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Open letter from Rapid Reality

Dear readers,

As you are aware, we posted an open letter to The Chronicle community here on MMORPG.com back in December, describing the recent management change, as well as our new creative direction. Our investors asked our former management team to leave the company in December. We inherited some daunting problems and are doing our best to fix them.

Reorganizing a company from top to bottom while in “crunch mode” to finish an MMO is extremely difficult. With the management changes in December, we announced that we would offer refunds to everyone who pre-ordered The Chronicle. We began issuing refunds within days, but soon after lost control over MMOcenter.com and the preorder database. Our former management team had all the passwords and, unfortunately, was not forthcoming about handing them over. We were locked out of our forums and the database. This was as frustrating for you as it was for us.

We recently recovered MMOcenter.com and our preorder database, so we were able to send out an email on Monday evening to everyone who preordered The Chronicle. We're offering a refund to the preorder community or access to the Phylon beta and two free months of game play. We’ve issued almost a hundred refunds this week and will continue to do so until everyone is taken care of.  If by chance you didn’t receive an email (dozens bounced), but preordered The Chronicle, then please contract us at [email protected] and we’ll get this to you ASAP.

We’re working to get the 130 or so Endless Ages subscribers into the Phylon beta now. Meanwhile, we’ll keep the Endless Ages servers running until we’ve gotten you into Phylon and credited your accounts.

Sincerely,

The Rapid Reality Team

Comments

  • HamrtimeHamrtime Member Posts: 200

    Your company sucks! Plain and simple. You fire the one voice of your company who actually cared about its subscribers and future subscribers. The sooner you go out of business the better the online gaming community will be.

  • KaneKane Member Posts: 780
    You guys burned up ANY goodwill you had regained when CG was fired. The final nail in the coffin was letting FilePlanet subscribers in before the pre-purchasers. SCREW YOU!
  • boeskyleboeskyle Member Posts: 114
    I know they have less traffic, but should this be posted on the _official_ forums at mmocenter?

    Nevermind, they effectively don't exist as the link mmocenter.com redirects to rapidrealitystudios.com (which has far less info, not even a link to Phylon).

    At least Phylon is "Coming Q1 2007".
  • CaesarsGhostCaesarsGhost Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 2,136

    - CaesarsGhost

    Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
    "When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."

  • mavlockmavlock Member Posts: 9
    By the way, we pre-ordered MMOcenter, not The Chronicle. That was just the first game to be released under that service.
  • coder1024coder1024 Member Posts: 56

    well, RR, the thing is, you posted the letter back in December and things were supposedly looking good for better communication, etc.  then you basically dropped off the radar.  a company site with zero info and no forums, etc.  yea, I know the Ghettis yanked your site from under you, but how hard is it to setup some forums?

    Then, the pre-order customers who stuck with you through thick and thin... well, you just said #&*( you and went with a FilePlanet beta program instead.  I sure never got the Email people are talking about here, and I check my spam folders, etc.

    Then to come here and hear that CG was fired?  It just gets worse as you read more...

    So, I actually did pay my $6 to fileplanet (which I have to go back and cancel now that I have my key so I don't get charged for another month...) to try this Phylon beta.  I know I shouldn't, but I am curious to see what the thing looks like after all this time and effort.

    However, RR as a company just seems to want to again shoot itself in the foot and treat its community like crap.

    Anyway, Phylon is patching now.  Let's see what this looks like...

  • HamrtimeHamrtime Member Posts: 200

    I dont care if this was the best mmo in the world. I would never subscribe, play, or even download anything from this stinkhole of a company. Mark my words, they will be out of business in 2 years or less. They sent me my refund and I still recieved the invite to play phylon but I just deleted the email.

    p.s. I took the refund money and bought my kids glow sticks off ebay for the arrival of summer so I think I got better use out of that $20 than if I would have stuck around any longer.

  • cncfreakcncfreak Member Posts: 2
    yeah I tried to send an e-mail to that url and it bounced back saying it didn't exist.



    Cncfreak
  • drunkfatjewdrunkfatjew Member Posts: 12
    I had the same problems and contacted Tracy Spaight directly.   Tracy resolved the issue promptly.  He has been up front, honest and communicative to me.  I have been (and will remain...for now) critical of rapid reality, and will always distrust CG, but Tracy seems to be pushing this thing in the right direction.  Kudos.
  • coder1024coder1024 Member Posts: 56
    Originally posted by drunkfatjew

    I had the same problems and contacted Tracy Spaight directly.   Tracy resolved the issue promptly.  He has been up front, honest and communicative to me.  I have been (and will remain...for now) critical of rapid reality, and will always distrust CG, but Tracy seems to be pushing this thing in the right direction.  Kudos.



    I don't know...  CG always seemed to be one who tried to get people as much info as he could.  I suspect he might have been one of the only voices in the company trying to promote a more open communication with the gaming community.  Canning him doesn't say a lot good about the RR management unless there's some other wacky part of the story like he came into work drunk and vandalized the office :-)

  • RodzillaRodzilla Member UncommonPosts: 159
     RR should just go away

    searching for the next DAoC....

    Kay-exile

  • drunkfatjewdrunkfatjew Member Posts: 12
    Originally posted by coder1024

    Originally posted by drunkfatjew

    I had the same problems and contacted Tracy Spaight directly.   Tracy resolved the issue promptly.  He has been up front, honest and communicative to me.  I have been (and will remain...for now) critical of rapid reality, and will always distrust CG, but Tracy seems to be pushing this thing in the right direction.  Kudos.



