Ashes to ashes... dust to dust?

And so I never thought I'd be writing these words but I am. I am done with the mmog industry as far as being apart of large communities is concerned. I have been a long respected member of several communities in several mmo's and forums.

From SWG with the ISB, Deathwatch, GIA and other large guilds electing me as their representative to the community, to planetside as a respected if even hated member of the community to LC as a moderator, to starship troopers 2D as a long standing member - to having my own gaming clan, as my official tag when not guilded otherwise.

I've seen the birth of an industry from all the way back in 1993 from when I first used DOS until now - where it will goes from where it has gone, is anyones guess. all I can say, is that if you told me in 1993 that I'd one day be a member of online communities numbering in the tens of thousands of follwers, id of laughed at you. So where it will go, is anyones guess.

I am but one single tiny story in the vast sea of voices that change and mold the industry.

I would say that I've had a good run and met many great people, ive gotten into my share of flame wars and duked things out with developers and other moderators alike. I've probably insulted quite a few people in the past, but whatever. My opinion may not be popular, but I've never censored it for anyone - and people tend to agree with me at times for some reason. As ive always said, if you dont like it... shut up and deal with it anyway.

So I guess ill save the entirety of the five people that read this or pay attention to this the trouble. From now on, the most people will see from me is randomly posting on forums with at most a flame or whatever else.

The next time you see anyone in any game with the name "P0INTMAN" - it is not me.

Ja Ne.
Fin.

-K. Regan/MVS/Cammo/P0INTMAN/p0inty logging for the final time.


and by the way, to give this the positive note that it deserves in my mind...
The Gorillaz' Feel Good Inc vid does the trick. Hell yeah.

stateofshock is an idiot

im going to let the post quotes speak for themselves. delaying a release when you yourself give yourself a deadline, is not only embarassing for yourself, but HIGHLY annyoing when you miss it, 8 months in a row.

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Stateofshock posted on Tuesday, July 25th, 2007 in the paid members forum of the lost colony website:
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,810
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Exclamation v0.99 Release 7/24/07
There will be a release tonight and let me say, there are many bugs that QA didn’t catch. As a result, we’ve been spending most of our day removing things from the game that are causing these bugs. A few things to mention were the bases and some parts of the bases. But overall, we got most of the bases intact.

Tonight is NOT a full-game release. It is also NOT a full-beta release. It is hardly any game playing whatsoever as many things are missing.

We will be sending out updates via the Client (we will be making the new Client Launcher available shortly) for you to install and to download the updates.

In our bug checker program (Mantis) we have several open issues that are not resolved. We will be fixing these and sending out updates on a regular basis both tonight and tomorrow.

We will have parts of the game ready between 10pm – 12mid (Eastern Time) tonight
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THEN, a day BEFORE... he posts this:
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07-22-2007, 10:21 PM
StateOfShock's Avatar
StateOfShock StateOfShock is invisible
Staff

Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,810
StateOfShock is on a distinguished road
Smile v0.99 Begins Monday, July 23rd
Well before I begin telling you what to expect on Monday's v0.99 release, allow me to thank everyone for their patience. As you know, this game project has truly taken a toll on us staff. What was supposed to be released in January resulted in delays. For the most part, we have improved the game over time. However, the frustrations are there and we hope to see them fade as we update v0.99 to a full game. We understand that we failed miserably on timelines, but this industry is tricky as things can change on the fly which then changes our schedules. We feel very confident about our release now than before.

About v0.99 Beta Testing. Please don't expect a full-running game right off the bat. The first release is very bare and empty in that there will be one island with two bases. Yes, there will be sanctuaries. Don't fret though; we will be releasing updates fast which will contain more continents, bases, vehicles, weapons, player characters, outfit features, and so on. There are reasons for this, but it would take too long to document.

Expect several updates daily. However, as we see bugs we will fix them on the fly with run-time updates. This means that you might be on the game server when we do the updates, causing the game server to restart for 2 seconds.

