People are seemingly only focused on Smed but are discounting the others on the team which have some serious talent.
Star Wars Galaxies had some serious talent as well. Many of the designs were cutting edge at the time. SOE was mainly plagued by poor managerial decisions. The company is prime example of talent not flourishing under confused management.
I have no idea to what extent Smedley is responsible for most of the SOE errors. It's safe to say he is one of the prime suspects. And while I personally throw money at almost everything, I won't be buying into this one.
When I hear the term "Smedley," for some reason I picture Richard Vernon from the Breakfast Club saying "you mess with the bull, you get the horns" - and then being chased back to the U.S. by gangs of Finnish hacker children. It's quite a distraction from any merit the game might have.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
At $80,000+ with only 8 days remaining on their $200,000 crowdfunding campaign goal, I can't see this getting funded. I know it is a flexible goal (meaning they receive the pledges regardless of the goal met) yet still. You would figure with some of the names involved in this project they could just fund it themselves.
They have stated that they are just using Indiegogo as a means for preordering.
Do you know what John Smedley's favorite Whiskey is?
Dalmore 50
Why is this relevant? Its a fucking $15,000 bottle of Whiskey.
Seriously im totally ok with you supporting this game, but dont think I wont call out Smed for how hypocritical it is that he needs an freakin indiegogo campaign for anything. Let alone for 200K which is nothing to him.
Smart small business people form LLCs and get capital funding (through loans or investors). The owners typically do put in some of their own money, but they certainly don't risk their entire fortune. Stupid business owners form sole proprietorships and dump all their personal savings into the business venture.
If someone fails in the first venture then they can learn from their mistakes and try again. In the latter case they're ruined and don't get to try again.
I've had Dalmore single malt. It's one of the best Scotch whiskey's I've ever had. It was only about $50 for the bottle, but it was worth it.
That's a hard call
It really depends on the person and the type of business. I know plenty of successful sole proprietorship's, many are my customers. I own the machines that they would be risking themselves purchasing.
I am very surprised at the amount of people who seem to ignore Smeds history of failure and false marketing comments. Other that the original Everquest, the guy has done nothing of note.
- Everquest-2 launched in terrible shape - Pressured for the early release of Vanguard and then purchased the game and ran it into the ground - Took a fairly successful game (for the time of its launch) and drove it into Oblivion (SWG) - Told former SWG players that a new home was coming for them (H1Z1) WTF was that all about? - Launched Planetside and Planetside-2 to lackluster sales - DC Universe which was the fastest sub game to go F2P due to terrible design - H1Z1, what a gem that is! - Lead one of the most UN-profitable divisions of Sony and was sold off and then let go
Even Smedley himself admitted to the lack of revenue for his division:
Have some of those games made a turn around, absolutely! EQ2 and DCU are much better games today but that does not excuse Smedley for their poor initial design and early releases. Smedley had some of the worlds best talent working for him at SOE at one time or another and look what he did with it over the years...
I'm not saying his new game will suck, but anyone who pre-orders it without seeing the finished product is taking a giant leap of faith.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
I am very surprised at the amount of people who seem to ignore Smeds history of failure and false marketing comments. Other that the original Everquest, the guy has done nothing of note.
- Everquest-2 launched in terrible shape - Pressured for the early release of Vanguard and then purchased the game and ran it into the ground - Took a fairly successful game (for the time of its launch) and drove it into Oblivion (SWG) - Told former SWG players that a new home was coming for them (H1Z1) WTF was that all about? - Launched Planetside and Planetside-2 to lackluster sales - DC Universe which was the fastest sub game to go F2P due to terrible design - H1Z1, what a gem that is! - Lead one of the most UN-profitable divisions of Sony and was sold off and then let go
Even Smedley himself admitted to the lack of revenue for his division:
Have some of those games made a turn around, absolutely! EQ2 and DCU are much better games today but that does not excuse Smedley for their poor initial design and early releases. Smedley had some of the worlds best talent working for him at SOE at one time or another and look what he did with it over the years...
I'm not saying his new game will suck, but anyone who pre-orders it without seeing the finished product is taking a giant leap of faith.
EQ2 was not that bad, was there.
Vanguard, no idea.
SWG was not and I repeat not SOE s doing , they had to do what LA wanted.
H1Z1 is not the new SWG agreed.
PS and PS2 both did quite well, as a matter of fact PS2 has a lot of people still playing it and will for a long time.
DC Universe has it s purpose and makes them money.
H1Z1 is a decent game, and is getting better actually if you play I.
Trying to find out information on the Indiegogo campaign, but there seems to be little communication.
Does anyone know what the sys reqs are going to be? And are the keys mentioned on IGG actually for Steam? (It doesn't seem to say anywhere that they actually are Steam keys).