    I don't know...  CG always seemed to be one who tried to get people as much info as he could.  I suspect he might have been one of the only voices in the company trying to promote a more open communication with the gaming community.  Canning him doesn't say a lot good about the RR management unless there's some other wacky part of the story like he came into work drunk and vandalized the office :-)

    It's really interesting, you saw CG as the guy who was trying to promote the community and I saw CG as the main obstruction and one of the major broken parts of RR.  To me, and as you can see many others, CG was sarcastic, dishonest and constantly playing the word game.  Several times the only time I posted was because CG made such a rude remark to another member that I felt compelled to say something. 



    Since June 2006, after lord knows how many delays and missed promises, I have been hyper critical of RR.  I have had nothing good to say about a company that took my money for services not delivered. But recently I have to reluctantly admit I'm seeing a much improved RR.  Communication, product and delivery (albeit late) on payment.  Terry has returned every email I sent and made sure I was paid (I sent over 50 emails to the previous RR and never received a response).  IMHO something has changed over there.  Its that new management that decided to remove CG from the company.  That speaks volumes to me.



    In the end all I really wanted to see is The Chronicle released.  The last batch of games released (Vanguard and LOTR) just don't scratch that itch for me (just my opinion and yes I'm actively playing both).  I was hoping the Chronicle was going to do the trick. 


  • coder1024coder1024 Member Posts: 56
    Originally posted by drunkfatjew

    Originally posted by coder1024

    Originally posted by drunkfatjew

    I had the same problems and contacted Tracy Spaight directly.   Tracy resolved the issue promptly.  He has been up front, honest and communicative to me.  I have been (and will remain...for now) critical of rapid reality, and will always distrust CG, but Tracy seems to be pushing this thing in the right direction.  Kudos.



    I don't know...  CG always seemed to be one who tried to get people as much info as he could.  I suspect he might have been one of the only voices in the company trying to promote a more open communication with the gaming community.  Canning him doesn't say a lot good about the RR management unless there's some other wacky part of the story like he came into work drunk and vandalized the office :-)

    It's really interesting, you saw CG as the guy who was trying to promote the community and I saw CG as the main obstruction and one of the major broken parts of RR.  To me, and as you can see many others, CG was sarcastic, dishonest and constantly playing the word game.  Several times the only time I posted was because CG made such a rude remark to another member that I felt compelled to say something. 



    Since June 2006, after lord knows how many delays and missed promises, I have been hyper critical of RR.  I have had nothing good to say about a company that took my money for services not delivered. But recently I have to reluctantly admit I'm seeing a much improved RR.  Communication, product and delivery (albeit late) on payment.  Terry has returned every email I sent and made sure I was paid (I sent over 50 emails to the previous RR and never received a response).  IMHO something has changed over there.  Its that new management that decided to remove CG from the company.  That speaks volumes to me.



    In the end all I really wanted to see is The Chronicle released.  The last batch of games released (Vanguard and LOTR) just don't scratch that itch for me (just my opinion and yes I'm actively playing both).  I was hoping the Chronicle was going to do the trick. 




    I agree -- CG, at times, did dance around questions and provide some questionable responses.  I always took that to indicate that he was being gagged by management and that he could either 1) say nothing or 2) do what he did.

    For you to say that you saw CG as the main obstruction to communications with the community implies that there were people behind him busting at the seams ready to give tons of information but he was somehow preventing it.  That doesn't sound right.  The devs pretty much abandoned the forums.  They all had accounts and I think completely avoided posting.  You think CG prevented them/obstructed them from doing so?  No, CG's face was the only one we saw.  We gave him beatings here and there but he was there.  The rest of the studio was absent.  I guess I just don't understand your reasoning.

    I think you're just finding someone to grind the axe on and CG seems convenient to you.

    Anyway, the whole thing is one big mess.  I think we agree on that.  And The Chronicle was the only reason I was following the studio as well.

     

  • JrodJrod Member Posts: 234

    I wonder if anyone can see this.

  • ZorvanZorvan Member CommonPosts: 8,912
    Originally posted by Jrod


    I wonder if anyone can see this.

    Yes, i can.

  • JrodJrod Member Posts: 234
    Originally posted by Zorvan

    Originally posted by Jrod


    I wonder if anyone can see this.

    Yes, i can.



    Oh my, why aren't you a big man?

  • PyrostasisPyrostasis Member UncommonPosts: 2,293

    so let me get this straight....

    RR is coming back with Phylon, after selling it and disapearing... supposedly trying to fix the damage they did?

    Oh wow... this will be rather interesting.

  • ZorvanZorvan Member CommonPosts: 8,912

     

    Originally posted by Pyrostasis


    so let me get this straight....
    RR is coming back with Phylon, after selling it and disapearing... supposedly trying to fix the damage they did?
    Oh wow... this will be rather interesting.

    No, look at the date of the post before Jrod. Jrod committed a one year necro.

     

    There is another company trying to bring Phylon (Endless Ages 2) back, claiming they're either the original owners of Endless Ages, or fans who bought the game ( depending on which story they give at any one moment). mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/1890186#1890186

  • PyrostasisPyrostasis Member UncommonPosts: 2,293

    oh snap, I was looking at the first post and thinking it was posted this month.

    Dee dee dee!

    My bad, gotta remember what year it is hehe.

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