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[Column] General: Supporting John Smedley
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
John Smedley, outspoken former CEO of Daybreak Games, stepped down this week. Although Smedley hasn’t officially stated the reason behind the change, the popular theory is that it has something to do with his on-going conflict with hacker group Lizard Squad. Lizard Squad is thought to be responsible for not only DDoS attacks on Daybreak’s servers, but also calling in a bomb threat last year on a plane that Smedley was about to board.
Read more of Jessica Cook's Tales from the Neighborhood: Supporting John Smedley.
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Comments
Im a Smed fan. He has done much for video games and is one of the reasons many MMOs are where they are today. He speaks his mind and what you see is what you get and IMO I rather that then a closed lipped CEO that you never know what he is thinking. Agree with him or not he is a breath of fresh air. I think his openness got him in trouble with the hackers but honestly what he went through would have put anyone on nerve. No one should have to go through what he did.
P.S. Cant wait to try EQN =-) I will be first in line to test it.
Um wait are we talking about the same John Smedly or are you simply trolling? The CEO that managed SOE into the ground so it was bought out on the cheap by Daybreak games? The Same John Smedly that on his watch as CEO say roughly of SOE's employees be fired? The guy that basically NGE'd SWG to death and then trash talked that His new poorly done Zombie survival game was the next SWG?
Pretty sure we could go on and on about what that breath of fresh air has done to gaming, SOE, and its empolyees. One could argue that no one man is responsible for those failures, but in the end the buck stopped with him so yes with all that money, fame, and not to mention ego came responsibility. I think Smed has more then had his day in the sun at the cost of others. Maybe with luck he can get a job with Brad McQuad making Pantheon Rise of the Fallon?
Can you imagine your life being turned upside down by a hateful group of anonymous people? Your parent's grave defaced; an airplane you're on being forced to land; fraud frequently enacted in your name. Countless other harassment.
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What filth live among us today. They are dangerous and vicious criminals, and I hope the world gets their act together in terms of finding people like them and closing the gaps. John joins a long list of those suffering injustices; and I fear they all feel alone in their suffering; but they aren't alone. The silent masses are with them. I am with them.
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Smedley's achievements are ground breaking; WoW would not exist if not for John Smedley. While true I don't like how he served one master (the latest crowd), I don't hate him for it. I resent Dominos a lot more for changing their pizza from the deliciousness of the 1990s to the utter garbage we have today.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
/agreed +1
I have stayed on the sidelines for a while, for "he who argues with idiots, is one". But let me be a little idiotic:
1) The New Game Engine (NGE), was NOT Smedly's doing. It was passed down from the higher ups, namely, Lucas himself. Smed just happened to be at the helm at the time.
2) The man is responsible for maintaining office direction. He is not a writer, he is not a developer, he is not database admin.. he manages the projects... that is, makes sure that people do what they are supposed to in a timely manner, and presents a face to the stockholders to speak with, and at the same time, a scapegoat for the angry public to target.
If you still want to blame what is essentially an office worker with the direction that a game took due to either the players or the stockholders' wants, then I feel sorry for your small-mindedness. On top of this, wishing ill on the target of malicious attacks, regardless of who they are, shows just what type of a human you really are. The type that every morning I regret I know live in this world. I know I am not the most upstanding member of society myself, but at least I know my friends from my enemies, and direct my ire in the right direction.
I will again have to follow my advice now. (Don't argue with idiots, because those observing will not know who's who.)
I have to agree that some very irresponsible people have it in for John. That is inexcusable whether you like him or not.
As to his job performance, you flubbed that badly. Trying to tie him to Wow is ludicrous. His EQ II design was pretty much a dud and he allowed it to be released way before it was ready. He killed SWP instead of fixing it. None of the recent games out of his studio have done much. He really over hyped H1Z1 which is strictly a niche game that never came close to his buildup. As to the current titles being worked on at Gamebreak, just have to take a wait and see attitude, with so many duds to his resume, it is hard to get excited about anything at that studio.
So what do we have on his resume, EQ was really his only success. EQ2 really never took off, mainly because of management decisions and the only other semi success was SWP which he took care of trying to copy Wow's success. Trying to put that disaster all on Lucas's shoulder is hilarious. He had final say, his studio did all the design and coding.
So, far as most of us are concerned, good luck John and don't let the door hit you on the way out. His departure from the studio was long overdue.
Im pretty sure if all these Anti-Smedley go through all that they would be crying like little babies.
Whether people agree with his game/business decisions or not, these things you mention should not have happened. Yes, he should not have provoked the hackers, but people thinking he deserved all that are just being idiotic over video games.
This article is premature because you are just speculating about "what happened to John"
Its not a damn shame about anything! You sound like a child yelling at the interwebz to behave
Its laughable how people are so naive and uninformed about high tech company mergers in this day and age. I survived two mergers and seen countless more.
You basically have either profitable company being purchased or merged, or failing non profitable company being bought.
