Vapourware Pathfinder Online has already failed.

[Night Goat]

http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/02/pathfinder-online-lays-off-almost-entire-staff/

Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens has announced to Pathfinder Online supporters that the majority of the Goblinworks team working on the game has been laid off.

We knew we needed a certain amount of money to finish to build the game, and we came really damn close, but we just couldn’t find the last bit of funding that we needed. […] Last Friday, we had to lay off most of the staff. […] I couldn’t pay them anymore. We gave them lots of warning, so they all knew this was coming.

CTO Mark Kalms, Art Director Mike Hines, and Designer Bob Settles are all that remain of the studio. According to Stevens, Goblinworks CEO Ryan Dancey left the company two weeks ago for personal reasons unrelated to the layoffs. Lee Hammock and Steven Cheney were also apparently among those let go.


Work on the game will continue with the three remaining employees, paid by existing subscription revenue, which will also keep the servers online. Paizo is closing the Goblinworks office and moving the trio into the Paizo offices. Stevens says Paizo is seeking an external publisher to buy Goblinworks or investors to complete the game. There is hope, she says, since 75% of the game is already paid for; she expects the game will take between 1 million and 2 million dollars to finish.

Stevens further hints that the game’s original Kickstarter was intended to speed up the project and was predicated on additional investment commitments that didn’t fully materialize. Another Kickstarter, she says, is not planned as the team is still working on existing Kickstarter rewards.

When asked what the community can do, she suggested that continuing to play and pay the early enrollment subscription, inviting new players, and treating new players well is most helpful.

Our sympathies extend to the entire studio and its players.

From the comments:

Zycor 26 minutes ago
I've invested probably $600+ into this game, and not from KS. I started playing in May, I saw a baby EVE and took it in as my own. I've subbed 6 accounts for the past 4 months, and I bought 2 accounts for $300. After today's announcement I really see no point in keeping my sub, the game will either die or go to some shitty publisher that changes what the game is. I really blame the community for this, they're pushing the game off a cliff. You can't have a sandbox mmo with corpse loot pvp and not expect people to be immoral gankers. Pvp was supposed to be meaningful, but there is no meaning. The economy sucks. The community is full of a bunch of whiny dice rolling carebears who try to impose their carebear play style onto a game with corpse loot ffa pvp. They made the game cater towards the EVE audience, but the tabletop gamers had the most influence. This is where I think they screwed up big time. They are nice people over there at GW, I just think they tried to mate a Pitbull with a Shitzu and they got bullshit.





RIP My money. I really wanted this game to make it. I actually like Ryan Dancey, I think the game died for me when he left. Lol.

r00fles!

 

[Rahdulan]

Well shit, that was sudden. And they expect people to still keep paying for the game?

 

[Hobo Elf]

That Zycor sounds like a giant cuck. Also lol@him complaining about table toppers playing an MMO based on a popular PnP setting/ruleset.

 

[hakuroshi]

Well shit, that was sudden. And they expect people to still keep paying for the game?

Sure they still expect people to pay. And sure people will still pay - there quite a thread on goblinworks forum pledging eternal support

 

[Rahdulan]

Somehow I'm not at all surprised considering this is Paizo. Also, there's a Soundcloud interview with Lisa Stevens bawling and explaining the situation in greater detail.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i blame the trend and the people following the trend of giving money for unfinished products.
may they rot in a special hell, with child molesters and people who talk at the theatre.

 

[TigerKnee]

As expected of Pathfinder

 

[Andhaira]

Somehow I'm not at all surprised considering this is Paizo. Also, there's a Soundcloud interview with Lisa Stevens bawling and explaining the situation in greater detail.

Why the fuck is she actually crying? Is it because she is terrified over potential lawsuits, or is she crying over the potential money making machine she just lost?

Very telling she keeps repeating she is the CEO of two companies yadda yadda yadda.

Not to mention she built her entire company on the works of others aka WOTC and their d20 OGL, and their Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

This is why wimmin should stay in the kitchen.

 

[J1M]

The only moral choice here is to make the game's code and assets open source and allow the community that paid for those assets to finish the game.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Dude, I thought it was such a shit game that Paizo essentially distanced itself once it became clear it was shit?

 

[catfood]

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Is it me or has Pathfinder in general seemed to go a bit downhill over the past few months/year? I dunno. Something just seems a bit off about Paizo.

 

[TigerKnee]

Is it me or has Pathfinder in general seemed to go a bit downhill over the past few months/year? I dunno. Something just seems a bit off about Paizo.

Go look up the ongoing "Tournament of Rapists" scandal, instigated by a Paizo employee and you'll get your answer

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So wait, a Paizo employee instigated that crap?
Fucking Christ, I goddamn knew it.
From categorically denying certain darker aspects of their games to beginning to rewrite the fact that Sarenrae is no longer outlawed in Taldor, they've gone the fuck downhill.
Fucking SJWs ruining my PnP.

 

[deuxhero]

Rule 1: Don't back kickstarters
Rule 2: Don't do MMOs

It's that simple.

 

[Shammy]

Go look up the ongoing "Tournament of Rapists" scandal, instigated by a Paizo employee and you'll get your answer

Holy shit this whole situation is hilarious. I can't believe someone not only had the idea for such a stupid module, but then actually made it.

Truly a time of great

 

[Grokalibre]

This game never failed to provide quality entertainment in the form of epic drama on mmorpg forums.
R.i.p. epic turd

 

[hello friend]

I see the CEO is a woman.

 

[Drakron]

Truly a time of great

Well to be fair the Book of Vile Darkness that is quite tame was sold sealed and it still had complains, notable from Hickman (who brought up the comic book code) and that was when WotC was taking risks, before Hasbro ... stuff like the Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was pretty much not something published, then again stuff like that always existed in some form.

Even in 2002 when this "crime of thought" bullshit was barely existing you still had people bring up the ghosts of the 80's, its no wonder companies dont really want to touch certain things, not they didnt existed but in a way its funny considering Paizo had a sweet deal on doing stuff WotC Hasbro would not do, hell Pathfinder itself was mostly created because of 4th Ed D&D.

 

[boobio]

So instead of making a game like The Temple of Elemental Evil they make a game like WOW? Fuck them and there supporters.

 

[Kane]

 

[belowmecoldhands]

PvP full loot is where the biggest problem is. It's incredibly unpopular and hard to tame. The other is how to setup rules/rights for owning land in a sandbox environment in such a way that enjoyment and freedom strike a balance. Fundamentally, that's the problem a lot of these sandbox mmo's face: how to manage freedom and the abuse of freedom.

If you look at the most successful sandbox MMO's what you see is htey find a good balance between controlling freedom and enabling it. This means making it as convenient and enjoyable as possible for players to come together and shape the world around them, while still preserving ffa or similar rulesets, but in a restricted fashion.

What you're trying to do is reduce negative gameplay experience while increasing the sandbox features. The reason it's so hard to do this is because sandboxes, by their very nature, tend to be player-driven and freedom-fuelled. The freedom to shape the world in many ways and create content from nothing can also be a weapon to abuse and negatively impact others.