Brad Wilcox's Responses to TheUnknownShadow

**CrimsonKiller01**

Exactly Poison, at the very least now some line of communication might be established within SOE. I think one of the big problems concerning MXO (or at least from the subscribers standpoint) was that SOE gave the impression that MXO was a backwater project.

Sure the game started off with alot of advertisement and there was a buzz about it in alot of gaming magazines. Of course over time that dies down a bit, but unfortunately the quality did as well. Like most MMO games this ones survival is based on variety and growth. You can't expect to run around the same four areas of the city and constructs, do the same type of missions over and over, fight the same type of enemies, wear the same type clothing have the same predictable abilities and not want more.

Likewise the issue of RP comes up and in this MXO has it's own uniqueness. The main selling points of the game itself was the roleplay. If there is any indication that his is not so one only has to see the reaction of the players here on player run events. The roleplay here isn't just a bonus but a necessary element to the game itself.

Those examples and I do hope the powers that be are grasping are what makes a game last. The game isn't going to change overnight and for me this type of interview is the first of many steps that have to be taken to keep this game alive.

Before in another post I talked of the changes we have seen thus far, We have a new CRM that has been on the ball since day 1, Rarebit and his team are doing their best, Walrus hopefully will be talking to us more and inquiries are being made for improvements to this game. I am optimistic and hopeful that this is the beginning of a good change .

**cloudwolf**

Havocide wrote:

machete wrote:
Havocide wrote:

"We asked about the organisation abilities too. We know that they where stopped because HCFROG went to work on The Agency. The idea was that they would have like control towers around Mega City, where orgs could capture. The server would then sort the abilities out etc and apply the buffs and what not. The more you held the more buffs etc where given. Though the server scaling needed for this apparently doesnt work or its impossible, then HC left so basicly its not gonna happen anytime soon, but thought Id mention it."

I believe you are confusing one thing with another. What you are referring with what Rarebit and Walrus spoke to us about are ORG Abilities, what was mentioned in this interview are potentially new Martial Arts, and FACTION abilities. ((Crosses fingers and prays any of this to be true!))
Same thing, just people have gotten confused.

There was only ever going to be ORGANISATION Abilities, as far as I recall. People just call them faction for some reason.

They were intended as organisation/faction/crew buffs with the exact percentages and pts determined by the control points. Read the resource frog interview and listen to one of the old walrus interviews.

Its stuff like them, zen master, trojan horse, citidel coder, a bank system and any larger changes to the game that NEED a public test server to be implemented.

Fixing animations, timing and some database pointers don't nessicarily need one but certainly would benefit, no doubt it could've made the update 56 deadline with our help. But instead we stuck with a 3 week wait just for further internal testing.

As for this thread as a whole, this line of communication and understanding can only be a good thing, lets hope something actually comes from this, eh?

**TheUnknownShadow**

Ah, so this is how this works!

hehe sorry, I had intended on getting my account sorted yesterday but I got caught up in a few bits and pieces.

I think the main thing I personally took out of this whole thing is that SOE does make note of a lot of things but equally that the people up top can't know everything all the time.

I did like finding out that they do sit down (or at least get on the phone with) the devs and have a meeting every week about the game.

The one thing that becomes very obvious is that they are dedicated to sorting out many of the issues that our game has, yet at the same time sticking to the budget that the game has (as if they threw in a lot of money into it they could potentially get very little return and lead to them cancelling the game).

So, what happens from here?

Well, Brad has said that I can contact him anytime in the future if I feel like asking him things (and by that I mean you guys too). Equally, we know that Sharon's sneaking around here too, so we can talk to her as she's our CS rep.

As I've literally just re-activated everything (yes, Shadow's going Station Pass... can't help it, I'm giving <3 to some other games too) I haven't had a chance to do some of the things on here, for example, I want to have a chat over a number of PM's with Virrago (you've been warned ) about the things on here. To discuss them in some more detail, as I do have a number of linked things to pass onto the guy.

Umm... that's about it I think.

Oh no, wait a sec. I would like to thank all of those who supported me for doing this. You're the reason I wanted to go ahead and do this in the first place as I do believe that mxo has the best community out there (and I've known a few in my time).

See you inside,

Shadow

**GypsyJuggler**

My pleasure, Warrior.

**CrimsonKiller01**

Glad to see you here Shadow! SMILEY

**Raviola**

Could you find out if Ben (http://www.ellinger.org/benjamin/Resume.doc) is still with MxO in some capacity? Or if not, could he be brought on as a consultant to help with animation etc.? Maybe we could get the old style cinematics back, those were more Matrixy than the current style.

Thanks!

**TheUnknownShadow**

Raviola wrote:

Could you find out if Ben (http://www.ellinger.org/benjamin/Resume.doc) is still with MxO in some capacity? Or if not, could he be brought on as a consultant to help with animation etc.? Maybe we could get the old style cinematics back, those were more Matrixy than the current style.
Thanks!

Thinking about this I do really, really, really doubt that I'll get an answer about this as SOE has no right as such to tell us who's working on their games.

The bit here:

The Matrix Online November 2003 to present, Monolith Productions
Freelance designer and programmer for the Matrix Online. Responsible for designing/programming the Designer/Game Master Tool (DGMT), a C# application that allows the management and creation of missions, characters, game data, and game text (including managing localized versions of all game text). All data for the tool is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database.

is the bit I'm sure you're reading, however I'm not exactly sure if I'll get an answer on this, especially from Brad who is primarily CS.

I dunno, maybe if I'm lucky and I wave madly Moonlite might see this and help me out here... other than that your guess is as good as mine.

Oh if he's no longer working for the game (which, as he classes the experience as working under Monolith and not SOE I think would be a safe bet) I have a feeling it will come down to a budget issue of getting him in to do some work...

**machete**

Ohh that would be a GREAT pickup if they decided to hire him once more SMILEY

But in reality I doubt it would happen as it seems like he is a VERY talented individual and SOE won't pay him what he's worth..