I wanted to take a moment to offer my personal note on Jeff's departure.
Jeff is a personal friend of mine. We worked together very closely from the time he joined Blizzard in 1996, through our founding of ArenaNet in 2000, until he left ArenaNet to join NCsoft West in 2008. I'm sad to see him leaving NCsoft now. We remain good friends and I wish him great success in his next endeavor.
It's important to understand that ArenaNet is a separate and self-contained development studio. Jeff hasn't been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2 since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago, and I don't expect his departure to have a direct impact on our studio or on Guild Wars 2. I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I'm not going anywhere.
We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now. I'm confident that, when you see Guild Wars 2 for the first time, you're going to love what you see, and any worries you have about its development will fade away.
--Mike O'Brien 01:56, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
thx a lot, that was a relief. Funny how official PR = epic fail and O'Brian can do better with a simple reply...
This does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion
Thx, but Aion can go to hell.
I want Guild Wars 2, imo it will be the next WoW.
Thank you very much for clearing things up Mike.. you're my hero! (luv GW) ^_^
To pour some more water on the rumour mill: when you look at Aion you will recognize, that it uses GameGuard. A hacking prevention system used primary by korean MMOs. The system is totaly crappy, the aion beta forum was full of error reports concerning GG and the people tried to make pressure to solve the problem or superior: remove GG completely from the game, because it behaves like a root kit. What happend? Nothing happend till today, it wasn't even added to the known bugs list! This is a beavior I found to appear in a lot of korean free to play MMOs: inconvenient but importent problems are successively beeing ignored. I'm curious if they'll keep this behavior up. At the comming weekend there will be the next beta event and the betaboard with the buglists will be open again. I ask myself if the shown problem management of NCSoft is highly influenced by the korean management and if it will find entrance as a general behaviour to the customers of NC Soft
I posted this in reply to the mention of NC Soft being more and more dominated by the Korean management.
To update my post:
Yesterday did the 6th beta event start and the known bugs list still doesn't contain a word about the problems concerning GameGuard.
In addition comes, that the bug list is very similar to the last one and contains only a very, very small fraction of the reported bugs and a lot of minor bugs like translation mistakes, whereas a lot of major bugs are not mentioned.
As I said before a behavior I found in a lot of Korean MMOs.
I can see 2 things from this considering that Aion is a pretty big dissapointment. Either they were moved/letgo due to some restructuring because they pushed the game out too early. After all now they are the perfect fall guy because they are no longer with NCsoft
Or they left because they are upset at Aion's outcome and are leaving the ship just as it started sinking
I would imagine GW2 has been thrown in the bin. Hardly surprising since GW1 was a huge embarrassment to the MMO genre. No loss here.
Ah, so it being ready for release "very soon" according to the lead developer and the original having sold 6 million and counting, I can totally see why.
well there goes GW2...was wondering why there have been no updates on its development the past 6 months. I love GW...and was looking forward to it. But with both co-founders gone....I dont see GW2 coming out now
Jeff have left Arenanet a year ago and not worked on GW2 since then, other people are working on it...
Hi all,
I wanted to take a moment to offer my personal note on Jeff's departure.
Jeff is a personal friend of mine. We worked together very closely from the time he joined Blizzard in 1996, through our founding of ArenaNet in 2000, until he left ArenaNet to join NCsoft West in 2008. I'm sad to see him leaving NCsoft now. We remain good friends and I wish him great success in his next endeavor.
It's important to understand that ArenaNet is a separate and self-contained development studio. Jeff hasn't been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2 since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago, and I don't expect his departure to have a direct impact on our studio or on Guild Wars 2. I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I'm not going anywhere.
We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now. I'm confident that, when you see Guild Wars 2 for the first time, you're going to love what you see, and any worries you have about its development will fade away.
- Mike O'Brien
There is few guys of Jeffs talent and having him as director of NC soft west was a huge waste, I see why he got bored. I guess there is no hope that he will go back to Arenanet. I hope he makes a new game, the only guy who makes as good games is Ray at Bioware.
