The Matrix Online Producer Letter

**NightTrace** · 03/22/2008 09:17:38

Rarebit wrote:

Anyone trying to apply pressure to my LESIG volunteers will be heartily ignored. Have a nice day.

Applying pressure and speaking the to the leader of the group about possible changes are two completely different things, and I'm a bit surprised that you've decided to just boil anything I've said down to "He's being a *CENSORED* and trying to be mean to LESIG". Far as I know I actually even get along decently well with the members of LESIG...oh well whatever makes you have fun doing things in a more clear state of mind I suppose.

Forgive me Rarebit, for being a paying customer and being worried that the latest changes have put 90% of the onging storyline of the Matrix into the hands of some volunteer PLAYERS, and hoping that this meant there would be some actual strict guidelines for them to follow.

**Croesis** · 03/22/2008 10:17:30

I'm disappointed with the loss of the cinematics along with most people here and although player made cinematics done after the chapter so no leakage can occur is a nice idea, there would probably be a bit of hesitation by the staff about allowing people to use main character disguises and their possible abuse by less mature players.

Now let me be clear about this, I'm not calling any of the people who have volunteered to do something like this, immature, I have the utmost respect for those who make the wonderful films and clips we've seen in the past, but the possibility of something like that happening (absences of members of the filming team thus requiring other people to fill in), no matter how small, would be there and would probably require Dev overview to make sure no main characters ended up doing something... unscripted (Like a visit to Mara C after filming etc...) So I'm not sure that the Dev's would go for it.

I would love to see player made cinematics, but personally, I think I'll wait to see how the story is fleshed out with the Sentinel before looking to add my voice to gain Dev approval for a project such as this.

**Croesis** · 03/22/2008 10:35:19

NightTrace wrote:

Rarebit wrote:
Anyone trying to apply pressure to my LESIG volunteers will be heartily ignored. Have a nice day.

Applying pressure and speaking the to the leader of the group about possible changes are two completely different things, and I'm a bit surprised that you've decided to just boil anything I've said down to "He's being a *CENSORED* and trying to be mean to LESIG". Far as I know I actually even get along decently well with the members of LESIG...oh well whatever makes you have fun doing things in a more clear state of mind I suppose.

Forgive me Rarebit, for being a paying customer and being worried that the latest changes have put 90% of the onging storyline of the Matrix into the hands of some volunteer PLAYERS, and hoping that this meant there would be some actual strict guidelines for them to follow.

Lol, I love how you think that comment was purely for you, and you think TUS has an ego! Rarebit was making a general statement to everyone about his LESIG team after Danger_Frog said something about possible pressure on their backs from other players. If anyone has concerns about anything to do with LESIG then the only way it should be done is with Rarebit via PM

**MotorZ** · 03/22/2008 10:35:49

I still think this shoulda been called The Other Side Of The Looking Glass. Having this little information in a "Producer's Letter" after 4-5 months of nothing...well, I don't see how that is a fitting name.

edit: Producer's snippet, maybe?

double edit: I'm not possibly leaving out of anger, just out of boredom, personally. Cinematics were always something I enjoyed during my breaks, more so than I ever enjoyed Sentinels. Maybe LESIG can pull off some great stuff, though.

**Vampyress** · 03/22/2008 10:46:13

To be honest, I haven't valued the cinematics much at all ever since they changed from CG into extremely budget, predominantly black and white.....things. They were never overly useful in regards to the storyline - merely pieces of the puzzle, and not even very big pieces like the CG ones.

I LOVE that the Sentinel is going to be playing a more vital role. It has always been one of my favourite game-related resources.

I'll echo the many concerns over the obvious budget cuts, but griping here to Rarebit, Walrus and the devs will never get us anywhere. They do their jobs perfectly well, with all our gratitude and respect. What we should be doing is making copies of this entire thread (and all others like it) and blanket-mailing them to SOE in the form of petitions to show how much we love our MxO and want the company to start treating it like the valuable MMO it is/should be.

I don't buy the excuse that declining subscriptions have spurred the company to SWG-ize our MxO. It's like TuS said - you have to spend money to make money. If this game got even one significant expansion with a marketing push, they'd see subscriptions skyrocket. Even if it were just a new neighbourhood or two and some new (not re-hashed) clothing items.

I've also always been seriously concerned that our subscription fees aren't specifically ear-marked for MxO by SOE. I have a very strong suspicion that all of our station pass account monies just go into one big huge cash-pool that SOE then doles out in whatever fashion it sees fit to whatever MMO's they happen to value the most. This suspicion is only more and more strongly confirmed every time MxO takes yet another serious budget/staffing cut.

As for community-made cinematics, I think this is a brilliant idea, and I'll put this out to all our movie-makers: Who said you need official sanction from rarebit et. al.? You've been doing wonders so far without it. If you're that enthusiastic to make them, do it! So what if they'll be after the fact, story-wise? Use the Sentinel and Live Event specifics for your story-lines. Speaking personally, I'd still love every second of them, especially if you added in some voice-over stuff!

Am I so pissed that I'm going to cancel my account? Not a chance! I never would have left 9 months ago if we had received the indoor lag/graphics issue work-around back then instead of only recently, but at least we got it! So I'm back!

I love this game, and the few staffers SOE has given us are fantastic. If only another company, one that actually knew how to successfully manage an MMO, would express interest in taking over our beloved MxO.....Monolith come back!!! Blizzard? NCSoft? Anybody?

**CPT_Starschwar**

ThePigeonKing wrote:

I don't think players should do cinematics if it means potential story leakage. No sir.

Agreed. We all want the cinematics back... but this isn't the way.

The Leo

kou_urake wrote:

ThePigeonKing wrote:
I don't think players should do cinematics if it means potential story leakage. No sir.

