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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  News  |  Topic: NCSoft fires a bunch of people. 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: NCSoft fires a bunch of people.  (Read 95738 times)
Glazius
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Reply #105 on: June 25, 2006, 07:23:54 PM

The I5 nerfs, and the "Enhancement Diversification" nerf, were rolled out just in time for the CoV launch. The nerfs were put in place to make PvP balancing easier.

They spewed out a big pile of BS about PvE balancing, but anytime a huge, across-the-board power reduction is forced onto the playerbase, and given such a hideous euphemism as "Enhancement Diversification", those of us who've been around for awhile know when we're being lied to.
Uh, I dunno what game _you_ were playing, but when a single tank can take on an arbitrary number of enemies, or a single controller can lock them down forever, why should you want anything out of the other 7 guys on the team, other than "jack up the spawn count"? Something had to give.

--GF
Trippy
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Reply #106 on: June 25, 2006, 07:25:54 PM

Uh, I dunno what game _you_ were playing, but when a single tank can take on an arbitrary number of enemies, or a single controller can lock them down forever, why should you want anything out of the other 7 guys on the team, other than "jack up the spawn count"?
To kill them quickly?
stray
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Reply #107 on: June 25, 2006, 07:44:49 PM

Screw I5. The first month of nerfs (to xp gain) was lame. It was fun when a tank could pile on camps of purples and get away with it. FUN I tell ya.

If it's the idea of some precious little con system going to waste that bothers some of you, then I will gladly take the same xp gain and have the mobs con white.  cheesy

If it's just the idea of fast xp gain that bothers some of you, then you're just no fun at all (that's about the only insult I feel like throwing your way).


Ughh....The more I think about it, I hope CoH goes down the crapper even further. It's bad enough that someone fucked up a Star Wars game, but c'mon.....Superheroes!! Wtf.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2006, 07:46:41 PM by Stray »
Glazius
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Reply #108 on: June 25, 2006, 08:07:57 PM

LotD was one of the top 4 PVP guilds nominated for the 2006 community awards for CoV, and across the CoH/CoV PVP community in the game has been mentioned repeated in player generated "top ranked" lists. The only reason I bring that up is to make it relevant to the topics I'll mention below.

CoV failed as a PVP expansion because...............

1. The level and content grind

The first 14 levels absolutely suck worse than anything I've ever played except the Shadowbane newbie experience. Since missions are instanced there isn't a reason to have to run all over creation and grab mob aggro when missions could be generated very close together. Prior to level 14, there are no travel powers so there is a lot of dumb downtime involved with running to missions.

The content is the same thing over and over and over and over.  Its the same mobs, mission maps, and objectives for 50 levels. By the time CoV was released, I think it was pretty commonly known that designing like this was a bad idea.

There were a lot of PVP guilds, reputable and otherwise, that came to CoV from other games and didn't last 60 days because of this item #1.
Interesting that you mention the other I7 changes but _don't_ mention that villains can pick up a jetpack at level 5 and a high-jump pack at level 10. Something like an hour of operation on each, which is more than enough time to spend in the overworld getting to level 14. Mayhem mission rewards FTW.

Quote
2. Experience Curve

Since most of the COH playerbase apparently didn't care about PVP at all, I have to think that Cryptic was trying to lure the PVP audience in by releasing CoV.  COH was already known for its grind, and maybe Cryptic thought that adding shorter "newspaper" missions in would create a feeling that people were leveling faster. The overall experience curve to level apparently remained the same, and PVPr's were expected to deal with thousands of newspaper missions with the issues listed above in item #1. It basically created a feeling of repetition hell.

If they truly wanted to attract a PVP audience, they would have made leveling much faster. They could also have created PVP XP and PVP Zone based objectives that provided massive XP rewards. They didn't do this, they just used the same COH based system that people hated.
Actually, CoV has about twice the storyarcs CoH does and in many cases they're a lot shorter. Storyarc bonus XP is roughly equivalent to 2 or 3 paper missions where you kill everything, and on a storyarc you get to see much more varied environments than the common paper missions.

Heists have also been rolled into the paper now that MAYHEM has taken their place.

Missions in PvP zones, in addition to providing a crucial component of your base defenses, award something like 50% more experience.

Quote
3. PVP Zones

CoV launched with 3 PVP zones, and only 1 of those zones had any sort of reward or worthwhile objective. The zones were too small, virtually no rewards, there was no downtime for PVP death, and the result was nearly 8 months of one side or the other camping right in front of the other side's respawn area.