In case of SOE it was clearly the second case. Sony was faced with choice, either close the company or sell it for "peanuts"
After this procedure of new company is to stop loosing money and try to earn money.
First thing is stop any new project and productions. Keep existing games in "as is" state. Just keep servers until players are playing and paying, and keep skeleton crew in maintainance.
Fire any high earners and anyone that was involved in production of new games or content - That was done first day
Fire support personel (cause who needs them for dying games) - done first month
Now, often there is either contract obligation to keep CEO for certain time , and also its good to keep "buisness as usual" pretense. To keep players leaving the games to quick.
I think that firing of CEO at this moment signifies stage two.
They are ready to close the company completely. Sell the hardware and software.
I predict SOE and all games will be closed in around 2-3 months from now.
The best way to support the man is to give him some space. Commenting about someone's personal life and mental health is bad form. Likely nobody here knows the man personally and your stress levels rise to the point that unbalances you you will also not want everyone shitting on you.
Making bad business choices when in a position of leadership is open to critique but when leaving more for personal reasons you give a person leave to do so. Anything else is dickish.
You stay sassy!
I don't like how Smed acts. I don't like what he's done in the past or how he's treated people. I don't like what he does with company policies. I have Zero heartbreak for him losing his position.
Threats towards him were wrong, and towards his family, utterly despicable. His counter "statements", totally inappropriate for any reason for a CEO or any other company official to make.
I personally think his not being in charge is a good thing. Maybe on the sidelines he can actually do some good with limited ability to F it up.
As to the lizard squad and the various other "hactivist" out there I've heard of. They seem to be incompetent or just plain stupid (such as protesting a companies treatment of their customers by further victimizing their customers supposedly to hurt the company), and that's when they don't seem to be flat out criminals. Due to the extortion racket they ran, I'd say lizard squad is just a bunch of criminal thugs that deserve to be put in a deep dark hole for a very long time.
Will those statements of my opinions piss them off? Probably, but then again, they completely earned it for the way they've all acted. Don't agree with me? That's fine, everyone is allowed their opinions.
Lost my mind, now trying to lose yours...
Personally I am just as big an ass as John. I am a loud mouth opinionated head strong jerk. Difference is I am not in a position of having everything I say or do scrutinized to carry a direct impact on a multi-million dollar business.
If I was a major investor I would pretty much call for his execution.
Hey everyone I can't express enough my support for Smed
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's decision to step down. Seriously guys his absent minded decisions ruined so many amazing games it's nauseating.
I can never forgive Smed for what he done to SWG. But I can't help feeling sorry for him being attacked by this lizard group. I also did like him being out spoken on a lot of issues that some I agreed with and others I didn't.
But just what he done to SWG I hope he is never welcomed back into the gaming industry. But alas am sure deals are being worked out for him behind closed doors.
I also have to say people deserve second chances but he has had a few of them already. Maybe this could be a wake up call to him. People can change and I hope he does in the long run.
Star Citizen – The Extinction Level Event
4/13/15 > ELE has been updated look for 16-04-13.
http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/
Enjoy and know the truth always comes to light!
Games are a team effort as the public face of SoE for many, many years however JS has been both praised and hated - whether such praise or hate has been merited.
As to the break I wouldn't be surprised if it was stress related.
In the last 6-ish years JS has been involved in nearly 1 company reorg a year. Staff levels have gone from an (as reported by Sony) c.850 staff to a suggested c.200. studios have been closed; games shut down and I am sure the discussions with Sony will have been "fraught". After the take: the launch of EQN this year looks "unlikely" - added pressure - and then the DDOS stuff.
I could go with stress.
Nobody deserves the crap that lizard squad have pulled. These guys are criminals that have stepped way over the line.
No gamer spending their hard earned on their hobby of choice deserves Smed to be anywhere near this industry. The guy is like an incompetent politician, does very little right and you can tell when he is lying because his lips move. So good riddance to him, I hope he now retires to a nice comfortable life on a desert island somewhere and is never heard from again, at least in the gaming industry.
Agree completely.
SOE could easily been one of the greatest studios today, with a better CEO. Smed is not, and never were, the right man for that job.
CEO lies to you every day for ten years and no one bats an eye.
CEO is finally forced to step down and everyone loses their minds.
21 year MMO veteran
PvP Raid Leader
Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
+10
No matter your feeling towards John Smedley. This kind of thing is utter bullshit and the kind of thing done by faceless pussies.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Blizzard employees, themselves, said they were EQ addicts; and upon seeing that it could be done; decided to create something similar but more Warcraft like. They invested FAR more money to create and market WoW than SOE did with EQ. It's almost like SOE didn't take this shit seriously. Blizzard sure did, and absolutely dominated the industry shortly after entering it.
Good point. And, I can't name one honest politician.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Results speak for themselves,he put SOE into the ground,now he is stepping down and managed to piss off a lot of people over the past several years,more so than any CEO i have ever seen.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.