Rumor - SOE to purchase VG?

[boy-]

This rumor seems very rumorish. Every post seems to be sourced from one person (the vgflames admin), who doesn't mention that he actaully has any inside infoz or anything.

Not that I'd be surprised if it does turn true, just the rumor source doesn't seem very credible atm.

[Kazgrim]

I think Sigil would run themselves into bankruptcy, rather than selling-out which would more or less be conceding failure.

problem is this has already happened and they conceded failure by launching this, or rather the failure became obvious at that point.

[Gaereth]

Brad and co bought it back because they fully believed they would garner a percentage of WOW numbers with ease. He believed, despite a ton of evidence to the contrary, that VG would be the next best thing to sliced bread.

-shrug- It always felt like there was a pretty large disconnect between what the game was actually doing and what Brad believed was going to happen. Look at it this way....Brad had a lot to do with the direction EQII was taking when it released and we know how that went. SOE put some new folks in charge and allowed them to change the direction of the game and its a damn fine game now. If they do the same with VG then it stands a very good chance of realizing the possibilities it has under the hood. If you look at what happened to EQII after the 'vision' for the game was redone by Scott and team I just can't find a downside to SOE taking VG over.

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by redjunkopera

It doesn't make sense to me that Sigil would go out of their way to buy something with a good chance of failing, just to sell it off after actually "failing".

Do you really think that McQuaid and Sigil would have given up on VG before it even released? I highly doubt with how vocal Aradune was/is about his "Vision" and the future of the game that he would have abandoned his efforts. Regardless how great of a potential for disaster, I don't think any company owner wants to give up on years of work and money without proof that its a sinking ship first.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by boy-

This rumor seems very rumorish. Every post seems to be sourced from one person (the vgflames admin), who doesn't mention that he actaully has any inside infoz or anything.

Not that I'd be surprised if it does turn true, just the rumor source doesn't seem very credible atm.

Yeah I agree, except that LFG is usually pretty credible. His sites have a lot of dev interaction (well the EQ2 one much moreso), and he doesn't seem wont to just say things without thinking they are plausible.

Besides, this rumor is on every forum now and it would take about 2 minutes for someone from Sigil to say 'Umm this isn't happening' and be done with it. Seems to me you would want to squash this rumor ASAP, especially when your game is having the 'growing pains' that VG is.

[Maxxius]

Originally Posted by Drajakur

I don't understand this. It vexes me. Wasn't the whole point of VG to say 'fuck-you' to SOE and its creative vision? Isn't that why Brad and the others left to create Sigil rather than develop EQ2? And now, if this rumor is true, it turns out that their game is destined to become just another feather in the SOE MMO hat...which, lo and behold, it in fact already is in large part due to the fact that it is part of the Station Pass anyway?

Its like everything in the MMO universe was subtly re-arranged but, amazingly, ended up being exactly the same as it always was.

Vexation!

Why be vexed? Basically proves that Brad, as I called him many times before, was nothing but a used car salesman. He lacked the ability to read the market. Tried creating a game from scratch on his own, with ideas most didn't like. Milked MS along until they finally said enough squandering of their money. Was fortunate SOE stepped in to help bail his ass out. His credibility with the gaming public is pretty much nil. Presumably with Brad out of the decision making process with the takeover, the game may actually start to come into focus and actually maintain a niche.

[redjunkopera]

Originally Posted by Cuppycake

Do you really think that McQuaid and Sigil would have given up on VG before it even released?

That's my point, I don't think even going broke would stop them from trying to make this game succeed. I can't imagine anyone thinking selling their game to SOE would be the way to fix it, lol.

[Cuppycake]

Originally Posted by redjunkopera

I can't imagine anyone thinking selling their game to SOE would be the way to fix it, lol.

Being the Devil's advocate here. Perhaps they're not trying to fix it...perhaps Sigil has no other choice in the matter. Maybe they're fucked over financially?

[Greyform]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Besides, this rumor is on every forum now and it would take about 2 minutes for someone from Sigil to say 'Umm this isn't happening' and be done with it. Seems to me you would want to squash this rumor ASAP, especially when your game is having the 'growing pains' that VG is.

Agree, would seem odd to let this one hang in the breeze without some kind of reply, I guess we will know next week.

On a side note, I logged in last night to check out these performance fixes, after the initial hitching as everything was cached, the game really did run a lot smoother.

I won’t have time to play it now, but it is really too bad they screwed that release up, a lot more people would have a lot more positive things to say about VG had this been the release version.

[redjunkopera]

Sigil owns all of VG, I don't think they have anyone they need to answer to financially... at least not anyone that could MAKE them sell.

-Merge servers
-Cut CS
-Rig-up a tight as hell LFG system, and some travel assistance (bats, summons, stones, w/e)
-Send the Vision(tm) on vacation for a while.

-Take your time to shore up the engine. Fire off everyone who isn't capable of making your engine not run like shit on >50% of the people who would ever want to try it's regular PC. Create some "zones" ala WoW if that's what it takes to not make moving about a nightmare for a lot of people. I don't care how awesome a game is... if it runs like shit I get angry, and when I'm angry I'm never having a good time.

Turn your dev mode to subsistence. Get some tools for players to create content. You work on the engine, they work on the content... hopefully by the time your game doesn't run like shit on a reasonably priced computer of that moment, you will have enough content to keep people mildly interested. Then you slowly work the vision back into the game.

All SOE is going to do is merge servers, and abolish CS. SOE is like hospice for MMOs (sorry EQ2).

[The Hiram Key]

SOE has owned this game from the day Microsoft pulled out, and SOE stepped in. It was true back then, and it's true now. So they change the letterhead on the stationary, big fucking deal.

I want to know what they are going to do with Brad ! Will he ride off into the sunset on his dirtbike ? Decend like the Angel of Death on yet another MMO ? Demolish some other genre or mode of gaming ? Grow daisies in the insane aslyum he should be locked up in ??!?

MORE INFOZ PLZ!

[Eomer]

dirtbike

Pretty sure it's a red F360 Modena.

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by redjunkopera

I can't imagine anyone thinking selling their game to SOE would be the way to fix it, lol.

How they'd plan to fix VG without turning it into EQ2.01 is the real mystery to me. That might make VG a vastly better game than it is now, but it would hurt their current [and already very good] game.

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by Vorph

How they'd plan to fix VG without turning it into EQ2.01 is the real mystery to me. That might make VG a vastly better game than it is now, but it would hurt their current [and already very good] game.

Maybe that's their plan? Perhaps they view VG as a means to mold EQ2 into a more free-flowing game. If they could implement most of the EQ2 stuff into VG it may actually stand a chance. Personally, I won't be playing it ever again unless they revamp the art completely to not look like complete ass. Terrain visuals are stunning at first, but after awhile, the glaring inconsistencies of textures, etc. start to hurt the eyes.

Character models and animations and spell particles are ALL completely horrid. End of story.

[Greyform]

Originally Posted by Vorph

How they'd plan to fix VG without turning it into EQ2.01 is the real mystery to me. That might make VG a vastly better game than it is now, but it would hurt their current [and already very good] game.

We will find out that that Telon is really a moon orbiting Norrath, and it will be EQ2’s Luclin expansion.