Also the PVP zones are divided down by level. In the long run I think that's a mistake because the end game is always in the highest level zone, and the lower level zones become ghost towns. This forces new players or old players rerolling to have to grind up in order to get to the good stuff.

With issue 7, they have added exp debt to the PVP zones and that has created a big disincentive for people to PVP until they are done leveling.
More like they fixed a bug. If you're grinding stuff in a PvP zone for the XP bonus you can't get out of debt by having your buddy from the other side finish you off instead of the monsters.

And as soon as the latest test update rolls live, the big source of debt in Recluse's Victory - the signature heroes/villains - won't cause it anymore.

Quote
4. Base Raids / Items of Power

Nearly a year after CoV release we are still waiting for a key component of the initial product to be available. Base raids are in right now, but they are voluntary and there's no incentive for people to even want to do it at the moment.
Yeah. There's not much of an excuse for this.

Quote
5. No Rankings or Recognition

PVPr's love to see who's the official top dog. They obsess over rankings, point systems, K/D Ratio systems, etc. Base raids won or lost can't be hard to do, and some basic scoring or something for the PVP zones shouldn't be rocket science.
Or this. Except as detailed in number 7.

Quote
6. Respec's

There is little room for error here because your options for fixing your mistakes are limited. If you pick the wrong primary or secondary powers, you have to deal with a grueling reroll. If you need to do the respec mission, its long, boring, and you'll need a 5 man team more often than not.

Because you don't know how something will do until you get to the end game PVP, its a real gamble with time and effort to level a character to 50 and find out you got it wrong.
You can't "get the wrong" primaries or secondaries. Unless you have an idea in mind and click extremely carelessly about 5 times at character creation and then somehow don't realize your mistake until 50.

Both sides' respec missions can be completed in about an hour by a pickup team, faster with teams that have actually worked together before.

Quote
7. New content, fixes, enhancements, etc take too long

Just like base raids, and 6 months between new Issues, stuff just takes too long for most people to wait around for if its a make or break issue for them.
And the weird part of CoX is that it doesn't matter if you leave for six months and then come back. You'll basically owe one base upkeep's worth of rent and your base will be the way you left it, you can pick up with just about anybody to do just about anything (*&%^ing hazard zones) and aside from whatever special events have fired off it's the way you left it.

I5/ED will still hit like a brick sledge, unfortunately.

Putting in a lifetime ranking system would encourage people to play a game that isn't fun for them to keep their ranking up. And I don't think anybody wants that.

But maybe I'm just a terrible oddball. I'm playing CoX right now _precisely because_ it's not designed to be sticky, I enjoy the pre-travel levels because booking to a mission and back again is parkour on the cheap, and when I log in my mastermind tonight the first thing I'm going to do is head over to Grandville, wave at the Bane Spiders, and die horribly 5 times over, because perma-debt is the only way I can see everything the game has to offer, even at level 30.

--GF
Glazius
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Reply #109 on: June 25, 2006, 08:11:29 PM

Screw I5. The first month of nerfs (to xp gain) was lame. It was fun when a tank could pile on camps of purples and get away with it. FUN I tell ya.

If it's the idea of some precious little con system going to waste that bothers some of you, then I will gladly take the same xp gain and have the mobs con white.  cheesy
And everyone forgets to mention that, assuming you're willing to take "red-equivalent" instead of "purple-equivalent", this is exactly what I5 did, for the "tank can pile on" levels. (post-25)

--GF
stray
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Reply #110 on: June 25, 2006, 08:12:52 PM

No way can you level as fast as you could in the first month. People were getting to 50 in 2 to 3 weeks. A casual could still get a good deal done in that time.
Glazius
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Reply #111 on: June 26, 2006, 06:00:11 AM

No way can you level as fast as you could in the first month. People were getting to 50 in 2 to 3 weeks. A casual could still get a good deal done in that time.
The people who were getting to 50 in 2 to 3 weeks were mostly AR/dev, or well anything/dev blasters, because Caltrops could actually stop things from moving (no slow cap) and the -hit on Smoke Grenade was about 10x greater than it was intended to be.

(and I'd really like to know how they could hit 50 when it was about 2 months before the level cap went _up_ to 50, but that's beside the point.)

--GF
stray
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Reply #112 on: June 26, 2006, 06:17:37 AM

"50" or not, they maxed out was my point. I'm just used to the number "50" being the max level now, I guess. That's why I stated it that way.

