No More Massively

itsbrou · January 2015

This might hurt people's awareness of several games, including ours.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2015/01/30/massively-that-was/

nextnametaken · January 2015

Never read anything on that site that Champions Online didn't direct me to read and CO's player numbers never spiked noticeable after an article was published there. But then, most of the stories were about updates that aren't really compelling reasons to play Champions Online, like this vehicle crap and the same story a month later

oh wow look at this Cryptic promised vehicles soon after CO-day, four years before vehicles.

Well Massively archives are at least good for a laugh.

aceretriever · January 2015

There goes the only site I knew that regularly reported on Pirate101 and Wizard101. :c

Well, regardless of how I feel about Massively, its closure pretty devastating. I hope for the best for its employees.

spinnytop · January 2015

Did it gamergate? u3u

sistersilicon · January 2015

spinnytop wrote: »

Did it gamergate? u3u

Nah, just good old-fashioned corporate mis-management. After AOL bought TechCrunch, they treated the old Weblogs sites not named Engadget and Autoblog like they were irrelevant. Hence the extra-salty announcement post from Brianna. I'd like to see the Joystiq and TUAW writers land around the industry. That's a lot of good writers who could improve some other sites' coverage. But the Massively team needs to find a home where they can stay together. MMOs may be a niche in the larger gaming world, but there's never a shortage of interesting stories. I'd follow them to a subsite of Kotaku or Polygon.

jennymachx · January 2015

sistersilicon wrote: »

Nah, just good old-fashioned corporate mis-management. After AOL bought TechCrunch, they treated the old Weblogs sites not named Engadget and Autoblog like they were irrelevant. Hence the extra-salty announcement post from Brianna. I'd like to see the Joystiq and TUAW writers land around the industry. That's a lot of good writers who could improve some other sites' coverage. But the Massively team needs to find a home where they can stay together. MMOs may be a niche in the larger gaming world, but there's never a shortage of interesting stories. I'd follow them to a subsite of Kotaku or Polygon.

Just speculating, but it could be also due to the fact that Massively strictly covers the MMO industry, while competitor sites like Kotaku, Polygon and Destructoid have articles on everything gaming-related and expectedly would have a much larger audience. Maybe that's why AOL felt that Massively was becoming irrelevant and prefers reader traffic to be diverted to a blog site that covers gaming and tech more generally.

Anyway, unfortunate news for sure.

chaelk · January 2015

so since Cryptic had an exclusive interview arrangement with Massively about CO.

Does this mean we get interviews on different sites or none?

sistersilicon · January 2015

jennymachx wrote: »

Maybe that's why AOL felt that Massively was becoming irrelevant and prefers reader traffic to be diverted to a blog site that covers gaming and tech more generally.

That's Joystiq, and they were first against the wall. Recode reported that closure on Tuesday. Massively and WoW Insider were just assumed from there, since those are Joystiq subsites. The TUAW conjecture first started on Thursday. No, I'm afraid AOL has abandoned the field entirely.

tigerofcachtice · January 2015

Thanks for the heads up, Brou.

The most incredible thing from this was, AOL is still around doing stuff? I thought it was just a shell company with just a name.

gaarafrednorrisp · January 2015

tigerofcachtice wrote: »

Thanks for the heads up, Brou.

The most incredible thing from this was, AOL is still around doing stuff? I thought it was just a shell company with just a name.

You mean like Cryptic?

crypticbuxom · January 2015

chaelk wrote: »

so since Cryptic had an exclusive interview arrangement with Massively about CO.

If that's the case, maybe Cryptic can start giving interviews for Champions at conventions and other places where people who want to look for games can actually find out it exists.

I'm starting to encounter more and more people who never even knew that Champions Online even launched!

meedacthunist · January 2015

Sorry to hear about people losing thir jobs, but otherwise I'm hardly smashed.

*shrug*

Never cared about their site and the only time when I was reading through Massively was when someone posted links about CO... On this forums.

nepht · January 2015

I dont really read many game sites in English so never payed much attention to them but reading that it makes no sense for AOL to shut them down as they seemed to be getting more readers and making more money year on year.

Shutting them down seems stupid.

jonsills · January 2015

nepht wrote: »

Shutting them down seems stupid.

Well, that's AOL for you.

spinnytop · January 2015

nepht wrote: »

I dont really read many game sites in English so never payed much attention to them but reading that it makes no sense for AOL to shut them down as they seemed to be getting more readers and making more money year on year.

Shutting them down seems stupid.

AOL executive level business decision making meeting:

decorumfriends · February 2015

I'm still somewhat taken aback and astonished every time I hear that AOL still exists.

skylyger · February 2015

Wow, just wow. While i know this kind of thing happens daily in the corporate world, this one seems as reverse logic driven as when CoH was shut down.

AoL= Arrogant old loons in my vocab now just as NC soft is Now Clearly Soft in the head.

**** ever corporate dictator who makes their decisions with no care to customer loyalty/employee loyalty and the fan bases they are lucky enough to have had build up around them.

gaarafrednorrisp · February 2015

WOO! Just when I thought people were dealing with it in a fine manner, YOU SIR delivered the overreaction I was hoping for!

