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SOE CEO Responds To CBS Critiques

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the from-on-high dept.

CBS's GameCore page continues to follow up with Star Wars Galaxies players on the aftermath of the NGE. Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley has gotten into the act, responding to criticisms leveled at the company in previous GameCore pieces. From the article: ""I'm bent about that one ... As a person, I have zero problem with criticism. I don't have any problem whatsoever with our customers complaining. I think it's perfectly legitimate, and I think it's perfectly legitimate for you guys to have a mailbag with hate mail from Star Wars Galaxies. But of all the mail, that's the one that bothered me because it's filled with a bunch of BS ... There has never been a release by Sony Online Entertainment that has been incomplete.

5 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Horseshit by vertinox · · Score: 2, Informative

    Right, but he was head of 989 Studio, who turned into Verant (who developed Everquest), and then went to SOE as its president when it aquired Verant. (source)

    So yeah... He was kind of responsible for that game too.

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  2. After 340+ days played as a shaman in EQ by thewise1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I can confidently say that the CEO of SOE is not in touch with his company. Everquest bugs made Windows appear to be a paragon of good software design, development, and QA. Seriously, what an idiot. Although I did have fun playing it, the idea that it was "complete" is hilarious. Aside from broken encounters... Vex Thal? Plane of Mischief? I could go on for hours but it would just make me look nerdy :D

  3. Re:Horseshit by dc29A · · Score: 3, Informative

    You chumps didn't even bill for EQ for the first month after "release", it was so fucked up.

    That's only the tip of the iceberg.

    The first loot out of Sleeper's Tomb was ... cloth cap, for non EQ players it's beyond an insult, it's a worthless level 1 item out of the hardest (at that time) zone. Why is an endgame zone loot that takes an entire well coordinated raid to beat a level one worthless item? Zone is incomplete. In the next expansion, Vex Thal, the endzone of Shadows of Luclin expansion was incomplete (shocker!). The next major expansion, Planes of Power had it's endzone blocked by SOE for months by an unkillable encounter. 190 well coordinated people failed the Avatar of Earth encounter because well, SOE didn't want anyone in the Plane of Time because ... you guessed, it was incomplete! This encounter should have been trivial with that many people and after SOE "fixed it" it was done by far smaller numbers. Fast forward to the clusterfuck that was the Gates of Discord expansion, another line of incomplete zones, buggy content and al. But at least this time, people got fed up and left. EQ started hemmoraging.

    Smedley lies. Period. He often lied about many things ingame being fine and working yet they were not. Nothing new for EQ/SWG veterans. He is only on the defensive now because it's not some guild website telling people SOE games suck, but instead a CBS, a reputable news source.

  4. LOL - I was there by Yoik · · Score: 3, Informative

    "There has never been a release by Sony Online Entertainment that has been incomplete."

    What a crock! I was in the beta, and nobody I knew there thought they were within weeks of ready. It literally didn't come up at all the first day, and none of the advanced professions were playable.

    There was a serious disconnect somewhere in that organization that continues in Smedley's statement.

  5. Child's Play by ShawnDoc · · Score: 2, Informative
    Keep in mind this is the same SOE that refused to participate with the Child's Play charity because one of the Penny Arcade guys publically criticized their Art of Everquest book.

    Looks like Gabe took it down, but you can see how it started.