nd now I see a lot of venture money going to this space and a lot of it is going into chasing World of Warcraft, and what we should be focusing on is what is the next best thing
Spot on there imo.
To add this agreement , and most players who played it agree that the sand box PreCu of SWG was not just next best thing , it was the best and its a shame that SOE/LEC will not do anything to restore it.
Originally posted by Reklaw Yeah a company is definitly dying when they are ready to release yet 3 new games to the market, SOE must be in big trouble to be able to pull that of. Still I am wondering why you keep advertising so much for the company you dislike?
Are you new to MMO?
SoE is full of greedy and untalented folks right now, the few talented folks from SoE have long moved on.
SoE now basically bails out companies in trouble for a low price and makes a profit at the cost of the game, gameplay and their customer.
Well I'm not, you seem to proof you are new with that reply.
Free Realms is an Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) being developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) set in a humorous kid friendly fantasy-themed world[1] for the PC and PlayStation 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Realms
The Agency is a spy-themed massively multiplayer online shooter. It is being developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment studios in Seattle for Windows and PlayStation 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Agency_(video_game)
DC Universe Online or DCUO is an MMO being developed by Sony Online's Austin studio. Jim Lee serves as the game's Executive Creative Director, along with Ale Garza, Carlos D'Anda, and Scott Iwahashi. EverQuest developers Chris Cao and Shawn Lord are also involved.
Besides i was not talking about the developers I was mainly stating a fact that if a company is that much trouble why is it MAKING 3 new MMORPG, regardless what their target audience is they are making them, also regardless what I personaly feel about SOE or their games they are making those 3 afcourse with outside sources aswell but still the company is heavy involved with all three of the upcoming titles they are going to release.
Yep, they have all those games on the books as upcoming. They are also making them console friendly. Smed thinks that dumbing a game down enough to play on a console also will draw in the console crowd. Unfortunately for Smed, most MMO players don't want the games dumbed down, there are enough of those already. Secondly, if you add pvp in there, the pcers will own the console players because mouse/keyboard provides far better control than a controller.
So just because they are making them, does not mean they will successes. I think SOE intends to make a living making small niche games, which I feel all of those above are.
I think a lot of us hate $OE because of the pre-cu bullshit, but that doesn't mean every game that comes out by them is garbage. If they're trying to improve the company all the power to them, I'd like to see the market flooded with more games of different play types even if they're shit. The market needs to expand and evolve and in order to do that people need to take chances, better SOE then some company with potential.
The day SOE makes pre-cu servers is the day I'll regain faith, but I wont play another SOE product ever until that happens.
There is no way in hell that SOE has anywhere close to 500k total subscribers. They once had over a million subscriptions, but the trend for the past 4 years has been steady decline.
I would guess they have no more than 200k actual people paying them money, but it is spread over station pass and multiple accounts so the total may be a bit higher. Maybe 300k. They are talking about mergers and population solutions in every title they run right now (save those that are not worth talking about).
Sure, maybe at the end of the day they are turning profit, but the company is very vulnerable. Their subscriber base is shrinking. They are not pulling in new subscribers. The revenue models are based solely off getting more money from their current subscribers through RMT card sales and other bullshit services. Every actual person they lose to another game hurts their bottom line more than any other company, because their games are so heavily invested in multiple account players and extra pricetag services.
Anyone who thinks that SOE is in good shape going from 1 million subs to a few hundred thousand is crazy. If their newest batch of MMOs flop they are in trouble.
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then.
Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then. Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
To add this agreement , and most players who played it agree that the sand box PreCu of SWG was not just next best thing , it was the best and its a shame that SOE/LEC will not do anything to restore it.
I don't doubt this, it sounded like it was an experience that made interesting use of being a mmo. But, I'm not sure how it related with my agreement of Smedley's quote though. I'm agreeing because he is spot on, too many companies chasing WoW and not providing something actually different.
But losing more then half of your customers is not smart and far less profitably then having over a Million of them - To draw a comparison,WArhammer has over a half a million customers and its been out for only a few weeks now , SOE has to run 6 games to have then same amount of players - thats not smart nor profitable. SOE is not as profitable as you think - I would sure love to see a balance sheet on them.
you realize that SOE is in complete financial security right now that they're bringing in so much money... right?
