Bad press

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Benito, Dec 22, 2019.

  1. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    https://massivelyop.com/2019/12/21/massively-ops-2019-awards-stormiest-future/

    While the "article/award" may hold some merit, it seems poorly timed (in the midst of the holiday season and expansion releases for EQ1/EQ2) and full of innuendo. Yes, Planetside Arena just shut down but it may be a step in the right direction instead of an ill-omen for the rest of Daybreak.

    They do not allow Daybreak and others to respond. It's like having people talk behind your back. Though, they probably consider themselves more like sports broadcasters....

    I am sharing for folks in this community who want to voice their opinion (for or against) instead of having randoms from WoW fill the peanut gallery. Granted, it's probably a vain exercise and Massively does not exactly hold the journalistic weight of the New York Times.

    Perhaps, Massively receives donations in kind from certain studios?
  2. Warpeace Augur

    What was Daybreak to respond to? It is an opinion piece, take it for what its worth or not worth.
  3. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    This somewhat contentious "award" is just who Massively OP are worried about, in truth I think most of the games Daybreak have sports a lot of very worried players & has had them for years - since even before the sell off from Sony Online Entertainment & the formation of Daybreak Games.

    I am still playing, I am also still keeping my fingers crossed that what Daybreak are doing does secure the future of this game & broader than that, secure the EverQuest IP/Franchise for the future & hopefully more titles later on.

    I don't think Daybreak need to respond to articles like this directly nor do I necessarily view them as bad press, arguably DBG already try to counter their message in what they put out in things like the EverQuest Show interview Holly gave Fading for example.

    If the future isn't particularly bright or desperately dark it at least does look like people who matter do care & work really hard at it keeping it going & so far at least they appear to be getting into a better position now than they have been in.
  4. Rotlust Augur

    That's the same website that claimed Daybreak helped get Trump elected because "muh Russia."

    that entire website is, and has always been, a left wing rag pushing hyper-PC culture onto gaming.

    Considering that the US left is curled into a perpetual state of rusophobia thanks to shady politicians and their lies for power, the fact that Massively went against the grain and made this about an entire studio instead of a game like they usually do doesn't surprise me.

    Yes, Daybreak has a lot of problems, but their main point seems to be that Daybreak is a cover company for "shady Russian businesses"

    They also hate arena net because they commit the high crime of listening to their customers instead of activists mascaraing as journos.
    Endaar and FubarEQ like this.
  5. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I find it comical and offesive that this was said "it’s sad to see what remains of SOE becoming such a shell of its former self"

    I played an shamefully large amount of Infantry and Cosmic Rift before SOE slaughtered them. SOE completely didn't know their player base in those games and destroyed them when they went P2P. I was about 16 with no access to a credit card and that was before stores started carrying game cards. It's not that the player base wasn't willing to pay for the game, we simply couldn't access methods to pay for the game. I had to get my aunt to sign up my accounts and then I paid her cash each month from cutting lawns so I could keep playing. I only came to EQ after the server populations tanked so hard in Infantry and CR it was hard to get a decent match going, and even then I paid for the all access version until Infantry/CR finally died off, and I use finally only because it was sad for me to watch, the actual events were painfully fast.

    EQ was a much older crowd and had better access to the game. If SOE wasn't the**** show that it was, they would have used a premium paid server for league matches and such while keeping Infantry/CR FTP, and used it as a lost lead to funnel younger players into the paid platforms of EQ and such.

    SOE simply bought into a new technology as EQ was the first 3D MMORPG. They immediately began declining when competition hit the market.
  6. Iven Antonius Bayle

    You are basically wrong in all points of your statement. Meridian59 was the first 3D MMORPG and got released a half year before EQ. The following chart does show that SOE had not declined EQ immediately because of competition. They sold EQ to Daybreak in early 2015 after nearly 16 years (!) and there was competition from the beginning.

