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Earth and Beyond, help make EA give it a second look!
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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Why would anyone want to go back to an EA MMO that they have already pulled the plug on once and started back up to do it again when the financials gets too low?
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
I'll put it very simply:
I won't play any MMO that EA publishes.
MPBT: Cancelled because they were too cheap to re-acquire the BattleTech license
E&B: Cancelled despite the fact that it had slow and steady growth
UO: Lacks any serious support. The game has gone steadily downhill since EA took over Origin. (Sad day in history). I still love (and play) UO... just not on EA's servers.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
The scene: a bar at a gaming convention in the late 1980s. The speaker: an executive at the computer game company Origin who today, no doubt, would prefer to remain anonymous.
Why the holy-fire view of William M. Hawkins III, founder of Electronic Arts? Because (as this exec explained) EA meant to win in the computer game business not only by making good games, but by preventing competitors from making good games too - by actively interfering with their ability to do business. As one example, EA had filed a frivolous lawsuit against Origin. Forced into a costly out-of-court settlement, Origin execs asked Trip Hawkins why he had allowed the suit; he responded, "This is just business. This is the way we're going to win."
, EA was all about marketing. For Hawkins the question was never, "How good is this game?" It was always, "How can we sell this?" To high-minded execs at Origin - makers of the Ultima and Wing Commander series, the high priests of the high end, who valued commitment to an artistic vision - this attitude was sacrilege.
Ultima designer and Origin co-founder Richard "Lord British" Garriott even worked an EA reference into Ultima VII (1992). Two high-profile nonplayer characters, Elizabeth and Abraham, perform seemingly helpful tasks for the player - but E. and A. turn out to be murderers in league with the player's nemesis, the Guardian. The three items that power the Guardian's evil generators are a cube, a sphere and a tetrahedron - the former EA logo.
This reference in Ultima VII proved prophetic. In 1991 Hawkins left EA to found the short-lived 3DO Company. The next year, 1992, Origin entered dire financial straits and sold out to EA. Yet Origin never sold its soul; rather, EA spent the next 12 years gradually and painfully devouring it. The sad story could be a case study for future MBA students.
Why did Origin sell? It was partly due - brace yourself - to the price of floppy disks.
Changing the World
Founded in 1983, Origin was a creature of the dawn. Garriott had already gotten rich in high school, from a game he coded in BASIC in his bedroom and sold in a ziplock bag. Founding Origin with $70,000 in family money, he and his brother Robert created a culture that prized creative vision and expansive, thoroughly developed game settings. The company later took the slogan "We create worlds."
Origin project director Stephen Beeman recalls, "Origin's cardinal virtue was its commitment to do whatever it took to ship the director's vision. We had a motto for it: 'A game's only late until it ships, but it sucks forever.' If the game's creative vision demanded a megabyte of graphics, and the only way to load that into memory was to write our own operating system - " (the dubious "voodoo memory" scheme Origin created in 1992 for Ultima VII: The Black Gate) " - well, that's what we did, and damn the risk to the schedule or the consequences to the budget, not to mention the programmers'------------------------------------------------------------------
EA shut down earth and beyond to further their own agenda as shown by past practices
i fight the battles other fear
EagleRanger
Because, believe it or not, it was fun. EVE came across as an intergalactic spreadsheet by comparison. Was it fun? I don't remember; I spent too much time travelling places to do anything remotely substantial.
Maybe it's changed. Who knows. I doubt it.
Indeed. The day EA became involved with Origin was a catastrophe. Two cancelled UO sequels, the second of which really looked a cool game.
Cancelled E&B which actually had more subscribers than current games like Horizons have ever had and yet allows tedious crap like The Sims Online to stay in place.
If you can figure it out, start a company, make a MMORPG and make us all happy.
Bonehead. First of all, I made no commentary on how "good" my view is compared to anyone else's, I simply stated my view. For all you know, I'm completely insecure and think my view sucks road apples. I've encountered folks like you before; you're the sort who gets threatened by people who are competent with the language.
Second, I made no commentary at all that could be construed as an opinion on the "goodness" of choice. So quit changing the subject.
Some idiot stated that if EvE was really so good, it wouldn't be full of former "Eat Anal Burrito" and SWG players. Of course, as I stated, it should be plain to see that since E&B and SWG *FAILED*, where the hell else would they go?
I don't play EVE, as far as I'm concerned EVE sucks hind tit. It's a sad assed, sit at the gate like a pack of hyenas and gank every shuttle that comes through dork fest. It's gankageddon. The PvE aspect bites major donkey scrotums, with the same ten missions over and over and over and over and over. But come on, compared to E&B, EvE is like drinking a flute of Dom Perignon over drinking a dixie cup full of toxic waste. Eve, for all its shortcomings, is a deep, involved game. E&B was as shallow as a thimble.
