Deson

Aggro me did a blog post about this article--
MMO Week: SOE president John Smedley // Interview // GamesIndustry.biz


Few interesting points in it. They actually seem to have learned from Vanguard. He admits to company arrogance and to some really bad decisions having been made in the past.

I find that as a former but willing to return customer, this article hit all the right notes but just doesn't come across as credible. We've seen and heard all of this before in some shape or form in the last few years and yet we continue to observe the same mistakes being made by SOE over and over again. More importantly, if he really has learned, why haven't we seen the trickle down to actual policy from gameplay to customer service to the community team?

One thing I really wish the interviewer had asked about was SOE's reputation. Smedly did a lot of talk about the future but a direct question on SOE's rep would forced an answer on how SOE intends to break its relationship with the words clusterfuck and corruption. There are few things that would make me resub faster than seeing a real gameplan coupled with some rolled heads. He may want to expand into the worldwide future but the same old rep and the same old business ethics are only going to expand the gaming public revulsion at seeing those three letters on anything.

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Iadien

ION 08: John Smedley keynote shows off Free Realms and The Agency - Massively

"While he did tease the audience with a hint that, "There's more Everquest in our future." Smedley left the topic of EQ at that."

Illuziun

They release one of these every year or two to refill every ones hopes and dreams and keep a few accounts active a little longer until there next scheme.

It's all bullshit.

3devious

Yeah, let them refill their hopes and dreams that my credit card company won't be giving them the hand when my subscription runs out Saturday.

The only way I am coming back is if my necro can have 3 pets. Each will be a sheep named Aerilik (well, trust me it will be spelled right if it happens,) Gnobrin, and Brenlo that I will let trolls and ogres molest in the middle of Qeynos Harbor.

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Elvbryn

any body that gets Playstation The official Magazine this months issue has a interview with dear old John....

i tried to find the interview online but had no luck and im to lazy to type the whole thing out had some interesting stuff mostly the same as those 2 articles tho

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Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!



http://beta2.darkthrone.com/recruit....79N30362N30379
some other web based mmo seems fun

Gori

I didn't realize they were planning on making The Agency a PS3 game.

Shaggis

And when they were working on Vanguard he admitted they made some really bad decisions and learned a lot from SWG IIRC. Given, that project was already in deep shit when they acquired it, but that "we've learned a lot from our bad decisions" can only be retread so many times.

I'm a big EA Mythic fan lately, as they seem to have better solutions to reducing the LFG (not the guy... looking for group) pains and I still enjoy playing DAoC even though its an old game. I doubt I'd do another round of anything SOE at this point. I just hear the Charlie Brown's teacher's voice when they speak... could be me.

I was looking at playing AoC until Warhammer online came out... but I'm already a bit nervous about them shutting down early access. Can't they handle the number of people that want to subscribe?

GMG is just something I hear a lot of future stuff about, what else is close on the horizon?

Gorgamorph

Very interesting article. From the EQ2 players perspective it doesn't sound like we'll ever really take high priority again. I'ld hate to think we're "one of those lessons to learned from." Clean your hands of it, and move on.

The Realms game looks like the end result of a corporate think tank. Mix in a monthly sucbscip with a card game and purchasable online items and target it at kids with a high volume of dispossable income = brilliant.

The agency? Something I could log in and play every day? I don't see it happening.

Personally, I do hope they're right andthe future of MMOs is console. I was originally drawn into the genre by means of EQOA, Soes first attempt at an online game. Not being much of a computer person myself I always found consules far more accessible, less expensive, with better longivity than a PC. If the Ps2 burns out, the turn around always seems faster than trying to replace/RMA a video card, decript a bizarre error message or generally figure out which piece of hardware has become obsolete in your rig.

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Gorgamorph
lvl 80 Troll Mystic Naggy
lvl 60 Troll Savage Hodstock

Sigh
lvl 80 Fae Wizard Naggy
lvl 60 High Elf Templar Hodstock

Holymoly

Interesting article and not a little depressing too. Seems that the thing I take away from it is the Smedley has got the hots for WoW, gaming consoles and the far eastern market.

To say that SOE has been arrogant in the past in not listening to its subscribers, but not suggest that changes are neccessary, is just a waste of breath imo.

There were no suggestions or hints that the exsisting stable of SOE MMOs can expect to be developed too much further so I suppose that if we want to play anything other than console based FPS designed so 10 years olds can understand them we had better start looking for other publishers now.

<sigh> Whatever happened to the credo of challenging your customers rather than dumbing down to the lowest common denominator?

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Jalek

Coming soon, a WoW knockoff using EQ lore coupled with a Korean style grind-fest for the PS2/3?
I wouldn't be too surprised.

Anyway, if anything's to be shut down soon, just look at server numbers. Matrix should've never gotten out of the boardroom. Vanguard numbers can't be good either, also the players they were marketing to are the same that AoC is targetting.