Kern Gauging Support for 'Spiritual Successor' to Firefall

SBFord · July 2016

Mark Kern is gauging interest for "Ember", what he is calling the spiritual successor to Firefall's original design. According to the Change.org petition he has posted, the original vision for Firefall was lost in development over the years and "can't be played today". As a result, he is interested in bringing Ember to life.

Thanks, Zdoofop!

Ginaz · July 2016

Can't this guy just go away?

[Deleted User] · July 2016

The user and all related content has been deleted.

APThug · July 2016

Honestly, my dream MMO is a fast paced open world shooter with gearing, dynamic open world events, futuristic weapons and vehicles, dualing/ pvp arenas along with open world pvp, and pve instances you can do with friends.

I've played defiance, warframe, the skies, the division, destiny, and firefall each for 100 plus hours (not including the skies) and each either lack something I really want or execute a bunch of things poorly. Id way rather play a futuristic mmo shooter over alot of the current fantasy mmos out right now. Doesn't have to be perfect, but i'm looking forward to hearing more about this Ember game, and hope firefall recovers.

Scorchien · July 2016

we the people Demand a Vanilla Ember server ..............

zdoofop · July 2016

am I able to get credit for my tip?

Baitness · July 2016

The original Firefall WAS fun. Even with the crazy small amount of content it had, I was able to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

That said I don't trust this guy to not screw everything up again.

blbeta · July 2016

I would like to see a nice dynamic world in any setting. If a company goes for a PvE game like that it would be great. Forget PvP, get a dynamic PvE world done right.

That said, I spent a lot of time in Firefall. I played for hundreds of hours. I started in beta when there were no level based areas. It was a lot of fun. Even after they added level based areas and mobs I had fun for awhile. Having mobs that aggroed from far away was a nice change compared to most MMOs today.

Terrornaut · July 2016

I lost interest in firefall when they broke everything up into levels. The crafting system was never very good, even though mining was a ton of fun. Character customization was lacking, the frames needed more looks.

TheOctagon · July 2016

blueturtle13 said:

I might be interested in this. I liked the ideas in Firefall just not the execution. Perhaps a new take on it is needed.

He was one of the big reasons it changed so much from what it began as. It was an interesting take on an old idea and was fun to play. Even gathering materials wasn't like any games before it. The lore was solid and well thought out.

Kern drove that company into the ground. The Firefall RV alone cost somewhere in the $250k+ range as he had it done by West Coast Customs.(They Pimped That Ride.) Then it never even worked as planned and sits forgotten in a warehouse somewhere.

I wish I had a link to that vid where he was ranting so loudly at all the workers in the office that he was almost foaming at the mouth...

khord88 · July 2016

TheOctagon said:

blueturtle13 said:

I might be interested in this. I liked the ideas in Firefall just not the execution. Perhaps a new take on it is needed.

He was one of the big reasons it changed so much from what it began as. It was an interesting take on an old idea and was fun to play. Even gathering materials wasn't like any games before it. The lore was solid and well thought out.

Kern drove that company into the ground. The Firefall RV alone cost somewhere in the $250k+ range as he had it done by West Coast Customs.(They Pimped That Ride.) Then it never even worked as planned and sits forgotten in a warehouse somewhere.

I wish I had a link to that vid where he was ranting so loudly at all the workers in the office that he was almost foaming at the mouth...

drove that company into the ground? how? got any facts or you just making it up like everyone did during the 1.0-1.3 era? it was so easy to just blame him for everything. ever heard of shills?

the buss? was apart of the budget and sponsored by AMD. westcoast fked up and didnt make it roadworthy

oh you mean when he would come back from the9 meetings (sometimes be taken away for weeks) and find devs literally changing systems to suit their vision because of a stupid rotation system they had (after a milestone, teams would switch and work on other things meaning a new team would get control of the battleframes) so he'd come back to a mess and scream at people for wasting time and resources cause they wanted to make FF theeeeir game.

all of this ember news is bring out the people still stuck in the 2014 mentality that hes to blame for everything. due to gag orders (that recently go thrown in the bin), ooohh theres so much we never knew what really went on.

but hey, you obviously know everything. *vanishes*

observer · July 2016

It just seems to me that he's always focused on nostalgia? He was very involved with WoW classic servers, and now this. Why not just make something different? I don't get it. These devs need to move the genre forward, not hold it back, otherwise we get outdated designs such as SotA and Pantheon.