Frankly, there is no MMORPG in operation today that is worth the price of admission, with the exception of "Guild Wars". Which also is a pretty suck game, but since the price is "zero", you're getting a lot more than what you pay for.
My point is merely that it's absolutely illogical to suggest that EVE sucks, as demonstrated by the fact that SWG and E&B players weren't there *before* those games failed. Comprende???
This is easy stuff. You don't know me. So don't presume to understand me until you actually *read* my opinions on things, like "choice", or how cool I think my views are. Otherwise you're just a vaseline-reeking loser.
Though I've never played EnB (and I'm quite the EVE fanatic), I would certainly be happy to see it go online for sake of it's players and I would be interested in trying it myself.
I hope EnB returns.
After all this effort, I don't think EA will as much as lift a finger toward the cause. Blah... Greedy corps...
EA is EA, they make M$ look like a bunch of filantropists.
Dont be sure EnB was even in the red, could very well have been making a nice profit, just not enough profit.
Its the true suits of the gaming industry, there is little to no concern wether or not a game is good or bad, as long as it meets their profit margin.
The Monsanto corporation of gaming if you will, there just is no low that they would not sink to if there was a buck to earn, if there was a market for a 'genocide online', these are the fellas that would publish it.
Most of us here are somewhat educated gamers, we learn from each other, for better or worse, lets take this to heart and never buy an EA product?
Yes I would like to see EnB back, but I would not pay if EA had anything to do with it.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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Comparing EnB to Eve is like apples to oranges. Sure, they are both a type of space game, but that is really where the comparison ends. Eve is pure PvP with little actual solo PvP (typically a band of two or more would sit at a .4 rated system or less and wait for the next victim to gate through or huge fleet battles) and EnB was primarily (some pretty damn good) PvE with a great and diverse variety of MOBs along with arenas to test your skill and uberness against others. Add to the fact that EnB was extremely easy to play right from the start simply added to the appeal.
I beta tested and played the retail of both (three Eve accounts @ 18mil+ sp's each and 3 EnB accounts maxed out) and feel that EnB was head and shoulders better then Eve for me. Why? The casual atmosphere, the great community (even the devs played regularly incognito), the vastly different (and beautiful) looking sectors, the fact that I could land on planets, run around a space station, the awsome music (which goes great with Eve BTW
...Frank Klepacki FTW!) the variety of things to do that could be done solo and the easy and fun crafting system (which was VERY frustrating at times!). Could it have been better? Absolutely! What game is perfect? My gripe here was that it was never even given a chance to really grow the way the original Devs envisioned it.
I met my Fiance while beta testing EnB (she was a dev), so I can say with certainty that the reason why EnB was closed is because EA *wanted* it closed. In fact, they fired almost all of the original Westwood team in two different phases (one during the actual development itself) and those that they didn't fire got moved to other games, save (IIRC) 3 of the community managers who were told that they had to deal with the storyline and item advances on their own, hence the slowdown of and unfortunate deviation from the original storyline. Hell, it was obvious to all that EA had it in for EnB even during beta when there was practically no advertisement in the many gaming mags and websites. I think I saw a grand total of TWO magazine and online advertisements from EA during my entire time playing EnB which speaks volumes on where the game was destined to go. And that was during the time when all I saw plastered everywhere were ads for the SIMS
And there have been numerous requests for EA to re-open EnB, to no avail. The latest I saw was a response from an EA strategic marketing manager stating that while they would entertain the thought of reopening the game, they would lease only, and only to a company that would essentially guarantee a profit (how typical). The community will keep trying though, until it is reopened or until something as good or better comes out.
Back to my original point:
-Eve is a great game for many. It is either way to easy (empire) or extremely time consuming and difficult (low sec) for a solo player, or even a small corp...there really is no in-between. The investment in time and resources needed to experience the full aspect of the game is very high, to say the least. Add the continuous paranioa of getting ganked while even in empire and you got yourself a hardcore game for hardcore gamers.
-EnB was also a great game for many. It offered a smoother interface, easier crafting, simpler combat, less time invested to get 'good' and no fears of getting ganked while minding your own buisness. A solid game for casual gamers. That was the appeal EnB had. It is unfortunate that the shortsightedness of EA and the ultimate corporate quest for the higher-than-last-years quarterly profit put an end to this wonderful game.
Fly safe all,
Proconsul Muther
Did you just resurrect a 6 year old thread?
An E&B resurrection could be an interesting idea... as long as EA gave it up to another company!