Guildwars, Diablo, Warcraft 3. I have enjoyed those a lot.
But maybe Blizzard gave him an offer he couldn't refuse, they have missed them, the Blizzard games have not been the same since he left. I rather hope he starts a new company like Arenanet again.
Edit: Ooops, I didn't see this was posted before, It was a lot of things to read thru and I onle read the first pages...
Yes that's correct, I mean it in another sence: NCSoft West had Ryan James as Public Relations Director and Jeff Strain as President of Product Development. This are in my opinion two positions with strong influence on the product and its customer service.
Two strong personalities with a carefull eye on the quality of the product who now need to be replaced and I have the feeling the replacement will be persons who fit better in the Korean ideology.
Btw: I have nothing against Koreans personally. I having several in my circle of friends, but it seems to be a fact that they like quick solutions, but quick comes often with a loss of quality.
Good quality is for example: when I chose a hacking prevention system for my game and it turns out to be problematic I do not say: it's not our fault and ignore the problem. It is their fault, because they chose the program and it is their task to find a solution for it and not wait until nProtect someday maybe fixes the problems. And there has to be an information chain to the customer that informs him constantly on the advances in finding a solution!
Yes that's correct, I mean it in another sence: NCSoft West had Ryan James as Public Relations Director and Jeff Strain as President of Product Development. This are in my opinion two positions with strong influence on the product and its customer service.
Two strong personalities with a carefull eye on the quality of the product who now need to be replaced and I have the feeling the replacement will be persons who fit better in the Korean ideology.
Btw: I have nothing against Koreans personally. I having several in my circle of friends, but it seems to be a fact that they like quick solutions, but quick comes often with a loss of quality.
For Aion i dont think Jeff had an huge impact, and if he did his work is bassicly done as Aion is about to launch in the west.
Might be different for GW2 but then i dont think so, as Arenanet is an american division and Jeff already didnt work on GW2 anymore.
Originally posted by Bleakmage Originally posted by Maggnet To pour some more water on the rumour mill: when you look at Aion you will recognize, that it uses GameGuard. A hacking prevention system used primary by korean MMOs. The system is totaly crappy, the aion beta forum was full of error reports concerning GG and the people tried to make pressure to solve the problem or superior: remove GG completely from the game, because it behaves like a root kit. What happend? Nothing happend till today, it wasn't even added to the known bugs list! This is a beavior I found to appear in a lot of korean free to play MMOs: inconvenient but importent problems are successively beeing ignored. I'm curious if they'll keep this behavior up. At the comming weekend there will be the next beta event and the betaboard with the buglists will be open again. I ask myself if the shown problem management of NCSoft is highly influenced by the korean management and if it will find entrance as a general behaviour to the customers of NC Soft.
My experience with Game Guard has led me to inevitably ignore all games with Game Guard. I really wanted to play some of those games, too, but Game Guard makes that impossible. I've found 1000 ways to get around problems with games over the years, but Game Guard. . .~shudders~ It even kept me from playing a game I actually paid money for. Poof! Goodbye money. And no, I'm not a hacker, never been a hacker, never gonna be a hacker. Hacking is cheating, and cheating is for losers. Yes, I've unplugged everything possible and turned off everything you can turn off. No matter what I've tried, Game Guard is the DEVIL! ~makes a warding gesture~ Did I mention that I farking hate Game Guard?
I find the argument about the fate of GW2 very amusing since we have two statements explaining what happened, he wasn't working for ArenaNet for a year now anyway, and absolutely no evidence that anything will be negatively impacted by this change at all. Anet is totally separate functionally from NCSoft. GW2 will not be developed by Koreans. It is a totally different studio. The primary reasons Anet is under NCSoft at all is money. They have total creative control. I don't understand how you people can be so willfully ignorant.