Mikeha · July 2016

I am all for it.

jesteralways · July 2016

There is no way he can make it, not him, he had his chance and he blew it. Time to just shut up Kern.

jesteralways · July 2016

khord88 said:

TheOctagon said:

blueturtle13 said:

I might be interested in this. I liked the ideas in Firefall just not the execution. Perhaps a new take on it is needed.

He was one of the big reasons it changed so much from what it began as. It was an interesting take on an old idea and was fun to play. Even gathering materials wasn't like any games before it. The lore was solid and well thought out.

Kern drove that company into the ground. The Firefall RV alone cost somewhere in the $250k+ range as he had it done by West Coast Customs.(They Pimped That Ride.) Then it never even worked as planned and sits forgotten in a warehouse somewhere.

I wish I had a link to that vid where he was ranting so loudly at all the workers in the office that he was almost foaming at the mouth...

drove that company into the ground? how? got any facts or you just making it up like everyone did during the 1.0-1.3 era? it was so easy to just blame him for everything. ever heard of shills?

the buss? was apart of the budget and sponsored by AMD. westcoast fked up and didnt make it roadworthy

oh you mean when he would come back from the9 meetings (sometimes be taken away for weeks) and find devs literally changing systems to suit their vision because of a stupid rotation system they had (after a milestone, teams would switch and work on other things meaning a new team would get control of the battleframes) so he'd come back to a mess and scream at people for wasting time and resources cause they wanted to make FF theeeeir game.

all of this ember news is bring out the people still stuck in the 2014 mentality that hes to blame for everything. due to gag orders (that recently go thrown in the bin), ooohh theres so much we never knew what really went on.

but hey, you obviously know everything. *vanishes*

Devs screwing up FF? No, it was him who screwed up, several former devs of FF pointed out that it was Kern who was constantly changing design of different systems and then asked devs to code accordingly when the entire system was already built and was ready to be pushed on test servers for players to test. Kern wanted to make the game more like GW2 and in his lousy attempt he ruined everything unique about FF.

Xeevis · July 2016

TheOctagon said:

blueturtle13 said:

I might be interested in this. I liked the ideas in Firefall just not the execution. Perhaps a new take on it is needed.

He was one of the big reasons it changed so much from what it began as. It was an interesting take on an old idea and was fun to play. Even gathering materials wasn't like any games before it. The lore was solid and well thought out.

Kern drove that company into the ground. The Firefall RV alone cost somewhere in the $250k+ range as he had it done by West Coast Customs.(They Pimped That Ride.) Then it never even worked as planned and sits forgotten in a warehouse somewhere.

I wish I had a link to that vid where he was ranting so loudly at all the workers in the office that he was almost foaming at the mouth...

You have to understand he was not the ultimate decision maker, investors demanded huge spending on marketing so they could sell publishing rights for astronomical sums (Firefall was to be pitched as a game that would destroy WOW). He managed to steer marketing campaign from lousy banner ads most gamers filter out with AdBlock to viral videos and a gaming bus that would tour conventions.

WCC screwed up and :red5: apparently didn't even pay for the whole bus. And even if you still think it was a bad idea to even attempt creating something like that, it would even at full price amount up to like 2 months of Red5's operating costs.

Main problem was the internal turmoil, executives didn't want to follow Grummz's vision they wanted "WoW with guns" (yes that's how they and media call it in China). Firefall was originally supposed to be nothing like WOW so half the staff at Red5 followed diametrally opposite design from the other half. That's why he'd scream at people and why many would get fired and work shelved. When investor figured they can't just use his name and avoid his creative input they silently removed him as the CEO and begged him to stay with the company so they could just use his name as a pitch to WOW players.

Nobody is without a blame. But this is the shit you get from publishers. You might remember NCSoft/EA and Richard Garriott story.

Gdemami · July 2016

jesteralways said:
Devs screwing up FF? No, it was him who screwed up, several former devs of FF pointed out that it was Kern who was constantly changing design of different systems and then asked devs to code accordingly when the entire system was already built and was ready to be pushed on test servers for players to test.

The problem with this accusation is that those constant reworks were happening when he was supposedly not working on the game any more and ultimately even long after he left the company for good.

No matter what you think about Kern, his leave didn't make the game any better.

Solar_Prophet · July 2016

He needs another game to re-work a thousand times. Firefall got much better (except for the fact they removed my favorite frame eintirely, which is why I no longer play) with somebody competent at the helm, but unfortunately it was too late to save it at that point. The game's development took far too long.

Kern had the chance to prove himself and make something epic, but he drove it right into the ground instead. He's a great creator, but he doesn't know jack shit about managing a product or business.

SBFord · July 2016

zdoofop said:

am I able to get credit for my tip?

Sure! Next time be sure to put your name as contact.

jesteralways · July 2016

Gdemami said:

jesteralways said:
Devs screwing up FF? No, it was him who screwed up, several former devs of FF pointed out that it was Kern who was constantly changing design of different systems and then asked devs to code accordingly when the entire system was already built and was ready to be pushed on test servers for players to test.

The problem with this accusation is that those constant reworks were happening when he was supposedly not working on the game any more and ultimately even long after he left the company for good.

No matter what you think about Kern, his leave didn't make the game any better.

No, of course his leave did not make the game better but the game started going down hill since his time, when he was the CEO of the company. In fact, first patch that started screw up process was when he was writing his column here on mmorpg.com; in his column he said he was trying to make something like gw2 and that is exactly what started happening with every patch since then.

GeezerGamer · July 2016

Is something like this reallty needed? I'm looking over the posts and many here are positive about this concept. But for how long? How long would a game like this sustain itself before it dropped out of popularity? This strikes me as "fun for a bit" but gets old quickly.

orbitxo · July 2016

i signed.

firefall is a cool game.why not- ive heard worse.( hence the game advertised wrap around this site atm.)

Nitth · July 2016

GeezerGamer said:

Is something like this reallty needed? I'm looking over the posts and many here are positive about this concept. But for how long? How long would a game like this sustain itself before it dropped out of popularity? This strikes me as "fun for a bit" but gets old quickly.

I really enjoyed one of Fire Falls iterations (i cant remember which one) and played it thoroughly for what seemed like ages.

Although eventually i "benched it" for a time, i think that's pretty reasonable for people to give a game a rest if they are bored ect... In my case i indeed did come back and play on and off right up until they underwent the last change which implemented levels.

So i for one would love to see a "fire fall clone" based on a firefall earlier iteration, however like other posters have said as a developer you would really have to temper your expectations on what sort of profits you expect to receive.

CrazKanuk · July 2016

GeezerGamer said:

Is something like this reallty needed? I'm looking over the posts and many here are positive about this concept. But for how long? How long would a game like this sustain itself before it dropped out of popularity? This strikes me as "fun for a bit" but gets old quickly.

The original beta iteration of Firefall was very fun. If it was that, I would play it for a bit. I think sustainability of any game these days is the biggest issue. If he's got a lot of the parts to make it cheap, though, maybe it's worthwhile?

zdoofop · July 2016

SBFord said:

zdoofop said:

am I able to get credit for my tip?

Sure! Next time be sure to put your name as contact.

yes but I meant for this story, I'm the one that tippe you guys, you can chek

Akumawraith · July 2016

I played the original FF beta and loved it.. the WOT style lateral upgrade trees and the thumper farming were fun.. sitting up on a hill with my engineer watching the turrets mow down anything that got past my team mates... brilliant fun... I waited in anticipation when I saw the time line on the Red5 site and saw that they were going to release the PVE content in the near future... waited... and waited... and....

ah hell ... what the F***!... i left the game for a few months and came back to a butchered game... and it never got better after that. I looked into it recently just to check out the newest iteration and about choked on the vomit that wanted to spew out over the crappy game as it now stands.

If Kern is wanting to give it another try with more a possible crew of intelligent life I say let him. They couldnt possibly do any worse than what FF is currently.

Howdy, Stranger!

Kern Gauging Support for 'Spiritual Successor' to Firefall

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Kern Gauging Support for 'Spiritual Successor' to Firefall

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다

¯\_(ツ)_/¯