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Blizzard listened to their community, Sony did not

AmarandesAmarandes Member Posts: 104

What makes Blizzard different from Sony? They actually listen to their players.

A few days ago, Blizzard posted that they were going to force players to reveal their real names if they want to post on the forums.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25712374700&sid=1

The decision to use Real ID on the forums sparked a massive outrage from the players. Many were disappointed or angry that Blizzard would choose to risk the privacy of other players. Over the next few days, we raged and begged for Blizzard to change their minds. That particular forum posts soon generated almost 2500 (50000 posts) pages of mostly negative comments.

Then today, we get this post.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25968987278&sid=1

A great victory for the community! It just goes to show you, when the community united as one and voiced their feedback to Blizzard, they listened to us and reverted this change. They made the wrong decision and they admitted it up front: we were wrong, the community was right. This is why I respect Blizzard over so many other companies.

I symphatize with the veterans who got a once great game stolen away by Sony. You guys united and voiced your hate for the NGE but unlike Blizzard, Sony did not listened and went ahead with that change. What did that earned them: a severely watered-down game that is now a mere shadow of its former self.

This had got me thinking: Why can't Sony be like Blizzard? Had Sony listened to its players and did not implemented the NGE, SWG would still be a great game today. Maybe it was because they thought they would get more subscribers. Well, that certainly did not worked. 

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Comments

  • EvileEvile Member Posts: 534

    If SOE listened to players there would have been no CU let alone NGE.

    If SOE listened to players they would have bug fixed, added content and balance the old system out. The game now would be lightyears further from no time being waisted with all the game breaking changes, and tons of bugs that came with it.

    So much time waisted breaking the game instead of making new content.

    If only SOE listened to players.

    image

  • AziceAzice Member Posts: 23

    Well, Blizzard didn't push down RealID change to begin with.  They only made a post to tell people that it is coming and most of their player base blew up in a very stormy fashion.  Sony on the other hand just pushed down the change and most of people don't even know what hit them until they experienced the changes.  It is much harder to roll back such big game change from production server.  With huge amount of people quitting right away, Sony had little to no time even react.  By the time they realized just how serious it has became, it was too late and game over.  Sony as a company is very slow when it comes to changes.  Just take look the company performance and product line!  Their online game division never really made much profit due to bad leadership.  Activation corprate leadership is not much better.  Their CEO actually think it is better for game dev lead to fight for budget than spend time to make good games. 

    For us gamers, we don't care about corprate bottem line really, we care about games.  When a "game" company stop making fun games, then it is all over for the company as whole.  Game industry needs to learn from Movie industry a lot here.  Guess gaming industry is still too young and inexpericed to handle the balance between spreadsheet and fun games.  Without good games, game company will fail.  It is very simple but those corprate suits just refuse to accept it. 

    Not the best, but always the first.

  • japojapo Member Posts: 306

    Can people like you (OP and all you other weasels) get over NGE please?

     

    What a bunch of freekin' drama queens.  It happened YEARS AGO...and in a game no less. 

  • TealaTeala Member RarePosts: 7,627

    Originally posted by japo

    Can people like you (OP and all you other weasels) get over NGE please?

     No

  • dragonbranddragonbrand Member UncommonPosts: 441

    No

    Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.

    Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
    Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS

  • MystDrgonMystDrgon Member Posts: 29

    No

    Playing: Nothing (nothing worth playing)
    Favorite: SWG (pre NGE, CU)
    Played: WoW, Eve, DAoC, Warhamer, AoC, SWG, Earth & Beyond
    Hope: GW2 maybe

  • AmarandesAmarandes Member Posts: 104

    For u guys' information, I have never played SWG before, pre-NGE or post-NGE. I have only read about it and I am just simply making a comparison between Blizzard and Sony.

    And keep this thread on topic please.

  • DarthconnorDarthconnor Member UncommonPosts: 62

    Originally posted by japo

    (Mod Edit)

     Your in a veteran refuge that hates SOE for destroying a great game. Most ppl here have moved on but to forget the past is to leave yourself to relearn the lessons already taught. Personal attacks to ppl just talking about something many of them and myself enjoyed is pityful and i pity anyone that has such a sad life their main enjoyment is brought by jumping onto online forums and spilling crap such as you and others have. If we want to talk about something then how is it hurting you. You dont want to hear about the Nge and sony then simple stay out of these forums how hard is that.

    To the OP yea was cool to see that happen and how quickly they turned around. But as another poster said they didnt inform the community of the change until i think like 2 weeks before and even with the outrage they still pushed it and when the change happen they still believed Nge was for the best even with all the cancelled account they pushed forward saying that changing back even some of the servers was out of the question. Pity but it happened and theres nothing anyone can do about it.

