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General: Interview: Chris Kramer, SOE
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
SOE has come a long way since EverQuest and we chat with Chris Kramer, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, SOE, about the future and their acquisition of Worlds Apart Production.
 MMORPG.com: SOE has come a long way since EverQuest. What is the direction of the company these days?
Chris Kramer: The companys mission statement sums it all up: To be the worldwide leader in online entertainment; and to expand our company through the development of high-quality, industry-leading entertainment, software and services, while fostering an environment of empowerment, creativity and commitment. Its become very obvious that, while MMOs have been and always will be a large part of our business, SOE is determined to branch out and embrace multiple forms of online entertainment. Over the past three years, weve released online games for the PlayStation 2, multiple titles on the PSP and have even begun publishing and co-publishing games developed outside of the company (such as Sigils Vanguard or Perpetuals Gods and Heroes). Weve got a PlayStation 3 launch game in the works, and the company is actively involved in the creation of the PlayStation 3 Network Platform, which will eventually connect millions of players together around the globe. Weve even got a few top-secret online games in development. And now, with the acquisition of Worlds Apart Productions, were branching out into the online collectible card game business. Were busy! |
You can read more here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
That has to be one of the most "softball" interviews I have ever seen.
How bout' asking him some tuff questions, like, " What is the future for SWG?" and "some gamers are just plain turned off by the SOE brand, how do you plan to earn back their trust ?"
"The benefit of working with an existing, powerful technology like UE3 is that our developers are able to spend more time working on core gameplay mechanics and design, which is where we as a company excel."
Hahahahah
Okai
_________________________________
"Fixed it. Because that wall of text attacked me, killed me and looted my body..."
-George "sniperg" Light
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Why do people still bother with interviewing those guys? Does anybody out there still believe what these a**holes say?
A** Still Raw From Your Last SWG Subscription? Come join us at RLMMO.com
Yeah really.
Question: How does it feel to have the worst image and reputation among players of online games and what are the folks at SOE doing to earn back the consumers trust that was squandered through your miscalculations?
This would be a good start it would make them finally admit they did something wrong.
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pretend this is a grain of salt ---> .
Here's the piece needed for anything SOE says --->
==========================
Coach-pitch softball even... every question was right down the plate. I had the picture of Colbert doing this interview... "SOE, great company, or GREATEST company?"
-----Zero Punctuation Eve Online Review-----
They dont need to, because everyone buys the crap they throw on market. Look at the yearly "new" and "innovative" Fifa/NBA/Maddens ect..
And for MMORPGs, hey they have Star Wars, it MUST BE good !!!
Next one is Warhammer. EA own's it, i bet my a**, EA cut down the budget to minimum and release it for X-Mas, if its still beta or alpha. And we all have to wait 6 month and a bunch of patches and hotfixes to get it work like a 20 years old car. And i dont mean a german car ^^
But hey , you know, you buy it, you pay them for crappy software and hours and hours of frustation.
Originally posted by Aetius73
Originally posted by Bissrok
Why do people still bother with interviewing those guys? Does anybody out there still believe what these a**holes say?
Yeah really.
Question: How does it feel to have the worst image and reputation among players of online games and what are the folks at SOE doing to earn back the consumers trust that was squandered through your miscalculations?
This would be a good start it would make them finally admit they did something wrong.
Nobody at SoE will ever admit that what they did was wrong, they will keep thinking that it's for the best when Wal-mart is having to sell their non-bought cds to Dollar General.
The only game that made them was Everquest 1 and they think people like what they 'think' is right, or anything that is like World of Warcraft just might be more popular.
The Day the Devs at SoE listen to their Consumers is the day everybody in America doesn't eat McDonalds for one day.
Neptus - FFXI - Pandemonium
Neptus - WoW - Detheroc
Yes, it happened a very long time ago, but because of doing this they should at least have the courage to admit that their actions were wrong and not positive. They keep telling the public that SWG is doing Great when 1 out of 25 servers or however many they have now is half full.
They care only about themselves and not the consumer. That my friend is the reason I hate them.
Consumer comes first in marketing, not your money.
Neptus - FFXI - Pandemonium
Neptus - WoW - Detheroc
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
"I know I said this was my last post, but you my friend are a idiotic moron." -Shadow4482
What IBM is to Home PC's is what SOE is going to be to MMORPG's. Well atleast they are trying to "deversify" their way out of the market...