Also, if you're refering to SWG (which we all know you are)... it was well documented that at the time of the NGE the game was hemoraging players. Not just losing them, they were leaving in the thousands, per month, ANYWAYS. It was intended to revitalize the crowd to the new market of players that opened up.
Yes, it failed. New ventures and changes to companies sometimes fail.
Did it ruin SOE? no.
Did it ruin LA? no.
Did it ruin your game? in your mind, yeah.
Does your triad against the parent Publisher effect anything in the slightest? no.
Are your posts funny? YUP! But only because it just shows how incredibly pathetic gamers are sometimes...
YEARS later you're taking this change out on Developers who probably were in College with a dream to work in the game Industry, who had absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Right now some poor kid (term used lightly) is sitting at his Cubical at SOE programming a patch for a game possibly. He just wants to do his job, but you'd spit on him probably because he's inadvertently part of your personal vendetta against the company he works for.
You're not hurting SOE. They've already labeled you as clinicly insane probably... if I was SOE, I'd probably have done that too.
If you want a response you should try formal letters that are well written and articulated. Citing bad and good points, and remain calm, but steadfast, in the face of rejection and adversity.
If you want to continue your completely worthless attempts at bashing a multimillion dollar corporation who's well established, and growing, by all means. However, the longer time goes on, the less anybody will listen to you... and the less anybody will actually remember what you're talking about...
A few things about your post:
1.) You point out how pathetic gamers can be. You did not specify any particular gamers but gamers in general and part of your signature is how you are a lead gameplay and world designer. Bite the hand that feeds you much?
2.) SWG players did send in formal letters, which in my case the reply was basically "So sorry, still want your money." Posts in the SWG forums that were precise, to the point, and objective were still deleted and the accounts banned as SWG considered it criticism and banning was part of their stop loss policy.
3.) You asked "Did it ruin your game? To which you also replied "in your mind, yeah." NGE caused one of the largest mass exoduses in gaming history, so would it be safe to say it was just in that person's mind, or in the mind of the majority of players that left at that time?
4.) Last time I have read anyone post so hardcore in favor of SOE and bash a player or players in general it was Bilxtev who posted it. Work for SOE do you?
I have played EQ, EQII, and SWG all of which are are SOE games. In each game I have seen SOE make radical decisions that went directly against what the playerbase asked for. SOE allowed players to test new content, listen to their feedback, then do exactly opposite of what those players said and released broken, glitchy (and against player request) changes that did more harm to the player base than good. Am I against everyone at SOE, no. Am I against those at SOE that believe players are cattle and will eat whatever SOE puts in the grain bins, yes I am very much against those people at SOE.
SOE lost players pre-NGE due to their refusal to fix broken content or bugs that had been out since release. Players became tired of it and started drifting away. Would have been logical to fix those items to show they cared about the player base, but instead SOE believed sweeping changes to the game thru publishes, CU, and NGE would give the players a new gaming experience better that what they had. What SOE failed to realize was that players wanted what they already had, minus the bugs that were never fixed.
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then. Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then. Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
Sad part is, you may get a new Dev that has ideas on how to make the game truly amazing, but still has to answer to the powers that be and add what they are told to add, not what truly think the players will want. And in the end, a good Dev gets the spit instead of the praise. But how is the player to know what the Dev is doing, adding what they invision or what they are told to?
Anyone who thinks that SOE is in good shape going from 1 million subs to a few hundred thousand is crazy. If their newest batch of MMOs flop they are in trouble.
Anyone who takes your numbers at face value is even crazier.
I never said my numbers were concrete, but at least there is some evidence to support them.
Posted job positions on the SOE website and past corporate releases listed the companies total subscriber numbers once upon a time. Several instances of server mergers in every single game they own and even current talk about more merger possibilities from the devs. SOE essentially bing evicted from the Asian market. Dev teams cut and slashed. Top talent leaving SOE to join just about any other venture, even startups. The almost complete lack of game boxes on store shelves. Even sites that track/speculate at game populations put the company significantly down in populations to somewhere around a few hundred thousand.
Now tell me, what possible information could lead anyone to believe they have gained market share to get anywhere near 1 million paying subscribers? I'm curious to hear what makes this a more sane conclusion over what I have stated.
