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NCSoft: The Touch Of Death?
RagnarokWar
Member UncommonPosts: 35
As many knew, Tabula Rasa was a pretty original game. It was a shooter combined with an MMO, and even if it was a little on the odd side, the game was actually pretty fun. It could really remind you of an MMO version of Mass Effect, to some degree, as they're both futuristic sci-fi shooters with RPG style systems.
But this post isn't just about Tabula Rasa. It's about Dungeon Runners, a quirky little Diablo-style game with pretty good graphics, some fairly standard gameplay, with the heart of the game in it's comedic delivery. Both games were released by NCSoft.
I really don't trust NCSoft nowadays. There was the Guild Wars account debacle where people were losing their accounts and getting all their gear cleaned out. Rather than fix Tabula Rasa or try something new, they pulled the plug, and apparently they did the same with Dungeon Runners. Tabula Rasa was one of my favorites, and I didn't really play much of Dungeon Runners, but I feel what has been done here has set a rather scary precedent...
NCSoft, this big corporate gorilla with titles like Aion and City of Heroes under it's belt... are willing to crush any MMO they don't deem profitable, no matter how people enjoy it. Yet, to this day, Diablo 2 still has servers up, as well as Warcraft 3, no matter how much flak Blizzard gets, they still keep these servers up.
I'm personally a little spooked to buy anything from NCSoft now, as it seems even if you enjkoy the game, unless it's bathing them in glittering gold, and no matter if they're raking in tons of money from other really big titles... they'll still shut you down and cast you off.
I realize we all have to say goodbye sometime, and Dungeon Runners certainly had a better run than most... but I do not approve of NCSoft's methods in the slightest, and personally, I hope Blizzard, Valve, and other companies that have displayed true customer appreciation will crush folks like NCSoft and NDoors (see the Atlantica Online charity debacle for details), who personally make me sick to be a gamer.
I realize these are businesses, but when you're well off enough with things like Aion, and the Dungeon Runners team is only made up of a handful of people left... would it REALLY kill anyone to keep them running anyway? I can't help but feel if your game is hosted by NCSoft, they'll pull the plug the second they don't see a profit. Thus, I name NCSoft the touch of death.
Comments
Eh. MMO's are a business, and when they cease to be profitable might as well pull the plug.
Too many half dead games on life support out there already that probably deserve the same treatment.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
You make it sound like there was no effort to turn those games around, no marketing campaigns to promote them and no updates to them after release. You make it sound like one day they saw a red blip, yanked the cord from the wall and sent everyone home.
Well, I probably can't change your mind about NCSoft, but it's good to know you'll be a charitable and generous boss one day who will do everything possible to make sure things run differently under your watch.
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I was actualy planning to buy dungeon runners, but then they closed it... They only had to keep 1 server running (that should give already some profit because there were constantly 400 players on their server and about 50 on their paid server). But they were to much thinking about money. I think a game maker needs to stands behind his product and not behind his money.
Greetz Aropop
Dude, it's a business. This is the real world. When something doesn't hold its own, and is only going to leak funds, with no foreseeable profit incoming, then it's not worth keeping up. No one in their right mind would do things otherwise.
An MMO funds itself. They won't use money from other more successful MMO's, as they would rather use the funds to keep those games going, and put more focus on them.
It's not realistic to think an MMO should stay up forever simply because a small percentage of people are still playingit.
I have always found it ironic that Tabula Rasa was ended a the time they released Aion in the East and began developing it for the the west... is it just my imagination or does the resources used for Aion get diverted to Aion. TR was far better than other games out there and yet was considered a waste of time because it did not make it big straight off.
I also do not trust NCSoft. They make great games, but in the end are governed by money, not improvement. This is of course dissapointing, and I am sure NCSoft fans are quivering in their boots when they consider the future of other NCSoft games as they move resources towards GW2.
I too enjoyed Tabula Rasa I got into it about a month before Ncsoft announced that they were pulling the plug. THere was alot of factors behing the closing of TR one was that sub base was small due to a poor launch. Alot of people I guess dont believe in giving a game a second chance also there was some problems with Richard Garriott which was the biggest realize they closed it.As for Dungeon Runners low sub base is the cause for closer again, at least thats what they say. And before TR there was Auto Assault.
IMHO Ncsoft is looking for the WoW killer if a game doesnt do that in a year they pull the plug. ALot of people are talking about Aion and how great it is but I agree I cant bring myself to sub to another Ncsoft game, except for CoX. I suspect that if Aion isnt getting the numbers that Ncsoft wants in a year the game will be offline.
-Agree 100% , i wont be buying anything from NC....EVER!
I loved TR but it had alot of flaws, but Din't missed when they pulled the plugged becouse the game got old fast, total lack of end game content and when they were going to add some cool stuff they killed the game. I Don't miss TR but I fell like someone could get the game and make something of it.