Our goal is to finish all testing this week. By the weekend, we hope to have Version 0.99 fully ready for public view and tests. We feel confident with this schedule as we've gone over the procedures and tasks quite a few times on when tests should be done.

Please note: That with the new Launcher and Updater, we are open for criticism. If you find something in the game that you don't like, we will do our best to improve things right away via the Launcher and Updater.

Finally, the wait is over. The only things you have to wait for are the updates. We will be rolling them out regularly. If the bases seem a bit bare, it's because we had to remove a few things in order to get this first release done. Remember, the Launcher/Updater as that will complete the game. We are ready to work around-the-clock this week to finally have our launch with Lost Colony.
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Now, due to the fact I was privy to a few other things (as in, LC server and client security) I won't post them here. why? Because I don't want to.


Now, at this rate, fuckin duke nukem forever will be out sooner than LC.

Screenshots of this shit to come, soon...

This blog will be staying!

so, XFIRE updated their pages with the ability to blog. I will be considering MOVING there soon...

updates to come when I see how it works out!

http://www.xfire.com/blog/p0intman/ is where it will be.

update: 2 mins after: Xfire blog looks bad, theres no sidebar or anything else that I have here. NEVERMIND. This blog will be STAYING here.

so an update and random shit..

so, I havent paid attention to this thing for a while and people have been bugging me to.

LC Closed BETA is going great, we got the teams coded last night after state asked me to assist in testing the released client versus the master client copy. It messed up, call it murphy's law eh? anyway, at this rate the open beta may be as early as this saturday or sunday if all goes well. There are a few holes in the terrain still that need to be patched up but that should be soon as well.

I've also been flamed quite hard via email for having a blog dedicated to gaming, what the hell is up with this? Why do people dislike people keeping notes like this? All I get out of it is a laugh at others when I recieve random email telling me to go "Get a life" and that ill never be anything. ah well, idiots will be idiots I guess.

For anyone that hates people for blogging about the gaming industry, I give you this for the endless laughing you cause me to have.

also, click here and write/call your congressmen because of this idiotic bill they want to pass. If you don't understand why its stupid and immoral to consider, and how much power it will give developers, you need to re-educate yourself.

sony's population for galaxies..

...
I have nothing to loose by posting this information, and I honestly dont care what they do, with that said, if you find this is deleted, my blog will have it copied there.

Taken last night, Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 5:35 PM CST:

ID: 24 - Name: Europe-Infinity - IP: 195.33.138.101 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0224
ID: 23 - Name: Europe-FarStar - IP: 195.33.138.75 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0139
ID: 22 - Name: Europe-Chimaera - IP: 195.33.138.41 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0245
ID: 1C - Name: Shadowfire - IP: 199.108.197.130 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0318
ID: 1B - Name: Wanderhome - IP: 199.108.197.103 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0224
ID: 1A - Name: Tarquinas - IP: 199.108.197.87 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0379
ID: 19 - Name: Starsider - IP: 199.108.197.50 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0318
ID: 13 - Name: Tempest - IP: 199.108.7.148 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0348
ID: 12 - Name: Valcyn - IP: 199.108.7.111 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0423
ID: 11 - Name: Sunrunner - IP: 199.108.7.73 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0393
ID: 10 - Name: Scylla - IP: 199.108.7.50 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0257
ID: 0F - Name: Naritus - IP: 199.108.8.137 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0179
ID: 0E - Name: Kettemoor - IP: 199.108.8.117 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0352
ID: 0D - Name: Intrepid - IP: 199.108.6.178 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0248
ID: 0C - Name: Flurry - IP: 199.108.6.133 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0262
ID: 0B - Name: Radiant - IP: 199.108.198.70 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0366
ID: 0A - Name: Lowca - IP: 199.108.198.36 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0169
ID: 09 - Name: Kauri - IP: 199.108.196.178 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0245
ID: 08 - Name: Gorath - IP: 199.108.196.131 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0271
ID: 07 - Name: Eclipse - IP: 199.108.196.101 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0397
ID: 06 - Name: Chilastra - IP: 199.108.196.84 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0357
ID: 05 - Name: Bloodfin - IP: 199.108.196.40 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0321
ID: 04 - Name: Corbantis - IP: 199.108.6.105 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0370
ID: 03 - Name: Ahazi - IP: 199.108.6.79 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0310
ID: 02 - Name: Bria - IP: 199.108.6.53 - PortA: 44463 - PortB: 44462 - Population: 0422


