Greed is good, right? Isn't that the marching anthem of business today? Capitalism running amok really ticks me off and will eventually collapse under its own weight.
Best of luck to those unfortunates losing their jobs. Keep up the good fight and let this lead to greater and better opportunities.
Originally posted by Burntvet Considering what a sham so-called "Gaming journalism" is I have no sympathy.
Publishers/advertisers conspire with gaming website who offer puffed up reviews of products, to get people to buy the games. The publisher/developers then kick down cash in the form of "advertising dollars" to the sites. And writers get their piece of the pie too for writing the puff pieces, that might as well be written by the publisher's marketing staff.
And who pays for that? The consumer who bought a hyped up POS game after reading an "official review".
So, one less site shoveling the BS.
The End
Both of you, please step away from the tin foil hats.
Originally posted by gorro187 Is there anything we the people can do to halt this? Who do we have to call and leave messages to. We must not let this happen!
Nobody will convince AOL to reconsider, don´t waste time on calls and messages. BUT there is much more helpful and concrete thing we can do, as already mentioned earlier in this thread.
Massively staff is seriously considering regrouping as independent party and trying crowdfunding, so you can actually do a lot to help them directly, just follow the site for next few days. You can begin by reading some of staff comments here:
All I can say is awesome! I haven't been to that page of sellouts for at least a year (or whenever management changed)
Good riddance.
Real classy...
Hey, I feel bad for all the legit writers that now have to find other work, maybe not even in the same field. I'm human after-all.
That doesn't change the way that Massively changed when new management took over. Sellouts from then until the end. That's why this site is my last hope for news on the genre.
Judge me if you want, I just see things for what they are. And it was blatantly obvious for anyone looking.
News on this site is pretty darn good, not as good as Massively IMO but its still good. The forum posters here are an entirely different animal lol. Sadly Massively gets shuttered when the majority of the comments section were likeminded individuals and gamers, whereas I feel the vast majority on mmorpg.com are elitest, entitled and have a deep desire to not change with the times.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
But regardless its also shows that MMO are slowly dieing as a genre of gaming.
Except his post indicated that Massively gained 40% growth when compared to the same time period the previous year.
That doesn't really speak to mmo's dying now does it?
What it does say is that joystiq and its side blogs weren't bringing in the type of profit that the main company wanted for the money they were spending and that they preferred to put that money toward other projects.
This isn't to say that someone might be able to pull data indicating that there is a decline in mmo players (or an increase) but based upon what we info have at hand, no indication of "mmo's dying" can be inferred.
So once again "just because something is profitable doesn't mean it's profitable enough.
large corporations need everything to be as profitable as it can be. If they are spending 50 million and gaining a 30 million profit for their efforts but see that they can take that same money, minus whatever costs it would take to get another project/venture going, and see even more profit for that 50 million investment then they will change tack. Provided that the new project/venture fits into the company vision.
edit: and come to think of it, my company hacked off a large number of products only focusing on the top 100 best products and we are beating projections each month by a nice amount.
So it works.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I probably only went to Massively's site a dozen times over the years, but it wasn't because I didn't like it I just didn't need a second website dedicated to mmo's. From the comments it seems like I should of looked a bit deeper and given the site a go.
It's always sad to see people loose their jobs, especially in the industry (gaming & gaming related) we love. More so when it becomes one of those horrendous corporate management stories we've seen/heard of too many times. I wish them the best and hope they either band together to form a new site or find similar jobs elsewhere.
Haxus Council Member 21 year MMO veteran PvP Raid Leader Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
Again, the people who make the decisions are completely devoid of passion and interest, except for money.
It's the problem of the top-down approach with people working 5-6 layers of management above you. Probably a good reason to encourage things such as kickstarters/indie devs with a bottom-up approach where the crowd can support directly the things they like without hoping that intermediaries such as AOL or EA understands their needs and wants.
This sucks, I only learnt of massively in October 2014. I just started going to that site and now its closing. I got sick of MMORPG.com ( been using MMORPG.com for the main source of mmo news for the last 5 years )because they would only update the news section a few times a day and on weekends forget them even doing updates. Saturday and Sunday you are lucky if you get to see one post on the news section on MMORPG.com.
I liked massively because there was always fresh news to read, regardless of what day it is.
Too bad.
The staff at massively should start a new site with the same editors.
The future of gaming is Kickstarter and I see no reason why gaming journalism should be any different. Game developers and journalists shouldn't be under the boot of massive corporations that don't give a shit about gaming or gamers. I hope all the writers find new work soon. I hope they all band together and do a wonderful Kickstarter campaign.
But regardless its also shows that MMO are slowly dieing as a genre of gaming.
