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SOE Hands you the keys to Brad's old office, what do you do?
MrVicchio
Member Posts: 598
For the sake of debate/discussion, pretend Brad just got fired by the NEW owners of Sigil SOE and they asked YOU to come and take over VG:SOH. (THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL SO CHILL)
You have to formulate a plan, what would you do and how would you do it?
Me?
From the top, I would plan a relaunch for 120 days out, a total game make over.
I would then direct my team to cut the VG game world to 25% of it's current size, maybe even 20%.
I would put all the starting points in two clumps.
I would split the world along some mythical "us vs. them" scenario to give the game meaning.
I would force a total revamp of the engine, complete optimization.
At 24 hours prior to relaunch, the servers would be shut off, wiped, and reloaded with the "NEW VG"
All players with accounts active or otherwise would have choices.
10 free levels
1000 free gold
60 days free game play.
I would also have both sides compete, per server, to open up the "rest fo the world" Long involved multi part combined quests that each side work on to open "their" areas.
those areas would have been worked on, and constantly be under revision till the players get close to opening them.
This would give the game a deep feel, build loyalty, not overwhelm anyone with "empty contentless space" and allow the team time to perfect the world without extra costs.
that's my VG Fix.
You have to formulate a plan, what would you do and how would you do it?
Me?
From the top, I would plan a relaunch for 120 days out, a total game make over.
I would then direct my team to cut the VG game world to 25% of it's current size, maybe even 20%.
I would put all the starting points in two clumps.
I would split the world along some mythical "us vs. them" scenario to give the game meaning.
I would force a total revamp of the engine, complete optimization.
At 24 hours prior to relaunch, the servers would be shut off, wiped, and reloaded with the "NEW VG"
All players with accounts active or otherwise would have choices.
10 free levels
1000 free gold
60 days free game play.
I would also have both sides compete, per server, to open up the "rest fo the world" Long involved multi part combined quests that each side work on to open "their" areas.
those areas would have been worked on, and constantly be under revision till the players get close to opening them.
This would give the game a deep feel, build loyalty, not overwhelm anyone with "empty contentless space" and allow the team time to perfect the world without extra costs.
that's my VG Fix.
Always change your signature.
Comments
2. Wait 15 minutes for perfect blend of rhea to develop...
3. ........::::::::::
One person can't fix everything, even if they probably do have a very nice office. However, I do believe Brad was one of the "visionaries" behind Vanguard, so whoever would fill those shoes would have to doa lot of gap analysis on what the community was hyped about and what did not end up in the game (or implemented as promised). Not an easy thing to do.
1. Fire anyone on the art team whose work is redundant and replace them with competent coders. There is no reason why any game should have more artists than coders and QA people.
2. Hire a competent and thorough QA team to go through the entire game from top to bottom, sniffing out any and all bugs and issues that need to be fixed, then sending all that information to those newly hired coders. Case in point-- the QA team over at LOTR was almost as large as the combined Art and Design teams. It shows.
3. Hire someone to do PR that isn't as verbose as Brad McQuaid, and who can try and smooth over and repair Vanguard's image.
4. The bigget mandates? Polish, stability, and optimization. As long as those three things are the main goal, then the game should come around.
Hire Kevin Smith, and Jason Mewes to go to your house, and kick your ass.
"I just started here today, and I have successfully cloned Vanguard. This version is finished, only took 5 minutes to make, and costed about 30 million less then your version."
Then leave.
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You sir win this thread.
Second I would listen to all the complaints & reported issues and look at ways to resolve them, if its gameplay mechanic faults I would listen to the communitys suggestions take them away and find an solution with my team using the advice of the community and my teams combined input. All new content will be put on hold and I will put all my staff to work on the performance issues, whatever the cost the fps needs to drop and it needs to be accessable to common computers today, becuase lets face it, in 9 months there are going to be bigger fish on the market.
Vanguard can succeed if the attention is placed in the correct places. To start with, progression of quests. When you have a huge world, players need a sense of direction, the quests need to be clear and cohesive in movement. Sending people off in multiple direction causes confusion and at times frustration. When your done on one continent, there needs to be quests leading you to another continents, and directions how to get there, this was one of the most annoying things I found with Vanguard, so easy to get lost. While we have the coders working on the performance, I'd get the art team working on an extremely comprehensive map to aid in navigaiton.
Server merges, I would try to have as few servers as possible. With a group centric game, having huge numbers of servers only makes it harder to find groups.
