All Posts by Torak

Originally posted by indiramourn

Originally posted by Elikal

I can only agree. CoH was a great game in its fundament, but NCSoft totally failed to expand the basics and evolve it in any way.

I'm sorry, Elikal.  I value your opinion but that statement is false.  CoX continues to grow and evolved.  The dev team, now part of NCSoft, is expanding and at it's core are the same Cryptic devs that created the game.  Over 4 years old now with 12 free issues (mini-expansions) and a 13th on the way, it is still my favorite MMORPG.  Issue 14 (coming a Feb 2009) includes the Mission Architect that will let players create their own custom missions for the game.  So don't be dissing the CoX. 
 

 

Originally posted by Zorvan

 

Yep, Richard Garriott "leaving" was the same as Gaute Godager "resigning" from Funcom. They were both shoved out the damn door with the courtesy of allowing them a last shred of dignity by leaving quietly.

Kinglee makes a good point with Enomoto. Space Adventures is goingto be hit hard with that lawsuit, and it's going to open the door for others in the future. I have a feeling King Richard is going to end up broke sweeping the floors of his former castle one of these days with the amount of sense and good judgement he's shown over the last few years.

I'm totally unfamiliar with "space adventures", I'll check it out.

Lord Brit won't ever personally have to worry about it, thats why Corps are legal entities. Dunno, never liked any of his games, UO was a grind, yeah it was a cool sandbox but like old SWG and its Bol hunting, all there was to do was stand in corners and kill the same things over and over until you reached a certain point then you went and stood somewhere else for a few dozen hours....just like Lineage 2 use to be (and yes, RG was the executive producer for L2 when it was designed readers at large) and any other game Lord Brit had anything to do with.

Originally posted by kinglee

 Latest figures on RGTR's sales...Q3 is at $1.7 million quarter, which is right around $600K a month.  It costs about a million a month to keep the game running, so it's running at a deficit of $4000K per month.  Looks like it's losing about $4.8 a year.

Richard "discovered" other things to do the day before the quarterlies were released.  Space Adventures is facing a big lawsuit from a customer who feels cheated--Enomoto-- maybe that's what his next big outer-space effort is going to.

 

Hey Kinglee, I'm not doubting you or anything but do have the link? I really enjoy the fact NC puts it out publicly but I can never find the damn thing.

IMHO, he was probably asked to resign or be fired. Thats generally how corps handle upper management issues. Those guys never lose anything so this doesn't hurt him at all. In fact aside from a reputation dump, he probably made out pretty well. Well enough to play spaceman because a blind man saw this coming.

Originally posted by rampage2006

 

Nice but for f**k sake I can't find that box thing.

I mean all guild wars part in one.

But gonna find it.

 

Peace.

www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-Trilogy-Pc/dp/B001DI6O6C/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Torak

You know who can blame for NCSoft North America's poor management? Big ol' Lord Brit Richard Garriott. All that guy was worried about was keep his numbers up so that he could get his little rocket trip into space. Every time there was a layoff he cut CS positions. He didn't give a f*ck whether the subs were players or farmers.

Everything the guy did was a frickin mess. Almost everything NC NA has done in the last 4 years has been a flop. AA shut down in record time and TR, the game that Rich claimed would be the end all of MMO's is on clearance at Amazon for 0.96 cents one year after launch. The last decent thing NC did in NA was GW and before that CoH which Crypic cut and run from NC first opportunity.

The guy was a complete tool who could give a rats arse about the quality of the games he produced. He was to busy pretending to be a video game rockstar and playing Spaceman Spiff to worry about running NC NA. Now he's off to play field scientist and pursue his new interest inspired by his trip to space. NC more likely asked him to resign is probably the real story. They positioned Star Long in there a few months ago for a reason.

 

 

 

 

 

ummm richard garriott only worked on Tabula rasa, unless you got a link or something to prove he worked on L2.

 

http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/aaron/garriott/garriott2.htm