Secondly, it didn't matter if the /Device dudes did it faster than anyone else. At my pace, I took a Dark/Dark scrapper into his 20's two times and a Grav/Kin controller into his 30's by the time the xp gains were nurfed. I can't even get one character to the 30's in the same amount of time anymore. And no amount of fanboy apologetics is going to convince me that it didn't happen, or that the same xp rate is possible today.

[edit]

And besides, they wouldn't have issued out a freaking game wide emergency patch that curtailed xp gains if the problem was just assault/devices. They just didn't want anyone leveling the way they were. Bastards.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2006, 06:24:18 AM by Stray »
Hutch
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Reply #113 on: June 26, 2006, 07:13:44 AM

The I5 nerfs, and the "Enhancement Diversification" nerf, were rolled out just in time for the CoV launch. The nerfs were put in place to make PvP balancing easier.

They spewed out a big pile of BS about PvE balancing, but anytime a huge, across-the-board power reduction is forced onto the playerbase, and given such a hideous euphemism as "Enhancement Diversification", those of us who've been around for awhile know when we're being lied to.
Uh, I dunno what game _you_ were playing, but when a single tank can take on an arbitrary number of enemies, or a single controller can lock them down forever, why should you want anything out of the other 7 guys on the team, other than "jack up the spawn count"? Something had to give.

--GF

I don't know, let me think. Tanks and Controllers, Tanks and Controllers, hmm what do they lack that could be provided or amplified by Blasters, Scrappers, and Defenders?

Yeah you're right, no need for teammates.

And, as has already been pointed out: Being able to take on huge mobs of opponents, and survive, was fun. A game with a less painful grind was fun. It was an aberration from the diku slow-levelling-is-good model. You actually felt like a superhero, instead of just a warrior or mage dressed up in spandex, ridding the world of evil one orc at a time.

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Llava
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Reply #114 on: June 26, 2006, 08:12:18 AM

<shrug>

I enjoyed what I played of Tabula Rasa, and the capabilities they showed us looked even better.  I'm still interested in the game,  and I wasn't before having seen it and played it at E3.

It shows all the signs of being a crappy game, what with being recreated 36 times.  It should suck, but it doesn't.  Yet.

The real trick, assuming they do come out with a solid product, is going to be getting people to try it out.  Like I said, I didn't have any interest in it until I actually played it.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
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Reply #115 on: June 26, 2006, 09:26:30 AM

Having read all the old I5 / ED hate about CoH/V and all the whinging about nerfs, the fact is that some AT powerset combos were insanely powerful and needed to be pulled back. Unless 90% of ATs can solo AVs, it isn't balanced for Tanks or pet Controllers to be able to do it with no risk to themselves.

There were xp changes that went in specifically because of the powergamers who'd found all the tricks (eg mission / glowie farming, herding) and used them to hit max lvl very quickly. With no endgame for CoH/V, they'd just leave the game and complain it was too shallow. So the grind got amped up a bit - not the best solution, but a reasonable one if lots of people are lvling up very quickly. As fun as some people think reaching God Mode is, it's also the kind of thing that gets abused and subscriptions cancelled.

If you wanted to talk about why CoH/V probably isn't hitting its targets, it's more likely that it's a casual mmog that doesn't have a lot of mmog convention to it (eg loot, autoattacks, fantasy setting, twitch-ish combat). It doesn't play well, nor does it reward (much) grinding things out for hours on end. It's a better game if played in short-ish bursts. CoH/V is a mmog for the non-mmog player, which cripples it in many ways in the current market.

As for being called a fansite - if f13.net is going to post up a meesage from an unnamed source that backs it up by saying it "confirm some rumors", then 'fansite' is probably the most polite thing it could be called. There was no extra thought about the post, like how these sackings might impact on other NCsoft games that have currently been released or are waiting in the wings (Dungeon Runners, Aion, Exteel, Soccer Fury) - a bunch of unsourced numbers just get thrown around.

Also, there was no dispute over the numbers made, especially the one that could possibly be cross-checked - the CoH/V player number. Last time I looked (and I can't find the report right now, so we'll have to rely on SirBruce's recordings) it sits just over 182k in March 2006, showing some general upwards trends. Now (as has been commented) unless CoH/V lost 80k or so players in 3 months, the OP on the unnamed boards is 1) completely wrong, 2) right and the June 06 numbers will bear him out or 3) knows that NCsoft is lying in a public shareholder document. Guess which one I'm betting on? Sure, there was a long lead time on I7. I could see 20k players dropping out, maybe even 40k, but 80k? I'd be incredibly surprised, especially since CoH/V has started showing pretty strong activity across all servers in peak times.

