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Cryptic used NCsoft forums for beta recruiting, not really sorry though [Updated]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Cryptic_uses_NCSoft_forums_for_underhanded_marketing_tactics'; So some new developments have been made concerning allegations that Cryptic Studios was using the City of Heroes forums for Champions Online beta recruitment.Massively commenter PunkRockDiva has pointed us to a forum post by Cryptic associate community relations manger IronAngel, who relayed a message from his boss, Ivan Sulic. Within that message Ivan confirmed the rumor, saying there was no ill intent in what happened. He then explained why it happened -- that community, PR and marketing are in the middle of restructuring. "Shills, poaching, bullshotting... No chance, man. We make good games and we hope people will play them. Best anyone can do, right?" Was how Mr. Sulic concluded his message. If the name Ivan Sulic sounds familiar, you may remember him as the Hellgate: London community manager telling players concerned about the game's lack of a LAN mode, "Who the fuck cares?" Well, we're pretty sure a lot of people care nowadays, Mr. Sulic. This was all dug up by Scott Jennings, who posted his opinion of the whole matter on his website, Broken Toys.As Scott points out, it's not an apology if you make light of the matter and pretend it's not a big deal. As people who love the MMO genre, this is not the sort of behavior we want the industry to feel is acceptable. And as such, when a developer has upcoming titles we very much want to play -- like Champions Online and Star Trek Online -- it evaporates our desire to support them.
Auran wants to make you their bitch
John Romero and Mike Wilson might be indulging in increasingly childish verbal fisticuffs over the famous "John Romero's about to make you his bitch!" advertisement, but all of that testosterone-laden scuffling kind of glosses over the fact that antagonizing and belittling your players is not a great way to gain a solid following. Especially if your players are over ten years old. Well, according to Signe at F13, Auran (or whoever's really in back of the game Fury these days - funnily enough it appears to be Mike Wilson's Gamecock) wants you to suck it down and stop being such a shameful girly loser in what has to be one of the outright worst MMO incentive emails I've seen so far, endearingly titled "LOSER! LOSER! LLLOOOOSSSSEEEERRRRR!"
An interview with two MMO luminaries
Over on the F13.net site, they have up a great, lengthy interview with David Rickey (former world builder for Dark Age of Camelot, among other things) and Scott Jennings. This literate, insightful discussion between the two noted designers and F13's yoru touches on a number of topics that are almost guaranteed to interest you. There's also Mongolian Barbecue, if you like that sort of thing.Specific subjects include: How they got into the industry. Their own personal game-making heroes. Taking game design seriously. The role of games. The MMO target audience. The work process. The maturation of the MMO audience. My favorite excerpt from the conversation probably stems from that last point, and springs from the mouth of Dave: You look at the movies from the thirties and forties, when they were just finally figuring out how to really make good movies. But you didn't have a lot of complexity - you had good guys, you had bad guys, you generally could always tell who was who. It wasn't until the fifties, and especially the sixties, that you started to see conflicted heroes, anti-heroes, the bad guy who reaches redemption in the last act. All of this kind of narrative depth didn't occur until both the medium and the audience had matured beyond the simplistic.
