SOE has a long history of ruining any MMO they've ever touched. However, PS2 and now Dragon's Prophet give me some tiny glimmer of hope that after more than a decade of being one of the worst MMO publishers on the planet maybe, just maybe, they've gotten their act together.
The game is free to play, so even the most hardened SOE detractor can give it a try when it releases with out putting any unearned coin in the SOE coffers.
One of their previous brushes with success was the kid friendly Freerealms which went from being one of the fastest growing Western MMOs ever to fizzling out to an after thought when SOE decided to change the business model a few months in from pretty optional cash shop items and services to one that required cash shop purchases to be playable. That was wwhen I went from severe SOE skeptic/critic to just abandoning all hope for them and promply ignoring any MMO they had even the slightest association with.
I'll be trying PS2 soon and yes, I will watch the development of DP with some sliver of hope.
BTW, there is a video some where on youtube promoting the game with the lead Taiwanese Developer and someone from SOE. I had to chuckle at the way the developer's eyes glazed over when ever the SOE guy was talking. I wonder if he's regreting the deal with SOE to publish the game? I just hope SOE will keep their hands out of the development process and not ruin the game's prospects with greedy, unfair cash shop mechanisms for the title.
They messed up one of their games.. SWG and it might not have been SOE who wanted to make the changes but LA who forced it upon them we just dont know..
Other than that their main games EQ and EQ2 have been pretty good and some of the best MMORPGs on the market. Planetside was pretty good but the engine was not the best.. but PS2 is a lot better
Vanguard they could have done more with but it was not really their game.. it seems to be picknig up a bit now tho..
Matrix online was just bad from the start anyway.. why SOE brought that i dont know LOL..
Sadly, SOE is still on my perma-ban list. If they were the last MMO company on the face of the planet, I guess I'd have to quit playing games lol. There's more than one occasion where SOE has done really bad stuff...pretty much every game they've touched they've ruined it within a year or two.
SOE will always be on my perma-ban, I don't care if they paid me to play thier game...nothing SOE goes on my hard drive, period
Sadly, SOE is still on my perma-ban list. If they were the last MMO company on the face of the planet, I guess I'd have to quit playing games lol. There's more than one occasion where SOE has done really bad stuff...pretty much every game they've touched they've ruined it within a year or two.
SOE will always be on my perma-ban, I don't care if they paid me to play thier game...nothing SOE goes on my hard drive, period
name one game not named SWG they ruined. You can't.
Sadly, SOE is still on my perma-ban list. If they were the last MMO company on the face of the planet, I guess I'd have to quit playing games lol. There's more than one occasion where SOE has done really bad stuff...pretty much every game they've touched they've ruined it within a year or two.
SOE will always be on my perma-ban, I don't care if they paid me to play thier game...nothing SOE goes on my hard drive, period
name one game not named SWG they ruined. You can't.
Some would argue that they ruined EQ, since they bought it all those years back, then Ruined the EQ name with EQ2 missing the gravy train that wow so eloquently tapped into.
SWG? Well it was a game few played, and then they surprise changed it from what the few players did like into something no one liked. So yeah they ruined that one.
But then we are talking like ages ago. Its like saying youll never drive a toyota because they were crap in the 70's things change with time. Theyve done a decent job with PS2..i commend them on the non pay to win cash shop in that game and for sticking with it and taking legit community feedback and trying to impliment it.
Id rather it be SOE any day than the bloodthirsty indy studio genocide EA. Hell even after the bad press they get they go ahead and create the worst P2P to F2P transition in the history of mmorpgs with STWOR's horrid system...and STILL nothing that origionally made the game peter out has been fixed (how can you let a staple of the game like Ilum go unfixed?)
Also i want to point out that like EA, SOE is now publishing games they have no input on...like EA publishing TSW while funcom did all the work..its basically like going on steam to get a conglomerate to publish the game.
Some would argue that they ruined EQ, since they bought it all those years back, then Ruined the EQ name with EQ2 missing the gravy train that wow so eloquently tapped into.
I don't see how they ruined EQ or EQ2. EQ was a premium title prior to WoW and EQ2 was an updated version that was very good for the time. WoW changed the market. There is absolutely nothing that any other company with an MMO could have done at the time to challenge WoW.
WoW already had a sizeable following that didn't play MMOs. Their customers grew up on Warcraft 1, 2, & 3. So a company with an established title that had been around since 1994, released WoW in 2004. It brought an entirely new player base to the genre and supplanted everything else in the market at the time. By combining two game markets, WoW was able to be at the right place at the right time, with the right product. The market conditions that existed then have never happened since. Thus there will never be another WoW in MMOs.
Sadly, SOE is still on my perma-ban list. If they were the last MMO company on the face of the planet, I guess I'd have to quit playing games lol. There's more than one occasion where SOE has done really bad stuff...pretty much every game they've touched they've ruined it within a year or two.
SOE will always be on my perma-ban, I don't care if they paid me to play thier game...nothing SOE goes on my hard drive, period
I dunno, man. I was around for the SWG thing but also when EQ1 was bought. I read what they're doing with EQ Next and their ideas about gaming and...it sounds like they get it, you know? It's weird to say and the words are alien to my lips. But I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. As someone who in my personal life has become a little wise after making every possible mistake you could think of, I see that possibility exists in others.
