Starsman

I only did that for one resume, and I figured since the guy that encouraged me to send it was called "Castle" it may as well fit in there!

Chocolate or raspberry?

Seems fixed now. They are still promoting Issue 24 though...

Unfortunately, as you can see by this thread alone, there are a lot of players that dont feel boycotting NCSoft is something they would want to do. Not only dont they feel boycott is too much for them, but they also are insisting others go give other NCSoft titles a try.

Nothing wrong with that, if they like the other games they like them. But it's unfortunate in the sense that you cant claim every signature in that list equates a lost sale, therefore we cant use direct math.

Agree.

YOU may think it does not mater, but it makes a whole world of difference.

If this was like any other MMO, after I take take care of Dr Vahzilok for good... he still spawning in Steel Cannon and I keep bumping into him.

With the current model, you defeat Dr Vahzilok and you dont get to see him again (unless you time travel.)

There are some world spawns that keep popping up, but those are not tied up to the story.

Same. Only thing that impressed me were the huge world boss fights, but how are those going to be doing once most the playerbase is high level? Can you handle them on your own as he hinted (that some bosses scale based on how many players are around)?

I like my "dungeons". I love the indoor mission that I enter, and can entirely clear solo. I loved dungeons in World of Warcraft, hated that they are group only activities and although good looking, only a few per level range.

I rather have constant repetitive dungeons all my leveling career than insanely unique dungeons I must grind through every few levels and again, really dislike overworld quests.

Also: travel. One thing that got me excited about Aion was flying, and the horrible disappointment that it was when I got to fly and see a timer before I dropped to my doom... there is no reason why a fantasy MMO should not allow flying, other than make sure you die traveling to dangerous areas.

I didn't know they also removed Lineage 1 from America (no clue why they would do that... why not just keep it running???) but it may establish a fearful pattern.

At some point, they may decide Guild Wars is not performing good in America. They may keep it in asia and just shut it down in it's birth-land.

Pull kitten wiskers??? Pluck baby duck feathers!!!!

I don't hold it against him becaus he seems to have been puting a lot of work in another thread to defend GW2, since... well, he is enjoying it very much.

I did feel I had to clarify the stuff here was not made up, though.

I saw GW2 in action, my best friend has been trying to get me into it (irony, I sold it to him by sending him a video of the character creator, since I know he likes that kind of thing.)

I see enough of the game to say the steampunk elements are not prevalent enough to make the game not feel like fantasy. It's fantasy. If you are sick of fantasy, there is nothing in GW2 that will convince you to stay.

Final Fantasy (mostly VII and up, with the potential exception of IX) is heavy on technology, to a point where fantasy is just an afterthought. Like constant paintings in the walls of a high tech world. Guild Wars 2 feels the opposite way with its coverage of Steam Punk.

Maybe you can compare GW2 to an earlier FF, like FFVI.

I'm not saying GW2 is a bad game, I'm just saying it is another one in the pile of fantasy games and nearly nothing separates it from the rest (in theme.)

Nothing was made up. I did a couple of asumptions, but nothing was madeup. I splattered the thing with links precisely so no one would claim that.

The way aquisitions work, I'm sure most of those layoffs were from the Ntreev staff. It's one of the first things that are done with aquisitions: bring over as many systems as you can and get rid of as much staff as possible. Especially true if the company you aquired turns out to be too generous with it's employees.

Trying to find comfort in the "nothing last forever" phrase, for this case, is like trying to find comfort in "Pets don't live forever" after having your 2 year old dog shot dead.

The issue is not that CoH is going to die. It’s that CoH is going to die way before it’s time was due, and NCSoft is holding the shutgun.

Doubt many. They would be forced to cover relocation costs, that can be more expensive than severance packages (depending on the employee's time at the company.)

But being fired, and then ofered a job, if the employee is willing to relocate at their own expense, that may actually result in a few moving over... if they are willing to do the move.

Although the wording is different, it still is the same message kotaku got for the closure of Paragon Studios "realignment of company focus and publishing support".

In other words: resources [ie: budget, not staff] used on CoH will be channeled to offer stronger support and financial backing to top-tier games (I assume still within NCSoft West. What is in NCSoft West? As far as I understand, they undertake the development efforts behind Guild Wars and localization efforts behind Aion, Lineage and Lineage 2.

Now, to be fair, in Oct 7, 2010 there were layoffs specifically within Paragon Studios, with this press release:

Here they say only that the resources got shifted within the studio. Unless they hired more people after they fired some... (perhaps to work on the other secret game) there is little logic here. The studio would just be working on less manpower and spending less on payroll. Perhaps that extra relocation went into financing a third party handling the F2P market transactions, but I still doubt it. Been trying to find any more on what may have happened in NCSoft West at the time, perhaps hiring efforts, but my google-fu is not THAT good.

Now, one thing I did noticed, just 7 days before this announcement, ArenaNet started a headhunt for employees.

Only 16 positions are listed at their job site now, but also got to keep in mind that also NCSoft blamed labor costs for its losses due to "restructuring" in the past quarter.

What restructuring? Perhaps the aquisition of Ntreev for $96.7 million back in February. I’m sure that came with a lot of employees and forced restructuring.

OK… I lost focus here… hey there is a reason why I’m not a New York Times reporter!

So yea, I don’t really have a lot of traces back to GW2 other than that first one in 2009. I was just not able to resist the trollish title. But it does seems that “publishing support” is NCSoft’s way of saying “taking budget away from one studio and giving that budget to another studio.” It just makes sense it may had been ArenaNet at this point, usually moving money overseas is hard so it’s more likely money budgeted to one US studio will be directed to another US studio. I highly doubt they will sink that money into Lineage or Aion translation efforts.

It’s very likely Paragon Studios died so they were able to relocate more resources into GW2.

Edit to add: remember if you play Guild Wars 2: Every time you earn XP in that game, you are drinking the blood of thousands of dead incarnate heroes and villains. Maybe.

I guess you didnt read your own post then.

Or licensing another engine from somebody and starting an all new game.