So Bill Roper is going on to destroy another project, and Cryptic is likely to be working on another new MMORPG to churn through their mill. I wonder what IP they will destroy this time. Maybe Thundercats? I also wonder how long until they blame Champions deteriorating subs on 'Poz' and fire him.
My thoughts exactly.
It's their business model. Make one quickly trashed together MMO every year with their "miracle kit", with barely enough content for 1 play through and after a year people are given the next Craptic trash MMO.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Actually... Wizards of The Coast (WOTC , owners of D&D) and Turbine are suing Atari (and Cryptic) for mishandling of D&D licence.
WOTC have their glass full of Atari bullshit , and its very unlikely Atari will manage to keep D&D licence , and probably will be closed as well in process.
So dont worry NWN and Forgotten Realms will never reach Cryptic grubby hands.
If I was to place a bet. I would say Turbine would develop NWN MMO
I so hope you are right.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
So Bill Roper is going on to destroy another project, and Cryptic is likely to be working on another new MMORPG to churn through their mill. I wonder what IP they will destroy this time. Maybe Thundercats? I also wonder how long until they blame Champions deteriorating subs on 'Poz' and fire him.
The internet chatter on their next mmo is NWN online.
That would be a shame to curse something as good as NWN and damn it to cryptic hell.
QFT!
If they did, I would have to sneak in to Cryptic's HQ and head shot NWN to put it out it's misery before they defile it.
I heard their next MMO is based on Call of Cthulu. Has this been refuted?
I don't think it has been refuted, and Cthulhu is my guess. Here is some concept art:
Here is a concept art that does not look like NWN:
I still think it is Cthulhu, or some other horror type of theme. In all their games Cryptic has tended to use oddball humor, possibly as a defense mechanism (Bioware they are not).
That last picture is like a copy from the end of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe they will make Totoro MMO and we can all bounce from one tree to another whilst waiting for a catbus to arrive!
If Cryptic is pulling Roper to do damage control on STO, then get ready to set phasers to hliarious!
I will literally ROFLMAO if it turns out Roper is going to work on STO. I'd almost resub for a month just to post on the forums if that happened...almost.
Hopefully WoTC will pull back the DnD license from Atari (and Cryptic if that is the case). IF cryptic is developing Cthulu as well, well...at least there's The Secret World being developed...
As for the state of the game....it seemed pretty thin. Still waiting to hear how much is in Revelation that they were intending to charge as an expansion. Apparently they're also aware of a few areas where content is thin.....I wonder if that is in the context of leveling up a single toon or re-rolling alts.... Looks like the power system is getting an overhaul -- THAT sounds a big NGE-ish but, considering melee is pretty worthless, that may be welcome.
For me, CO has been a letdown and continues to be.
Bill roper is at the helm of another game that is performing poorly. No questioning that and not a big surprise. I certainly hope he doesn't get put in charge of anything else either.
However the big problem is the higher ups at Cryptic. Look at their CEO and his "experience" in the business and all the bullshit cryptic is pulling makes tons of sense. Rushing out games in impossible timelines. Expecting players to fund the last few yeas of development after the game has already been released. Expecting players to pay additional fees in cash shops or "expansions" for things that should be included in the game.
"Moving to Sony Online Entertainment in 2001, John served as senior vice president of business development, focusing on international expansion and the formation of a cross-platform publishing, distribution and marketing label. He later managed business development, strategic initiatives, international operations, customer service and quality assurance for SOE as senior vice president of business development and operations"
What on this guys list of duties at soe didn't get fucked up under his watch and this is Cryptics choice for leadership? Customer service? International expansion!?!?!? What cross platform? Distribution and marketing? etc etc
I really had high hopes for cryptic when they struck out on their own. They had every opportunity handed to them and frankly they have turned into a shallow money grubbing company that pushes crap out to market and expects their customer to open their wallets at every turn.