That said, I wanted to not that I also HATE HATE HATE Game Guard. It is the most horrible, destructive, ineffective, annoying, useless, and all-around-awful POS software I have ever seen that wasn't an actual virus. Add to that the idea that it is designed to protect you, and the very concept of GG is laughable. I would never, ever, ever, play a game using it. Of course, you really can't expect much more from the Asian MMO development industry. It is easier to buy a POS and plug it in to your crappy grindy PvP clone than to spend resources on your own security measures.
Aion is pretty; Aion has relatively engaging combat, Aion has flying. Aion really isn't new. I've played it, and I have been bored. I don't understand the hype. It plays very much like any other Asian MMO I've played. There are decent quests, but that just sends it closer to EQ and WoW, and we still don't have anything new or engaging. I wish someone could explain to me why this game is being touted as new, exciting, and clever.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
I now doubt anything NCSoft does seeing that Aion is their flagship product, as that game is just one major disappiontment.
This, tbh.
I just don't get all the hype behind Aion. It's boring, the quests / types of quests it uses were considered boring by EQ players 9 years ago and the graphics, while nice, aren't anything super special. The end-game, if you can stomach the trip to get to high level, really isn't all that great either. It's only real claim to fame is you can fly... woopie.
No offense to anyone who likes it but I just don't get why NCSoft is hanging so much hope on a game that's obviously sub-par.
As to GW2? I don't think it'll be effected by this. Strain wasn't even working on GW2, he's not Anet and hasn't been for over a year, he's NCSoft. Anet is making GW2, not NCSoft. So it wont impact GW2 much (and I doubt it'll impact it at all.)
As to the troll saying GW was an embarassment to the MMO genre? You, sir, are an imbecille. Seriously... 6 million sales and over 3 million current players? Learn to check your facts. Not to mention the LONG list of awards it's racked up over the years. I still play Guild Wars and have every expansion. And, being that I'm an EVE player, you could pretty much surmise that I'm picky as hell about what MMO's I choose to give my money to. GW is one of the few I consider worth playing.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
I would disagree. Strain drove that game and made it what it is...a major hit. I now doubt anything NCSoft does seeing that Aion is their flagship product, as that game is just one major disappiontment. As to GW2, it will probably become another Tabula Rasa.
I beg to differ. For one, they don't have an idiot developing Guild Wars 2. Secondly, Jeff is not Guild Wars. He was a huge part of it, but they've got an extremely talented team and goals that aren't going to crumble down in his absence. Thirdly, Guild Wars is now an established game and as such ArenaNet have a lot to work with. Tabula Rasa, on the other hand, was a bad first attempt (though I personally enjoyed it). Add to that the fact that we don't know who the current driving force may be and what their goals are, and this may even be a good thing. I doubt anyone could be worse than ol' Richard.
You simply can't compare a game whose sequel has sold over 6 million copies with a game that practically tanked from the start.
GW2 will do just fine. It will offer more than what GW offered, free after you buy the box, it might even be bigger than GW was since it may fill the next gen Fantasy MMO niche for the future. If isn't the top game above WoW in a few years, it'll be fighting for second along with SWTOR.
It seems strange that this game does so well as an Asian style MMO, but the truth is GW offers the things people want, in PvP, arenas, lore ect. It's not a bad a game, even if it isn't totally traditional MMO game play. People who play it don't bother arguing the finer points of the game since they are rapped up in it, and the numbers speak for themselves. The peope who don't play are left with no one to really argue with.
"QUOTE: Tell me, seriously, what was the point of delaying aion for 6 months to "westernize" it and build a team committed to the western world and then basically replacing the heads of that team with some faceless koreans a month before the game is released? :END QUOTE
Exactly. That does seem to be the point.
What I am seeing here is a pattern where NCsoft recruits top Western talent, uses them to produce games that are more acceptable to Western markets, them dumps them under the guise of "leaving under good terms". Let's not forget, Richard Garriott was brought in for exactly that reason - to turn Lineage, perhaps the largest MMO in the world at the time, to a Western market, the result being Lineage 2. I am wondering if part of that deal was that he get his own title in return, which would have been Tabla Rasa. However....
