Although I like rift, last ex-pac was wrong for me.
Why? Dont take me wrong its a great expansion but the decission to make the 50-60 level race sooo steep kill the game for me. As a altholic i had 3 50´s before the ex-pac (mage-priest- rogue) and one in its 30s.
I found very very hard to level all to 60.
Yeah i know thats my problem but still....
This one comment is the problem with MMO's today. So many expect to breeze to top level. No one wants to work for level any more. What are you going to do at 60? This is exactly one of the reasons that badly hurt SWTOR.
Originally posted by Volgore Let's see what they'll announce in their update (part 2) tomorrow.
for those who are old enough to remember his EQ2 days.....What was announced and instated shortly following him leaving SOE? same might be in the works for RIFT.
Although I like rift, last ex-pac was wrong for me.
Why? Dont take me wrong its a great expansion but the decission to make the 50-60 level race sooo steep kill the game for me. As a altholic i had 3 50´s before the ex-pac (mage-priest- rogue) and one in its 30s.
I found very very hard to level all to 60.
Yeah i know thats my problem but still....
This one comment is the problem with MMO's today. So many expect to breeze to top level. No one wants to work for level any more. What are you going to do at 60? This is exactly one of the reasons that badly hurt SWTOR.
I agree with you at some point, i dont like the wow model either but the pace is too slow and tried a dozen of mmos so i know very well the time to level a character high max.
They didnt want people to complain (like they did when rift came out) that leveling was so easy and in one month you could be 50. But one thing is too fast and another is too slow. Middle-term solution would been great.
Originally posted by cronius77 i honestly think this might be a good thing. Rift never ever stepped away from medeocre success and a lot of that had to do with who was in charge and making the decisions there. I know some hard core fans will disagree but you can look at the amount of servers over its lifetime and see its been steady decreasing population since release and only seeing small spikes around major patches and the expansion. Maybe its just time to get some fresh creative talent to call the shots even if they worked on rift before. I think if they were smart as well they would listen to the playerbase a lot more than before. I personally paid for storm legion and leveled to level 54 and was so bored out of my mind i quit and regret paying for it. It was just exactly more of the same only even longer to level up and with the nurfing of classes constantly it just got really old after awhile especially for warriors.
I know right? So weird, the expack had a ton of potential and great features, but once I got into it and hit 53ish...I go so bored and just unsubbed and didn't care about my character or the game. So strange. Hope the new director can breathe life back into it, the potential is there that's for sure.
This is sad news for Trion fans. I hate seeing him go.
His Rift raised the bar for MMOs and set new standards for the whole industry. He did an awesome awesome job.
I Wish him all the best.
Ditto. I gave up playing Rift after 8 months but still have an active sub because of Hartsman and the team he created. I really liked his comments and his vision. Trion listened to the players and produced quick and quality work. Very sorry to hear that he is leaving and curious to where he goes next.
I think this is pretty bad news for Rift, at least for me. I LOVED the original Rift, but Storm Legion completely lost me. :- If its true that all the latest decisions, especially those revolving around Storm Legion, are made by the people who will determine the future of this game and that the person who made all the original decisions has left... I don't see myself having a future that involves playing Rift.
NA has like 4 servers on medium, EU altogether barely hits "medium" anymore and has a strong "low" trend allover the servers -2 months after SL hit the game, as well as before.
At the moment the official news about Scott Hartsman leaving has an 8 pages thread in the US-forums going, less then 2 pages on the EU forums. On the german forum 3(!) people answered, while the two german PVE servers are among the most populated worldwide.
So, if you count all the poster's names, there's like 20 people NA+EU who comment on news of Hartsman leaving. And please, don't pull the "no one is reading the forums, everyone is busy playing and in game"-card here.
I wish the game the very best, maybe it'll get what it desperately needs with Bill Fisher at the controls -but Rift is shurely doing anything but fine, both in population and overall reaction on the guy leaving who to an extend "made" the game.
Well, I think we have a decent idea why SH took a walk. He got out-voted on the new deals Trion announced, and decided he had enough.
Interesting to read the latest Mark Jacobs interview, because he says he got out-voted at Mythic when it came to doing the sale to EA. ROI trumped everything else. MJ also said he didn't throw a hissy fit and quit because he felt an obligation to not sabotage selling Mythic, because the employees were shareholders. I SERIOUSLY wonder if the same is happening at Trion, and if SH's displeasure and leaving were timed to do it now before buyout discussions get serious, or if he decided to show his displeasure BY monkey-wrenching any current discussions.
Pure speculation, I know. But the MMO industry has proven rather transparent about the reasons behind people coming and going, so there's a real Captain Obvious element to guessing. Why would SH leave *now* when Trion was just about to announce some major additions to its portfolio? I'm not thinking he'd be bothered by AA offending his PvE bias THAT much. I *am* thinking he might be bothered by his studio, built from the ground up, turning into an investment to get gobbled up by the EA's of the industry.
