Flagship Sunk?

[UnSub]

So it's less Flagship sunk and all hands lost, more Flagship having gone underwater but the people still trapped inside have some air left?

replace the text on my original picture with 'lol I am a .. complicated, esoteric metaphor, possibly involving merfolk'

My work here is done.

[UnSub]

HanbitSoft also stated, “Flagship not only lacked effort, but were only looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are.”

Whoa.

www.hellgateguru.com for the rest of this.

That's the bitchiest PR statement I've ever read. It's delicious.

[Count Nerfedalot]

HanbitSoft also stated, “Flagship not only lacked effort, but were only looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are.”

Whoa.

www.hellgateguru.com for the rest of this.

That's the bitchiest PR statement I've ever read. It's delicious.

So Hanbitsoft is gloating, trashtalking, epeen waving AND corpse camping Flagship?  Class act there.  Sounds like they picked up the former Iraqi Minister of Information to write their press releases.  Maybe they can pick up Jack Thompson to do the stateside legal work?  Assuming JT doesn't get disbarred of course.

I'm no fan of releasing unfinished games, of calling Diablo clones "MMOs", or of the ridiculous subscription model they tried.  But one thing I will say for Bill Roper and the other founders - digging from their own pockets to pay an extra 30 days wages to folks they had to let go because the company is insolvent does not sound like "...looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members..." to me.  And if Hanbitsoft is such a squeaky-clean angel in all this, why don't they be more specific about exactly what onerous terms and conditions were attached with the money they supposedly generously offered Flagship that would have kept the doors open?

[UnSub]

So Hanbitsoft is gloating, trashtalking, epeen waving AND corpse camping Flagship?  Class act there.  Sounds like they picked up the former Iraqi Minister of Information to write their press releases. 

EA really promoted the potential of HG:L in other regions, so those companies who bought in had / have a lot riding on its success. Of course, HG:L and success aren't on speaking terms, so that's bad luck for the investors.

HG:L is only 8 months old. At this point it is more expensive to have bought a lifetime sub than to have paid monthly sub fees. For companies who have poured in a lot more money, been given a lot more assurances, I can understand why they'd be annoyed.

That HanbitSoft still wants the HG:L IP, and feels they have a right to it, is probably the more interesting thing.

[Phred]

So Hanbitsoft is gloating, trashtalking, epeen waving AND corpse camping Flagship?  Class act there.  Sounds like they picked up the former Iraqi Minister of Information to write their press releases. 

EA really promoted the potential of HG:L in other regions, so those companies who bought in had / have a lot riding on its success. Of course, HG:L and success aren't on speaking terms, so that's bad luck for the investors.

HG:L is only 8 months old. At this point it is more expensive to have bought a lifetime sub than to have paid monthly sub fees. For companies who have poured in a lot more money, been given a lot more assurances, I can understand why they'd be annoyed.

That HanbitSoft still wants the HG:L IP, and feels they have a right to it, is probably the more interesting thing.

It is suspicious that Hanbitsoft makes those accusations now. Maybe their contract to get the HG:L rights depended on something Flagship has countered by shutting the doors.

Of the two, I would think the Mythos IP would be more valuable currently. A lot of the beta testers like it way better than HG:L.

[Merusk]

  And if Hanbitsoft is such a squeaky-clean angel in all this, why don't they be more specific about exactly what onerous terms and conditions were attached with the money they supposedly generously offered Flagship that would have kept the doors open?

Because it's stupid to discuss contracts that are about to be come part of legal action?  Not that these press releases are the best course of action, either.

That HanbitSoft still wants the HG:L IP, and feels they have a right to it, is probably the more interesting thing.

It is suspicious that Hanbitsoft makes those accusations now. Maybe their contract to get the HG:L rights depended on something Flagship has countered by shutting the doors.[/quote]

Yeah.. something like paying back the money they're owed.  From everything that has come out it looks like the following: Flagship put up the IP as Collateral for a loan from Hanbit.  By becoming insolvent/ closing the doors Flagship can't pay Hanbit back, so as the creditor they're going after the collateral to try and recoup the monetary loss.  Nothing shady there.

[sam, an eggplant]

They spent a ton of money on marketing the HGL IP, with action figures, comic books, and even books. As far as the actual IP goes, it is clearly more valuable. As for the games themselves, HGL is a solid fun online platform. If it had a metric fuckton more content, it would rule.

[Sir T]

http://hellgateguru.com/2008/07/official-forums-shutting-down/

Tiggs made a post on the Official Forums stating that both the official forums of Hellgate: London and Mythos will be shutting down.

