Profile: Kerith
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• • AoC ruined my life!

  • Originally posted by LondonMagus
    

    The tragic picture you paint almost wins sympathy until you realise it doesn't resemble Funcom at all.

    I didn't intend to paint Funcom here -- I am sorry if I failed to point that out -- I was replying to the post of a young artist who might end up on the other side. No, I don't belive that Funcom is handling their product very wise at the moment ... as you might see on my reply on your post actually. I could guess why they do it the way they do it  -- but tbh -- I really have no clue ...

  • Posted: 8/14/08 4:57 PM
    Age of Conan
• • AoC ruined my life!

  • Originally posted by Arthousesig
    

    Kerith, sorry but I embrace a Rand type of worldview

    Tough competition, ideally, leads to better products given high levels of information in a liquid marketplace

    AOC is a crap product

    Funcom deserves bankruptcy so people with a good product can take their market share

    Hey, it's a jungle out there. And that's the way it should be.

    I would be all for competition if everyone would follow the same rules -- unfortunately that is not the case. But discussing capitalism and every sub-form of it would really take this thread very far from its original purpose ... maybe some other time :)

  • Posted: 8/14/08 4:43 PM
    Age of Conan
• • AoC ruined my life!

  • Originally posted by octa

    Couple ways to tackle that.  You can announce to the public what you're missing and why you are releasing early and have a clean moral slate; your customers know what they are getting into.  Or you can just release as is and act like everything is hunky dory which is both unmoral and unethical.  I don't care what financial situation your company is in, morality has a clear definition.

    Now, if you are asking what the smarter business decision would be (in the face of funding running dry) the obvious answer is to release as is and ignore the criticism.  Business decisions and moral decision rarely go hand in hand however.  Please realize a couple things with going this route though:

    1.) Don't be surprised if the long term health of your product and company is impacted negatively.
    2.) Don't be surprised your customer base is holding you accountable for your unmoral decision.
    3.) You better god damn deliver shortly after or you risk being an unmoral bastard and a failure.

    I hope this has been enlightening.

     

    lol .. yes ... thank you for the lecture. I am not trying to defend poor communication skills with the customer base (as I stated several times above in this thread). But maybe as a side note -- it didn't helped Sigil at all to be "honest" in the end.

    And besides that -- I am all for "Release when its finished" -- unfortunately this is not the norm and that has not much to do with the companies which are doing these games but unfortunately also with their publishers and investors (and not even every communication aspect may still be in their hands since they may have contracts with their publishers also regarding these matters). I am also sure that there went something wrong during the last 5 years and probably project management was not as good as it could (or should) have been -- but that is also quite common -- if you read "Rapid Development" you know that even Microsoft goofed with their development of MS Word. Anyways .. I am all for better project management and I am all for Agile Development when it comes to software projects. Why? Because they are unpredictable -- a lot of risks are involved. But people are just starting to understand that.

    But I disagree when you say that this decision is not also a moral decision -- you as CEO of a company have indeed a moral responsibility towards your employees. And we can discuss that matter in lenghth if they (Funcom) are honoring this responsibilty with their poor communication to their customers, but that wasn't the point of my post.

    My point was -- to show that at these companies are actually _people _ working on these projects ... and that it is not fair nor mature to wish them to go bancrupt. Thats all, really -- we can discuss every other aspect of poor management, responsibility towards the customers and analyse every possible mistake they did ... it is just this statement which really bothers me ...

  • Posted: 8/14/08 4:17 PM
    Age of Conan
• • AoC ruined my life!

  • Originally posted by Bonnafo
    

    [/sniped]
    

    
    

    if you haven't done it you might want to read the book Wikinomics -- pretty good read. I agree with what you said -- it's totally faszinating :)

  • Posted: 8/14/08 3:27 PM
    Age of Conan
• • AoC ruined my life!

  • Originally posted by Nadril
    

    The only reason I am active here is that I do enjoy MMO's, that is no doubt. Of course I have plenty else to do (college and I'm a digital artist) but I do love games. I'm going to school to get into the industry (with 3D design hopefully) so of course I'll speak about them a lot.

    The reason I bash AoC is that I want players, and developers, to know that a company can not pull this kind of shit without a backlash. I am fine with shitty games, they happen. I am even fine with a developer taking a risk and failing.

    What I am not fine with are lies and spin. I want the gaming industry to have some form of merit in it and by expressing my negativity towards this game (as everyone else is doing as well) developers, Funcom and players can tell that people won't stand for a half assed cash grabbing scheme. It's the same exact thing if you got a horribly cooked burger at some restaraunt, and you even went there again and got another horrible burger and horrible service. It is no doubt that you would tell other people that this place sucks.

    
    MMORPG developers however think they can get away with simply patching it later mentality that needs to stop in the industry. Patches need to happen, that's a fact, but you can't simply patch in stuff to the magnitude as AoC left out.

     

    Also I really do hope Funcom goes bankrupt, or at least AoC gets shut down. Why? It's not because I hate Funcom but because otherwise it will just send a message that developers can still develop half assed product and make money on them. Having Funcom fall would provide a very clear example of what happens when you give shit service.

    Now try to imagine yourself working for a studio -- the game you are working on is awesome (on paper) -- you are very convinced that it will be the next best thing after sliced bread and the art you are creating is something you are really proud of. And at some point in development your CEO tells you that their publisher decided to release the game in the state it is now ... you are not satisfied because it could (no HAS) to improve ... you know that it is not what it was on paper back three years ago.

    You saw everything what happend during the development -- you are aware that the programmers had a really big problem showing your art in the game engine (and maybe it was even your fault because you screwed something up during the export) and this and many other little things delayed the progress -- You are probably still proud of your work. And now your CEO stands there and tells you the game has to be released  -- it has to recoup .. NOW ... otherwise they had to lay off you and a few of the other junior artists since they can't afford to pay the next monthly wage. What is the right decision morally?

    To release a finished product  and lay off half of the crew -- or to hold your company together and release the game half finished -- recoup some of the money, satisfying the publisher and work hard to deliver the content that was missing -- later?

    For me -- this question is a no-brainer, really.

  • Posted: 8/14/08 2:57 PM
    Age of Conan