John Smedley: The captain of the ship. During a time where MMO subscriptions are booming, has shown no growth (and indeed decline) in the subscriber bases of his games. Has signed off on disasterous revision to SWG after disasterous revision.
Julio Torres: For SWG, the LucasArts captain of the ship. Has participated in and signed off on every bad decision that has been made, and has been in charge LucasArts wise while SWG has revamped itself into losing at least half it's peak subscriber base. Has ZERO credibility with his customer base for stating many lies and half truths.
Jim Ward: The head of LucasArts. Has failed to provide leadership and good management, mainly by not cleaning the LEC side of the house at least a year ago.
Nancy "Uncle Owen" McIntyre: A PR person who is so pathetically incompetent she would make misstatements "too much reading" that would turn PR for the Sisters of the Poor into hatred for the group...
Collectively, these persons and others have needlessly angered and turned their customers and potential customers against them, and have revamped the game into fewer and fewer subscribers. I don't think that you or me could fail so spectacularly (and publucally) at our own jobs and still keep them.
I don't think anyone is going to have any reason to have confidence in SOE or LEC again until some heads roll and new blood is infused into the management.
Comments
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
More likely she just knows how to take credit within the company while shifting the blaime onto others.
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
More likely she just knows how to take credit within the company while shifting the blaime onto others.
I think everyone on my list above must be world class experts at that.
I mean, the only person fired so far was Tiggs, who at least was trying... Smed and Julio must have used many Jedi mind tricks to convince their superiors that somehow the community relations director was responsible for their community meltdown instead of the asinine changes their producers were making to the game.
Ah the Peter Principle at work...
So'fe Sose, Naritus, SWG- Forcibly Retired
Friends don't let friends SWG...
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
More likely she just knows how to take credit within the company while shifting the blaime onto others.
I think everyone on my list above must be world class experts at that.
I mean, the only person fired so far was Tiggs, who at least was trying... Smed and Julio must have used many Jedi mind tricks to convince their superiors that somehow the community relations director was responsible for their community meltdown instead of the asinine changes their producers were making to the game.
I was never a fan of Tiggs. She was alright when everything was calm on the forums but whenever there was a big uproar she started getting condensending and insulting to people that were upset. Never a good attitude for a CSR. Like her dismissing people who were unhappy with the pre NGE xp nerf with a 'games are supposed to be hard'.
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
More likely she just knows how to take credit within the company while shifting the blaime onto others.
I think everyone on my list above must be world class experts at that.
I mean, the only person fired so far was Tiggs, who at least was trying... Smed and Julio must have used many Jedi mind tricks to convince their superiors that somehow the community relations director was responsible for their community meltdown instead of the asinine changes their producers were making to the game.
I was never a fan of Tiggs. She was alright when everything was calm on the forums but whenever there was a big uproar she started getting condensending and insulting to people that were upset. Never a good attitude for a CSR. Like her dismissing people who were unhappy with the pre NGE xp nerf with a 'games are supposed to be hard'.
Yes, but at the end of the day, she went in to meet with the producers and showed them the riots on the boards and the nerf was pulled THAT DAY.
Tiggs had her downside too, all the forum games and /pounce and crap like that, but she is so far the ONLY SOE employee who ever stuck up for the players. The rest don't care how far it get shoved or whether there is any lube or not.
Tiggs...talked the company line, just like TH does...Why was she fired?
Maybe, it could be connected to a post she made, after she had recieved the full player feedback the whole weekend she spent on TC NGE had something to do with it?
I seem to remember something about Tiggsy saying things was not looking good.
I guess she might have forgotten to talk the company line for a second, and then were promptly escorted out of the SOE building, account banned and many of her forum posts deleted.
But who knows..She ain't allowed to talk about what happends, and SOE have "forgotten" that anything happends, and now bans or deletes anything that got with Tiggs on the forums
The last of the Trackers
Yeah, I remember that. Clearly a case of a promotion based either on her gender (affirmative action) or else she's giving someone (Jim Ward) uh, "Monicas" in the corner office. The woman was utterly unbelievably incompetent in the press, which was her job, she was in charge of PR!
More likely she just knows how to take credit within the company while shifting the blaime onto others.
I think everyone on my list above must be world class experts at that.
I mean, the only person fired so far was Tiggs, who at least was trying... Smed and Julio must have used many Jedi mind tricks to convince their superiors that somehow the community relations director was responsible for their community meltdown instead of the asinine changes their producers were making to the game.
