In all seriousness though... I was surprised by this one. I like the housing setup, definitely like the focus on dragons and the variety I've seen so far.
In the end, I kind of agree with others. This one looks like a sleeper hit. It's not big enough to draw a lot of attention early on but with its uniqueness I can see it slowly building a dedicated fan base.
Originally posted by Redemp Is it still hip to hate SoE? I thought the bandwagon had shifted to Blizzard or EA, bad hipster .. bad.
I think the true hipsters would like SoE now, so when EQN is a success they can say they liked SoE long before EQN and that SoE is overrated now
Damn, then I was hip before I needed to be... so much wasted hip.
In all seriousness , stop the SoE hate ... they are a good company.
(Put's on his jinco's and torn shirt ; because skinny jeans and popped collars aren't hip anymore)
They have good aspects and bad aspects to them.
I think Sony in general is a disorganized mess and it trickles down to SoE, especially since they have been under direct control of Sony Computer Entertainment. I am fairly certain SCE, not SoE, is responsible for EQ2 releasing an expansion every year regardless of if they have the content for it or not (EQ at least manages to always deliver sufficient content...not that EQ2 is terrible at content overall, but the last three expansions shouldnt have been full price when they released. DoV has taken 3 years to be worthy fo an expansion price)
In addition SoE is abysmal at marketing and their games have a long history of being poorly optimized.
That said...
SoE has always tried new things and is not a WoW clone type of company. SWG and EQ2 make up 2 of the top 3 housing in MMOs ever (UO being the third) and theyve been experimenting with player created content long before sandbox was put back into the spotlight. They try things like SoEmote.
And the thing that they are hated for most wasnt even their fault. Its become more and more clear as time has gone by that Lucas Arts was the driving force behind the NGE. Since the NGE SoE has released an action oriented, cross platform title (DCUO) and a MMOFPS (PS2) while developing a sandbox. LucasArts found a company to make them WoW with a Star Wars skin.
Their in game customer support in EQ/EQ2 has always been above average to me and my guildies, and VG's is exceptional.
I think when you balance everything out they come out somewhere above average when you consider the competition.
SoE is not making the game, nor do the OWN the company making it, they are only the distributor and perhaps housing the servers though I do not know for sure.
SOE publishes it and provides technical support. The Dev team for this game is not from or employeed by SOE. With that said SOE has come a long way EQ, EQ2 are still going and actually seeing growth since they both went f2p.and recently the class/race restrictions for f2p were lifted making it even more of a value and they have reinvested into vanguard making it f2p with an actual dev team to fix the game.
Planetside 2 was a huge success along with free realms and everyone expects EQN to be good the big change for them is the game engine in PS2 it is an MMO game changer massive seamless worlds with no lag even with hundreds of people around you there is basically 0 lag in ps2 and the engine wasn't even developed for PS2 it was developed for EQN.
Does SOE have a bad history ? Of course is it all deserved ? Probably not. Here's a thing though they developed PS2 from the ground up and gave the entire game to people for free they didnt do a b2p they made it a real free 2 play game and they really do not nickel and dime you like EA does for everyone of its games.
I think SOE has been making some pretty good efforts here lately as far as game developement goes. They've been pretty forthcoming in admitting most of their mistakes that were made in the past, and have been pretty active in engaging the community.
In the business world, once you get a bad rep with custormers and the public in general. It's really hard to shake that image no matter how much you improve as a company. I have never had any issues with SoE so I cannot comment on why people hate the company so much. On the other hand before SWTOR and ME3 I had never had any issues with EA, but now I understand why people hate EA so much..
SOE games are generally pretty good.. sure they messed up bad with SWG in a big way... but their recent game Planetside 2 is pretty bloody good plus the devs are constantly listening to the community and bringing in new feature that the community want..
Saynig that this is not an SOE game they are just publishnig it.. but to say your out because its SOE is knid of bad.. and you could miss out on some great games.
Originally posted by apocoluster I find it funny that now that SOE is making sandboxes they aren't that evil anymore. I guess EA is a great distraction for them
I think it has everything to do with how they are handling the PS2 development, which is excellent.