Enough PR spinning, people. There is not one server that has a half of a thousand people on it, where are the so called masses and the so called new subscribers?

I know a way that can raise those by a few thousand each in a few nights, but you dont want to hear that, do you? tired of these things yet? you cant even sustain a ban on me, in any game. I've been invited back for 30 days, 6 TIMES after having been banned.

http://soe.lithium.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=1362041

Sony: You wont forget your mistakes. I wont allow you to.

.
I wont allow you to forget your mistakes.

Nice quote:

"SWG was like a bar we all met at. We made friends, cussed out the stupid people [read as: All of us at one time or another], ...and watched the owner's of the bar try to serve us lamb's piss and expect us to 'shut up and just drink it."
Well..."

Description:  (This is one -- but it's new and it is so SPOT ON)...

Star Wars Galaxies: Anatomy of a PR Disaster

Developers of the niche field of Massively Multiplayer Online Games would kill for the kind of press access that LucasArts/Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies is currently getting. The New York Times? Christian Science Monitor? Wired? All in one week? Blizzard Entertainment's mega-hit World of Warcraft aside, the media still barely knows MMOGs exist. So this massive exposure is great, right? Well, let's look at the headlines:

• NYT: For Online Star Wars Game, It's Revenge of the Fans
• Wired: Star Wars Fans Flee Net Galaxy
• Christian Science Monitor: Dumbing down virtual 'Star Wars' may backfire
• Yahoo! Games: When Galaxies Implode
• (Several More since this post)  added comment by me isk....fyi --

This is beyond bad press -- this is a disaster for a struggling product in a marketing niche that depends on positive word of mouth to generate subscribers willing to pony up $15 a month. Star Wars Galaxies isn't at the end of its road yet, but it doesn't seem too early to slow down past the wreckage and take a look at how two massive corporations with one of the world's most popular intellectual properties managed to run through the guardrails.

I started playing SWG in January 2004, sticking with it for more than a year before time constraints, other distractions and frustration with the game's ongoing bugs had me seeking greener pastures. But I can't help following the continuing drama surrounding the game. In addition to nostalgia -- I still have an attachment to the online friends and experiences I had playing the game -- there's also fascination with the wrong turns that continue to be taken. In that sense, I almost understand peoples' fascination with the Jerry Springer show. Almost.

Swarthmore College professor Timothy Burke and a kajillion commenters at the academic group blog Terra Nova provide an analysis reflected in the mass media coverage. Essentially, SWG was doing decent business for a massively multiplayer online game -- at one time it was among the top of the field, and was estimated to have about 200,000 subscribers. Before the launch of World of Warcraft, this made them a gorilla. Compared to WoW's worldwide subscriber base of millions, this made them just another monkey. A big monkey, but a monkey nonetheless -- this despite the fact that, Jar Jar Binks notwithstanding, Star Wars isn't just any popular intellectual property, it's a worldwide phenomenon. This was supposed to be the game that broke MMOGs into the mainstream, not a competing property that was unknown outside of computer gaming circles. And, thanks to a lack of content and persistently unaddressed bugs, SWG was shedding players.