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then. Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
SOE is banking on The Agency and DCUO and Free Realms for your children. IF they fail to bring in an extra million customers prepare for Smed's departure.
Neither Smed nor Sony are in any danger, and mores the shame.
Both should have died years ago.But there are just enough people will low enough standards to pay for the crap games these champions of lowering qaulity put out (and keep around).
What should have been 5 star titles, in respect to customer base,quality, game features,etc.. all turned out to be 1 star embarrassments that barely hold a candle to what they should have been.
And they crow about their success.....comfortably entrenched in their own little world.. where the 2.4s (gpa equivilants) they have earned are somehow equal to the 3.5s (gpa equivilant ) they should have earned.....
Few things say "lackwits in charge" more than an MMO dev team..And fewer things show more failure to reach potential....
But than again, many of you keep paying them......
SOE IMO is not going to die off. They do have new games coming out. I do believe they are structured to make a profit with the games they have and will have.
However, even though I believe these things they will still not get my money unless certain things happen. The certain things can be game dependent.
SWG: SOE did lie to their playerbase on more than one occasion. The most notable is ToOW being sold while secretly in the background many of the features the game was sold on were planned on being deleted after launch of the NGE. Many players did get refunds for ToOW as well they should have. People that bought prepaid sub time based on ToOW did not receive a refund because SOE's EULA prevented SOE from having to refund them. So they chose not to. Was it legal? Perhaps; it certainly wasn't tested. That isn't the point though. It was still a rotten way to treat a loyal customer. The NGE is fine. I have even had fun with it. Even if I didn't, as long as others do it is a viable game. The one recent imrovement I liked is not enough to make me overlook the fact they treat their customers like garbage. I bought RoTW and the mining ship missions were bugged during my entire time playing in CU. Five months worth. During this time they had devs pulled from fixing bugs to design a completely different game. For me enough has happened with SWG and the way SOE has treated the players of this game that I do not trust SOE. There is nothing wrong with making more money; it should not be done by lying to and abusing the loyalty of your customers.
All other SOE titles in Station or not: I have not played any of their other titles, but I know people that did and do. I have heard a variety of good things and bad. I could try the other titles. However I am a sci-fi fan. I am not big on fantasy. They have only two other sci-fi titles. One is MXO. SOE may not have produced it. But from what I have heard is, it sucks. PS is the other. PS from what I have heard is all PVP. I liked SWG for crafting, not PVP. I know I may be a minority. But the game allowed me to participate in a style I enjoyed. PS won't allow this. Again all other SOE titles I don't care about.
I don't play WOW, WAR, LOTR, etc... because I don't care about the genre. I have been playing EVE even with its faults. Mainly because CCP has never treated me like trash. I trust them. Any mistakes they have made that I have heard of they applogized for and/or corrected the mistake. Something SOE has never done with SWG.
Please, before somebody points out I am biased. I would like to point out SWG was my first MMO. It set the bar for how good and bad a game can be for me. It also set the bar for how good or bad a producer can be. SOE has shown me the bad, especially the behavior aspect. I compare it to Ford knowingly selling cars that catch on fire in crashes because it is cheaper for them to settle the statistical claims in lawsuits than it is to do recalls. All the while running commercials claiming "Quality is job one."
DCUO is the only game they have coming I can say I care about. I was a big Justice League fan in the 80's. There are things that will have to happen after launch before I would even try it.
1. It has to be fun and satisfy my expectations as a game and making me feel like I am in a DCU.
2. It will have to launch completed and all features and content work. No rush job.
3. Relative to 1. and 2. I don't trust SOE so I will not play for a very long time to have a chance for long term feedback from players in forums like MMORPG.com. Not the Oforums as SOE has a nasty habit of deleting criticism threads even though people are invited there under paid subs to discuss the game.
4. If an expansion comes before I try it, I will wait and see if any of the content promised in it is "broken." I have heard of to many SOE exp. features not working or are incomplete. Even on flagship games.