But hey, it's from an unnamed source, which is automatically more reliable than anything else out there, right?

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Reply #116 on: June 26, 2006, 09:34:16 AM


I don't know, let me think. Tanks and Controllers, Tanks and Controllers, hmm what do they lack that could be provided or amplified by Blasters, Scrappers, and Defenders?

Yeah you're right, no need for teammates.

And, as has already been pointed out: Being able to take on huge mobs of opponents, and survive, was fun. A game with a less painful grind was fun. It was an aberration from the diku slow-levelling-is-good model. You actually felt like a superhero, instead of just a warrior or mage dressed up in spandex, ridding the world of evil one orc at a time.


When you can solo battle all these guys at once:



and not break a sweat, you make every other AT who can't practically useless. It was unbalanced.

ynot
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Reply #117 on: June 26, 2006, 10:06:43 AM

. Last time I looked ... unless CoH/V lost 80k or so players in 3 months, the OP on the unnamed boards is 1) completely wrong, 2) right and the June 06 numbers will bear him out or 3) knows that NCsoft is lying in a public shareholder document. Guess which one I'm betting on? .. which is automatically more reliable than anything else out there, right?

Hello :)
First of all here are the latest (march2006) "officials" numbers given by NC

There are a few thing to notice
1) the 180k number is a monthly access number not subscribers  (if bruce read this as a n° of subscriber, i never got anyone at ncsoft confirming it actualy was a subscriber number.)
2) Even in the event of a subscriber fiure notice that in the past this number has evolved from 164k to  120K sep=>dec 2004
3) also slightly miss leading the table states numbers for COH US+EU+KR while the Korean sale were not present from the start.

So what  would like to point out is that likely the numbers you are talking about could like not represent the same thing therfor no need to be sarcastic about a 100K subscribers figure that can actually be quite accurate.. then again some people thing there is 6 millions WoW subscriber...
« Last Edit: June 26, 2006, 10:13:26 AM by ynot »
Big Gulp
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Reply #118 on: June 26, 2006, 10:15:19 AM

If you wanted to talk about why CoH/V probably isn't hitting its targets, it's more likely that it's a casual mmog that doesn't have a lot of mmog convention to it (eg loot, autoattacks, fantasy setting, twitch-ish combat). It doesn't play well, nor does it reward (much) grinding things out for hours on end. It's a better game if played in short-ish bursts. CoH/V is a mmog for the non-mmog player, which cripples it in many ways in the current market.

Right.  Because everyone here who formerly was a player (and now has nothing good to say about the game) is just crazy, and the game really is better now!

Bullshit.  They increased the grind, hit the game damned hard with the nerf stick, and drained the fun out of it in the pursuit of Emmert's "vision".  There were plenty of people (myself included) who loved superheroes, loved fast action MMO's, and loved not having the usual trappings of loot whoring.  What those people aren't willing to do is play a game without all the usual trappings of MMO's, but that copies the worst parts of them (the grind).

The game's a pale shade of it's former glory, and the resulting player shortage is directly responsible for that.
Righ
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Reply #119 on: June 26, 2006, 10:20:59 AM

then again some people thing there is 6 millions WoW subscriber...

... and that 1.5 million of them have killed Ragnaros. Zing.

The camera adds a thousand barrels. - Steven Colbert
bhodi
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Reply #120 on: June 26, 2006, 10:25:17 AM

Why is every devloper's reaction to "Your players hit max level!" is to flinch away in horror and drop the XP on mobs? I played CoH on release, had fun for a while, and quit becuase there was nothing else to do. The gameplay was shallow and uninteresting. I mostly played it for hero dressup. I had a ton of characters had had fun leveling them all up until I got to about 30 and the grind started to kick in hardcore. So I'd start a new character.

I think that reducing the power and increasing the time it takes to level is a bad move. In fact, I think it's the move that is currently destroying the game. This perceived causation of "Hit max level = Canceled Subscription" is not only inaccurate, it's dangerous. It sucks the fun out of the game until there's nothing left to do but cancel.

