Father Xmas

People tend to get defensive when it's pointed out that what they did was stupid. They may even privately agree in retrospect but publicly they are going to try to build some kind of plausible explanation as to why their action didn't seem stupid at the time.

I think his original explanation was that after three weeks of no info about refunds, coupled with all the "NCSoft is EBIL" talk, he panicked. He was also ignorant about what happens to an account the requested a charge back. Stories from players who said their SO didn't recognize the charge, disputed it and now their account got locked were few and far between so that's not surprising.

"Yeah, yeah, patience. How long will that take?"

I think they Disney said that because it's not a clean ownership situation. Both Spielberg and Paramount have a stake in the Indy franchise.

Yes, spamming every board here. And I agree, it's a few overly zealous people who got hit with a ban hammer because they refuse to restrain their "enthusiasm" or did something monumentally stupid.

I believe the severance pay was from previous layoffs. It's common when one company buys another that duplicate front office jobs are let go. Areas like HR, accounting, marketing, sales, etc. It's also been reported that there's been general layoffs throughout Korea's game industry.

Now my point about our sales revenues is that it wasn't a lot, certainly not the numbers one would expect if the game was doing well. The comparison was just to illustrate how small in comparison to other expenses.

As others including myself have mentioned. The game may simply be a casualty of the decision to close down Paragon Studios. Sure they might have been able to keep the game hobbling along but without new content for subscribers and the cash shop, revenues would likely have plummeted over the next year and they would have to close it then.

I've also stated in the past that I'm sure at least Brian, Posi, War Witch and whoever else who was high up in the food chain at Paragon Studios knew something was coming, I bet they were hoping for just a major staff reduction for another year of life. It may have been a surprise to others at Paragon but as Nick Fury said in The Avengers; "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." No reason to tell us about their concerns, no reason not to hard sell the features in Issue 24 or not discuss future issues, costumes and power sets. News about a possible downsizing would have the same effect as server consolidation, players would start leaving which would reduce the game's revenues even more and employee morale and productivity would likely be negatively affected.

Well ArenaNet own website and NCSoft's investor reports disagree with the assertion that NCSoft doesn't own ArenaNet.

ArenaNet - About Us
NCSoft IR, Q2 2012 earning releases - look on page 2 with the note on subsidiaries.

However they could operate with very little interference from their parent. Also as a full blown subsidiary they may be a lot more difficult to simply shutter than a development studio under the control of a subsidiary like Paragon was or they may have an out clause when they sold themselves to NCSoft.

I was surprised by the number of people buying ice cream. I guessing they are secretly hoping for a power failure so they have an excuse to gorge. I'm pretty sure plain old water ice would be better to pack a freezer with.

I disagree. I would imagine Massively will mention it, just don't expect it to be the lead. They may work it in while discussing features and compare them to the "now closed City of Heroes".

tee hee

Yes, but they aren't loyal customers. If some business in town closes that you never been to, do you care? I'm sure their regulars are upset, especially if it was the only one in town that catered to them and you may overhear how they are lamenting about it while shopping at the market but it didn't affect you.

NCSoft is just one logo on the box. ArenaNet is the logo people may be more aware of and don't realize that ArenaNet is 100% owned by NCSoft and think NCSoft is simply just a publisher. So they won't make that connection either.

Which is why they've invested in GW2, since GW sold so well and the new Blade & Soul.

Yes I was one that liked the earlier screenshots of the game when it was in development. The locations were beautiful and the idea of wire style Kung Fu moves and fighting excited me. Then as more and more info about the game came out, the less I liked it. I'm not looking for a game that requires great reflexes to play.

As for the female character models, well lets say I don't like anime series when the first adjective you can think of to describe it as "fanservice". I watched a video someone posted going over all the female character models that are available in the creator and it resembled leafing through a Victoria Secret's catalog since they all appear to be wearing gossamer draped lingerie. That now nearly all the screenshots advertising the game include panty shots of the female characters. The breast physics on display as you spin the character around in the creator or even when your character simply stops from walking is a tad excessive.

However boobies and ultra violence do sell in NA. And sadly a lot of the male target audience will eat the look of this game up. Now whether they stay subscribed is a different story. Unsure what income model NCSoft is planning on for it's release in NA. It might do okay if it's like GW2, buy the game plus cash shop.

As for WoW, only naive investors still believe a new MMO could get WoW numbers. Today is a different time from 2004. There are more titles, less money and even more choices to split our discretionary time. It would be like someone wanting a new TV show to get 1980 viewership.