Skolia

There is a site called "Glass Door" that allows current and former employees to review a company. The NCsoft (North America) reviews are interesting reading. I do not know if Glass Door does any verification or anything but it's interesting anyway.

A very common thread appears to be random and incompetent management with a few comments regarding sudden, strange decisions from HQ in Korea.

This does put what happened to Paragon Studios, a sudden unexpected closure, in some perspective.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/NCs...ews-E23242.htm

I don't think this is about City of Heroes at all, I think it's much worse than that.

I'm looking through this report and I see the red but there's a couple interesting things here.

1. There are no notes in the headings about City of Heroes at all. There's an apology about Aion not selling that great and there's stuff about Lineage 1 doing well.

2. On the financial highlights page (of the PDF) there's this comment "Profits dropped reflecting one-off labor cost." (later this is expanded to "Labor cost temporarily surged 27% QoQ due to one-off severance pay.") 27% is one hell of a surge in labor cost.

Aion sales are much higher than GW1/City of Heroes but, to be honest, NCsoft has never really been very successful in North America vs Korea. Likewise, City of Heroes never made it out of beta in Korea. (I think Guild Wars was marginally successful there though.) Aion's been somewhat of a flop here (I played it until level 20, then the story went away and it became a PvP grindfest and I bailed.) I am amazed at how well Lineage 1/2 are doing though, utterly amazed.

If you look though, North America, in total, only accounts for 4% of sales in Q2 and in Q4 11. (We hit 5% in Q1 12, go USA!).


3. If the reason to shut down Paragon Studios & City of Heroes really was financial, wouldn't have they just said that? Wouldn't City of Heroes had been listed with the financial highlights on page 1? City of Heroes is not mentioned anywhere except in the chart legends. City of Heroes is beneath notice. The stated shutdown reason does not mention financials, sales or any of that. It talks of realignment plans.


Here is what I think is going on.

I think NCsoft is going to pull out of North America entirely. (And perhaps Europe as well.)

Crazy? Maybe (probably), but bear with me.

1. In the PDF for August 2012, North America accounts for 4% of sales. (pg.5) (Europe, when it's above 0% seems to be at 2%). North America and Europe are completely insignificant in terms of revenue. (Taiwan doesn't seem to be doing well either but perhaps it's a new addition.)

2. Under Overseas Subsidiaries there is "NC Interactive" which I'm assuming includes Paragon Studios since it is not listed separately. It seems this costs 7,798 MWN per quarter. (pg.10) If we do the math and take the sales number and get 4% from that, we get 5,872 MWN. So North America does not pay for itself (and did not in previous quarters shown either.)

3. Strangely, ArenaNet IS broken off onto it's own line item on pg. 10. This was recent too because it does not have a historical value in any of the 2011 columns.

4. Guild Wars 2 appears to have been published by ArenaNet (at least the digital version). NCsoft (NA)'s store does not have it. NCsoft's launcher does not list it. On Guild Wars 2's website, NCsoft is only mentioned in legal fine print. Keeping in mind how ArenaNet is now listed on pg. 10, I think ArenaNet is going to be spun off as the sole NCsoft owned company in North America and that NC Interactive (NA) will close. (It would probably be stupid for NCsoft to sell it off entirely but I think it will probably just run as an autonomous unit and NCsoft HQ will just collect money.)

There's the North American versions of Lineage 1, Lineage 2 and Aion. Unless I'm mistaken, none of these are doing terribly well. Especially considering that North America sales, in it's entirety, counts for only 4% for Q2. They may very well be next on the block.

One flaw in this concept is (probably one of many), why didn't NCsoft just spin off Paragon Studios like it appears they are going to do to ArenaNet? My guess is that Guild Wars may still be popular enough in Korea to warrant continued development and operation whereas City of Heroes never launched in Korea and this is a non-entity.

If I'm right and this IS the realignment plan, it's somewhat stupid. For one, NCsoft should *sell off* City of Heroes, Paragon Studios (and the backlog of shuttered games) and make some money on the way out.

Of course, what does this mean for WildStar? I don't know. They may be screwed or maybe I'm wrong and it'll be fine. Perhaps the pull out of NA is conditional and will only complete if WildStar doesn't hit it out of the park. Still, it looks like NCsoft's got one foot out the door.

I greatly respect you Tony and I wish I could agree with you but I can't.

You see, NCsoft handling of the entire matter is treating both their own employees and customers as enemies. They stabbed Paragon Studios in the back then did a back flip and stabbed us. They didn't even give any advance warning to their own people.

The only official explanation it seems they've given everyone is some vague crap about "realignment" or "refocusing". Financial reasons aren't even mentioned.

They betrayed Paragon Studios and they betrayed us. They didn't even have the courage, integrity or decency to be honest about it.

If they want to regain any amount of goodwill or respect, they need to come clean and give an honest reason why they are doing this - and it better be phenomenally good.

Is badge-hunter.com aka vidiotmaps.com down?

I can no longer do anything on badge-hunter.com.

