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The Real State of the Game, Insider Reveals Horizons
RPGPorkster
Member Posts: 77
The Real State of the Game, Insider Reveals Horizons the Disaster.
After reading AEs recent public announcement of the state-of-the-game I thought it was appropriate to release this information which I have been submitted from a very creditable source. The situation, Artifact Entertainment finds itself in!
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* First Month Subscriptions, approximately 34,000 copies, minus the many that have left after the first month.
These sales numbers are a disaster for a mmorpg, when related to current investors liability and salaries. It seems Bowman is happy to deny investors returns, so as long as he can gain a salary from the subscription base and prolonging the games existence.
* Horizons project has had near to $9,000,000 to bring it to the market. $1,000.000 of that was only recently sort to salvage the project and bring the game to the shop shelf, indicating the game is on a make-or-break precipice and heavily reliant on subscriptions to survive, if it can.
* James Jones has been fired by AEs board after Bowman demanded it do so. Bowman placed the blame of the game onto Jones when confronting AEs board.
James Jones is said to be now trying to start a new project and business after creating a Customer-Disaster-Product, alongside Bowman.
* David Bowman is currently taken James Jones title of Co-President/COO, along with Bowmans existing roles.
Its amazing Government trade practises type departments have not been informed about AE declaring this publicly. AEs web page has not been updated.
* AE sacked roughly 30% of its staff near the public announcement of the state-of-the-game and after gaining power from the board since James Jones sacking.
* AE has approximately 50 staff, 6 of which are on the development aspect, the rest is clerical/game support.
Expect a lot more to be sacked as the funds dry up, especially in customer support.
* AE has forced staff to take a 20% pay decrease, further helping staff to decide to leave/drop support.
You would expect Bowman to work for free, if he believes in his project enough and whilst its sinking.
* Bowman is said to consider the game his own franking and has placed a lot of tension on the development crew that tasks and work are his own workings, not theirs, other words he takes the credit in most situations.
* The insider has informed, Bowman designed the game on the fly and the game has no real documented structure design to work from.
A major reason why the conceptual aspects of the game are not compatible with database and network demand.
* Staff are said to believe Bowman is bipolar, others words, mind flipping/schizophrenic and very difficult to work with.
* The insider source of the information has stated the game would be lucky to survive another 3 months before being forced into receiver-ship/closed doors.
It would be very risky to pay up for multi-month subscription deals if you are a player.
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I wont inform of the source of the information, but the person knows the state of the company by working there. Very creditable. This is not a flame, it is more or less factual. Players may try to save their game by demanding answers and proper outcomes.
.
Comments
Can we please have this post deleted? He's trolled this falsehood garbage onto every site he can get his hands on.
/deepbow
MAKANE
(Horizons: Malakye Revan - Wizard on Bounty)
Lords of Stonekeep
Please leave it up.
The next time I need to reference 'Idiotic Posts with Horrible Grammar', I'll want to point to this guy's post.
----------------------------------------------
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." -- Batman
How can anyone send you proof that it won't happen? Proving the negative is always an impossible position.
All I can tell you is that Horizons is a good game and there is every reason to believe it will be around for years to come. Anarchy Online was in much worse shape upon release, and it's still alive and kicking.
Awsome mate thanks =-)
Dude, the " ' " is above the " ? "
all those AE?s, It?s, Founder?s, stuff was driving freaking batty
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
/deepbow
MAKANE
(Horizons: Malakye Revan - Conjurer on Bounty)
Lords of Stonekeep
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
You can tell from the anger in the after comments that the responses come from subscribers. I beta tested the game and enjoyed myself, but saw many things that needed correction and recieved no attention. He may be stretching the truth with this post, but the truth remains the game does need a little bit of help. Pure potential doesn't carry a game into the future.
holla!
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
I agree with Metal. After testing Horizons it has HUGE potential, but potential doesn't mean longevity. Although with AE + Atari I don't think they will let it fall anytime soon. If they correct many of the memory leak problems, server stability, and an overall purpose for the adventure class it will be hear to stay. I still don't recommend spending hard earned cash on it atm. Give it some time to develope like an underaged hooker.
holla!
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
Yup...I think waiting for a few months is better in the long run. By then they will have had time to stop focusing on post-release bugs and stability and start focusing on content.
Not a bad idea...just to wait out the bugs. But I think it would be smarter to wait for one of the upcoming releases...they just are 1 tier above Horizons it seems.
::Yordo::
EQ2 Guild Search
UXO, Lineage 2, KO, Guild Wars, Dragon Empires, City of Heroes
Maybe, maybe not. Won't know for a while. Horizons also caters to a specific kind of gameplay. I really don't think there's a lot of overlap here.
RPG Porkster is a known advocate and ally of David Allen. He posts everywhere that Horizons will fail soon, but when pushed for info as to how he knows this, can't and won't supply any proof. His numbers and facts have changed several times and is different on the different boards he has posted this on. He was even banned for a bit from the VN boards because of his outright lies and accusations. You can find him praising David Allen on the Pharoah boards alongside a few of Allen's good friends. I suspect he is a real life friend (or even the man himself) of Allen or even possibly an employee. I know for one fact that he stated was wrong. Saying that there were only 34k subscribers originally, lol in Europe alone over 20k boxes were sent out to preorders alone, so tell me that only 14k people bought the game in the US. The best thing to do is ban the ip address of anyone associated with this Idiotic malcontent who is purely trying to sabotage a game that he or his friend was booted off of due to incompetence.
I'm sorry, but I missed who David Allen is. Could someone explain?
