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Title: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 10, 2008, 11:17:17 AM http://www.giantrealm.com/gaming/more-ncsoft-layoffs
Quote Word on the street is that every team and department at NCSoft Austin except Tabula Rasa has been given the axe. No hard numbers yet, but let's be honest - we, well no, I saw this coming. Lineage 2, axed. Has nearly 150,000 subcribers. That's five times more than Tabula Rasa. Dungeon Runners seems to be safe at the moment, because they were already touched in bad places last time around. Aion, axed. It wasn't even out yet. Lineage 1, axed. Most of localization, community, production and publishing that isn't under the TR banner will be looking for new jobs. More later, I suppose. I'm in awe at the moment. How does a company rationalize keeping a game that has no chance of recovering? As someone else most eloquently put it, "It's just getting f*cking silly at this point." Is this where I type "hilarity ensues"? As always, best of luck to all the people let go. Oh, hey, a press release. While I was typing. A press release that says nothing of layoffs but talks about a new studio. I think a shark just jumped NCsoft. Disgusting. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Mrbloodworth on September 10, 2008, 11:20:25 AM ouch.
I'm not understanding how they can continue to support the games they have going this route. Let alone all the ones supposedly coming for the PS3 deal. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 10, 2008, 11:21:39 AM Noxzema jokes are not funny. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Soln on September 10, 2008, 11:38:36 AM I wonder if they have debt problems, what with credit dissolving worldwide. Scaling down spending fast might be the only option. /shrug
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Draegan on September 10, 2008, 11:58:07 AM And I wanted to try Aion out. Boooo
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: HaemishM on September 10, 2008, 12:00:02 PM Tabula Rasa gets spared? Whose dick is Garriot sucking to keep this sinking turd afloat?
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Evildrider on September 10, 2008, 12:11:17 PM Why don't they just close down already?
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: LK on September 10, 2008, 12:33:28 PM And I wanted to try Aion out. Boooo I saw that it required you to buy lots of healing and mana potions and wrote it off there. Pretty graphics and models + winged flight aside, it stunk of Korean game design just by taking one glance at the hotbar. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Ratman_tf on September 10, 2008, 12:38:14 PM I don't agree that Tab Ras has no chance of recovery. I think it's thin and hanging by a thread, but I've seen stranger recoveries in MMOG land.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Nonentity on September 10, 2008, 12:46:09 PM Aion, nooo!
Here's for pouring one out for Aion: (http://www.thenonentity.com/signe-aion.gif) Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: sam, an eggplant on September 10, 2008, 12:52:23 PM Really, Aion too? So then NC's only hope is GW2, which they aren't even developing inhouse. They lost MUO and champions online, right?
How far they've fallen... all that lineage money squandered. Can't say I didn't see it coming. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Lantyssa on September 10, 2008, 12:58:44 PM http://www.giantrealm.com/gaming/more-ncsoft-layoffs Can you talk to someone about Giant Realm showing a blank page when viewed with SeaMonkey? I have IE tab which solves it, but it makes me think the site is busted every time I go there for the fifteen seconds until I remember that.Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Oban on September 10, 2008, 01:31:30 PM People in North America play L2? Why would you cut off a game that must cost next to nothing to maintain?
Or were the recently departed working on a localized expansion? Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Falwell on September 10, 2008, 01:46:52 PM I'm curious as to where this will leave Lum and his crew.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Ingmar on September 10, 2008, 01:53:04 PM I'm curious as to where this will leave Lum and his crew. That ship sailed a couple weeks ago, this is the second round. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: FatuousTwat on September 10, 2008, 01:53:34 PM Didn't NCSoft run GW? Did they fire those people as well?
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Falwell on September 10, 2008, 01:53:52 PM I'm curious as to where this will leave Lum and his crew. That ship sailed a couple weeks ago, this is the second round. Gotcha, I missed that one. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Lum on September 10, 2008, 01:54:18 PM I'm curious as to where this will leave Lum and his crew. Um, working somewhere else for the past month! Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Ingmar on September 10, 2008, 01:56:58 PM Didn't NCSoft run GW? Did they fire those people as well? ArenaNet is in Washington state, so far this has only been NCSoft Austin. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: stark on September 10, 2008, 02:14:05 PM This article is retardedly misleading, you make it sound like Aion, Lineage I, and Lineage II the games have been cancelled. If anything was actually 'axed', it was probably just some NC Austin producers or pointless North American administration.
