Back to the grave! (was Rise from the grave! The Sims Online reborn)

[kaid]

I think its better to say that an EA run MMO can die they are about the only company that I know has closed some down that still had players.

[Venkman]

AC2
AA

They ARE the biggest one with the most closed ones.

[Lantyssa]

Earth and Beyond

[sam, an eggplant]

Asheron's call 2 was shutdown due to the turbine/MS billing change making it literally unsustainable. In the same vein auto assault was such an abject commercial failure that it too was literally unsustainable, even in maintenance mode. I'd have to assume the TSO was rowing the same boat.

We need to amend the rule to say "MMOs don't die unless they can't even afford to keep the lights on."

[Signe]

And back in the grave it goes!

Lead Dev Luc Barthelet makes his goodbye blog post.

Uhhh....  Look up!

[UnSub]

And back in the grave it goes!

Lead Dev Luc Barthelet makes his goodbye blog post.

My favourite post from that blog:

rwpcaniac said,

on April 29th, 2008 at 9:00 am

Did I mention I just payed $150 last night for the founders account I’ve always dreamed of. Way to go… Perhaps you could have told someone sooner.

Now that's some good timing!

[Wahn]

Nice, they renamed it to EA Land just to close it 30 days later without damaging the Sims IP by having headlines like "SIMS GAMES CLOSES FAILURE OMGOMGOMG!".

Figures they called it EA Land, the brand "EA" probably can't be damaged beyong what they've done to it over the last 10 years or so.

[MikeRozak]

Nice, they renamed it to EA Land just to close it 30 days later without damaging the Sims IP by having headlines like "SIMS GAMES CLOSES FAILURE OMGOMGOMG!".

Figures they called it EA Land, the brand "EA" probably can't be damaged beyong what they've done to it over the last 10 years or so.

I'm not sure if you were joking when you wrote this, but you're probably right. It all makes perfect sense now, kind of like George Bush denying the US is in recession by calling it a period of slow growth.

[Wahn]

I'm not sure if you were joking when you wrote this, but you're probably right. It all makes perfect sense now, kind of like George Bush denying the US is in recession by calling it a period of slow growth.

Same school of thought.

Oh, and I wasn't joking, EA just keeps impressing me with their spins again and again. You never know how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

[Endie]

this was all a scam for ea to make money,i bought 120$ worth of simoleans off the game atm machines from pay pal and they robbed me
I have played for a little over a month and they stole money by selling money off pay pal,this is bad for ea because they will have a class action lawsuit for anyone that payed for simoleans and got robbed EA you are all theives!!!

This sounds like an older user bullshitting, but the point made is valid: if it can be demonstrated, perhaps thruogh a process of discovery, that EA actually intended to shut down the service after only a month but held it out as a service they intended to continue at teh time of the re-launch then I'd suggest that the RMT element leaves them open to proceedings.

I'm not sure if you were joking when you wrote this, but you're probably right. It all makes perfect sense now, kind of like George Bush denying the US is in recession by calling it a period of slow growth.

If you think the US is in recession then you don't know what recession means.  Come back when you have two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP.  Yesterday's figures confirm (very) slow growth.  I don't give a fuck about GWB one way or the other, btw.  I just get bored of people using words they don't understand.

[sam, an eggplant]

Not to derail this thread further, but that's incorrect. Historically economists have been able to call recessions only six months after they began. So we definitely weren't in one on 11/07, but we might be right now. Consumer confidence is low, the stock market dropped 10% off its peak of 14200, unemployment is up, spending is down, hyperinflation is here, the media is full of doom and gloom, etc.

[MikeRozak]

If you think the US is in recession then you don't know what recession means.  Come back when you have two consecutive quarters of decline in GDP.  Yesterday's figures confirm (very) slow growth.  I don't give a fuck about GWB one way or the other, btw.  I just get bored of people using words they don't understand.

Off topic: That may be the technical definition, but my recollection of discussions of this topic in various books and business shows (as well as past recessions) is that periods of very slow growth are often relabelled as recession after the fact. There is no way that a period of (a) such high mortgage defaults, and (b) signficantly slowing economy (just read in MSNBC today about car sales plummetting), won't be called a recession.

[Endie]

You can define a recession as whatever you like, but if you want to use it correctly, you can't apply it to periods of positive growth, however disappointing you may find them.

And Sam, i don't think you read what I said.  Two quarters is six months.  Added to which your llist of criteria are not those which define recession, just things which often happen during them.

I'll say it again: two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

As a matter of interest, i believe that half a dozen individual states in the US are officially in recession...

[MikeRozak]

I'll say it again: two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Off topic: I don't think it's as clear-cut as that. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession), for example, lists two definitions, the one you give, and "A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough." The article goes on to say that whether the US is in recession or not is disputed, some economists saying so, blah blah blah.

Anyhow, back to the original George Bush comment (which ties into EA's renaming of The Sims Online). Bush has proven many times that he's not a stickler for dictionary word definitions, liberally fine-tuning the meanings of "terrorism" and "national security" to meet his needs. The point was that he was avoiding the "R" word with intent to decieve/mislead, like EA. Wikipedia has a great quote where the Commerce Department says the US is "stuck in a rut" - trying to avoid the "R" word. Or even if you don't want to use the "R" word because of the definition, I believe a technical economic term for 0.6% growth is "stagnant economy", more appropriate and "scarrier" then "stuck in a rut".

Oh well, deception/spin are common in the game industry, and not just to EA. I just saw a blurb about some Chinese MMO claiming that 16:9 screen support was a novel and unique feature on their behalf: http://pw.mmosite.com/highlight/widescreen.shtml

[IainC]

Oh well, deception/spin are common in the game industry, and not just to EA. I just saw a blurb about some Chinese MMO claiming that 16:9 screen support was a novel and unique feature on their behalf: http://pw.mmosite.com/highlight/widescreen.shtml

The last mousemat I bought (about ten years ago) had a star-flash on the front of the packaging proclaiming that it was compatible with both PCs and Macs.

[tazelbain]

I wonder if there are tax reasons to close it.  Close it for good to claim it as a loss rather let it limp on.

[Endie]

I'll say it again: two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Off topic: I don't think it's as clear-cut as that. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recession), for example, lists two definitions, the one you give, and "A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough."

The latter definition, which is useless in that a move from stellar growth to moderately strong growth is a recession (ie it apparently judges on the second derivative), is compromised here since the NBER has not stated the US to be in recession, either.  Nor would it for half a year or so.