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game dead?
shockadoc
Member Posts: 4
i just got this game and YES i have read your billing warnings but my question is: what is up with this game. the login says all the servers are up but when i go to create a toon it tells me the servers are under maintanace. its been this way for a week!
Comments
Why you'd want to play after reading all the billing problems is beyond me...
Heh, and you're paying for that week. Since you state you read the warnings and still did it, only two words fit you now....suffer, sucker
EI has turned off the character creation system. It has been down for at least three weeks now. They say they are fixing it so lets hope they can do what they say.
The problem was that you could create a free account without your credit card info. As for billing, they actually have PBT back and running billing so the billing problems should be solved for now.
So now, people are buying a game but can't create a character to play it? HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
And since when is being able to have a "free" trial without giving your credit card info a bad thing? Just about every TOP game out there does this now, it's not something unique and is definitely not a problem. Except of course, they can't charge for a "free" trial without the info, so that's probably why they consider it a problem
1
I beta'd this game and I am surprised if it is still functional.
I wouldnt play it if it was free let alone pay for it.
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
Horizons was barely a joke when Tulga AE had the game. Despite the spinster that led the company Tulga did seem to be trying.
EII on the other hand has turned Horizons into one of the biggest jokes around. These guys make Bowman's crooked ways looked angelic. Bunch of idiots with no idea how to run an MMO.
Horizons unfortunately will be very soon dead. Only because EII plans no development of the game since its litterally impossible for them to do so mainly because they hired no ex Tulga Dev's. They think plastering a game that still need tons of code work with events is the way to go.
Losers.
I'd go back to playing it if I wasen't in fear of being screwed over by the billing issues at the moment that are going on. I am playing WoW right now, and have tried a lot of free trials out there. DOAC, SWG, and EQ2. None of them are a pimple on Horizons ass.
This game was a blast, I quit playing due to not having the time to play anymore because I started teaching night courses, and was working 12+ hours a day at times.
Im playing WoW with real life friends, and the community is ASS. In Horizons I would ding a level, and someone who I never even met before would make me free twinked gear, and be kind. You can say what you want about how horrible this game has been managed, but the game itself is a lot better than most MMORPG's I've tried.
I had a lot of fun trying out all the different classes, and doing the quests involved. I am playing a Warlock on a PVP server in WoW right now. If it weren't for real life friends I wouldn't waste my time with it, and be playing Horizons again.
If anyone Horizon vets are on this board, let me know about the billing issue status with EI. I am interested in returning to play my spearman, and maybe start a bloodmage. I cant find any MMO that holds my interest long enough since playing Horizons. I enjoyed the crafting, and the community whenever I'd get tired of hack and slash.
Good people, and the best community in any MMORPG I had ever played.
to bad most of the gaming public did not agree with you. Horizons has been in a perpetual state of bankruptcy since its inception. It could never make any money and was always in the red. The obvious conclusion is that it did not offer enough for people to play it in sufficient numbers.
As far as community its ok much better than WoW's but no where near the best. That distinction goes to Ryzom and then Eve Online.
sad chapter
I left horizons to play lineage 2
you do the math
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yes i agree - the best community by far on any MMO IMHO.
i too suffer from the fact that other games just cant hold my interest like Horizons, the complexity of craft develops interdependence and community spirit. I love the graphics, far superior to the bright shiny childlike graphics of WoW. The fact that you can explore most the world without ever going through a loading screen adds to the organic feel (sure some places only accessible by porting). Good character customisation, further improved by ability to dye your cloth / leather / metal armour multicolours if u wish (at least 16 colours to choose from) means i never see another character looking the same as mine.
Multiclassing system (ignoring dragons for now) means a biped character is never finished reaching their potential with 28 different adventure classess to potentially reach the lvl 100 limit each will add unique masterable abilities to your char to make stronger, as well as improving various statistics. and we havnt even touched on crafting or buying plots to build houses / gardens / craft structures / storage silos etc.
the problems were all management infighting for control, poor decicion makeing and greed that screwed up Artifact and delivered an incomplete game (watered down from the original concept). Later on, Tulga tried at least - and were going to bring out settlements expansion free to current subscribers to add further customisation to plots and increace level cap to 120 (adventure and craft).