SOE was a pretty bad company back in the day and up until very recently they've maintained most of their old habits but now... they seem to be shifting towards being more player orientated rather than profit orientated (they are a company and profit comes first, I know but being player orientated brings more profit than being profit orientated, illogical I know). Most of their games are either decent or are oldies which have been opened up to a larger audience with F2P and their support for the games seems on the level. That said Dragon's Prophet is published by them but made by an independent company, this means they get a cut of the profits for helping to support the game but all development is by the independent developers ergo it is not an SOE game.
One can hope that EA takes note of what SOE is managing to do to right itself and tries to follow suit before it sinks into the ocean of consumer bile it has jumped into under its former CEO.
What I find strange is that they are giving away priority beta keys to people that show up to their PAX event, which are instant access keys by the way. Yet they are making the people that have spent money on the game, by buying the founders packs wait until a later date to get into the game. Now I can understand doing technical testing before letting people actually unto the servers. But to give instant access keys to any Jack of the Mill that shows up off the streets, is just plain unfair to those that paid for the game. But I guess it's cool since the founder's pack players are not making an issue out of it, if it was me on the other hand SOE would be doing some explaining or giving me an instant key. Just my opinion on the matter.
Originally posted by Gormok What I find strange is that they are giving away priority beta keys to people that show up to their PAX event, which are instant access keys by the way. Yet they are making the people that have spent money on the game, by buying the founders packs wait until a later date to get into the game. Now I can understand doing technical testing before letting people actually unto the servers. But to give instant access keys to any Jack of the Mill that shows up off the streets, is just plain unfair to those that paid for the game. But I guess it's cool since the founder's pack players are not making an issue out of it, if it was me on the other hand SOE would be doing some explaining or giving me an instant key. Just my opinion on the matter.
I wondered that too and it made me go, hmm. However, they did publish that fact fairly quickly after advertising the packs and they've offered a refund option for anyone that is pissed off. Not bad really. Kind of like ANets refund policy on GW2.
I could kind of understand if they made a logistics mistake internally somewhere and they already have the keys allocated, but it seems kind of stupid how they're handling it.
In any event I'll wait to buy a pack, if I get one, until closer to the beta dates the packs promise. I still have a beta request in and will see where that goes. If the game is as interesting as it looks to me then I'll buy one. I've wanted to play a dragon game that looks this cool since the Legend of the Dragoons.
Yeah they do seem to be communicating with the player base about what's going on with the beta, and to offer refunds on top of that is a good gesture. I applied for both the EU and NA betas, have yet to get into either one. I have been following both the EU and NA versions and EU seems to be moving along quiet nicely although you still have to wait for those access keys. I understand SOE wanting to be careful and not having things breakdown or go haywire during the testing, we all know how players react when things don't run smoothly even though they know full well that they are in a testing phase.
SoE did a terrible job of communicating player interest to the developers back when I played FFXI, and Dragon's Prophet is done by another foreign company.
But that was over 12 years ago... I'm sure everythings different by now. The good thing is it's F2P, so if there is some glaring flaws, I'll know about it before I pay anything, Good ole F2P bait...
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, if they get angry, they'll be a mile away... and barefoot.
Comments
By the way, its not developed by SOE, its published/supported by them.
Could be worse, it could be EA.
In all seriousness though... I was surprised by this one. I like the housing setup, definitely like the focus on dragons and the variety I've seen so far.
In the end, I kind of agree with others. This one looks like a sleeper hit. It's not big enough to draw a lot of attention early on but with its uniqueness I can see it slowly building a dedicated fan base.
I think the true hipsters would like SoE now, so when EQN is a success they can say they liked SoE long before EQN and that SoE is overrated now
Damn, then I was hip before I needed to be... so much wasted hip.
In all seriousness , stop the SoE hate ... they are a good company.
(Put's on his jinco's and torn shirt ; because skinny jeans and popped collars aren't hip anymore)
They have good aspects and bad aspects to them.