IF it shows anything it shows the costs for operating such a site and sending staff out all over for show coverage, etc.. Isn't justified by the return they see on it. Most likely because there are so many competing sites, which spreads readership as well as clicks thin. Far too many options for this today...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This is truly sad. I always read them alongside MMORPG.com. I stopped reading recently because Joystiq posted a huge blatantly lying article against GamerGate so I just decided to stop supporting the company altogether.
Change your thoughts and you change your world. -
Norman Vincent Peale
Comments
Greed is good, right? Isn't that the marching anthem of business today? Capitalism running amok really ticks me off and will eventually collapse under its own weight.
Best of luck to those unfortunates losing their jobs. Keep up the good fight and let this lead to greater and better opportunities.
Both of you, please step away from the tin foil hats.
Nobody will convince AOL to reconsider, don´t waste time on calls and messages. BUT there is much more helpful and concrete thing we can do, as already mentioned earlier in this thread.
Massively staff is seriously considering regrouping as independent party and trying crowdfunding, so you can actually do a lot to help them directly, just follow the site for next few days. You can begin by reading some of staff comments here:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/30/massively-that-was/
Edit: actually, crucial part is already quoted above, so you can skip the reading ... unless you are curious about details and some funny vids inside
News on this site is pretty darn good, not as good as Massively IMO but its still good. The forum posters here are an entirely different animal lol. Sadly Massively gets shuttered when the majority of the comments section were likeminded individuals and gamers, whereas I feel the vast majority on mmorpg.com are elitest, entitled and have a deep desire to not change with the times.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
What sad news.
I have stopped by both Massively and mmorpg every day to see what's new for what seems like years. Now I have one less place to go.
Bad news
I have Massively on my favourites & visit them daily...
MMOs aren't dying (they are still fun to play) its just losing its popularity with the mainstream who really weren't (MMO)gamers to begin with.
Except his post indicated that Massively gained 40% growth when compared to the same time period the previous year.
That doesn't really speak to mmo's dying now does it?
What it does say is that joystiq and its side blogs weren't bringing in the type of profit that the main company wanted for the money they were spending and that they preferred to put that money toward other projects.
This isn't to say that someone might be able to pull data indicating that there is a decline in mmo players (or an increase) but based upon what we info have at hand, no indication of "mmo's dying" can be inferred.
So once again "just because something is profitable doesn't mean it's profitable enough.
large corporations need everything to be as profitable as it can be. If they are spending 50 million and gaining a 30 million profit for their efforts but see that they can take that same money, minus whatever costs it would take to get another project/venture going, and see even more profit for that 50 million investment then they will change tack. Provided that the new project/venture fits into the company vision.
edit: and come to think of it, my company hacked off a large number of products only focusing on the top 100 best products and we are beating projections each month by a nice amount.
So it works.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I probably only went to Massively's site a dozen times over the years, but it wasn't because I didn't like it I just didn't need a second website dedicated to mmo's. From the comments it seems like I should of looked a bit deeper and given the site a go.
It's always sad to see people loose their jobs, especially in the industry (gaming & gaming related) we love. More so when it becomes one of those horrendous corporate management stories we've seen/heard of too many times. I wish them the best and hope they either band together to form a new site or find similar jobs elsewhere.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
It's sad to hear. All the best to everyone.
Again, the people who make the decisions are completely devoid of passion and interest, except for money.
It's the problem of the top-down approach with people working 5-6 layers of management above you. Probably a good reason to encourage things such as kickstarters/indie devs with a bottom-up approach where the crowd can support directly the things they like without hoping that intermediaries such as AOL or EA understands their needs and wants.
This sucks, I only learnt of massively in October 2014. I just started going to that site and now its closing. I got sick of MMORPG.com ( been using MMORPG.com for the main source of mmo news for the last 5 years )because they would only update the news section a few times a day and on weekends forget them even doing updates. Saturday and Sunday you are lucky if you get to see one post on the news section on MMORPG.com.
I liked massively because there was always fresh news to read, regardless of what day it is.
Too bad.
The staff at massively should start a new site with the same editors.
IF it shows anything it shows the costs for operating such a site and sending staff out all over for show coverage, etc.. Isn't justified by the return they see on it. Most likely because there are so many competing sites, which spreads readership as well as clicks thin. Far too many options for this today...
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
I couldn't agree more. Where are we going to go for actual MMO gaming news now? Here? LOL!
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
that's terrible and shows that suits are bad for gaming after all ...
p.s. does this have a connect with #GamerGate ?
No. The parent company is doing a layoff in a number of departments.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/01/30/aol-programmatic-layoffs-ad-sales/22594973/
I'm sad about this.
It's been my morning ritual for years to open up Massively, MMORPG.COM, RPS, and my current game's forums and to just read with my coffee.
Things change and bloggers will still blog, so I'm looking forward to seeing some new independent site or sites come out of all this.
LOL this is so true!
Get busy living, or get busy dying. That's it.