Mr. Smart is the Best Forum Poster [INTERNET HISTORY ITT]

[Pezzle]

The returned posts seem identical at a glance, they are simply in a different order.  I wonder why he pulled them in the first place.

[schild]

Stunned by his lack of conviction in avoiding further public idiocy.

Why? He's an attention whore. That's why he does this, it's not like he could excel in any other field and really, he doesn't excel in this one, he just fails spectacularly and upwards, which I suppose - I don't know - makes his parents happy or something. /shrug

No wonder some of the old guard are ready to slit their wrists and give up on virtual game worlds altogether. Just read Koster's blog. If poor Raph is to be believed, all core gamers should just give up right now, lie down and let Zynga pour its special brand of FarmVille-manure all over us.

I'm not pointing at Raph with this statement as his entire platform was probably better for Facebook in the long run than what he was trying to do and it was never going to appeal to core gamers anyway. The old guard is not ready to slit their wrists. They're alive and well making the same mistakes they've made over and over again. That won't stop until investors actually take a meaningful interest in how they're spending their money rather than just trying to hop aboard the money train.

[Outlawedprod]

I'm sure some folks noticed yesterday but I didn't see it explicitly mentioned here yet.  He re-opened that original alganon thread that a CM locked.
http://www.alganon.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4607-quest-online-announces-leadership-change/page__st__80__p__39970&#entry39970

[Daeven]

we need a new emoticon for this.  "epic"

I suggest "Nero burning Rome".

[Ollie]

The old guard is not ready to slit their wrists. They're alive and well making the same mistakes they've made over and over again. That won't stop until investors actually take a meaningful interest in how they're spending their money rather than just trying to hop aboard the money train.

Oh, I agree. Even as an outsider looking in, I'm sure there is remarkable room for improvement in how diligently potential investors commit to research before signing on the dotted line. Still, judging from how strongly the Diku-train keeps chugging along in current and upcoming MMORPG releases, it sure seems like "WoW but better" is still the favourite sales pitch tossed around board rooms across the globe.

Thus, plenty of Alganon-like abortions on the horizon before the industry sheds its growing pains. Sadly, not every fledgling MMOG can hope to have a star athlete like Dmart to fan the flames, and help them go out with a bang. Or was it a whimper?

[WindupAtheist]

Man I just read Raph's blog and that Lum thing, and all I can think is... who gives a fuck? The people who play Farmville aren't the people who play real games anyway. It's an alternate market, a parallel universe. Whether the hot new thing all those casual/non-gamer people are into is playing Facebook crap, or having orgies, or knitting doilies makes no difference to me. Basically what Lum said.

"Oh noes big budget virtual world fantasy games are dead!"

Shut up Raph, Blizzard can't hear you because they have money coming out of their ears. Yeah yeah, Blizzard is an outlier because they actually release complete professional-quality games, and none of you "old guard" MMO faggots can do that so Blizzard doesn't count. Whatever.

[Musashi]

Amen brother, but this thread?

[Sheepherder]

This thread is actually a Honeypot to entrap he who shall not be named.  There's no better place to namedrop than here.

[Azazel]

Superstitions are stupid.

To comment on this because no one else did.  This is not superstition.  He actually does show up damn near any time his name is mentioned.  He's been doing it since the usenet days.  It's more annoying than fun.

I'd have thought he'd be banned from here, if he was such a descending troll. Instead, he gets mentioned here every few months, and I've never seen him appear.

[tmp]

Man I just read Raph's blog and that Lum thing, and all I can think is... who gives a fuck? The people who play Farmville aren't the people who play real games anyway.

The people who fund the real games and the people who might jump on the farmville-clone train in hope it takes them to the nearest moneyhats store, on the other hand...

[Azazel]

Is Brocephus the lesser god of Bros?

When will you be famous? 

[Azazel]

I tell you, this board here... THIS is how forums are meant to be played. Not a circus of clowns and flames, but a mighty battle between heroic titans.... with the occasional penis joke.

... and you made me post again.... son-of-a... I am so bad at this game.

Is there an easy mode somewhere I can cut my chops on? Like a forum where mentally retarded sex offenders argue over what to do with their spare time... Oh wait... THIS IS THAT FORUM! Zing! (Right? Can I say Zing? Does someone have to say zing for me? When do I start insulting Lum? Now? Or in my next post? If I say that my favorite penis joke here is Curt Shilling, will he go all crazy on me or will he understand that I joke because I'm jealous of their budget and talent over there? Or maybe both? I'll get it figured out eventually... give me some time. You'd think by now someone would make a forum with a tutorial for new players, f**king lazy forum designers.)

