I always expected it to happen sooner. Seemed odd they were off in, what, Sony Picture land while SCE in general was trying to push into the online space. I suppose the key note is that it’s SCEI rather than SCEA, so Kaz likely wants to use them moreso for PSN as a whole rather than just target SCEA’s game base.

Ever heard about the time a SOE dev told a SOE guide about a customer complaining about them?

The dev told the guide who was complaining… The guide then stalked the customer.
The customer complained and SOE banned the customer for complaining. – True Story
SOE, good times.

Trust me, all the thoughts you ever had in regard to SOE hating their customers? Those thoughts are true. It’s SOE corporate culture, from the top down.

Anywho, when the Box guys discover SOE hate, heads will roll. Start your egg timers.

“This one time at Outback Steakhouse, I ordered my ribeye medium rare and they served it to me MEDIUM WELL.

Proof positive Outback Steakhouse hates their customers!”

If the staff comes out and takes away your ribeye after a few bites and gives you a plate of cold Spaghetti-Os you’ll know they used to be SOE developers that worked up NGE.

BTW Moorgard, that fast-food restaurant analogy is so cliched.

Your sainted Abashi was using it back in 1999, as did the paid forum VAK shills that SOE employs.

If it was a simple case of an OCCASIONAL mistake or wrongly held opinion (proven wrong) – yes, it would hold water. The customers having an unwarranted and unrealistic expectation of the service provided.

HOWEVER, SOE (and dating back to Verant) has an unbroken string of broken promises, shameless double dealing, outright anti-player “community reps” and player betrayals – it beggars belief. There are scores of gamers who would rather die and cut off all their fingers rather than buy another SOE game. “Food” for thought for you Moorgard. Its not an occasional pubic hair in your burger folks, its the secret sauce SOE uses all the time…

Actually NGE was only the tip of the iceberg IMO, when the worm finally turned – outright player rebellion followed by bad mass-media coverage. I have no doubt if the fallout was so bad that Smed would be spinning it as, “a few disgruntled game nerds protesting over a video game”. All this kow-towing and admitting “mistakes” are exceptions, not the norm. The usual SOE stance is arrogance and dismissal of player issues.

I say good luck to SCEI !! Get rid of the screw-ups at SOE! These are the people who screwed up a market leader position beyond repair – these are the fucks who are holding Sony back. This is the management that makes it a point to ignore and alienate its customer base. Clean out the fuck ups SCEI! Go Augean stables and unleash the flood. Get rid of the left over Verant dross that should have been drummed out long ago.

http://tinyurl.com/25ocxc

It’s good to see you follow the old rule of, “Never, ever send a meal back to the kitchen!”.

What a crazy, nut case, conspiracy theory, irrational rule that is! Adjust your tin foil hat to the north star, quick!

With enough cultural expereince, any theory no matter how “ridiculous” it may seem, can be proven true.

SOE’s corporate culture is broken.

The acquisition makes a bit of sense. Most PS3 games have some sort of online content, no matter how contrived. But, does this mean they will try to port SW:G and EQ to the console? Haven’t they been dumbed down enough?

I just hope they fix weaponsmiths in SWG by the time I’m friggin 90.

I quit EQ2 after the third crafting nerf. I don’t anticipate playing anything by SoE again because it’s pretty obvious that crafting in their games is NOT supposed to be a viable alternative route to quests and raids in outfitting yourself. There are other companies who make games where you can craft good gear if you put in the time and effort – I’ll play one of those instead ( and I do ).

I have friends who don’t mind grinding quests to get their stuff. They like EQ2 just fine so it’s not like they don’t satisfy at least a portion of their player base.

I knew Gordon when he worked for SOE and frankly, taking in to consideration the situation he was put in, he was clearly the best Community Relations Manager SOE ever had.

Seriously, I emailed Gordon Wrinn a great deal when he was at SOE and I can honestly say he fought the “We hate complaining customers!” mentality right up to the point he left the community relations manager position.

The fact is like Gordon or not he was put in an unwinnable position by people like Brad and John.

Grimwell is a jackass. But for the art of selling out, he learned very well from another certain online personality.

Lum the Spineless won’t have the balls to let this comment stand so I’ll probably post it elsewhere.

wow — what a trip in the wayback machine here in these comments!

I’m tempted to say “they’re just games,” but that would undoubtedly invite the wrath of those for whom online worlds are a second life.

*looks for Prokofy*
Hey, look, a non-towering-inferno post!

@D-One
Are you actively trying to troll or something? Gordon Wrinn is one of the few CMs to have earned his negative rep firsthand (I have way more stories than even ubvman probably). And SOE hates customers? Having met a fair amount of the SOE staff (including Alan Crosby) it doesn’t hold water.

@=j

But, does this mean they will try to port SW:G and EQ to the console?

They kinda already did with EQ
http://everquestonlineadventures.station.sony.com/

@Moorgard
It’s an amusing analogy but off base. Imagine you went in every week and ordered a medium rare steak and they only ever gave you well done. So you complain to the waitress who shrugs and says it’s the cooks, not the waitresses, who cook the food. All she does is bring it out. You can’t talk to the cook directly so you leave a note for the cook with the manager and the well done steaks continue, except the manager calls you out in front of the restaurant the next week and says you’re a liar, that your steaks are medium rare. One day you come in and find that now the steaks are indeed medium rare and the the “vigilant manager” has discovered on his own that, when he cut his own steak open, there was no pink. He tells the cook, who had no idea they were going out wrong, and gets a raise for his hard work in making the restaurant a better place.

It was actually my wife, and it wasn’t alchemy, it was oak bark tannin. I’m not sure WHAT about oak bark tannin, but it was VERY IMPORTANT!

Yep. There were more than one instance of customers having to prove to SOE that something was broken.

In the case of alchemy if a shaman was buffed to level 25 they could learn alchemy but if you played your shaman to 25 you could not learn Alchemy beyond a single point.

Anywho, my point is that Gordon wasn’t a player hater or a complaining player hater… The guy wasn’t even a community manager when alchemy training was an issue.

Gordon was better than Alan Vancouvering as a community relations manager.

Brenlo is the biggest ass and player hater, ever. Alan Crosby not a player hater…? That’s laughable.

True that Freak. If you’ve known me for more than my current fifteen minutes of flame, I think that my record and behavior speaks for itself. This current conflagration is one guy pushing buttons because he didn’t like the results of non-participation. When we sit down with someone else who raids, and that person pointedly notes that not only do we talk, but we listen, it’ll all be cleared up.

Of course, by then y’all won’t be watching, so hold secure to your point of douchebaggery; it’ll warm yer tummy in 2010 when I manage to be a part of something like this again. =)

This one time at Outback Steakhouse, I ordered my ribeye medium rare and they served it to me MEDIUM WELL.

What was your waiter’s name? He should be banned from the food service industry.

Typhoid Mary was given a second chance, and we all know how that worked out…

I think that the real moral of the story is that nobody is ever truly happy in MMOland.