Read this, and follow the links, and you will see what I mean:
Seems that it wasn't Garriott's idea to leave NCsoft. If NCsoft fired Garriott, he would be allowed to keep his stock, but leaving of his own volition, was required to sell it within 90 days. I would wager that Strain and Reid had similar contracts, and by "leaving amicably", they, too, forfeit any profits due them from retaining the stock, and instead return any control of that stock to investors more in line with NCsoft's desires. Dumoing a whole lot of game stock in a hurry usually requires an interested buyer.
We might even go back a little further to NCsoft's acquisition of City of Heroes/Villains. Why would Cryptic leave their baby behind and turn around to create a NEW superhero game. Sure, Jack Emmert had all sorts of glowing things to say about how he grew up on Champions, but really, they had a good product with a good look and engine and sold it, lock stock and barrel, to NCsoft, thereby having to start over AND create a competing product.
Something smells bad in NCsoftland. Evil Empire, anyone?
Comments
Thx, but Aion can go to hell.
I want Guild Wars 2, imo it will be the next WoW.
Thank you very much for clearing things up Mike.. you're my hero! (luv GW) ^_^
I posted this in reply to the mention of NC Soft being more and more dominated by the Korean management.
To update my post:
Yesterday did the 6th beta event start and the known bugs list still doesn't contain a word about the problems concerning GameGuard.
In addition comes, that the bug list is very similar to the last one and contains only a very, very small fraction of the reported bugs and a lot of minor bugs like translation mistakes, whereas a lot of major bugs are not mentioned.
As I said before a behavior I found in a lot of Korean MMOs.
maybe then ncsoft will hire some new blood with new ideas. and make a game I really want to play. certainly hasn't happened so far.
Forum signatures are stupid and annoying. I've turned mine off.
I can see 2 things from this considering that Aion is a pretty big dissapointment. Either they were moved/letgo due to some restructuring because they pushed the game out too early. After all now they are the perfect fall guy because they are no longer with NCsoft
Or they left because they are upset at Aion's outcome and are leaving the ship just as it started sinking
How is it dissapointing?
This people, is a textbook troll. Learn to dismiss it as such.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Ah, so it being ready for release "very soon" according to the lead developer and the original having sold 6 million and counting, I can totally see why.
Seems to me you need a new imagination.
Jeff have left Arenanet a year ago and not worked on GW2 since then, other people are working on it...
Hi all,
I wanted to take a moment to offer my personal note on Jeff's departure.
Jeff is a personal friend of mine. We worked together very closely from the time he joined Blizzard in 1996, through our founding of ArenaNet in 2000, until he left ArenaNet to join NCsoft West in 2008. I'm sad to see him leaving NCsoft now. We remain good friends and I wish him great success in his next endeavor.
It's important to understand that ArenaNet is a separate and self-contained development studio. Jeff hasn't been involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2 since he left ArenaNet more than a year ago, and I don't expect his departure to have a direct impact on our studio or on Guild Wars 2. I continue to lead ArenaNet, and I'm not going anywhere.
We have an amazing team here at ArenaNet, and we continue to work hard on Guild Wars 2, preparing for the day when we can first reveal it to the world. That day is coming very soon now. I'm confident that, when you see Guild Wars 2 for the first time, you're going to love what you see, and any worries you have about its development will fade away.
- Mike O'Brien
There is few guys of Jeffs talent and having him as director of NC soft west was a huge waste, I see why he got bored. I guess there is no hope that he will go back to Arenanet. I hope he makes a new game, the only guy who makes as good games is Ray at Bioware.
Guildwars, Diablo, Warcraft 3. I have enjoyed those a lot.
But maybe Blizzard gave him an offer he couldn't refuse, they have missed them, the Blizzard games have not been the same since he left. I rather hope he starts a new company like Arenanet again.