    On Friday, July 18th at Midnight (CST) the forums will be shutting down. We would like to thank everyone for being a part of this wonderful community and we hope to see you all again soon.

    -Tiggs

See it for yourself. http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=107626 Thanks for the news tip, Swordplay. You shame me with your news finding abilities sometimes.
Share and Enjoy:

You have approximately 11 hours to roast your marshmallows on the forums peeps. Get to it.

[edit] at time of writing that thread is up to 51 pages. Kind of sad tbh.

[Hawkbit]

It's always sad to see a project end this way... lots of folks out looking for jobs now. 

I really can't help but think that this could have been avoided or at least delayed if they hadn't used that terrible subscription model.  They essentially made three different games:  Single player, Non-sub online and Sub online.  They all had different patch times and likely had different dev teams at work on them.  If that was streamlined into one non-sub online game they might have ramped down their team sizes at launch instead of ramping them up. 

I knew when buying HG:L that I wasn't going to buy into the subscription because I didn't feel it was worth it and I also had two subs for different games already.  What I didn't count on was how divisive it really made the game seem, when some people had special access and others (me) didn't.  Sure, I could have fixed it by subscribing.  But it wasn't worth it to me.  In the end, I just quit because I felt left out of the new content. 

Just one man's opinion.... but I'd suggest to other companies that this is *not* how to run a sub game.

[Rondaror]

I desperately wanted this game to succeed.....it's just sad....

[Ratman_tf]

I really can't help but think that this could have been avoided or at least delayed if they hadn't used that terrible subscription model. 

They wanted MMO money without having to do MMO development.

[Rendakor]

Forums aren't closing today, per Tiggs:

Hello,

I am happy to announce that the forums will not be going down tonight.

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showpost.php?p=1152739&postcount=650

[Evildrider]

Damn.. Tiggs should have stayed at Turbine.

[Montague]

I really can't help but think that this could have been avoided or at least delayed if they hadn't used that terrible subscription model. 

They wanted MMO money without having to do MMO development.

Amen, and that sort of thinking is spreading. WOTC is victim to that same thinking with it's poorly thought out DDI Online model.

[Signe]

I wonder how many people play solo with chat turned off.  I played that way a lot!  You have to think that since an awful lot of people don't bother with game forums, most of them will keep trying to log in after they turn off the juice.  Maybe they'll be able to log in but get a screen telling them that it's game over for good.  Won't they be surprised!  For some reason, the thought makes me giggle. 

[Ratman_tf]

I wonder how many people play solo with chat turned off.  I played that way a lot!  You have to think that since an awful lot of people don't bother with game forums, most of them will keep trying to log in after they turn off the juice.  Maybe they'll be able to log in but get a screen telling them that it's game over for good.  Won't they be surprised!  For some reason, the thought makes me giggle. 

I played it offline mostly, but I made an online (non sub) character recently so I can be around when the lights go out. And hopefully catch some of the drama. 

[UnSub]

Flagshipped reports that the Mythos servers and forums are down.

[Azazel]

A shame. Mythos was a nice little bit of fun. Well, I'd never have played it once D3 came out anyway, so whatever...

[eldaec]

I wonder how many people play solo with chat turned off.

I wonder how many people were blissfully unaware that the chat function even existed for the whole time they played.

Default to 'chat off' and no obvious way to turn it on, is a design decision right up there alongside 'pistol damage doesn't stack with rifle damage' in the pantheon of heroic stupidity.

[Alkiera]

I wonder how many people play solo with chat turned off.

I wonder how many people were blissfully unaware that the chat function even existed for the whole time they played.

Default to 'chat off' and no obvious way to turn it on, is a design decision right up there alongside 'pistol damage doesn't stack with rifle damage' in the pantheon of heroic stupidity.

In HG:L, at least, if you played online, the chat box was on.  It could fade out some times, but it was on.  It was always a race to see if I could type /channelleave X the 4 times required to leave the chat, trade, lfg, and newbie channels before getting any of the barrens-quality chat.  I played with friends online.  It actually did multiplayer way better than the Diablo games; felt more like a co-op game rather than a '3-4 people soloing near one another' game.

[Musashi]

I wonder how many people play solo with chat turned off.

I wonder how many people were blissfully unaware that the chat function even existed for the whole time they played.

Default to 'chat off' and no obvious way to turn it on, is a design decision right up there alongside 'pistol damage doesn't stack with rifle damage' in the pantheon of heroic stupidity.

