Ouch, Linneage 2? Really? A game that had tons of exploits when it released in Asia, was ported over with a 9 month delay keeping all exploits intact? A game overrun with armies of Chinese bot squads using every exploit they new until the fixes for each slowly rolled in (9 months after they were made in Asia)? You're talking about a game where hundreds of folks were trapped within the starting city because scores of low level folks with abnormally expensive weapons could one shot kill everyone trying to leave? A game where you had exactly 4 heads for every race, 2 of each gender... where crafting basically consisted of getting a unique crafting item drop for every different item... I know many people who played it at launch, and yet I don't know any that continued their subscription after the first period.
Not Linneage 2, but Lineage II and yes, really. Everything you mention above were some of the reasons I, and many other hard core, PvP lovin' MoFos loved L2 and played it for years (4 years for me).
As for TR's departure, there's a lot of guessing and posturing in this thread. However, here are the facts.
NCSoft started wooing RIchard Garriott 'way before Tabula Rasa was even a gleam in Lord British's eye. I know this, because he induced us to come "play" an MMO NCSoft (virtually unknown in North America at the time) called "Lineage II," which was in NA Alpha. Richard was quite enamoured with NCSoft at the time and his enthusiasm was infectious. Dispite their charm and immaculate politeness, NCSoft didn't hire Richard Garriott because he's cute; nor did NCSoft obtain his services by paying him in unlimited quantities of cookies. Yes, ladies and germs, to NCSoft, Richard Garriott was always central to TR's success or failure. It didn't take a rocket scientist (pun intended) to see TR really going to hell in a hand basket -- paralleling NCSoft's decreasing interest in the MMO -- when Richard Garriott decided to play Space Cowboy and essentially turn his back on TR. There's also a lot of legal, contractual intricacies that no one wants to mention as well, not the least of which is Garriot's legal agreements with NCSoft regarding TR and their entire professional relationship.
So there you have it. The rise and fall of the latest Lord British Empire. Film at 11.
Just wanted to point out that RG was an "Executive Producer" on Lineage 1 as well for its NA release. So they were courting him even before Lineage 2. He is listed as an "Executive Producer" for both titles but from what I understand he didn't actually develop anything on them. Both games were made in Korea by Korean dev teams. His name was added on for the NA releases. Just wanted to add some info to your post.
I actually feel some sympathy for NCsoft. They were basically robbed, they gave the guy tons of dough to release a AAA MMO for them based on his Ultima days. But they got a failed MMO out of it and around 100million dollars spent total on TR's 3 iterations. And RG ripped off his loyal fans by getting them to pay for that put your DNA in space crap. While that thing was still going they swore TR was fine and would not be canned. Well what do you know, after RG got all the money from loyal fans he quits NCSoft and they shut down TR.
Great... Why do I see guild wars dieing in the future Q_Q
Anyways, If you are going to let a game go... Why not make one more patch -- Adds in a .txt file so you can change where you want the game to connect... Release the server, along with the source code. That way fans can pick up where you left off.
Lol wtf? By the end of this month Guild Wars is expected to reach 6 million sales. They're selling around 200 000 copies per quarter...
Comments
Not Linneage 2, but Lineage II and yes, really. Everything you mention above were some of the reasons I, and many other hard core, PvP lovin' MoFos loved L2 and played it for years (4 years for me).
As for TR's departure, there's a lot of guessing and posturing in this thread. However, here are the facts.
NCSoft started wooing RIchard Garriott 'way before Tabula Rasa was even a gleam in Lord British's eye. I know this, because he induced us to come "play" an MMO NCSoft (virtually unknown in North America at the time) called "Lineage II," which was in NA Alpha. Richard was quite enamoured with NCSoft at the time and his enthusiasm was infectious. Dispite their charm and immaculate politeness, NCSoft didn't hire Richard Garriott because he's cute; nor did NCSoft obtain his services by paying him in unlimited quantities of cookies. Yes, ladies and germs, to NCSoft, Richard Garriott was always central to TR's success or failure. It didn't take a rocket scientist (pun intended) to see TR really going to hell in a hand basket -- paralleling NCSoft's decreasing interest in the MMO -- when Richard Garriott decided to play Space Cowboy and essentially turn his back on TR. There's also a lot of legal, contractual intricacies that no one wants to mention as well, not the least of which is Garriot's legal agreements with NCSoft regarding TR and their entire professional relationship.
So there you have it. The rise and fall of the latest Lord British Empire. Film at 11.
Just wanted to point out that RG was an "Executive Producer" on Lineage 1 as well for its NA release. So they were courting him even before Lineage 2. He is listed as an "Executive Producer" for both titles but from what I understand he didn't actually develop anything on them. Both games were made in Korea by Korean dev teams. His name was added on for the NA releases. Just wanted to add some info to your post.
I actually feel some sympathy for NCsoft. They were basically robbed, they gave the guy tons of dough to release a AAA MMO for them based on his Ultima days. But they got a failed MMO out of it and around 100million dollars spent total on TR's 3 iterations. And RG ripped off his loyal fans by getting them to pay for that put your DNA in space crap. While that thing was still going they swore TR was fine and would not be canned. Well what do you know, after RG got all the money from loyal fans he quits NCSoft and they shut down TR.
Lol wtf? By the end of this month Guild Wars is expected to reach 6 million sales. They're selling around 200 000 copies per quarter...