Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Mad at NCSoft? Good Team Leadership Cant Always be a Popularity Contest
TheRedPill
Member Posts: 114
Regarding the unpopular decision to shut down Tabula Rasa come Feb of 2009:
The tight economy is forcing the hand of many businesses, and I've no doubt it's cast a shadow long enough to touch the Gaming Industry. Those who cut deadwood now are going to survive the storm. This is not to say that Tabula Rasa is without merit, nor that with an influx of resources and support, it could be the kick-ass game it was meant to be. But obviously, from a business perspective, the game was requiring more input that it was giving back. In a different economy, NCSoft might have nursed it along out of respect (at least for a longer time) for its paying customers. As it is, few can afford that luxury. I'd be angry too, if I played the game, but once I'd moved past the initial shock and outrage, I would like to think I'd be able to see this as a smart business move, something we should be applauding in light of all the excesses in the news of late.
For those who feel jaded enough to think twice about trying a new game by NCSoft for fear that it too will be yanked before you are ready to give it up, please remember this is a common pitfall as an MMORPG enthusiast. If you like the new and different, you run the risk of cancellations. These games are after all, one big long Beta test in progress.
When you are ready to move past Tabula Rasa, try something a little different because otherwise anything you do will come up short by comparison. You might seek out a niche not found anywhere else, like Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online, which offers Lifetime Subscriptions so apparently they are planning to be around awhile; CCP's Eve Online, which is new, but unlike any other game I've tried before; and NCSoft's City of Heroes/Villains, which has been going strong for 4 years and shows no sign of stopping.
Comments
I could agree with you if NC didn't have a history with Auto Assault, which was canceled before either the economy crisis or the revenue report for NC became known.
So please spare us the "It's a hard time and companies have to make horrible decisions" speech. I'm certainly staying away from NC games for the forseeable future. It's times like that when SOE almost look like saints. They may stink in the customer care department, but they don't shut down their games. They drop them into the station pass dump when they don't perform as expected, but they keep them running.
I know all about Auto Assault. As I stated, many companies have cancellation skeletons in the closet. To my mind it shows they are willing to dare, yet real enough to let a sinking ship go. Nonetheless, Tabula Rasa might not have met that criteria were the times not so hard. NCSoft boasts a list of successes to their name to validate their integrity. And their customer service.
Amazing. So a MMORPG publisher that shuts down its failed games is bad. And a MMORPG publisher that keeps all of their failed games going is good?
Touchette.
Why should you gamers be mad at NcSoft at all?
They did exactly what you wanted!
They hired your cult hero Richard Garriott and gave him unlimited funds and seven years and indulged his every whim.
Repeat--unlimited funds and seven years.
NcSoft did as gaming fans wanted and all everybody got was a bucket of warm spit and a bozo with an act in space to work out his daddy issues.
I know who I'm blaming, here. I have a little sympathy for investors (you know, regular folks who own stocks in the market?) these days.
I agree with the OP on this one. In fact this is exactly what I was trying to explain before.
NCsoft made the right call by shutting this game down. It just made good sense. The game wasn't going anywhere good and I seriously doubt that they could have afforded to throw enough money at this game to ever have any hope of fixing it. They already spent 73 million on the game and look how far that got them: about halfway done. Did anyone really think they were going to throw another 73 million at the game to finish it? Do any of you who subscribed to this game and would like to see it remain online have an extra 73 million you would be willing to loan to NCsoft so they can finish the game? I seriously doubt it.
NCsoft could have easily allowed the game to continue to float along, getting nowhere fast so that they could try to recoup some small amount of their losses by milking the last few fanboys for subscription fees (the way SOE does with their all access pass for their lineup of failed MMOs) but instead they made the smart and respectful decision to shut the game down, reward the current subscribers with a huge pile of free stuff and move on to greener pastures.
SoE does not even compare to this. Not only does SoE spit on its own customers but they refused to shut games down, not because they care about the people who enjoy said games, but because they need as many games as they can get to pad the value of their all access pass. SoE cares only about the all-mighty dollar and to hell with anyone who stands in their way. Atleast NCsoft was willing to give a nod to their loyal customers by givng them free stuff.