Now under EI - i dont know if they plan to finish Tulga's development and bring out the much needed expansion, the devs who were working on it were never hired by EI and i can only presume have moved on and so EI will not be doing it in the forseeable future.
had it not been the very public problems and the rumour mill scaring most gamers away from it, and the haters talking crap about the gameplay even though they never played it because it was fashionable to do so, it would have been a big hit all those years ago.
for now, in europe at least, playing on Unity is free atm while EI close down the european operation and relocate it to the US as Unitas shard. i doubt i'll follow it over.
its a sad story, hamstrung before it was even released by dishonest sharks, yet even with that handicap and the famous problems it had ingame, it remains best game i ever played.
for an interesting read...
http://www.gamemethod.com/MPOG/145/a-story-of-artifact-entertainment?pg=1
yes i agree - the best community by far on any MMO IMHO.
i too suffer from the fact that other games just cant hold my interest like Horizons, the complexity of craft develops interdependence and community spirit. I love the graphics, far superior to the bright shiny childlike graphics of WoW. The fact that you can explore most the world without ever going through a loading screen adds to the organic feel (sure some places only accessible by porting). Good character customisation, further improved by ability to dye your cloth / leather / metal armour multicolours if u wish (at least 16 colours to choose from) means i never see another character looking the same as mine.
Multiclassing system (ignoring dragons for now) means a biped character is never finished reaching their potential with 28 different adventure classess to potentially reach the lvl 100 limit each will add unique masterable abilities to your char to make stronger, as well as improving various statistics. and we havnt even touched on crafting or buying plots to build houses / gardens / craft structures / storage silos etc.
the problems were all management infighting for control, poor decicion makeing and greed that screwed up Artifact and delivered an incomplete game (watered down from the original concept). Later on, Tulga tried at least - and were going to bring out settlements expansion free to current subscribers to add further customisation to plots and increace level cap to 120 (adventure and craft).
Now under EI - i dont know if they plan to finish Tulga's development and bring out the much needed expansion, the devs who were working on it were never hired by EI and i can only presume have moved on and so EI will not be doing it in the forseeable future.
had it not been the very public problems and the rumour mill scaring most gamers away from it, and the haters talking crap about the gameplay even though they never played it because it was fashionable to do so, it would have been a big hit all those years ago.
for now, in europe at least, playing on Unity is free atm while EI close down the european operation and relocate it to the US as Unitas shard. i doubt i'll follow it over.
its a sad story, hamstrung before it was even released by dishonest sharks, yet even with that handicap and the famous problems it had ingame, it remains best game i ever played.
for an interesting read...
http://www.gamemethod.com/MPOG/145/a-story-of-artifact-entertainment?pg=1
I want to know more about what happend but the link doesnt work.
yep - just checked - the info has been removed
it was the story (cited as independent but may not have been) of how Artifact Entertainment went from the concept of 1 man, to a company beset by malicious whispers as part of a strategic campaign to undermine and wrest control of both the company and the game.
none of the key personnel involved in the game, or those financially backing the project come out looking particularly good - and any number of those individuals or companies mentioned no doubt put their lawyers on it to get it removed from the web
Check out rantsrefugees their is posts about the history there. But be prepared for colorful language at times.
Oh ya, also VN boards are talking about the history too.
Game dead? It's hard to say. It really seemed that when Taluga(sp?) ran it...the game seemed to be coming around. There seemed to be genuine effort to do new things gamewize.
I always loved Horizons and thought the game had a nice "style" to it. The community was great in the beginning, but when the servers were merged years ago, it seemed that there was nothing but a lot of fighting and bickering. Horizons was the first mmo that I ever played and no game has ever matched that feeling of the first few months of playing it. However, many other games have come along that hold a closer spot in my heart. It saddens me to see Horizon's suffer like this because I felt the game had real potential but was never really given a chance due to the people running it. Things seem even more grim now...=*(
TranceKnight
(Oaken)
Guess I'm not so lazy after all . . . Apologies for the google highlights of search terms . . .
Introduction
First, I should point out how this story came to be. One day, doing my normal surfing, I come across Pharaoh-Productions David Allens current game company. For those of you who dont know, David Allen founded Artifact Entertainment, designed the original Horizons (the final product was immensely different), and was mysteriously removed from his own company. Ive followed David Allens story a bit but had only heard what I read from Artifact Entertainments press releases. The official word is that David was not suited for the role of CEO and was moved to a role of consultant. Many other developers have held David in poor light because of rumors spread on websites or the way he talks about Artifact Entertainment:
*David Bowman will be introduced in the story later.
