NCsoft Brighton more trouble?
By
3dent,
Posted on: 2009-02-11 11:33 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Can't blame them can you?
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Hell no.
I'll give them a call when I get out of the office, see how things are down there.
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; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
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A slightly false analysis - I'd have to argue that a move to US servers would have to include the 'cost' of lost subscribers. The question is only how many would the move lose and very possibly wouldn't affect the eventual comparison (i.e. it'd lose subscribers but possibly still be cost effective).
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It wasn't really an "analysis" as such, more just what I think they will likely do. It's not based on any measuring of figures or taking anything into account other than my gut feeling of what would work out cheapest in the long run, whilst also retaining as many people as they can.
They've already effectively discontinued support for German and French players, at least on the forums. Discontinuing further support for them isn't going to lose them much more than it already has.
Copying our databases to their servers IS the cheapest solution for them, as is them granting server move tokens and name change tokens afterwards; all intangible stuff which costs them nothing.
You're free to offer your own predictions if you want though.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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What? This?
Is anyone actually surprised by such a move?
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This appears to have been updated with more info.
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Bit of an update :
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NCsoft has made 55 staff redundant at the Brighton office of NC West, as four internal departments are axed, following a similar cull last year when in-house development was halted.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that 30 staff will remain at the Brighton office to cover off sales, marketing and customer support functions, while localisation, creative services, IT QA and community roles have been cut.
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At a guess I'd say it might mean merged Forums but continuing the EU servers.
That's guessing though.
Strange that there has been no official reply to this thread by now. Usually someone pops in to squash these types of rumour and locks the thread rather quickly......
My preference would be for them to add new servers to the US and transfer the data piecemeal. That way we keep everything and just get a longer server list to pick from.
If they can't do that I'd be ok with a free server transfer for all my alts, a passport badge and a month or 2 free play.
If we just got a new account to restart I wouldn't bother. Even if they added the value of all my alts together and let me start with the inf value of all the enhancements and saved inf on the first alt I created plus all my vet rewards, plus the prestige value of the SG base I wouldn't be interested. I've spent a lot of time playing this game (2 months off 4 years) and invested a lot into the alts I have. The level 50s I've kept are all special to me. Each of them has memories of certain times of my life in Paragon and the thought of having to remake them is unnaceptable.
I think that if they go for the lazy third option, or a 4th where we get nothing except a new account they will shed most of the EU population within seconds of the announcement.
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Bit of an update :
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NCsoft has made 55 staff redundant at the Brighton office of NC West, as four internal departments are axed, following a similar cull last year when in-house development was halted.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that 30 staff will remain at the Brighton office to cover off sales, marketing and customer support functions, while localisation, creative services, IT QA and community roles have been cut.
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Cut... how? Cut severed or cut culled? 
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If someone dies thats one thing, job losses happen daily.
[/ QUOTE ]And deaths don't?
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Copying our databases to their servers IS the cheapest solution for them, as is them granting server move tokens and name change tokens afterwards; all intangible stuff which costs them nothing.
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I'd say considering what is the driving force behind these lay-offs, that this would be the most likely scenario.
Either which way, where IS NCWest?, seriously, It was left to GhostRaptor last time to clear up the forum carnage and NCWest didn't so much as poke their head in last time (at the ceasation of Game Development down in Brighton/layoffs) and say: "Hi - sorry, this is whats happened...".
Now this upheaval. This, the Western business is supposed to be their focus. The silence is rather damning.
Step up NCWest. 
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With only a couple of staff left at NC Brighton, this is clearly an unsustainable number to maintain EU servers for CoH. Therefore, a database move is highly likely.
[/ QUOTE ]The servers aren't in Brighton in the first place, are they?
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NCsoft has made 55 staff redundant at the Brighton office of NC West, as four internal departments are axed, following a similar cull last year when in-house development was halted.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that 30 staff will remain at the Brighton office to cover off sales, marketing and customer support functions, while localisation, creative services, IT QA and community roles have been cut.
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So... community roles = GR??? 
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If someone dies thats one thing, job losses happen daily.
[/ QUOTE ]And deaths don't?
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No deaths have a slightly bigger impact on people, not that you would understand that of course.
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Step up NCWest.
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GR's down the pub, and it's 8am at NCWest HQ. Give it time.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Death is very popular; you never hear of people writing back to complain about it.
So some people get fired, sorry to be so harsh but what else is new?
If you followed the news lately, basicly every company and game dev/publisher is kicking people to cut costs and fight against the dropping economy.
Personaly i wont even be suprised if their new comming games wont even release in Europe, only US (and cover europe as playground). NCwest will be big HQ, while NC brighon will remain as a 'side office' to cover the commercial stuff (localised support, sales yadiya).
Or, this whole thing is just the 'end of' closure for Tabula. Maybe they had 55 people on tabula, who will face the end very soon.
