Rift is good for WoW

[Chadwixx]

Realms are up super fast on tuesday, classes are being fixed on the spot (instead of next major patch). Id say rift and other games are finally making the wow team try again. Its been totally downhill since the icc gated incident (aka we dont have the content ready because we do nothing but cash checks).

[Velossa]

You want to listen to Smedley, who is a great example of a CEO that has made mistakes and has been attacked from all sides, but the truth is that guy BUILT that division; he did SOMETHING right. He was one of the pioneers, ultimately.

But yeah, if you want to hear and read Smedley, here's some links. He's no fool.

You're going to tell me THIS guy doesn't know his business? Here he is in a 2008 interview.

"John Smedley: Really well! I can give you some numbers: our average customer spends $133 dollars. We have been able to successfully convert 40% of our customers into Legends of Norrath players. 25% of our customers are paying players. We're extremely pleased and pretty shocked at the level of money people are willing to spend in these things. The reason that's important to customers is that, long-term, we can use that same model to make it so that the people that want to pay can help pay for the people that don't. I think it's an ideal business model for this industry."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1dlTZWLlVo
http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/01...-smedley-pt-1/

There are literally thousands of links to interviews and conference calls that this guy has given. He knows every detail of his business. ALL CEO's are like that. They KNOW their businesses, or they would never be in those positions with those incomes. Period.

Now if some kid on the internet wants to post anonymously on a forum that "he wrote scripted investor conference calls" and you want to believe him, go ahead. And while you're at it, go make $100 million dollars, because if CEO's are such idiots, it should be really easy for all the SMART people out there on this forum to just blow right past them.

lol.

Why didn't you post those in the first place? You would have come off like less of chicken-wuss. Then again, it still kind of feels that way with the passive aggressiveness.

[Crush]

Dost Thou Hate Rift?

No it's turning more over to "<Insert Video Game> vs. <Insert video Game> ..... With Vengeance

[ImNot1337]

Thanks for finally posting a link.

ALL CEO's are like that. They KNOW their businesses, or they would never be in those positions with those incomes. Period.

Now if some kid (I'm over 40) on the internet wants to post anonymously on a forum that "he (she) wrote scripted investor conference calls" and you want to believe him, go ahead. And while you're at it, go make $100 million dollars, because if CEO's are such idiots, it should be really easy for all the SMART people out there on this forum to just blow right past them.

lol.

Newsflash: Not all CEOs make 100 million or command 8-10 figure salaries
Newsflash: Not all CEOs are necessarily Rhodes Scholars (you don't have to be) many CEOs don't even have Masters degrees.
Newsflash: Using your quote those stats were memorized by him before the interview took place. This is standard procedure. To talk the talk you MUST be able to spout numbers and figures that paint your company in a good light. This is where the lip service comes in, because you need to "sell" the business and be able to work well on your feet (some people are better at this than others). The CEO typically does NOT come up with that number or statstics all by his lonesome. That information is gathered by the people that report to HIM and typically compiled by the people that report to HIM. He just has to memorize them.

And yeah, you still made my day.

[Scottyjscizzle]

RIFT is not even in the same market as WoW.

Just started with the RIFT beta, and it is in the OMG this has so many choices, wtf do I do - this game is not for noobs phase.

WoW is now the sausage factory for MMORPGs, RIFT is all new, they have changed the whole concept of tank, healer, group etc...

The most RIFT will do is fragment the player base into the sausage factory players in WoW and the specialty players in RIFT.

lol wut, yea at the beginning its zomg choices, but in the end it feels jsut the same, attack this with spells 1,2,3.

[ImNot1337]

Well written. Valid point.

Some of it is valid, I concede that point...but definitely not all.

---------- Post added 2011-02-16 at 11:54 AM ----------

Why didn't you post those in the first place? You would have come off like less of chicken-wuss. Then again, it still kind of feels that way with the passive aggressiveness.

I think if multiple people hadn't outed him he would have continued to ignore me. In the end it doesn't really matter though, does it. He still believes All CEOs to be some kind of supermen(women), they're not. That's myth.

[Deleted]

I don't see where all this "Blizzard treats their players like crap" comes from.

thats a lie tbh blizzard has one of the best costumer support sistem ever
but the point of the OP is that rift is good kus blizzard being on top of the mmorpg for 6 years or so now dosent needs to care bout the game more than "more content to keep players intrested" rift ill probably make blizzard remake wow ? hopefully :P

[unholytestament]

Well written. Valid point.

Smedley spouting off numbers is nothing impressive.

Him talking about the relationships between fansites, game failures, and how competing MMOs effect each other is what should be emphasized.

Kanzei is championing the wrong parts of Smedley's statements.

[Lady Tam]

Exactly.

I remember a Rift dev video talking about a teleporting sniper...I mean, that sounds cool and all but in a PvP environment that just makes the way too overpowered..Hunters..with pets..that can teleport away.
Heh. People will be pulling their hairs out about how OP certain combinations are and we'll see how Trion deals with the mass imbalance storm that will be plaguing their game. I guess people like that? ...after all the complaining they've done about how imbalanced WoW is...

This has been my thinking as well. I have a hard time just managing one talent-tree for myself! [And one for my pet.] Rift's talent tree system just looks...nightmarish. x_x;;;;

[Propainn]

Smedley spouting off numbers is nothing impressive.

Him talking about the relationships between fansites, game failures, and how competing MMOs effect each other is what should be emphasized.

Kanzei is championing the wrong parts of Smedley's statements.

That's all there was to champion. There's nothing in there discussing changes to increase the quality of games. The closest thing to that was "...but first we need to make a good game."

I don't doubt that CEOs of large companies know what makes money, I just doubt that they know what makes a good video game.

[Lady Tam]

...in the end it feels jsut the same, attack this with spells 1,2,3.

This is -precisely- how I felt while playing the beta last night.

I'll try to push through to lvl 9 or whatever tonight to see if there's anything really worth getting into that isn't WoW-ish, but I don't hold out much hope..

[unholytestament]

That's all there was to champion. There's nothing in there discussing changes to increase the quality of games. The closest thing to that was "...but first we need to make a good game."

I didn't watch the video, but in the interview link he discusses the things I listed.

I don't doubt that CEOs of large companies know what makes money, I just doubt that they know what makes a good video game.

I am willing to bet the EA CEO is just such a man.