What a great insight into MMos.

solomace · March 2015

I've just spent a long time reading lots of posts from an a former employee of an MMo that I have found riveting.

When/if you read it, doesn't it sound exactly like STO...

http://lotrocommunity.com/forum/topic/3465-lotro-pvpersare-they-really-that-bad/page-4

Poster is called Aylwen and go back to his first post and don't start from page 4

Even got pics as well.

This is so Cryptic;)

Edit...

Heres a great extract... "then there's the old (to use the Aussie expression) baffle with bull**** strategy: rather than just admit, 'we simply don't have the resources to make new raids/revamp pvmp/etc', they hold up metrics data and say, 'well noboby raids anyway, so it isn't a priority...we're just reacting to player trends!"

2nd edit. Another great quote from the post... "I always thought, the powers that be worried more about the players we didn't have than those we did".

solomace · March 2015

Another...

"Basically game development is like everything else: you get what you pay for. Hire and pay on the cheap, offer minimal benefits, unpleasant (to many) working conditions, stay understaffed, and then turn a blind eye and offer little solid central leadership and accountability...forget making a great game, you'll be lucky to make any games at all".

solomace · March 2015

Wow... This guy is a fountain of behind the scenes knowledge...

"Either way, and in my experience, the devs tended to pick and choose what suited them on the forums-not hard since everyone on there has a different opinion or gripe and to them it's absolutely the most important thing ever. Good example was PvMP stars. Shortly after I got to Turbine Jen removed them from the UI. Being a star hugger I charged over and asked for an explanation.
Jen: 'Players complained about all the star hugging.'
Me: 'Who?'
Jen: 'On the forums...'
So I went and checked the PvMP forums and found a single thread, at the top of the page, complaining about them (the OP incidentally was a champ...not a class known for being able to show off stars). I realized that she had gone to the forums fishing for some easy change she could make that could be said to be addressing 'player concerns'. And that wouldn't be the last time by a long shot that I, as an active and socially connected player, would be told by a dev who didn't play LOTRO themselves 'what players want'. So...yeah whenever I hear Turbine claiming it changed this or that based on 'feed back', I tend to roll my eyes".

Unknown · March 2015

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mirrorchaos · March 2015

lost interest in reading after about 5 responses in on this person you pointed out on that forum. going to go do something else, perhaps make a strong cup of coffee.

the only bit i found interest are the player council thing and this persons take on the gimmick.

solomace · March 2015

mirrorchaos wrote: »

lost interest in reading after about 5 responses in on this person you pointed out on that forum. going to go do something else, perhaps make a strong cup of coffee.

the only bit i found interest are the player council thing and this persons take on the gimmick.

Horses for courses.

kimony · March 2015

Here is my favorite part (especially in light of the Jem'Hadar Bug Ship being upgradeable to Tier 6 starship capabilities falsehood):

..."This same culture extends to marketing and community relations: never tell the truth, never admit a mistake, silence criticism, contort the facts even if it means blatantly insulting the intelligence of your customers. Release bogus screenshots of your upcoming product, happily collect the pre-orders, release a buggy unfinished product, and then sell everything you didn't get done on time as 'DLC'. But now I'm digressing a bit!"

solomace · March 2015

kimony wrote: »

Here is my favorite part (especially in light of the Jem'Hadar Bug Ship being upgradeable to Tier 6 starship capabilities falsehood):

..."This same culture extends to marketing and community relations: never tell the truth, never admit a mistake, silence criticism, contort the facts even if it means blatantly insulting the intelligence of your customers. Release bogus screenshots of your upcoming product, happily collect the pre-orders, release a buggy unfinished product, and then sell everything you didn't get done on time as 'DLC'. But now I'm digressing a bit!"

Ouch, I missed this bit.

Fit's STO to a tee no?

tehbubbaloo · March 2015

this guy is pretty riveting. great find!

We lost a lot of subs that winter. Maybe players didn't want to spend a year in a big cave or maybe the endless server downtimes got old. But either way there was never, ever any self-examination when it came to player dissatisfaction. It couldn't possibly be that the devs were putting out sloppy, uninspired work or substituting mindless grinds in place of meaningful, engaging gameplay. There was never a dev fired for poor work-sometimes it seemed like a cabal where if nobody admitted the quality of the game was down, nobody would get blamed for it. That may sound harsh but the game speaks for itself.

solomace · March 2015

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

this guy is pretty riveting. great find!

I know, I found it great. Others think getting coffee is more interesting.;)

This extract you've highlighted, sound familiar?

tehbubbaloo · March 2015

hellooooo priority one podcasting!

I never heard anything about them being paid for positive reporting. But no question the marketing team finessed the game media-pretty much everyone does in the industry. You give them 'specials', email them to thank them for articles, invite them to the studio for the VIP treatment, that sort of thing. In my view one is paying the news outlets (if one may flatter them with the term) the currency they-the writers themselves-really want: access inside the business. An offer to come hang out at the company for an afternoon is going to be more attractive to the writer and a better investment for the company than a check. Now does it ever happen that game writers are paid for positive reporting? I wouldn't be surprised. But really I don't think one needs to get that greasy to achieve the same ends. Stroke the admiring gamer (who probably wishes he worked on games himself), establish a personal connection, bring him into your 'confidence', and then see if he skewers your next expansion. Most likely he won't.

Unknown · March 2015

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solomace · March 2015

tehbubbaloo wrote: »

hellooooo priority one podcasting!

I don't think this guy worked for Turbine, I think he works somewhere closer to home no?;)

warmaker001b · March 2015

Interesting read because I used to play LOTRO. From launch, through Siege of Mirkwood expansion, up until the news that it was going F2P. That was when I ditched that game and it seems like I did the right thing there.

I used to really love that MMORPG. The original Shadows of Angmar portion of the game I felt was fabulously done. Lots of different starting zones, nicely crafted worlds, good storylines, nicely implemented settings. The people in the game were pretty tight knit. That started going downhill after Mines of Moria.

This part was also amusing:

"How did (and still do) Asheron's Call and DDO stay in terms of playerbase size, compared to LOTRO?".

"I can't guess at current figures. I do know that prior to DDO f2p, AC was beating DDO's concurrency averages whenever I looked at the boards. AC has an incredibly loyal core of players and we used to envy the little AC team, as they were off the radar and could, it seemed, do as they pleased to keep their players engaged."

More amusing by the fact that the Asheron's Call games are old, old, OLD. Loyalty.

What a great insight into MMos.

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