Of course, he might just want to spend "time with his family" and all. But Trion just made some Big Deal big deals, and SH didn't want to bask in those accomplishments?
There were earlier posts about the big layoffs at Trion worlds, where I tried to make the point that, the writing was on the wall, the layoffs were part of the 'norm' in the video game development world, and while the layoffs were huge and sad, most developers know the industry they are joining.
Scott leaving is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Now I know that the shake-up was beyond just 'bad'.
Comments
This one comment is the problem with MMO's today. So many expect to breeze to top level. No one wants to work for level any more. What are you going to do at 60? This is exactly one of the reasons that badly hurt SWTOR.
I think he realised tha now that ESO is coming notyhing can save rift from going free to play.So he leaves
rift was the first mmo I have played where I left because they destroyed my class in a patch that I have played for 400 hours.
Otherwise it was a good game and I would probably have continued playing if that didnt happen.
Scotts last EQ2 expansion was Rise of Kunark
http://massively.joystiq.com/2007/11/07/rise-of-kunark-interview-with-scott-hartsman/
personally i think it was the last good expansion that EQ2 had (compared to what followed)
Kunark was criticized for having too much solo content
but i still liked it better than TSO (hated that expansion), SF, DOV, AOD
I havent seen the content of COE
EQ2 fan sites
I agree with you at some point, i dont like the wow model either but the pace is too slow and tried a dozen of mmos so i know very well the time to level a character high max.
They didnt want people to complain (like they did when rift came out) that leveling was so easy and in one month you could be 50. But one thing is too fast and another is too slow. Middle-term solution would been great.
I know right? So weird, the expack had a ton of potential and great features, but once I got into it and hit 53ish...I go so bored and just unsubbed and didn't care about my character or the game. So strange. Hope the new director can breathe life back into it, the potential is there that's for sure.
-Another producer who thought he could patch together pieces of other games and sell it.
-He had no interest or understanding of faction vs faction conflict.
-He had no understanding of the growing sophistaction and experience base of the player base he hoped to attract.
He’s been an asset to Trion that’s for sure and I think now he’s left F2P is inevitable unfortunately
Ditto. I gave up playing Rift after 8 months but still have an active sub because of Hartsman and the team he created. I really liked his comments and his vision. Trion listened to the players and produced quick and quality work. Very sorry to hear that he is leaving and curious to where he goes next.
NA has like 4 servers on medium, EU altogether barely hits "medium" anymore and has a strong "low" trend allover the servers -2 months after SL hit the game, as well as before.
At the moment the official news about Scott Hartsman leaving has an 8 pages thread in the US-forums going, less then 2 pages on the EU forums. On the german forum 3(!) people answered, while the two german PVE servers are among the most populated worldwide.
So, if you count all the poster's names, there's like 20 people NA+EU who comment on news of Hartsman leaving. And please, don't pull the "no one is reading the forums, everyone is busy playing and in game"-card here.
I wish the game the very best, maybe it'll get what it desperately needs with Bill Fisher at the controls -but Rift is shurely doing anything but fine, both in population and overall reaction on the guy leaving who to an extend "made" the game.
Well, I think we have a decent idea why SH took a walk. He got out-voted on the new deals Trion announced, and decided he had enough.
Interesting to read the latest Mark Jacobs interview, because he says he got out-voted at Mythic when it came to doing the sale to EA. ROI trumped everything else. MJ also said he didn't throw a hissy fit and quit because he felt an obligation to not sabotage selling Mythic, because the employees were shareholders. I SERIOUSLY wonder if the same is happening at Trion, and if SH's displeasure and leaving were timed to do it now before buyout discussions get serious, or if he decided to show his displeasure BY monkey-wrenching any current discussions.
Pure speculation, I know. But the MMO industry has proven rather transparent about the reasons behind people coming and going, so there's a real Captain Obvious element to guessing. Why would SH leave *now* when Trion was just about to announce some major additions to its portfolio? I'm not thinking he'd be bothered by AA offending his PvE bias THAT much. I *am* thinking he might be bothered by his studio, built from the ground up, turning into an investment to get gobbled up by the EA's of the industry.
Of course, he might just want to spend "time with his family" and all. But Trion just made some Big Deal big deals, and SH didn't want to bask in those accomplishments?
Avatars are people too
There were earlier posts about the big layoffs at Trion worlds, where I tried to make the point that, the writing was on the wall, the layoffs were part of the 'norm' in the video game development world, and while the layoffs were huge and sad, most developers know the industry they are joining.
Scott leaving is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Now I know that the shake-up was beyond just 'bad'.