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• • Is this true?

  • Originally posted by mike470

    You hold your opinion and I hold mine. 

    My view:  Developers are people too.  I see no problem with Jatar not showing respect to Friction, as Friction clearly showed rudeness  towards the whole team.  Saying that the team "needs to hire talented people" and calling them a "screensaver company" is clearly a painful shot.  If I was on the internet, said you needed to hire more people and call you an untalented company/manager with no experience you wouldn't take offence to that?

    After starting up a company, using some of their own money, taking three years to work your ass off for an MMO, and then to hear someone make foolish statements (which are actually covered in the FAQ if anyone bothers to read) just to start an arguement.....you're telling me that wouldn't piss you off?  THAT is bulshit, wether you admit it or not.

    You didn't start this billion dollar company.  You're not a smaller company who used some of their own funds to get started, you're just working for the company.  I'm not saying you don't work hard, but I am saying you cannot relate.  Don't get me wrong, neither can I, but I am trying to see it from Jatar and the teams' view, instead of my own.

    Listen, Jatar doesn't even have to post here.  He comes here on his own time to help everyone who is interested in the game out, and I respect that.  I would not be surprised if the whole team would be pissed by this post; as it really did tae some shots.  Your first post maes no sense, being respectful or not, because no one thanks someone who takes shots at everything they worked for.

    Once again, this is just my opinion.  I don't believe Jatar should show respect for people who act like Friction did in this post; although it is clear you think otherwise.

    
     

    Like it or not, he's the face of the company here.  They're trying to promote a product that they want people to eventually buy.  Personally insulting individuals, as the "face of the company" is NOT how you gain customers. People don't like that.  If you got pulled over by a cop for speeding, and he proceeded to personally insult you and your passengers for much of the traffic stop, would you go home and say "Well, I deserved it.  I was going 10 mph too fast."   Maybe...but I know I wouldn't be too happy.

     

    And, as I said before, the product we're talking about is an MMO.  When/if it launches, there are going to be hundreds/thousands of negative posts about the game, its system, and its designers, every day.  We alll know that.  All the  while the devs are STILL going to be working long hours on a very personal product.  So, is this how they're going to act on the official forums? 

     

    If so, then no thanks.  He would have been better off ignoring the "insulting" post, and let the well informed among you correct the mistakes.

     

    Again, I say, bad form.

  • Posted: 7/08/08 10:30 PM
    Citadel of Sorcery
• • Is this true?

  • Originally posted by Sovrath
    

    Jatar's post was appalling at best. Completely unprofessional and does nothign to inspire confidence in a supposedly professional company.

    Jatar, this is the post you should have made:

     

    Hello to all those who are interested in Citadel of Sorcery. I would like to address some of the points that were made by friction2u so as to set the record straight and to put aside any fears or concerns of our fanbase.
     

    We've made no real secrets of much of our development as we believe a certain level of transparency is important in establishing a relationship with future players. 

    
    However, I would be more than happy to revisit this. Let's start with Atlantis3D, Inc.  This is a small technology development company.  They began making a new 3D engine quite a few years ago.  During that process they turned out some nice screensavers as tests of the early engine.  A long time has past since then and now they have licensed their improved engine to several industries, including the game industry. 
     

    MMO Magic, Inc.,  is a small team of game industry professionals.  This can be found in numerous places and is available to the public.
    
    As for the connection between A3D and MMO Magic, Inc., two employees of A3D were involved in the team that started MMO Magic, Inc.  They brokered the deal for the engine and then moved over to MMO Magic, Inc. since they were really from the game industry originally.  For the past 2 plus years the engine has been further developed and improved by MMO Magic’s programmers for use in Citadel of Sorcery, which has specific needs in an engine not included in the basic package created by A3D.
     

    As for Friction2U's conern about the location being possibly dubious, this is a P.O. Box we use to receive communication from fans while we work on Citadel of Sorcery.  The P.O. Box is located near Mr. DeRuyter's house so that it is easy for him to check the box regularly.  
    
     It is true that , Mr. DeRuyter has some personal family web sites, but in no way does this have anything to do with the game or its dev team.
    
    Also, if people are interested they might find through their research that Mr. DeRuyter has worked at other game companies, in various positions, including Producer on a shipped title.  Most of the people involved in the MMO Magic team have credits on many shipped games in the industry and we feel very lucky to have them.
     

    We choose NOT to seek a publisher at this point in development so that the game could be made to our original design. As previously publicly stated, we will seek a publisher when we feel the game is far enough along to prove the game design by allowing a publisher to experience the game, not read about the design. We are far along toward this goal, but not there yet.   Art is only being taken so far, we only need it good enough to prove game play.  
    
    We have also been very open regarding the size of our team and what we are doing.  We have stated that the game is far in technology and design, but barely started in art.   There are very real reasons for this and when the time comes we will release screen shots that are more worthy of the game we are creating.
    
    I hope this clears up any questions.  Though I will not be discussing this topic again I would like our fanbase to know that we will be glad to answer anyone else’s questions about the project on any area in which we are allowed to give out information. Some information  about the game is of course, kept secret, and some information about who is working on the game is also kept secret. 