5. They will have to treat the playerbase with dignity and respect. Even if their EULA says they don't have too.
6. If this game doesn't become the immediate WOW killer SOE wants it to be, I will be worried. I fear there will be a NGE action as follows: They will say the game needed to be more "DC comicbooksy." To achieve this they will combine Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman into one "Iconic" class that 90% of people will from then on play. Anybody that liked playin Aqua Man still can play him, but SOE will remove all of the fish he could talk to because a focus group said kids don't like fish. "Too much fish and not enough orange and green." His Sea Scooter will be rendered obsolete buy a TCG loot card item with the only reasonable chance to get it will be to pay cash for booster packs. Plus Apache Chiefs was never funtional at launch and SOE will not work with HBUO to get Harvey Birdman in game to sue Starbucks because Apache Chief spilled his coffee on his "Inyuk-chuk" never allowing it to grow even three years after SOE said they would fix it.
"Suddenly, thousands of Trekies whose heads are full of facts of things like the stardate when the Cardassians farted on Deep Space nine are irrlelevant." - hardcoremoviecritic
Comments
To add this agreement , and most players who played it agree that the sand box PreCu of SWG was not just next best thing , it was the best and its a shame that SOE/LEC will not do anything to restore it.
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Are you new to MMO?
SoE is full of greedy and untalented folks right now, the few talented folks from SoE have long moved on.
SoE now basically bails out companies in trouble for a low price and makes a profit at the cost of the game, gameplay and their customer.
Well I'm not, you seem to proof you are new with that reply.
Free Realms is an Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) being developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) set in a humorous kid friendly fantasy-themed world[1] for the PC and PlayStation 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Realms
The Agency is a spy-themed massively multiplayer online shooter. It is being developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment studios in Seattle for Windows and PlayStation 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Agency_(video_game)
DC Universe Online or DCUO is an MMO being developed by Sony Online's Austin studio. Jim Lee serves as the game's Executive Creative Director, along with Ale Garza, Carlos D'Anda, and Scott Iwahashi. EverQuest developers Chris Cao and Shawn Lord are also involved.
Besides i was not talking about the developers I was mainly stating a fact that if a company is that much trouble why is it MAKING 3 new MMORPG, regardless what their target audience is they are making them, also regardless what I personaly feel about SOE or their games they are making those 3 afcourse with outside sources aswell but still the company is heavy involved with all three of the upcoming titles they are going to release.
Yep, they have all those games on the books as upcoming. They are also making them console friendly. Smed thinks that dumbing a game down enough to play on a console also will draw in the console crowd. Unfortunately for Smed, most MMO players don't want the games dumbed down, there are enough of those already. Secondly, if you add pvp in there, the pcers will own the console players because mouse/keyboard provides far better control than a controller.
So just because they are making them, does not mean they will successes. I think SOE intends to make a living making small niche games, which I feel all of those above are.
I think a lot of us hate $OE because of the pre-cu bullshit, but that doesn't mean every game that comes out by them is garbage. If they're trying to improve the company all the power to them, I'd like to see the market flooded with more games of different play types even if they're shit. The market needs to expand and evolve and in order to do that people need to take chances, better SOE then some company with potential.
The day SOE makes pre-cu servers is the day I'll regain faith, but I wont play another SOE product ever until that happens.
www.scarybadguys.com
There is no way in hell that SOE has anywhere close to 500k total subscribers. They once had over a million subscriptions, but the trend for the past 4 years has been steady decline.
I would guess they have no more than 200k actual people paying them money, but it is spread over station pass and multiple accounts so the total may be a bit higher. Maybe 300k. They are talking about mergers and population solutions in every title they run right now (save those that are not worth talking about).
Sure, maybe at the end of the day they are turning profit, but the company is very vulnerable. Their subscriber base is shrinking. They are not pulling in new subscribers. The revenue models are based solely off getting more money from their current subscribers through RMT card sales and other bullshit services. Every actual person they lose to another game hurts their bottom line more than any other company, because their games are so heavily invested in multiple account players and extra pricetag services.
Anyone who thinks that SOE is in good shape going from 1 million subs to a few hundred thousand is crazy. If their newest batch of MMOs flop they are in trouble.
Fact is we don't know how many players they have, we don't really know how many left SWG, its all speculation. But if they are making money then they aren't going anywhere anytime soon, the SWG thing happened like what? 3yrs ago? if it hurt that bad you would think they would have shutdown back then.
