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SOE, the rotten tree, the coming storm
Wow, fellow refugees... Today has been QUITE the day. Not only has SOE given the "FU" to the NGE TCG protestors, they've introduced RMT to EVERY server in EQ/EQ2, their bread and butter.
They've managed to basically stab their finger in the eye of every player they have.
Smed mismanagement on steroids this is.
Could this finally be the storm that cracks the trunk of the rotten SOE tree and put this failing MMO publisher out of it's misery? I mean, who HAVENT they pissed on today? Well, not the games that have so few subs that they won't even BOTHER with card cames or RMT since they'd not make crap off it but I digress...
Comments
I am confident Smed believes to be some sort of industry pioneer who will lead SOE into the future of MMO gaming with all these new ways of extracting money out of their customers.
I believe this is not doing any favours to SOEs already bad rep and without having happy customers who will play and recommend his games I really don't see how, in the long run, this practice will do anything but lure players away from SOEs games - particularly when he chooses to implement these controversial features into existing MMOs in which people have been playing for years.
There going to have to change the forum name from "Veteran's Refuge" to "SOE Refuge"
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
I have a feeling that we will have to add "TIR refugees" as well due to the microtransction that BioWares game will have. I bet SOE's card game was a test run for Lucas Arts with SWG. These MMO companies are becoming leeches.
Hmmm I never thought about that, that could very well be the reason they tried it in SWG
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
As far as Im concerned, they can do all they want as long as they announce it BEFORE they release the game, not 3 years into the game.
People who decide to buy and play Free Realms for instance are already warned about the scam they are getting into, so its their choice.
Well I have never been one of those to say "I will never play a SOE game again" after the NGE fiasco because I thought they would learn from their lesson and also because I believed it had been an extraordinary event which affected one game. I did play other SOE published games such as Vanguard and PotBS.
However, it seems they have not learnt and in all honesty I can now say with all confidence I will NEVER touch a SOE game again, no matter how promising it looks, and now I feel confident I have enough substance to back that up after all of these unethical practices they insist on following in their games.
You never really know whats coming next with SOE anymore.
I absolutely REFUSE to pay more than my sub fee for game access.
I will not compromise on that.
But would you be happy if others pay extra to be at an advantage on your game; changing the game rules after release?
But would you be happy if others pay extra to be at an advantage on your game?
No.
Competition should be determined by who is willing to commit more TIME to the game, not money.
The same argument that the punlishers use against "gold buying" applies here. Apparently SOE has determined that such purchases from THEM (ie: they make the money) doesn't harm their games, whilst buying the same thing from ANYONE ELSE=game breaking (more like profit breaking).
Smed isn't an industry pioneer. He's an industry hall of fame FAILURE.
Smed's lame response to the introduction of full RMT on EQ/EQ2, etc...
The "nuance" is that SOE selling stuff=Not harmful to the non RMT servers that now have it thrust down their throats..
But PLAYERS selling stuff to other players=BAD (probably because SOE doesn't make as much off it) on the non RMT servers...
The most hated man in the MMO industry's quote:
"Just to be clear here - We aren't allowing RMT (i.e. players selling items to each other for real money) on servers other than the existing Live Gamer enabled servers. What I said still stands.
John Smedley"
Smed isn't an industry pioneer. He's an industry hall of fame FAILURE.
Yep. That's why I didn't object to him being named one of the 10 most "influential" people in the MMO industry. He very much is. Except that his influence is completely negative. He IS the most hated man in this whole industry and for good reason.
BTW, the RMT addition to EQ/EQ2 was dropped on their subscribers with NO NOTICE WHATSOEVER. Which is classic SOE, they never reveal that which they know people will hate until the last possible moment.
Smed isn't an industry pioneer. He's an industry hall of fame FAILURE.
Yep. That's why I didn't object to him being named one of the 10 most "influential" people in the MMO industry. He very much is. Except that his influence is completely negative. He IS the most hated man in this whole industry and for good reason.