also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott

[edit] Video game works
Game Name First Released System Name(s) Garriott's Role(s)
Akalabeth: World of Doom 1980 Apple II & DOS Game Designer & Programmer
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness 1980 Apple II, Atari 8 bit systems, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns & MSX Original Conceptor, Programmer & Graphic Artist
Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress 1982 Apple II, Atari 8 bit systems, Commodore 64, DOS & FM Towns Programmer
Ultima III: Exodus 1983 Apple II, Amiga, Atari 8 bit systems, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns, Mac OS & NES Project Director
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar 1985 Apple II, Amiga, Atari 8 bit systems, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns, MSX, NES, Sega Master System Project Director
Autoduel 1985 Apple II, Amiga, Atari 8 bit systems, Atari ST, Commodore 64 & DOS Programmer & Designer
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny 1988 Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, FM Towns & NES Designer, Writer & Programmer
Omega 1989 Apple II, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 & DOS Designer
Ultima VI: The False Prophet 1990 DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, FM Towns, SNES Designer, Producer, Sound Effect Worker, Writer & Voice Actor
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire 1990 DOS & SNES Executive Producer
Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams 1991 DOS Creative Director
Ultima: Runes of Virtue 1991 Game Boy Creative Director
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss 1992 DOS, FM Towns & PlayStation Director & Voice Actor
Ultima VII: The Black Gate 1992 DOS & SNES Director & Producer
Ultima VII: The Forge of Virtue 1993 DOS Creative Assistance & Producer
Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle 1993 DOS Creative Director & Audio Team Member
Ultima VII Part Two: The Silver Seed 1993 DOS Director & Voice Actor
Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds 1993 DOS, FM Towns & NEC PC-9801 Director & Voice Actor
Ultima VIII: Pagan 1994 DOS Producer
Ultima: Runes of Virtue II 1994 Game Boy Creative Director & Additional Design
Ultima VIII: The Lost Vale Expansion Pack Cancelled DOS Producer
Bioforge 1995 DOS Executive Producer
Ultima Online 1997 Windows Producer
Ultima Online: The Second Age 1998 Windows Executive Designer
Lineage 1998 Windows & Mac OS X Executive Producer
Ultima IX: Ascension 1999 Windows Director
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle 2003 Windows Executive Producer
City of Heroes 2004 Windows Executive Producer
City of Villains 2005 Windows Executive Management
Tabula Rasa Nov. 2 2007 Windows Executive Producer
 

 

ahhh ty zorvan, i didnt know he also worked on COH and COV either. thats interesting.

Uppers, if you notice he was also involved in L1 which put NC on the map.

But what I was meaning in any event was that he was responsible for the NA end of the company and he didn't give a rats arse, not what games he actually worked on. I didn't refer to any particular game he personally worked on.

This is irrelevant to my point. He was in charge and as a result, responsible. Thats why they paid him the big bucks. He drove NCSoft NA into the ground.

 EDIT

By the way...I would also like to point out that one of the grand daddy's of the stereotyped "Korean Grinder" was big Rich. L1 and L2 were emulated by.....probably hundreds of Asian games at this point. Even the old SWG pointless Bol grind aspects mimiced it.

You know who can blame for NCSoft North America's poor management? Big ol' Lord Brit Richard Garriott. All that guy was worried about was keep his numbers up so that he could get his little rocket trip into space. Every time there was a layoff he cut CS positions. He didn't give a f*ck whether the subs were players or farmers.

Everything the guy did was a frickin mess. Almost everything NC NA has done in the last 4 years has been a flop. AA shut down in record time and TR, the game that Rich claimed would be the end all of MMO's is on clearance at Amazon for 0.96 cents one year after launch. The last decent thing NC did in NA was GW and before that CoH which Crypic cut and run from NC first opportunity.

The guy was a complete tool who could give a rats arse about the quality of the games he produced. He was to busy pretending to be a video game rockstar and playing Spaceman Spiff to worry about running NC NA. Now he's off to play field scientist and pursue his new interest inspired by his trip to space. NC more likely asked him to resign is probably the real story. They positioned Star Long in there a few months ago for a reason.

You remove the "mystery and romance" when you go into a game prejudging it and trying to make it live up to some unrealistic expectation.

Play them and enjoy each game for what they are and not what they are not. Stop trying to insert your SWG expectation on everything and maybe you will enjoy a game again. SWG wasn't "alll that", it had some serious issues back in the day.

There are several very good MMO's out there, stop trying to fit square pegs into round holes and play each game for what it is and stop trying to find what it isn't.

The thing about "mysteries" is you eventually solve them.

Originally posted by firefly2003

Originally posted by Torak

Aion is going to do great in Asia....its the western market I would be wondering about. MMOs still are not very popular here compared to Asia.

 

And how many of those Koreans are gold or credit farmers , making their start ahead of time?

What does that have to do with anything I wrote?

Most gold farmers are Chinese.

True internet gold.

That's why I love religion. You can twist it to say anything you want it too.

Aion is going to do great in Asia....its the western market I would be wondering about. MMOs still are not very popular here compared to Asia.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Considering the "re-structuring" that has been done regarding those involved with TR in the past year, I don't think it was too hard to guess Richard "Hasbeen" Garriott would be out the door soon. They moved a head guy from the main corporate headquarters to "oversee" the Austin studio, thus putting Richard and his oaf brother on a leash. As time has gone by, they've removed more and more of the Garriott brothers influence on the game. Again, it wasn't hard to see this coming for anyone paying even a small amount of attention.

RG should just be happy they allowed him a face-saving out instead of just flatout firing his ass ( which I would have done, personally ).

Yeah I think this was pretty much the plan all along. Since he put it out to the media that he was doing this space trip before TR launched, they let him have his way.

He was probably asked to resign once this space thing was over. Thats why Star was sent over eariler in the year.

I haven't been following TR to much in the last year but I did just do a trial and it doesn't seem like a whole lot of work has been done to the game in the last year. In fact to me, nothing has changed about it at all....well other then the fact that in the tutorial you do it in reverse direction now and its easier.

I wonder what the fate of the game will be.

NCSoft is generally pretty good about making quick decisssions so I would imagine in the next few days we will find who is taking over and what they plan on doing with the game.