Yes what they did was wrong and if people feel the need to verbally abuse Smed cool, but there are alot of new devs working for them just trying to make the games there better, they don't deserve the hate they get from people, the way Smed treated players was wrong, but players treating new devs and whoever else working there the same way makes you equally as bad as them.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
I don't doubt this, it sounded like it was an experience that made interesting use of being a mmo. But, I'm not sure how it related with my agreement of Smedley's quote though. I'm agreeing because he is spot on, too many companies chasing WoW and not providing something actually different.
you realize that SOE is in complete financial security right now that they're bringing in so much money... right?
Also, if you're refering to SWG (which we all know you are)... it was well documented that at the time of the NGE the game was hemoraging players. Not just losing them, they were leaving in the thousands, per month, ANYWAYS. It was intended to revitalize the crowd to the new market of players that opened up.
Yes, it failed. New ventures and changes to companies sometimes fail.
Did it ruin SOE? no.
Did it ruin LA? no.
Did it ruin your game? in your mind, yeah.
Does your triad against the parent Publisher effect anything in the slightest? no.
Are your posts funny? YUP! But only because it just shows how incredibly pathetic gamers are sometimes...
YEARS later you're taking this change out on Developers who probably were in College with a dream to work in the game Industry, who had absolutely NOTHING to do with it. Right now some poor kid (term used lightly) is sitting at his Cubical at SOE programming a patch for a game possibly. He just wants to do his job, but you'd spit on him probably because he's inadvertently part of your personal vendetta against the company he works for.
You're not hurting SOE. They've already labeled you as clinicly insane probably... if I was SOE, I'd probably have done that too.
If you want a response you should try formal letters that are well written and articulated. Citing bad and good points, and remain calm, but steadfast, in the face of rejection and adversity.
If you want to continue your completely worthless attempts at bashing a multimillion dollar corporation who's well established, and growing, by all means. However, the longer time goes on, the less anybody will listen to you... and the less anybody will actually remember what you're talking about...
A few things about your post:
1.) You point out how pathetic gamers can be. You did not specify any particular gamers but gamers in general and part of your signature is how you are a lead gameplay and world designer. Bite the hand that feeds you much?
2.) SWG players did send in formal letters, which in my case the reply was basically "So sorry, still want your money." Posts in the SWG forums that were precise, to the point, and objective were still deleted and the accounts banned as SWG considered it criticism and banning was part of their stop loss policy.
3.) You asked "Did it ruin your game? To which you also replied "in your mind, yeah." NGE caused one of the largest mass exoduses in gaming history, so would it be safe to say it was just in that person's mind, or in the mind of the majority of players that left at that time?
4.) Last time I have read anyone post so hardcore in favor of SOE and bash a player or players in general it was Bilxtev who posted it. Work for SOE do you?
I have played EQ, EQII, and SWG all of which are are SOE games. In each game I have seen SOE make radical decisions that went directly against what the playerbase asked for. SOE allowed players to test new content, listen to their feedback, then do exactly opposite of what those players said and released broken, glitchy (and against player request) changes that did more harm to the player base than good. Am I against everyone at SOE, no. Am I against those at SOE that believe players are cattle and will eat whatever SOE puts in the grain bins, yes I am very much against those people at SOE.
SOE lost players pre-NGE due to their refusal to fix broken content or bugs that had been out since release. Players became tired of it and started drifting away. Would have been logical to fix those items to show they cared about the player base, but instead SOE believed sweeping changes to the game thru publishes, CU, and NGE would give the players a new gaming experience better that what they had. What SOE failed to realize was that players wanted what they already had, minus the bugs that were never fixed.
*Edited for the more obvious typos*
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
Sad part is, you may get a new Dev that has ideas on how to make the game truly amazing, but still has to answer to the powers that be and add what they are told to add, not what truly think the players will want. And in the end, a good Dev gets the spit instead of the praise. But how is the player to know what the Dev is doing, adding what they invision or what they are told to?
Anyone who takes your numbers at face value is even crazier.
I never said my numbers were concrete, but at least there is some evidence to support them.
