I don't expect you to take my word on this but I will share with you what I was told by a friend of mine who works for SOE. I can't give you any more detail like his position, department, etc for fear of him being identified. They apparently are bound by some air-tight non-disclosure agreements.
Below is what I was told:
Apparently, the NGE has really, REALLY stirred things up in Austin. All sorts of fingers are being pointed among SOE employee's as nobody wants to take the blame. Right now EVERYONE is trying to distance themselves from being responsible for making ANY decsions on pushing the NGE live. Every single employee is avoiding any connection to the NGE like the plague. I was told that the Dev's expected SOME account cancelations when the NGE went live, but my insider said they were willing to take those vet losses with the hopes of bringing in new subscribers over the holiday sales season. Also, the devs were counting on most of the threats by vets to quit to not actually go thru with cancelling. They have admitted, at least internally, that they number of cancels has FAR FAR FAR exceeded the number they were willing to take. As a result, there is beginning to be some serious discussion of a pre-NGE rollback. Several dev's are in serious jeopardy of being fired, and many many many of the support staff etc are polishing up their resume's because SOE has become the laughing stock of the online gaming community. No longer is it a badge of pride to work for SOE according to what I was told. Even my friend says he is no longer proud of working for SOE because of how they have destroyed their reputation.
Also, after having to report to LA on the NGE results, specifically the account cancels numbers, some of the big dogs from LA have flown into Austin for some serious intervention. No details on what that means yet, but it is known that Smedly and the senior crew at SOE have been behind closed doors for unusually lengthy meetings and have emerged with scowls on their face. The speculation is that LA is gearing up to crack down big time. (I would love to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings)
Because of the signifacant loss of subscriptions, customer service has laid off 25% of their support staff starting the 1st of January with more cuts expected.
All in all, the NGE turned out to rock the player base more deeply than what they expected. Talks are now underway on cutting the game off sometime in the first quarter of 2006. There is discussion with an outside company that is interested in purchasing the pre-NGE code with the aim of running a handful (5 tops) of pre-NGE servers, and maintained with a skeleton support staff. Right now this is apparently looking to be the most realistic result.
I will post more info as I hear stuff.
Added stuff:
Oh, and my insider said the Devs are being intentionally vague on their forum posting and player communication because they want to keep as many subscribers as possible right now. A memo was passed down to ALL Dev's by the SOE execs with a list of topics that are completely not to be discussed or responded to on the forums. It is generally feared by the SOE team that the more info the player base has, the more of them will quit the game.
Also, the game WAS in the pre-development phase on porting to consol (xbox, playstation), but that those cycles have been 100% stalled at the moment because the future of SWG is so uncertain. But I was told that if any Dev posted or said that consol talks were never taking place it is a lie because significant discussions had already been underway with the design teams experienced with porting PC games to consol systems and that the NGE was partly (not entirely) designed to acomplish this objective.
There was an online poll at swg.stratics.com, which was heavily skewed against the NGE.
This Thread on the official forums contains the efforts of SOE CSR Raijin to first debunk the authenticity of the poll, and then subsequently admit to spamming the vote in order to further his employee's agenda.
This is a shameful breach of ethics, but how can we expect a Sony employee to possess any, given their history of Astroturfing is on the record.
Never trust a single word a Sony Employee says. And never pay them a single cent more.
So it's not set in Portmerion. It's not going to be hip in that blazered sixties style. And it's going to take liberties with the original.
In other words IT'S GOING TO BE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FUCKING SHOW?!??!?
Hey, here's a great idea. Let's remake Space 1999. But instead of setting it on Moonbase Alpha, we can set it in a Crime Forensics lab in Las Vegas. And instead of aliens and shapeshifting animal chicks, they can face murderers.
I wanted to make a drum 'n' bass song with a reggae touch to it, but wasnt exactly sure how to: I could import a Bob Marley song, nab the underlying Bassline, change it from a Bass guitar to a Rave sounding synth (say), speed it up, and add my other parts to it.
Or maybe just learn how to play your fucking instrument, you talentless hack.
Ok this post is not here to discuss about the questions themselves. Just make a reply with your questions, specifying the category for each one so I can add them here. You can ask everything! Up to SOE and LA to reply. The questions SOE and LA don't reply? Here we go:
Questions about Sony Online Entertainment: 1. What do you think that you owe to a customer? 2. Have you made the NGE? It seems you discovered it only 1 week before us. How can this have been intended then? 3. If NGE was intended since the start, why lying to your customers saying that their efforts will be rewarded and granting some stuff worth their efforts?
Questions about Lucas Arts: 1. What do you think that you owe to a customer? 2. Why do you keep saying that people are happy about the NGE when most (90%) of people that tried it acutally think it's an unfair sequel to the actual game world where most previous efforts and rewards are being "destroyed" orr made "useless"? To be honnest we are kind of tired to be insulted continuously by your press releases. Say you are happy. Don't say the community is. Don't say that a vast majority of people that tried NGE is. 3. Why did you sold TOW advertising for features that were already planned to be removed as soon as introduced? (creature handler necklaces, jedi lave crystal,...) 4. You say you want to bring us fun and adventure (nice). Is it enhancing to remove quests, professions, abilities, versatility and rewards?
