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John Smedley's legacy
Wizardry
Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
EQN cancelled
Dragon's Prophet USA closed
Bullet Run closed
MTG tactics closed
Fortune league closed
Star Wars Galaxies/ clone wars closed
Free Realms closed
Pirates of the Burning Sea closed
Vanguard closed
Pox Nora closed
The Matrix Online closed
Everquest online adventures closed
Cosmic Rift closed
Infantry closed
Tanarus closed
I found it quite lame that right after pitching an all inclusive subscription they shut all down except 4 games.So they only have 4 games in the package and Landmark is not one of them,it was clearly a scam job.
What i see sure seems obvious and simple.They have NEVER had a big enough team to operate even 3 games.They have constantly had to shut games down to attain the servers for new games.
So remains DC ,Eq1,Eq2 and PS2.Landmark SHOULD have been part of that package,that was the whole idea behind it was to get an ALL inclusive gaming package.Even H1z1 should be part of the package,instead DBG has stooped so low as to split it in two in hopes of selling that same game twice ,,very lame.
When i look back ,SOE has really never been a success story,like Wow they were lucky to be one of the first with the EQ franchise otherwise it likely would never fly now a days and is also likely on it's last legs right now.
I also remember SOE pitching a new SWG game a little over 2 years ago,not one word since,obviously again biting off more than they could handle.I see no reason to ever support this business,i see no reason to trust them,i see a new closure as soon as they announce a new game,likely PS2.I would not be th least surprised they even shut down the part of H1Z1 that is actually closer to what the game was suppose to be and only keep the BR part of game going.
This has been a struggling business throughout it's history,only the mild success of EQ1 and EQ2 kept the dream alive but not for long,it is no wonder they had to sell out.
Dragon's Prophet USA closed
Bullet Run closed
MTG tactics closed
Fortune league closed
Star Wars Galaxies/ clone wars closed
Free Realms closed
Pirates of the Burning Sea closed
Vanguard closed
Pox Nora closed
The Matrix Online closed
Everquest online adventures closed
Cosmic Rift closed
Infantry closed
Tanarus closed
I found it quite lame that right after pitching an all inclusive subscription they shut all down except 4 games.So they only have 4 games in the package and Landmark is not one of them,it was clearly a scam job.
What i see sure seems obvious and simple.They have NEVER had a big enough team to operate even 3 games.They have constantly had to shut games down to attain the servers for new games.
So remains DC ,Eq1,Eq2 and PS2.Landmark SHOULD have been part of that package,that was the whole idea behind it was to get an ALL inclusive gaming package.Even H1z1 should be part of the package,instead DBG has stooped so low as to split it in two in hopes of selling that same game twice ,,very lame.
When i look back ,SOE has really never been a success story,like Wow they were lucky to be one of the first with the EQ franchise otherwise it likely would never fly now a days and is also likely on it's last legs right now.
I also remember SOE pitching a new SWG game a little over 2 years ago,not one word since,obviously again biting off more than they could handle.I see no reason to ever support this business,i see no reason to trust them,i see a new closure as soon as they announce a new game,likely PS2.I would not be th least surprised they even shut down the part of H1Z1 that is actually closer to what the game was suppose to be and only keep the BR part of game going.
This has been a struggling business throughout it's history,only the mild success of EQ1 and EQ2 kept the dream alive but not for long,it is no wonder they had to sell out.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Comments
What do you mean closed? Pox Nora is still thriving with a new expansion revealed a few days ago.
https://www.poxnora.com/index.do
* more info, screenshots and videos here
Just because a movie is directed by Steven Spielberg doesn't mean it's going to be good. You place far too much faith in a name without considering the work being done first.
EQOA was going to be closed regardless. It was limited to one platform and it was clunky to begin with. It would have been long dead by now, even if he didn't want it to be.
Vanguard was killed by the developers of that game. The system requirements were too high and the code quality simply wasn't there.
EQ2 was killed by high system requirements and a nostalgic player base in EQ that refused to move over because it wasn't "EQ with better graphics." This is what was going to tank EQN as well, as the only core market this game would have had was with EQ fans - similar to ESO with ES fans, and we see how that turned out. Companies always overestimate fans' loyalty to their games, and end up paying for it.
A lot of those other games would have been non-factors and likely have been closed down due to lack of a player base to sustain them, unless they were inundated with tons of Store content, which players complain about...
SOE had too many damn games. They should have concentrated on EQ and EQ2, while developing EQN and aiming to close down EQ shortly after it launched. Then did some non-MMORPG games on the side (which they are sort of doing these days).
EQN was too ambitious for what SOE/Daybreak is capable of doing. I don't think it was a "fun" issue. They simply could not deliver the product. It was way too ambitious. They were trying to change the industry but didn't realize early on just how much effort that would take. They probably also didn't get enough "free content development" from fans as they thought they would. We all know they were using Landmark as a way to outsource content development to the community, to save cash - or at least we should have.