Hopefully WoTC will pull back the DnD license from Atari (and Cryptic if that is the case). IF cryptic is developing Cthulu as well, well...at least there's The Secret World being developed... As for the state of the game....it seemed pretty thin. Still waiting to hear how much is in Revelation that they were intending to charge as an expansion. Everything listed in the SotG is free, the revelations expansion is free. The only semi-official statement that ever said it would be a paid xpac was from a single forum post by the former community manager, and he left the company the following week. Here is the announcement that the xpac is free: "It’s Free!
We heard our community and we acted. Champions Online – Revelation will now be available to everyone at no extra charge. That is a free expansion pack for all Champions Online players."
Apparently they're also aware of a few areas where content is thin.....I wonder if that is in the context of leveling up a single toon or re-rolling alts.... There aren't any content gaps for a single toon (there were at launch due to a detuned XP progression curve, but it was fixed in October), and both times I have reached max level with dozens of quests remaining. That said, it means out of over 1000 quests, only a few dozen are optional. Therefore alts will replay the same content, unless the player prefers to PvP (after about 15 characters I started to get weary of some of the early content, so I pvp instead).
Looks like the power system is getting an overhaul -- THAT sounds a big NGE-ish but, considering melee is pretty worthless, that may be welcome. Nah, this is all stuff on the normal level of buffs and nerfs that I have been dealing with since Diablo 2. An NGE type change would occur if they did something radical like add classes to the game, but this is just the age old struggle between melee and ranged, and soon it will be melee's time of favor. Buffs and nerfs are just another excuse to play alts.
Originally posted by championsFan Everything listed in the SotG is free, the revelations expansion is free. The only semi-official statement that ever said it would be a paid xpac was from a single forum post by the former community manager, and he left the company the following week. Here is the announcement that the xpac is free: "It’s Free!
We heard our community and we acted. Champions Online – Revelation will now be available to everyone at no extra charge. That is a free expansion pack for all Champions Online players."
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be apaidexpansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
Originally posted by championsFan Everything listed in the SotG is free, the revelations expansion is free. The only semi-official statement that ever said it would be a paid xpac was from a single forum post by the former community manager, and he left the company the following week. Here is the announcement that the xpac is free: "It’s Free!
We heard our community and we acted. Champions Online – Revelation will now be available to everyone at no extra charge. That is a free expansion pack for all Champions Online players."
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be apaidexpansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
Actually... Wizards of The Coast (WOTC , owners of D&D) and Turbine are suing Atari (and Cryptic) for mishandling of D&D licence. WOTC have their glass full of Atari bullshit , and its very unlikely Atari will manage to keep D&D licence , and probably will be closed as well in process. So dont worry NWN and Forgotten Realms will never reach Cryptic grubby hands. If I was to place a bet. I would say Turbine would develop NWN MMO
I certainly hope so. If cryptic ends up with D&D then I will officially give up on the franchise. WoTC have not exactly been instilling much confidence in their ability to run the IP, unless you mean "into the ground". Cryptic would pretty much be the final stake for me. /sigh
Originally posted by championsFan Everything listed in the SotG is free, the revelations expansion is free. The only semi-official statement that ever said it would be a paid xpac was from a single forum post by the former community manager, and he left the company the following week. Here is the announcement that the xpac is free: "It’s Free!
We heard our community and we acted. Champions Online – Revelation will now be available to everyone at no extra charge. That is a free expansion pack for all Champions Online players."
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be apaidexpansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
I am not denying that it was originally intended to be a paid expansion, everything I said was true: the only time it was ever announced as a paid expansion was on a single post by the community manager who left the company a week later. All subsequent announcements say that the expansion would be free for all subscribers.
If you look at the post I was correcting, the person wonders how much of the xpac will be free. The point of my clarification is that we have known for weeks that the entire xpac will be free. I agree in the statement you quoted that it was originally announced as a paid expansion, so what facts am I ignoring?
Originally posted by Xondar123 Originally posted by Miles-Prower So help me <insert diety>. If the NWN MMORPG bombs, I will cry a river of tears and drown in it.Neverwinter Nights was one of the BEST RPGs ever made. In fact, I've played it at least 6 times from start to finish. The community is just amazing, the game is just amazing, everything about it is amazing!Some things should never be MMORPGs. NWN is one of them.~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Face it, Cryptic bent one of my very favourite TV shows (Star Trek) over a barrel and raped it. The same is going to happen to your favourite RPG.