I think that's one of the reasons that WoW is so successful -- it's fun to level up and doesn't feel like a grind.
HaemishM
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Reply #121 on: June 26, 2006, 11:14:52 AM

What ever happened to the idea that WoW would end up helping the rest of the industry by getting all these new people used to the idea of paying a monthly fee for MMORPGs, and that once they got tired of WoW they would be finding their way to all the other MMORPGs out there?  It's been 19 months since WoW's release. Eve notwithstanding, everything else out there seems flat or on the downslope.

Does WoW have no churn, or are the bliz fanatics just going back to WC3 when they are done?

WoW players aren't going to leave WoW for OLD games, and nothing new that wasn't total shit (Auto Assault) or significantly different or better for the solo/casual player (DDO) has come out.

Cheddar
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Reply #122 on: June 26, 2006, 11:40:08 AM

So what  would like to point out is that likely the numbers you are talking about could like not represent the same thing therfor no need to be sarcastic about a 100K subscribers figure that can actually be quite accurate.. then again some people thing there is 6 millions WoW subscriber...

I am confused.  I thought there WERE 6 million WoW subs.  If this is incorrect then how many players do they have?

No Nerf, but I put a link to this very thread and I said that you all can guarantee for my purity. I even mentioned your case, and see if they can take a look at your lawn from a Michigan perspective.
ynot
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Reply #123 on: June 26, 2006, 02:48:06 PM

" how many players do they have?"
I do not know, the figure is not public as far as I know. ( if i was to make an educated guess for europe+usa :  1-1,5 million but to be honest i really do not know)
Quote
I thought there
Because you read it from some presse who got the info from a PR that they did not understood or missread.

As far as i know Blizzard/vivendi comunicate in terms of activated account, box sold to key retailer, user base, etc etc... never in terms of current subscribers. altough they some time used the word subscribers  it always is ( as far as i have read ) in a way that does not refflect "current subscription". When do you stop bein accounted in Blizz user base, how do they account players playing wow from the9 or other asian distributors...
tazelbain
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Reply #124 on: June 26, 2006, 02:58:44 PM

http://www.blizzard.com/press/051219.shtml

How could they be more clear?

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Llava
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Reply #125 on: June 26, 2006, 06:20:13 PM

Quote
Why is every devloper's reaction to "Your players hit max level!" is to flinch away in horror and drop the XP on mobs?

Okay, I could be wrong on this but I don't think I am:

They have never once dropped the experience given for defeating enemies nor have they increased the amount of experience it takes to gain levels.

In fact, numerous times they've increased the amount of experience you receive for defeating enemies, so much so that most defeats over player level are worth double or more what they were near the original release of the game.

The only way they've "increased the grind" is through nerfs.  I hated ED when I first heard of it, so much that I closed my account.  Then I tried playing with it- I worked with it, rebuilt my characters, and guess what?  I was having more fun than before.  I stand behind that change- it fixed a LOT of crap that needed to get fixed.

Is the game perfect?  FUCK no.  I agree, the grind is still too boring (different from too long).  But it's not longer than it was.  It's definitely less boring than it was- that's just not as obvious because the "new! shiny!" has worn off, now we know what lal the enemies are and what they do and how they react, so we're not so easily distracted from the grind.  But new players coming in, and I've witnessed several, are still loving the game.

For most of you, the shiny just wore off.  And you're blaming it on the evolution of the game.  Call it was it really is- gamer boredom setting in.  Fact is, herding groups were boring as fuck and if you went back and played in one again for 15 minutes you'd remember that.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Righ
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Reply #126 on: June 26, 2006, 07:09:44 PM

This was sent to me by PM. Not sure why the respondant didn't post it here, but its public and of interest to all in this thread:

Korea Times cites f13.net in business pages.

The camera adds a thousand barrels. - Steven Colbert
schild
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Reply #127 on: June 26, 2006, 07:16:01 PM

Ok. That's awesome. At least they called us a webzine. I wasn't aware anyone still used that word. :)
Lantyssa
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Reply #128 on: June 26, 2006, 07:16:17 PM

The only way they've "increased the grind" is through nerfs.  I hated ED when I first heard of it, so much that I closed my account.  Then I tried playing with it- I worked with it, rebuilt my characters, and guess what?  I was having more fun than before.  I stand behind that change- it fixed a LOT of crap that needed to get fixed.
I had the exact opposite experience.

