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CBS Email Concerning John Smedley and SOE
Thunderous
Member Posts: 1,152
Not sure how many have read this CBS article written in 2005 about John Smedley, SOE, and their lack of business ethics. Pretty crazy stuff.
Star Wars Mailbag: The Sequel
Former Star Wars Galaxies Players Are Still Crying Foul
Page 5 of 9
Dec. 21, 2005
On Tatooine, no one can hear you scream. (SOE/LucasArts)
(CBS)
If you think what they did to SWG was bad, you should see what they do to their other games.
Let me give you a few examples of their business ethics. Handed down from John Smedley.
In EverQuest 2, there is a world event quest that would introduce the froglok playable race to EverQuest 2. Players had to figure out the quest to unlock the race. Well, people started trying to figure out how to go about doing the quest, and working on it. They looked everywhere for clues, used months of play time. When they asked SOE if the quest existed at launch, an SOE community manager stated that the quest was in.
Six months later, SOE added the actual quest. People were in an uproar. SOE basically used a quest that didn't exist to keep players paying a subscription to figure out something that never even existed in the game. Imagine spending 10-12 hours a week for 6 months, and in the end, what you were trying to figure out wasn't even possible, and the reason why SOE didn't say anything was because it lengthened your subscription time.
It doesn't stop there. When SOE took full control over EverQuest, they would release expansions 60% complete and not tell the customer. People would go out and purchase expansions for EverQuest (More content) at $29.99. 6 months later, using subscription revenue, SOE would actually finish the 40% of the content of the expansion that consumers already paid for. For example, the Planes of Power expansion. It retailed for $29.99. The last parts of the game were called Plane of Earth, Plane of Fire, Plane of Air, Plane of Water, and the final reward zone, called Plane of Time. These 5 zones accounted for 40% of the Planes of Power expansion.
Those zones were not complete when people bought the product. Instead, SOE introduced artifical bugs to make sure players could not progress into the next areas. Once they completed the area that consumers already paid for, they would "fix" the bug, and let people advance. It took 8 months worth of subscription revenue from players to finish the development of the final 5 areas in Planes of Power.
I know this because I used to be a member of the Guide program. The volunteer customer service department for SOE at the time. We were given explocit instructions that if we zoned into those areas, we would be kicked from the guide program. Well, I zoned into those areas the day of retail release. And what I saw was amazing. I saw 5 completely barren areas, with strange "developer boxes" everywhere, without a good majority of the environment even done for the zones themselves. I know first hand that the zones were not completed.
This type of business ethic continues at SOE because of their CEO, John Smedley. Little does the public know, that Star Wars Galaxies was scrapped in 2002 and redeveloped in 14 months from the ground up. In a meeting, they asked how they could get away with releasing such an unfinished product. John Smedley stated that people will buy it because it has a Star Wars name on it - and then laughed as they said they would complete the retail product (which consumers have already paid $49.99 for) with approximately 2 years of subscription revenue.
Subscription revenue that was supposed to be going to improvements, additions, and access to the game itself, was being used to finish a game which a consumer already paid for. This happened with every EverQuest expansion after Velious, EverQuest 2, and Star Wars Galaxies.
I would love to see a real write up on this. Please contact me if you have any questions. How a class action lawsuit has not been filed yet is amazing to me. Imagine purchasing a car, and it is delivered without it's engine, and sent to you over 6 months in small pieces if you pay $14.99 a month for 6 months.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/20/tech/gamecore/main1146894_page5.shtml
Tecmo Bowl.
Comments
And thus, we hail the king of bad companies. Sorry funcom, you tried hard, but you are still noobs.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
that article is almost 3 years old. Not trying to flame but that link would have been neat a couple years or so ago.
But interesting read tho
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
You make it sound like SOE has changed a great deal in 3 years. Last time i checked SoE has a great deal of terrible games in terrible condition under their belt.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
I remember most of this being disproven when the article was still new.
You know, I think fc is really trying for a shot at the title. This was very eye opening, Good read.
_____________________________
If you are insulted by being called a fanboi it's a good bet that you are one
Oh, really? By who? Smedley?
SOE is a company without any notion of ethics or scruples.
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
This is a mailbag, not an article and therefore has no oversight or research to back it up, however damning and possibly true it is. It's also not the first time this has been posted.
SOE saved Vanguard and I do not care what you say Vanguard is a great game! They have yet to even really dumb it down so SOE can't be all that bad >>
Blame Lucas Arts for ruining SOE >>
Sony online entertainment released a game for the PSP called Untold Legends. That game was pretty fun.
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Meh SOE isn't all as bad as people make it out to be. Granted they had issues with some stuff but nothing like what FC has had or other game companies.
If SOE is so bad why are they still going strong?
Who let you in the VIP section?
You make it sound like SOE has changed a great deal in 3 years. Last time i checked SoE has a great deal of terrible games in terrible condition under their belt.
