I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been hoping their league would return from Destiny with the next DLC. What if they don't? It will mean time to cut my losses and move on to a different league. Sure, change can be exciting, but it will also be depressing to say goodbye. Anyone else in a similar position?
I was dreading today cause yesterday was the last day of the lol season, now we have to "open beta" for next season its like gu41 times 20
Yep, so, nobody came back from Destiny. Sigh. Looks like the search for a new league must sadly begin. You know how you can order a flight of beer at some bars? There should be a league sampler in this game. They should sell it in the marketplace.
Since Destiny came out, I haven't touched DCUO. Not that I don't like DCUO anymore just that Destiny is damn addicting!
Me and at least 5 others from my League did not respond when the DCUO Masters cracked their DLC whips... we stayed put, doing what we were doing... playing a game that was fresh, new, and engaging. It's seemingly tough teaching the old DCUO dog new tricks... like how to lure players back from newer, more dynamic games. Or just do anything beyond reskin content & tweak enemy stats. Can you blame us?
I don't blame you at all, and completely understand. It doesn't mean I still can't be a little depressed, does it? At this point SOE's customer service has been so atrocious I will also be quitting the game. I literally can't play content due to a technical issue and they don't even respond. Perhaps it's "Destiny"? I will likely be jumping ship also.
Oh... totally. You can be as depressed as you'd like... but I'm here to tell you that you don't need to be! It turns out that there are actually OTHER games we can play out there that are kinda cool. Having recently escaped from the oppressive smothering environments of Metro & Gotham, I can happily report that YOU TOO CAN RECOVER! You too can break the chains of incessant grinding for SP and numbers... I mean "gear." I feel that while hyperbole, life after DCUO is like life after expatriating oneself from North Korea. SOE DOESN'T care... the devs fight a losing fight against lack of resources, staff, hardware limitations, etc... SOE only cares that $ comes in. Hence booster bundles and other money grabs. Maybe one of the Green Names can help you? If not there are other AAA franchise games that actually have the staff and resources to support their product. They're not a burden to the company, or a niche product that is allegedly profitable. Don't take MY word for it... check out ACTUAL EMPLOYEE'S FEEDBACK... bet the Devs were just waiting for someone to post this if it hasn't been posted already... http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Sony-Online-Entertainment-Reviews-E21279.htm Anyway... if you can't log in, PM me, we got a bunch or recently emancipated players over there, we'll help you out.
You know, screw this game and the people behind it. I'm sending my personal fortune to my kid's toon and letting my sub lapse. Gonna wait until Christmas to decide if I wanna play another MMO or not, but enough with this game. Not gonna do anything extreme like deleting toons, but this game simply isn't fun anymore, and the ineptitude, if not just plain selfish stupidity of the people who run it? It's all too much. If I join Destiny I'll hit you up for sure.
Posted NOVEMBER 4TH, 2014: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Sony-Online-Entertainment-RVW5311015.htm " I have been working at Sony Online Entertainment full-time (more than 8 years) Pros - Good place to get your start in the industry. Promotions from QA & CS are common. If you bump into Smedley (current CEO) in the street and say something that amuses him, he may also hire you without any previous game/development/tech experience. - Impossible to get fired. It doesn't matter if you don't actually do anything, you can keep your job indefinitely, especially if you're a programmer. See: Cons - There are several brewery tasting rooms nearby. They're within walking distance so you can drown your sorrows before, during, or after work. Cons - Complete incompetence of management. The people steering the ship have no idea what they're doing. Nobody in charge has made a successful game this century. They also refuse to listen to the few experienced individuals who they have managed to hire. - Inexperienced staff. Since there is such a prevalence of individuals that have been promoted out of QA/CS/the street, the vast majority of people have only ever worked in game development at SOE. In several areas (particularly production) it's a case of the blind leading the blind. Nobody receives the training necessary to KNOW how to do their job properly. - Low turnover. The ratio of useful employees to useless ones skews heavily toward the latter. In addition to being plagued with inexperienced staff, most development teams have staff that either doesn't actually work, or are just straight up bad at their job. There is no personal responsibility or discipline taken against employees who continually fail to deliver. Bad employees are never let go as Smedley (and therefor all of upper management) sees the company not as a business, but as a family. Having a family is great, but this one is full of siblings you wish you could disown. - Too much value placed on programmers. In reality, they're the easiest to replace as most positions in this discipline can be recruited from outside the games industry. In every round of layoffs that the company has had, the programming department is always the least affected (often not at all affected), leading to an abundance of programmers who have no reason to fear losing their jobs and continue to underperform. - Unclear pipelines & muddy communication. The flow of information between disciplines is terrible. This is mostly due to inexperienced production staff, but is also affected by middle management never having been exposed to a functional work environment. - Poor games. It should go without saying, but all of the above is what contributes to the overall fact that the quality of games being created by SOE is terrible. The budgets are AAA, but the results are worse than most dedicated hobbyists could pull off. The structure that supports SOE allows it to create MMOs, which is the only thing that makes this company unique. This genre is dying and in need of some large changes to revitalize it, unfortunately I don't think the current incarnation of SOE is capable of doing that. Advice to Management - Complete any projects that have direction and achievable goals with positive outlook - Planetside on PS4 - DCUO expansion - EQ & EQ2 expansions - Cancel everything else - EQ Next - Landmark - H1Z1 - Remove C-level staff - Remove Franchise Directors - Lay off vast majority of programming staff - Ask senior programmers who is worth keeping - Ask remaining programmers, artists, designers and producers who actually WANTS to stay - The number is so low it may shock you - Change the name of the company - Recruit competent C-level employees - Restaff back up to 25% or less of the original headcount - Being far more selective and only hiring quality employees - During this restructuring time period, use the talent on hand to enter preproduction - A hand full of small (MMO/non-MMO & mobile) titles - Evaluate all projects and only enter production on few - Ensure reasonable scope, given this simple formula - cost = time * headcount" There you go folks. While this lives in a thread off the beaten path... here is a lot of our opinions, and suspicions, CONFIRMED by an employee of 8 years. Now those of us that have some issues with X,Y, & Z who don't really blame the Devs, but know the fault lies somewhere on SOE's end, have proper supporting information. Kinda vindicating. Some other gem writeups in there too.
Just for the record...I've never seen anyone criticize the art/modeling department. They've always done an excellent job at designing the cities and models. Yes, you may not like bulky armor...but many times it's like, "Bring us ten ideas."..."We like these three but DC says we can't do one of them"...*flip coin*..."Make this one. You have until Friday next week. Have a good weekend."