Anyone want to dig up NCSofts most recent quartery report? Last time I looked at one they didn't even bother listing TR but that was Q1 this year.

Is this a "clean slate" now?

What are your speculations for TR now? New life, new direction...or shutting the doors? (not that ol'Rich wanted anything to do with TR, he was to busy playing spaceman this past year)

www.massively.com/2008/11/11/richard-garriott-announces-his-departure-from-ncsoft/

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Torak

Originally posted by LondonMagus

Sorry but the OPs logic is severely flawed.

The main reason why people changed games less often in the past was that there was very little choice.

This phenomena where people used to be far more loyal in the 'Good Old Days' can be seen in almost all aspects of life from Marriage to Mobile Phones. The easier it is to change, the more often people will do it.

If you tried to make people sign a contract promising to play a new MMO for several years it would almost certainly vanish without trace within the first month. 

No-one wants to make long term commitments to anything in life anymore & in truth they never did. 

 

I would also like to add that WoW has maintained its player base and will probably grow again with the new expansion...4 years after launch...still millions of players. Someone is staying with their game

 

Or, they are simply getting new players faster than old players are leaving.

Not for 4 years straight and growing...but whatever.

Originally posted by LondonMagus

Sorry but the OPs logic is severely flawed.

The main reason why people changed games less often in the past was that there was very little choice.

This phenomena where people used to be far more loyal in the 'Good Old Days' can be seen in almost all aspects of life from Marriage to Mobile Phones. The easier it is to change, the more often people will do it.

If you tried to make people sign a contract promising to play a new MMO for several years it would almost certainly vanish without trace within the first month. 

No-one wants to make long term commitments to anything in life anymore & in truth they never did. 

I would also like to add that WoW has maintained its player base and will probably grow again with the new expansion...4 years after launch...still millions of players. Someone is staying with their game

Originally posted by metalhead980

To be honest I'm not trying to be a prick or anything, I'm actually trying to help.

Alot of the people on this forum seem so upset with the current state of MMOs that maybe instead of torturing themselves they should play something else.

Someone above said the MMOs need to stop releasing unfinished and with bugs, well what MMO has released bug free with all its content? What mmo didn't need about a year to really come into its own?

Wow released without battlegrounds, raids and alot of the goodies todays WoW players enjoy.

Eve Online is so much better today than it was in 2003.

Everyone gets tired of a game, It's going to happen. Instead of being bored with a game and trying twenty  similar games to the one you're bored with, Play a different type of game.

Games are supposed to be fun, stop trying to force fun on yourself, try something new.

 

There is a HUGE difference between ADDING content and features and launching a game that doesn't run and is MISSING advertised features (AoC or Vanguard are just two examples)

WoW added and enhanced the game. AoC had issues running very well and was missing sh*t listed on the box like the PvP system that is just getting put into place now 6 months after launch. Vanguard is STILL f*cking around with technical BS 2 years after launch. WoW didn't advertise nor claim to be the next great thing in PvP then not deliver at launch. It added it later. LotR is another game that launched in excellent condition and enhanced over time.

Not even close to the same thing.

Originally posted by ste2000

Mh..............ok let me think, 11 Million subscribers....................

I guess it will sell 10 Million copies (5 the first week)

Where exactly are they projecting to sell these 5 million boxes? If it's just U.S.or EU that would mean a sharp rise in subs. Chinese players do not pay for the software.

2.5 million are U.S. 2 million are European the rest are Asian that have an entirely different payment set up.

It will be interesting to see if NA/EU subs rise at all as it should bring in some old players. Personally I think its marketing hype that many, many will buy into but...thats why its marketing hype lol.

Originally posted by spinach8puff

I'm shocked you think WoW is grindy especially coming from L2.

You haven't played L2 lately then. They patched out the grind. Its easier then WoW to level up these days.

I don't see Guild Wars on your list.

Not grindy and has a huge amount of content, looks great and can run on a toaster, PvP is pretty good for BG style also.

Seems to match your preference for L2 / Aion / Blade and Soul (NCSoft) style art.

Oh, and its free to play after you buy the box.

Originally posted by metalhead980

 

MMOs were Originally designed to keep players playing for years.

Todays mmo market has a ton of really good games from fantasy level based to sci-fi sandbox.

From UO to WAR all of these games follow the "keep the players playing and paying" design.

The MMO genre hasn't gotten worse, you've just gotten tired of it all.

Think about it, how long did you play your first mmo? a few years?

Then you left due to burn out and since then have tried every mmo on the market (playing each game no longer than a few months) hoping to recreate the feeling of your initial game.

News flash guys you will never recreate that feeling you once had with your first mmo.

The mmo genre isn't going to suddenly change into this never seen before game type that will have you feeling the way you did.

If you find yourself waiting for a new mmo every couple of months thats a sure fire sign that this genre isn't for you.

If you find yourself playing a game and telling everyone that you're just waiting for another good game to release so you can leave, you're tired of the genre and need to leave.

Log off, uninstall, toss the CDs/Dvds in the bin and play a different genre. It's ok... you can do it. Its only a game after all.

Nope I Disagree,

Its a sure fire sign you didn't like the game is all.

This genres problems have more