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WIN!

lestylo · February 2015

While it is generally sad to see people lose their jobs (unless they had it coming), as unpopular as this may seem, I don't see what the big deal here is. It's just business as they say. This is par for the course for media corporations. Then again, most forms of journalism always seem lacking to me these days so maybe I'm biased in my lack of sympathy.

nepht · February 2015

lestylo wrote: »

While it is generally sad to see people lose their jobs (unless they had it coming), as unpopular as this may seem, I don't see what the big deal here is. It's just business as they say. This is par for the course for media corporations. Then again, most forms of journalism always seem lacking to me these days so maybe I'm biased in my lack of sympathy.

Thing is like I said before it makes no sense to shut down somthing that is making money and getting views :I

People are losing their jobs for no good reason and thats always wrong.

itsbrou · February 2015

lestylo wrote: »

While it is generally sad to see people lose their jobs (unless they had it coming), as unpopular as this may seem, I don't see what the big deal here is. It's just business as they say. This is par for the course for media corporations. Then again, most forms of journalism always seem lacking to me these days so maybe I'm biased in my lack of sympathy.

CO is going to be invisible after this because Massively actually had a way to filter down to superhero games, and reported more often about us than other sites ever did(because once in a while is better than never.)

We'll have to rely on Perfect World to advertise our presence, which is never going to happen. We just stopped showing up on ARC's front page. It's the last thing we need right now.

lestylo · February 2015

someguywhoplaysgames wrote: »

CO is going to be invisible after this because Massively actually had a way to filter down to superhero games, and reported more often about us than other sites ever did(because once in a while is better than never.)

We'll have to rely on Perfect World to advertise our presence, which is never going to happen. We just stopped showing up on ARC's front page. It's the last thing we need right now.

True, though part of me hopes this forces CO and so forth into pushing this game in other ways rather than being lazy or complacent or whatever and relying on Massively.

gaarafrednorrisp · February 2015

lestylo wrote: »

True, though part of me hopes this forces CO and so forth into pushing this game in other ways rather than being lazy or complacent or whatever and relying on Massively.

Does the other part of you beat that part for having dumb hopes?

spinnytop · February 2015

lestylo wrote: »

True, though part of me hopes this forces CO and so forth into pushing this game in other ways rather than being lazy or complacent or whatever and relying on Massively.

Part of you needs to stop drinking.

lestylo · February 2015

spinnytop wrote: »

Part of you needs to stop drinking.

That part's named Tony Stark so there's not much I can do about that.

meedacthunist · February 2015

lestylo wrote: »

While it is generally sad to see people lose their jobs (unless they had it coming), as unpopular as this may seem, I don't see what the big deal here is. It's just business as they say. This is par for the course for media corporations. Then again, most forms of journalism always seem lacking to me these days so maybe I'm biased in my lack of sympathy.

Yeah.

Myself, I'm also somewhat lacking in a sympathy for an internet journalism, especially internet gaming journalism.

It kiiinda makes me unsensitive on this issue, lol.

sistersilicon · February 2015

https://twitter.com/MassivelyOP

When the going gets tough, the tough get Kickstarted.

(And I even like the banner.)

epelesker · February 2015

Mostly C/P from my update post on CORP.

* Part of Joystiq will be operating under the Engadget banner in a new section of that sister blog-- uncreatively titled (for now) Joystiq X Engadget.
* Someone already mentioned the Massively thing, so I cut that.

So, it's not all gone to ground, it seems like, but it still won't be the same as we've known them. As always, "please look forward to it".

sistersilicon · February 2015

The new site is up and running, and off to a flying start:

http://massivelyop.net/

foxyperson · February 2015

They're trying to come back to life, if you want to support their KS.

nepht · February 2015

Love it. AoL tried to shut down Massively. Massively gave zero ***** carried on as normal

spinnytop · February 2015

nepht wrote: »

Love it. AoL tried to shut down Massively. Massively gave zero ***** carried on as normal

Which makes you wonder... if it was literally that easy to keep it running, why did AOL try to shut it down?

pantagruel01 · February 2015

spinnytop wrote: »

Which makes you wonder... if it was literally that easy to keep it running, why did AOL try to shut it down?

It might not have been profitable. It might have been profitable, but not profitable enough to be worth the trouble of running. It might have been a victim of internal corporate politics. It might have just not fit in with their road map of future development.

Until we know if the new massively is a self-sustaining profitable business, it's not easy to say which of those it was.

sterga · February 2015

According to Massively staff, not only was the site profitable, but gaining readers year-over-year. Probably wasn't raking in oodles of dollars though. The kickstarted goal was reached in the first few days. I bet Massively knew their jobs were going before any official word and they set up a contigency plan. OP was up pretty damn fast, afterall.

sistersilicon · February 2015

pantagruel01 wrote: »

It might not have been profitable. It might have been profitable, but not profitable enough to be worth the trouble of running. It might have been a victim of internal corporate politics. It might have just not fit in with their road map of future development.

Until we know if the new massively is a self-sustaining profitable business, it's not easy to say which of those it was.

DING DING DING! We have a winner!

Things started going to $#!^ at the Joystiq sites right after AOL bought TechCrunch.

bwdares · February 2015

I didn't even know Massively was still around. I only went there when Cryptic pretty much told us too and I don't remember the last time they did that.

No More Massively

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