Edit: Ooops, I didn't see this was posted before, It was a lot of things to read thru and I onle read the first pages...
Yet some knobheads still don't get the message, so please continue to report it lol :P
These high level execs are a dime a dozen. They change jobs about as often as I change my socks. They follow money...that's it.
Originally posted by Maggnet
posted this in reply to the mention of NC Soft being more and more dominated by the Korean management.
------
mate, afaik NCSOFT IS KOREAN
Yes that's correct, I mean it in another sence: NCSoft West had Ryan James as Public Relations Director and Jeff Strain as President of Product Development. This are in my opinion two positions with strong influence on the product and its customer service.
Two strong personalities with a carefull eye on the quality of the product who now need to be replaced and I have the feeling the replacement will be persons who fit better in the Korean ideology.
Btw: I have nothing against Koreans personally. I having several in my circle of friends, but it seems to be a fact that they like quick solutions, but quick comes often with a loss of quality.
Good quality is for example: when I chose a hacking prevention system for my game and it turns out to be problematic I do not say: it's not our fault and ignore the problem. It is their fault, because they chose the program and it is their task to find a solution for it and not wait until nProtect someday maybe fixes the problems. And there has to be an information chain to the customer that informs him constantly on the advances in finding a solution!
Yes that's correct, I mean it in another sence: NCSoft West had Ryan James as Public Relations Director and Jeff Strain as President of Product Development. This are in my opinion two positions with strong influence on the product and its customer service.
Two strong personalities with a carefull eye on the quality of the product who now need to be replaced and I have the feeling the replacement will be persons who fit better in the Korean ideology.
Btw: I have nothing against Koreans personally. I having several in my circle of friends, but it seems to be a fact that they like quick solutions, but quick comes often with a loss of quality.
For Aion i dont think Jeff had an huge impact, and if he did his work is bassicly done as Aion is about to launch in the west.
Might be different for GW2 but then i dont think so, as Arenanet is an american division and Jeff already didnt work on GW2 anymore.
I dont think it will change much really.
rumor mill has it that a GW2-trailer will be released in a few days at GameCon.
I can't wait =D
Hype train -> Reality
My experience with Game Guard has led me to inevitably ignore all games with Game Guard. I really wanted to play some of those games, too, but Game Guard makes that impossible. I've found 1000 ways to get around problems with games over the years, but Game Guard. . .~shudders~ It even kept me from playing a game I actually paid money for. Poof! Goodbye money. And no, I'm not a hacker, never been a hacker, never gonna be a hacker. Hacking is cheating, and cheating is for losers.
Did I mention that I farking hate Game Guard?
I find the argument about the fate of GW2 very amusing since we have two statements explaining what happened, he wasn't working for ArenaNet for a year now anyway, and absolutely no evidence that anything will be negatively impacted by this change at all. Anet is totally separate functionally from NCSoft. GW2 will not be developed by Koreans. It is a totally different studio. The primary reasons Anet is under NCSoft at all is money. They have total creative control. I don't understand how you people can be so willfully ignorant.
That said, I wanted to not that I also HATE HATE HATE Game Guard. It is the most horrible, destructive, ineffective, annoying, useless, and all-around-awful POS software I have ever seen that wasn't an actual virus. Add to that the idea that it is designed to protect you, and the very concept of GG is laughable. I would never, ever, ever, play a game using it. Of course, you really can't expect much more from the Asian MMO development industry. It is easier to buy a POS and plug it in to your crappy grindy PvP clone than to spend resources on your own security measures.
Aion is pretty; Aion has relatively engaging combat, Aion has flying. Aion really isn't new. I've played it, and I have been bored. I don't understand the hype. It plays very much like any other Asian MMO I've played. There are decent quests, but that just sends it closer to EQ and WoW, and we still don't have anything new or engaging. I wish someone could explain to me why this game is being touted as new, exciting, and clever.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
This, tbh.
