SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Itzena]

Hah, I forgot that someone caught me out.

[gremlinz273]

Beh, the beta forums were where the good drama was. Someone needs to make those public.

[Twobit Whore]

Originally Posted by gremlinz273

Beh, the beta forums were where the good drama was. Someone needs to make those public.

I believe they were deleted. None of the forum accounts I have with beta access let me access them. Not that it matters, they got wiped a couple times anyway and most of the really old drama was lost forever.

[Wombat]

You people need to stop obsessing about the firing.

1) Outside firings are by no means a rare occurrence. Logistically, it may be the only location all the employees will fit into at once. And more importantly (as it looks like it was in this case), firing everyone outside the building means that the now unemployed and certainly disgruntled ex-employees can't break or steal anything on the way out.
2) There is no evidence that Brad personally weaseled his way out of the firing. First off, as already covered, he was only extremely rarely at the office - who even said he was in the state at the time. Second, who even said he had any time to get there, even if he was informed of it - Sigil could have signed the paperwork with Sony and then immediately fired everyone.

Yes, it sucks for the employees who do double time (or more) just to get fired the day the product is finished, but what happened here is by no means extraordinary or abnormal - just look at all the PC games that don't get patches because the dev team was already let go.

And I think that arguing over what went wrong with VG will continue forever. Personally, I think its about a 50/50 split between bad management and the lesson that making games designed for Catass Derangement Syndrome Sufferers should be left to the Koreans.

[Eomer]

From reading that F13 article on how little oversight there was from MS and Sony, it's kind of hilarious to look back now on Aradune bragging about how much creative freedom their publishing deals gave them. Turns out that freedom most likely sunk the game, or let the train runaway for a lot longer than it should have.

A good majority of that money went into the art creation, since as Kendrick has said before the art side of the house was in full gear a good year or two before Dev started ramping up.

I want to be very clear: I am not attempting to piss on anyone's grave here, and I know that this is probably a very touchy subject. But I wondered from the day it was announced whether having Keith Parkinson as the Art Director was a good idea or not. Keep in mind that I personally have difficulty drawing stick figures, let alone dragons. And I've never once used photoshop, let alone Maya or any other rendering program. But it's one thing to have him on-board to do concept art and give direction for the game, but I really have to question whether he was qualified or not to be in charge of the game's entire art creation process (if he indeed was, I don't know). The guy may be an amazing fantasy artist, but did he have a firm grasp on art creation for a video game? Given how poorly the game looks in a lot of respects, outside of the obvious technical/performance issues, it's a shame that it ends up as his legacy.

[Twobit Whore]

I don't think Keith had that much power and he passed quite a while back afaik. His concepts and some of the translations are clearly not an issue. There are some mob models in the game that are top-notch, and some armor as well.

Where it falls flat is in the animations, which has nothing to do with Keith and the lack of armor diversity which again was not up to him.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by Eomer

From reading that F13 article on how little oversight there was from MS and Sony, it's kind of hilarious to look back now on Aradune bragging about how much creative freedom their publishing deals gave them. Turns out that freedom most likely sunk the game, or let the train runaway for a lot longer than it should have.

This is technically known as 'Give him enough rope, and he'll hang himself'

[Giant_Flying_Head]

Most people are happy slaying mobs that look like Cuppycake's avatar if it runs smoothly on their pcs. Look at EQ1. Its chuggin right along.

Some original artwork would sell like hotcakes. I agree that the Fantasy bit has been pretty well covered by this time.

p.s - For those still playing EQ. I hope the new Meldrath is still level 30 and able to charm you non-stop.

[Warrik]

Originally Posted by Giant_Flying_Head

I agree that the Fantasy bit has been pretty well covered by this time.

I agree with this, and its for this reason that I would welcome Starcraft the MMO. Hell, if they took WoW, and just reskinned it for Starcraft. added ships and planets, I think it would be a kick ass game.

[torrent495]

Originally Posted by Wombat

2) There is no evidence that Brad personally weaseled his way out of the firing. First off, as already covered, he was only extremely rarely at the office - who even said he was in the state at the time.

