EQ2 Flames Consolidated Developer Information List - Page 138

Snark · 03-18-2008, 09:09 PM

this is what I posted on the massively comments

First thanks to the author for treating this topic with journalistic integrity. Unfortunately most fansites expect their writers to imprint an unmistakable bias in every article they print.

I was the person that posted developer information, and based on the comments here I think it's important I express why I did that...

First of all to understand the drama you have to understand how SOE "manages" their employees. Merely revealing their character's in game names is a very serious offense. This is why Aeralik immediately deleted a reference to his character. Since compiling and posting the in-game names of developers, coders, and GMs, I have recieved plenty of direct conversation with these people saying I overreacted and that their jobs are on the line because of it. One developer went so far as to say "what's more important - this or the game?" Clearly these people feel personally threatened by my thread (this is something I did not anticipate).

SOEs community team is atrocious, which wouldn't be such a bad problem if they showed any signs of improving. As years go on, the "summit" meetings recruit more of the fansite representatives and fewer active, vocal, and upset gamers. To pull feedback from a fansite just seems ludicrous to me - all they contain are the authors throwing on party hats and reading the latest patch notes with praise and nary a complaint. SOE regularly feeds these sites early information about popular upcoming updates (such as Epic Weapons, Heroic Zones etc.) to keep traffic steady on these glorified PR circles. The sites generate traffic and money, and SOE generates positive feedback. Its a win-win situation that Brenlo clearly feels is the future of SOE Public Relations. The previous Community Manager actually had the intelligence and foresight to offer EQ2Flames certain privileges that were reserved for "standard" fansites, but progress in this direction was completely abandoned with the latest CM to step in and take over.

It's overly transparent to see why Brenlo made the decision he did to cut EQ2Flames from the "official" community. Regardless of the fact that it is the largest EQ2Community in existence (more popular than the official one)... its criticism of the game was deemed unacceptable. After all, when you are trying to manage the publics opinion of your game, EQ2Flames is certainly an easy target.

But on to why I listed developer information:

Because SOE decided to cut off constructive criticism on its official forums, and internally stated that SOE employees risk losing their jobs for even sending or reading PM's on EQ2Flames (I was told this by a dev directly), I had to ask myself how we could provide any criticism at all that would be heard. The only possible thing I could think of was providing the in-game name of a few Devs I was aware of, and asked that people send them a /tell with the type of constructive feedback we were used to generating successfully on the forum. Within 2 hours of making the post I had received almost 100 PMs containing information about more developers (most of which was so private/personal I haven't posted it). I was trying to be objective and instead of targeting a few SOE employees I tried to provide as much information as possible. It was only a logical progression that when players see a coder guilded with a top raid guild they start asking questions, and I answered those questions as best I could. Did this make some people look worse in the end? I suppose, but its all left up to interpretation. Though my opinions on SOE employees are generally seen to be negative, I have had some really awesome and candid conversations with a few employees since this drama exploded that my feelings are currently neutral. Its a shame that the worst apple of all has to be leading the community into a ditch, though.

Did my experiment work out like I planned? Not at all. In fact, I've talked to enough employees with integrity to almost make me regret doing it at all. But when an action I took on a whim gets greenlit on Fark, blogged about, and receives more page views than EQ2 has active subscribers, there is clearly a point to be learned from all of this. I think that point is obvious, and its a weight to be carried by the SOE Community staff. Thousands of people who have never heard of EQ2 at all were introduced to this conflict, and read about it and weighed in on it. And I love that. I think everyone should form their own opinions and post how they feel on the forums and threads that are discussing this. Because opinions are like assholes... even if Brenlo doesn't want to acknowledge that ^_~

LFG · 03-18-2008, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaige

Aeralik. He is my friend but I read the PMs and saw what happened and I still feel that way. He tried to convince me that LFG did something else behind the scenes but I see no evidence of it.

I really don't know what he is talking about by saying that to you. I didn't do anything behind any scenes that could be harmful or considered aggressive or antagonistic against anyone from SOE, other than what has already been disclosed here.

If he said I did something specifically, I'd appreciate if you could post what I've been accused of so I could have the opportunity to reply to that. Seriously, I haven't done shit, and I believe Aeralik is lying, mistaken, or made that statement based on incorrect, unverified information.

I've got nothing to hide. Aeralik does, however.

LFG · 03-18-2008, 09:17 PM

Nice post Snark.

LFG · 03-18-2008, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RadarX

Flames now has 0 support from anyone. No TTH, no Zam (although I'm not sure how much there was), no SOE, no one.

No offense Radar, but this site gets more forum traffic than every other EQ2 forum site combined together, even with the official forums.

