SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Zuuljin]

Yea I dont get his posts either, but whatever. =\

[Regime]

Originally Posted by voodoochile78

I'm enthralled by Kudos' avatar.

Everyone has been for the past few years. Rather he is being a prick or not you just stare at his avatar in shock and awe. For hours, cough I mean seconds between raids.

FuckYou's sigs and Kudos avatar

God Bless these fine men.

[Kaylena]

Originally Posted by AlekseiFL

I Know its Not Brad, But Can Hear Brad, Spinning it, In 1 of his long winded Posts, where he Basically says Nothing But Spins it on Blameing SoE for His Vision not being allowed to work in Direction of game as why game failed.

Know that post was Joke But could see Brad saying that, their Irony in that is Brad Made tons of Money on eq 1 and expansion before he left got Some Eq 2 money on orginal idea, and Vanguard, so he Probally drinking at the Club somewhere Not even careing about it.

However When he does Post im sure he going to Spin it as Only Brad Or George Bush can.

That satirical piece doesn't blame SOE, though. It blames the naysayer part of the gaming community.

Even IF he could point to the gaming community for being instrumental in influencing initial buying power, if the game was good, it would have proven that voice false.

What is interesting is that the influence did impact initial sales. At least I don't remember one that had this much impact for such a hyped out project. Smedley claims 200k boxes were sold, but does not reveal actual subscription numbers. Players claim no where near that were actually in the game after launch. That's definitely an impact.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by Kaylena

That satirical piece doesn't blame SOE, though. It blames the naysayer part of the gaming community.

Even IF he could point to the gaming community for being instrumental in influencing initial buying power, if the game was good, it would have proven that voice false.

What is interesting is that the influence did impact initial sales. At least I don't remember one that had this much impact for such a hyped out project. Smedley claims 200k boxes were sold, but does not reveal actual subscription numbers. Players claim no where near that were actually in the game after launch. That's definitely an impact.

Didn't Brad do exactly that? Said we weren't getting the right word out about the game or some horseshit.

[Hachima]

I hope Nino is going to the Spy/Espionage MMO that SOE is developing. It would be nice to see a totally new and non-fantasy MMO concept that is well done.

[Gaereth]

I thought Brad blamed the gamers and sites for the wrong message getting out as well. To me that actually looked like a condensed and truthful post by Brad rather than his meandering crapshoots of a post he normally does..:P

[Filthgrinder]

Originally Posted by Hachima

I hope Nino is going to the Spy/Espionage MMO that SOE is developing. It would be nice to see a totally new and non-fantasy MMO concept that is well done.

HAHAHAHA yeah, wish him onto to another piece of uber vaporware.

[Ham n Cheese]

It's a shame some of the good people have their name attached with their product. I mean I don't personally know if Nino can develop to save his life, but I know he was always a help and here to help us out and report shit. He seemed to actually care that the game was a success and people believed in what was going to happen with it. It was enough to keep me as long as I did but just not enough to stay. There was another VG employee here that I forget the name of who messaged me multiple times about the broken quests I had run into, giving me names of people to talk to, communicating back with me on the progress. Employees that genuinely care and show it are so great, the guy wasn't out here responding to my posts to show hey look how great I am, he was sending me PMs to make sure shit got fixed and it ultimately did.

I'd really like to see some of the Sigil team on a new game is basically what I'm getting at; despite how boring VG was for me.

[flagrantabuse]

Originally Posted by gimpz0r

Time to head back to EQ2 everyone. You know its the best MMO out there

Granted EQ2 is more fun than watching the American version of 'The Office' but not half as fun as watching reruns of 'The Nanny' whilst plucking out your pubes with a fork

[Laerazi]

So where's Nino's announcement he was going to make today?

[Kaylena]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Didn't Brad do exactly that? Said we weren't getting the right word out about the game or some horseshit.

He implied many times that scaring people off with buzz words such as, "Go back to WoW kiddieland", "Maybe this game is not for you", "Read the Vision FAQ!", probably wasn't doing him any good, but in many respects, he brought that on himself. It invited people right out the door, and they slammed it... hard.

But Brad didn't see that until those people walked out, wrote about it and he was losing numbers. Some of his own staff did recognize those signs early on. I know that much. But by the time Brad semi-addressed it, it was too late. He was desperately trying to keep the loyalists in one breath and then posting publically trying to coax back people who ran away from the kool-aid kids.

He wound up sending mixed signals. People took a wait and see attitude as a result. It shows in the numbers after launch.

[Aethn Anvel]

Edit : Bah missed it somehow about 15 pages back, my bad. This topic has been going so fast that its easy to miss stuff if you leave the thread for an hour.

[Laerazi]

Looks like someone's been reading the thread!

[redjunkopera]

at SOE we fill this hampers

maybe he was thinking about dirty laundry

[Nino]

There is much I would love to unload about right now, but seeing as I am feeling pretty emotional while trying to respect the wishes of remaining Vanguard management, I will refrain.

I knew this was coming months ago, as did most others, so I made arrangements prior to the whole unfolding of events today. Sony was kind enough to invite me and a few others to form a small team and to start prototyping a 'new' project. While we've done some 'secret' preliminary work, we begin in earnest tomorrow after we officially sign on with SOE. Don't bother asking about details, because you won't get any.

I became increasingly disenfranchised with the situation since the forced premature launch, which then culminated several weeks back when I decided I could not, in good conscience, continue serving the Sigil management staff in my over-extended capacity and stepped down. I would have walked away completely if this recent opportunity had not presented itself when it did.

I did the best I could with the time and resources I had at my disposal, but in the end it simply wasn't enough to bring the game up to the standards we all had hoped for in the time we had remaining. I apologize for any disappointments players have experienced. During the final year, I was pulling 80-100 hour weeks, and I was not at all alone in the building. I wish things could have been different.

While I was fortunate to stay employed, there were near 50 people today who were not, and it was painful watching the procession of stunned coworkers packing their belongings into little cardboard boxes with blank looks on their faces. I've never had to endure something like this, and I hope to never have to do it again. I know it is easy to point fingers at 'why' things ended up this way, but the vast, vast majority of the folks losing their jobs today had very little control on how events unfolded and many were skilled and creative people who simply wanted to make a great game.

The Vanguard team, obviously now much smaller, will go back to improving and fixing the game tomorrow. Myself and four others will be moving to a new location and beginning anew. The others will begin the process of trying to find a new place to work.

I promised not to be publically scornful, but I will say this: I hope those truly responsible for the deep rooted failings of the company lay in bed tonight and relive the events that transpired today in their heads, over and over. For not ONE of you is without your job come tomorrow morning.