I believe it's unlikely that the NWNO project will ever see the light of day. If you want "proof", or at the very least some reasoning behind my claim feel free to check out an article I wrote about Cryptic Studios which is linked in my signature (Cryptic Studios Pre-Post Mortem).
Fair warning, it's an extremely long article, but if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing it should make for a fascinating read.
Originally posted by championsFan Everything listed in the SotG is free, the revelations expansion is free. The only semi-official statement that ever said it would be a paid xpac was from a single forum post by the former community manager, and he left the company the following week. Here is the announcement that the xpac is free: "It’s Free!
We heard our community and we acted. Champions Online – Revelation will now be available to everyone at no extra charge. That is a free expansion pack for all Champions Online players."
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be apaidexpansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
I am not denying that it was originally intended to be a paid expansion, everything I said was true: the only time it was ever announced as a paid expansion was on a single post by the community manager who left the company a week later. All subsequent announcements say that the expansion would be free for all subscribers.
If you look at the post I was correcting, the person wonders how much of the xpac will be free. The point of my clarification is that we have known for weeks that the entire xpac will be free. I agree in the statement you quoted that it was originally announced as a paid expansion, so what facts am I ignoring?
-1 for reading comprehension. Your correction was to the quote "Still waiting to hear how much is in Revelation that they were intending to charge as an expansion" is pretty self-explanatory...in no way does it inquire how much of the xpac will be free but, in fact, how large the xpac will be that it could justify being charged for. Slow down and think before replying.
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
So help me <insert diety>. If the NWN MMORPG bombs, I will cry a river of tears and drown in it. Neverwinter Nights was one of the BEST RPGs ever made. In fact, I've played it at least 6 times from start to finish. The community is just amazing, the game is just amazing, everything about it is amazing! Some things should never be MMORPGs. NWN is one of them.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Face it, Cryptic bent one of my very favourite TV shows (Star Trek) over a barrel and raped it. The same is going to happen to your favourite RPG.
I believe it's unlikely that the NWNO project will ever see the light of day. If you want "proof", or at the very least some reasoning behind my claim feel free to check out an article I wrote about Cryptic Studios which is linked in my signature (Cryptic Studios Pre-Post Mortem).
Fair warning, it's an extremely long article, but if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing it should make for a fascinating read.
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
So, you're trying to gloss over your statement blatantly objectifying women in favor of one that subordinates them to men? Good luck buddy. ( ' ;
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
So, you're trying to gloss over your statement blatantly objectifying women in favor of one that subordinates them to men? Good luck buddy. ( ' ;
So help me <insert diety>. If the NWN MMORPG bombs, I will cry a river of tears and drown in it. Neverwinter Nights was one of the BEST RPGs ever made. In fact, I've played it at least 6 times from start to finish. The community is just amazing, the game is just amazing, everything about it is amazing! Some things should never be MMORPGs. NWN is one of them.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Face it, Cryptic bent one of my very favourite TV shows (Star Trek) over a barrel and raped it. The same is going to happen to your favourite RPG.
I believe it's unlikely that the NWNO project will ever see the light of day. If you want "proof", or at the very least some reasoning behind my claim feel free to check out an article I wrote about Cryptic Studios which is linked in my signature (Cryptic Studios Pre-Post Mortem). Fair warning, it's an extremely long article, but if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing it should make for a fascinating read.
I was originally going to write part 3 about a week after part 2. But I thought about it and decided if I did that most of my "evidence" would either be hearsay or colloquial/anecdotal. Some people attacked my article based off the fact that I write comic book reviews as well. Apparently the train of irrational thought was that if I read comic books I'm too stupid to sift through Atari's earnings. Still, that wasn't the main reason.
