Game News Bill Roper Snags a Paying Gig

[Jason]

Tags: Bill Roper; Hellgate: London

Now that Hellgate: London is slowly <a href="http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6199996.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6199996" target="blank">sinking into the muck</a>, former Blizzard bigwig <b><a href="http://www.blizzard.com/us/diablo/" target="blank">Bill Roper</a></b> has signed on with MMO developer <a href="http://www.crypticstudios.com/index.php" target="blank">Cryptic Studios</a>.
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<blockquote>Cryptic Studios, one of the leading independent developers of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), announced today that Bill Roper has joined the company as Design Director and will be working on Champions Online.
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“Bill brings a ton of creative energy to the Cryptic office and we’re thrilled to have him join our team,” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer for Cryptic Studios. “His years of gaming and online experience are huge assets to all of our projects, and Bill will assist us in furthering our studio’s vision to create innovative, exciting MMO gameplay.”
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“Cryptic has experienced huge growth over the past year and has exciting opportunities ahead of it,” said Bill Roper, Design Director, Cryptic Studios. “The company knows how to choose compelling IPs that have rich histories such as Champions and Star Trek. I’m looking forward to working with the team.”</blockquote>
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.gamasutra.com/">Gamasutra</A>

 

[Barrow_Bug]

Well shit, at least someone still has a career after Flagship. He did good stuff for Blizzard so best of luck. You'll need it.

 

[Talby]

Cryptic just got Flagshipped.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Champions Online (2008) - Design Director

fuck. co is going to suck now.

 

[Nightjed]

man, even after he pulled a John Romero (he tried to make everyone his bitch and ended up becoming the asian's bitch instead) they are still offering him jobs ?

he has epic fail written on his forehead, he is a walking jinxed zombie, put him down already...

 

[Castanova]

Roper doesn't suck at design, though. He sucks at running an indie development shop. Pretty big difference.

 

[Nightjed]

i dont remember romero being bad at design, he just sucked at everything else, specially PR, budget and management so i dont see any difference

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

He barely skated by after the disaster he just committed. He should feel very lucky. It took troika crew to find jobs for a long time and it isn't right.

 

[Castanova]

Romero had serious personality flaws and Daikatana was a much more public embarrassment than Hellgate. It's not surprising that people wouldn't want to work with Romero and, to be honest, I bet he wouldn't take a "Lead Designer" role anyway. The dude's got an ego and I bet he'd only be willing to work on his own games from now on.

Bill Roper seems like a good guy, overall.

 

[Lurkar]

Roper probably isn't THAT bad, so long as he's not in charge of anything.

That said, Hellgate: London was a failure on so many levels, it is really bizarre he's still able to work in the industry.

 

[Texas Red]

Roper probably isn't THAT bad, so long as he's not in charge of anything.

That said, Hellgate: London was a failure on so many levels, it is really bizarre he's still able to work in the industry.

It was a shitty game but it still sold a million copies, I think + monthly fees.

 

[J1M]

Roper probably isn't THAT bad, so long as he's not in charge of anything.

That said, Hellgate: London was a failure on so many levels, it is really bizarre he's still able to work in the industry.

Failing upwards is how real-life works.

 

[Chefe]

HGL had monthly charges?

I almost bought the game a few days ago since it was only $20.

 

[Lingwe]

“The company knows how to choose compelling IPs that have rich histories such as Champions and Star Trek. I’m looking forward to working with the team.”

Nothing like buying an IP when you lack the creativity to create your own.

 

[MetalCraze]

Bill Roper has joined the company as Design Director and will be working on Champions Online.

Champions Online is doomed. Not that it wasn't a yet-another-mmorpg to begin with.

Roper doesn't suck at design, though. He sucks at running an indie development shop. Pretty big difference.

So Roper had no input in the game's design and didn't know what he will be selling while leading the studio? Yeah right.

 

[Castanova]

Business influences design. It was pretty clear that HGL was a neutered version of what the game was supposed to be which is a problem with poor project management, not because the original design was poor. Roper has a pretty glowing resume until he had to juggle the realities of time and budget.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Not that it wasn't a yet-another-mmorpg to begin with.

it wasn't.
cox has some pretty unique features as far as mmorpgs go, and co is an improved extension of those.

 

[MetalCraze]

As long as mmorpgs will have stupid swearing teens running around no improvement other than permabanning them will help.