switch to an RvR team based game?

or are you bitter over them not adding in content that wasnt finished. you sure as hell would be here complaining that there was buggy and unfinished content if they had left it in.

so what exactly was so groundbreaking between their promise of a DAoC stlye RvR game and the product that you have....you sure your not playing warhammer 40k?

all i know is that i was hyped about having a team based RvR game, and they deliverd exactly what i expected.

 

Exactly. I too, wanted a team based RvR game, and all I've gotten is a PVE grind fest. The RvR that I have played has rocked, but occurs very rarely on my server. There are very few keep raids and the scenario queues have several hour waits. I wish I was playing the game that you are. And what the Hell does Warhammer 40K have to do with anything?

Originally posted by mackdawg19

I can que up for my server in less than 30 seconds. Dark Crag, level 23 engineer. But this is besides the point. You apparently think MMORPG's should grant you a no grind game, which will never happen. RPG's that are level based atleast will have to have some grind to them. Do you just expect to be granted levels because you look cool? Or because you did some special emote? If you don't want a grind game, dont play rpgs. I bet you can't name one MMORPG that doesn't have grind. If you can, i will download it and prove you wrong.

Its not that I didn't expect some grind- just not the LOTRO style grind that I have been dealing with- which wouldn't exist if the scenarios were working the way that they were supposed to.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

i dunno, i like the game and im still having as much fun, if not more than i did the first week.

in my book that deserves a pat on the back.

i voted to promote dude, hes has done well

sure we all wanted everything they talked about put in the first release, but how many people would rather them push out a bunch of buggy and half finished content?

they had historically solid release, especially after the AoC release, did you really expect them to put anything that wasnt near perfict into the game?

mabey hes a bad developer but he sure made a solid business decision.

Plus we get to look forward to a LOT of almost done content comming out in the near future.

with the rate at which they are patching bugs and fixing the little stuff you can bet that the watched the AoC launch and started to panick,  they did a great job in releasing a solid game, i think we can thank AoC for that.

i dunno why i even respond to flamebait like this

I'm mostly pissed because of all the hype (that I admittedly succumbed to). From what they were promoting to what was delivered are two very different things in my book.

Originally posted by crunchyblack

Originally posted by Astralglide

Originally posted by Teganx

Ha it may have failed in your book but the game is actually a huge seuccess. Its 2nd place on the MMO market and shows no signs of relenting. I usually a que on my server and I have never ever had trouble doing a PQ and The longest ive ever had to wait for a scenario is about a minute or two. And this ia all late at night.

Please, then what server are you on? Mine is DEAD.

 

WHen you log on, look at the words that say "low "med "high" "full"

pick the server that is high/high or med/high

its not rocket science, i learned from beta to choose a high pop server and its really made for a fun gaming experience.

really...why did you choose a low pop server if you didnt want a dead server?   

Mostly from my WoW experience. I expected these servers to fill up really quickly. I didn't pick the bottom of the list, I went with the highest of the low (if that makes any sense).

Originally posted by Teganx

Ha it may have failed in your book but the game is actually a huge seuccess. Its 2nd place on the MMO market and shows no signs of relenting. I usually a que on my server and I have never ever had trouble doing a PQ and The longest ive ever had to wait for a scenario is about a minute or two. And this ia all late at night.

Please, then what server are you on? Mine is DEAD.

Oops. MT

I waited a long time for W.A.R to come out. I thought that the open beta show promise, but was a little perplexed with missing four classes (two of which I was really looking forward to) and the utter lack of trade skills- not to mention how they worked. Granted, I bitched about WoW's trade skills- until I played LOTRO- and the way the skills work in W.A.R. I have become a fan of the WoW trade skills again. *sigh*

I was also looking forward to no having to grind. I figured that between PVE, PQs, and RvR, I would have to do little to no grinding. That would be true, if I could ever get into an RvR scenario. I have seen the tier 2 scenario three times since I became level 21, and my tier three guildees have never seen the tier three scenario- even after 30 hours of waiting in queues. After completing upto chap 10 in Chaos, I have also done chap 8-10 in Greenskins, and 8-10 in Dark Elves, and I am STILL level 21. After quitting LOTRO because I spent most of that game farming Yetis for the bonus, I find myself in WAR, once again, farming fucking Yetis because the kill collector gives experience for them

The result of all this is that my already low population server, KIslev, is getting lower. The Guild Master of my guild cleaned out 60 players who had not logged on in over two weeks, which is pretty sad for a game that has been around for only three weeks. I believe we will be clearing out more as there are about 50 people who have not logged on in the past week. People are fleeing this game left and right, which cuts down on the available RvR, which destroys the point, and fun, of the game. When I called customer service to see if I could transfer my toons to a higher population server, I was told that "Was not possible" and that they were "looking for ways to remedy the situation".

I have a remedy: fire Mark Jacobs.

That's right. Fire the incompetent general manager and vice president of Mythic Entertainment who allowed the release an unfinished game, late, with serious flaws and irritating features (20 second send mail delay?) I'm sure that the shareholders have noticed the 30% DROP in stock value since the release of W.A.R. and the fact that the servers are laggy, even with low population, is unacceptable. The higher population servers have a too low of a cap- so the only people who can play are those who don't have school or a job.

Contact EA. Tell them what is going on, and demand accountability. Hold the man who was responsible for this utter debacle accountable and fire Mark Jacobs.

 

Invalid Target is a Destruction guild on the Kislev server. We are  growing every day and are always looking for new recruits. We have our own Vent server and will soon have a website. We want to become the largest and strongest RvR and Raiding Guild on the server and we need everyone that we can get. Noobs are welcome, assholes and lames are not. Look us up in the social menu- all members have recruiting privellages.

Guild Master: Mephistophiles

Officer: Lomz

Officer: MacLovin