Looking at the world, I would find ways to again make navigation easier, the implimentation of more signs. People on the roads you can click and they will tell you whats nearby. I would also introduce a speed buff for moving on roads, a little feature I loved from Horizons. Apart from that, making durastic changes to the world would just take too much time, something to perhaps look at in the future, besides from my experience most parts were stunning.
Once the above is resolved, I would ask my community what they think, and what do they want us to do next..
---
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
You mean I would be the boss?
I would say keep working. And the go get me a new nice car to drive around with.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
I was being serious. For all the VG Haters, and I am not a VG fan, I thought this would be a chance to show "Okay VG Sucks, I get to make it better, here's how I would do it"
Always change your signature.
Like someone else said, I'd go the 20 affiliate sites looking for all of the complaints/suggestions that current VG players have, prioritize them, and get my team hard at work at delivering the changes that the current player base considers most important.
I'd toss a few perks at existing players to keep them satsified.... gold, extra exp.... maybe a free house or something just to keep them paying while my team worked on fixing up the game.
I plan on offering a free trial to try and lure people to play the game, and I'd even consider renaming the game to shed the VG "taint".... maybe just drop the VG and call it "Saga of Heroes" on relaunch.
I'd apologize to the current player base on behalf of my predecessor, and promise to do my best to listen more, deliver more, and with less "vision" and BS.
I'd also promise a free date with the supermodel of their choice (hey, make it a cheesy contest) for anyone who subs until the changes went into affect.
More free stuff.. a free month after the expansion, or a discount or other reward for loyalty.
Most important of all, I'd try very hard to deliver a fun game that my player base really wanted, and not one of my own beliefs and vision.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Always change your signature.
Well you could try the truth.
VSOH ... you have seen it before with EQ, EQ2, DAOC, Horizons, and WoW.
Now at only half the cost.
Of course you have to cut your sub rate in half.
If that doesn't get you any subs you are pretty much screwed.
Look at Anarchy Online, the launch was terrible, buggy and laggy almost unplayable. Within 6 months they patched the game up and since it has had a steady increase of subs and has earned its name as a classic in the MMO industry.
Look at EVE, when it started it didnt hit big numbers, it was comparable to Vanguards current numbers, but they improved the game over time and used clever advertising to achieve the level they have today.
Now look at SWG. Need I say more?
Any action, if its going to be taken, needs to be done slowly and with complete transparency. You need 100% communication with the fans, before, during and after the changes. If an action is taken that has a negative impact, your subscribers are going to go straight to the subscription management page and your going to find yourself short of a few £££.
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I would just add to coldmeats idea and have Joe Quesada (sp?) draw a Daredevil costume on Kevin Smith; then send him to your house.
Naturally I would have to write a 100k word essay on why everyone on this site sucks.
1) I would delete Vanguard and all Vanguard code from every computer in the company. In fact ,I'd forward copies of Vanguard code to McAfee and Symantec, with instructions to treat such as viruses.
2) I would send each subscriber an email notifying them the game has been cancelled and saying something to the effect of "you had to have known this was coming."
3) I would take the pre-Luclin world of EQ1, grow it 25% in scale, change up a few things, then make a new game called EQ3 with the following:
Lastly, I'd keep the graphic quality realistic, but within the range of the average comp system out there. Maybe DAOC or better quality graphics.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
Hehe, I'm pretty sure every single person that works in the game industry(and probably the movie, music, print, etc industries) smiled, and wished they could do that when they watched that scene.
Hell, Colton of Mourning infamy went ahead and did it, more or less, stemming from the argument he had with the two kids on this site. Linkage.
eqnext.wikia.com
it is night
the lights are turned off
you trip and fall
You Die.
Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW...
It all sucked.
errrrr I would decline the job offer of course. Having that game on your resume is essentially career suicide if you're in the gaming business.
Sorry there is absolutely nothing you can do to save this game.
Nothing.
1) I would delete Vanguard and all Vanguard code from every computer in the company. In fact ,I'd forward copies of Vanguard code to McAfee and Symantec, with instructions to treat such as viruses.
Thats my favorite answer so far.
I would demand that the coders and programmers add MORE COWBELL! Then i would use my influence to find out once and for all who the second shooter on the grassy knoll was. Then Id use the secret Sony Time machine to go ahead 5 years to acquire technology of the future so that I could play Vanguard on Balanced settings. Id invite Smed to my house for dinner where we would both point and giggle at those still paying to play SWG.
(Im joking)
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Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
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