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Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
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NCsoft has made 55 staff redundant at the Brighton office of NC West, as four internal departments are axed, following a similar cull last year when in-house development was halted.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that 30 staff will remain at the Brighton office to cover off sales, marketing and customer support functions, while localisation, creative services, IT QA and community roles have been cut.
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So... community roles = GR???
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No from what I can gather a lot of the layoffs involved EU support and community reps from Guildwars.
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Step up NCWest.
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GR's down the pub, and it's 8am at NCWest HQ. Give it time.
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LOL. Nice to know you heeded Stasis's advice on the other thread
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Step up NCWest.
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GR's down the pub, and it's 8am at NCWest HQ. Give it time.
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LOL. Nice to know you heeded Stasis's advice on the other thread
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Well, y'know, I'm a slightly less Disney Jiminy Cricket.
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Step up NCWest.
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GR's down the pub, and it's 8am at NCWest HQ. Give it time.
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Re: the former - good on him, don't blame him one bit, I hope the whole office is down there - Its the pencil pushers across the pond I fancy an explanation from.
Personally I'm guessing at a forum closure and merge, with the servers probably staying up for the short to medium term, followed by some sort of server transfer after the summer (no idea what form that'd take)
Where's PRAF? He's from the future. Why didn't he tell us about all of this?
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So some people get fired, sorry to be so harsh but what else is new?
If you followed the news lately, basicly every company and game dev/publisher is kicking people to cut costs and fight against the dropping economy.
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And that means we shouldn't show any sympathy with people we're connected with, however indirectly, when they find themselves in that situation?
If you're not concerned either way about them and their jobs that's your call, but it'd be nice to show a little tact and not announce the fact publicly.
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Well if sunset does happen with the EU servers I think it would be more likely that this would happen.
All active EU accounts made before [ enter date here ]
Will receive;
Lineage II client and 2 months playtime free!
Aion Early access code and client free!
City of combined edition client ( US ) and 2 months playtime free!
We thankyou all for your continued support!
Btw that's not speculation on my part that's what the subscribers of Tabula rasa got.
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If any such offer was that Impersonal I would be (quite frankly) rather insulted: (see pre-prepared reply to any such offer below).
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Have to echo this.
I'm sorry for the jobs lost, but if we get an offer like this ncsoft can go screw themselves.
As most of have said I've spent a lot of time and money on this game. Theres a lot of emotion in my characters. A lot of cherished memories.
Whatever happens I want to keep my characters and my names or i'm gone aswell.
@MrMac & @MrMac2
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/MrMac/
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Where's PRAF? He's from the future. Why didn't he tell us about all of this?
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Prafs from not that far in the future, he is incapacitated with a blinding hangover from all the drinking that went on later on tonight. 
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Where's PRAF? He's from the future. Why didn't he tell us about all of this?
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Prafs from not that far in the future, he is incapacitated with a blinding hangover from all the drinking that went on later on tonight.
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Besides, he's watched the panic caused by the ensuing official comments to be made later this week.
Thelonious Monk
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Where's PRAF? He's from the future. Why didn't he tell us about all of this?
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Prafs from not that far in the future, he is incapacitated with a blinding hangover from all the drinking that went on later on tonight.
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Besides, he's watched the panic caused by the ensuing official comments to be made later this week.
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and seen the chaos that ensued when the details of the server mergers where released.
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Possibly dumb asking this question, as all this is based on pure speculation...
Why haven't you considered moving the 4 servers (physically or just data-wise) to the US list/server hosting?
Surely all that we know would definitely need to change would be the possibility of global names and channels, as characters would still exist on th esame logical server... so slightly harder to do but slightly less chance of hacking off your non-US userbase.
Serious question, as I may be missing something obvious (data protection laws maybe).
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Actually, I did consider that but dismissed it due to cost. Physically moving the servers to the US would cost 10's of 1000's. Adding 4 more servers to their cluster would cost 10's of 1000's. Copying us all to their existing server network? All that costs is the wages for the guy writing the db script, and he already gets paid that anyway.
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A slightly false analysis - I'd have to argue that a move to US servers would have to include the 'cost' of lost subscribers. The question is only how many would the move lose and very possibly wouldn't affect the eventual comparison (i.e. it'd lose subscribers but possibly still be cost effective).
But then: What future revenue for other games does it lose? Word of mouth works both ways and is still, to the best of my knowledge, more trustworthy and persuasive. Heck - I'd probably go and see what old Cryptic do with CO and would happily advise people against NC products based on them not giving a damn unless your US based.
Still... we don't know what they're planning yet. Be good for some sort of press release before we all mentally write NC off as probably being nasty to us in a possible future.
By my mohawk shall ye know me!
my toons
Funny: Ee-Ai-Ee-Ai-Oh! #3662 * The foul-mouthed Handyman! #1076 * City of Norms #132944
Serious: To Save A Single World (#83744) * Marketing Opportunity (#83747)