SOE/Daybreak should have used a 3rd party graphics engine and built their game on that, similar to what Pantheon is doing. They aren't the powerhouse they used to be, and market conditions are different. People want polished products these days. They have been burned too many times by unfinished messed being foist upon them.
I don't think Smedley was the greatest leader and I'm not sure he was a good one at all; but I feel like people are completely scapegoating him for making decisions that were necessary for the company given the changing market conditions over the years. Frankly, EQN was doomed to fail because it was too big for what SOE was capable of, and a lot of those games listed upthread would have ended up being inviable anyways.
The only thing that would have made it possible for them to be viable was Station All-Access, and how much did that help Vanguard? Players simply didn't GAF about Vanguard after it's horrible launch... And it's hard to develop new content and expansions for a game that has basically ignorable user numbers.
SoE may have made some bad discussions to some of their games. However, they were no worse then any other company if you look at it from a broad picture instead of a small minded one.
I always found it funny that a lot of people will bitch and complain about SOE and John Smedly but look the other way with people like Brad McQuaid. He seems to be in a lot of peoples mind the savior of genre. When in fact he and John Smedly are on a similar page.
I'll tell you one thing. I actually emailed Smedly with a question/complaint once about one of his games on your list. Within 20 minutes I got an email back from him and we exchanged about 10 emails discussing my issue. This as a player and customer made me gain a lot of respect for the man. As this is something that someone in his position in a company definitely didn't have to do.
At that level of pricing, if the games have ridiculously low user numbers, it's probably best to shut them down than end up going in the red trying to offer a "great deal" that cannot sustain the game's funding demands. Developers, Artists, Servers, etc. This all costs money.
Anyone with a clue can clearly see why they shut those games down. The All-Access Pass deal was to try to see if they could get enough users to sign up to hopefully sustain them, but they couldn't. Low Prices can sustain themselves if you have massive player base sizes, but that never worked out for them. Because WoW and the flood of other MMORPGs being released at the time completely dominated them.
Also, everyone talks about how "popular' the EQ brand is, but back in the day EQ was also quite unpopular because it was often associated with gaming addiction, among other things. Lots of parents simply didn't want their children playing EverQuest because of the high profile news stories that they'd hear about. We all know about EverCrack.
Similar things have happened with games like WoW, but EQ was the O.G. of all that.
VG
Not really sure why anyone would believe anything he says after what went on there.
Probably the best thing about him is he can pick good games to publish. The bad part is he turns them into shit.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
I think its funny people that worked close with him should get the blame but in essence isnt the ceo of a company the captain who everyone answers to? If he seen his ship sinking at any time he could of come in cracked heads and fixed the issue but thats the problem he didnt he thought keeping up with the same boring quest grinders and loot chases would keep working game after game.
Except that analogy doesn't apply here because a corporation doesn't work the way our federal government does. It's not like his employees could vote to overrule his decisions. The buck stopped with him....period.
If an employee was incompetent Smed should have fired that employee. If the devs were making bad decisions Smed should have stepped in and said "Hell no, you aren't going to do that."
Anything that happened at SOE/Daybreak while he was the boss---he was responsible. Either through a direct action on his part or through inaction on his part in failing to take charge when someone else was screwing up.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Just replace the names on the headstones with the names of the games. It's just a matter of time until all that is left of SOE/DGC is a cemetery.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/But overall his legacy fills a much needed gap.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
http://www.randalolson.com/2014/11/12/mmorpg-popularity-1998-2013/
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Smedley failed on all of that. He was the captain of the ship that sank after years of layoffs and mismanagement. And the responsibility ends with him.
Under his leadership, SOE went from being THE MMO company (in the EQ1 days), to getting sold to some Russian venture capitalists after a huge and final write down of assets. And then he got canned from there, too.
But even separate from that, are the lies he personally told to his customers, time and again, year after year, on multiple games, that he can't/couldn't get away from. From all the stuff in SWG, to the cash shop / F2P conversion for EQ2, and others, he himself lied to customers faces, saying one thing, and then doing the exact opposite a few months later. And he still has defenders and apologists to excuse all of the stuff he did as if it is somehow "ok" because he made video games.
People seem to cut this guy slack, and I don't understand it. In any other industry, he'd have been given the heave ho long ago. And right fully so.
But like a NYC cockroach, it has been impossible to get rid of him. Even now, he is trying a comeback with that whatever 2D game that just massively failed a Kickstarter.
In the end, I say good riddance to bad rubbish, but it is all too likely he will return to plague the industry in the future.
He was the/an owner of Veriant when Sony brought SOE under its umbrella, and he retained ownership of a large chunk, allegedly.
That would also be supported by the fact that when SOE was "sold", he took one of the only deals that allowed him to keep his job. It was also allegedly for less money than what the Storybricks people were offering, according to them.
So, Smedley, CEO and equity owner, far more than just "talking head".