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The 3 Worst MMO Companies Of All Time
sludgebeard
Member RarePosts: 788
Time to spill my guts and tell you guys my three worst MMO Companies of all time. Here we go.
3. Cryptic Studios
O god what a failure this studio has been to MMO gamers, and from such promising beginnings. Look at the checklist of everything this studio had going for it at is conception.
- Former City of Heroes Devs
- Star Trek License
- Champions RPG License
- Original Game engine designed by the Studio for all their future MMO's.
When I found out about this company in 2008, I got super-charged, ready to go, I even made a website dedicated to their specific MMO opus.
Flash forward to now, and they are easily one of the biggest losers in MMO history. Not only destroying the Star Trek MMO Franchise right out of Warp, but making Champions Online a sub-par follow up to their biggest hit CoH, that is now also one of the original incarnations of how "Not to do a F2P".
The company failed to meet expectations for many fans, switched leadership a hand full of times, and has since seen a somewhat revitalized success in Neverwinter, but sadly their incarnations of our favorite IP's have been to date, sub-par and wholly unoriginal.
2. NCSOFT
A company that was at one point on the forefront of the genre, with huge hits like Lineage and sleeper hit CoH, this company was on its way to being one of the most original MMO companies and sadly one of the few taking actual risks with their choice MMO titles.
There was super hero MMO's on their roster, followed by racing MMO's, even Sci-Fi Shooter MMO's; at one time NCSOFT was doing just about everything right.
But then like the proverbial first bump in the road, Auto Assault failed to meet expectations (and rightfully so, it was poorly executed but still a novel idea) and the plug was pulled. Then like a row of domino's knocking over MMO Box's the rest started falling. Eventually NCSOFT would go to cancel Tabula Rasa, even when the popularity and developer for the game were finally ramping up, followed by what is many considered to be a cult classic City of Heroes.
I cant fault NCSOFT for games not hitting a good target market, but I can blame them for not focusing their efforts on equally supporting each game. Tabula Rasa when it dint strike big received very little in the way of continued development, and when CoH had seemingly reached its peak they pulled the cape right from under our heroes feet and we would never walk again.
1. SOE
Ahhh the worst of the worst, you know, SOE has always been a company with a few great people, marred entirely by one man's poor leadership. John C Smedley, the heir to the Iron Throne of MMO games has precariously thwarted ever single chance that the company has had at keeping some credibility.
In a realm where Brad Mcquaid is now demonized as nothing more than a thief and a hack, it amazes me how easily people forget how much SOE and Smedley has done to ruin MMO games throughout the years.
The biggest hit of course, game in the form of the biggest debacle in MMO history, with Star Wars Galaxies "New Game Enhancements". In a game where skills mattered, community was king, and truely crafting your own story (which was touted on the box) was actually delivered, for some reason SOE decided to forget all the years of development and community outcry to keep the game the way it was, and opted to change the game completely to better fit what is now reffered to as "The Silent Majority".
No SWG player wanted the changes, SOE delibertly took what was already a well respected game with a concurrent playerbase, and shifted gears on its core gameplay to fit a market they had never and would never reach. The outcome is something that has scarred many gamers including myself for years, and when the old outcry's of "Boycott SOE" finally dimished, we lost a truely Righteous Voice in MMO's.
Say what you will about the other companies, SOE is by far the worst simply for failing to do the one thing that anyone asked them: Listen.
Comments
Despite all the hate ncsoft gets for CoH and tabula Rasa I actually believe they are one of the best ones out there.
They are the only MMO company I know of (correct me if I'm wrong) that has more than one mmo and has been willing to venture away form the standard EQ/WoW model.
Look at what they've had.
GW 1/2
CoH
Lineage 1/2
Aion
Tabula Rasa
Auto Assault.
While there are similarities between some of those titles, they have by far the widest selection (in terms of styles of genre) of mmo of any other dev I know of.
