1.  We are not upset that MxO is closing, in of itself.

2.  We are upset why and how it's closing. 

You see, when you have a product, you want people to buy it right?  You want people to enjoy it, and tell their friends to also buy the product right?  If you want positive reviews, then you'd want your customers to be happy, right?  That means any problems your customers have with your product, you'd want to resolve ASAP, because if you don't then you start getting negative reviews.  Trust me, negative reviews are more powerful than positive ones.  Negative word of mouth travel faster and further than positive ones.  So, to keep the negative reviews down, you want try to generate as much positive reviews among your customers as you can. 

Guess what SOE didn't do with MxO.  They didn't keep any kind of customer relations with us.  They didn't care about the state of their product.  When SOE acquire MxO from Monolith, and the licensing, then it became their product.  Throughout the 4 plus some months of MxO run, we had nothing from SOE except a wall of silence.

Even our Producer Dan Myers AKA "Walrus" finally admits he could've done more for MxO than he did.

I'm just laughing at the fact that once "The Agency" is release, SOE will be slammed with a lawsuit, and I'm also laughing at the fact that both "The Agency" and "DCUO" are already in the red.  Good job there SOE. 

SOE does not know how to be a good business, they don't know what it takes to keep your customer happy, they didn't even try!  As a result, they lost a majority of MxO community as customers after July 31st.

You people laugh at us now, telling us that SOE did us a favor, but when your MMO comes up on the chopping block, you will change your tune.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

xFenshirex wrote:

And, in the end of the day, are you really going to take an Everquest player seriously?  Of anyone in the Station line-up, they would be the most clueless towards SOE's underhanded customer service tactics.  This much is evident in the opinion of "You should be thankful SOE kept your game running!".  We paid for a service, not a favor.  And that's something these people can't seem to wrap their heads around.

You nailed it once again, Fen.   QFE. 

What Villemar said. Guess it's easy to be smug when you play one of a companies flagship titles knowing that the company actually gives a rats arse about it instead of just running it (with as little resources as possible - decreasing when possible over time) as part of a package deal.

I don't think there would have been as much resentment or as many complaints about SOE if they'd cancelled the game earlier, closed the story at an appropriate point and had a celebration 'end of the world' party with the playerbase at that point rather then let it flounder, squeezing as much revenue out of the remaining players as possible before pulling the jack entirely. 

Thanks to SOE, this is how MxO ends: Not with a bang but a whimper.

ConfederateXP wrote:

1.  We are not upset that MxO is closing, in of itself.

2.  We are upset why and how it's closing. 

You see, when you have a product, you want people to buy it right?  You want people to enjoy it, and tell their friends to also buy the product right?  If you want positive reviews, then you'd want your customers to be happy, right?  That means any problems your customers have with your product, you'd want to resolve ASAP, because if you don't then you start getting negative reviews.  Trust me, negative reviews are more powerful than positive ones.  Negative word of mouth travel faster and further than positive ones.  So, to keep the negative reviews down, you want try to generate as much positive reviews among your customers as you can. 

Guess what SOE didn't do with MxO.  They didn't keep any kind of customer relations with us.  They didn't care about the state of their product.  When SOE acquire MxO from Monolith, and the licensing, then it became their product.  Throughout the 4 plus some months of MxO run, we had nothing from SOE except a wall of silence.

Even our Producer Dan Myers AKA "Walrus" finally admits he could've done more for MxO than he did.

I'm just laughing at the fact that once "The Agency" is release, SOE will be slammed with a lawsuit, and I'm also laughing at the fact that both "The Agency" and "DCUO" are already in the red.  Good job there SOE. 

SOE does not know how to be a good business, they don't know what it takes to keep your customer happy, they didn't even try!  As a result, they lost a majority of MxO community as customers after July 31st.

You people laugh at us now, telling us that SOE did us a favor, but when your MMO comes up on the chopping block, you will change your tune.