Agreed. We all want the cinematics back... but this isn't the way.

Did you 2 even read the suggestion?

**deffdog**

I am frustrated that the cinematics are being removed, however there are other means. In fact it would be more realistic to hear what has happened from the horses mouth as it were.

However with the loss of Chadwick and the cinematics, would it be such an expense to hire on 1 of the old members of the Live Events Team. Take out a feature and bring an old one back in. This would seem that it could help Rarebit out so he wouldn't be double clienting all the time durring events. To me, just the ability to interact with the character in a small group or a one on one would be fantastic replacement.

In fact I can give a good example of how they can replace the cinematics. Way back in the first year, Niobe popped in on me and an firend just sitting around conversing. She told us about the Cryptos Boxes weeks before that cinematic released, it really made me feel like part of the story. So to me More Interaction with players > The cinematics.

**CPT_Starschwar**

The Leo wrote:

kou_urake wrote:
ThePigeonKing wrote:
I don't think players should do cinematics if it means potential story leakage. No sir.

Agreed. We all want the cinematics back... but this isn't the way.
Did you 2 even read the suggestion?

Yeah - its still players making the cinematics. No go.

**MotorZ**

deffdog wrote:

However with the loss of Chadwick and the cinematics, would it be such an expense to hire on 1 of the old members of the Live Events Team. Take out a feature and bring an old one back in. This would seem that it could help Rarebit out so he wouldn't be double clienting all the time durring events. To me, just the ability to interact with the character in a small group or a one on one would be fantastic replacement.
In fact I can give a good example of how they can replace the cinematics. Way back in the first year, Niobe popped in on me and an firend just sitting around conversing. She told us about the Cryptos Boxes weeks before that cinematic released, it really made me feel like part of the story. So to me More Interaction with players > The cinematics.

As it is, I can't imagine them doing something like this under their budget, but it'd definitely be a smart use of money. Hell, if Rarebit could do his normal live events daily then just have one mega LE that gets publicized a bit every 2-3 months, with maybe a helper or something (Agency has enough *CENSORED* people working on it, surely they could help out for just one day), I'd think it'd help out. Killing large Live Events was more of a death blow than killing cinematics will be, I'm sure.

Siepher

Another nail in the coffin of Matrix Online.

**Operative_xAJx**

Well, I looked at this when I was round a friends house and I can honestly say I wasn't suprised. I then looked back at what has actually happened since this game was launched. I remember The Sentinel being one of the key features of the game with its cryptic messages and progressing the storyline too. I'm looking forward to having that kind of thing again ingame. Also looking forward to the LESIG input with storyline in general. I know recently they have been putting alot of effort into everything, so props to you guys.

I did prefer the old style cinematics and it does seem a shame to miss out on these. I think there is still alot of potential in the game, and it is more about the community and what we put into it, aswell as what the development team have to share with resources in different areas etc.

So will the production letter be simular to Walrus' "Through the looking glass" articles we used to have? If so, it would be nice to be updated with things indevelopment and an oppotunity for the community to shout things too SMILEY

~ AJ

**NightTrace**

Vinia wrote:

NightTrace wrote:
Rarebit wrote:
Anyone trying to apply pressure to my LESIG volunteers will be heartily ignored. Have a nice day.

Applying pressure and speaking the to the leader of the group about possible changes are two completely different things, and I'm a bit surprised that you've decided to just boil anything I've said down to "He's being a *CENSORED* and trying to be mean to LESIG". Far as I know I actually even get along decently well with the members of LESIG...oh well whatever makes you have fun doing things in a more clear state of mind I suppose.

Forgive me Rarebit, for being a paying customer and being worried that the latest changes have put 90% of the onging storyline of the Matrix into the hands of some volunteer PLAYERS, and hoping that this meant there would be some actual strict guidelines for them to follow.
Lol, I love how you think that comment was purely for you, and you think TUS has an ego! Rarebit was making a general statement to everyone about his LESIG team after Danger_Frog said something about possible pressure on their backs from other players. If anyone has concerns about anything to do with LESIG then the only way it should be done is with Rarebit via PM

Oh I didn't take it personally as a message to me, however I did seem to fit in exactly what he was talking about, seeing as others have had things they have said commented on one way or the other, while he has ignored things I've said, which is kinda what he said he would do if he feels you're postings meet a certain criteria. So no, it has nothing to do with ego Vinia, and please, if you're going to troll at least do a decent job of it in the future, ok?

**TheUnknownShadow**

You know something MotorZ, you might be onto something there SMILEY

I think the party for the anniversary shows that the players will turn up in large numbers for any event if the word is put out about it by the MxO team.

People always enjoy talking about when they tried to track down the Assassin or fought those sleepwalkers in the blue sky event around the concert places in the parks.

Those are things that I read on here, memories from players that keep popping up. It's things like that which make a game great. The problem is right now they're only that. Just memories.

I was online for hours lastnight, soaking up the fun of that party. It's the best thing that I've been witness too. It wasn't a story event but I will now be able to say, "Yeah, I was there when we had an anniversary party and the lag was so bad we could do slow-mo jumping and there was en-masse meatwadding."

The Matrix Online needs things like that.

**GypsyJuggler**

Shinryu wrote:

...the cinematics had a special place of their own. They weren't just a means of telling the story ... they were a different way of being shown story material. They had aspects of art, motion and sound that expressed scenes better than ... the Sentinel could... It wasn't even a scene with much motion or action, but just seeing and hearing it played out ... was something that could never be duplicated in simple written/typed text.

I agree with Shinryu. Cinematics ~~are~~ were an irreplacable part of MxO and will be sorely missed.