› ›

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Quick Links

Simutronics Stance on Takeovers?

TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
in Hero's Journey
 I was curious how people at Simutronics felt about the subject of joining other game companies. With the rather harsh reaction in the Vanguard and WAR communities at joining SoE and EA to varying extents its a rather touchy subject lately. I personally dont stand agianst company incorperations. It has allowed some companies such as Maxis to create games they may not have had the resources to make, such as the upcoming Spore. Anycase Im rambling, if any Gm's could give there feelings theyd be welcome. Not expecting a offical response from Simu tho
«1

Comments

  • dimarypdimaryp Member Posts: 109
    Like most, if the price is right.

    It's no so much the merger, as it is the companies.

    SOE and EA aren't known for make MMORPGs a success.




  • MornebladeMorneblade Member UncommonPosts: 272
    Yeah..... SOE and EQ are both kinda seen as the "Anitchrist" of game companies. Especially MMO's.

    image

  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
     Sorry for the double post. Forum doesnt like my new Opera 9 browser lol. I was saying with companies like EA and SoE it seems to take a 800 pound gorilla to make them budge. Take Will Wright. Without his previous titles such as Simcity 2000 its unlikely he could have convinced them to release The Sims. This said its unlikely Simutronics could maintain control of there product with there rather diminuitive, albeit excdlent product. In my mind its unlikely they could get EA to stay out of there development and force out the game to fast. Hrmm now my brains stuck on WW's Spore hehe. From what I hear on the grapevine even the EA execs were sorta agast and in awe at that game when Will demonstrated the first demo of that. The sims were a risk, but Spore is just flat out insane.
  • PietoroPietoro Member Posts: 162


    Originally posted by Morneblade
    Yeah..... SOE and EQ are both kinda seen as the "Anitchrist" of game companies. Especially MMO's.
     
    EA also has a less-than-stellar MMO record. They recently bought out Mythic, so we'll see how that turns out.
  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
    Deffinetly puts a considerable amount of money at Mythics fingertips. If they could manage to get funds without to many strings could be a good things. Could be very bad to. Im on the fence myself. Wont keep me from trying WAR. hehe I try every game that comes out tho

  • raccoonraccoon Member CommonPosts: 51
    I really doubt Simu will be merging with anyone. If they did merge with anyone, it would have to be with people that see things from their point of view, and not just the sort that see them as a cash cow. Otherwise it would go against everything they've said for years now. 

  • KaneKane Member Posts: 780
    I hate to be a pessimist but, never say never. Mythic denied it up and down and look what happened to them. Looks like the old saying "Remember UO!" was forgotten...

  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984
        Id rather not drag that discussion into this thread. Suffice it I kept up on that whole situation long before yesterdays whole announcement. After saying they wouldnt merge the exec did clear up that it was only IF it wasnt in there best intrest and he said a merge with EA wasnt not in there intrest. Sorta a backwards way of saying it could happen. Still with the NDA clauses in place they couldnt openly say theyd joined EA tell yesterday.Well anycase Ive gone on to long on that subject. I wish them the best, lets just hope that they can handle the new overlord of the day lol. Who knows could turn out well. It did for Will Wright.


  • MaladakMaladak Member Posts: 50

    I'll always hate EA for canceling Ultima X: Oddessy.  It would have been the best MMO out right now if they hadn't shut it down...grrr. 

    I'm really hoping some bigger corperation doesn't see simu and eat it up...unless it's like...Bethesda :)

    --------------------------------------------


    When you do something right people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

  • MornebladeMorneblade Member UncommonPosts: 272

    Yeah, EA REALLY pissed me off with Ultma X: Odyssey. That game could have totally rocked. I still have the official website in my "vaporware folder", just incase.

    Hey, it worked for Warhammer!

    But in all honestly there isnt a major corp. I would trust with HJ. All those guys care about is profits, not a single real gamer in those companies. They would just suck the life out of it I'm afraid. Think of the actuall GREAT MMO's and how many of them came from a independent companies. All of them.

    image

  • ElnatorElnator Member Posts: 6,077

    Originally posted by Morneblade

    Yeah, EA REALLY pissed me off with Ultma X: Odyssey. That game could have totally rocked. I still have the official website in my "vaporware folder", just incase.
    Hey, it worked for Warhammer!
    But in all honestly there isnt a major corp. I would trust with HJ. All those guys care about is profits, not a single real gamer in those companies. They would just suck the life out of it I'm afraid. Think of the actuall GREAT MMO's and how many of them came from a independent companies. All of them.

    New to this forum :)  Hi all :)  Guess the recent "fluff" articles piqued my interest enough to start watching this title :)  It was flying way below my radar till I read the recent "article".... :)

    I'd be interested to know what "great" MMO's you're thinking of? 