    MMO Popularity 1998-2013


    Regarding Daybreaks´s Ownership:

    "We are excited to join Columbus Nova's impressive roster of companies"
    John Smedley, president of Daybreak Game Company
    2015-Jan/Feb

    "From the get-go, Daybreak has been primarily owned by Jason Epstein"
    Daybreak Games
    2018-04-26

    o_O
  7. Bamboompow Augur

    Check the politics at the door. If you are labeling a site as biased to one side or the other and lamenting the pretense of a bias in a derogatory manner than you are passing political judgement that does not need to be shared here. It doesn't matter if its an accurate assessment or not. This same old Horse manure (Right versus Left) that has pretty much ruined ANY and ALL narratives doesn't need to be here. Both sides suck. And you suck for posting that.
    Act of Valor and Duder like this.
  8. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    I agree but it generates innuendo, rumors, and a partially uninformed narrative. I understand it's not a serious journalistic effort to represent all sides.

    There may be some people who may be interested in trying out EQ (or continue playing) but any narrative generated by Massively may deter those people.

    It doesn't affect me personally but I think we should stick up for our game in some sense.
  9. Benito EQ player since 2001.



    Regardless of politics, the claim that Daybreak is a "Russian shell company" is baseless.

    It's just Massively so you can't take them too seriously but there has been a decline in "journalism" (for all sides) generally...
  10. Bamboompow Augur

    EQ is 20+ years old. Either you get it, enjoy it or you don't. Its like chess, or football. Neither of those really need a bunch of "Hey come check out this new thing" kind of press. They have been around enough to be common knowledge or to be least be a cult in popular culture. No one really owns chess or football. Many people who might come to EQ are not going to know (or care) who runs it, unless the game gets majorly screwed up. If you separate DBG from the context of EQ, then EQ is EQ and DBG is a mess. DBG holds EQ together in spite of themselves.

    Layoffs, restructurings, cancelled projects...those all are hallmarks of a company still trying to figure it out. It could be a bit unfair to focus on that negativity, as all companies have bad press. Business of any kind is not going to be all high fives and pats on the back. Heck, look at Boeing. That company might as well be in the business of selling guillotines and devices derived for the soul purpose of murdering puppies. They might actually have some good press, but all the bad is smothering it.

    Like Boeing, DBG just doesn't have enough GOOD press.They need a huge hit of some kind, than all shall be forgiven. Right?
  11. Rotlust Augur



    People who refuse to hold conviction and seek to always sit in the center are usually fairly cowardly and low intelligence. It isn't partisan to say that massively is left leaning -- they absolutely objectively are. They do not hide it, which is the one thing I can actually give them.

    Would you puff up if I said that MSNBC was left leaning and Breitbart was right leaning? You complain of partisanship while dripping with it. If both sides indeed suck, what is the issue with me pointing out that a left wing bias is obviously a part of this silly article? If they were discussing that Daybreak is bad because they didn't say Christmas instead of Holidays, and I blamed it on a right wing bias would you throw your enormous centrist brain on me? Something tells you would be cheering for your team.

    You sing the song of false centrism, and you suck for doing it.

    I can use middle school words, too.
    Endaar likes this.
  12. Rotlust Augur



    I agree, but I don't see what that has to do with what I said. If Fox was complaining that Daybreak will fail because they aren't pushing the word of God down everyone's throat, I would be here complaining about that instead.
  13. Fcseven XIII Journeyman

    Bree and Justin from massively never have a good word to say about EQ. It was a shame to see Brad having to pander to them after dragging his game through the mud at the end.
    code-zero likes this.
  14. Sobmre Augur

    hmmm,
    Daybreak did ruin H1Z1 with an update no one wanted or liked.
    then wasted time and money on 2 failed arena games:
    Planetside arena and the H1z1 car one what ever its called.

    EQ seems to be going good though.


    Daybreak is failing it looks like to due to dumb ideas.


    Here are a few ideas that would work though and cheaper then a new arena game

    H1Z1 "classic" pre combat update.
    1 Vangaurd server.
    1 old school planetside server
    all free to play models.
  15. Bamboompow Augur

    That's funny. There are plenty with conviction in the government and elsewhere, yet based on what actually gets done during a typical legislative session....the consensus is that we are not dealing with a lean, mean working smarter not harder type of machine. Everyone is so fantastically intelligent that nothing gets done since everyone thinks they are the smartest person in the room. Compromise is obviously for the weak of mind and heart. So if wanting to see people actually do their jobs instead of having this partisan/ideological bickering that deadlocks everything is a sign of low intelligence then great. Label me a victim of Downs Syndrome. I am so glad there are smart cookies out there to protect me from myself as I sometimes forget to wear my helmet.