I was never a fan of Tiggs. She was alright when everything was calm on the forums but whenever there was a big uproar she started getting condensending and insulting to people that were upset. Never a good attitude for a CSR. Like her dismissing people who were unhappy with the pre NGE xp nerf with a 'games are supposed to be hard'.
Yes, but at the end of the day, she went in to meet with the producers and showed them the riots on the boards and the nerf was pulled THAT DAY.
Tiggs had her downside too, all the forum games and /pounce and crap like that, but she is so far the ONLY SOE employee who ever stuck up for the players. The rest don't care how far it get shoved or whether there is any lube or not.
/Agree, they even apologized on the boards for that, I still think Tiggs was ahead of SOE on dealing with the playerbase even if only because it was her job. As for her getting fired, PFFFT I'm not sure she did honestly, Tiggs didnt like those changes and knew people were gonna uproar, I wouldnt be surprised at all if she walked. Some of those CSR's they had didnt like the changes themselves come to think of it.
I suspect Julio will be prompted as well.
Jim Ward is fairly untouchable because there is more to LEC that SWG.
Smedley, now there is a guy bucking for early retirement. I suspect he is doing
the job he is doing so he can get the parachute package when he leaving SOE.
"There's no star system Slave I can't reach, and there's no planet I can't find. There's nowhere in the Galaxy for you to run. Might as well give up now."
Boba Fett
Easy, right?
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As ye SOE, so shall ye weep.
Oh, and I expect all of them to have a nice "golden parachute" deal in their back pocket, not just Smedley.
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Played: Age of Conan, DDO, Saga of Ryzom, SWG, DaOC, MxO, EQ2, and so on...
Wish List: Jumpgate Evolution, Star Wars: TOR, Star Trek
This isn't too uncommon when you get someone from one division (film advertising) and put them in charge of another divsion (games) that they don't really know or understand beyond the basics of business operations. My guess is Mr. Ward was trying to make a big impression upstairs by "fixing" things that his predecessor couldn't. Perhaps he thought it would be looked upon as a daring change that would result in WOW-like numbers, but reality has a funny way of making even the best and brightest people look incredibly stupid.
As for Smedley, as the years go on, it is becoming increasingly apparent he has used up his good ideas and now has to resort to gimmicks instead of good games to keep the money coming in.
i thought webzen hired her ?? or did they hire another lady from $OE?
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
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i thought webzen hired her ?? or did they hire another lady from $OE?
No, that was Cindy Armstrong that left to go be the President of US operations of webzen.
She never worked for SOE, she works for LEC.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Yes, but at the end of the day, she went in to meet with the producers and showed them the riots on the boards and the nerf was pulled THAT DAY.
Tiggs had her downside too, all the forum games and /pounce and crap like that, but she is so far the ONLY SOE employee who ever stuck up for the players. The rest don't care how far it get shoved or whether there is any lube or not.
Did she? I'm sure she went and reported how upset people were but I doubt she suggested they pull it or that she had any influence on it getting pulled apart from reporting the anger on the boards. TH could do that.
Were they apologising for putting the xp nerf in? Seeming they added it in again later that should be pretty obvious. All they were apologising for was that people were so upset they might cancel their accounts not because they thought they had done anything wrong.
I do agree that we don't know if she was fired though, she could as easily have quit from what we know and she isn't talking about it and she's right not too. It's her job and talking about it would be unprofessional and possible burn some bridges.
I'll just add I'm not saying I think Tiggs is a bad person, just that as a CSR she is bad at dealing with upset people.
I think that to restore any credibility to SOE and to SWG, at the MINIMUM, Smed and Julio have got to go.
Their reign as the senior managers has been an unprecedented catastrophic disaster, and there is really no argument in their defense that could possibly be rationalized.
The fact that Sony continues to let Smed lead SOE and that LucasArts continues to let Julio lead SWG, which is inarguably their greatest potential revenue stream also raises questions of the competencey of the senior managers at those two companies.
But you have to wonder when their bosses will feel the need to axe them to save THEMSELVES the responsibility? LucasArts hasn't exactly set the world on fire of late with their releases, after all...
But you have to wonder when their bosses will feel the need to axe them to save THEMSELVES the responsibility? LucasArts hasn't exactly set the world on fire of late with their releases, after all...
I don't really pay attention to LA, it is a rare game they release I like. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 and before that X wing Alliance and then back to Tie Fighter.
I think something involving animals... and possibly a dark mass of some sort.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled - Some deluded SWG fanboi who pities me.
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
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