I never ground experience or herded.  I played in small groups and kept myself in constant debt until around level 30 so I did not outlevel my story arcs.  While I am smart with my build, I built around concept and did not want everything optimized.  I actually chose some powers because they were cool, not because they were useful or necessary.

I agreed with ED in theory (although I still think it should be diminishing returns and not a step function) and was willing to play through the changes to give them a fair shake.  Playing an Invulnerability Tank (yes, they were way overpowered if min/maxed) simply ceased to be fun after the patch though.  Other than Smashing/Lethal, my resistances couldn't hold up.  Taunting became tantamount to suicide.  I actually felt like I was holding my team back when playing.  It simply wasn't any fun at all.

Also, I consider only being able to three or four-slot (those that take endurance) Primaries while six-slotting all my secondaries due to excess slots is a bad design.  I want to focus on my primaries.  And I'd like a tangible return for them.  Most of the other ATs got some kind of compensation for all the changes or could at least have the option to 'diversify'.

I have tried going back since then, but I could never get back into my main character.  Maybe I5 and I6 were good for the game, but making those changes so late hurt the fun for me and a lot of others.  I don't think this had the negative consequences of say the NGE for SWG, but it did have a chilling effect that should not be ignored.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
Signe
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Reply #129 on: June 26, 2006, 07:17:07 PM

For those too lazy to click a link:

Quote
       NCSoft Downsizes US Workforce by 25%
Employees Remain Skeptical About CEO’s Push for New Game Launch
   

By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

South Korea’s leading computer game company NCSoft said Monday it is laying off 70 of 300 employees in its U.S. operation based in Austin, Texas, as performances of its games have slowed down this year in the world’s largest market.

The publisher of popular online games ``Lineage,’’ ``Guild Wars,’’ and ``City of Heroes’’ said that it is restructuring the U.S. office by reducing members of its workforce, who are mostly support staff, for the first time since it first made inroads into North America in 2001.

``The game industry is volatile and dynamic, so we are reshaping the operation to cope with the situation,’’ said NCSoft’s public relations manager Min Ji-sun. ``It is not because we have failed there.’’

NCSoft has been the most vibrant Korean game company in the United States, with the worldwide successes of its multiplayer online games ``Guild Wars’’ and ``City of Heroes.’’ The company recorded 339 billion won in global sales last year with an operating profit of 76 billion won.

The pioneering success has encouraged several other Korean game firms such as Webzen to expand to the United States in the past few years.

But since late last year, NCSoft has been suffering from lagging sales especially of its latest title ``Auto Assault’’ in the U.S. market. The perpetual delays of its next blockbuster work ``Tabula Rasa’’ also have been badly affecting the firm’s profitability.

Eventually, profits are likely to drop this year as the firm has failed to deliver big-hit games in time. In its report to investors last month, NCSoft expected an operating profit of 57 billion won this year, which is 25 percent less than 2005.

The stock price of the firm has been almost halved over the past eight months. It peaked at 99,000 won in November, but was traded at around 56,000 won on Monday.

The decision to downsize the U.S. office also reflects a depressed atmosphere in the company. According to a report from F13.net, a U.S. game Webzine, the subscriber numbers of its ``City of Heroes’’ games have declined to just over 100,000, while ``Auto Assault’’ never had more than 10,000 users though NCsoft didn’t confirm this fact.

The future is also not as promising as before for NCSoft at least in the short term. The company has been anticipating the launch of ``Tabula Rasa’’ for years but its producer Richard Garriott has postponed the release again and again. ``Our CEO Kim Taek-jin is the only person in the company who believes in `Tabula Rasa,’’ an NCSoft employee said.

The Austin office is home of the firm’s North America operation and is the center of development of ``Tabula Rasa,’’ which has cost massive amounts of cash over the past five years, only to be delayed without promise. Its release is scheduled for early next year said its public relations manager Min.


indizio@koreatimes.co.kr
06-26-2006 17:55

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Reply #130 on: June 26, 2006, 07:42:09 PM

So, of course, I had to throw f13.net into Google news, nothing else as prestigious as The Korea Times, but we have:

Eurogamer
Total Video Games
Gameindustry.biz
DailyTech
Playfuls
Next Generation
Gamasutra
Gamespot
IGN

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schild
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Reply #131 on: June 26, 2006, 07:50:19 PM

Playfuls? What, can anything go on Google News these days?
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Reply #132 on: June 26, 2006, 07:53:43 PM

Not everything, no. Apparently Techgage can't. :)


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Reply #133 on: June 26, 2006, 08:43:23 PM

Ooo, "developer blog".  I like that one.  Makes it sound like we're developers.

