poenadare posted:
Semi4 posted:
...with complete disregard for what players wanted or needed.
You had me right up that point where you went hyperbolic, IMO.
I think Mythic listened to us on issues they had power over. (Endless class tweaking, good lord.)
I said 98%. They listened a tiny bit but usually they only listened to those things that reinforced what they were already planning on doing. Any suggestions that did not move forward their own agenda they put in the circular file.
Mythic’s actions were different than those of one who listens with concern over what the customer wants.
Mythic's attitude can be clearly seen in Mythic’s responses to the TL reports.
Mythic’s attitude can also be seen in Sanya’s old response to the yelling on the boards about the year delay in TL responses from Mythic where Sanya mentioned that the reason for the delay was that she had to go around to all the different departments and read the TL reports to the departments (or the TL reports would not be read). She said that going around and reading the TL reports to everyone was causing a delay in getting the responses ready.
Sanya’s comments gave huge insight into the mentality at Mythic concerning how Mythic viewed what should have been the short list of the most important compilation of player concerns (the TL reports). Yet those at Mythic would not even read them but had to be forced to listen to Sanya read them.
There are some isolated instances where Mythic listened to suggestions. They added pay for RvRing. They did fix some bugs that were reported. Etc. . . but mostly, they did whatever they wanted, not what the players wanted or needed.
Sorry but a few isolated instances of someone at Mythic listening doesn’t negate the true culture of Mythic.
poenadare posted:
I also think something must have gone really wrong internally at Mythic early on that made the codebase impossible to work with.
They have power over everything. Don’t kid your self. Today they have limited resources but back around SI and TOA they were rolling in cash and could have coded anything or changed any code they wanted. It all had to do with what they wanted and it had to do with what they felt was important.
Also, many things that Mythic said could absolutely not be coded were later coded into the game. Initially Mythic said that player’s horses could not be coded yet at the beginning of the game they had shape shifting and could change players into anything, they had horses, they had players on horses, they had variable speed, they had speed that dropped when entering combat, etc. . . .they had everything to construct player controlled horses but Mythic lied to the players about how it would break the game to code player controlled horses.
It is a trivial thing but there was dueling in housing. Some players wanted it. Mythic said that fighting was never coded into Foundations so there was no way to allow dueling in housing. Then some players found a way to enter the enemy housing areas and those players proceeded to kill any NPCs they came across and they also killed any enemy players they came across. So much for "the code for fighting was never created in housing". (I do not mind that we can't duel in housing, but lying to players about it was foolish. But lying to players was typical Mythic.)
Then there was stacking pots. They could not be coded. It was just impossible given the existing convoluted game code. But then GAO coded a version of stacking pots and Mythic was once again show to be lying to players. Eventually Mythic caved in and coded stacking pots but if GAO had not show Mythic to have been lying about stacking pots, the game today would probably not have stacking pots.
The list could go on and on and on. . . .
The challenge was not with a code base that was impossible to work with, the problem was always Mythic.
poenadare posted:
Sem, do you think, in the long run, making it easy to get to 50 was a good idea?
I do not intend to denigrate but to be totally, completely and bluntly honest, making it easy to get to 50 was the most shortsighted and worst possible decision that Mythic could have made. It should have been obvious that such a change would do irreparable harm to the game in dozens of different ways.
Making such a decision shows that Mythic completely lacks understanding of what the typical MMO players needs in a game.
poenadare posted:
I remember I pushed for it. I was under the impression everyone thought it was the way to go. Mythic agreed.
But now I'm not so sure it was a good idea. Everything feels devaluated now.
Again, history shows that (with a very few exceptions) Mythic only listened to things that reinforced what they were already planning on doing. Do not kid your self into believing you are to blame in anyway for Mythic implementing something that was destructive to the game.
Mythic was and is (most probably) full of petty bickering and backstabbing between tiny fiefdoms where different people are constantly vying for power and they ignore any player suggestions that do not reinforce their agenda and they grab at and make special note of any player suggestion that reinforces an agenda that they want to push.
Their attitude could often be seen in the polls that they put on the Herald. Polling was a great idea, one that I pushed, but it was obvious by the wording of many of the polls that the polls were often designed to give predetermined results to push an agenda and to reinforce decisions that Mythic had already made.
There are isolated instances of Mythic listening but in general and over all, mostly Mythic did whatever Mythic wanted without considering (or only pretending to consider) what players wanted/needed.
Isolated exceptions to the general rule will not negate the rule.
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The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is.
Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can,
and keep moving. - Ulysses S. Grant
Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato