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Feel free to look this up, but from my research...NCsoft during the time Tabula Rasa was closing, they got on Richard Garriots account and started posting things, while he was going to space. To try and get him to have a bad reputation
I don't like NCsoft, and will never support them again. They are, imo worse than SOE. And SOE is horrible
They closed down Auto Assault (my favorite MMO ever)...and they hold the rights, and refuse to release them or use them...so Auto Assault will likely to never see the light of day because of NCsoft. It did have problems, yes...but NCsoft did a piss poor job of doing anything for it...JUST like Tabula Rasa (my second favorite MMO)
You know I do give SOE a kudo, they don't generally close games down...okay so Matrix Online...but for the most part, they at least try to do things. Though latest news on vanguard, they are stopping content development on it...but honestly, I would rather support SOE than NCsoft...SOE is still not that great though, cause they really screwed up SWG and do nothing for planetside
Tabula Rasa was damn fun MMO.
It lacked content big time. But what MMO does not on launch? If NC soft invested just bit more it would turn around the game and made it real good option.
But they pulled the plug...
Which brings question. Is that legal ?
I bought the game for 50$. By right of ownership I should be able to play it.
I think the companies should reimburse people if they close all the servers. Either that, or allow private servers for closed games.
You must remember, you only buy a license to use the product, and also in the ToS/EULA you click "I Agree" to states that the company that owns said game has the right to terminate the game at any time at their discretion.
Currently playing EverQuest 2
More than likely this was covered in the EULA with regards to them reserving the rights to close the game or make changes.
I'm not exactly sure what one buys but it seems that you buy access to the game for as long as it is running.
As far as allowing others to use it, it is their property. Their Intellectual Property and very possible that they might want to do something with it down the line.
As far as the OP's concern for Dungeon Runners, sure, it was a fun quirky game but it was not something that was intended to be anything more than an experiment.
Apparently some guys at NC Soft had used some of their own time to make a private little project. Some people at NC took noticed and thought that they would give them some leeway to develope Dungeon Runners to see what came of it.
I can more than commiserate with people who lose things they really enjoy. A good part of my life has been finding something that I really liked and then having it cancelled or discontinued. Shows where my tastes are I suppose.
However, from what I've read, Korean companies can be very black and white when it comes to decisions. There have been several cases where the management decided to clean house only to do just that and "clean house". A very notable time was Kia (I believe that was the company) who sent some of their Korean managers to a California plant, met everyone and proceeded to clean house the very next day because they hadn't seen results fast enough.
Personally I've always thought that NC was an arrogant company and a very short sighted company. At least when it comes to developement.
But in the end, we play these games to enjoy them for the time they exist. Nothing more or less.
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I can add two games, actually two mmorpg's that did the right thing when they felt their game were going downhill Dungeons and dragons online and Anarchy online .
AO made part of their game free to play and add a fluff cash shop and DDO made the free to play with gameshop with content you can buy as you go .
with both these games still running today could'nt NCsoft done with autoassault , dungeons runners and Tabula Rasa use the same system or something close, or is it just easier to just shut it down .
Maybe game developpers have gotten lazy now .
Just food for though . . .
I don't think it's lazy at all.
I think it's shortsighed fo their higher ups.
However, I am not privy to their internal discussions.
I just think they have hard and fast financial benchmarks and a very specic budget and when things don't add up the way they would like they just cut their losses and move on.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Dungeon Runners was awesome... but not awesome enough to be a Diablo-style game that you paid per month for. I played the game early on with beta, and shortly after release... and tried it not long ago and was impressed with how far it'd come. However the thing that killed it was the monthly fee. I loved it, it was fun, and would have played it quite often, were it not for that stupid "pay to have full features" option.
It was a good game. I'm sorry to see it go and the humor they had with it. But yes, I think NCsoft is almost as poisonous as EA is.
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
-Agree 100% , i wont be buying anything from NC....EVER!
Are you gonna spoil more Naruto episodes ?
NCsoft seems to have come to the conlcusion that if a game doesn't release well, it will take too much work at too much risk to bring it out of the red. There is a undeniable truth to this, as very few subscription based games actually retain and gain customers after their initial launch, regardless of positive changes made. Vanguard is an example of this. Vanguard had a horrible launch, but improved into a game thats better than 90% of the MMOs out there. However funding is repeatedly cut to it, because funding to improve an struggling game will almost never bring in enough new players to be worthwhile.
But basically, any game that is running in the red is going to get cut in favor of developing a game that will operate in the green.
... You DO realize Guild Wars 2 is NOT being developed by NCSoft, right?
It is being developed by ArenaNet, all NCSoft does is publish their games.
Edit: Grammarfail.
TR closing down didn't make any sense,Today this day we see medicore titles like Hellgate and Mythos so how cling to life,Even vanguard is still around by some miracle.Dungeon Runners closing made sense,Auto Assault closing made sense ,TR closing was political and NCsoft attempt at saying FU Richard Garriot .
lol ncsoft is the devil company from korea.
As other people have already said, it's a business. whenever a game stops being profitable or a company can make more profit by investing its resources in other projects, they will. Any publisher will do that.
Yes NCsoft has closed down innovative games because they were not profitable or not profitable enough, but at least they have invested in new ideas, which is more than can be said about many other publishers.
Yeah...very unfortunate. Nowadays, the gaming industry and pretty much everything else: its all about the money. Even if the game is F2P, the developer screws it up by adding an item mall which really disrupts gameplay as it determines who is best just because they bought a shiny new weapon from the item mall. Ugh. Please.