I assume that game is Guild Wars 2 ... and as an MMO player that's having a ridiculously good time in TOR (and happily locked in for 6 months), I can say with no trepidation that Guild Wars 2 looks totally freakin' awesome! Arenanet will get some of my hard-earned credits ... er, dollars!
Cutting 600 jobs (mostly in customer service) seems to be a natural move as player counts drop and the option of offshoring call centers still provides tangible benefits. They didn't say it in the press release, but most of these jobs were likely call center jobs; I had a former colleague that took a job at Blizzard two years ago in customer service who got cut this week. He stated that his group (who were all cut) had been performing non-voice customer interaction; emails, in-game contact, etc etc. They could be moving these non-voice positions overseas where you can realize up to 40% savings almost immediately. Offshore call centers have been steadily improving over the past three years in my business, with our Phillipines non-voice outfit being the best performing unit of any site in our company. This could theoretically explain the loss of jobs, as well as the potential savings in Q2 that Morhaime referenced on the quarterly earnings call.
RP guilds did something similar; the SAGA network placed over 200 hundred guilds on similar servers (Shien and Lord Addras) through a dizzying network of guild alliances and adversaries. It was quite a feat!
For my 2 credits, I'll say that both WoW and TOR have a lot to learn from RIFT's Black Garden. Most fun I've ever had in PVP. TOR PVP ain't half bad; all the classes whine about the other classes, so that must be good. If everyone thinks every other class is OP, they must have done something right!
The moving target you TOR-haters keep presenting is hilarious. Why not just let folks be happy playing their own game? You must be a very unhappy person in life, because you expend a great deal of energy spewing vitriol at others for no reason.
Blizzard committed to keeping a sense of community
Mar 13th 2012 4:19PM (WoW)... but srsly? I think Blizz dun trolled us.
Epic in scope: SWTOR's James Ohlen explains plans for the future
Mar 13th 2012 3:24PM (Massively)Tell those other games to release more info more often, then.
Star Wars: The Old Republic subscription numbers stabilize at 1.7 million
Mar 9th 2012 3:24PM (Massively)I assume that game is Guild Wars 2 ... and as an MMO player that's having a ridiculously good time in TOR (and happily locked in for 6 months), I can say with no trepidation that Guild Wars 2 looks totally freakin' awesome! Arenanet will get some of my hard-earned credits ... er, dollars!
The Queue: Somebody buy me an iPad
Mar 8th 2012 12:51PM (WoW)Blizzard layoffs could mean many things
Mar 2nd 2012 1:13PM (WoW)How do you keep your guild busy during the pre-expansion lull?
Feb 29th 2012 12:40PM (WoW)Players manipulate SWTOR's guild system to create a premature Oceanic server
Feb 28th 2012 11:08AM (Massively)Deja Review: Tales of the Abyss (3DS)
Feb 27th 2012 5:26PM (Joystiq)Person 2 - It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.
3 things Battlegrounds should borrow from SW:TOR's Warzones
Feb 22nd 2012 3:13PM (WoW)For my 2 credits, I'll say that both WoW and TOR have a lot to learn from RIFT's Black Garden. Most fun I've ever had in PVP. TOR PVP ain't half bad; all the classes whine about the other classes, so that must be good. If everyone thinks every other class is OP, they must have done something right!
Oh, and nerf commandos.
New Star Wars: The Old Republic video celebrates a successful launch
Feb 21st 2012 7:07PM (Massively)The moving target you TOR-haters keep presenting is hilarious. Why not just let folks be happy playing their own game? You must be a very unhappy person in life, because you expend a great deal of energy spewing vitriol at others for no reason.