Posted job positions on the SOE website and past corporate releases listed the companies total subscriber numbers once upon a time. Several instances of server mergers in every single game they own and even current talk about more merger possibilities from the devs. SOE essentially bing evicted from the Asian market. Dev teams cut and slashed. Top talent leaving SOE to join just about any other venture, even startups. The almost complete lack of game boxes on store shelves. Even sites that track/speculate at game populations put the company significantly down in populations to somewhere around a few hundred thousand.
Now tell me, what possible information could lead anyone to believe they have gained market share to get anywhere near 1 million paying subscribers? I'm curious to hear what makes this a more sane conclusion over what I have stated.
At least my estimate has some basis in reality.
Sadly, "new devs" doesn't equal "better games".Those new devs are working in the same situation that the OLD devs worked in, and that's one that has been producing crap results for the life of the company. So it's not likely that new devs will change anything for the better.
Example- I was playing Planetside when the "new devs" rolled in. First question I asked was "what's their experience"? The lead dev's experience for working on a dynamic-combat, large-battle-oriented First Person Shooter MMO includes (drum roll please) SWG. EQ2. And some experience playing Unreal Tournament and Quake Wars to justify their FPS "experience". The other dev's experience was never revealed.
Their plans? To make the game better. Their first answers? Roll all the half-developed stuff that was sitting on shelves because the former devs judged that it would unbalance the game. Why? IMHO because that looks like they're Doing Something with the game, and that's always really good for job security.
The result? An even worse game of course. People farming for hours on end in invisible hover aircraft that can take 3 hits from a main battle tank. 3 freaking dead on hits and it still flies. Riiigghht. People farming for hours on end in a monster gunship aircraft that spells ultimate ownage - want to have fun while ruining the fun for dozens of other people? Get a pilot, load up 5 other people on the guns, and go be invincible. I laid two full clips of anti-vehicle rounds into one (enough to just about kill one of the heavy walking tank-mechs- formerly the toughest things in the game). I didn't get that one down to half-armor. Wtf. And they wonder why the pops fell to crud after that- who wants to be bunny-farmed by a side that's been handed a near-invulnerable weapon of mass destruction?
There's plenty more, but let's skip to now. The newest plans to "improve the game" include putting "Battle Levels" into it, because they don't have the pops to play the game like it was designed (gee I wonder why). Putting INSTANCED LEVELS Into the only FPSMMO out there that was designed as a fight for total world domination against two other sides, with the map changing dynamically as bases and towers are won and lost.
The game's only uniqueness and the real draw for coop plan was the effect your and your outfit's play had on the world in real time. And they are going to try to change it to compete with all of the other level-based FPS games out there - ones that don't cost 15 bucks a month to play, have newer engines, awesome graphics, and a fresh, engaged playerbase with highly active clans/guilds/outfits/whatever.
Riiiiggghhht.Let me know how that goes. Oh wait- don't bother lol, I already have COD4 and ET-QW, so I can have level-based fights all day long without paying anyone a monthly fee.
/rant off, sorry I got back into wasting my time on SOE's cluelessness. Good luck if you decide to keep giving them money, but I wish you wouldn't. The faster they're out of the market, the faster a real game company can pick up the IP and make the games fun again.
Good points and i agree about new devs not meaning better game play, i'm just saying alot of these devs keep getting bashed for the nge and i doubt they had anything to do with it, i'm sure some of those new devs can be arses but still, hang smed and those you know for the nge not the new people, i figure for whatever player base they have atleast they are trying. Probably just talking to myself though, people who hate sony will hate anyone associated with them, funny world we live in. -shrugs-
I don't give them money, but i may when the agency or dc game comes out.
SOE is banking on The Agency and DCUO and Free Realms for your children. IF they fail to bring in an extra million customers prepare for Smed's departure.
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Neither Smed nor Sony are in any danger, and mores the shame.
Both should have died years ago.But there are just enough people will low enough standards to pay for the crap games these champions of lowering qaulity put out (and keep around).
What should have been 5 star titles, in respect to customer base,quality, game features,etc.. all turned out to be 1 star embarrassments that barely hold a candle to what they should have been.
And they crow about their success.....comfortably entrenched in their own little world.. where the 2.4s (gpa equivilants) they have earned are somehow equal to the 3.5s (gpa equivilant ) they should have earned.....
Few things say "lackwits in charge" more than an MMO dev team..And fewer things show more failure to reach potential....