NPD doesn't list box sales for PC titles (just ranking), making it near impossible to gauge actual box sales. We already know the retention rate is horrible, sub 40% in the first month alone, but without initial box sales I can't pinpoint an actual estimated sub base. My best guess currently would be sub 100k, somewhere around 80k, and it'll more than likely loose another 20-30k from month 2/3 fallout. I expect it to fair better than Champions (which I believe is sub 30k) but it's not going to be anything to write home about.
But again that's my best guess, it wouldn't be responsible of me to write an article based solely off that.
So I've decided to wait until May when Atari publishes its H2 2010 FY report. That'll tell us for certain how the game is doing. And it'll make the article airtight.
As for the links being broken that's strange they work for me. I'll check them again.
Edit: Found the issue. I had the URLs in "" marks. It was breaking the links for everyone, they most likely still worked for me because of my cache. Thanks for bringing it my attention. It should be fixed now.
I'll drop you a PM when you I part 3 written and posted.
Also, I'm going to be writing a fairly exhaustive TOR piece soon, summing up all available pertinent information with my own personal spin of course.
Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero I was originally going to write part 3 about a week after part 2. But I thought about it and decided if I did that most of my "evidence" would either be hearsay or colloquial/anecdotal. Some people attacked my article based off the fact that I write comic book reviews as well. Apparently the train of irrational thought was that if I read comic books I'm too stupid to sift through Atari's earnings. Still, that wasn't the main reason. NPD doesn't list box sales for PC titles (just ranking), making it near impossible to gauge actual box sales. We already know the retention rate is horrible, sub 40% in the first month alone, but without initial box sales I can't pinpoint an actual estimated sub base. My best guess currently would be sub 100k, somewhere around 80k, and it'll more than likely loose another 20-30k from month 2/3 fallout. I expect it to fair better than Champions (which I believe is sub 30k) but it's not going to be anything to write home about. But again that's my best guess, it wouldn't be responsible of me to write an article based solely off that. So I've decided to wait until May when Atari publishes its H2 2010 FY report. That'll tell us for certain how the game is doing. And it'll make the article airtight. As for the links being broken that's strange they work for me. I'll check them again. Edit: Found the issue. I had the URLs in "" marks. It was breaking the links for everyone, they most likely still worked for me because of my cache. Thanks for bringing it my attention. It should be fixed now. I'll drop you a PM when you I part 3 written and posted. Also, I'm going to be writing a fairly exhaustive TOR piece soon, summing up all available pertinent information with my own personal spin of course.
Don't let people bash you because of the work you've done in the past. That's the silliest reason to take issue with something. I have a feeling that you just touched a raw nerve with a lot of fanatical STO/Cryptic fans and they can't refute your claims since they are based on evidence from Atari's own reports, so instead they are resorting to cheap ad hominem attacks.
I look forward to part 3 (especially in light of STO's bombing on the XFire numbers, #152 as of today, lower than City of Heroes even,) and I also look forward to your SWTOR article and what conclusions you will reach there.
Cryptic makes bite-sized action game MMOs. Their stuff is always very shallow and action-oriented. That's fine, but they never belonged anywhere near a Star Trek MMO. Doesn't fit at all.
Comments
My thoughts exactly.
It's their business model. Make one quickly trashed together MMO every year with their "miracle kit", with barely enough content for 1 play through and after a year people are given the next Craptic trash MMO.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I so hope you are right.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
The internet chatter on their next mmo is NWN online.
That would be a shame to curse something as good as NWN and damn it to cryptic hell.
QFT!
If they did, I would have to sneak in to Cryptic's HQ and head shot NWN to put it out it's misery before they defile it.
I don't think it has been refuted, and Cthulhu is my guess. Here is some concept art:
Here is a concept art that does not look like NWN:
I still think it is Cthulhu, or some other horror type of theme. In all their games Cryptic has tended to use oddball humor, possibly as a defense mechanism (Bioware they are not).
That last picture is like a copy from the end of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe they will make Totoro MMO and we can all bounce from one tree to another whilst waiting for a catbus to arrive!
I will literally ROFLMAO if it turns out Roper is going to work on STO. I'd almost resub for a month just to post on the forums if that happened...almost.
So...he screwed up another game and got kicked out? LOL
Time to go dust off my copy of Hellgate London!!