    All those other sites you mentioned. Yes, they are bias AF. They dial in their target audience since they are just echo chambers like most others. Their visitors go there for affirmation that their "convictions" on life are always going to be reinforced and there is no need to actually think. There doesn't even need to be fact. If enough people believe something to be true when filtered through their convictions, than it is. Plenty of page hits and targeted advertising since these are not Non Profits we are talking about. Seeking the truth and integrity in journalism is not their goal. Info Wars is a great model for what goes on. Lets tear people down, build them up and then take their money. Alex Jones is one of the best snake oil salemen on planet Earth and is fantastically wealthy. He probably even believes he is offering a beneficial public service.

    Or maybe we could just not discuss this crap here, leave out the migraine inducing red/blue/lib/cons horse S that goes on EVERYWHERE in the real world and talk about EQ. It might actually be even kind of difficult to refrain from that as EQ's demographics are probably solidly Red, completely empowered during the age of Trump....but please do make an attempt.
  16. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.



    I don't think they concluded that DayBreak helped get Trump elected, but they did show some evidence, easily verified independently by the readers there, and still verifiable today by anyone who cares enough to check, of some irregular behaviour by various parties which led back to Russian business interests, plenty of other arguably more reputable websites made those same connections independently & came up with even more disturbing conclusions than Massively did, their conclusion was mostly that the Russian owners were trying to keep their businesses out of the sanctions crosshairs by way of some corporate shell-games, Massively were interested because had those connections ended up placing Daybreak in the cross-hairs EQ would have been closed down.

    The Trump connection exists though, Forbes and other mainstream news sites had several articles explaining the links, and Forbes are hardly a left wing rag.

    The evidence of something fishy going on was pretty damning given press releases by SoE, Columbus Nova & DayBreak at the time, if you truly think there was nothing untoward going on you're living in cloud cuckoo land.
  17. Bamboompow Augur

    All rhetoric aside, the reason that Massively OP is talking about bad press is that there is bad press. Plenty of it. We as players/customers have access to all the same information that the people passing judgement on that website have access to. Most of that news is not exactly a gauge of a healthy business. That is OK, though.

    DBG was born on second base with EQ but have been claiming they have been hitting a double for years. They need to hit an actual home run. Smash it out of the park hopefully but a Grand Slam is not required. The cure for bad press is GOOD PRESS. If DBG can create something new, exciting, buzz worthy, addiction level fun and of a high quality? Bad press? What bad press? You can't hear it over the sound of how awesome they are.

    That's all that matters. F the Russians. If some Oligarch can put up the funds to make a fantastic game than great. No one cares where EA gets their venture capital but if they put out a great game everyone loves than people forget how horrible a company EA is. Happens all the time. Even back when Archon was the first EA title played. That was a fun game. Others sucked.
  18. Kolani Augur

    How is Pantheon not one of the poll choices?
    Benito likes this.
  19. Vizier Augur

    Just wanted to echo Rotlust's position a bit here. Massively should be lumped in with all the other spin based infotainment I don't think anyone here is even bothering to argue that they are unbiased.

    The part that makes me mad though is this: Gamers and gaming in general has somehow miraculously stayed out of the social civil war that is taking place. Sites like Massively that want bring that awful twisted filter into gaming news are the harbingers of doom for our civilized gamer culture. Gaming is the only thing that brings both sides together.

    Shame on Massively for trying to find ways to divide gamers by fanning the flames with this partisan garbage disguised as EQ news.
  20. Benito EQ player since 2001.


    After a search of Massively's archives (type Daybreak then Pantheon), one senses that they give "games under development" (vaporware) a free pass or soft-ball coverage at worst. While Daybreak, which releases actual live content (even if it be Planetside Arena), gets called a sinking ship. Pantheon and Star Citizen, in the infinite "alpha" stage of development, gets praises to high heaven.
    code-zero likes this.