Thx for the clarification on porkey's post though handlon,
/sarcasmon unless you're just an advocate of anti-porkster propaganda...
*thinks....nothing is as it seems /sarcasmoff
/deepbow
MAKANE
(Horizons: Malakye Revan - Conjurer on Bounty)
Lords of Stonekeep
What I understand about David Allen is that he was the man behind the original concept design for Horizons...which included Angels, Devils, full-on racewar PvP, and other goodies. His design concepts really stirred a lot of people to be excited about the concept.
I also understand the project floundered under his stewardship. Apparently those with the bucks ejected him, and the project was expected to flat out die. New funding was found, and eventually David Bowman took stewardship of the game. How much DB has influence over design I cannot say.
Apparently David Allen was not happy about these turn of events and was vocal about it.
This may all be fiction, but that's what I understand to be the case.
EDIT:
Okay, finally found an informative link...and it actually answers a HUGE set of questions I had about the game:
http://www.mpogd.com/news/?ID=103
Two people are strongly involved in the project: David Bowman who worked at Turbine for Asheron's Call, and Steve Snow who was involved with Dungeon Siege. That answers why the game sometimes feels a bit like AC and the game has a seamless world much like Dungeon Siege (the way mobs and PCs load is a lot like DS).
/deepbow
MAKANE
(Horizons: Malakye Revan - Conjurer on Bounty)
Lords of Stonekeep
I thought I'd help out a little here. I was a rabid follower of HZ a year or so ago when Dave Allan was still there. I'll point out now that I'm biased, when Bowman came in and the concept totally rewritten I lost interest fast. The new game had very little that I was interested in and kept very little of the old concept.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The original concept was totally awesome. 15 player races including kulak (not sure on the spelling) an insect race, limarian, an underwater race, vampires that looked like humans and only revealed their true form when their blood supply was low, magical Devils (got nerfed in to the fiend when Bowman arrived) and Angels just to mark a few. It was going to be pure pvp, undead where nowhere to be seen. There was so many features I could bore you all day with them.
The figures that were thrown around for the total investment at the time were about $15 mill. Don't know how accurate that was mind. I do not blame Bowman for the changes, the project was in deep water. The project was just too ambitious and ahead of its time. Somebody had to make the hard choice of scrapping this and making a doable game with what was left of the investment.
A couple of the races survived. They had to keep the dragon due to its selling point. I know pvp was supposed to be the biggest factor in keeping their numbers down. The body parts were going to be awesome for crafters. Without pvp I guess they have had to limit them in other ways. With the financial worries PvP was too much of a risk at the time with very few MMORPG's having PvP in them, usually a dedicated server with a small population.
The switch from PvP to PvE caused a mass exodus of long-term followers (including my self). The old concept totally hinged on it. I hope that Horizons does well, just maybe if it does well enough they will revive the old HZ concept in a few years time... (ooo look a flying pig).
Magpie.There are only 10 types of programmers. Those that understand binary and those that don't.
Horizons had some problems initially as it released too early in my opinion. But they have just release a great update. Tons of new chat features and a mapping system.
I've heard all the malarky that the starter of this thread posted before. It has mostly been twisting of facts and outright lies. For instance, yes, some people were laid off the project, OR reasigned jobs.
Why? Because before release, different jobs are needed than after release. That is sound business.
When I built my house I laid off the construction workers, except for the finishers. Duhhhh No brainer there. In came carpet layers, cabinet makers, ect. Why would I keep framers on the payroll when the frame work is done? If they are not multi talented then they need and actually WANT to move on to the next project.
There are always people that have nothing better to do than to spin a negative on every action taken by makers of games. Too bad. I for one started Horizons in beta. Didn't think it was ready for release, but have been quite impressed with the way they have come around.
Leoht Spiritus Gaming Community
www.leoht.com
I can't tell you how much I REALLY appreciate reading someone who can make an impassioned defense for what they liked in the old Horizons model. All too often people who feel like you do drum out the most ridiculously offensive and trite crap. Kudos for having a steady temper...you made your point and made it well.
Hi all,
well the first post in this thread would at least explain some things, I found in Horizons.
I played Horizons for 2 months, 1 in open beta and 1 free month after buying the retail, so I experienced some of the flaws and some of the good things.
The game as it is needs at least 3 more months of development. The lags are awful, the game world empty (I could run for half an hour without detecting a monster or npc or something).
Vou could live with that, as the craft system is very detailed anf fun, the community (as it was) is very nice and helpful BUT
in the end Horizons will be killed by AE or GN in Europe. I played in Europe, so i cant say anything to the US version. We had three (3) servers, no Roleplaying server and they were always so full, that the lag was intolerable. Also, the game had massive memory leaks and you had to relog every hour or so, in weekends every half of an hour. Support was nonexistent, NO issue was addresses by Game Now, there were no GMs ingame and so on. This should be better now, i dont know.
What drove me away finally were the blatant lies of AE concerning the features of the game. There is NO customization of Items, there are NO Dragon laird and eve to play a mature, flying dragon has yet to be put into the game. It also infuriated me, that once issues were adressed David Bowman simply stated it was the players' fault. And Yeah, they are working on it. Same thing since 3 weeks after release when AE first posted a state-of-the-game.
Many, many peaple in Europe quit after their free month. When GN made a mess of the billing, even more left. I still have contact with my ex-guild on ICE and they say it has become empty. Well at least less lags, you would think. Guess what ....
Horizons was acool game, i really tried to like it but i wont be paying for an incomplete game that was released broken and under false pretenses.
Hope I made my point clear and not too many spelling errors, as i'm german
Cheers,
Skeltem
Why are there no breaks? Sorry for that