In HG:L, at least, if you played online, the chat box was on.  It could fade out some times, but it was on.  It was always a race to see if I could type /channelleave X the 4 times required to leave the chat, trade, lfg, and newbie channels before getting any of the barrens-quality chat.  I played with friends online.  It actually did multiplayer way better than the Diablo games; felt more like a co-op game rather than a '3-4 people soloing near one another' game.

When the game launched, chat was hidden by default.  When you pulled it out, it didn't fade.

I think they thought it cluttered up the screen and made it harder to see bad guys, and well - with the big, clunky, ui they launched with - they were right.

[Signe]

Tiggs post:

Since word spreads fast around here and this thread needs a boost I can tell you this much... news will be coming soon for you folks. The game isn't going anywhere at the end of the month like the speculation has it nor is the forums. So you are stuck with Hellgate and the forums for a while  That is all I can answer for now but I wanted to let you know you can focus on playing and not worrying.

Source

[Ingmar]

Tiggs post:

Since word spreads fast around here and this thread needs a boost I can tell you this much... news will be coming soon for you folks. The game isn't going anywhere at the end of the month like the speculation has it nor is the forums. So you are stuck with Hellgate and the forums for a while  That is all I can answer for now but I wanted to let you know you can focus on playing and not worrying.

Source

Maybe SOE bought it to go with Vanguard!

[UnSub]

Tiggs post:

That is all I can answer for now but I wanted to let you know you can focus on playing and not worrying.

... for at least another two weeks.

[Murgos]

Tiggs post:

Since word spreads fast around here and this thread needs a boost I can tell you this much... news will be coming soon for you folks. The game isn't going anywhere at the end of the month like the speculation has it nor is the forums. So you are stuck with Hellgate and the forums for a while  That is all I can answer for now but I wanted to let you know you can focus on playing and not worrying.

Source

Maybe SOE bought it to go with Vanguard!

SOE would be the best thing that could happen to Hellgate London.

[Furiously]

Amazingly enough - I agree.

[lesion]

I was just walking past this thread and a whole bunch of disembodied baby parts came shooting out, followed by the sound of a thousand mothers crying. I don't know what's going on, but you're all banned.

[Azazel]

Amazingly enough - I agree.

I'd third that, except for, well, the MMO-fee (which was the big no-buy point for me, along with the game being shite).

[Sir T]

I was just walking past this thread and a whole bunch of disembodied baby parts came shooting out, followed by the sound of a thousand mothers crying. I don't know what's going on, but you're all banned.

Woo hoo!

[Signe]

Amazingly enough - I agree.

I'd third that, except for, well, the MMO-fee (which was the big no-buy point for me, along with the game being shite).

If this were true, maybe they'd actually support the single player bit.  I see no reason that the new areas and some of the other stuff shouldn't be in an SP patch.  FSS promised in the beginning that the SP would be attended to, but then, it doesn't matter what FSS said.  As we have known for sometime, FSS is crummy.

[Merusk]

I predict it won't be SOE or NCSoft or any of the other 'known names.'  It will either be "hay we got a bunch of venture capital!" or "We're going to pull a Bowman, sell the game to ourselves to avoid our debits then run it ourselves using our personal fortunes and hope that the sub base is big enough we don't go into debit."

[schild]

Reinstalling since it seems it's free now though I might be wrong.

[Alkiera]

Reinstalling since it seems it's free now though I might be wrong.

It was always free, unless you paid for the teeny bit of extra content + 'hardcore' mode.

[Signe]

I don't know if you can get the sub stuff now without having had a subscription - which you can't do at the moment, anyway.  I know that they stopped charging and I still have the sub bits, Stonehenge and 2.0 on TC.  At least I did the last time I logged in which was a few days ago.  I only really play on the TC.

[Signe]

Oh, and yesterday this guy:

Zack "Ozuri" Karlsson
Sr. Director, Business Development
NAMCO BANDAI Games America, Inc.

made this post:

Hello Hellgaters,

I know everyone is looking for an announcement, and we'd love to make one -- but right now, many things are in flux and we don't have all the information yet. As soon as we do, we'll post here on the forums, on the website, and anywhere else we can find you.

In the short term, please do not worry. The game is up, the servers are not going away in the short term and any major changes to status will be communicated in advance.

I'd like to ask for your patience as we try to figure it all out and chart a new course. We value your community, your commitment, and your passion for Hellgate and we will make sure that any solution that we architect will support all of you as best as we are able.

Thanks again. We hope to have a real announcement shortly.

I don't know who he is but Scapes posted after him so I guess he's legit.  Doesn't mean he's not talking rubbish, though.  I guess they must have a business plan since he's the business plan man.