plaguelands.comSOE’s Wrecking Helm
It is no secret that RMT is going to play a huge roll in SOE’s future prospects and their unyielding desire for establishing a foothold into markets they keep failing in, so it came as no surprise finding out SOE hired Dave Christensen, someone with very impressive credentials including a controversial stint as former VP executive at IGE, (black-market empire for virtual goods) to wear a newly crafted VP of business development and international operations hat, that’s one big fancy hat.
The pouring backlash stems from SOE hiring a former IGE executive, a company that has rubbed salts in the wounds of many gamers and developers, more or less throwing up the middle finger to any and all opposer’s - taking a money talks, bullshit walks stance. SOE is sending the wrong message to their playerbase by hiring more or less what used to be an enemy general in the RMT wars, but IGE and SOE have a history a lot of players don’t know about that includes collusion for a possible arrangement between the two. IGE has wanted legitimization from developers for years now and if any have given some headroom it is no other than SOE by taking matters into their own hands and condoning RMT after vehemently telling their playerbase for years they were against it. How things change:
“After having seen Station Exchange running for over a year now, I’ve come to see RMT in an entirely different light and I believe the real future of RMT is actually a really bright one if we can work on our game designs in such a way as to make it a cool part of the games.” - John Smedley, “RMT – What it is now, and what it can become!”
RMT is going to be so cool, baby! O’rly?
The helm at SOE lost it’s credibility with the majority of their past and current playerbase long ago, the corporate leadership has failed and will continue to do so, they are paying for it with one flub after another; not to mention SOE hasn’t been the NA market leader in years and won’t be with their current campaign for conglomeration. The only way SOE can cleanse it’s dirty hands is with a shakeup starting at the top by ousting John Smedley and doing some serious restructuring. My fellow gamers against RMT, enjoy what you have now, SOE’s future offerings look bleak unless you enjoy shelling out cash to buy your way in and through a game…
The only way SOE can cleanse it’s dirty hands is with a shakeup starting at the top by ousting John Smedley and doing some serious restructuring.
Not that I am a Smed fanboi, but from an exec status in the last year he has: a.) brought Vanguard (a “potential”** EQ2 sub leech) in house and in essence mitigated it’s value in the MMO market (atleast vs eq2) and b.) Took someone who knows international mmo markets that worked against SOE policy and brought them in house to work with SOE. c.) showed the investor market that there WAS a market for RMT on official game licened servers, and that an MMO company could provide that to players.
Doesn’t quite seem like fire-able material to me from a business perspective.
Don’t get me wrong there was some shit-hit-the-fans for players and SOE PR/marketing (ie SWG NGE, Station Access Increase + Increase + Increase) but you are looking at it form a players perspective, not a shareholders. With EQ2s playerbase increased from last year (one would think with EoF) all the integrated PS3 home exposure and the above mentioned, from an investor standpoint, the smed is golden.
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I definitely agree, while it would be something I would like to see, Smed isn’t going anywhere for a long time which is why I think the future looks bleak for SOE offerings unless you like RMT. Smed probably won’t leave SOE until the apocalypse and even then he might grow some horns and rule an evil empire.
Saving Vanguard was a mistake, EQII is far more superior and anyone who had access to the beta knew that Vanguard would flop and would need months of work to get into an acceptable state for the non trailblazers. It’s too late for Vanguard, they won’t recover to their projected 300-500k subs; their ip is shit; their optimization is shit; they bit off more than they could chew and now they are paying the price for it.
I remember when Smedley talked about their relationship with Brad and Vanguard and claiming Vanguard was this superb mmog, what a crock of shit - of course, he isn’t going to say anything bad, but any informed gamer will see through his bullshit.
Thanks for posting, I’ll check out your podcast, it has been awhile since I last did. )
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I could care less who they hire long as they keep producing games like EQ2 is now.