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SOE and Blizz vets form new development team

aspekxaspekx Member UncommonPosts: 2,167

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/07/25/soe-and-blizzard-veterans-form-a-new-mmorpg-super-studio/

 

no judgment here, just found this to be a curious bit of news.

"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse

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Comments

  • Heretic451Heretic451 Member Posts: 69
    Interesting.
  • BossalinieBossalinie Member UncommonPosts: 724
    FTP Triple-A game coming sooooon! :D
  • NagelRitterNagelRitter Member Posts: 607
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    Favorite MMO: Vanilla WoW
    Currently playing: GW2, EVE
    Excited for: Wildstar, maybe?

  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    So, pretty much just like Blizzard?

  • NagelRitterNagelRitter Member Posts: 607
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    So, pretty much just like Blizzard?

    Implying WCIII, WoW, and SCII were bad games?

    Even DIII is considerably better than Hellgate London, Mythos, and whatever else was made by those side companies.

    Favorite MMO: Vanilla WoW
    Currently playing: GW2, EVE
    Excited for: Wildstar, maybe?

  • ThomasN7ThomasN7 87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
    Sadly NcSoft is involved here so if this new company is making mmos then expect it to fail hard as always.
    30
  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    So, pretty much just like Blizzard?

    Implying WCIII, WoW, and SCII were bad games?

    Even DIII is considerably better than Hellgate London, Mythos, and whatever else was made by those side companies.

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

  • QuenchsterQuenchster Member Posts: 450
    Damnit! "back in the day" is just another way of saying generic MMORPG. That or saying that is just their idea of getting a positive image in the minds of MMORPG players.
  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by Quenchster
    Damnit! "back in the day" is just another way of saying generic MMORPG. That or saying that is just their idea of getting a positive image in the minds of MMORPG players.

    Buh..what? MMOs were far more varied, detailed, and anything but generic "back in the day".

  • QuenchsterQuenchster Member Posts: 450
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by Quenchster
    Damnit! "back in the day" is just another way of saying generic MMORPG. That or saying that is just their idea of getting a positive image in the minds of MMORPG players.

    Buh..what? MMOs were far more varied, detailed, and anything but generic "back in the day".

    What I meant was they got devs from SoE and Blizzard. They were probably referring to Everquest and WoW when they said that, which is what most MMORPGs are kind of going for.

    Edit: When I think Blizzard, past WoW, and a work-hard/play-hard approach I think of Timbermaw rep grinding on my enchanter or going for commander rank. Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong? I hope they meant other games.

  • nakkinakki Member Posts: 56
    That "back in the day" was referring to what kind of dev studio they want to be.
  • FusionFusion Member UncommonPosts: 1,398

    Free to play...

    Molten lost me there, i've yet to see a single free-to-play MMORPG catch my attention for more than a few days.

    http://neocron-game.com/ - now totally F2P no cash-shops or micro transactions at all.
  • tawesstawess Member EpicPosts: 4,227
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    So, pretty much just like Blizzard?

    Implying WCIII, WoW, and SCII were bad games?

    Even DIII is considerably better than Hellgate London, Mythos, and whatever else was made by those side companies.

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

     

    You can imply all you want, it does not make you right. I give you that in your opinion WOW is a bad game. But by any metric you can think up WoW is a good game. Opinion =/= fact. Not the BEST game(in all honestly, how do you even crown a game as best?). But calling it a bad game is pretty silly.

     

    Now for this new studio, i am curious to see what they come up with. But it is most likley 3-4 years until we will see the fruit of their labour.

    This have been a good conversation

  • faxnadufaxnadu Member UncommonPosts: 940
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by Quenchster
    Damnit! "back in the day" is just another way of saying generic MMORPG. That or saying that is just their idea of getting a positive image in the minds of MMORPG players.

    Buh..what? MMOs were far more varied, detailed, and anything but generic "back in the day".

    and here we go again , you m,issed the default names like eq to boost your statement. back in the days mmos were better , is so god damn last season phrase so everyone should just stop using it and move on ffs.