  • Aki_RossAki_Ross Member Posts: 166

    Originally posted by japo

    What a bunch of freekin' drama queens.  It happened YEARS AGO...and in a game no less. 

      

    Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.  image

  • heimer73heimer73 Member Posts: 147

    Originally posted by japo

    Can people like you (OP and all you other weasels) get over NGE please?

     

    What a bunch of freekin' drama queens.  It happened YEARS AGO...and in a game no less. 

    NO

  • SenadinaSenadina Member UncommonPosts: 896

    Back to the topic:

    I have to wonder how BLizzard could NOT know this change would enrage the players? Does anyone think having their real names revealed on the net is a good idea? I can't really be excited that they listened to the community when it was such a STOOPID thing to propose in the first place.

    image
  • Embry77Embry77 Member UncommonPosts: 47

    Not Surprising really. Blizzard has always listened to its community. Getting gear in WoW use to be a difficult thing in Pre- BC. But for the majority of players it was to much of a hassle to sit around and raid for endless hours. So what happened? People posted on the forums complaining how it was unfair for only the hardcore people to get the best gear. Blizzard realized the hardcore pop was only a small percentage of their player base and the casual gamer was a much larger portion. So go figure that they start handing out loot to everyone for minimum time spend in game. Same thing for leveling, obtaining gold even getting your mount earlier. My point being that Blizzard at least in regard to WoW has never really been one to stick to their guns. The community has been running WoW for years.

  • JennyfyrJennyfyr Member Posts: 62

    I thought this was all covered back in '05, but whatever:

    Star Wars Galaxies is the intellectual property of LucasArts. NOT Sony Online Entertainment. ALL changes made to the game (including its game engine, mechanics, questing system, classes, etc.) are at the discretion and ONLY with the approval of LucasArts.

    In other words, LucasArts screwed up the game.

    Now don't get me wrong. I hold no great love for SOE (they HAVE screwed up their fair share of their own games), but what happened to SWG simply wasn't their doing. I'm certainly not saying they would, but even if they wanted to listen to SWG's playerbase at the time, they simply couldn't.

    And if you think the RealID thing is over for Activision/Blizzard, you're sadly mistaken. This is just a temporary setback for their plans to merge the gaming genre into other, larger and more popular social networks (like FaceBook and MySpace) in their effort to glean even more money from their products.

    Is SOE a greedy company looking to squeeze every dollar they can from their games? Absolutely. From a business point of view, theres really nothing wrong with that. They're a business, and the purpose of a business is to make money from its products for its shareholders.

    Within the coming years, every game that is played online will be a part of a vast social network where gamers can socialise with their friends on FaceBook, MySpace, and even other games in various other media (cross-platform), like X-Box, PS3, Wii, etc..

    Prepare yourselves. Because this IS going to happen. One way or another.

  • TardcoreTardcore Member Posts: 2,325

    Originally posted by Senadina

    Back to the topic:

    I have to wonder how BLizzard could NOT know this change would enrage the players? Does anyone think having their real names revealed on the net is a good idea? I can't really be excited that they listened to the community when it was such a STOOPID thing to propose in the first place.



    Well said. Blizzard/Activisons recent behavior smacks or arrogance and massive egotism. It shows me a company that is growing to big for its britches. Funnily enough their attitude reminds me greatly of the online service America Online when they bought out Time Warner. Look how badly that turned out when people realised they didn't need Internet with training wheels.

    As to SOE's behavior towards their customers. They never respected their customers. They intentionally turned their back on their current community because they felt they were a whining pain in the ass. I played the game at release and spent alot of time on the forums. The SWG moderators and visiting dev staff were some of the most stuck up a-holes I ever had the misfortune to encounter. Never once did anyone at SOE consider that the fans had any valid complaints about the state of SWG. The NGE was their attempt to divorce themselves from their current (and as they felt overly critical) customer base in the hopes drawing the new blood of Wow players in to replace them. Worked like a charm didn't it.

    image

    "Gypsies, tramps, and thieves, we were called by the Admin of the site . . . "

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    The nge came and went.   I even at the time attended the Atlanta round table conference to give SOE a piece of my mind when all this went down.

    It did not matter what was said or done.  A lot of folks will complain that it was SOE's fault.  If you really knew what was going on, the driving force in behind the NGE was lucas arts.  SOE's hands were tied.   They had marching orders and did what they thought was best to make Lucas happy.  I would guess a lot of my fellow SWG players dont remember thecomplaints at the time that the game was not star was enough,  be carefull what you as for. They gave us iconic or so they thought. It only took them 3 years to finally go hey we were wrong.

    I still play SOE games EQ2,  Yes I was mad at SOE for a long while but you soon get over that.  I all have to do is point at the wasteland of other games that keep me comming back to SOE.

    Crying over the decisions of Lucas arts and SOE with the NGE gets us nothing.  All we can do is point at it and use it as an example of when companies make terible desisions.

    I am still suprised they have servers up and running, the only thing that would get me going at this point would be a clasic server, but I would bet they don't have the interest in doing that.

     

  • sienosieno Member Posts: 119

    I for one will never forget  call it as u may  but I  dont care who made the call on it  doesnt mean I have to pay for it and I like sniffling on this sight about it becouse it is the vet sight made just for us and plus its better than the mmo games are being made right now  being honest  I said vangaurd was going to be a dissapointment I think   starwars old republic with bioware and lucas is just  a nitro filled NGE   it lacks one thing  (DEPTH)   

    You want loot? Go kill some npcs, you wanna visit hades? come find ME, and dont forget to bring coins for the ferryman,

  • Frostbite05Frostbite05 Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 1,880

    Originally posted by sieno

    I for one will never forget  call it as u may  but I  dont care who made the call on it  doesnt mean I have to pay for it and I like sniffling on this sight about it becouse it is the vet sight made just for us and plus its better than the mmo games are being made right now  being honest  I said vangaurd was going to be a dissapointment I think  kotor starwars with blizzard and lucas is just  a nitro filled NGE   it lacks one thing  (DEPTH)   

    I like how you made all that up and turned a possible 5 sentences into one.

  • xcerebrusxcerebrus Member UncommonPosts: 41

    Meh I miss the old SWG too but im not gonna sit here and debate about it.

     

  • sienosieno Member Posts: 119

    Originally posted by Frostbite05

    Originally posted by sieno

    I for one will never forget  call it as u may  but I  dont care who made the call on it  doesnt mean I have to pay for it and I like sniffling on this sight about it becouse it is the vet sight made just for us and plus its better than the mmo games are being made right now  being honest  I said vangaurd was going to be a dissapointment I think  kotor starwars with blizzard and lucas is just  a nitro filled NGE   it lacks one thing  (DEPTH)   

    I like how you made all that up and turned a possible 5 sentences into one.

      how I made what up ? its all facts   there proffesser frostbite05

    You want loot? Go kill some npcs, you wanna visit hades? come find ME, and dont forget to bring coins for the ferryman,

  • JennyfyrJennyfyr Member Posts: 62

    The SWG complaint department is located here.

    Oh, wait.....

    Theres no SWG subforum?

    I guess if you can't stand the heat, let SOE take it all! LOL

  • kelarcanuskelarcanus Member UncommonPosts: 63

    We need real names on posters here on these forums.

  • Hopscotch73Hopscotch73 Member UncommonPosts: 971

    Originally posted by JestorRodo

    (Mod Edit)

    An Uncharted 2 fan, eh???

     

    Was this a test? Can I have a cookie now?

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Originally posted by kelarcanus

    We need real names on posters here on these forums.

     Ok you see my real name,  however I dought your real name is kelarcanus.

    So since your so ready to use real names out with it.

  • VirusDancerVirusDancer Member UncommonPosts: 3,649

    Ignoring the hate, ignoring the tears - the comparison between RealID and NGE/CU is worlds apart.  Blizzard faced serious civil and criminal action based upon the possible outcome of using RealID.  SOE, like many companies, have done as they please.  Not sure if anybody has noticed or not, but neither Sony nor SOE went out of business because of NGE/CU, did they?

    I mean, honestly, you know that Blizzard did not listen to the community - they listened to their legal department.

    I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?

    Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%

  • JestorRodoJestorRodo Member UncommonPosts: 2,642

    Originally posted by VirusDancer

    Ignoring the hate, ignoring the tears - the comparison between RealID and NGE/CU is worlds apart.  Blizzard faced serious civil and criminal action based upon the possible outcome of using RealID.  SOE, like many companies, have done as they please.  Not sure if anybody has noticed or not, but neither Sony nor SOE went out of business because of NGE/CU, did they?

    I mean, honestly, you know that Blizzard did not listen to the community - they listened to their legal department.

        Muhahahaha, Their Marketing Department had more to do with this then their legal departmant and because of this I say  Bravo Blizzard! They started a conflict that would only cause interest and concern from most of their 10 million + customers

     but ti was a problem that they had easily had  in hand.  The Attention drawn , then BAM.... they solve the problem...They are the kings of alll....  (SOE , you Idiots....learn)

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