LucasArts apparently pushed for, and Sony Online Entertainment implemented, a massive overhaul to the very structure of the game in order to attract newer, younger, more casual players. SWG had been a complex virtual-world game, where different players interdependently fought Rebels/Imperials; crafted and sold munitions and starships for the combatants; and built virtual homes, businesses and cities. A new action-game combat system removed the value in player-crafted goods, removing the value of the crafters' economic game. 32 mix-and-match professions that players could combine to customize their play experiences were reduced to nine isolated "iconic" character classes. SOE had long fielded complaints from fans about how many players had managed to acquire "Jedi" characters in a game set between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. At a time when Jedi were supposed to be rare, there were an awful lot of them running around. Now Jedi were one of the nine starting professions -- anyone and everyone could be one.

Their existing customers were not amused.

The changes themselves were questionable, although it's hard to argue that something drastic was needed to keep the game viable. (While SWG on its own merits could be considered a success, its revenue had to be split between two companies that maintained a large development team. It needed to be bigger.) Where the companies shot themselves in the foot, however, was in the public rollout of the changes. MMOGs aren't just computer games; they're managed communities. MMOG developers aren't just game publishers; they're service providers.

So here's what Sony and LucasArts did to make themselves a case study for the industry, and to direct the media coverage toward the bad reaction to the game rather than the game itself:

• Never Write Off Your Existing Customers: The so-called New Game Experience was announced on November 2 with no warning, and was scheduled to go live two weeks later. Although SWG had an extensive "correspondent program" that attempted to streamline communication about game development and player opinions between Sony Online Entertainment and the customers, the changes came as a complete surprise. (The story was first broken at the gamer site f13.net.)

  What this suggests to me was that folks at LucasArts and Sony were concerned enough about player reaction to the changes to try to postpone a negative reaction, but not concerned enough to try to sell the changes. SWG senior director Nancy MacIntyre of LucasArts in the NYT: "We knew we were taking a significant risk with our existing player base, but we felt so strongly that we needed to make these changes for the sake of the game's long-term future that we all held hands, LucasArts and Sony, and went forward." There was no real attempt to hold the customers' hands.

  LucasArts and SOE may have thought that such an effort would be a lost cause; they knew they were taking the game in a direction unlikely to please many of their current customers. What they clearly did not plan for was a furor that would lead to account cancellations and, worse, rapidly spreading word of mouth, with disgruntled players only too happy to contribute to the toxic buzz in the media. By treating their existing customers as loose cannons rather than engaging them in the redesign process, LucasArts and SOE fueled the backlash they feared.

• Never Assume That Your Customers Don't Read The Times: This one's a corollary to the previous lesson. Carolyn Hocke's complaint in Wired was typical of the player reaction to the changes: "It's now a shoot'em-up game for adolescents, not at all conducive to our play style." LucasArts' MacIntyre was surely aware of this likely reaction -- through attrition, the SWG customer base was now consolidated into a mass of subscribers who were comfortable in a complex virtual world. And yet MacIntyre said this to the Times: "We really just needed to make the game a lot more accessible to a much broader player base ... There was lots of reading, much too much, in the game ... We wanted more instant gratification: kill, get treasure, repeat. We needed to give people more of an opportunity to be a part of what they have seen in the movies rather than something they had created themselves."

  Let's leave aside for the moment the content of the quote, which Jeremy Dauber of the Christian Science Monitor called "as close to a direct definition of philistinism as anything I have ever read." For players of virtual world-style games, "something they had created themselves" was exactly the carrot that led them to renew their subscriptions. MacIntyre's statement announced LucasArts' intention to seek a new, younger demographic of players -- presumably a demographic unlikely to read the Times. The current players did, however. The already strong meme, "Sony's dumbing down our game," was confirmed. Thanks to the Times article, so was the implied follow-up message: "Sony and LucasArts don't want us."

  In addition to marginalizing her existing customers, MacIntyre told a newspaper with an educated readership that the new direction of the game was repetitive and passive, not creative. Somehow she didn't recognize that this would not likely be regarded as a "plus" among Times readers. Meanwhile her comments spread like wildfire on the official and unofficial Star Wars Galaxies forums, where a suspicious clientele was already upset.

