https://www.periscope.tv/w/1YqxozPqQRvJvskip to 2:20 if you don't mind watching this short video from the start. He mention's EQNext's AI work done by Dave Mark never got to see the light of day. Of course we dont know what the work was but Smed said it was "amazing". Question is why would they quit something Smed said was amazing? Did this game get "trolled" to death and investors didn't want to risk the market infested with WoW fanboys bent on spreading ill word to any game that competes with its "muh subscription numbers". Im pretty pissed off. Seriously...
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So when Daybreak were ordered to take stock, they axed the "amazing AI" because it would have taken too much time and money to spread it throughout the whole game.
So it looks like EQN (if it ever launches) will just have "standard" themepark AI.
Yawn...
First, we have no idea if the AI was actually amazing or gamings #1 moran Mr. Smelly is just claiming something that can't be proven.
Second, EQN isn't happening. An investment firm doesn't buy a game company so that they can spit out an MMO in 2016 - it's a losing bet.
Lastly, even if the AI was amazing and EQN was/is on the up and up, has it really been WoW fanboys derailing the game with virulent hate cause I don't see it.
When noone wants to take a risk when that great "elephant" is in that room the industry is dead. How can something like this happen to my franchise?? Ive been playing Everquest since i was 16 back in 1999. Why quit while you are ahead!? This industry is about ideas. This AI showing would have revitalized the industry. It would have showed other companies, Hey we can make games creatively. Now its going to die because people wanted Legion?? It doesn't make sense...Im lost for words.
When the first reveal came out i thought, Wow this is going to attract million because of its own merit. It was simply ahead of its time and now the game that was in tune with what the generation wanted is going to be stripped down into a market shell of low interest and a veritable "me too" money pit where investors and people interested have lost because of all the "dont buy this, this game sucks" before it was even put out. Why don't you judge it when it comes out?? Wtf...
Here's my point. The AI was cancelled because this game would have projected to fail...Fail at what right? Well, they research potential buyers and demographics and figured the only people who would buy won't be enough to fund the project and release. They even made it like a cartoon to attract the newer people. Those factors affected the investor money and now the game won't be made to be revolutionary, like they can make it, like something the industry needs, like something that would benefit all. This won't be a give it all you got game like everything prior to 2005 but we need to follow what makes us money because measures how good a game is??
How dare i say ill of WoW right?? Well, my game is dead...
Smed says it's fantastic but circumstances kept people from seeing how great it really was.
If the game got trolled by anyone, it was by the people making it.
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I think people are obsessed with imparting their money like they are investors instead of enjoying what is the essence of what games are supposed to be. A trial. Its supposed to make you feel something, if not anything at all, whether good or bad. The way it should be is that games should make us like it, dislike it, not the same old i kinda like it but it is slightly addicting. FUCKING WoW is like that. Thats not a game! Its a marketing ploy. It should make us feel not draw us in the same zombie crowds. This sucks!
Storybricks had an "oven" and it was their "oven". They worked with SoE to create a recipe - to put in the oven - to get whatever it was SoE wanted out of the oven. And in the words of JS the output was amazing. When Storybricks was axed DBG, as SoE became, still had all the recipe stuff. They were short one oven however. Building a new oven would cost money etc. They probably needed more recipes as well.
As far as EQN goes it might not happen but: if CN had zero intention of releasing EQN they would have axed the EQN team on day 1; reports suggested that over half the workforce were let go so what difference a few more.
My view is that broke SoE into a) a revenue stream - from released games and b) a venture capital project called EQN. They didn't axe the team which suggests they set a budget. The "year of EQN" has been and gone however; no sign of life. And when the budget has been used .... farewell and adieu usually. Sony wrote of $60M; I cannot see CN doing the same. Something pushed out of the door - maybe.
This has been known for some time. Dave Mark's work was the initial AI "framework" for Next before Storybricks took it and tried to run with it, later to be unable get their systems to work entirely either. Keep in mind this AI handover was about a year before the announcement of the CN buyout if I'm not mistaken. Who knows what happened behind closed doors but I doubt Smed had his hands tied when it was decided that Mark's services were no longer required after his contract was over. Maybe they thought they had enough groundwork from DM to let the SB guys build off of it and complete it? Either way it didn't work from Smed's own statements which is why the DGC crew decided to take the AI work for Next "in house."
Who knows now? There is radio silence which really means nothing.
It was probably half-assed as with anything done by SOE for the previous years.
MurderHerd