Very sad to hear about the staff, I wish them luck. I'm worried about EQ:N though. I really enjoyed hearing about the direction it was going. However if they end up making it an EQ3, I wouldn't be sad to be honest. I enjoyed many years with EQ1 and EQ2. I would mind it going back that direction.
What I am worried about though is Daybreak pushing the cash store more to make money. That will make me quit all together. I never have been a big fan of cash shops, but I dont' really dislike them either in games like WoW, SWTOR or EQ2. But in games like Archeage, I hate it and it's the reason I dont' play that game and others like it. There is a right way to do it, and a wrong way for my personal tastes. Investment Firms are about making money, and many times the way they go about it can be very bloodthirsty if that makes sense. Bottom line, I'm excited to see what Daybreak does, and scared at the same time.
Originally posted by Margrave R.I.P. EQ IP . . . you were a great force that changed the face of the online game market. You shall be missed.
Smed was very clear EQN will be moving forward. I think the question is more of, will it keep the same vision or will it be made into something else? Or worse, will it turn into a slap out the door project? I sure hope this investment group wants to make a good name with gamers.
Daybreak is now on my shit list along with Funcom, EA and Ubisoft. They will never receive a penny from me. Landmark was invested in via a founders program and they basically killed the game by removing everyone in charge of it. Now comes the question of how people are going to be reimbursed their money and if a lawsuit is necessary.
That game was Minecraft on steroids and could have been a massive success and they trashed it.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Daybreak is now on my shit list along with Funcom, EA and Ubisoft. They will never receive a penny from me. Landmark was invested in via a founders program and they basically killed the game by removing everyone in charge of it. Now comes the question of how people are going to be reimbursed their money and if a lawsuit is necessary.
That game was Minecraft on steroids and could have been a massive success and they trashed it.
How did they trash it? So far all we have is the new owners cleaning out top level management. Common in just about every take over. Im personally waiting to see what direction current games will take and how games in development will be managed. Lets wait and see if they miss manage their games before we call them game wreckers. Most devs laid off have said, keep supporting and playing Daybreak games if you love them. Even they dont have this level of hate lol
There is no other reason to fire Dave and Lynda except cancelling EQN
Let me just explain:
For outside, he was the face behind EQ. And a very popular one. This sends a very bad signal to players, media, investors. Gets everyone worried.
For inside. Removing long time team leader is like cutting head of a team. Confusion , uncertanty , and long re-adjustment periods ensues - coupled with politics and side taking.
If you want to grind project to halt for long time, this is what you do. If you want it to work faster and more efficiently - you never do this.
If it isn't canceled, I doubt that whatever EQN turns out to be, will be a full fledged MMORPG in the sense that we would recognize as one anyway.
In otherwords, Maybe CN wants the name Everquest, but not the code.
This is the Murican system of crony-style "capitalism" right here at work, this is what you get. Don't think for a minute that Murican style is the 1-true and only way "capitalism" works, it definitely isn't. this way, well you get nothing but crap, it's all about the cult-of-infinite and quick greed, praise-Mammon!. MMO's development can't work in this world so you may as well get used to the fact that there won't be good MMO's out of the "western market" anymore, your only hope is the "asian market". If that's any hope I don't know... I had extremely little hope for Next anyway, so this isn't much of any surprise. When the "money-men" take over all creativity, any hope of it is dead. My years of watching this "genre" from it's beginning has shown me that clearly and absolutely.
Glad the cuts were made, people want results, not a pod cast about a game u cant play. EQN needs to spend their dollars wisely. get the $ to places that will put a quality game on the shelves. at the previous pace EQN may not have come out until 2017 3rd Q. I for one am hoping this will get new blood into group and refocus their efforts. PS get rid of the cartoony crap graphics proposed for EQN!
You guys are looking at this all wrong. Some of those people have been in the industry for ten years or longer. They know how to plan, finance, make and promote a new game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or two new Indie companies come from these layoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see four or five new Kickstarters within the next few months. Give them some time to lick their wounds and then stand back and watch them go.