BTW, the RMT addition to EQ/EQ2 was dropped on their subscribers with NO NOTICE WHATSOEVER. Which is classic SOE, they never reveal that which they know people will hate until the last possible moment.
Yeppers, and it is interesting to note that this unannounced surprise was dropped on them only three weeks after the latest expasnsion was released. Typical $OE tactic.
The events of yesterday prove, once again, that what we former SOE customers and SWG players say about SOE being a greedy, dishonest, unethical publisher to do business with is all true.
But would you be happy if others pay extra to be at an advantage on your game?
No.
Competition should be determined by who is willing to commit more TIME to the game, not money.
Sorry but that's right out of the Blizzard play book, that's possibly one of the single worst things that WoW has put an emphasis on, 24/7 dungeon crawlers/rep grinders running amock in their overpowered loot. That kind of thinking needs to be canned asap. Competition should be determined by player skill and player skill alone, time or money spent shouldn't have any effect at all on pvp or competetive pve. The sooner that elitist mindet is vanquished the better.
...The spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.
SOe might still get out of this alive, but that is mainly because that they are starting to aim on the console market now.
Smedley however is toast, this is even worse than anything they messed up last time, unless they announce that Eq and EQ2 are F2P games from now on.
And as usual this will show up in SWG after a while too... Like the stupid card game, starting in Eq and EQ2, got to SWG a while later.
This is the last straw for me, never SOE again.
Ditto, both subs cancelled this morning. Its not even a game anymore! Its online gambling, packaged in another game that you have to pay for in order to have a chance at winning virtual items to use in the original game, that you already paid for (and pay a subscription for), that they refuse to support properly.
As I've said, no regrets, I've had my fun, but I cant, in good conscience, give SOE any more of my cash.
S
Hopefully you're not alone and there's enough of an outrage to nip it in the bud. Either way, welcome to the vet refuge
...The spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.
Ditto, both subs cancelled this morning. Its not even a game anymore! Its online gambling, packaged in another game that you have to pay for in order to have a chance at winning virtual items to use in the original game, that you already paid for (and pay a subscription for), that they refuse to support properly.
As I've said, no regrets, I've had my fun, but I cant, in good conscience, give SOE any more of my cash.
S
Sharkypal actually cancelled his SWG subscriptions?
/faint
Just goes to prove that everyone eventually becomes a disgruntled vet.
Nah, not at all .... I had my fun with the game. I certainly don't sit around willing bad things to happen to SOE or Smed (although I would like to see the TCG removed and the focus returned to SWG. That will never happen of course), I can relate to why you are so angry, but we're not in the same boat at all. I don't mean that offensively, Im just going on some of the things you've said.
I cancelled my subs because I dont want to get to a point where I am bitter. I know its not for me anymore and thats enough to justify the cancellations.
I'm going to take a break from MMOs for a while - I'll stop by from time to time to see whats happening.
Have fun,
S
Time to bring out this "iconic" depiction of SOE again:
Well done, Sharkypal. Because the only action that customers can take right now to send a message to SoE is to cancel their subscriptions.
But are we sheep or are we lions? If enough people cancel some bean-counter deep within the bowels of the SoE machine will take notice and the damage control will begin. But if people just post angrily on the forums and take a "I hate it but I'll stay subscribed and see what happens" attitude, then nothing will happen. Please people, take action!
Actually this is what we thought when they brought us the SWG NGE. There was a rush of cancellations. Petitions were started and thousands upon thousands of people spoke up on mmo forum boards all over the place.
But in the end, SOE was immune to customer outrage. They went full steam ahead with their plans despite what the majority of SWG players wanted.
I can see another potential possiblity to SOE's RMT. Perhaps it is greed, but could it also be DESPERATION. Maybe they are more desperate for cash than they are letting on? They act like they don't need subscribers. They alienate customers left and right, all the while operating servers at well below maximum capacity. The few players left do not add up sufficiently to pay the mounting bills, and so now we have this disqusting act of desperation. Could the end of SOE be near?
Nope, it won't work like that. If that's how SOE worked, the bean counters would have noticed their SWG subscription plummeting by 90% and done something about it.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.