I been saying something like that all along . It's not the fact that MXO is bieng cancelled, it's in the manner that it was done. I have heard some of the comments claiming that without SOE, MXO would have died a long time ago.  Maybe so but whats incredible is the same folks also say that we should have been greatful for it ....ummm no. Since we have a customer service expert on the the threads I wonder what the position his company would take if it was more than one customer complaining about service, I wonder if those customers would be ignored as well. If so good luck when your buisness goes down.

To me the sneaking suspicion is that SOE not only treated their customers horribly but also lied to them outright. I never really belived that a company with all its resources could not find one person that could understand the programming language of the game. Time and time again we were told vague reasonings that all the prgrammers from W. Brothers "did something"  to the game where it was impossible to make any kind of improvements, and yet we have some players that actually have figured out the programming language of the game to the point where they have shown how you can edit aspects of the game. Seems to me that a four year (ok maybe more than that) program WASN'T as mysterious and mystifying as SOE wanted us to believe.

That's just my opinion but the cold hard fact is that yes they did lie when they claimed they had no intention of pulling the plug on MXO.

I know to some of the folks in the planetside line up think that we are ungrateful and should stop the bellyaching and that's fine because frankly for my part I am not trying to convince you of SOE's shortcomings. The fact that other folks read these posts for me is what counts and of course in the end SOE will undoubtably prove us right with the way they run their games.

For me the only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that we can at least witness failure after failure with SOE's lineup. Believe me I will relish every bit of news i hear of Sony losing yet another game because thats exactly what they deserve.

Funny though two games someone mentioned earlier are the two i am most ijnterested in right now and I am more than sure will take alot of buisness away from SOE. All Points Bulletin basically looks and feels like MXO with better graphics, and a much more enhanced character customization . No hyperjump but you can use vehicles (and modify them as well!). This I am hoping will destroy the Agency. 

Star Wars: The Old Republic is supposed to be massive but for me the selling point is the customer service aspect of it. They are going al out for this one and want their potential customers to stay interested in their games. I can say this first hand that their website has tons of information regarding their game and they are consantly updating their site with more information. This is the game i don't even have to hope will destroy SWG, that's a certainty and the most likely reason why SOE is bieng "nice" to SWG clients.

In the end my hope is to see SOE reduced to their stupid card games, they deserve no better.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Kela wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Kela wrote:

 

Face My Own Personal Opinion the Matrix Francise in total was on life support after the second movie was released, the third movie pulled the plug, and MxO was its final gasps of air befor death took it.

 

Fixed.

So a 69 metacritic score(MxO) is a GOOD thing, as is a 63(reloaded) and a 48(Revolutions). I think my FACT is more accurate then YOUR Opinion. There is a reason no one is trying to make a GOOD MxO game, and it is Not because SoE has the licence...(See BioWare).

Allright lets use another barometer of success besides whatever yours was that you pulled out from some place you didn't cite (the metasite I use is Rottentomatoes.com where we have a metacritic score of Matrix 86%, Matrix Reloaded 73%, and Revolutions 37%).

Lets use the metric of total box office thus far.   Matrix (worldwide) = $463,517,383.  Reloaded = $742,128,461.  Revolutions = $427,343,298.  Total approx $1.75 BILLION thus far. 

Mmmm looks like a succesful franchise to me! 

GF, though. 

Didn't site huh?Metacritic is a BRAND NAME, and includes all eletronic media not just movies.

Also the succes of a franchise is Not in its past, but in its future... what is the next big thing coming out for matrix?

That is why Star Trek needed a reboot with its latest movie... ST:Enterprise nearly killed the francise off.

ConfederateXP wrote:

I'm just laughing at the fact that once "The Agency" is release, SOE will be slammed with a lawsuit, and I'm also laughing at the fact that both "The Agency" and "DCUO" are already in the red.  Good job there SOE. 

Just out of courosity what would they be sued for, exsactly?

