Company News J.E. Speaks

[HanoverF]

Torn got axed (rightfully so), now Jefferson may never see the light of day?

 

[Sammael]

My predictions: IPLY forums will soon be dead. Van Buren is FO3. We won't see Jefferson any time soon.

 

[Balthamael]

IPLY forums will soon be dead.

I get that feeling too. If they think threatening with ban and forum closure makes people shut up they are totally disconnected from reality. I am also a little amazed that Interplay execs don't have better things to do than police the forums searching for people to be banned. The level of incompetence over there is just staggering.

I won't miss that place.

 

[Jarinor]

Hell, I'm glad I never joined. Seriously, what the hell are high ups doing patrolling the forums? Do they somehow think that if you take away the 'main' objectors that everyone else will forget how to think, or to learn from their experiences? I have to wonder what they're spending their time doing - playing MS Hearts over the network? Dreaming up new ways to embezzle, er, waste money by buying or creating licenses specifically to fuck over?

 

[Azael]

What the fuck did Azael do? I've never seen anything out of him even remotely worthy of a ban.. Then again, they banned me for that PR picture of Chuck as my avatar, which sounds more like a flimsy excuse for a ban to me, given all the pimpage I've done for Lionheart both here and on DAC.

I'm a bit perplexed myself. Sure, I haven't been easy on the criticism of PhoBoZ, but I've used rational arguments rather than personal attacks on the developers. I'm starting to think that this is exactly why they want me gone, since it's harder to dismiss arguments than personal attacks. Fuck them, they can ban me for all they want, I'm done with that board either way. Funny to see how Interplay suddenly cares about the forum. When I was still a mod there, nobody from Interplay were anywhere to be seen. We basically ran the boards ourselves.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm a bit perplexed myself. Sure, I haven't been easy on the criticism of PhoBoZ, but I've used rational arguments rather than personal attacks on the developers. I'm starting to think that this is exactly why they want me gone, since it's harder to dismiss arguments than personal attacks.

Actually, they did it pretty well with me. I'd written several lengthy posts about various topics, like why it's a fallacy to believe that Fallout Enforcer sales will bring Fallout 3 and why the setting is wrong based on the screenshots presented. After the interview on HomeLAN Fed, I wrote a big long thing about why it's silly to make a weakened game for a license that's not for the fan base of that license. Less than twenty minutes later, I was banned for my avatar. Then I was informed that all my posts, the big, lengthy, reasonable beasts they were got deleted.

It's rather pathetic to make the claim it's about an avatar when you follow a banning for that avatar deal with deleting most everything the person had written. To me, that's always spelled the motive for the ban rather than the avatar thing, the speech. If the ban was about the avatar, the avatar should be removed. That should be the end of it, because anything else suggests additional motives. When that anything else takes a decent bit of work, like tracking down and deleting most everything that person had written, it looks like the main driving force there.

Fuck them, they can ban me for all they want, I'm done with that board either way.

The sad part is I bet they don't know this kind of thing only breeds more resentment.

Funny to see how Interplay suddenly cares about the forum. When I was still a mod there, nobody from Interplay were anywhere to be seen. We basically ran the boards ourselves.

More funny is how they decide to "care".

 

[Sabotai]

So Sammael and Balthamael,
Are you going to hang around this place now? It's good to have you.

I saw a IPLY post that a lot of members were leaving and debating where they should go. I seem to remember Mistresses Lair and RPGCodex were the places most mentioned.

 

[triCritical]

Wow hearing about some of the bans, I wonder why I have not been banned. I would say that my post were probably more vulgar then Saint's when FOPOS was announced. And all I have been doing on the boards lately is jocking IPLY's competitors (Troika, I guess not anymore since they don't make console games and IPLY won't be releasing a DnD game). I am almost feel like my post have no impact and are meaningless.

 

[Sol Invictus]

They don't have the license to make BG3. just IWD's. And my guess is that is what Jefferson is probably going to turn into. My guess is they go with FO3. I have also said this on the BIS boards, and a dev has yet to say FO3 is not in production.

I had told you guys from a long time ago that I've always believed Jefferson to be Baldur's Gate 3 or at the very least - Icewind Dale 3, but viewing from the sales of its predecessors, that would have been highly unlikely. The fact that Van Buren is going to be announced before Jefferson just goes to prove my belief that Jefferson was in fact a D&D-related title. After all, J.E. never ever denied that it wasn't Baldur's Gate 3, even though he constantly made it 'clear' that it wasn't going to be a sequel to Icewind Dale.

I believe that Van Buren is most likely Fallout 3.

 

[Ausir]

People over at the Lionheart IPLY board are asking Reflexive to set up a Lionheart forum, because they want an official forum apart from this gestapo-ruled one .

 

[Araanor]

All symptoms off a sick and dying company. What will be left after Phobos (Greek: fear, terror)?

 

[triCritical]

Its official IPLY has destroyed what fanbase they have left. Frankly, IMO the truth hurts, and the fans have been right all along. And now they don't want us rubbing it in their face. The mass market won't buy their games, now they pissed off the few the core group of fans beyond redemption.

Heck, on other boards I am hearing people who played games just because they were IPLY hoping the company goes under. Thats not good.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Well, I once made the statement that if the newer BIS fan base, those from the Infinity Engine games, were ever treated to a dose of what the Fallout fans were typically treated to, they'd get pissed off too. Now that they are, it's great to see I was right about it.