     

    on the topic, always good to hear this kind of news.

  • QuenchsterQuenchster Member Posts: 450
    Originally posted by nakki
    That "back in the day" was referring to what kind of dev studio they want to be.

    Oh! I thought they were talking about how they wanted to approach their games as a studio. I guess they were talking about the studio itself. I'm so used to phrases like that being tossed around by companies as a way to build up nostalgia on how games used to be that it triggers the idea that people are talking about games.

     

    Good that they are going with the work-hard and play-hard mentality, but do they have Nerf guns? Gotta have Nerf guns.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dO9zkCvgvc

  • dandurindandurin Member UncommonPosts: 498
    Originally posted by DavisFlight

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

    If so EQ would have had 20 times the subscriber base instead of the other way around.

     

    I loved EQ, it was the kind of game I'd always wanted to play.  A revolutionary advance.

     

    That doesn't mean there weren't dozens of things that WoW did way better (and EQ2 failed miserably at):

     

    Seamless open world.  

    Constant questing vs 1 quest every 5 levels or so. 

    Quests that don't require spoiler sites as essential game aids. 

    Quests that aren't broken or unimplemented.

    Art style that's immersive even on low-end machines. 

    Useful crafting. 

    Intuitive UI. 

    Melee abilities beyond "kick" and auto-attack. 

    Lack of forced downtime. 

    Class balance. 

    Flight points.

     

    I could go on.

     

    Hopefully a new sandbox era is upon us, but  WoW mastered the MMORPG themepark genre and to pretend otherwise is an exercise in contrariness.

  • MumboJumboMumboJumbo Member UncommonPosts: 3,219
    Arn't they making an E-SPORTS online service? Follow the money?
  • LorgarnLorgarn Member UncommonPosts: 417
    Somewhat interesting news I reckon. I'll look forward to hearing about their project sometime in the future.
  • KaledrenKaledren Member UncommonPosts: 312
    Originally posted by dandurin
    Originally posted by DavisFlight

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

    If so EQ would have had 20 times the subscriber base instead of the other way around.

     

    I loved EQ, it was the kind of game I'd always wanted to play.  A revolutionary advance.

     

    That doesn't mean there weren't dozens of things that WoW did way better (and EQ2 failed miserably at):

     

    Seamless open world.  

    Constant questing vs 1 quest every 5 levels or so. 

    Quests that don't require spoiler sites as essential game aids. 

    Quests that aren't broken or unimplemented.

    Art style that's immersive even on low-end machines. 

    Useful crafting. 

    Intuitive UI. 

    Melee abilities beyond "kick" and auto-attack. 

    Lack of forced downtime. 

    Class balance. 

    Flight points.

     

    I could go on.

     

    Hopefully a new sandbox era is upon us, but  WoW mastered the MMORPG themepark genre and to pretend otherwise is an exercise in contrariness.

    .................

    If the MMORPG genre weren't niche then and had been mass marketed the way WoW did, they would of had 20 times the subscriber's. Not to mention EQ is STILL running some 14 years later.

    And no kidding WoW did some things better. They just improved on existing features EQ and UOO developed. Not to mention the difference in technology available to them was a HUGE factor.

  • LogicLesterLogicLester Member UncommonPosts: 68

    Did anyone actually read the article?

     

    "According to GamesIndustry.biz, the team comprises names such as Paul Della Bitta, former Blizzard director of community development and eSports, and former SOE lead designer Blaine Smith."

     

    So, yeah....a guy from Blizzard who did community and "eSports" stuff....yeah.  Well Mr. Smith was a lead designer, so maybe he's the mighty creative force behind this would be David MMO studio which will finally take down Blizzard's Goliath!  To Google!

     

    So....Mr.Smith was lead designer for a game called PoxNora, a turn-based online strategy game....yeah.

