I totally agree. I'm an artist/animator in the industry and I've been watching this happen for years now. The industry is just not the same as it was. On the flip side I'm seeing a greater number of smaller studios cropping up which are devoted to their product, not just because they believe in it but also because they have to succeed to survive. And let the big corps outsource to china. Most of the work that comes back is garbage anyways, just like most of their games. Its unfortunate though that so many will be scrambling for work.
In short, if players want good games, they'll have to start wading through the avalanche of advertising for garbage franchises and support smaller studios who produce quality work.
I agree. I was hoping the internet would stop the giant music biz from Glactus level feeding but so far I have only found a few brave souls working on their own AND doing a good job at it. I hold out hope, but I also know when to have a margarita and watch Rome burn.
I agree there are a few games out there that are decent and really strive to be more than the tatus quo. I really hope someone remembers that art and the art of programming can ALSO sell games.
@ Guillermo "That's why I am supporting ICARUS studios with their Fallen Earth."
Awesome I will be checking that one out...I have been in animation hell for 2 months now.
I'm assuming the OP is trying to stoke the anti-SOE flames by linking this executive's bio. The reality is that the MMO business is very small. These companies trade personnel all the time at both the developer and executive level. That's why most of the games are rehashes and nothing new ever really comes out of this section of the game industry (aside from new payment models). In short, this isn't really surprising, or newsworthy.
The rebuttal to your denialist post is the fact that people talk about Bill Roper in relation to Cryptic Studios all the time, but in fact John Needham is much more responsible for the current Cryptic business model.
Roper is just the executive producer of Champions, and people even bring him p when talking about STO all over these forums. Roper has experience with one failed business model for Hellgate, while Needham has had years of experience with nickel and diming customers as a senior VP of SOE, a company with notoriously poor customer service. Roper is a distraction, and has been a very successful one, but Needham is much bigger problem for players of Cryptic games.
If you think I am trying to stoke the flames, thing again: I am a rare fan of Cryptic, months after they have been screwing me. Odds are you will not defend them a few months from now.
I'm not defending them at all, I really don't care for Cryptic to be perfect honest. The only Cryptic titled I've played is the CoH trial, unless you count the betas of CO and STO (which convinced me that I wasn't missing anything).
All I was saying is that your post is really rather pointless. So Cryptic's new CEO used to work for SOE?
Originally posted by championsFan Cryptic and Atari want to make a lot of money really fast while delivering as little support as possible.
What you have given here is the basic definition of a Corporation. They employ Corporate Officers, to make as much money, with as little cost as possible, so as to maximize profit. If this is a surprise to you, and somehow unexpected, then you need to re-evaluate your understanding of how things work in the real world.
Are you, like, slow or something? There are plenty of corporations that don't base their business models on your narrow-minded views. Look at Google, Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, etc. There are good companies/corporations and there are bad ones. When you grow up, you'll learn to discern between the two. Right now, Cryptic and Atari are the bad guys.
I'm assuming the OP is trying to stoke the anti-SOE flames by linking this executive's bio. The reality is that the MMO business is very small. These companies trade personnel all the time at both the developer and executive level. That's why most of the games are rehashes and nothing new ever really comes out of this section of the game industry (aside from new payment models). In short, this isn't really surprising, or newsworthy.
The rebuttal to your denialist post is the fact that people talk about Bill Roper in relation to Cryptic Studios all the time, but in fact John Needham is much more responsible for the current Cryptic business model.
Roper is just the executive producer of Champions, and people even bring him p when talking about STO all over these forums. Roper has experience with one failed business model for Hellgate, while Needham has had years of experience with nickel and diming customers as a senior VP of SOE, a company with notoriously poor customer service. Roper is a distraction, and has been a very successful one, but Needham is much bigger problem for players of Cryptic games.
If you think I am trying to stoke the flames, thing again: I am a rare fan of Cryptic, months after they have been screwing me. Odds are you will not defend them a few months from now.
I'm not defending them at all, I really don't care for Cryptic to be perfect honest. The only Cryptic titled I've played is the CoH trial, unless you count the betas of CO and STO (which convinced me that I wasn't missing anything).
All I was saying is that your post is really rather pointless. So Cryptic's new CEO used to work for SOE?
So what.
That's very common in such a small industry.
OK, and if you don't care for Cryptic you may not have seen as much of the talk about Bill Roper in relation to perceived greed at the company. Since I follow CO and STO forums, I see a lot of discussion about Bill Roper "failship", "greedy", etc, which is odd in STO since he does not work on that game. This is why I am posting about John Needham, because in as much as the villainy at Cryptic can be personified, it is more logical for the villain to be Needham than to be Roper. If Roper was not constantly being invoked as a villain, I would not mention Needham, but if they are going to bring up Roper then they really should know about Needham, especially in the case of STO, which Roper does not work on.
Furthermore, it is no secret that Cryptic is having people question the quality of their recent games. Some people may consider this connection to STO to be relevant for their purchasing decision. "Who cares" would be the correct response if I posted this in general discussion, but here in STO forums it is relevant.
Comments
I totally agree. I'm an artist/animator in the industry and I've been watching this happen for years now. The industry is just not the same as it was. On the flip side I'm seeing a greater number of smaller studios cropping up which are devoted to their product, not just because they believe in it but also because they have to succeed to survive. And let the big corps outsource to china. Most of the work that comes back is garbage anyways, just like most of their games. Its unfortunate though that so many will be scrambling for work.
In short, if players want good games, they'll have to start wading through the avalanche of advertising for garbage franchises and support smaller studios who produce quality work.
I agree. I was hoping the internet would stop the giant music biz from Glactus level feeding but so far I have only found a few brave souls working on their own AND doing a good job at it. I hold out hope, but I also know when to have a margarita and watch Rome burn.
I agree there are a few games out there that are decent and really strive to be more than the tatus quo. I really hope someone remembers that art and the art of programming can ALSO sell games.
@ Guillermo "That's why I am supporting ICARUS studios with their Fallen Earth."
Awesome I will be checking that one out...I have been in animation hell for 2 months now.
the problem is more complicate OP
Pelu I am disappoint
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
It is not if you can pull things out of your nose :-)
Sorry but I couldn't resist.
The rebuttal to your denialist post is the fact that people talk about Bill Roper in relation to Cryptic Studios all the time, but in fact John Needham is much more responsible for the current Cryptic business model.
Roper is just the executive producer of Champions, and people even bring him p when talking about STO all over these forums. Roper has experience with one failed business model for Hellgate, while Needham has had years of experience with nickel and diming customers as a senior VP of SOE, a company with notoriously poor customer service. Roper is a distraction, and has been a very successful one, but Needham is much bigger problem for players of Cryptic games.
If you think I am trying to stoke the flames, thing again: I am a rare fan of Cryptic, months after they have been screwing me. Odds are you will not defend them a few months from now.
I'm not defending them at all, I really don't care for Cryptic to be perfect honest. The only Cryptic titled I've played is the CoH trial, unless you count the betas of CO and STO (which convinced me that I wasn't missing anything).
All I was saying is that your post is really rather pointless. So Cryptic's new CEO used to work for SOE?
So what.
That's very common in such a small industry.
...
What you have given here is the basic definition of a Corporation. They employ Corporate Officers, to make as much money, with as little cost as possible, so as to maximize profit. If this is a surprise to you, and somehow unexpected, then you need to re-evaluate your understanding of how things work in the real world.
Are you, like, slow or something? There are plenty of corporations that don't base their business models on your narrow-minded views. Look at Google, Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, etc. There are good companies/corporations and there are bad ones. When you grow up, you'll learn to discern between the two. Right now, Cryptic and Atari are the bad guys.
The rebuttal to your denialist post is the fact that people talk about Bill Roper in relation to Cryptic Studios all the time, but in fact John Needham is much more responsible for the current Cryptic business model.
Roper is just the executive producer of Champions, and people even bring him p when talking about STO all over these forums. Roper has experience with one failed business model for Hellgate, while Needham has had years of experience with nickel and diming customers as a senior VP of SOE, a company with notoriously poor customer service. Roper is a distraction, and has been a very successful one, but Needham is much bigger problem for players of Cryptic games.
If you think I am trying to stoke the flames, thing again: I am a rare fan of Cryptic, months after they have been screwing me. Odds are you will not defend them a few months from now.
I'm not defending them at all, I really don't care for Cryptic to be perfect honest. The only Cryptic titled I've played is the CoH trial, unless you count the betas of CO and STO (which convinced me that I wasn't missing anything).
All I was saying is that your post is really rather pointless. So Cryptic's new CEO used to work for SOE?
So what.
That's very common in such a small industry.
OK, and if you don't care for Cryptic you may not have seen as much of the talk about Bill Roper in relation to perceived greed at the company. Since I follow CO and STO forums, I see a lot of discussion about Bill Roper "failship", "greedy", etc, which is odd in STO since he does not work on that game. This is why I am posting about John Needham, because in as much as the villainy at Cryptic can be personified, it is more logical for the villain to be Needham than to be Roper. If Roper was not constantly being invoked as a villain, I would not mention Needham, but if they are going to bring up Roper then they really should know about Needham, especially in the case of STO, which Roper does not work on.
Furthermore, it is no secret that Cryptic is having people question the quality of their recent games. Some people may consider this connection to STO to be relevant for their purchasing decision. "Who cares" would be the correct response if I posted this in general discussion, but here in STO forums it is relevant.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.