::EDIT::
oh and btw every game is in the Red befor it launches, because it has not made any money yet.

Kela wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Kela wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Kela wrote:

 

Face My Own Personal Opinion the Matrix Francise in total was on life support after the second movie was released, the third movie pulled the plug, and MxO was its final gasps of air befor death took it.

 

Fixed.

So a 69 metacritic score(MxO) is a GOOD thing, as is a 63(reloaded) and a 48(Revolutions). I think my FACT is more accurate then YOUR Opinion. There is a reason no one is trying to make a GOOD MxO game, and it is Not because SoE has the licence...(See BioWare).

Allright lets use another barometer of success besides whatever yours was that you pulled out from some place you didn't cite (the metasite I use is Rottentomatoes.com where we have a metacritic score of Matrix 86%, Matrix Reloaded 73%, and Revolutions 37%).

Lets use the metric of total box office thus far.   Matrix (worldwide) = $463,517,383.  Reloaded = $742,128,461.  Revolutions = $427,343,298.  Total approx $1.75 BILLION thus far. 

Mmmm looks like a succesful franchise to me! 

GF, though. 

Didn't site huh?Metacritic is a BRAND NAME, and includes all eletronic media not just movies.

Also the succes of a franchise is Not in its past, but in its future... what is the next big thing coming out for matrix?

That is why Star Trek needed a reboot with its latest movie... ST:Enterprise nearly killed the francise off.

 

Never heard of "Metacritic", I was using it as a noun.

There's no point in arguing with you.  You don't like the franchise, whatever, to each their own.  Have fun with Everquest, and remember the wave of the future for MMO's is Trading Card Games.  

Hey guise.. can I form 'facts' from the opinions of other people too? I want to base my 'facts' on people who don't fully understand something or didn't like what direction that thing was headed in and ignore other more tangible stuff like sales figures.

Not too long ago.. Fact: the world is flat donchaknow? 

Croesus wrote:

VorAbaddon wrote:

Don't get limited choice confused with economic signals. The license, the setting, is a base for entertainment but just because we paid our subs didn't, and doesn't mean everything is ok. I pay road tax every year but that doesn't mean I'm happy with the state of the roads but I can't legally drive without it. Now I could just not drive where I need to go but distance to place of work coupled with poor local transport services mean that I'd most likely be out of a job.

When you only have 1 option for something (show me another decent cyberpunk MMO with guns and martial arts and I'll go there) you either leave it or make the best of it, doesn't mean that complaints are invalid. Thanks for that other drivel tl:dr.

I guess that's where our visions vary. I don't see this as "limited choice" becuase I see it as "Choice amongst MMO's" Again, how many Sci-Fi MMO's are there really? Not all that many, the sheer majority are fantasy. I wants me a 40k MMO. I'd also like a Deadlands MMO, because how many are set in the old west.

Taxation is a question of public good, so that's apples and oranges. The point is: When you pay for a VOLUNTARY service, particularly entertainment, you're sending a signal it's good enough to pay for. It's one, amongst many, reasons I RARELY go to the theatre. If I think it's utter crap? I likely won't get my money back, and really shouldn't (Is it the theatres fault I hated it? No.) But they count the sale. A DVD I can at least resell.

This sends signals, and from your post, an appropriate one. You're saying it's SO important to you to have a steampunk MMO, you'll pay for one you think isn't being run properly.

Villemar:
Well seeing as you've been playing MxO continuously since launch, I can see that you are the ultimate authority, so I bow down in humility to your expert opinion.

This is basic economics. Has nothign to do with MxO particularly.

Look, I'm not disputing that SOE probably did screw up, and you're welcome to dislike them, refuse their services, etc. You wanna hate them, hate em, THAT is a right you have.

What gets me is that some people, industry wide, flip out over MMO's, but we're our own worst enemies in that regard.