    When I personally think of "great" MMO's the ones that come to mind are:

    1. UO was a Great MMO... it was far from an 'indie' that developed it.  Origin Systems was, at the time, one of the best known and most loved makers of Role Playing Games (Ultima series, Wing Commander series, etc).  My guess is that had they not sold out to EA by now we'd see Privateer: Online but that'll never happen now.
    2. EQ1 was another MMO that I would consider a "great" MMO... What most people fail to realise is that EQ was written by Sony.  Verant Interactive, aka 989 Studios, aka: Sony Gaming Division 989 were the developers.  Brad McQuaid was hired by John Smedley back in the '90's specifically to write EQ.  Thus why Qeynos (the first zones to ever go live in the EQ engine) is "Sony EQ" spelled backwards.
    3. DAOC is another MMO I'd consider "great" in it's own right.  Mythic, while not super well known, wasn't exactly an 'indie' company either.  DAOC wasn't their first ever title, they'd been around flying low on the gaming radar for a while and actually DAOC wasn't even their first online title, though it was their best :)
    4. About the only truely indie company that has had a real hit of an MMO that I can think of is CCP with EVE....  (And yes, it's a hit, 3 years so far and still growing and popped the 100k users mark = hit)


    Which ones do you think of?  Since you mentioned it?

    And on the original topic:  I really hope that Simu doesn't make the mistake of selling out to another company.  Also, on the original topic comparing Sigil partnering with SOE to publish the game to EA outright buying Mythic is kind of insane.  SOE would have to jump some pretty major hurdles in order to have any real say in what goes on with the game Sigil is making.  EA could outright cancel WAR if they get it in their heads to do so.  (And it's not like they've never done THAT before)...

    If you consider SOE the 'antichrist' of the MMO industry (another poster) I'd have to refer you to the track records of the two companies in the MMO industry:

    SOE:  Industry leader.  4 major MMO's to their credit, all successful... 3 of the 4 were (or are currently) leaders in their genres (SWG was #1 Sci Fi MMO for 2.5 years, PlanetSide is still #1 MMOFPS on the market, EQ1 was king for 7 years)

    EA: Never really got a solid footing.  6 MMO's in their history.  2 Collapsed shortly after release.  1 Cancelled just before release due to EA allowing their license for BattleTech titles to lapse.  2 (Motor City Online and The Sims) Barely surviving and 1 in decline since they bought out Origin Systems (UO).

    Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
    Sig image Pending
    Still in: A couple Betas

  • majochmajoch Member Posts: 599

    Wow, 100k users for EVE.  I think it was 2 years ago maybe a little more that the big news on the login screen was "EVE Online has surpassed the 10,000 user mark".

    On topic though.  I sincerely hope Simu has the resources to stay the course and run the ship solo if at all possible.  From what I have seen from these folks they are a good bunch who truely wish to put a great product out to us.  They also do a pretty good job of making the rounds on most major boards to interact with their future and potential customers.  Little things like that go a long ways.

  • imortal986imortal986 Member Posts: 29

    I tried to skim this thread the best I can before responding and I'm not sure how many people here have played Simu games before.  Regardless, every game Simu has every put out has been highly immersive, well-planned, and most of beautifully addictive.  I played Dragon Realms the most (Txt MUD), and believe it still has a large following considering it is text-based and has a monthly fee.

    Taking into consideration how successful and intricate there other games are I think they will put the same degree of talent and care into HJ, leading me to believe that Simu will be more than successful enough to go it alone.

    Simu was an early pioneer in the Text MUD world, and is by no means a late comer to the MMO world.  Although there are several well established MMOs and companies leeching the market, HJ will probably bring a lot of new stuff to the table, not the least of which is Wyr.

    I know I'm prolly slightly biased here but I highly doubt Simu would allow a takeover with something like HJ on its plate, and games like Dragon Realms, and Gemstone as its badges of awesomeness.

    PS (lol):  I saw Betheseda mentioned earlier, and although I like there games I'm not sure if they'd real be taking much of an interest in HJ.  I'm not familiar with there stuff other than ES Morrowind + Oblivion so correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall Betheseda being all the interested in the MMO market. 

  • majochmajoch Member Posts: 599
    Bethesda should do what they do best and ontinue to make massive single player RPG's.  I will throw my vote in for the next installment of the Elder Scrolls saga if they change their character models.  Is it just me or are they some of the ugliest avatars?  That is my one and only gripe with Morrowind.
  • ElnatorElnator Member Posts: 6,077

    Originally posted by majoch

    Wow, 100k users for EVE.  I think it was 2 years ago maybe a little more that the big news on the login screen was "EVE Online has surpassed the 10,000 user mark".
    On topic though.  I sincerely hope Simu has the resources to stay the course and run the ship solo if at all possible.  From what I have seen from these folks they are a good bunch who truely wish to put a great product out to us.  They also do a pretty good job of making the rounds on most major boards to interact with their future and potential customers.  Little things like that go a long ways.
    That was 10k concurrent players online.  They had 30k users (subscribers) within weeks of release... rose to about 60k users after E&B was shut down and recently crossed the 120k users mark this past February.  It's possible that they're up near 150k users now but the last update they posted on was when they hit 120-130k users.  With 25-26k of them being online during peak time.

    Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
    Sig image Pending
    Still in: A couple Betas

  • TechleoTechleo Member Posts: 1,984

    I think if Hj could manage to pull off what CCP did theyre doing damn fine! Eve was and always will be a great memory for me. I played it for a year solid and managed to join one of the at the time greatest mining corps. Now after quite some time I came back only to find outjust how many people there are now! Good lord the corps are huge. At the time I played the universe was young and people still were setting boundaries. Now it seems like there Empires set up and whole cultures to delve into. This is what I hope for HJ.

     

  • imortal986imortal986 Member Posts: 29

    Originally posted by majoch
    Bethesda should do what they do best and ontinue to make massive single player RPG's.  I will throw my vote in for the next installment of the Elder Scrolls saga if they change their character models.  Is it just me or are they some of the ugliest avatars?  That is my one and only gripe with Morrowind.

    Lol.  I don't want to get too far off topic but I do agree with the char models comment.  It took me forever when I first started Oblivion to get even half decent looking.  I later modded the game with a new character creation mod from the net and it works quite a bit better.

    I think HJ will prolly have amazing char. creation.  I've watched E3 stuff and seen the screens, and it looks pretty impressive.

  • majochmajoch Member Posts: 599

    Okay Elnator that makes sense.  I just remembered the 10k in some format or other from my time playing EVE. 

    For Imortal986, which mod did you use to make characters look better if you don't mind?  Wouldn't hurt to spruce mine up a bit.

    And to keep something HJ related in this reply, I keep checking back to the official homepage ( looks like it has changed a bit ) trying to find out if there is an atlas or map of the world "Elanthia"? .  available but so far I've come up blank.  I see the features and lore sections are coming online soon so maybe I'll get that info via the features section. 

  • imortal986imortal986 Member Posts: 29

    Heres one link that gives some stuff for Oblivion

    http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=modforge&op=viewcategory&cat_id=10&oblivion=1

    and another which offers a new race, hair, faces... so on... that I just discovered while looking for the other lol:

    http://elderscrolls.filefront.com/file/Rens_Beauty_Pack;63707

    Now back to  HJ:

    You prolly won't find a map of Elanthia... Unless of coarse your looking for the Dragon Realms version, in which case start at www.play.net and click on Dragon Realms... and from there I'm sure you can figure it out.

    The HJ version is likely to have very massive differences based on the lore I read (YAY, just like a new game, but with fond memories of the old).

    Thinking about the original topic as well, I've decided that it is absolutely imperative that Simu not merge, cause what'll become of their army of GMs.  If a new corp buys it out than they will prolly mess with that whole system, and I like it the way it is.

    Oh yeah I'm kinda a noob around here lol... how do you get those cool pictures for your signature that say what games your looking forward to (HJ!)?

  • majochmajoch Member Posts: 599
    Thank you very much for the links.  I wish I could return the favor by telling you how to post a cool game supporting signature but I am about as computer illiterate as they come.  Hopefully someone will post step by step details so I can try it as well.
  • HJ-IlluminatHJ-Illuminat Hero's Journey GMMember Posts: 78

    Maps won't come out until all the lore is marginally finalized. Atleast the stuff pertaining to cities, villages, and landmarks that is. Don't go by any of the GS or DR maps. The world was shattered, so things are quite a bit different.

    GM Illuminatis
    World Builder
    Hero's Journey

  • ElnatorElnator Member Posts: 6,077
    In reply to the post about graphical sigs.... most people that have them make them in photoshop or another graphics editor (I use Paint Shop Pro when I bother).  TBH it's not something I generally bother with as I have better things to do with my time.  I think there are a few folks in the forums that'll make you one if you ask about it nice.  Try the main general forums.  I'm sure someone there would be willing to hook you up if nobody here can.  I'd offer but I haven't even bothered to do my own sig :)  

    Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
    Sig image Pending
    Still in: A couple Betas

  • TraxbroTraxbro Member Posts: 16

    Never underestimate the power of the almighty dollar.  Simu like every other company deffinitely shows their colors as far as that goes.  They sold better game service constantly in gemstone.  Could pay more money per month and get frequent access to what would normally be rare chances to buy high quality items.  You even got faster in game GM support, If you payed 20 dollars more a month BAM! you're in the front of the GM line.  The more money you had the more access you had to bigger and better things.  I don't blame them for this tho, as they did it in a way that didn't GREATLY effect the world.  But the first time I get killed by someone because they pay more money a month I'll cancel my account... I doubt they will make this mistake with HJ though.

  • majochmajoch Member Posts: 599
    They had a similar deal with original Everquest except it was a seperate server "Stormhammer" I believe it ran for $39 a month ( correct me if I'm wrong ), could have been more.   You were able to transfer your regular server character there free of charge.  We subscribed to it for about 4 months but in the long run the perks weren't much better if any from regular servers although I was able on two seperate occassions to get a GM rez deep in Dalnirs and HS with no hassle whatsoever.
Sign In or Register to comment.