You're allowed to post here. Don't try too hard (like in that last paragraph), don't be a douche. Talk about games and shit, at a certain point you'll feel comfortable enough to tell people to fuck off or stop being a cunt or whatever.

[WindupAtheist]

The people who fund the real games and the people who might jump on the farmville-clone train in hope it takes them to the nearest moneyhats store, on the other hand...

...should probably have learned to be more selective a long god damn time ago anyway? I mean you just know McQuaid is going to go through rehab or whatever and pop up a couple years from now with his hand out looking for venture capital to fund his new super great MMO idea. If the world he finds himself in is one where people have other things to do with their millions of dollars besides humor him, it will be a better world indeed.

Bring on the Farmvilles. Compete for your dollars, you fucking hacks.

[squirrel]

Blizzard is an outlier because they actually release complete professional-quality games, and none of you "old guard" MMO faggots can do that so Blizzard doesn't count. Whatever.

There's a few gravestones out there waiting on inscription and yes, this is appropriate. Not saying it's Raph's - or anyone else's - but yeah, polished market ready games still have an audience. Who knew?

[WindupAtheist]

Yeah, I posted a rather... ahem... abrasive comment to this effect on Raph's blog, but I'm tired of hearing "Baww it's not our fault, Blizzard has a budget nobody else can touch!" used as an excuse. Tabula Rasa cost HOW much? Warhammer cost HOW much? It ain't just the budget.

[schild]

The only abrasive thing I can think of to say is this: 99% of the people talking about social games right now know absolutely nothing about social games.

And I wish they'd stop.

[Hawkbit]

It's a free country, I can do whatever I want.

[Murgos]

I'd have thought he'd be banned from here, if he was such a descending troll. Instead, he gets mentioned here every few months, and I've never seen him appear.

I seem to recall that he did a brief stint a few years ago.

[Khaldun]

I do think that the concept of a sandbox virtual world is pretty well in its grave. Not because it simply can't work, but because people with $$$ have been sold a bill of goods that it can't work and because people who do design have decided it either won't work or it's too hard to manage even if it does work. Maybe someday

None of which means that full-fledged persistent MMO games aren't viable and everyone's just got to go Jynga. Or even that the only game that will succeed is a Diku-style MMO built with the same level of investment that Blizzard put into WoW.

[Goreschach]

It's really quite simple. You can't make WOW better than blizzard can. This is why AOC and WAR both crashed so spectacularly. Both games had interesting early concepts and game design that were later thrown out in lieu of 'be more like WOW'. Gamers picked up those games because they wanted to try something new. Gamers left those games because they got an inferior version of something they already had.

[Ratman_tf]

It's comforting to point at Blizzard's pocketbook and proclaim that WoW is untouchable becaue of their deep pockets. But Blizz didn't always have that money. They certainly didn't have WoW money before WoW launched.
I think that even if money was no concern for Mythic, that WAR would have still turned out about like it did.

Now, if we're talking about Blizz's assets and people, then yeah, WoW is untouchable. 

[Sir T]

Blizzard have the advantage that millions will buy their product just because its Blizzard. Same as millions bought Halo III, a run of the mill whatever shooter, because it was Halo. You can rabbit all you want about blizzard releasing polished games but at its start WOW was just an Everquest clone. And that's a fact. Millions clogged their servers at launch because it was blizzard, kept playing because it was blizzard, and then Everquest self destructed, those players went to WOW, and WOW was left sucking all the money there was out of the system. That's putting it very simply, but if WOW launched today under another company name everyone would be lining up to say how bland it is.

And yes I played WOW for a week and left as it bored me to tears.

[Lantyssa]

If it launched today as it was then... it'd still be a hit because almost none of the lessons it taught have been learned by anyone else.

It's very simple.  If you're trying to be like WoW, you've already failed.  Not because you can't match their money or vision, but because trying to be (or not be) like WoW is learning the wrong thing.  EVE might be the closest to getting it right, which is refine and build for your audience.  Chasing shadows is doomed to failure since you'll be ignoring what makes your game desirable.

