SOE to Distribute Turbine Expansion Packs

voncheesebiscuit writes "Sony Online Entertainment (developers of Everquest, EQ2, and Star Wars Galaxies) and Turbine Entertainment Software (developers of Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2) announced today an agreement whereby SOE will distribute the upcoming Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2 expansion packs. Interesting news, what does this mean for future Turbine games and other MMP's as Sony increases its visibility in the space?"

Comments

Visibility?

[Dragoon412]

I don't think there are many MMO players out there who aren't painfully aware of Sony's existance in the MMO field. Or more accurately, aren't painfully aware of Sony's inpetitude.

Sony set the bar so low for customer service and game quality with EverQuest that they've become something of a running joke amongst many players.

Case in point: How many of you old EQ players remember Sony bringing down the EQ servers for a patch scheduled for 4 hours, bringing them back up 12 hours later, then, when no one can connect to their servers, blame each and every players' ISP for the problem. Then, when they finally did fix things, they'd have to take the servers down for yet another emergency patch. Or how about being told by a guide that he can't help you, even though you're stuck in a wall, because it's against policy to assist players unless their problem is one of a few SOE-confirmed bugs.

Anyways, my point is, I don't think Sony increasing their visibility is going to have much of an effect because everyone already knows they're around, and their reputation is laughably bad. I'd be more worried about SOE using this as a way to screw Turbine.

Re:Visibility?

[Dachannien]

Or how about being told by a guide that he can't help you, even though you're stuck in a wall, because it's against policy to assist players unless their problem is one of a few SOE-confirmed bugs.

As a former member of the EQ Guide Program under Verant, before the program was eviscerated by SOE, I can refute this assertion.

Determining that someone is stuck in a wall (such as the portcullises in Permafrost, people were always standing underneath those and getting pushed up into the space above them when they lowered) is incredibly easy. All you had to do was /goto the person in question, and then when you determined that you were stuck there along with them, you either /zoned back in and walked around to find them, or asked for the name of someone nearby to /goto. Then you just /summoned the stuck person, exchanged pleasantries, and were off.

A guide who didn't put even this minimal amount of effort into their work had no business being a guide.

Since then, SOE has indeed dismantled the Guide Program, and hasn't instituted volunteer CS in any of their newer games. Obviously, the old AOL wage lawsuit put the fear of The Man into the industry, because (to my knowledge) there aren't any games out now with volunteer CS. And to be perfectly honest, it has hurt the quality of these games tremendously.

Re:Visibility?

[tvalley000]

I don't think there are many MMO players out there who aren't painfully aware of Sony's existance in the MMO field. Or more accurately, aren't painfully aware of Sony's inpetitude.

Sony set the bar so low for customer service and game quality with EverQuest that they've become something of a running joke amongst many players.


I read the PR carefully, and it doesn't state that SOE will be doing anything more than distributing the titles. The quote from Jason clearly outlines the advantages that Turbine is receiving from this agreement: Exposure to retail.

Turbine has an in-house Customer Service department. While they've had their problems in the past (I challenge you to find one MMO company out there where there haven't been complaints lodged against the customer service department), they're certainly no Verant/SOE.