Well you gotta remember, regardless of what bad decisions Smedley may or may not have made. Smedley is very much passionate about gaming though it seems like he struggles with balancing the business aspects of his job with the "Lets change the the world one MMO at a time!" part.
Founder = instant access. Just fyi. And SOE founder's packs are good value. When the game launches, you get 100% of the price as SC, making it risk free if you use SC at all
Comments
SOE has a long history of ruining any MMO they've ever touched. However, PS2 and now Dragon's Prophet give me some tiny glimmer of hope that after more than a decade of being one of the worst MMO publishers on the planet maybe, just maybe, they've gotten their act together.
The game is free to play, so even the most hardened SOE detractor can give it a try when it releases with out putting any unearned coin in the SOE coffers.
One of their previous brushes with success was the kid friendly Freerealms which went from being one of the fastest growing Western MMOs ever to fizzling out to an after thought when SOE decided to change the business model a few months in from pretty optional cash shop items and services to one that required cash shop purchases to be playable. That was wwhen I went from severe SOE skeptic/critic to just abandoning all hope for them and promply ignoring any MMO they had even the slightest association with.
I'll be trying PS2 soon and yes, I will watch the development of DP with some sliver of hope.
BTW, there is a video some where on youtube promoting the game with the lead Taiwanese Developer and someone from SOE. I had to chuckle at the way the developer's eyes glazed over when ever the SOE guy was talking. I wonder if he's regreting the deal with SOE to publish the game? I just hope SOE will keep their hands out of the development process and not ruin the game's prospects with greedy, unfair cash shop mechanisms for the title.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
they dont have a long history..
They messed up one of their games.. SWG and it might not have been SOE who wanted to make the changes but LA who forced it upon them we just dont know..
Other than that their main games EQ and EQ2 have been pretty good and some of the best MMORPGs on the market. Planetside was pretty good but the engine was not the best.. but PS2 is a lot better
Vanguard they could have done more with but it was not really their game.. it seems to be picknig up a bit now tho..
Matrix online was just bad from the start anyway.. why SOE brought that i dont know LOL..
Can I have your stuff? Oh wait...
Sadly, SOE is still on my perma-ban list. If they were the last MMO company on the face of the planet, I guess I'd have to quit playing games lol. There's more than one occasion where SOE has done really bad stuff...pretty much every game they've touched they've ruined it within a year or two.
SOE will always be on my perma-ban, I don't care if they paid me to play thier game...nothing SOE goes on my hard drive, period
name one game not named SWG they ruined. You can't.
Some would argue that they ruined EQ, since they bought it all those years back, then Ruined the EQ name with EQ2 missing the gravy train that wow so eloquently tapped into.
SWG? Well it was a game few played, and then they surprise changed it from what the few players did like into something no one liked. So yeah they ruined that one.
But then we are talking like ages ago. Its like saying youll never drive a toyota because they were crap in the 70's things change with time. Theyve done a decent job with PS2..i commend them on the non pay to win cash shop in that game and for sticking with it and taking legit community feedback and trying to impliment it.
Id rather it be SOE any day than the bloodthirsty indy studio genocide EA. Hell even after the bad press they get they go ahead and create the worst P2P to F2P transition in the history of mmorpgs with STWOR's horrid system...and STILL nothing that origionally made the game peter out has been fixed (how can you let a staple of the game like Ilum go unfixed?)
Also i want to point out that like EA, SOE is now publishing games they have no input on...like EA publishing TSW while funcom did all the work..its basically like going on steam to get a conglomerate to publish the game.
Ill reserve final judgment on SOE for EQNext.
I don't see how they ruined EQ or EQ2. EQ was a premium title prior to WoW and EQ2 was an updated version that was very good for the time. WoW changed the market. There is absolutely nothing that any other company with an MMO could have done at the time to challenge WoW.
WoW already had a sizeable following that didn't play MMOs. Their customers grew up on Warcraft 1, 2, & 3. So a company with an established title that had been around since 1994, released WoW in 2004. It brought an entirely new player base to the genre and supplanted everything else in the market at the time. By combining two game markets, WoW was able to be at the right place at the right time, with the right product. The market conditions that existed then have never happened since. Thus there will never be another WoW in MMOs.
I dunno, man. I was around for the SWG thing but also when EQ1 was bought. I read what they're doing with EQ Next and their ideas about gaming and...it sounds like they get it, you know? It's weird to say and the words are alien to my lips. But I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. As someone who in my personal life has become a little wise after making every possible mistake you could think of, I see that possibility exists in others.
http://mmo-hell.blogspot.com/
http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/rejad
Well you gotta remember, regardless of what bad decisions Smedley may or may not have made. Smedley is very much passionate about gaming though it seems like he struggles with balancing the business aspects of his job with the "Lets change the the world one MMO at a time!" part.
You can't. All the games they have been criticized for are dead and buried.
On behalf of SOE, some of their game are/were pretty good.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"