Wow I just checked, and AV3 had the highest player count currently for all the action, and PW action servers with a whopping 7 players.
On the one hand, I am flattered; and honored; it’s about time Av3 got some recognition, but on the other, wow, that is sad. Not 5 months ago (prior to the loss of game spy service, and despite the loss of the master server) we would have about the same player count (occasionally) on a weekday night, and were ranked about 20th for action servers.
Congratulations Bioware, and your overseers, you have successfully killed (or put in place the conditions to facilitate the killing of) your offspring. Nothing like fratricide or filicide to drive home the point that corporations are all about one thing.
I would be shocked if NWN 1 was a serious threat to your profit margins. Despite it’s longevity and your incompetence at capitalizing on it.
Did this killing off (or will it) result in a substantial profit boost for you? I would highly doubt it. And would your have continuing to have supported a legacy game of your’s substantially caused an undo financial burden on you? I would highly doubt it. And would have doing so (continuing to support it) garnered your respect in the eyes of gamers… It certainly would have in my eyes.
What does fostering a relationship with your customers who have long term interest potential give you? Loyalty, dedication, love, appreciation… Qualities you might want to consider as valuable. They are independent of profit margins, they won’t boost your’s, nor take away from them. The majority of video game consumers will not even notice due to their ignorance, and incessant need for the “next best thingâ€. But in the long run quality of a product and the qualities mentioned above from the consumers is the only thing that lasts.
Producing, and maintaining such a product will give you the satisfaction of knowing you made something truly substantial (e.g. not just for profit, but truly a work of art [in case you weren’t aware, most true artists only get recognized, and rich until after they are dead: e.g., Rembrandt, Leonardo Di Vinci, Picasso, Salvador Dali, ect… I guess by today’s standards many of our currently accepted great artists, should have just stopped what they were doing since their works of art would not be recognized for a long time to come) however if you had any idea of what you created, and let us as players/consumers work with, you would be quite proud.
The inventors of paint never get credit of the Sistine chapel, and yet with out the paint, it would not have been possible. Nor does the inventor of the saxophone get credit for what John Coltrane did with it. As brilliant as Michelangelo and Coltrane were, without the paint or saxophone, respectively, neither would have been able to create what they did.
You can be proud of the fact that you made something truly novel, and unprecedented, or you can be ashamed at the fact that you weren’t able to capitalize off it, and cut off it’s nose to spite it’s face. In other words kill it off, due to it not living up to your expectations (profit) of what you wanted it to be (despite the fact that it is a beautiful thing.) There were many ways you could have made this worth your while, but you held yourself to the WOW standard, and anything less in your eyes is a failure.
The outcome of this situation is the legacy of NWN. And don’t anyone put it on the players. We, the players, have fought, and worked our behinds off tiresly, to keep the game, and the community going.
The decline of NWN, is only due to one thing in my opinion, and it is certainly not it’s players or the community.
This is a God damn shame if you ask me.
Lazarus Magni
Modifié par Lazarus Magni, 20 mars 2013 - 04:37 .
