Brad's message. For those of you who haven't seen it.

[Aredhel]

Not sure where you got that, or FoH got it. I haven't had time to cruise all the Affiliate sites since I've been home. I know where it originally came from, but other than that....

I wasn't hereto release the news we were given in a timely way or to let information out the way Brad asked the Affiliates. Seems like everyone else has made sure it's in full view, tho! Both here and elsewhere.

However, THIS is what Brad asked us to point to when it came out. Take a look!

[Arctic_Slicer]

Originally Posted by Aredhel

Not sure where you got that, or FoH got it. I haven't had time to cruise all the Affiliate sites since I've been home. I know where it originally came from, but other than that....

I wasn't hereto release the news we were given in a timely way or to let information out the way Brad asked the Affiliates. Seems like everyone else has made sure it's in full view, tho! Both here and elsewhere.

However, THIS is what Brad asked us to point to when it came out. Take a look!

I have been pretty disappointed with how sites such as Silkyvenom.com have been handling this. Most of them really should have waited for the official word like you have instead of dividing the community over rumors and speculation.

[TheKnight]

So...I guess it's over. SOE moves in, nurfs VG to hell...and then I'm playing WoW without cartoon graphics.

M.

[Fading]

Seriously... This statement just blows my mind...

But I think it’s safe to say that both Sigil and SOE see the potential of a mind blowing game by the end of the year.

[Ysharros]

Dark's post is just a quote of the link Aredhel gave, to Brad's post on the SOE-Vanguard forums.

The man is a persuasive speaker, that's for sure, at least where I'm concerned. Whether he'll be able to do everything he wants... we'll see. More money from SoE to Sigil (which is what's currently required) will probably mean more involvement and possibly control on SoE's part - that's the bit I'm not thrilled about. I have very few issues with the dev/design teams of the games SoE host, but I *do* have many issues with the way SoE seems to make changes with no regard not only for the community, but for the games themselves. I don't know who makes those decisions, ultimately, but I strongly suspect it's NOT all the poor devs who end up reading the sad/hate posts.

I think what I'm trying to say is that I don't trust the SoE management to actually care about gamers and the industry, except insofar as their bottom line. It might be naive to expect more, but that's the way gamers have always been. We like to think we're more than just blind customers. Nothing wrong with the bottom line -- it's what companies exist for and without it, we'd have no games -- but gaming is a strange, passionate, interactive industry, always has been (even from its tabletop days), and we don't like being treated purely as pips on the balance sheet.

Anyway... I'm still, mostly, having fun. My greatest bugbear at the moment is performance, since I crash anywhere up to half a dozen times a day (more if I push it). The game is slow-ish on my rig, but that wouldn't bother me nearly as much if I didn't have the fear, every time I cross a chunk line or start a dangerous fight, that suddenly I'll find myself on the desktop or in a hard freeze. Brad's right on that part - hubby and I planned to upgrade our cards awhile back, and it's not his fault we haven't done it yet.

Eh well. We'll see. For me, *any* communication with the player base is a positive thing, and Brad's certainly usually worth reading.

[FEDS-91]

As long as none of this involves any intellectual property or creative control by Smed or any actual $OE employee, things should be ok. IF Smed steps in or $OE gets control of implementing changes or content into the game, thats when things will go wrong.

[Pirotess]

Originally Posted by Ysharros

Dark's post is just a quote of the link Aredhel gave, to Brad's post on the SOE-Vanguard forums.

Yah but if you check the timestamps, Dark's post is dated well before Aradune posted to the SoE forums. We know the original source of the post but that area was not public so we're just trying to figure out where it hit first. Backtracking through the posts it looks like the VNboards put it up first and it flew across the net after that.

[spicie]

yeah I traced it back from the silky venom forums to the VN boards yesterday. After looking every where else trying to find the main source of it posted by Brad himself I couldn't until it was posted on the SOE forums.

[Odball-1]

So what does this mean?

Sigil gets cash to pay it's people, and as long as SOE is kept at bay somewhat the game can be fixed and returned to a point where it's playable the way to was intended to be.

Lets face it, the game shipped way to soon, and it shows. The devs have been busting ass to get it fleshed out, and it also shows. Dispite the major mistakes as BoE, I think things will work out for the better.

Call me a loon, or an optimist, but it can't be as bad as you all make it out to be.

If Sigil can get a deal worked out where they(Sigil) can keep the rights as far as IP, and SOE takes up the cost of Development with a hefty return on investment over the course(via subscriptions, online purchases, and box sales profits going to Sigil), with Sigil having the option to buy out SOE should they actually get the game right, and make a profit(I.E. subs coming in to VG greater than the cost it took to pay the development, and hardware costs) then pay the initial cost SOE puts up, we may just have a chance.

Basically Sigil joins SOE, as an external developer, but falls under the SOE Corp. umbrella, with the option to Separate under certain conditions.

If they(Sigil) just sells the store outright and walks away, then we're screwed.

[Zathris]

I'm not sure what to think yet but wow. I'm stunned.

OP was posted here BTW:

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/po...?topic_id=8569

Zathris