You may not like the games or how they handle them but they are the only ones that are willing to go outside the norm.
You forgot to mention that its a FPS zombie survival game. Everyone I know that played SWG always wished it had more headshots and less community!
Zenimax
Zenimax
Zenimax
They screwed up an easy concept EOS and they know more about suing then they do gaming.
They didnt see the future of VR.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1BDGqIfm8U&hd=1
That said, I would rate NCSoft as #1. And where is EA?
Please Note: I'm done arguing with unreasonable people with an agenda and/or those that fail to see logic.
Argue if you must, discount my post with anti-logic and/or Hyperbole. I won't be responding any longer.
Wow how can you think those companies are bad when theres ones like Nexon and Frogster? I get that maybe SOE or NCSOFT shut down your favorite game but holy shit compare those companies to p2w rolling server publishers from Asia or shoddy European publishers with organized crime connections...
agreed
so my list would be Zenimax(1) and EA
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Ea would eat your list and leave nothing.
It would be the top 5, not three, all by itself.
Oh hey look, another person trying to pass off his speculation as fact.
None of us know who ordered the NGE. The only thing we know for a fact is Lucas Arts approved it. Strong chance they ordered it too, but we will probably never know.
SoE should have handled things differently after the fact (although its extremely doubtful they could have gone back to pre-NGE if they wanted to), but as far as being the ones to order these changes in right after an expansion release? Highly unlikely. But then Im just speculating myself.
I keep seeing people saying EA.
What MMO's has EA themselves ever created?
Much of the hatred is not so much for what EA creates as for what EA destroys. Find a respected studio, buy it, bleed the life out of it, shut it down. Fans of the formerly respected studio tend not to like this.
I feel like this wasn't given much thought or only mentioned big names.
What about Nexon, frogster, Ankama? They're all much worse then any of these.
It has nothing to do with actual legit reasons, it's all about the "cool thing to do" right now is hate on the big bad evil companies...well EA is one of those companies according to them so the sheep follow the other sheep cause it's "cool".Ok, as those companies are that awfull let's assume they never existied. What now, hmm ?
Complaining is easy, creating something not so much. This company bashing gets lame. Do it better if you can.
It has nothing to do with actual legit reasons, it's all about the "cool thing to do" right now is hate on the big bad evil companies...well EA is one of those companies according to them so the sheep follow the other sheep cause it's "cool".
Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, Maxis, Bioware, DICE, all gone, I'm probably forgetting a few....Calling everyone sheep makes you what? cool?
I have a sneaky suspicion that 99% of MMO development companies will be nominated for the "Top 3" list by someone in this thread !
Hmm Dice still involved with BF4 so not gone..getting info from a sheep are you?
Bioware still involved with ME, DA, Swtoe so not gone...getting your info from a sheep are you?
So lying on a post makes you what? Cool?
Exactly this.
It's similar to a horse. EA buys a known and well-liked studio (a good horse), ride it hard until it collapses, and then put two in the head and look for their next horse.
Please Note: I'm done arguing with unreasonable people with an agenda and/or those that fail to see logic.
Argue if you must, discount my post with anti-logic and/or Hyperbole. I won't be responding any longer.
Not that you'll care to listen, but I am neither a "sheep" nor am I one to dislike anything because it's "cool". I pretty much grew out of that a couple decades ago.
If you haven't watched EA and their business practices during the past several years, then I would say that you are the "sheep" here.
Please Note: I'm done arguing with unreasonable people with an agenda and/or those that fail to see logic.
Argue if you must, discount my post with anti-logic and/or Hyperbole. I won't be responding any longer.
Fully agree about Cryptic and SOE. Cryptic is just a terrible group, some good coders but they lack direction and creativity, it is even worse now that PWI bought them.
I would also like to add Hammerpoint to that list. I know they sold off or moved Infestation to some other subsidiary but Sergi is just a greedy idiot.