Originally posted by Mickle You guys are looking at this all wrong. Some of those people have been in the industry for ten years or longer. They know how to plan, finance, make and promote a new game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or two new Indie companies come from these layoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see four or five new Kickstarters within the next few months. Give them some time to lick their wounds and then stand back and watch them go.
David Georgeson has hinted at he has some ideas of his own saved up. I would not be shocked if he and a few others let go started something. Reading his twitter account he is not upset at all.
so you are totaly fine with podcasts and tv shows about a game that is going no where. they were spending money in the wrong places plan and simple. do you call that proper planning/ promotion?
Originally posted by Mickle You guys are looking at this all wrong. Some of those people have been in the industry for ten years or longer. They know how to plan, finance, make and promote a new game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or two new Indie companies come from these layoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see four or five new Kickstarters within the next few months. Give them some time to lick their wounds and then stand back and watch them go.
David Georgeson has hinted at he has some ideas of his own saved up. I would not be shocked if he and a few others let go started something. Reading his twitter account he is not upset at all.
Georgeson can suck it. he is going to drop the ball on another big budget game or do a kicker that never gets off the ground cuz no one has faith in him.
Originally posted by Mickle You guys are looking at this all wrong. Some of those people have been in the industry for ten years or longer. They know how to plan, finance, make and promote a new game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or two new Indie companies come from these layoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see four or five new Kickstarters within the next few months. Give them some time to lick their wounds and then stand back and watch them go.
David Georgeson has hinted at he has some ideas of his own saved up. I would not be shocked if he and a few others let go started something. Reading his twitter account he is not upset at all.
Georgeson can suck it. he is going to drop the ball on another big budget game or do a kicker that never gets off the ground cuz no one has faith in him.
Im sure his 17k twitter followes would disagree. The posts I have seen on these forums also say different.
Originally posted by Mickle You guys are looking at this all wrong. Some of those people have been in the industry for ten years or longer. They know how to plan, finance, make and promote a new game. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see one or two new Indie companies come from these layoffs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see four or five new Kickstarters within the next few months. Give them some time to lick their wounds and then stand back and watch them go.
David Georgeson has hinted at he has some ideas of his own saved up. I would not be shocked if he and a few others let go started something. Reading his twitter account he is not upset at all.
Georgeson can suck it. he is going to drop the ball on another big budget game or do a kicker that never gets off the ground cuz no one has faith in him.
Im sure his 17k twitter followes would disagree. The posts I have seen on these forums also say different.
just because he has twitter followers doesnt mean he can make a good game. I live in New England, the weathermen up here have twitter followers, lots of them, they make crap forecasts on a consistent basis. Look at the facts, Georgeson lost sight of the end game. he got bogged down with minor details. what other game had a game to make the end product. then have hours upon hours of podcasts (requiring a production crew$, devs$, and guests$) telling the viewer about the crap they themselves just did. all these things could have been said with a letter from the producer. Georgeson was taking the game on a downward spiral with all the non-essentials (too many to list, live polls, published lore,etc..) AND by God the cartoony baloony graphics are poop.
Hey folks. Author here. Just wanted to note this link I found on Reddit. Running list of those who got let go from Daybreak. It's a lot to process for me, personally.
Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson (Director of Development for the EverQuest brand, @DaveGeorgeson) Jeff Butler (Creative Director for the EverQuest brand, @JButlerDaybreak) Linda “Brasse” Carlson (Community Manager, @Brasse) Akil “Lyndro” Hooper (Everquest II developer, @akilh) Aaron “Gnobrin” Bisnett (Weapon and Armor designer for 12 years, @Gnobrin) Douglas “Endymion” VanDerveer (Everquest II game designer, @douglastweets) Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske (Community Relations Project Manager, @Ashlanne) Eric "Felgon" Smith (Associate Producer for EverQuest Next and Landmark, @F4Felgon) Steve "Moorgard" Danuser (Lead Content Designer and Head of Story, @Moorgard) Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence (Social Media, @JustTiffy) Kyle "Hats" Manchester (Community Manager, @Hats) Racheal "Afista" McKenny ( Everquest II community Manager, @Afista) Noah Watkins (Graphic designer, @noahwatkins) Kelduum Revaan (Programmer for H1Z1, @Kelduum) Katharine Anderson (Build master for PlanetSide 2, @katharinelilly) Xander Clauss (Base designer for PlanetSide 2, @XanderClauss) Taylor Dowell (Systems designer for PlanetSide 2, @Tayradactyl) David Carey (Systems designer for PlanetSide 2, @dcarey7761) Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske (Community Relations Project Manager, @Ashlanne)
All I hear,smell and taste from this is GREED GREED GREED GREED. Enjoy it while it's lasts. Next up for you greedy farks. Getting slow pumped in the tooker by the devil. Yeah it's gonna happen.