Cunfushus says "Only through wasting time do we realize that time should not be wasted."
Hopefully WoTC will pull back the DnD license from Atari (and Cryptic if that is the case). IF cryptic is developing Cthulu as well, well...at least there's The Secret World being developed...
As for the state of the game....it seemed pretty thin. Still waiting to hear how much is in Revelation that they were intending to charge as an expansion. Apparently they're also aware of a few areas where content is thin.....I wonder if that is in the context of leveling up a single toon or re-rolling alts.... Looks like the power system is getting an overhaul -- THAT sounds a big NGE-ish but, considering melee is pretty worthless, that may be welcome.
For me, CO has been a letdown and continues to be.
Bill roper is at the helm of another game that is performing poorly. No questioning that and not a big surprise. I certainly hope he doesn't get put in charge of anything else either.
However the big problem is the higher ups at Cryptic. Look at their CEO and his "experience" in the business and all the bullshit cryptic is pulling makes tons of sense. Rushing out games in impossible timelines. Expecting players to fund the last few yeas of development after the game has already been released. Expecting players to pay additional fees in cash shops or "expansions" for things that should be included in the game.
John Needham CEO of Cryptic
"Moving to Sony Online Entertainment in 2001, John served as senior vice president of business development, focusing on international expansion and the formation of a cross-platform publishing, distribution and marketing label. He later managed business development, strategic initiatives, international operations, customer service and quality assurance for SOE as senior vice president of business development and operations"
What on this guys list of duties at soe didn't get fucked up under his watch and this is Cryptics choice for leadership? Customer service? International expansion!?!?!? What cross platform? Distribution and marketing? etc etc
I really had high hopes for cryptic when they struck out on their own. They had every opportunity handed to them and frankly they have turned into a shallow money grubbing company that pushes crap out to market and expects their customer to open their wallets at every turn.
so Poz vs Postitron
Who's mmo will do better, any bets?
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be a paid expansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be a paid expansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
I certainly hope so. If cryptic ends up with D&D then I will officially give up on the franchise. WoTC have not exactly been instilling much confidence in their ability to run the IP, unless you mean "into the ground". Cryptic would pretty much be the final stake for me. /sigh
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be a paid expansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
I am not denying that it was originally intended to be a paid expansion, everything I said was true: the only time it was ever announced as a paid expansion was on a single post by the community manager who left the company a week later. All subsequent announcements say that the expansion would be free for all subscribers.
If you look at the post I was correcting, the person wonders how much of the xpac will be free. The point of my clarification is that we have known for weeks that the entire xpac will be free. I agree in the statement you quoted that it was originally announced as a paid expansion, so what facts am I ignoring?
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
Face it, Cryptic bent one of my very favourite TV shows (Star Trek) over a barrel and raped it. The same is going to happen to your favourite RPG.
I believe it's unlikely that the NWNO project will ever see the light of day. If you want "proof", or at the very least some reasoning behind my claim feel free to check out an article I wrote about Cryptic Studios which is linked in my signature (Cryptic Studios Pre-Post Mortem).
Fair warning, it's an extremely long article, but if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing it should make for a fascinating read.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
If you read the link you gave you would see plain as day that Bill Roper says it was a planned to be a paid expansion and cryptic only caved in after players heard about it and expressed how much they disliked the concept.
Here is the quote for you from that link, about mid way down.
"And so, while we may have originally built Revelation to be a paid expansion pack, we reconsidered our decision based on recent community discussion."
Even the quote you listed reinforces that it was always intended to be a paid expansion and was only made free after the fact.
I despise the term "fanboi" but that there is a clear example of blind, fact-be-darned, rage-posting that championsFan has demonstrated. Thanks for the quick response Daff. ( ' :
I am not denying that it was originally intended to be a paid expansion, everything I said was true: the only time it was ever announced as a paid expansion was on a single post by the community manager who left the company a week later. All subsequent announcements say that the expansion would be free for all subscribers.
