Sigil Lets Everyone Go? (Vanguard)

[Dave Long]

http://www.f13.net/?itemid=560

Spotted at GAF.

But I do know that at approximately 4:30PM today, Sigil employees were told to meet outside. At which point they were terminated. On the spot. By whom? Doesn't seem to have been Brad McQuaid, if it was, nobody is talking. But that doesn't seem like something he'd do. But I suppose the executioner is irrelevant since most folks secretly want it to be SOE and it wasn't. As it stands, people were told to come back tomorrow to do their paperwork and some may get hired by SOE.

[Rob_Merritt]

So basically they were let go so SOE could dcherry pick and rehire them at a fraction of their current pay. Business is what business does.

[stusser]

That's pretty much what everyone expected, really. It blunts the schadenfreude a bit when you hear that real people just got shitcanned. Oh well.

[HRose]

Did they tell them to stand along the wall before they got executed?

Do we have the movie on YouTube?

[triggercut]

Yeah, the actual method of firing everyone sounds very weird...sorta Jonestown-esque.

[Coca Cola Zero]

It could have been worse, they could have taken the employees on a company trip out to the middle of the desert and then fired them out there, leaving them to walk back to town on their own.... that would be some Hardcore Corporate Vision.

[XPav]

Originally Posted by Coca Cola Zero

It could have been worse, they could have taken the employees on a company trip out to the middle of the desert and then fired them out there, leaving them to walk back to town on their own.... that would be some Hardcore Corporate Vision.

First ones back get jobs?

[soundnfury]

Originally Posted by Coca Cola Zero

It could have been worse, they could have taken the employees on a company trip out to the middle of the desert and then fired them out there, leaving them to walk back to town on their own.... that would be some Hardcore Corporate Vision.

lol .

[stusser]

Here's a fun little twist. It seems that Brad has been basically absent for the past couple of months, not even bothering to show up for work. He let the company he founded and controlled and all the employees that depended on his leadership hang while he sulked about losing oversight to SOE. Also, a schadentastic quote:

Originally Posted by the site

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I'm pissed that I wasted 2 years on developing a community at my site for a game that is nothing more than a steaming pile of shit.

At this point the vanguard saga is actually closing in on the SWG NGE debacle in terms of pure unadulterated entertainment.

[rei]

That's a kick in the nuts. Beaten by Turbine.

[Mike Hussey]

Originally Posted by Coca Cola Zero

It could have been worse, they could have taken the employees on a company trip out to the middle of the desert and then fired them out there, leaving them to walk back to town on their own.... that would be some Hardcore Corporate Vision.

Actually a Britush company (non-games related) recently used the fire alarm to get everyone into the car park and then sacked them.

[Stroker Ace]

Originally Posted by Mike Hussey

Actually a Britush company (non-games related) recently used the fire alarm to get everyone into the car park and then sacked them.

Sweet, did they get sued for fucking with the fire alarms?

[JM]

Where's Britun?

[Tyjenks]

Brutal. The thing ran like crap and was not fun and Brad did not have the capabilities or desire to change either of those. Game over, MAN!

[triggercut]

Trying to think of the fastest fairly bigtime MMO crash and burns here.

Auto Assault? Horizons? SimsOnline sucked and is no more, but at least it had a community for more than 5 months. Motor City Online or whatever?

[SlyFrog]

Originally Posted by stusser

Here's a fun little twist. It seems that Brad has been basically absent for the past couple of months, not even bothering to show up for work. He let the company he founded and controlled and all the employees that depended on his leadership hang while he sulked about losing oversight to SOE. Also, a schadentastic quote:


At this point the vanguard saga is actually closing in on the SWG NGE debacle in terms of pure unadulterated entertainment.

Man, I do love a good story of epic arrogance and downfall. Is it too late to hope for one last, "Vanguard will make you its bitch," type of advertisement?

[Walter Yarbrough]

Originally Posted by triggercut

Trying to think of the fastest fairly bigtime MMO crash and burns here.

Auto Assault? Horizons? SimsOnline sucked and is no more, but at least it had a community for more than 5 months. Motor City Online or whatever?

The Sims Online is still going.

[triggercut]

Originally Posted by Walter Yarbrough

The Sims Online is still going.

Huh. You're right, it is!

[Slainte Mhath]

Originally Posted by triggercut

Auto Assault? Horizons? SimsOnline sucked and is no more, but at least it had a community for more than 5 months. Motor City Online or whatever?

Horizons is also still going.

[stusser]

Auto Assault crashed and burned incredibly quickly, but that was a shame because it was actually a promising game that could have been successful if anyone actually logged in. I'd say the biggest total crash was Asheron's Call 2, which actually had thousands of subscribers when they shut it down cold. But the most entertaining by far was SWG NGE, closely followed by Vanguard.

[Lum]

Auto Assault is also still going.

To date the only MMOs that have actually shut down:

* Asheron's Call 2
* Motor City Online
* A few others that arguably fall below the label "MMO" (Fighting Legends, Mourning)

It's very difficult for an MMO to actually die. You have to kill it. Once an MMO launches, that is a significant investment that needs recouping, and it's usually very cost-effective to keep it running in maintenance mode based on its subscriber base.

[Kunikos]

Matrix Online was shut down, wasn't it? Shadowbane?

[Lum]

Both of those games are still going.

http://thematrixonline.station.sony.com/
http://chronicle.ubi.com/

[Kunikos]

Well, that's pretty shocking, almost as shocking as how bad those games were. I'm embarassed to say I actually bought MxO and thought it was cool for about an hour or two.

[Talorc]

And thus Lum reveals the most important design feature to long term MMO success - automatic recurring billing in the accounting system :-)

If enough of the little bastards, er I mean subscribers, forget to cancel...

[stusser]

Correct, I didn't mean to imply that it was actually dead. But as you know, auto assault is in maintenance mode; it had less than 10k subscribers a year ago, a quarter of NC austin (its entire support staff) was fired when it flopped, and it's not in active development. Which again is a pity, because it wasn't a bad game. And the netdevil guys deserved a hit.

Talorc, that's actually why AC2 died. Turbine had to switch billing systems, and all of the subscribers that forgot to cancel were lost.

[Balasarius]

There were tons of new Auto Assault boxes on the shelves of my local Bestbuy yesterday. I was there to pick up the CoH Good & Evil pack. They had one left.

[Slainte Mhath]

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but if some of those games (Horizons and Auto Assault in particular) would lower monthly fees to $5 a month, I'd probably still play them.


The Sigil games news sucks. I feel for the folks who have lost their jobs, and sincerely hope that SOE will pick up many of them to continue to support Vanguard or work on other SOE projects. Fuck Brad McQuaid.

[Talisker]

Originally Posted by Slainte Mhath

The Sigil games news sucks. I feel for the folks who have lost their jobs, and sincerely hope that SOE will pick up many of them to continue to support Vanguard or work on other SOE projects. Fuck Brad McQuaid.

I feel sorry for anyone who loses their job, but fuck, how could you not see the danger if you were working there?

[Linoleum]

Originally Posted by Lum

Auto Assault is also still going.

To date the only MMOs that have actually shut down:

* Asheron's Call 2
* Motor City Online
* A few others that arguably fall below the label "MMO" (Fighting Legends, Mourning)

Also Earth and Beyond. EA likes to pull the plug.