What the hell, is that supposed to be an excuse? The CEO and founder doesn't show up for the death of his company because oh well he hasn't gone to work for months anyway? That makes it all better, I'm sure.

Second, who even said he had any time to get there, even if he was informed of it - Sigil could have signed the paperwork with Sony and then immediately fired everyone.

That's just ridiculous and you know it.

[Twobit Whore]

Yeah, I think people on the inside knew the hammer was coming down for at least a while. When Brad made his latest "I can't say yet" post, he knew exactly what was going to happen and probably the day it would happen. He has ZERO excuse.

[EmiliaEQ]

Originally Posted by Gnome Eater

I am extremly happy people like you are completely ignored as a potential market, and Vanguard completely tanked.

Originally Posted by Neric

Basically it's all about how much pain you are willing to endure in order to get your reward and what the reward really means to you.

Did your GF left for someone she met on EQ ?
Did EQ rape your mother and eat your babies ?

Because the amount of HATE you have towards EQ is just as bad as Xehn/Vex.


There is a market, and its not sadomasochistic people that like to drive nails through their balls.
Want to know what EQ_Reborn was/is supposed to be for me ?

- Zero PvP -> No PewPewPew balance issues
- Promoting Grouping -> Done with the "Dot" system
- Holy Trinity -> Done with 3 Tanks, 4 Healers, 4-5 CC Classes
- Huge Non Instanced Dungeons -> Trengal/Rahz Inkur
- Big World -> Ports anyone ?
- Very Slow XP -> That did not feel like a grind
- CR -> Where the fuck are the necro/SK SC for "low xp penalty" ?
- 2 Interacting "Jobs" -> Crafters & Adventurers
- Great Lore -> Almost nothing (exept for some diplomacy)
- Usable Skillchain/Renkei -> Weakness are a joke
- Slower paced Stragetic game -> Meh
- Outdoor Roaming Named -> Done, but where is Gorenaire ?
- No KS -> Perfectly done with locked mobs & /unlockcorpse
- Community -> there was a hint of something
- Non Retaded Quests -> Fuck CiS/Trengal
- Intelligently Keyed Zones
- No Consumables -> Fuck WoW
- Temple Of Veeshan 2.0 / Sebilis 2.0 / Guk 2.0

And above all the "shivers" EQ1 brought :
- Gating Mobs
- Player Fright : Lower Seb ? are you nuts ! we dont have the lvl
- Train to Zone : seeing people dying training VS/Hand to zone
- RvR : Want phat lewts ? better get your A Game (reasonable CRs)

I dont want VT Keys / 8H Fear CR / 0 Mob inside Guks.

In 6 word ? What VG was supposed to be.

[wild_whiskey]

Well just because the game isn't beating WoW or breaking records doesn't mean that it's a complete failure. It surely didn't live up to expectations.

My condolences to the employees who are now unemployed. I wanted Vanguard to be great myself.

I feel like a good chunk of the MMORPG online community are old-school EQ players who want something new that will trump their old feelings they got with EQ, and so they place huge faith in one project and are constantly waiting for the next MMO to come out. This is where I am now, looking forward to Tabula Rasa, WHO, AoC, and hoping for a Starcraft Universe.

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Elidroth Renato

Brad and I share many similar interests outside of work.

Translation: I like embarassing Brad by setting faster lap times in my Z06 than his Modena .

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by torrent495

What the hell, is that supposed to be an excuse? The CEO and founder doesn't show up for the death of his company because oh well he hasn't gone to work for months anyway? That makes it all better, I'm sure.


That's just ridiculous and you know it.

I am almost sure of it, that they told him, just stay the fuck home. Lets just do this quick and fast. He was on FOH and on SV lastnight lurking. I am sure SOE told him, they would pay him all he has to do was Shut up and let all this shit blow over.

Hell, Blizzard put the muzzle on Tigole and Furor from here, i am sure SoE is doing the same with Brad atm.