Questions about New Game Enhancements: 1. While you are removing 2/3 of the existing professions and at least 60% of their abilities, how is that an enhancement? 2. Do you actually think that a special skin (blue glowie), a robe (ex-FRS rank 8), a crystal (special color) and a title (not even a prefix title) are worth thousand hours of gameplay to unlock Jedi? 3. Do you really think that we are accepting you removing us all the worthness of our rewards? 4. Do you really think that more than 10% of active accounts will still be active by the 1st December 2005? 5. Do you really think that melee is balanced with NGE? 6. Do you think that redesigning CL1 to CL30 missions will make CL80 veterans having something interesting to play with? 7. Stating that the Starter Kit was a fake then announcing that it's gonna be released... do you really think customers still trust you?
Niggers and islamics keep going on about 'Respect'. Well, maybe they should try being Respectable for a change, instead of the savage parasites that destroy any city they infest.
Wherever they go, islamics are nothing but trouble, and are ALWAYS up to no good.
Given SOE's recent pitiful content-lite expansions for Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies, one can only hope that their sad pathetic games die the death they deserve.
Hell, I'd sooner play Roma Victoria than anything from Sony.
Slashdot Mirror
Step 1: Write better content.
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Profit
I don't expect you to take my word on this but I will share with you what I was told by a friend of mine who works for SOE. I can't give you any more detail like his position, department, etc for fear of him being identified. They apparently are bound by some air-tight non-disclosure agreements.
Below is what I was told:
Apparently, the NGE has really, REALLY stirred things up in Austin. All sorts of fingers are being pointed among SOE employee's as nobody wants to take the blame. Right now EVERYONE is trying to distance themselves from being responsible for making ANY decsions on pushing the NGE live. Every single employee is avoiding any connection to the NGE like the plague. I was told that the Dev's expected SOME account cancelations when the NGE went live, but my insider said they were willing to take those vet losses with the hopes of bringing in new subscribers over the holiday sales season. Also, the devs were counting on most of the threats by vets to quit to not actually go thru with cancelling. They have admitted, at least internally, that they number of cancels has FAR FAR FAR exceeded the number they were willing to take. As a result, there is beginning to be some serious discussion of a pre-NGE rollback. Several dev's are in serious jeopardy of being fired, and many many many of the support staff etc are polishing up their resume's because SOE has become the laughing stock of the online gaming community. No longer is it a badge of pride to work for SOE according to what I was told. Even my friend says he is no longer proud of working for SOE because of how they have destroyed their reputation.
Also, after having to report to LA on the NGE results, specifically the account cancels numbers, some of the big dogs from LA have flown into Austin for some serious intervention. No details on what that means yet, but it is known that Smedly and the senior crew at SOE have been behind closed doors for unusually lengthy meetings and have emerged with scowls on their face. The speculation is that LA is gearing up to crack down big time. (I would love to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings)
Because of the signifacant loss of subscriptions, customer service has laid off 25% of their support staff starting the 1st of January with more cuts expected.
All in all, the NGE turned out to rock the player base more deeply than what they expected. Talks are now underway on cutting the game off sometime in the first quarter of 2006. There is discussion with an outside company that is interested in purchasing the pre-NGE code with the aim of running a handful (5 tops) of pre-NGE servers, and maintained with a skeleton support staff. Right now this is apparently looking to be the most realistic result.
I will post more info as I hear stuff.
Added stuff:
Oh, and my insider said the Devs are being intentionally vague on their forum posting and player communication because they want to keep as many subscribers as possible right now. A memo was passed down to ALL Dev's by the SOE execs with a list of topics that are completely not to be discussed or responded to on the forums. It is generally feared by the SOE team that the more info the player base has, the more of them will quit the game.
Also, the game WAS in the pre-development phase on porting to consol (xbox, playstation), but that those cycles have been 100% stalled at the moment because the future of SWG is so uncertain. But I was told that if any Dev posted or said that consol talks were never taking place it is a lie because significant discussions had already been underway with the design teams experienced with porting PC games to consol systems and that the NGE was partly (not entirely) designed to acomplish this objective.
Then you're a stupid cunt, aren't you?
Go fuck a moose.
Discuss
It's been around for TEN FUCKING YEARS you bandwagon-jumping pedophile!
I hope a dune-coon blows your house up.
They take a game with many subscribers. Turn it into shit. And suddenly there's no Large Scale Online Community.
Well, it's true. Gamers are scum that need a reality check.
Anarchy Online pioneered this, and the morons at Sony had to plagiarise it whilst simultaneously missing the entire point.
In the last month, Sony have proved themselves to be the evilest conglomorate on the planet.
Just in time for the XBox 360 release.
Interesting.
There was an online poll at swg.stratics.com, which was heavily skewed against the NGE.