Cmon guys they are not going to cancel EQN and landmark, because they fired two people.
We all can agree that it's not going to be the same game anymore. They will make some difference here and there, but I think the core is going to be the same. We will see what is going on when they announce their plan.
Cmon guys they are not going to cancel EQN and landmark, because they fired two people.
We all can agree that it's not going to be the same game anymore. They will make some difference here and there, but I think the core is going to be the same. We will see what is going on when they announce their plan.
You obviously have not paid any attention to the full list.
Cmon guys they are not going to cancel EQN and landmark, because they fired two people.
We all can agree that it's not going to be the same game anymore. They will make some difference here and there, but I think the core is going to be the same. We will see what is going on when they announce their plan.
You obviously have not paid any attention to the full list.
Its up to a dozen or so over many hundreds of staff. I have seen info saying they have 500-1000 staff between their two offices.
I see no need to panic just yet. As others in this thread have noted, this is very common when new ownership comes in. Upper management and figureheads are let go to avoid power struggles with the new management team. Some of it is just to prove a point to the rest of the employee's. It also has to do with the salaries these positions pay. I would guess Smedley will have been asked stick around for a while the transition takes place, but i wouldn't be surprised to see him go in 6 months to a year. In fact that may have already been negotiated.
They didn't buy SOE to dump all the development projects and focus on the old revenue streams. They didn't buy SOE just for H1Z1.So no need to pull the panic alarms just yet.
Once the new management audits all of the existing projects, and has time to adjust SOE's projections, we will have a better idea of what to expect in the future. If anything shady starts happening, it will leak out to us.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
Cmon guys they are not going to cancel EQN and landmark, because they fired two people.
We all can agree that it's not going to be the same game anymore. They will make some difference here and there, but I think the core is going to be the same. We will see what is going on when they announce their plan.
They fired the project lead, you don't do that unless you are intent on cancelling the project.
Well, I hope to be surprised. But whenever I hear "an investment company has taken over" I learn not to expect too much. There is not much room for sentiment there - just the bottom line.
And if that means trading on the EQ name to rush out a heavily instanced lobby game for mobile phones, they will do it in a blink.
Haven't played an soe game in a long time. The last time was in very early eq2 but I think it is unfortunate for the genre that soe games will probably die now under their new owners. I hope I am wrong about that.
” It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games…”
I'm sorry, but that just rings hollow to me right now. This isn't as bad as being a Spellborn fan though. Almost, but not quite. Hopefully if EQN ever sees the light of day, it is halfway decent...
Comments
Very sad to hear about the staff, I wish them luck. I'm worried about EQ:N though. I really enjoyed hearing about the direction it was going. However if they end up making it an EQ3, I wouldn't be sad to be honest. I enjoyed many years with EQ1 and EQ2. I would mind it going back that direction.
What I am worried about though is Daybreak pushing the cash store more to make money. That will make me quit all together. I never have been a big fan of cash shops, but I dont' really dislike them either in games like WoW, SWTOR or EQ2. But in games like Archeage, I hate it and it's the reason I dont' play that game and others like it. There is a right way to do it, and a wrong way for my personal tastes. Investment Firms are about making money, and many times the way they go about it can be very bloodthirsty if that makes sense. Bottom line, I'm excited to see what Daybreak does, and scared at the same time.