Banning Fallout fans for criticising Interplay, that was fine by a lot of them. But hey, when that policy starts to creep in where it covers them.. Well, that's another story, isn't it?

 

[EEVIAC]

People over at the Lionheart IPLY board are asking Reflexive to set up a Lionheart forum, because they want an official forum apart from this gestapo-ruled one .

I really hope that Reflexive don't get caught in all this Interplay nonsense. IPLY seem to be devising new methods every day to convince me not to give them any more of my money (I'm already toying with the idea of acquiring the game, then sending Reflexive an international money order.)

 

[Sammael]

Reflexive should have chosen a different publisher. After all, Lionheart wasn't even shown at this year's E3.

I have criticized the Fallout fans in the past. I also stood up for them on more than one occasion. Regardless, IPLY's current move (hey, they even censored one of Grommy's "all is woe" threads concerning IWD2) coupled with the ultra-incompetent moderators heralds the imminent death of the company. They are underestimating the bad word of mouth.

I just hope they last long enough for BIS to publish FO3.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Well, Reflexive doesn't really have a choice, do they? SPECIAL is Interplay's property and is what Lionheart was founded on.

If FO3 is in the works, it does give me somewhat of a reason to hope Interplay lingers on for a little while longer. Lately I've mostly been hoping for them to just die on the hope that their more promising developers and licenses might wind up in more capable hands. Okay, lately being more than a year.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

coupled with the ultra-incompetent moderators heralds the imminent death of the company..

It's not just the moderators, it's the whole way it's being run. I mentioned on DAC that the big problem they're having with the negativity is because they're cracking down on it by locking threads while they're at the peak of their activity. So, you have several people with gripes, right? Then you cut off the place where they're exercising those gripes in one contained thread. That thread gets locked, the gripe isn't worked out, and they end up with the old gripe and a brand new one. So, those with the gripes post a few new threads on the subject, resulting in cascading threads asking why the first one was locked and continue to express the gripe.

Locking the whole Fallout Enforcer forum is the ultimate act of Just Not Having a Clue because that basically dumped everything from the container, the Fallout Enforcer forum, in to other forums like Interplay General. Of course, the moderators even said those people could post about it there.

It's really a great example of how to take a match amd make a widfire.

 

[Ausir]

I also don't get why, if Lionheart was delayed until August to "promote it better", it wasn't shown at E3 this year. What's better way to promote the game?

 

[Sammael]

Ah. Looks like I finally got the avatar sorted out. A lowly abishai, but it'll work for now...

It's not just the moderators, it's the whole way it's being run. I mentioned on DAC that the big problem they're having with the negativity is because they're cracking down on it by locking threads while they're at the peak of their activity. So, you have several people with gripes, right? Then you cut off the place where they're exercising those gripes in one contained thread. That thread gets locked, the gripe isn't worked out, and they end up with the old gripe and a brand new one. So, those with the gripes post a few new threads on the subject, resulting in cascading threads asking why the first one was locked and continue to express the gripe.

The main problem there was that they did not define which topics were "unacceptable" in advance, so it was up to the individual mod/admin to decide which ones to lock. Neither Chucky nor TechWiz have any clue about moderating a message board, and just about all the competent mods had either left or did not want anything to do with the FO:BOS forums. Thus, we ended up with the situation you describe.

Locking the whole Fallout Enforcer forum is the ultimate act of Just Not Having a Clue because that basically dumped everything from the container, the Fallout Enforcer forum, in to other forums like Interplay General. Of course, the moderators even said those people could post about it there.

Which is another fine example of the lack of coordination on the forums.

It's really a great example of how to take a match amd make a widfire.

Except they screwed up and threw a match into the woods behind their back yard.

 

[Sammael]

I also don't get why, if Lionheart was delayed until August to "promote it better", it wasn't shown at E3 this year. What's better way to promote the game?

I pity Reflexive. They would have been better off using some other rule system and choosing another publisher.

Then again, I don't have much faith in Reflexive, so it is obvious that they needed support from a more experienced CRPG team.

 

[EEVIAC]

I also don't get why, if Lionheart was delayed until August to "promote it better", it wasn't shown at E3 this year. What's better way to promote the game?

Another indictment as to how poorly the whole company is being run. Almost every game and its dog is getting major press coverage this week. Its not as if there's a glut of RPG's either, one would think it would stand out.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's really a great example of how to take a match amd make a widfire.

It actually takes a lot of talent to take an already bad situation and make it that much worse, if it aint the mother of all incompetence then I don't know what is.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I pity Reflexive. They would have been better off using some other rule system and choosing another publisher.

Then again, I don't have much faith in Reflexive, so it is obvious that they needed support from a more experienced CRPG team.

Yeah, it's just odd that Interplay didn't take Lionheart to E3 at all. You'd think if they took anything to E3, it'd be Lionheart since it gives them a new and viable license which they actually own outright and don't have to rent from White Wolf or Wizards of the Coast - if it's successful. This should be something Interplay should be smart enough to work towards, given how royally screwed they've become over milking the D&D license and getting milked in the process. But no, they took BG: DA2, which I'm guessing they think is a SLAM DUNK.

Not only does Interplay lack business sense, they apparently lack common sense as well.