But than again, many of you keep paying them......
SOE IMO is not going to die off. They do have new games coming out. I do believe they are structured to make a profit with the games they have and will have.
However, even though I believe these things they will still not get my money unless certain things happen. The certain things can be game dependent.
SWG: SOE did lie to their playerbase on more than one occasion. The most notable is ToOW being sold while secretly in the background many of the features the game was sold on were planned on being deleted after launch of the NGE. Many players did get refunds for ToOW as well they should have. People that bought prepaid sub time based on ToOW did not receive a refund because SOE's EULA prevented SOE from having to refund them. So they chose not to. Was it legal? Perhaps; it certainly wasn't tested. That isn't the point though. It was still a rotten way to treat a loyal customer. The NGE is fine. I have even had fun with it. Even if I didn't, as long as others do it is a viable game. The one recent imrovement I liked is not enough to make me overlook the fact they treat their customers like garbage. I bought RoTW and the mining ship missions were bugged during my entire time playing in CU. Five months worth. During this time they had devs pulled from fixing bugs to design a completely different game. For me enough has happened with SWG and the way SOE has treated the players of this game that I do not trust SOE. There is nothing wrong with making more money; it should not be done by lying to and abusing the loyalty of your customers.
All other SOE titles in Station or not: I have not played any of their other titles, but I know people that did and do. I have heard a variety of good things and bad. I could try the other titles. However I am a sci-fi fan. I am not big on fantasy. They have only two other sci-fi titles. One is MXO. SOE may not have produced it. But from what I have heard is, it sucks. PS is the other. PS from what I have heard is all PVP. I liked SWG for crafting, not PVP. I know I may be a minority. But the game allowed me to participate in a style I enjoyed. PS won't allow this. Again all other SOE titles I don't care about.
I don't play WOW, WAR, LOTR, etc... because I don't care about the genre. I have been playing EVE even with its faults. Mainly because CCP has never treated me like trash. I trust them. Any mistakes they have made that I have heard of they applogized for and/or corrected the mistake. Something SOE has never done with SWG.
Please, before somebody points out I am biased. I would like to point out SWG was my first MMO. It set the bar for how good and bad a game can be for me. It also set the bar for how good or bad a producer can be. SOE has shown me the bad, especially the behavior aspect. I compare it to Ford knowingly selling cars that catch on fire in crashes because it is cheaper for them to settle the statistical claims in lawsuits than it is to do recalls. All the while running commercials claiming "Quality is job one."
DCUO is the only game they have coming I can say I care about. I was a big Justice League fan in the 80's. There are things that will have to happen after launch before I would even try it.
1. It has to be fun and satisfy my expectations as a game and making me feel like I am in a DCU.
2. It will have to launch completed and all features and content work. No rush job.
3. Relative to 1. and 2. I don't trust SOE so I will not play for a very long time to have a chance for long term feedback from players in forums like MMORPG.com. Not the Oforums as SOE has a nasty habit of deleting criticism threads even though people are invited there under paid subs to discuss the game.
4. If an expansion comes before I try it, I will wait and see if any of the content promised in it is "broken." I have heard of to many SOE exp. features not working or are incomplete. Even on flagship games.
5. They will have to treat the playerbase with dignity and respect. Even if their EULA says they don't have too.
6. If this game doesn't become the immediate WOW killer SOE wants it to be, I will be worried. I fear there will be a NGE action as follows: They will say the game needed to be more "DC comicbooksy." To achieve this they will combine Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman into one "Iconic" class that 90% of people will from then on play. Anybody that liked playin Aqua Man still can play him, but SOE will remove all of the fish he could talk to because a focus group said kids don't like fish. "Too much fish and not enough orange and green." His Sea Scooter will be rendered obsolete buy a TCG loot card item with the only reasonable chance to get it will be to pay cash for booster packs. Plus Apache Chiefs was never funtional at launch and SOE will not work with HBUO to get Harvey Birdman in game to sue Starbucks because Apache Chief spilled his coffee on his "Inyuk-chuk" never allowing it to grow even three years after SOE said they would fix it.
"Suddenly, thousands of Trekies whose heads are full of facts of things like the stardate when the Cardassians farted on Deep Space nine are irrlelevant." - hardcoremoviecritic