I'd hardly call all those people "no one". I have nothing against you personally, but not being cited by TTH and Allakhazam won't affect our traffic. It will affect yours.

Vaanir · 03-18-2008, 09:33 PM

What's TTH and Allakhazam ? Google didn't return any results

Snark · 03-18-2008, 09:37 PM

I fail to see why SOE is willing to pay to fly out and lodge so many worthless people every year, when for free there are people on this website that could design better encounters, better loot, better direction for the game, etc.

I just dont get it.

dawy · 03-18-2008, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFG

No offense Radar, but this site gets more forum traffic than every other EQ2 forum site combined together, even with the official forums.

I'd hardly call all those people "no one". I have nothing against you personally, but not being cited by TTH and Allakhazam won't affect our traffic. It will affect yours.

I'll agree this site gets more traffic..its fucking murder to get on here sometimes..though thats my shitty ISPs fault

dawy · 03-18-2008, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snark

I fail to see why SOE is willing to pay to fly out and lodge so many worthless people every year, when for free there are people on this website that could design better encounters, better loot, better direction for the game, etc.

I just dont get it.

It doesnt matter wehter you get it or not,its all about arse licking..ROK was a fucking bad expansion we all know that,its dire but i really dont think the devs who worked on it really want to hear that,all they want is pats and the back and current buns all round. I think its called having an ego.

Otis · 03-18-2008, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snark

I fail to see why SOE is willing to pay to fly out and lodge so many worthless people every year, when for free there are people on this website that could design better encounters, better loot, better direction for the game, etc.

I just dont get it.

Judging by some posts in this thread of yours, Snarky, some of those same worthless people might just be realizing exactly what you mean, and will do just about anything to continue suckling at SOE's tit.

Their worlds would be shattered if that came to an end.

And mark my words, it's a very real possibility. I think it pisses a lot of fansite personalities off that LFG rocked the boat here.

LFG · 03-18-2008, 09:49 PM

One thing people still don't seem to understand about me is that I don't like to be threatened, and I never have a problem apologizing when I'm wrong, or disclosing information that may even be against my own interests.

I'm feeling like I was threatened with this PM, so I'm going to post it and explain the situation, because I'm not afraid of the truth:

Quote:

Also there are some allegations rising that you approached Zam about being purchased. I'd heard the rumor months and months ago but now it's coming from sources usually not in the know so I'd venture a guess that's going to leak out eventually. Just a heads up.

At the last Las Vegas Fanfaire, I made peace with Calthine after some fairly intense anti-ZAM drama on this site, in which I had posted information about principals of Affinity Media (Zam's parent company) and criminal proceedings against them for charges including child molestation (men with underaged boys) and fraud.

At the Fanfaire, during the pool party, I mentioned to her that I would consider selling this site if the price was right. She then introduced me to some of the prinicpals of ZAM/Affinity, and also Allakhazam, who were all present at Fanfaire. We spent about 10 minutes discussing this, and neither I nor they ever contacted each other or discussed this ever again.

This was a conversation, I was basically interested in finding out whether this site was even marketable, and how much it was worth. This was during a period when this site was having extreme problems with advertisers and malware, and my interest in EQ2 was dwindling to the point I really wasn't playing much anymore and had pretty much even stopped raiding. At the time, this site seemed to me like a big money draining hole filled with problems, and I was pretty burned out on it and the game. That's it.

Now, where did this rumor come from, and how did it spread? Only one person is possible, and that is Calthine. That's because she and those principals from ZAM/Allakhazam were the only ones I ever talked to about this, ever, and this involved just one conversation that lasted about 10 minutes, as I've stated above.

I was one of the people who originally recommended Calthine for inclusion in the Summit program. I hired her on this site, and treated her very fairly in terms of compensation and money I sent her. I doubt she would deny that. When I was contacted to attend the Summit (or Influencer event, or whatever the fuck you want to call it) prior to the Fanfaire, I decided not to attend, and then I contacted Brenlo, declined his offer to attend, and asked if Calthine could attend in my place.

Brenlo accepted my suggestion and flew Calthine from Alaska to San Diego for the Summit. I'd asked Calthine to gather some information for me while she was at the Summit, and to represent this site. I was never exactly sure what she did there, except what I found out later is that she used this as the opportunity to meet with Tamat and have a job interview with Allakhazam.

Calthine then accepted Tamat's job offer and quit this site. I never said anything negative to her or anyone else about that, and publicly wished her well.

And after all that, this is how I'm repaid, with this stupid rumor.

Nobody has to worry about this site ever being sold at this point. As Radar has suggested, nobody wishing to maintain relations with SOE would ever touch this site now with a ten foot pole.