SOE: Feasability of success with future games

Thinman

Here's a short and sweet poll, to get an idea of how we, the people who have experienced the joy of playing an SOE game, feel about the possiblity of subjecting ourselves to this joy in the future.

Say SOE made another game, and hyped up a rosey picture of amazing gameplay and an amazing MMOG experience.. would you buy into it?

scaramoosh

If i've learned anything with SOE games is:

 

- They release them unfinished

- You then play a beta game for the next year

- They ruin it even though it could be amazing!

PS,EQ2 and SWG comes to mind!

EQ2 - The beta game fore the next year

SWG - all them points

PS - Got ruined within like 3/4 months

Scorpes

SOE is becoming synonomous with failure and incompetance. Smedley has so damaged the companys reputation and credibilty and for that alone he should be fired. Its a good thing Smedley works for a Japanese company, the real suits in Tokyo probably arent keeping as vigilant a watch because of the language barrier. If it all the reviews both by industry and by fans were in Japanese the chorus would be heard much louder and hopefully followed by pinkslip(s).

scaramoosh

Didn't they turn into SOE in 2001ish :

I saw a SWG trailer from 2001 and it said verrant or sumthing (their old company) then in later 2002 trailers it said SOE

duncan_922

The only way I would TRY another SOE game is if by some missfortune they somehow acquired the rights for the Star Trekk MMO.  Otherwise I wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft. pole!

zoey121

after this mess i finnaly realized when the fourm wars were between eq 2 and wow and every other thread was which was better........

 i gather now why so many folks did not like soe as a company

Elnator

Bad poll. I would probably get in the beta to form an initial opinion of the gaame if I could. I would also, as I currently do with EVERY MMO wait until they released a trial client during RETAIL of the game and try the trial. If after playing the trial I like the game enough I would then probably purchase it.

I love how people who are pissed about SWG's situation completely ignore how well SOE has done with the EQ titles and Tanarus and Infantry. And, frankly, other than the NGE debacle SOE didn't do too horrible a job dealing with SWG. I'm still convinced that the constant changes in 'direction' for the game were LucasArts doing, SOE was just trying to do what they were told in that regard. The bugs, etc I do fault them for but I can live with bugs. I can't live with a game that the producers can't decide where it's going.

So, it would depend. After playing a free trial I might or might not buy it. I wouldn't flat out not buy it just because it was SOE, however. They've got a long track record of making good MMORPG's. SWG was even a good MMO (my favorite, in fact) before the NGE hit.

Elnator

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Originally posted by scaramoosh
Didn't they turn into SOE in 2001ish :I saw a SWG trailer from 2001 and it said verrant or sumthing (their old company) then in later 2002 trailers it said SOE

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There's a good article on wiki about SOE and it's history. It originally was SIS (A division of Sony Entertainment) or something like that. Smed was an exec there and hired brad mcQuaid and crew to make EQ. They then spun off and took the name 989 studios to develop EQ but were still owned by Sony. Then they changed names to Verant then were re-merged into SOE about 3-6 months after EQ released.

But they were Always Sony. They just spun the project team off during development. Not sure why none of the articles I have found say why they did the 'spin off/reabsorb' thing.

Shayde

Any game $OE makes will follow the same incompetence. I had friends warn me off SWG for the same reasons I warn people off now.. $OE.

Of course tha NEVER treated EQ players to TWO BUGGY REVAMPS.

The only way they could treat people worse than SWG subscribers for the next game is if they actually came to our house and kicked us in the nuts.

haxxjoo

Corporations especially ours spin off projects all the time while maintaining "ownership" of the entity.  Legally this can be done to reduce liability to the parent organization or is used by accounting in some cases to keep books "clean" of projects which can have cost figures that maybe you don't want showing up all over financial statements.  Its all a money shell game.

Most reports to say the sec and such that are relavent to investment bankers is the total revenue stream vs. cost.  Complex accounting allows the manipulation of what you and I would view as a cost as an assest instead of a liability.  Like "invested" 1 million in SiS Asset.  Where SiS a wholely owned subsidary company does its reports and booking of that million some of it becomes liabilities, expenses and costs.

Just fyi.

Blackstar

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Originally posted by Shayde
Of course tha NEVER treated EQ players to TWO BUGGY REVAMPS.

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They did treat EQ to one. When the Luclin expansion was released in December 2001 they overhauled the graphic engine. It was one of the buggiest p.o.s. ever designed. They revamped the graphics and made the game practically unplayable for half the playerbase. Unfortunately, SOE has a bad reputation that goes back farther then SWG.

janjanson

Would I buy into it? Maybe if the game were wholly theirs and not an existing franchise.

I would want them to have a clear statement of their future vision for the game, and I would have to read some amazing reviews first, still not sure though.

Leasa

I do not trust SOE.

 

Fool me once shame on you.

Fool me twice shame on me.