After poking my head around at Pharaoh a bit I came across posts made by David himself relating to what happened to him at AE.His posts on the message boards were quite contradictory in both tone and content to his previous statements about Horizons. At this point Im curious as to what really happened enough so that I had to find out, so I give David a call.
A long call, over two hours.
David spilled the beans. At the end I was left nearly in disbelief. He told me about how the company he founded was maliciously and strategically taken out from under him, how his ideas and creativity was used and his reputation was ruined. David made extra effort to talk to me about honesty and integrity in his business and he expressed deep dissatisfaction with the practices of those who he trusted most.
I asked for proof.
He sent me documents, contacts and emails explicitly showing me that what he told me over the phone was the truth. I followed that up by interviewing the contacts in addition to attempting to talk with people from Artifact Entertainment and outsiders. What I can show you will be linked in the rest of this article.
So is this all bullshit? No. The only possibility that is it bullshit is that if everyone I talked to got together before hand and created some good story about David Allen. Its just too much of a stretch. Interviews, phone calls, emails, and documents all lead to the same consistent story. You can choose to believe it or just click past ignorantly.
A BREIF HISTORY OF TIME Artifact Entertainment
Biggest mistake was choosing the people I worked with and trusting them too much -David Allen
Artifact Entertainment (AE) was the brainchild of David Allen, a successful enterprise development programmer. In 1998 David had finished the Horizons design and decided it was time to move forward and form the company that was to make his game. The same year the AE website was launched from Davids home in Washington state. At that time, David was running AE by himself and aspiring to launch AEs flagship product the MMORPG Horizons. David relocated to Arizona and in November of 1999 David was contacted by James Jones, a player of DEMISE who heard that David was working on a new project, HORIZONS. David comments, After a few meetings, I felt his experience in the business arena could be beneficial to the company. We agreed that for his involvement in helping me raise capital and use of his business experience, I would give him 20% ownership of Artifact. David continues to comment:
Before the NC Soft ordeal, now owning 20% of AE and being the COO, James Jones, committed his first questionable act. Time came for salary paperwork to be done with the attorney, a due date for the papers was too close and things needed to be signed that day. Here?s the story recalled by David:
This is the first in a series of events that David explains to me. I can verify that David was not on the attachment list for the salary listing in that email. David was afraid to fire James on the spot because of the old saying about burning bridges. He later recalls that he learned that old saying is false The real saying should be something along the lines of dont burn bridges unless you can make new ones. An important part of business is trusting your gut feelings. In Davids case his gut feelings were telling him one thing but his brain was telling him another. If you feel something is wrong go with it and solve it before it destroys you. David recalls having an ominous feeling about the whole ordeal. Even going into work was starting to become awkward. Employees were starting to become questioning of David, the game design and even little details such as who got which office. All David could think was, Where was this coming from? David had already raised 1.5 million from the Series A investors, people were supposed to be working. Things were supposed to be happening yet nothing was.
THE WITCH BURNING
Ive had over two years to think about what I would say and how I would say it, and even more importantly two years to learn about what really happened, and understand exactly how it happened. -David Allen
There was unrest in Artifact Entertainment. David and James continued to have issues that seemed to become bigger every day. Investors money was being spent and very little progress was being made on the game. There was some trouble deciding on a graphics engine to use, the game went through five engines before it finally shipped. First the Draken engine followed by the Serious Engine, then an in-house creation by Keelan Stewart, then Unreal engine and finally Intrinsic Alchemy. Jeremy Dixon, the network programmer, tells this part of the story:
At this time un-productivity was at an all-time high. The reason would soon reveal itself. A meeting was held which David warmly calls the witch burning. This meeting, formed by James Jones, was meant to confront David Allen about all the crap going on in the company. Complains ranging from who got which office to generally complaining about David being a micro manager to why David was showing favorites to certain employees. Ironically, as COO (Chief Operating Officer) it was James JOB to deal with these issues, instead the blame was placed on David. Ive been told that insubordination in the company, caused by James Jones was causing the un-productivity. David, inexperienced in the matter of dealing with things of this nature went with it and tried to fix things. David tells me:
Around this time a few more people came into the company. James? brother who did sound work, his cousin, Joe Carlson, who had no experience in the game field and his friend Terry who ran the books. James was slowing filling the company with his cohorts.
Only desperate fanbois and the clueless (see above you)
Wow, MMORPG really should host and feature that article. If one of the mods or staff are reading could that happen?