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii.
--In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses.
--The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence!
--CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
If you guys are looking from Sony that they make low quality garbage, then your living in a dream world.
Anyone who thought the Ps2 was a high performance, high quality machine are the same idiots who lush up the SOE crap.
I got both Eq2, and SWG.. SwG was just plain horrible and a disaster.. nothing ever worked...
And Eq2 although decent, had no real PVP element which everyone wanted, and gets old real quick...
SOE sucks.
oh, and the interview sucked too.
Try some harder questions next time...
"As I said, online entertainment for us means much, much more than MMOs."
Yes, but "much, much more" of what?
Leave the card games to the card people, and the phones to the phone people. Quit worrying about funny ways of shaking money out of us, and manage better MMOs.
I don't trust my bicycle company to design my car, why should I trust my MMO company to design my card game?
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
THAT would be an outstanding question.
while I appreciate MMORPG.COM bringing us these interviews, and I understand you can't just sit there and flame them (as much as most of this community would enjoy it) I would love to see a hard one thrown in the mix, especially when dealing with SOE.
Also, history has shown us that we cannot believe a single fracking word uttered by someone with the letters SOE after their name.....it is a simple truth.
On a side semi-related note.....even though many here do not enjoy playing Eve, putting the game itself aside, I believe the dev attitude at CCP is a model that needs to be followed....they are the antiSOE.
The only reason I read the interview was to find out what games etc...I should stay away from. Yeah, I found out what to stay away from AND the interview made me sick to my stomach.
I'm with everyone else on this subject.
If I even see or sniff a hint of association with SoE, you won't see me there. Really don't care what platform.
Imho, SOE is so full of themselves they have forgotten quality and their public.
Can't believe I fell for their ploys during EQ and other games. Dang! it took me a long time to grow up, bitter and more wiser.
Kinda funny in a sick humorous way, wonder how long it will take SoE to poison the communities to make the company fall. Wish the company would dry up and blow away. It won't happen anytime soon but I can still dream or is it a nightmare? *shrug*
I'm happy with my Sony mp3 player.
Seriously bout games for a sec. Publisher's aren't out there to be liked. They are out there to make tons of money, and I don't understand why people still get upset over the inevitable. Yes Sony released alot of garbage, but what publisher hasn't. I remember some old comment from a PR guy for Ubi Soft mentioning that only like 3 out of 10 games a publisher releases makes money for them. Basically publishers release alot of stuff, as fast as possible, and hope a few of them stick in order to make any money. That's the nature of the beast and people should just get used to it. Don't expect a heartless corporation to shed tears over crushing peoples dreams with a few crappy games lol.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
... and he didn't even sound ashamed.
Wow and kudos to the corp brainwahers!
I myself would prefer they wouldn't wash some of the intelligence matter along with the self-esteem and sense of shame.
The companys mission statement sums it all up: To be the worldwide leader in online entertainment; and to expand our company through the development of high-quality, industry-leading entertainment, software and services, while fostering an environment of empowerment, creativity and commitment.
-------------------------------------
If this is the mission of SOE then they have zero understanding of true entertainment.
Entertainment exists and lives from diversity and passion. The passion for the kind of entertainment you offer.
All i can see in this interview are businessmen with dollar marks in their eyes and a dream of might and ruling the gamer world.
This makes me shiver.
It is highly important to have other companies on top that feed the same market. Companies whith passioned people who love, know, care about and first of all respect gamers - the customers they do the work for and finallly get payed from.
Beside this i question the quality of their products if they fokus on 365 things. They can grow and expand etc but it WILL cost quality AND ( much more important) customer relation.
It is hard to believe that a company that makes such statements is truly interested in its customers.
... i never played SWG and i do not hate SOE.
It is just the way this interview sounded.
It was a "We are the champions" wishiwashi statement without any benefit for the readers or any serious information OR any nice words to the gamers.
Poor.
"We're looking at turning the world of "MMOs" on its head, and quite possibly throwing that phrase out the window altogether. "
heh heh. After seeing what they did to SWG, boy, he got that statement right. SOE wouldn't know an MMO if it slapped them in the face.
And I repeat:
"our developers are able to spend more time working on core gameplay mechanics and design, which is where we as a company excel."
That's the part that made me snicker. SWG isn't the only reason SOE is so disliked.