I just don't get all the hype behind Aion. It's boring, the quests / types of quests it uses were considered boring by EQ players 9 years ago and the graphics, while nice, aren't anything super special. The end-game, if you can stomach the trip to get to high level, really isn't all that great either. It's only real claim to fame is you can fly... woopie.
No offense to anyone who likes it but I just don't get why NCSoft is hanging so much hope on a game that's obviously sub-par.
As to GW2? I don't think it'll be effected by this. Strain wasn't even working on GW2, he's not Anet and hasn't been for over a year, he's NCSoft. Anet is making GW2, not NCSoft. So it wont impact GW2 much (and I doubt it'll impact it at all.)
As to the troll saying GW was an embarassment to the MMO genre? You, sir, are an imbecille. Seriously... 6 million sales and over 3 million current players? Learn to check your facts. Not to mention the LONG list of awards it's racked up over the years. I still play Guild Wars and have every expansion. And, being that I'm an EVE player, you could pretty much surmise that I'm picky as hell about what MMO's I choose to give my money to. GW is one of the few I consider worth playing.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
I beg to differ. For one, they don't have an idiot developing Guild Wars 2. Secondly, Jeff is not Guild Wars. He was a huge part of it, but they've got an extremely talented team and goals that aren't going to crumble down in his absence. Thirdly, Guild Wars is now an established game and as such ArenaNet have a lot to work with. Tabula Rasa, on the other hand, was a bad first attempt (though I personally enjoyed it). Add to that the fact that we don't know who the current driving force may be and what their goals are, and this may even be a good thing. I doubt anyone could be worse than ol' Richard.
You simply can't compare a game whose sequel has sold over 6 million copies with a game that practically tanked from the start.
GW2 will do just fine. It will offer more than what GW offered, free after you buy the box, it might even be bigger than GW was since it may fill the next gen Fantasy MMO niche for the future. If isn't the top game above WoW in a few years, it'll be fighting for second along with SWTOR.
It seems strange that this game does so well as an Asian style MMO, but the truth is GW offers the things people want, in PvP, arenas, lore ect. It's not a bad a game, even if it isn't totally traditional MMO game play. People who play it don't bother arguing the finer points of the game since they are rapped up in it, and the numbers speak for themselves. The peope who don't play are left with no one to really argue with.
"QUOTE: Tell me, seriously, what was the point of delaying aion for 6 months to "westernize" it and build a team committed to the western world and then basically replacing the heads of that team with some faceless koreans a month before the game is released? :END QUOTE
Exactly. That does seem to be the point.
What I am seeing here is a pattern where NCsoft recruits top Western talent, uses them to produce games that are more acceptable to Western markets, them dumps them under the guise of "leaving under good terms". Let's not forget, Richard Garriott was brought in for exactly that reason - to turn Lineage, perhaps the largest MMO in the world at the time, to a Western market, the result being Lineage 2. I am wondering if part of that deal was that he get his own title in return, which would have been Tabla Rasa. However....
Read this, and follow the links, and you will see what I mean:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-sues-nc-soft-over-millions-stock-options
Seems that it wasn't Garriott's idea to leave NCsoft. If NCsoft fired Garriott, he would be allowed to keep his stock, but leaving of his own volition, was required to sell it within 90 days. I would wager that Strain and Reid had similar contracts, and by "leaving amicably", they, too, forfeit any profits due them from retaining the stock, and instead return any control of that stock to investors more in line with NCsoft's desires. Dumoing a whole lot of game stock in a hurry usually requires an interested buyer.
We might even go back a little further to NCsoft's acquisition of City of Heroes/Villains. Why would Cryptic leave their baby behind and turn around to create a NEW superhero game. Sure, Jack Emmert had all sorts of glowing things to say about how he grew up on Champions, but really, they had a good product with a good look and engine and sold it, lock stock and barrel, to NCsoft, thereby having to start over AND create a competing product.
Something smells bad in NCsoftland. Evil Empire, anyone?
For a little background on NCsoft's initial incursion into the US market, check this out:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/tabula-rasa/512497p1.html