     

    In other news PCGamer announced that a QA guy from Irrational Games' Bioshock Infinite team and Richard Garriot's third cousin on his mother's side were seen talking while in line at Starbucks!  Is a Bioshock meets Ultima crossover in the works???

  • Ice-QueenIce-Queen Member UncommonPosts: 2,483
    Free to play. Not interested....

    image

    What happens when you log off your characters????.....
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
    Dark Age of Camelot

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332

    Neither SOE nor Blizzard have ever been creative in their games.Bizzard is famous for low tech,crap game engines,that's why they buy up other devs or outsource a lot of work.Blizzard likes to do a lot of copying and make games that run cheap on low end graphics.They have struggled in their entirety to make a good game engine and/or port to consoles.

    SOE is all about going BIG,no creativity,just a really big game,pretty much exactly like Wow.

    Where SOE's creativity comes from is it's outsourcing,not from within SOE.Perfect example is the Naughty Dog productions team.They were hired by SOE long ago,but i would not call them SOE employees,they are NDP employees.

    When both Blizzard and SOE's Everquest team make games,they create an initial design ,then everything after is just more of the same old,like i said,they badly lack creativity.Putting in tons of hand holding is NOT creativity.

    Point is labelling themselves as former Blizzard/SOE employees does nothing at al lto excite me.Perfect case in point,Torchlight,former Blizzard,just another cheap Diablo clone.Wildstar just more low end tech with cheap looking graphics,typical of blizzard.

    In this day and age of gaming with tons of new tech ,i want to see new ideas and new tech,i do not want to see more of the same old crap from former employees of two of the most boring developers.The LAST thing i need to see is another hand holding quest game all racing to end game dungeon grinding.The funny part would be to see the SOE side and Blizzard side deciding on cheap graphics or better looking graphics.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by tawess
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by NagelRitter
    I seem to see a lot of random companies crop up that are composed of this or that piece of Blizzard, but none of them have yet to release anything worthwhile.

    So, pretty much just like Blizzard?

    Implying WCIII, WoW, and SCII were bad games?

    Even DIII is considerably better than Hellgate London, Mythos, and whatever else was made by those side companies.

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

     

    You can imply all you want, it does not make you right. I give you that in your opinion WOW is a bad game. But by any metric you can think up WoW is a good game. Opinion =/= fact. Not the BEST game(in all honestly, how do you even crown a game as best?). But calling it a bad game is pretty silly.

     

    Now for this new studio, i am curious to see what they come up with. But it is most likley 3-4 years until we will see the fruit of their labour.

    If you think my opinion that it is a bad game is "silly" I think your notion that calling it a good game is silly. Your opinion man.

     

    Measuring by many metrics it falls far short of games with 1/10th of its budget. Limited classes, few races, small game world, few in game activities, limited crafting, no market, no housing, no meaningful PvP, low poly graphics. Its lame by just as many metrics as it is a success.

  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by dandurin
    Originally posted by DavisFlight

    I am implying WoW was a bad game, yes. Any merit from it was derived from directly copying EQ.

    If so EQ would have had 20 times the subscriber base instead of the other way around.

     

    Except that EQ didn't have the name brand recognition, the pre existing fanbase, or the year long multi million dollar pre launch marketing campaign WoW did.

     

    WoW is, by and large, garbage. What merits it did have were not unique to WoW.

  • DavisFlightDavisFlight Member CommonPosts: 2,556
    Originally posted by faxnadu
    Originally posted by DavisFlight
    Originally posted by Quenchster
    Damnit! "back in the day" is just another way of saying generic MMORPG. That or saying that is just their idea of getting a positive image in the minds of MMORPG players.

    Buh..what? MMOs were far more varied, detailed, and anything but generic "back in the day".

    and here we go again , you m,issed the default names like eq to boost your statement. back in the days mmos were better , is so god damn last season phrase so everyone should just stop using it and move on ffs.

     

    on the topic, always good to hear this kind of news.

    when it stops being true we'll stop saying it

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