I'd like to back the game, but this little communication makes me very wary. It just sends up red flags.
Rithwis, Righteous Golem of Camelot | Skritha, Orc Archer of Tamriel | Bloodwod, Sawbones of Auraxis | Thrumdi, Blue Norn of Tyria | Gwidwod, Spider of the Ettenmoors | Gideon Slack, Hunter of Alsius
Trying to find out information on the Indiegogo campaign, but there seems to be little communication.
Does anyone know what the sys reqs are going to be? And are the keys mentioned on IGG actually for Steam? (It doesn't seem to say anywhere that they actually are Steam keys).
I'd like to back the game, but this little communication makes me very wary. It just sends up red flags.
Ive checked out the campaign out of general curiosity from this thread and just like SMEDS twitch, these people do not know how to communicate with a 2016 internet.
At $80,000+ with only 8 days remaining on their $200,000 crowdfunding campaign goal, I can't see this getting funded. I know it is a flexible goal (meaning they receive the pledges regardless of the goal met) yet still. You would figure with some of the names involved in this project they could just fund it themselves.
They have stated that they are just using Indiegogo as a means for preordering.
Do you know what John Smedley's favorite Whiskey is?
Dalmore 50
Why is this relevant? Its a fucking $15,000 bottle of Whiskey.
Seriously im totally ok with you supporting this game, but dont think I wont call out Smed for how hypocritical it is that he needs an freakin indiegogo campaign for anything. Let alone for 200K which is nothing to him.
You can have favorite things that you can't afford.
Is that somehow not ok?
Also what does that have to do with making a video game again?
Also Smed us not making this game alone, his company is making a game, not Smed alone.
It would be absolutely foolish for him to not raise money under the company name because THEY are making the game not Smedley alone.
Lol dude this isnt something he "Cant Afford" - the guys worth 20 mill. This isnt some indie dev were talking about here. The dude was CEO of a company worth billions, your kidding yourself if you dont think hes ever spent an inordinate amount of money on a luxury.
And again im not faulting him for that, he can spend 15k on a drink and I could care less. But 200k on a poorly communicated product on an indiegogo page?
This guy is something else. From SWG to recently with Daybreak games, man, a story for you all. I was playing Planetside 2 on PS4, regularly checking both Daybreak and Smedley's twitters with updates with server problems and such. At the time Lizard Squad was taking down Xbox/PSN a lot with DDOS attacks.
Well, Smedley had tweeted some shit to Lizard Squad basically egging them on. Shortly after that, they had not only taken down Xbox/PSN networks, they also hit Daybreak servers. Shit you not, less than a week later, Smed resigned from Daybreak games. I know it's probably just a coincidence, but just a show of how unprofessional this guy is. Even Daybreak was apologizing to customers for Smedley's tweets causing an attack from Lizard Squad.
It was not even really part of Sony beyond the name/branding.
It is alleged that Smed brought Veriant under the Sony umbrella at a time when Sony wanted to expand its online gamin offerings, in exchange for a piece of the equity, and of future sales, Sony provided access to financing and advertising as well as for releasing titles ont he PS platforms (not that they ever did successfully, afaik). And Smed made all the management decisions.
Smed still retained much of the Veriant/SOE equity, for which Smed was paid when the semi scammy Russian VC people bought them out.
But it was for millions, not billions or anything anywhere close (SOE wrote down $60 mil in assets right before the sale to give it something like a realistic value).
At $80,000+ with only 8 days remaining on their $200,000 crowdfunding campaign goal, I can't see this getting funded. I know it is a flexible goal (meaning they receive the pledges regardless of the goal met) yet still. You would figure with some of the names involved in this project they could just fund it themselves.
They have stated that they are just using Indiegogo as a means for preordering.
Do you know what John Smedley's favorite Whiskey is?
Dalmore 50
Why is this relevant? Its a fucking $15,000 bottle of Whiskey.
Seriously im totally ok with you supporting this game, but dont think I wont call out Smed for how hypocritical it is that he needs an freakin indiegogo campaign for anything. Let alone for 200K which is nothing to him.
You can have favorite things that you can't afford.
Is that somehow not ok?
Also what does that have to do with making a video game again?
Also Smed us not making this game alone, his company is making a game, not Smed alone.
It would be absolutely foolish for him to not raise money under the company name because THEY are making the game not Smedley alone.
Lol dude this isnt something he "Cant Afford" - the guys worth 20 mill. This isnt some indie dev were talking about here. The dude was CEO of a company worth billions, your kidding yourself if you dont think hes ever spent an inordinate amount of money on a luxury.
And again im not faulting him for that, he can spend 15k on a drink and I could care less. But 200k on a poorly communicated product on an indiegogo page?
Nah man, ill pass.
Look I'm not a fan of smed, I don't like or agree with a lot he has done. Find me one dev that you can support everything they do from start to finish that has no flaws or blemishes in it. I'm not defending him but who the **** cares what whiskey the guy likes? There are things I like that are expensive, doesn't mean I'm buying them all the time. AND even if he was, what does that have to do with the quality or lack there of when it comes to this game?
I know someone who made 1 mil but went to get funding for 18k. He could pay cash for it so why did he need funding for it? Some people might pay the cash and just have it where others fund it and pay back/complete later. I'm taking the same stance with this game as I am with CoE and others, ill wait and see. If its for me then ill buy it, if not then I wont.
Gamers are starting to sound like republicans vs democrats I swear.
Not saying the people who say they aren't buying the game are antagonistic. That's a fine thing to say alongside potential concerns and reasons as to why.
Making a tirade against the guy and blaming him for everything that went wrong at SOE and such, that starts getting out of hand.
Bill Trost's involvement in this game is the only thing that makes it remotely interesting for me. He played a major role in EQ and was largely responsible for bringing the game to life in such a way that has not yet been emulated.
Not saying the people who say they aren't buying the game are antagonistic. That's a fine thing to say alongside potential concerns and reasons as to why.
Making a tirade against the guy and blaming him for everything that went wrong at SOE and such, that starts getting out of hand.
I couldn't agree more.
Gamers in general are experts at scapegoating, they latch on to certain individuals blaming them for everything between heaven and earth. I'm going to bring up another example of a dev that I believe is being heavily scapegoated; Mark Kern, yes folks. That guy.
Was he a bad CEO? Yes, the evidence seems to suggest that. I've said this before in discussions regarding him and I theorize that he does best in a slightly smaller creative role or lead position. Where he is the idea guy, being kept in check or made sure he doesn't stray to far off path by someone above him. Regardless of everything, I believe people blame him to much of what happened with that particular game. Game development is a team effort, while he evidently wasn't a great leader, I refuse to put blame on one single person.
I feel sort of the same about Smedley, sure he has his personal qualities and characteristics. He is bold, unfiltered, a tad unpredictable and seemingly a bit stubborn at times. Ultimately responsible for what goes on under its roof as en CEO, yet is he really though to be blamed for every mistake, bad decision or implementation of certain features and/or ideas?
What about his closest people, board of directors, people in lead positions, even his own boss(es) at Sony? Unless he was solely responsible for actively deciding at every point whether the next input would be a 1 or a 0. I just don't see how one can go and put everything on one single individual.
Edit: I feel that people need to stop taking everything so personal, not everything works out and that's just how the world works. Be skeptical all you want, I'm skeptical too but that little to do with what Smedley might've done, or not done, in the past.
For instance, I'm disappointed in the route Blizzard took World of Warcraft after its first set of expansions. Do you think I should be furious at Mike Morhaime about it and hold him, or X-lead, solely responsible for everything? No, that would be stupid. (Personal opinion)
The idea is super cool and because they're not going for aaa graphics it makes me think and hope that this might be a passion project that will actually reach fruition. I WANT this to succeed.
Comments
I have no idea to what extent Smedley is responsible for most of the SOE errors. It's safe to say he is one of the prime suspects. And while I personally throw money at almost everything, I won't be buying into this one.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
It really depends on the person and the type of business. I know plenty of successful sole proprietorship's, many are my customers. I own the machines that they would be risking themselves purchasing.
I also enjoy Lagavulin
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
- Everquest-2 launched in terrible shape
- Pressured for the early release of Vanguard and then purchased the game and ran it into the ground
- Took a fairly successful game (for the time of its launch) and drove it into Oblivion (SWG)
- Told former SWG players that a new home was coming for them (H1Z1) WTF was that all about?
- Launched Planetside and Planetside-2 to lackluster sales
- DC Universe which was the fastest sub game to go F2P due to terrible design
- H1Z1, what a gem that is!
- Lead one of the most UN-profitable divisions of Sony and was sold off and then let go
Even Smedley himself admitted to the lack of revenue for his division:
The president of the recently formed Daybreak Game Company explained that Sony Online Entertainment just kept growing in size but the revenue wasn't there to match it.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Why-Sony-Sold-PlanetSide-2-H1Z1-Developer-71810.html
Have some of those games made a turn around, absolutely! EQ2 and DCU are much better games today but that does not excuse Smedley for their poor initial design and early releases. Smedley had some of the worlds best talent working for him at SOE at one time or another and look what he did with it over the years...
I'm not saying his new game will suck, but anyone who pre-orders it without seeing the finished product is taking a giant leap of faith.
EQ2 was not that bad, was there.
Vanguard, no idea.
SWG was not and I repeat not SOE s doing , they had to do what LA wanted.
H1Z1 is not the new SWG agreed.
PS and PS2 both did quite well, as a matter of fact PS2 has a lot of people still playing it and will for a long time.
DC Universe has it s purpose and makes them money.
H1Z1 is a decent game, and is getting better actually if you play I.
Does anyone know what the sys reqs are going to be? And are the keys mentioned on IGG actually for Steam? (It doesn't seem to say anywhere that they actually are Steam keys).
I'd like to back the game, but this little communication makes me very wary. It just sends up red flags.
Rithwis, Righteous Golem of Camelot | Skritha, Orc Archer of Tamriel | Bloodwod, Sawbones of Auraxis | Thrumdi, Blue Norn of Tyria | Gwidwod, Spider of the Ettenmoors | Gideon Slack, Hunter of Alsius
And again im not faulting him for that, he can spend 15k on a drink and I could care less. But 200k on a poorly communicated product on an indiegogo page?
Nah man, ill pass.
Well, Smedley had tweeted some shit to Lizard Squad basically egging them on. Shortly after that, they had not only taken down Xbox/PSN networks, they also hit Daybreak servers. Shit you not, less than a week later, Smed resigned from Daybreak games. I know it's probably just a coincidence, but just a show of how unprofessional this guy is. Even Daybreak was apologizing to customers for Smedley's tweets causing an attack from Lizard Squad.
It was not even really part of Sony beyond the name/branding.
It is alleged that Smed brought Veriant under the Sony umbrella at a time when Sony wanted to expand its online gamin offerings, in exchange for a piece of the equity, and of future sales, Sony provided access to financing and advertising as well as for releasing titles ont he PS platforms (not that they ever did successfully, afaik). And Smed made all the management decisions.
Smed still retained much of the Veriant/SOE equity, for which Smed was paid when the semi scammy Russian VC people bought them out.
But it was for millions, not billions or anything anywhere close (SOE wrote down $60 mil in assets right before the sale to give it something like a realistic value).
Look I'm not a fan of smed, I don't like or agree with a lot he has done. Find me one dev that you can support everything they do from start to finish that has no flaws or blemishes in it. I'm not defending him but who the **** cares what whiskey the guy likes? There are things I like that are expensive, doesn't mean I'm buying them all the time. AND even if he was, what does that have to do with the quality or lack there of when it comes to this game?
I know someone who made 1 mil but went to get funding for 18k. He could pay cash for it so why did he need funding for it? Some people might pay the cash and just have it where others fund it and pay back/complete later. I'm taking the same stance with this game as I am with CoE and others, ill wait and see. If its for me then ill buy it, if not then I wont.
Gamers are starting to sound like republicans vs democrats I swear.
Not saying the people who say they aren't buying the game are antagonistic. That's a fine thing to say alongside potential concerns and reasons as to why.
Making a tirade against the guy and blaming him for everything that went wrong at SOE and such, that starts getting out of hand.
Gamers in general are experts at scapegoating, they latch on to certain individuals blaming them for everything between heaven and earth. I'm going to bring up another example of a dev that I believe is being heavily scapegoated; Mark Kern, yes folks. That guy.
Was he a bad CEO? Yes, the evidence seems to suggest that. I've said this before in discussions regarding him and I theorize that he does best in a slightly smaller creative role or lead position. Where he is the idea guy, being kept in check or made sure he doesn't stray to far off path by someone above him. Regardless of everything, I believe people blame him to much of what happened with that particular game. Game development is a team effort, while he evidently wasn't a great leader, I refuse to put blame on one single person.
I feel sort of the same about Smedley, sure he has his personal qualities and characteristics. He is bold, unfiltered, a tad unpredictable and seemingly a bit stubborn at times. Ultimately responsible for what goes on under its roof as en CEO, yet is he really though to be blamed for every mistake, bad decision or implementation of certain features and/or ideas?
What about his closest people, board of directors, people in lead positions, even his own boss(es) at Sony? Unless he was solely responsible for actively deciding at every point whether the next input would be a 1 or a 0. I just don't see how one can go and put everything on one single individual.
Edit: I feel that people need to stop taking everything so personal, not everything works out and that's just how the world works. Be skeptical all you want, I'm skeptical too but that little to do with what Smedley might've done, or not done, in the past.
For instance, I'm disappointed in the route Blizzard took World of Warcraft after its first set of expansions. Do you think I should be furious at Mike Morhaime about it and hold him, or X-lead, solely responsible for everything? No, that would be stupid. (Personal opinion)
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