• The Morale Will Not Improve After A Public Beheading: About a week after the New Game Experience was announced, some players with connections to Sony Online Entertainment claimed that Diane "Tiggs" Migliaccio, director of community relations for Star Wars Galaxies, had been unexpectedly fired. Her separation from SOE was subsequently confirmed by Sony's director of global community relations. Bound by an nondisclosure agreement, Migliaccio shed little light on her separation on her blog other than to indicate that it was a surprise. Sony -- properly -- would not divulge any details either.

  The reasons for Migliaccio's separation are no one's business but hers and Sony's, of course. However, as director of community relations "Tiggs" was omnipresent on the Star Wars Galaxies online forums. Her job was frequently described as a communications facilitator, helping to bring customer concerns to SOE as well as sharing developer information with the players. Players variously regarded her as a shill for SOE or the one developer who listened to them. Her abrupt departure made her a martyr among a playerbase whose already high hostility had just been turned up to 11. Forum moderators from other SOE games had to be called in to help manage the message boards. Mass deletions of threads, both hostile to the New Game Experience and demanding explanations of "Tiggs"'s departure, and banning the most strident or obnoxious opponents, followed.

  The timing of this highly visible key personnel change could not have been worse. If there had been any way for Sony Online Entertainment to avoid or postpone it, they should have. Instead, SOE ratcheted up the anxiety and frustration of players in a way almost unrelated to, but feeding into, the crisis.

The New York Times would never have covered the Star Wars Galaxies revamp if they hadn't found a conflict brewing that was far more interesting than a feature list on a press release. Now LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment must contend with not only a skeptical gamer press famiiar with its troubled history, but a very public airing of their dirty laundry and a steady stream of exiting (or staying and howling) customers warning everyone within earshot that the game is bad and its producers untrustworthy. If Star Wars Galaxies does indeed increase its subscriber base to sustainable levels, it will be the result of a massive effort to overcome the bad buzz. It'll require outstanding technical execution on the game developers' part to overcome expectations, but (more dauntingly) the creation of an entire new community. In the October 2005 issue of Game Studies, Swarthmore professor Burke wrote:

We have reached the odd point in the history of MMOGs where managers aggressively combat the spread of negative news as this is considered (accurately, I think) to influence the decision of other subscribers about whether to continue with a game. It is almost like the old idea of the “mandate of Heaven” in the political history of China: when a game is perceived (rightly or wrongly) to be bleeding subscribers, it starts to actually bleed subscribers, and a snowball effect gains speed rapidly. As one commentator at the website Terra Nova observed, this is part of the unresolved tension between subscription multiplayer games being both “a publishing industry and a service industry."

MMOG developers who are watching the SWG drama and wondering whether they can "fix" a game and retain their playerbase should take a note from Rich Vogel, former executive producer of Star Wars Galaxies, whose talk at the Montreal International Game Summit was reported by Gamasutra (emphasis added):

Vogel says MMOG owners do well to admit their mistakes. “Win over your community so that they are forgiving of you when you really screw up,” he said. He also gave some advice about distracting the players when making a change to the game, not answering controversies that arise, as it just feeds them, and not taking too seriously the forum rants of hardcore players, who don't represent the silent majority. You can get feedback from the quieter majority, however, by simply administering surveys. However, the hardcore, verbal players are the people who generate word of mouth marketing, Vogel admits, “so keep them happy, too.”

The key is to engage your customers, not avoid them.

 

Got the general idea yet sony?

welcome to procyon III

so, ive gone and made a video from a frag fest last night at 4 am, the vid can be found here. Lost colony is the game it is in, the music is system of a down, toxicity. LC is not yet in beta, but it is in a good pre beta testing phase. Quite fun, like sex.