The History of the Order of The Golden Shields
That's good news for Stargate worlds. I bet Richard Garret wished he didn't spend all the money on a ticket into space. I don't blame this company for getting this monkey off its back.
Welcome to BIG tax writeoff 101.
The lesson today? Shut down a game before taxes are due, and have a large lump sum loss to prove the need for an influx of cash due to manpower, equipment, etc,
So ends the lesson known as Tabula Rasa.
Good day!
Welcome to BIG tax writeoff 101.
Nope. RG's TR was an inhouse project and development costs have been expensed out as they go. That's one hit, development cost writeoffs, that NcSoft won't have to endure.
However, you raise an interesting point with write offs. In 2001, NcSoft got a tax break by claiming that they had invested in the Garriott's "knowhow" (what they call good will in the US, I think) and that the reputation, skill and talent of Richard and Robert Garriott was an "intangible asset" on the balance sheet. This was in the amount of 43B won, about $43M. You can find this at NcSoft.net.
If they claim this as an asset, and clearly there is no longer any evidence of talent, skill or
reputation...they'll probably have to write that off in some way. They can't claim to hold an asset that does not exist...and never did.
NCsoft got what they wanted from the marrage to RG. Through RG they got connections to arenanet guys and COV dev team and RG got want he wanted > $$
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
above--
laughable, absurd. NcSoft thought they were getting a blockbuster gamemaker, not an eighty-million dollar telephone and a few phone numbers.
The Garriotts had the reputation, at the time, too bad Kim Taek jin didn't know it was all an act with smoke and mirrors.
Amazing. So a MMORPG publisher that shuts down its failed games is bad. And a MMORPG publisher that keeps all of their failed games going is good?
QFE
My guess is NCSOFT itself shuts down soon.
This is their 2nd MMO shutdown, meaning total loss of investment.
They also are making some horrific post-Crypic chances to the only non Korean MMO they have that has any players in the US-EU, COH/COV that some are equating to the NGE.
Ummm, what? I play CoX, check the boards regularly, et cetera, and there isn't anything even remotely close to what you're alluding to (NGE style changes) afoot in CoX. I'm guessing you're referring to Issue 13? Where a bunch of the hardcore PvPers are QQing about diminshing returns and how they will no longer to be able wtfbbqpwn everyone with two basic AT builds?
That change? I like PvP. A lot. It's my favorite part of any MMO but CoX's PvP is ****ing abysmally terrible (worse than TR's, balance wise).
Since CoX & NC have split from Cryptic the game has only been getting better and better. It's a still level based, class based, completely linear quest grinding themepark-a-thon but the features they've been implementing have been warmly recieved by the community.
Ummm, what? I play CoX, check the boards regularly, et cetera, and there isn't anything even remotely close to what you're alluding to (NGE style changes) afoot in CoX. I'm guessing you're referring to Issue 13? Where a bunch of the hardcore PvPers are QQing about diminshing returns and how they will no longer to be able wtfbbqpwn everyone with two basic AT builds?
That change? I like PvP. A lot. It's my favorite part of any MMO but CoX's PvP is ****ing abysmally terrible (worse than TR's, balance wise).
Since CoX & NC have split from Cryptic the game has only been getting better and better. It's a still level based, class based, completely linear quest grinding themepark-a-thon but the features they've been implementing have been warmly recieved by the community.
There are a handful of jaded forum nerds floating around here that liken every major change to CoX as equivalent to the NGE. The list is pretty long when it comes to every change they've said would kill the game. It's best to just ignore it, as these ideas are usually motivated by their desire to inflate their own self-worth by becoming self-styled MMO messiahs (leading us to the promised land, if only we listen to their moronic advice). You're not going to defeat an irrationally-based idea with rationality.
From what I've heard of the Aion release in Korea, I doubt it.
------------------
Playing:LotRO
Waiting for: anything better than whats out now.