-Unconstitutional laws aren't laws.-
Smed was very clear EQN will be moving forward. I think the question is more of, will it keep the same vision or will it be made into something else? Or worse, will it turn into a slap out the door project? I sure hope this investment group wants to make a good name with gamers.
Daybreak is now on my shit list along with Funcom, EA and Ubisoft. They will never receive a penny from me. Landmark was invested in via a founders program and they basically killed the game by removing everyone in charge of it. Now comes the question of how people are going to be reimbursed their money and if a lawsuit is necessary.
That game was Minecraft on steroids and could have been a massive success and they trashed it.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
How did they trash it? So far all we have is the new owners cleaning out top level management. Common in just about every take over. Im personally waiting to see what direction current games will take and how games in development will be managed. Lets wait and see if they miss manage their games before we call them game wreckers. Most devs laid off have said, keep supporting and playing Daybreak games if you love them. Even they dont have this level of hate lol
If it isn't canceled, I doubt that whatever EQN turns out to be, will be a full fledged MMORPG in the sense that we would recognize as one anyway.
In otherwords, Maybe CN wants the name Everquest, but not the code.
David Georgeson has hinted at he has some ideas of his own saved up. I would not be shocked if he and a few others let go started something. Reading his twitter account he is not upset at all.
Georgeson can suck it. he is going to drop the ball on another big budget game or do a kicker that never gets off the ground cuz no one has faith in him.
Im sure his 17k twitter followes would disagree. The posts I have seen on these forums also say different.
just because he has twitter followers doesnt mean he can make a good game. I live in New England, the weathermen up here have twitter followers, lots of them, they make crap forecasts on a consistent basis. Look at the facts, Georgeson lost sight of the end game. he got bogged down with minor details. what other game had a game to make the end product. then have hours upon hours of podcasts (requiring a production crew$, devs$, and guests$) telling the viewer about the crap they themselves just did. all these things could have been said with a letter from the producer. Georgeson was taking the game on a downward spiral with all the non-essentials (too many to list, live polls, published lore,etc..) AND by God the cartoony baloony graphics are poop.
EQ2 fan sites
All I hear,smell and taste from this is GREED GREED GREED GREED. Enjoy it while it's lasts. Next up for you greedy farks. Getting slow pumped in the tooker by the devil. Yeah it's gonna happen.
Don't care what anyone has to say.
These kinda people can straight up BURN IN HELL.
Cmon guys they are not going to cancel EQN and landmark, because they fired two people.
We all can agree that it's not going to be the same game anymore. They will make some difference here and there, but I think the core is going to be the same. We will see what is going on when they announce their plan.
You obviously have not paid any attention to the full list.
Its up to a dozen or so over many hundreds of staff. I have seen info saying they have 500-1000 staff between their two offices.
I see no need to panic just yet. As others in this thread have noted, this is very common when new ownership comes in. Upper management and figureheads are let go to avoid power struggles with the new management team. Some of it is just to prove a point to the rest of the employee's. It also has to do with the salaries these positions pay. I would guess Smedley will have been asked stick around for a while the transition takes place, but i wouldn't be surprised to see him go in 6 months to a year. In fact that may have already been negotiated.
They didn't buy SOE to dump all the development projects and focus on the old revenue streams. They didn't buy SOE just for H1Z1.So no need to pull the panic alarms just yet.
Once the new management audits all of the existing projects, and has time to adjust SOE's projections, we will have a better idea of what to expect in the future. If anything shady starts happening, it will leak out to us.
( Note to self-Don't say anything bad about Drizzt.)
An acerbic sense of humor is NOT allowed here.
Until they sell out to EA.
They fired the project lead, you don't do that unless you are intent on cancelling the project.
Well, I hope to be surprised. But whenever I hear "an investment company has taken over" I learn not to expect too much. There is not much room for sentiment there - just the bottom line.
And if that means trading on the EQ name to rush out a heavily instanced lobby game for mobile phones, they will do it in a blink.
” It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games…”
I'm sorry, but that just rings hollow to me right now. This isn't as bad as being a Spellborn fan though. Almost, but not quite. Hopefully if EQN ever sees the light of day, it is halfway decent...