The Lineages are already made and done, and Aion is being developed in Korea so its not like NC Austin even has the power to cancel a game. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 10, 2008, 02:26:27 PM I don't remember saying any games got canceled. Lemme take another look.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 10, 2008, 02:26:32 PM Nope, didn't say that.
But hell, since reading is hard, I'll clarify. Edit: Just for you. Quote A quick update: I'm not saying these games are canceled. I'm saying much of the staff that was left on these titles, which may or may not have already been skeleton crews, have been let go. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: sam, an eggplant on September 10, 2008, 02:33:00 PM It looks like the austin studio is being closed entirely except for the crew maintaining TR, which they're keeping alive because... well, nobody really knows. Everybody left after the layoffs is being moved to seattle.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 10, 2008, 02:37:24 PM Yup. But then, I had already reported that people would be moved to Arena.net and TR had a few months to get their shit together. It's a shame that I posted the final tally of firings that would be staggered over 3 months, but then, whatever. Jesus himself couldn't turn TR around.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Hawkbit on September 10, 2008, 02:47:57 PM I'm guessing they realized that with 149,997 bots that left the three other legitimate paying players for L2.
Well, its always sad to hear of folks losing jobs, especially when TR stays firm. Lord British must have a secret vault of money hidden away in one of his secret passages. Bummer. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: sinij on September 10, 2008, 07:06:32 PM I think grind is too much ingrained in all levels of Asian culture and individualism is too prevelant in "western" world for games to mesh that well. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Iniquity on September 11, 2008, 01:03:55 AM I think grind is too much ingrained in all levels of Asian culture and individualism is too prevelant in "western" world for games to mesh that well. Didn't Lum already make a really long post a few months back demolishing this sort of overly reductionist bullshit? Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: UnSub on September 11, 2008, 02:01:34 AM Ignore the man behind the curtain and keep your eyes on ... NCsoft West! (http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2008/09/ncsoft_announce_31.html)
I've only skimmed this thread - don't have time to actually read it - but thought this was interesting. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Falconeer on September 11, 2008, 04:09:41 AM Lord British must have a secret vault of money hidden away in one of his secret passages. Bummer. That's the insurance money he got when he was killed, back in 1997. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Tale on September 11, 2008, 06:44:59 AM Hello I play Tabula Rasa.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Mrbloodworth on September 11, 2008, 06:59:12 AM (*Everyone in the room) "HI TALE!"
:why_so_serious: Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: UnSub on September 11, 2008, 07:52:59 AM Hello I play Tabula Rasa. If you recruit another friend, you'll be able to double the concurrent server population. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Lum on September 11, 2008, 08:27:58 AM Didn't Lum already make a really long post a few months back demolishing this sort of overly reductionist bullshit? Probably, but a simpler response is to simply point out that the most successful MMO in Asia is World of Warcraft. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: sam, an eggplant on September 11, 2008, 09:29:31 AM Well that's difficult to prove, given the PC bang playstyle and popularity of free to play MMOs. Yulgang has 60 million registered users, but who knows how many actually play? Habbo hotel has >100m, that crazy chinese ZT online game has ~8m actual subscribers, and so on. WoW doesn't clearly dominate in asia like it does here. I generally qualify everything with "but I don't count Asia, because they're incredibly weird".
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Yegolev on September 11, 2008, 09:39:25 AM I'm curious as to where this will leave Lum and his crew. Um, working somewhere else for the past month! So you indeed brought your "crew", then. I don't believe I met your "crew" when I was in Austin. Perhaps they are more of an "entourage"? Do you have a photobucket for them? Ah... I just remembered that I forgot to take my meds this morning. I'll come back after lunch. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Signe on September 11, 2008, 10:06:53 AM I can see Lum wandering around followed by an entourage of gamer girlz.