I think Sony in general is a disorganized mess and it trickles down to SoE, especially since they have been under direct control of Sony Computer Entertainment. I am fairly certain SCE, not SoE, is responsible for EQ2 releasing an expansion every year regardless of if they have the content for it or not (EQ at least manages to always deliver sufficient content...not that EQ2 is terrible at content overall, but the last three expansions shouldnt have been full price when they released. DoV has taken 3 years to be worthy fo an expansion price)
In addition SoE is abysmal at marketing and their games have a long history of being poorly optimized.
That said...
SoE has always tried new things and is not a WoW clone type of company. SWG and EQ2 make up 2 of the top 3 housing in MMOs ever (UO being the third) and theyve been experimenting with player created content long before sandbox was put back into the spotlight. They try things like SoEmote.
And the thing that they are hated for most wasnt even their fault. Its become more and more clear as time has gone by that Lucas Arts was the driving force behind the NGE. Since the NGE SoE has released an action oriented, cross platform title (DCUO) and a MMOFPS (PS2) while developing a sandbox. LucasArts found a company to make them WoW with a Star Wars skin.
Their in game customer support in EQ/EQ2 has always been above average to me and my guildies, and VG's is exceptional.
I think when you balance everything out they come out somewhere above average when you consider the competition.
SOE publishes it and provides technical support. The Dev team for this game is not from or employeed by SOE. With that said SOE has come a long way EQ, EQ2 are still going and actually seeing growth since they both went f2p.and recently the class/race restrictions for f2p were lifted making it even more of a value and they have reinvested into vanguard making it f2p with an actual dev team to fix the game.
Planetside 2 was a huge success along with free realms and everyone expects EQN to be good the big change for them is the game engine in PS2 it is an MMO game changer massive seamless worlds with no lag even with hundreds of people around you there is basically 0 lag in ps2 and the engine wasn't even developed for PS2 it was developed for EQN.
Does SOE have a bad history ? Of course is it all deserved ? Probably not. Here's a thing though they developed PS2 from the ground up and gave the entire game to people for free they didnt do a b2p they made it a real free 2 play game and they really do not nickel and dime you like EA does for everyone of its games.
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No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
why would you be out because of that...
SOE games are generally pretty good.. sure they messed up bad with SWG in a big way... but their recent game Planetside 2 is pretty bloody good plus the devs are constantly listening to the community and bringing in new feature that the community want..
Saynig that this is not an SOE game they are just publishnig it.. but to say your out because its SOE is knid of bad.. and you could miss out on some great games.
I think it has everything to do with how they are handling the PS2 development, which is excellent.
SOE was a pretty bad company back in the day and up until very recently they've maintained most of their old habits but now... they seem to be shifting towards being more player orientated rather than profit orientated (they are a company and profit comes first, I know but being player orientated brings more profit than being profit orientated, illogical I know). Most of their games are either decent or are oldies which have been opened up to a larger audience with F2P and their support for the games seems on the level. That said Dragon's Prophet is published by them but made by an independent company, this means they get a cut of the profits for helping to support the game but all development is by the independent developers ergo it is not an SOE game.
One can hope that EA takes note of what SOE is managing to do to right itself and tries to follow suit before it sinks into the ocean of consumer bile it has jumped into under its former CEO.
Yeah they do seem to be communicating with the player base about what's going on with the beta, and to offer refunds on top of that is a good gesture. I applied for both the EU and NA betas, have yet to get into either one. I have been following both the EU and NA versions and EU seems to be moving along quiet nicely although you still have to wait for those access keys. I understand SOE wanting to be careful and not having things breakdown or go haywire during the testing, we all know how players react when things don't run smoothly even though they know full well that they are in a testing phase.
kthxbye
SoE did a terrible job of communicating player interest to the developers back when I played FFXI, and Dragon's Prophet is done by another foreign company.
But that was over 12 years ago... I'm sure everythings different by now. The good thing is it's F2P, so if there is some glaring flaws, I'll know about it before I pay anything, Good ole F2P bait...
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, if they get angry, they'll be a mile away... and barefoot.
ROFL
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson