Kevall Longstride
DUST University
Ivy League
3
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Posted - 2015.09.13 21:30:00 -
[1] - Quote
OK.
Wall of text incoming. This will be my last post on this subject, if it is brought up again I'm going to bookmark my post and simply link to it in the future.
Some of this will be based on conversations I've had or have been told about that are now public domain. Some will based on my interpretation so you should take it at face value but also as someone that was actually there to witness events as they unfolded and weren't on the stream, my experience is going to different to those of you watching via the internet.
First of all two things to confess that I've spoken about before but worth repeating again in the context of this thread.
1. I had prior knowledge of Legion. I was one of a small number of players who'd been contacted and asked for opinion on the subject. I do know who the other players are but its up to them if they wish to confirm it. For the record, I was unsurprised at the switch to PC for Legion because it was clear even then that CCP's original vision for the game couldn't be realised on the PS3. (at the time the specs for the PS4 were unknown) but I said that announcing at Fanfest was a dumb idea. More on that later.
2. I'm responsible for the 'Rouge Wedding' tag. Over lunch just after the keynote I was on a table with Kane, Aeon, Charlie Iddon and a couple of others going through the explosion that at happened on twitter with the new hash-tag #dust514redwedding. I commented at the time that I thought that was rather unimaginative because as CCP Rouge is French and as it means Red it should be #RougeWedding...... all at the table started using it.
CCP Rouge has forgiven me but I doubt he'll forget.
First of all Legions announcement was, as has already been widely reported, first and foremost a marketing decision. The wisdom of that decision or rather the lack of it is no longer up for debate. It was hoped that an auditorium of predominately PC owning Eve players would give a rousing cheer live on stream as to the news of a format switch and in fairness, it succeeded in doing that.
Now as to the validity of allowing marketing people to make decisions that will effect community relations, my views are similar to Mr. Bill Hicks but he expresses them so much better than I could.
As has been reported in the past, the keynote was so short because CCP Rouge was under the impression that the round table Q&A session he was doing immediately after, where he could explain the reasoning for Legion and the move to PC, was also going to be live streamed. It was not. And to say that he was upset about that would be a monstrous understatement.
Another reason, if one were needed, that when decisions effecting community relations are made, the marketing people shouldn't be in the room.
There then followed a rather hectic day where Charlie Iddon and CCP Frame hit the forums to calm folks down if possible and myself, CCP Saberwing and CPM0 did similar work at the venue itself. At the insistence of CPM0, myself and the others there, Rouge basically kept crashing EVE.TV as much as he was able to get across the message that character transfer to Legion was a priority. He also went on stage again during Hilmar's keynote to repeat this.
The handling of the Legion announcement was a debacle and is described as such by CCP themselves. The lessons learnt from it have consequences even now. CCP policy is now not to promise anything till they are sure that it can be delivered. This was demonstrated clearly at Fanfest this year with the dropping of the usual 'CCP Presents' keynote on the Saturday for the UFC event with the Dev's.
For those unfamiliar with the 'CCP Presents' Keynote on the final day of Fanfest, it's where they share with the players a vision of what they want to do over the next year or two. Having been to the last four Fanfests in person and watched most the ones previous to that on YouTube and via the stream, I don't think it unkind to say that about 80% of what is shown at 'CCP Presents' never happens anyway. But they show the new Eve game trailer with its flashiness at the end of it and everyone leaves whooping.
But this year, even the new trailer was a very low key affair compared to previous ones. Part of CCP's new low key approach. But it was also something that they've delivered on for a change. The drifters are playing merry hell in Eve right now.
So anyway, Rouge became the public face of somebody else's cockup basically.
Since then CCP Rouge as undertaken a pretty substantial overhaul of the procedures and working practices of CCP Shanghai, where he is now Studio Director, responsible for the China Eve Server, Serenity as well as Gunjack, Dust 514 and like all game studios any other projects that they might be working on. But the day to to day running of Dust is what CCP Rattati does as senior producer. If there is one decision that I think the community will agree was a smart move by Rouge, it was the one that put Rattati in charge of the game.
Now there is more that I could say but obviously I'm bound by NDA. But all that I've said in this post is already out there. It also goes a little way to explaining CCP reluctance to share stuff till they're ready and know it'll happen. CPM 2 like CPM's 0 & 1 before them will continue to prod and poke them to be a little more open when possible. But ultimately that is CCP's decsion when that happens.
Rattati has already started asking questions of you all for the next hotfix. So have a look and make your views known. Rattati trawls the forums when ever he can so chances are he'll read your ideas and who knows, see about doing something about them.
CPM 1&2 Member
CEO of DUST University
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Kevall Longstride
DUST University
Ivy League
3
|
Posted - 2015.09.14 23:52:00 -
[3] - Quote
Not going to expand on my earlier post but there are a couple of untruths that have been mentioned since I posted that. The silly thing that most of them are easily found to be wrong with a quick Google search or even a search of these forums.
But some like to repeat them because it lends 'evidence' to back up assertions that are in fact opinions.
1. There was never an exclusivity deal between CCP and Sony.
CCP are free to publish this game on whatever format them wish. Now the fact that Hilmar told me that himself should be enough but Google it and you'll find the interview he gave confirming it. Sony and CCP do in fact still have a very strong relationship. Sony are rubbing their hands at the thought of how many Morpheus/PS4 package deals that Valkyrie is going to sell for them.
Sony used to have a 3 month QA process for game updates. Working closely with CCP enabled them to streamline the process down to a month, which has in turn benefited every game on the PSN.
2. Sony wasn't making a profit from Dust.
Bollocks. Sony take a cut of AUR sales via the PlayStation Store and Sonys 'cost' for the game is the storage of it on it's vast server farms. It's like saying Donald Trump is running at a loss because one tenant in a building that he owns in a town he's never been it, is a week late with their rent. The game makes a profit for CCP so of course so does Sony.
3. Eve Online funded Dust.
Again a falsehood spread by Eve players who don't seem to understand the basic premise that once you relinquish your money to a vendor, you lose all say in how that money spent by said vendor. CCP funded Dust and did so via venture capitalists as someone earlier linked.
CPM 1&2 Member
CEO of DUST University
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