Company News Is Troika Dead?

[Elwro]

This whole free rides talk is ridiculous. What, did we grace Troika by our respect? Oh yeah, a niche RPG site with 20 regulars is soo important and I'm sure everyone from Troika really cares about it.
Or do you mean that people "gave Troika a free ride" by buying ToEE, and no one bought Bloodlines because of ToEE's buggyness?

 

[The Exar]

First, Troika did create three incredible games, with no match in originality. I'll always remember them for their wish to create something new. They did not copy! And that's very imortant.
Second, Troika did create games with the real possibility TO MAKE CHOICES and affect your character(s) advancement both in storyline and development.
Third, they were not commercial. Bioware and Bethesda are the best example of what damage the commercialism can do. Lame games, too much advertisement and too many of the same.
Ohhhh, Troika WORKED HARD. Troika wanted to impress. They didn't expect money from their next sequel. They tried to find different paths. But the gamer is a stupid machine. He likes good graphic, fascinating advertisement, linear gameplay, because it's not easy to "role-play". It has minimum intelligent requirement. And that's the difference betwen Troika and the others - their games "Intelligent requirements".

 

[Vault Dweller]

But besides, the whole point is that Marsh does somewhat point out that this is true by saying "I'll survive"...

Marsh's situation, whatever it is, may not reflect the state of other employees and the company in general.

 

[Sol Invictus]

*snip long deranged rant*

Come now, Ave. You're acting as if I fucked your girlfriend, came on her face and wiped it off with your pillow, in your bed, and made a video of it, and sent it to your folks.

You need to chill out. Don't be mad just because I took a piss all over your game gods. This goes for the rest of you, too.

 

[Sol Invictus]

This whole free rides talk is ridiculous. What, did we grace Troika by our respect? Oh yeah, a niche RPG site with 20 regulars is soo important and I'm sure everyone from Troika really cares about it.
Or do you mean that people "gave Troika a free ride" by buying ToEE, and no one bought Bloodlines because of ToEE's buggyness?

Who said anything about a niche site with 20 regulars gracing Troika with their sexual offers? Certainly not I. The 'free ride' comment was made in regards to the industry's willingness, and even eagerness, to give Troika the benefit of the doubt when it came to handling huge licenses. It was never made in regards to what anyone here, or anyone at NMA, nor DAC thought of Troika.

But besides, the whole point is that Marsh does somewhat point out that this is true by saying "I'll survive"...

Marsh's situation, whatever it is, may not reflect the state of other employees and the company in general.

He said everybody who worked on Bloodlines got fired, too. Why would he lie about that? Why hasn't anyone else denied it? Why hasn't Leon made a statement about it? Surely none of this can be good for Troika. Surely some of them know how to use the internet and write a reply on a message board.

 

[Nicolai]

HE'S ABOUT TO BREAK!

 

[Avé]

*snip long deranged rant*

Come now, Ave. You're acting as if I fucked your girlfriend, came on her face and wiped it off with your pillow, in your bed, and made a video of it, and sent it to your folks.

You need to chill out. Don't be mad just because I took a piss all over your game gods. This goes for the rest of you, too.

And again, grow the fuck up and get some real arguments.

I dont give a shit if people criticise Troika legitimately, but you dont criticise them, you rant and rave without any logic, evidence or anything coming close to a coherent argument, followed by childish comments like "Sweet. If only Troika showed as much dedication as Blizzard did to its products."

You're a kid, as can be seen at your sniping of troika at every single opportunity.


You cant provide a real reason for it, you cant even defend it, but you still do it.

I mean, you still havent even attempted to refute a single point I made so far, all you managed was the "Free Speech for all!" bullshit, and poorly attempted dodge to stop looking like a petty retard.


hmm, maybe I should embolden this, make it bright red and size Huge, maybe then Exitium will actually read something for a change, instead of seeing a post and going "I know! I'll quote and pretend to reply, while actually taking every opportunity to insult troika!"

 

[Nicolai]

too fucking tough to care

 

[Jed]

Ex isn't American, he just reads the New York Times.

 

[Avé]

Ex isn't American, he just reads the New York Times.

He's an aussie as far as I know, but my internet prejudices kicked up.

 

[Jinxed]

You need to chill out. Don't be mad just because I took a piss all over your game gods. This goes for the rest of you, too.

But what else did you want to achieve exit? You got a rise out of somebody. Good work. Seeing that reply makes me think this is all some sort of game to you.

Start an argument, engage in flamewar. WIN A PRIZE!

With that quote in mind, people should just learn to ignore everything you say. That way it won't come to that.

Don't feed the animals at the codex, people.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

With that quote in mind, people should just learn to ignore everything you say. That way it won't come to that.

You know, I've actually been considering that. At least Volourn doesn't act like a 2.8 year old all the time. It's like Exit doesn't really give a fuck about this place, and he sure as hell doesn't give a fuck about other people's opinions. Only his opinion matters and everyone else is idiots for thinking otherwise. Sheesh.

 

[Sol Invictus]

As Teatime said, he liked Troika. So did I, in fact. We supported Troika for their potential, and they always said they were 'going' to make the type of games that we liked. Good, red blooded RPGs.

I thought they had a lot of potential with TOEE, and wanted it to be the next Baldur's Gate, the next big D&D series. Heck, I liked the first hub of Bloodlines, got pretty engrossed and thought it was pretty damn sweet -- good dialogue after all these years! But man, when Troika dissapoints, they really dissapoint.

When I got into the 3rd hub I thought I was playing on my old Ti4200 again. Little did I realize I was on a fucking 9800XT and shouldn't be getting shit framerate, period. On top of that, there was that shit combat in the way of it all. Thanks Troika!

 

[Sol Invictus]

With that quote in mind, people should just learn to ignore everything you say. That way it won't come to that.

You know, I've actually been considering that. At least Volourn doesn't act like a 2.8 year old all the time. It's like Exit doesn't really give a fuck about this place, and he sure as hell doesn't give a fuck about other people's opinions. Only his opinion matters and everyone else is idiots for thinking otherwise. Sheesh.

You're just mad because I made fun of wicca.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

You're just mad because I made fun of wicca.

Hahaha! You wish. :D

 

[Ellester]

If they have no games in development at this time being backed by a developer, then they are in serious shit. Just think about paying the employees, just a guess would be about $200,000+ every two months. And this would be for a small company of 30 employees. Plus paying rent on their building, paying for employee benefits like insurance, etc… would push the number to $500,000+ for every 4 months. If they have no new funds coming in they are going to have no choice but to fold.

It’s not like Troika have been pushing out games like crazy. 3 games in the 5 or so years since Troika was founded (probably longer as I don’t know when Troika started with Arcanum). I doubt is making them rich let alone a profit. I’m kinda surprised they lasted after Arcanum.

Anyway too bad, I still liked Arcanum and ToEE. Never bought Bloodlines, but that because I hate the Vampire genre. I agree with another who said all this does is remove another US crpg developer, which is already slim. If I hated Arcanum and ToEE then I wouldn’t care, but I liked those games even with the non-existent ToEE story.

@btw how does companies like Gas Powered games survive while troika falls. Well Dungeon Siege sold over a million copies, which is probably more than Troika sold in all three of its games. Also even though DS disappeared after a few months after everyone realized what a piece of crap it was. It sold buttloads of copies in its first 4 months or so, and that’s what matters to producers, not cult titles that sell 500,000 copies over 5 years. They could care less about that type of game.

 

[Vault Dweller]

He said everybody who worked on Bloodlines got fired, too. Why would he lie about that?

As I understand, he didn't say that everyone who worked on BL got fired. He denied that statement, and only hinted at his own problems.

Why hasn't anyone else denied it?

Why hasn't anyone else confirmed it? As to why nobody denied that, denied what? There is no specific quote by Marsh stating that everyone is gone.

Why hasn't Leon made a statement about it? Surely none of this can be good for Troika. Surely some of them know how to use the internet and write a reply on a message board.

Leon's already said that a statement will be issued in Feb. We shall wait and see.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Why hasn't anyone else confirmed it? As to why nobody denied that, denied what? There is no specific quote by Marsh stating that everyone is gone.

Denying all of this rumor stuff. Surely someone could give us an official word that doesn't hint towards what the rumors are hinting about. It's kind of bad when the only things we're hearing are like "*cough*yes*cough*" instead of "*cough*thisisallbullshit*cough*"

 

[Killzig]

Rex isn't aussie, he's a filthy little chink. And I say that with the most affection possible. Anyways, he's expressing his bitterness because he loves Troika that much. It's like when you're five years old and your dog dies. You wig out and say GOD DAMN YOU DOGMEAT WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND DIE ON ME! DIDN'T YOU KNOW BETTER THAN TO RUN OUT IN FRONT OF THAT CAR!?

So what I'm trying to say is, ignore him. He's too emotional right now. It's entertaining though, so if you want to keep prodding him just for the comedic value by all means... just don't do it seriously as you'll be stressing yourself out for no reason.

We <3 Troika. Hopefully they'll survive this, find shelter in the loving and nurturing arms of the mother ship (microshaft) and make me a bitchin post apoc RPG to play on my Xbox. MUAHAHAHA.

 

[dunduks]

No way. NWN notwithstanding, everything else Bioware has done beats the shit out of Bloodlines, at least for me. Saint might not agree with me (I know he doesn't) but I loved those Baldur's Gate games.

I was thinking in terms of role playing, while Bio games are fun, I don't consider them epitome of RPGness. But BL definitely ranks higher in RP department, then Bio games.

When I got into the 3rd hub I thought I was playing on my old Ti4200 again. Little did I realize I was on a fucking 9800XT and shouldn't be getting shit framerate, period. On top of that, there was that shit combat in the way of it all. Thanks Troika!

Why do you always exaggerate, my gaming rig isn't the best, but it runs Bloodlines just fine with 9600XT, I did upgrade to 1.5 GB RAM and it was smooth ride from that point. BL is extremely demanding about RAM, there is no doubt about that, but it was not as bad as you put it. Combat is a moot point since its up to each individual and since I love fighting and 3rd person combat games combat was quite good for me.

 

[Sol Invictus]

The fucking craziest thought just occured to me.

Do you guys all remember that F! Internet Story thing with Tim, or the time Leon talked about restructuring Troika? Well, I figure here's how all of that comes into play:

Troika lives, but starts producing action-oriented console titles or mmorpgs instead of RPGs.

It all makes so much fucking sense. Either way, shit, if that's the case we'll stop covering them. Period.

 

[Killzig]

bah.. i doubt they'll make a straight up action game. maybe a console adventure game. which would be great. stick to just a linear story, have their own QA + console QA, maybe its time to bust out dogmeat teaches typing.

 

[Chris Avellone]

Troika

My understanding was that Troika still has people working in their offices, although at last count, I had heard it was the three founders and a senior programmer. I do know that there have been a number of resumes from Troika employees being sent out, and I know some of the more prominent members have already taken jobs elsewhere.

Based on the screenshots of their demo alone, however, I wouldn't count them out of the running. I will say that it is extremely difficult for a small developer to land a new project, and it's a process that can usually take several months (and it can always fall apart in the 11th Hour), so it may be that Troika is simply on a hiatus period until signing a new contract, at which point they can staff up again. I think that Bloodlines, despite criticisms here and elsewhere, is a strong RPG and probably one of the best Troika has ever done (and Tim has said as much), so that alone may help them gain a new contract.

IMO, I doubt that Activision pulled funding - most developer contracts involve royalties, so if Bloodlines does well, it may result in an influx of cash for Troika. However, it usually takes a few months before the royalties to actually begin to show from sales, so that's an obstacle. I will say that Activision and Troika were most likely in a difficult position in waiting for the HL2 engine to be done, so Bloodlines may have been kept putting pushed back and back and causing problems for both Troika and Activision - Valve could afford to take their time, but I doubt the other two companies had that luxury. I wouldn't be surprised if Activision would not want to be in that position again.

Regardless, I wouldn't count Troika out yet. It can just be difficult for a company to get a contract, and it's a long, involved process. If they don't get a contract, I'll be disappointed because that means that'll be less RPGs for me to play, and it was always my feeling that Troika always made an effort to try to push the envelope on their RPGs, which I think was important for the genre.

 

[Jinxed]

Denying all of this rumor stuff. Surely someone could give us an official word that doesn't hint towards what the rumors are hinting about. It's kind of bad when the only things we're hearing are like "*cough*yes*cough*" instead of "*cough*thisisallbullshit*cough*"

OR

Not denying anything is publicity. Here we are, jumping to conclusions, posting 200 miles per hour on the edge of our seats while we wait for a statement. If they would deny everything outright, it would be boring, so we would move on.

I wish them the best.

 

[Sol Invictus]

So it looks like the bottom line is that almost everybody was laid off and the company is restructuring itself. Who knows, maybe they'll fold.

So, who's going to deny that they weren't laid off now? Hmm?


You know what REALLY cracks me up? How people keep going on about how alive Troika is, when they say the exact opposite about Interplay.