In my opinion, the MAtrix license was WAY too early for it's time. It was built on the back of expectations flying high from the movies. NOW is when it should have been released. A fondly remember, and popular, world you're FINALLY getting the chance to explore, but not so close to the movies as to fill the developers heads.

Devs are approaching and overhyping the genre as a whole, becuase it's expected of them. What's needed is slow, methodical, measured development. But that age is gona for now.

I'm a bit surprised that SOE is cancelling MXO.  I've actually defended SOE in the past in regards to them not cancelling any games.  I guess that's not going to be true for much longer.

I'm a fan of the Matrix franchise, but I just could not get into the game.  I got to level 17ish in beta but didn't play at release.  I played again when the MXO came on the Access Pass, but it was the same thing for me.  I think I quit around level 17ish.  Whilst I loved the combat animations, the game just seemed dull to me.  I agree, every time I popped into MXO it didn't seem like a whole lot had been done in regards to development.  Sure, lots of events, but I never really made it out for those things due to me being Europe.

Watching your favorite MMO get shut down or even changed in a drastic manner can be traumatic to say the least. So, I wouldn't think for a second to belittle any of the reactions here in this or any other MxO thread. I've seen entire communities torn a part over a change in an MMO such as a server merge, segregation of PvP and PvE, and of course an entire server or game shut down.

I think the motives behind MxO being shut down go beyond just too few players to justify the game. MxO has the additional cost of liscensing the Matrix franchise name. Games like EQ, EQ2 and FreeRealms don't have that additional expense. And, SWG seems to still have enough of a population to cover the cost of liscensing and development/maintenence.

I still have my copy of MxO sitting on my desk and have had every intention of trying it out for the past two years. Just never found the time. And, I regret that.

However nice it is to believe that a MMO will last forever. Its not realistic. And, yes, more development resources might have kept MxO going a little bit longer. But, perhaps it was past that state already? None of us has access to the financial records or stats that SOE bean counters use to make decisions like this.

Not trying to patronize anybody here. I'm just reading a lot of people's reactions which seem to be pure venom towards SOE. They can't take money out of FR or EQ and infuse MxO with it. Nor did they take MxO money any fund the development of The Agency or FreeRealms or DC Universe. That's not the way business works. Each franchise has its own budget and maintains its own revenue.. seperate from the others. If the opposite were true, then we'd all be thriving in the best developed MMO's out there right now while riding the coat tails of Tiger Woods '10 and Madden Football '10 profits or whatever PS3 games are selling millions of copies every year.

I hope you all find great homes in the next game you chooose. Whether that be an SOE game or elsewhere.

Fromage wrote:

Nor did they take MxO money any fund the development of The Agency or FreeRealms or DC Universe. That's not the way business works. Each franchise has its own budget and maintains its own revenue.. seperate from the others.

Willing to bet thats wrong. Even if not subscription money then certainly resources got squirreled away to The Agency, resources like... I dunno, perhaps The Producer Walrus! That was long before the announcement of MxO's closure.

In fact I think it's more likely that all SOE game revenue (I believe that SOE is segregated from the PS3 game developments) gets piled together and then split into seperate games depending on their expenses. In MxO's case, the Matrix license and the wages of the 2 Dev's (one full-time, two part time). In fact the sub price wasn't reduced when Rarebit left and MxO was reduced to maintenance mode only for 4-5 months. Where did all the extra money go? Certainly the players didn't see anything of it. Suggesting that each game maintains it's own revenue, seperate from each other is quite simply naive.

Monthigos wrote:

I'm a bit surprised that SOE is cancelling MXO.  I've actually defended SOE in the past in regards to them not cancelling any games.  I guess that's not going to be true for much longer.

I'm not surprised, SOE was barely interested in keeping MxO going, in fact a lot of undenied speculation suggests that it was part of the deal with WB to secure rights to DCUO, I think that SOE wanted to get rid of MxO as soon as viably possible. A lot of people aren't going to be able to say that SOE has never cancelled a game any more. If MxO is remembered for anything, it will be that point.