     

    Thank you all for your continuing interest in Citadel of Sorcery and we look forward to providing you all with more information in the future. We enjoy the enthusiasm of our continually expanding fanbase and feel that it points to an interested, engaged and passionate community for our game.

    
    Seriously, you guys need to get a P.R. person or decide on a specific course when speakign with the public. If I was the head designer or head of the company I would be livid with your post as it undermines so much.

    
     

    QFT.  The hostility from the dev and supporters of this game towards this one, simple poster, is a big turnoff for me as well.  If you can't answer a critique without getting angry, how do you expect to manage a top-notch mmo...which do little more than generate critics?

    I was already on the fence about this game.....this thread may have just pushed me over. 

     

    Poor form gentlemen.

  • Posted: 7/08/08 10:20 AM
    Citadel of Sorcery
• • This is why you don't use SOE!!!

  • And don't forget:

    When they signed up with Platform Publishing (SOE), many folks asked them if they considered the "backlash" that SOE carries with them.

     

    Their response was that it was definitely worth it, since SOE has the distribution process "down cold".  I repeat...."down cold".

     

    Well, when boxes don't get into stores (and not a few, mind you, but A TON of stores)...and, plenty of preorder boxes don't have their head start codes......and, boxes STILL aren't on the shelves in Spain (resulting in the shutdown of the Spanish server, according to a recent dev interview), one has to wonder what "down cold" means for FLS and SOE>

    I'm sure that FLS, when signing the contract, knew they would lose potential players due to the SOE "backlash".  I'm guessing they assumed SOE would distribute the game so well, it would make up for the potential lost playerbase.  That doesn't seem to have happened.

     

    Hence, the blame for poor distribution laid on SOE.

  • Posted: 5/09/08 2:24 PM
    Pirates of the Burning Sea
• • The truth behind Potbs

  • Originally posted by DJXeon
    

     

    Originally posted by iceman00
    

     

    
    I'll agree with the other person, this game has NOT gotten economic love.  What they have there is nice, and would work even better with the other aspects of the economy in place.

     

     

    my thoughts were based on a quote from Isildur Potbs Lead designer.:

    " I admit to being really, really tired of discarding changes that I think would be positive for the game as a whole because they’d unbalance the economy in some subtle but important way.....

    If I were still willing to believe that the economy must be protected at all costs, I’d stop here. However, our discussions about risk and reward have gotten me thinking about the game experience as a whole, rather than the game experience as defined by specific systems. Until we implement port governance, PvP is the current endgame in Pirates. And, to go along with that, PvP is not sustainable without doing other non-PvP activities. (Note that I’m not saying the other things to do in the game aren’t fun; I’m saying that if you find PvP to be the most fun, you’ll resent having to do anything else.)........

     

     

    ........Anything that makes ship loss less damaging is directly reducing the only significant sink in the current economy. So I resist it, because my instinct is to protect the economy at all costs."

     

    
    ______________________________________________________________________

    Also Rusty answered a comment that FLS tends to make economic solutions for everything:

    "It was always known, but the game systems are so interelated that we had to spend all of our time on them."

    Hence the reason for my comment that FLS spent too much time on the economy at the expence of PvP.

     

    Now you're cherry picking with the quotes.

     

    Yes, isildur said that he was overly protective with the economy, at the expense of the other systems in the game.  Hearing JUST THAT portion would suggest that the economic players are holding up the PvP players.

     

    BUT...in that same log, Isildur said that the economy launched with ONLY one of the three foundations/sinks it was supposed to have.  The reason he was holding on so tight was NOT to hurt PvP...but to try and protect the already weakened and unfinished economic portion of the game.

    And, surprise, surprise, to the chagrin of the economic players, and the benefit (again!) of the PvP players, he's giving up...the economic players will be stuck with 1/3rd of the intended design for some time, and the PvP players will get even MORE effect on the game (via the economy)

     

    Which means your initial hypothesis/prediction/whatever, is false.  IF the economic players had all this control in the beta, don't you think they would have gotten a more complete design at release?  Don't you think the PvP folks would have been lacking in design, instead of the economic folks who only had 1/3 of the foundation in place?

     

    And, why would Isildur need to "hold onto" the economy so tightly if it was working at an advantage over the PvP design?  If it was designed unfairly in beta, he wouldn't have needed to do anything...just let it work it's magic.

     

    Over and over again, we come to the same conclusion.  This game is a PvP game, continues to be a PvP game, and will, in the end, have only guildies and PvP players left.

  • Posted: 5/03/08 12:25 PM
    Pirates of the Burning Sea
• • FLS publish its Harassment Policy Rev1.0

  • Originally posted by 77gms
    

    This in no way addresses the ganking of low level players just trying to do quests. This is damage control pure and simple. They know they have a reputation as being a ganker's paradise and they know they have lost subscriptions because of it.

     

    This little statement changes nothing.

    And is about three months too late.

     

    Funny enough..I found as much, if not more, wording in that document was directed towards gold farmers/sellers as griefers/gankers.

     

    They still can't let go of that one, eh.

  • Posted: 5/02/08 10:17 AM
    Pirates of the Burning Sea