Also, I did NOT eat Aion and I am NOT a zombie! Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Mrbloodworth on September 11, 2008, 10:10:51 AM That was a vampire!
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Vampire_Smiley.png) Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: stu on September 11, 2008, 10:23:19 AM Hello I play Tabula Rasa. If you recruit another friend, you'll be able to double the concurrent server population. Tale am Legend. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Nonentity on September 12, 2008, 08:47:37 AM I can see Lum wandering around followed by an entourage of gamer girlz. Also, I did NOT eat Aion and I am NOT a zombie! You can make all the excuses you want to, darling, but all we're doing about here is discussing cold, hard fact. Thou dost protest too much, methinks. The fact of the matter is that I know you didn't eat Aion, but Korean MMOs set off the T-Virus of KMMO lust within you. That's all. Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Tale on September 12, 2008, 02:26:17 PM Richard Garriott is shooting Stephen Colbert's DNA into space to promote Tabula Rasa (http://www.rgtr.com/news/operation_immortality/stephen_colbert_goes_intergala.html).
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: schild on September 12, 2008, 02:55:45 PM Goddamn that sounds better than "I am carrying a compact flash drive with binary on it to a space station where it will be forgotten."
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Drugstore Space Cowboy on September 12, 2008, 11:21:45 PM Didn't Lum already make a really long post a few months back demolishing this sort of overly reductionist bullshit? Probably, but a simpler response is to simply point out that the most successful MMO in Asia is World of Warcraft. Is this supposed to refute the "Asian people like grinding" argument? Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: taolurker on September 13, 2008, 12:06:39 AM No... It's to show you just how industrious their gold farmers are.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Sir T on September 13, 2008, 05:51:57 AM http://www.statesman.com/search/content/business/stories/other/09/11/0911cbriefs.html
Quote CENTRAL TEXAS DIGEST NCsoft to move North American headquarters to Seattle COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS Thursday, September 11, 2008 VIDEO GAMES NCsoft to leave Austin for new base in Seattle NCsoft Corp., the South Korean computer gaming publisher, has reorganized its local operations and is moving its North American headquarters from Austin to Seattle. The move is a blow to the Austin gaming industry, which prided itself on having a game publisher based here. But NCsoft spokesman David Swofford said the development team and some departments such as customer service and quality assurance testing will remain in Austin. The team that runs Richard Garriott's "Tabula Rasa" computer game will also remain in Austin. Swofford said Seattle was a more attractive location for the company's North American headquarters because of its proximity to South Korea and direct flights to London, where NC Europe is based. NCsoft has about 300 employees in Austin. Swofford said the headquarters move will affect about 12 people. Chris Chung, former president of NCsoft's Austin operations, will become chief executive of NC West, a new subsidiary that will include NC Interactive, NC Austin, NC Europe and ArenaNet. Garriott, a renowned local game developer who is the creative force behind the "Ultima" series as well as "Tabula Rasa," will retain his title as executive producer. Recently, NCsoft laid off 21 people from its Austin operations and in February laid off a small number of people from its "Tabula Rasa" team after the much-anticipated game failed to meet expectations. I play Tab Ras.. and its subscriber positive right now despite your hate. There was even some clown on general last night yammering about eve and how "this game was such a Disappointment and I'm heading back to eve where its really really fun. Oh heres the good points about EVE. EVEVEVE" for an hour and everyone was like "ok By See ya. Have fun. Arnt you gone allready ffs" plus a queue of people saying "hey I'm having actual FUN here." Fun. Remember that? That thing you used to have before gaming became a second job? And I'm having it in tab ras. If I stop having fun I'll go play something else with a thank you. *shrug* Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Hawkbit on September 13, 2008, 07:48:34 AM It's like a Klansman in the ghetto.
Title: Re: A quick turn of the knife should do the trick. NCsoft. Again. Post by: Zetleft on September 13, 2008, 06:12:35 PM (http://www.morethings.com/fan/blazing_saddles/cleavon_little-klan_outfit.jpg)
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