If you look at the post I was correcting, the person wonders how much of the xpac will be free. The point of my clarification is that we have known for weeks that the entire xpac will be free. I agree in the statement you quoted that it was originally announced as a paid expansion, so what facts am I ignoring?
-1 for reading comprehension. Your correction was to the quote "Still waiting to hear how much is in Revelation that they were intending to charge as an expansion" is pretty self-explanatory...in no way does it inquire how much of the xpac will be free but, in fact, how large the xpac will be that it could justify being charged for. Slow down and think before replying.
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
Face it, Cryptic bent one of my very favourite TV shows (Star Trek) over a barrel and raped it. The same is going to happen to your favourite RPG.
I believe it's unlikely that the NWNO project will ever see the light of day. If you want "proof", or at the very least some reasoning behind my claim feel free to check out an article I wrote about Cryptic Studios which is linked in my signature (Cryptic Studios Pre-Post Mortem).
Fair warning, it's an extremely long article, but if you have even a passing interest in this sort of thing it should make for a fascinating read.
Both links in your sig are broken, but I believe you meant this article? Part 1: http://www.alltern8.com/library/cryptic_studios_-_a_pre_post-mortem/l-4840.html and Part 2: http://www.alltern8.com/library/mmo_games/cryptic_studios_-_a_pre_post-mortem_part_2/l-4858.html
I've read this article twice, and my only question for the author is: When will part 3 come out???
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
So, you're trying to gloss over your statement blatantly objectifying women in favor of one that subordinates them to men? Good luck buddy. ( ' ;
Positron isn't in charge of City of Heroes anymore. He's now working on unspecified projects (City of Heroes 2? Some other MMO??) and City of Heroes end-game content. War Witch is now in charge of City of Heroes.
That's right: Girl fight!!
Poz is a guy...
I wasn't sure with his girly name. Anyway, what I meant to say was: Poz is gonna get beat up by a girl!
So, you're trying to gloss over your statement blatantly objectifying women in favor of one that subordinates them to men? Good luck buddy. ( ' ;
... What?
I was originally going to write part 3 about a week after part 2. But I thought about it and decided if I did that most of my "evidence" would either be hearsay or colloquial/anecdotal. Some people attacked my article based off the fact that I write comic book reviews as well. Apparently the train of irrational thought was that if I read comic books I'm too stupid to sift through Atari's earnings. Still, that wasn't the main reason.
NPD doesn't list box sales for PC titles (just ranking), making it near impossible to gauge actual box sales. We already know the retention rate is horrible, sub 40% in the first month alone, but without initial box sales I can't pinpoint an actual estimated sub base. My best guess currently would be sub 100k, somewhere around 80k, and it'll more than likely loose another 20-30k from month 2/3 fallout. I expect it to fair better than Champions (which I believe is sub 30k) but it's not going to be anything to write home about.
But again that's my best guess, it wouldn't be responsible of me to write an article based solely off that.
So I've decided to wait until May when Atari publishes its H2 2010 FY report. That'll tell us for certain how the game is doing. And it'll make the article airtight.
As for the links being broken that's strange they work for me. I'll check them again.
Edit: Found the issue. I had the URLs in "" marks. It was breaking the links for everyone, they most likely still worked for me because of my cache. Thanks for bringing it my attention. It should be fixed now.
I'll drop you a PM when you I part 3 written and posted.
Also, I'm going to be writing a fairly exhaustive TOR piece soon, summing up all available pertinent information with my own personal spin of course.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Don't let people bash you because of the work you've done in the past. That's the silliest reason to take issue with something. I have a feeling that you just touched a raw nerve with a lot of fanatical STO/Cryptic fans and they can't refute your claims since they are based on evidence from Atari's own reports, so instead they are resorting to cheap ad hominem attacks.
I look forward to part 3 (especially in light of STO's bombing on the XFire numbers, #152 as of today, lower than City of Heroes even,) and I also look forward to your SWTOR article and what conclusions you will reach there.
Cryptic makes bite-sized action game MMOs. Their stuff is always very shallow and action-oriented. That's fine, but they never belonged anywhere near a Star Trek MMO. Doesn't fit at all.