I get:

Very impressed with First Ward as well. There are still some unanswered questions, hoping they get answered in the next new zone (please please please) and/or an upcoming trial.

I fill out my account name and password on the game log-in screen and click "Log In".

I then get a popup that says: "You must fill out the account and password fields to log into your account!"

Help!


EDIT: I exited the client and launched it again from the NCsoft launcher and it works now. Weird.

I've had the incarnate trial instance crashing happen four times, three of them tonight. (Seems to be getting worse?)

This issue is really annoying and you can't even resume, it always says "Error: Instance could not be found.".

Wow, something seems to have gone "horribly wrong(tm)". I'm sure it's all a Nemesis plot.

I'd like to sign up.

<ul type="square">[*] Ability to individually select (or deselect) a critter's power from use. We could use this to make, essentially, new power sets. Like the Robotics Mastermind powerset could be use to make a laser rifle set. Disable the pet powers and viola!
[*] Would like to see more 'group emblems/logos. We already have PPD, Vindicators, Arachnos and so forth. Would like to see more emblems such as Ouroboros, Architect Entertainment and so forth.
[*] More Mission Architect specific power sets would be welcome. ( Also there appear to be some missing such as "Traps" ). Mostly would just like to see the existing NPC villain powersets find their way into the creator.
[*] More general costuming options such as faces, hair styles. The usual stuff we whine about all the time.
[*] Ability to specify intended level range for custom critters/groups.
[*] Would like the ability to specify 'default' NPC dialog.
[*] Would like more options to specify 'how' an NPC fights. We have this to a degree within the larger MA editor itself for Allies (Aggressive, Defensive, Pacifist) but would like to see this expanded to include other spawns.
[/list]

If an escort in the Mission Architect mission is set to betray but has a heal area power, that power works on the player even after the betrayal occurs. (i.e. radiant aura).

Presumably this affects other AOE heals, buffs and so forth. (Unverified)

One of the Vindicator/Ms Liberty critters is bugged in the MA. Specifically it's the "Ms. Liberty (Arch-villain 51-54)" critter. She has no pants (flesh colored skirt) but more importantly, she cannot be targeted at all in combat except by assisting pets.

Enjoying the Mission Architect more than I thought I would. I've started compiling a list of feature requests, however.

Suggestions and Requests:
<ul type="square"> [*]More publishing slots. Purchasable slots would be fine, be it in-game currency or in the online store. I would happily drop $10 for 5 publishing slots.[*]More maps. Specifically I'd like to see the various Shadow Shard maps made available, even as an unlockable.[*]More objects. I'd like to see Circle of Thorn portals and so forth as objects to guard or destroy. Was surprised they weren't in the list.[*]I'd like the ability to create special 1 on 1 'boss battles' for story reasons, the existing battle setting doesn't allow for this unless you want multiple copies of each boss which looks kind of silly. (For example, I'd like to have a 'stop the battle' mission description and set up a 1 on 1 between an AV and an EB with the EB on the 'Ally' side. Obviously alone, the AV is going to win - creating a nice sense of urgency for the player to find and help the EB.)[*]Single 'patrols'. I'd like to have the AV/EB spawn and roam by himself sometimes just to add a bit of flavor. Right now the closest you can get is an ambush.[*]Old Rikti group. I know this is probably not possible but I'd sure like to have the original Rikti group/costume set to stage missions during the original invasion. [*]'Publish' button should gray out if no slots are available.[*]It's a little disheartening that with teams, only the team lead really sees the story text. All team members should be able to talk to the contact and at least be able to read the text. (This goes for Task Forces too.)[*]I'd like to see more MA power sets such as Rikti rifles and so forth. Stuff that already exists in the game but isn't currently reflected.[*]I'd really like to see Peacebringer/Warshade abilities for custom critters. I know that makes the programmers cry.[/list]

Bugs:
<ul type="square">[*]If an escort is set to Betray, after the betrayal occurs any buff/healing abilities still aid the player (and allies).[*]Sometimes the text editor eats characters, usually when inserting text.[*]The mission objective doesn't appear in the navigation window for team members other than the team leader.[*]Sometimes things/spawns are placed incorrectly. For example, bosses appear in the front even if you specify 'back'. [*]Sometimes updates to the story description are not visible in the MA browser even if you log out and back in.[/list]

Think of the other possibilities for packs like this.

Wedding Night Pack
Pregnancy Pack
Baby Pack
2.4 Children &amp; Mortgage Pack
Affair Pack
Bobbit Pack

... and of course..

The Divorce Pack (halves your influence/infamy,lose half your enhancements)

My Mastermind "Katterose Kreutzer" reached level 50 today.

Soon Atlas Park will burn in flames as I have forseen.

[ QUOTE ]

Also - after much pushing and shoving - we were told that there will NOT be data mining for TF badges. So if you did a TF before I5 - when I5 goes live you will not get a badge for it auto-magically.


[/ QUOTE ]

Why not? Data mining was done for each issue until now? Why the change in policy?