[Musashi]

Blizzard have the advantage that millions will buy their product just because its Blizzard. Same as millions bought Halo III, a run of the mill whatever shooter, because it was Halo. You can rabbit all you want about blizzard releasing polished games but at its start WOW was just an Everquest clone. And that's a fact. Millions clogged their servers at launch because it was blizzard, kept playing because it was blizzard, and then Everquest self destructed, those players went to WOW, and WOW was left sucking all the money there was out of the system. That's putting it very simply, but if WOW launched today under another company name everyone would be lining up to say how bland it is.

And yes I played WOW for a week and left as it bored me to tears.

That's ridiculous.  Why do people flock all over Blizzard games?  Because they know what they're going to get.  Not because 'it's Blizzard.'  That's not a reason.  The name represents something.  And when you say what you said with what that represents in mind, it doesn't sound surprising at all.  I'll demonstrate:

Blizzard have the advantage that millions will buy their product just because its Blizzard

Blizzard have the advantage that millions will buy their product just because its years of hard work perfecting their craft, unparalleled dedication to their players, and a commitment to excellence. (sic)

Raph is trying to say that those things can't be done because Blizzard has money.  But none of those things cost money.  It's dumb.

[Ingmar]

The years of hard work thing costs an IMMENSE amount of money, actually.

[Musashi]

The fuck it does.  The act of working harder than someone else doesn't cost money.  It's a matter of will.  I'm pretty sure you understood me. 

[Ratman_tf]

The years of hard work thing costs an IMMENSE amount of money, actually.

It does. But the question is: What is that money buying you?

[Lantyssa]

Immaterial things.  Processes, culture, know-how.

Working harder doesn't mean much if you don't work smart.

[Ollie]

Funny how this entire thread – or rather, the cause of this thread – underlines how early days it really is for the interactive entertainment industry. Somehow even mentioning corporate culture and the games industry in the same sentence makes my face twitch.

There are undoubtedly many passionate and talented people working on all levels of the industry, but there's painfully little experienced talent management, and even less experienced project management. What little culture there is is still in its infancy, and that's excluding any exploitative slave galleys run by Activision or EA.

Imagine a CEO of an automotive company logging on to an enthusiast motor sport site, and lambasting one of his former employees in public. It just isn't done.

[Murgos]

There are undoubtedly many passionate and talented people working on all levels of the industry, but there's painfully little experienced talent management, and even less experienced project management. What little culture there is is still in its infancy, and that's excluding any exploitative slave galleys run by Activision or EA.

Which is odd when you consider that video gaming has been a pretty large industry for 30 years.

[K9]

Thread - Page 1

I like that his user title is listed as "Beggar" in this one.

[K9]

Blizzard have the advantage that millions will buy their product just because its Blizzard. Same as millions bought Halo III, a run of the mill whatever shooter, because it was Halo. You can rabbit all you want about blizzard releasing polished games but at its start WOW was just an Everquest clone. And that's a fact. Millions clogged their servers at launch because it was blizzard, kept playing because it was blizzard, and then Everquest self destructed, those players went to WOW, and WOW was left sucking all the money there was out of the system. That's putting it very simply, but if WOW launched today under another company name everyone would be lining up to say how bland it is.

And yes I played WOW for a week and left as it bored me to tears.

There's a lot more too it than that, and WoW started off pretty small. Before WoW Blizzard was a company with a few good games to their name; but their name was no bigger than a dozen other companies making good games. As Lant said, WoW works because it does what it does better than anyone else, better than any imitator. I don't think you can ascribe much success to name recognition; Blizzard's name is big because of WoW, not vice-versa.

[lesion]

Oh man. Oh man, check this out. I can type in this box and then stuff shows up!
So this one time I rode a jet into a tsunami, and then a giant squid saved me but I was like "noooo you don't" and I shot him with a Cadillac in the face and he died. And that's how 1993's Blue Force was developed.

I'm sorry.
Also you're wrong. Can we stop talking about BlizzaWoW and get back to making fun of Dr. Prattlecruiser? Oh fuck it.

[Rendakor]

K9 nailed it; before WoW launched, Blizzard was well known, but Square Enix was also. Yet WoW made money hats and FFXI didn't. 

[Ratman_tf]

I'm sorry.
Also you're wrong. Can we stop talking about BlizzaWoW and get back to making fun of Dr. Prattlecruiser? Oh fuck it.

Remember that time when he posted something stupid on a message board?