Yeah, this isn't really true anymore...
Besides SWG and the Matrix (and I guess you could include Planetside in there as well), the other SOE games are actually in pretty good shape. I know firsthand that EQ2 is in GREAT shape and I'd still be in a raiding guild if I hadn't gotten into the WAR beta a few months back, EQ seems to be holding up alright, and I have actually been hearing good things about Vanguard lately (if you can believe that, I know I'm actually pretty shocked they turned that one around).
I'm not forgiving what SOE has done in the past, b/c many people are right when they say they have done some cruddy things, although I feel compelled to throw in that the SWG NGE fiasco wasn't solely SOE's fault as LucasArts was just as much to blame. And the Matrix Online is a hand-me-down which they bought on the cheap and have kept developing for despite the low number of players, so even if that game isn't that great it really isn't all their fault.
So, while they may have made some pretty dumb mistakes and treated their customers poorly at times, they definitely are NOT as bad as they once were. Seriously. They have done one hell of a job turning EQ2 around from the mess that it was when launched. Look at what they have done w/ Vanguard...which I would actually be willing to give a shot now b/c I have heard much better things about it lately. (It just hit me that a big part of EQ2's early horrible design decisions actually may have been a result of Mr.Mcquaid's influence on it early on before he left SOE, as EQ2 and Vanguard aren't all that different when you get right down to it).
I honestly don't feel that SOE really isn't the evil, lying, greedy, cheating corporation that they may have once been, and are still perceived by some to be.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -
Smedley ate my baby.
Really, its true.
You make it sound like SOE has changed a great deal in 3 years. Last time i checked SoE has a great deal of terrible games in terrible condition under their belt.
The article is old. The company hasnt change much in 3 years (although a little better); hence, why a three year old article being posted now is pointless.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
It's all true though, they do release unfinished expansions and the thing with SWG is true and I played EQ2 and that was true too.
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Talking about SWG much?
I love how people defend shitty companies like sony, then wonder why you have a flurry of PoS unfinished MMOs flooding the market.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
Not everyone has been wronged by SOE before. I have had no problems with them personally, and most people I know who have played SOE games have had no problem either. I have pretty much been a loyal costumer of theirs for almost 7-8years now, and I have only recently stopped subbing to EQ2 because of school workload.
Hey you know what's not new or original.
Posting an article from 2005. Seriously.
Hey you know what's not new or original? Trolling.
I'm pretty sure when I posted it I wrote that the article/mailbag was from 2005 and was just doing so for those like me who had never read it. As someone who subbed to EQ, SWG, and EQ 2, it was a very good read.
So regardless of what a troll like yourself has to say if any of this is true (which it seems likely is) then the more people that read it, the better.
I knew when I posted it that the following would come out of the woodwork:
1.) Fanbois in defense of SOE (for WHATEVER reason)
2.) Trolls (those who just enjoy trolling and don't need a reason to)
3.) Those who despise SOE for their unethical business practices
4.) Someone who might not realize that things like this go on and might rethink their subs
Cya-
Tecmo Bowl.
$$$OE is horrible, but it's good they are there, you know any game that has the $$$OE logo in it, is not worth buying.
SOE also gave the Planetside devs 3 months to create a expansion which had hardly any testing but from the public in like 2 weeks before launch and it was sooo broken and horrible which they never fixed.
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Talking about SWG much?
Guess noone is surprised
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
SOE has its problems (not that i had any with them) but alot if not most gaming companies do.
All i know is SOE gave the MMO world EQ and that was a wonderful game. The only thing i dont like about EQ is that it ruined me for all other MMOs.
Nah, $$$OE doesn't have problems, it's their players that have problems.
About $$$OE creating EQ, maybe you should take into account Verant in that statment? More like Verant created EQ and $$$OE ruined it, like they ruined SWG, Vanguard and EQ2, and some others. Pretty much everything they touch.
This is not a CBS article. CBS writers didn't do any research or fact check for this. This is their damn second mailbag from a series they ran three damn years ago. As in, they opened the floodgates, and a bunch of vets came in to voice their opinion. This is the exact same kind of stuff you can read on the SWG Vet forums. In fact, looking at the crap in this particular link, the stuff on the SWG Vet forums is a lot more reasonable and a lot more grounded in fact.
Yeah, SOE's customer service is shit. Yeah, they didn't listen to SWG players at all for the whole life of the game. Yeah, the NGE was horrible and ruined the game even more than it was already ruined. Everybody knows these things who played SWG or any other SOE title for any significant duration.
But everything written on _that page_ in particular of that mailbag is complete and utter crap. It has already been discredited by the community. Don't bring it back up without context, man. People are just going to believe it all. I don't know who showed you this or why you linked this, but you only did people a disservice. I guess you didn't know better or something. Most of the other pages of that mailbag are OK, but that one needs to be tossed.