Lantyssa:

Tanks, largely invuln tanks, are one of two ATs I can sympathize with regarding ED.  The other is Warshades.  I've been saying since the global defense reduction that tanks need something to compensate.  They get by as it is, I don't consider it a "gimp" situation, but they're not quite up to the level they ought to be.

Warshades are just extremely hard to build, and a lot of really good builds were totally destroyed by ED.  The one I used relied very much on permanent Hasten.  I don't play him anymore, he's all screwed up and I can't fix him.  My 41 Illusion/Radiation Controller became significantly more fun after ED, and my Sonic/Energy Blaster was VASTLY more fun.  He'd been basically retired until I rebuilt him for ED.  All 3 of my Scrappers aren't as OMGPOWERFUL as they were before, but they can all do much better than hold their own.   Defenders are already better off with diverse slotting with a few rare exceptions- ED did force some to have a more active "attacking" role than they wanted, and I don't agree with forcing people into one playstyle when the AT lends itself to several.

Much like the game, ED wasn't perfect.  I still felt it did more good than bad, and I still feel it was a wholly beneficial change for the game.  But yes, it did screw some things up.  Welcome to game balance.

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Reply #134 on: June 27, 2006, 09:55:31 AM

With regard to CoX, I played a blaster to 30s, a controller to 30s, a blaster-equivalent (forgot the name) villian to 30s, and everything else somewhere between 10 and 30.  Never min/maxed anything, just picked what seemed fun and slotted according to what the descriptions said would result. 

I don't know how fun the game is in the 40s.  All I know is that by 33, it started to suck massively in terms of fun.  Progress was slowed to the point of non-fun.  The mobs and missions were all too alike.  The game felt more shallow, more grindy, more weak overall as I levelled up.

If I was looking at 40 as being the end, I might have stuck with one toon to 40, maybe even two.  50 is just a ridiculous cap.  If I don't enjoy getting through the 30s, why in the world would I want to get a toon to 50?

Note to devs:  getting to max level quickly is not a problem for me.  It just means I will go level a new toon.  I usually start a few alts by the time my main is half way to cap.

I would much rather level up new toons than kill myself over and over so I can experience all the story lines.  That's just nutty, as far as I'm concerned (No offense Lantyssa and others ;).

I wish it didn't have such a steep curve.  There's just too much sameness in the game for that.
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Reply #135 on: June 27, 2006, 10:51:50 AM

I hope WoW makes NCSoft go bankrupt.  I hope SOE goes out of business.  I hope Blizzard destroys the entire MMO genre by consuming all the customers and funneling them into Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 4 or something.  Then we can start over again.

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Reply #136 on: June 27, 2006, 11:28:16 AM

I would much rather level up new toons than kill myself over and over so I can experience all the story lines.  That's just nutty, as far as I'm concerned (No offense Lantyssa and others ;)).
No offense taken.  I tend to stick with one character throughout my time in a game.  I might make a few alts to try things out (or make new outfits in CoX's case), but that character is the game for me.

Hahahaha!  I'm really good at this!
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Reply #137 on: June 27, 2006, 12:51:46 PM

I hope WoW makes NCSoft go bankrupt.  I hope SOE goes out of business.  I hope Blizzard destroys the entire MMO genre by consuming all the customers and funneling them into Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 4 or something.  Then we can start over again.

You also have a cabin up in the Montana hills with a bomb-proof bunker full of tinned produce, don't you?

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Reply #138 on: June 27, 2006, 01:59:49 PM

I hope SOE buys NC Soft.  Then I hope Blizzard buys SOE.  Then I hope Blizzard goes out of business.  Everyone would stand around looking confused and saying, "Wha' happened?"  That would make me fucking giggle.

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Reply #139 on: June 27, 2006, 02:02:50 PM

I hope SOE buys NC Soft.  Then I hope Blizzard buys SOE.  Then I hope Blizzard goes out of business.  Everyone would stand around looking confused and saying, "Wha' happened?"  That would make me fucking giggle.

It is a very real possibility.  Real Money Transfers could ruin multiple companies if it is not controlled IMMEDIATELY.

No Nerf, but I put a link to this very thread and I said that you all can guarantee for my purity. I even mentioned your case, and see if they can take a look at your lawn from a Michigan perspective.
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