This Thread on the official forums contains the efforts of SOE CSR Raijin to first debunk the authenticity of the poll, and then subsequently admit to spamming the vote in order to further his employee's agenda.
This is a shameful breach of ethics, but how can we expect a Sony employee to possess any, given their history of Astroturfing is on the record.
Never trust a single word a Sony Employee says. And never pay them a single cent more.
So it's not set in Portmerion. It's not going to be hip in that blazered sixties style. And it's going to take liberties with the original.
In other words IT'S GOING TO BE AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FUCKING SHOW?!??!?
Hey, here's a great idea. Let's remake Space 1999. But instead of setting it on Moonbase Alpha, we can set it in a Crime Forensics lab in Las Vegas. And instead of aliens and shapeshifting animal chicks, they can face murderers.
Fucking genius.
Now if it was Sony, the 1701st part, rather than being something Star-Trekky, would be DRM.
Yeah Yeah Zero Wing.
Troll Slashdot for Great Justice.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?b oard.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=25107&view=by_d ate_ascending&page=1
Sony Online Entertainment Community Relations employee admits to spamming online votes in order to place SOE games in a better light.
This makes me as excited as a muslim in a bomb shop.
I hope they don't make as shit a job of converting their MMOs to the console as Sony have done with Star Wars Galaxies.
I wanted to make a drum 'n' bass song with a reggae touch to it, but wasnt exactly sure how to: I could import a Bob Marley song, nab the underlying Bassline, change it from a Bass guitar to a Rave sounding synth (say), speed it up, and add my other parts to it.
Or maybe just learn how to play your fucking instrument, you talentless hack.
Ok this post is not here to discuss about the questions themselves. Just make a reply with your questions, specifying the category for each one so I can add them here. You can ask everything! Up to SOE and LA to reply. The questions SOE and LA don't reply? Here we go:
...)
... do you really think customers still trust you?
Questions about Sony Online Entertainment:
1. What do you think that you owe to a customer?
2. Have you made the NGE? It seems you discovered it only 1 week before us. How can this have been intended then?
3. If NGE was intended since the start, why lying to your customers saying that their efforts will be rewarded and granting some stuff worth their efforts?
Questions about Lucas Arts:
1. What do you think that you owe to a customer?
2. Why do you keep saying that people are happy about the NGE when most (90%) of people that tried it acutally think it's an unfair sequel to the actual game world where most previous efforts and rewards are being "destroyed" orr made "useless"? To be honnest we are kind of tired to be insulted continuously by your press releases. Say you are happy. Don't say the community is. Don't say that a vast majority of people that tried NGE is.
3. Why did you sold TOW advertising for features that were already planned to be removed as soon as introduced? (creature handler necklaces, jedi lave crystal,
4. You say you want to bring us fun and adventure (nice). Is it enhancing to remove quests, professions, abilities, versatility and rewards?
Questions about New Game Enhancements:
1. While you are removing 2/3 of the existing professions and at least 60% of their abilities, how is that an enhancement?
2. Do you actually think that a special skin (blue glowie), a robe (ex-FRS rank 8), a crystal (special color) and a title (not even a prefix title) are worth thousand hours of gameplay to unlock Jedi?
3. Do you really think that we are accepting you removing us all the worthness of our rewards?
4. Do you really think that more than 10% of active accounts will still be active by the 1st December 2005?
5. Do you really think that melee is balanced with NGE?
6. Do you think that redesigning CL1 to CL30 missions will make CL80 veterans having something interesting to play with?
7. Stating that the Starter Kit was a fake then announcing that it's gonna be released
Niggers and islamics keep going on about 'Respect'. Well, maybe they should try being Respectable for a change, instead of the savage parasites that destroy any city they infest.
Wherever they go, islamics are nothing but trouble, and are ALWAYS up to no good.
And unleash my +10 nigger cock of child-raping.
Make sure players are fighting over each other, instead of rallying together and realising that they're all being played for fools.
All part of Koster's Theory.
The devs are sitting under their desks crying softly to themselves.
Koster's so fucking full of himself. Pity his games are shit and not fun to play.
Given SOE's recent pitiful content-lite expansions for Everquest 2 and Star Wars Galaxies, one can only hope that their sad pathetic games die the death they deserve.
Hell, I'd sooner play Roma Victoria than anything from Sony.
This is probably going to get lost, hence me posting it here. People have probably mentioned it already. Mod them up. I'm just a troll.
Blizzard's EULA specifically PROHIBITS the use of military ranks and titles in names. IT'S WRITTEN IN PLAIN FUCKING SIGHT YOU AIDS-FILLED CUNT!
Cmdr is short (like your penis) for Commander, right? A FUCKING MILITARY TITLE.
Now you're using it as an excuse to bleat and moan on the front cunting page about virtual identity, when in fact YOU WERE IN THE SHITTING WRONG!
Kathleen - get yourself a real fucking man.
Star Wars Galaxies and Planetside have now dropped to LESS players than Roma Victoria!