Well said. Companies use times like this to get rid of the 'less productive' people who it would've been harder to justify firing in more prosperous times.

The key to success has always been relatively simple. Be reliable, work your butt off, and continue to educate yourself. The ability to adapt to change is a plus, as well.

Hey Angry - I was anti-WAR for quite a bit because I felt that they shit the bed for all of the reasons that have been covered here at Massively. I went back to WoW just before my first month of WAR was up - I felt that the game had numerous flaws, but the biggest for me were:

1 - UI responsiveness
2 - combat speed
3 - RvR was meaningless - for a game built around Keep sieges nobody wasn't was even RvR'ing, but just doing Scenarios.
4 - PVE was nonexistent - PQs got boring very quickly.

I went back to WAR after reading some of the changes; the UI was improved, combat feels faster and most of all they added some nice rewards for RvR. The wait times for Scenarios have shot up since almost everybody is running around RvR'ing - and its a blast now.

There are still some major issues with bugs, glitches and stability that need to be addressed in order to keep my interest moving forward.

Using your logic, 90% of the companies in the US are totally failing right now. Everyone is cutting costs, trimming staff, and squeezing budgets.

EA is laying off 10% of their staff in total. Using your logic, all of their games are fail?

Remember the day EA bought Mythic? Go look for some photos of that presser, Jacobs has a smile on his face like you wouldn't believe. He was spewing about how EA would let them do their own thing, that it would be business as usual at Mythic, etc.

If this is in fact true I cannot wait to see how Jacobs will spin it and make it look like a positive - he'll claim that the QA team is now more nimble since it only has 2 people on it now.

The game is not good? That is an opinion and one that many, many people do not share with you.

Mighty, It's also an opinion that many people would agree with, and given the XFire numbers, you could argue that up to 75% of people who tried it had that same opinion.

I don't think anyone would argue that it should be a whole lot better, regardless of if they like it now or not.

Unfortunately, MMO's rely on a critical mass to become effective, once the numbers dip, the resources can not be justified and the quality or amount of content can decline, which in turn gives folks more reason not to play for an extended period. I get the feeling this is right around that point for WAR and they need to do something drastic before things go downhill.

Releasing a class that was held back from release wasn't something I was thinking about (from a recent news story) and if they are holding back content, they need to understand that it's not about that right now, it's mechanics and stability.

I am a lot more enthusiastic about the zone domination ideas I've read, and I'd like to see some of the ideas on unit forming with NPC's and bonuses associated with fixed cooperative play implemented to make this a lot more akin to the tabletop experience.

I want this to be about at the endgame to stand in a line of tens or hundred of players approaching the enemy, then charging towards them, and definitely more than capturing the same keeps over and over.

You make some good points. Subs are less than at release. Within my own gaming circle, I'm seeing a lot of bouncing between games. They play WAR for a while, move to WoW for a bit, on to consoles for a month or two, and back to WAR again. I think there's too many really good options for any one game to draw huge numbers for years at a time.

WoW is lucky that it had time to 'saturate' before the current market came about. Hell, it created this market. 8) If you think about it, there's 11 million folks playing now but over its lifetime probably twice that many, or even more, have subbed at one point or other. WoW has given all those folks a great time over the years and they are likely to keep dipping back into it. They've reached a critical mass that can be self sustaining barring a total screw up. And Blizzard isn't likely to screw up.

I'm only frustrated at the constant, obviously over the top pronouncements that the game sucks terribly and it's dying fast. It's not an accurate picture to paint.

You're also right about it could be better. It will be. From what we've witnessed so far, they listen to the players, admit their faults, and work diligently to fix them. I'm looking forward to what they've announced and whatever else they throw in. The high level of polish will come with time just like in any other long standing MMO.

Oh really? Other Vivendi companies had layoffs.. why do you suspect Blizzard didn't?

Because they went through a huge round of layoffs when the companies merged? Their fat has already been trimmed.

Open Google and do a search on 'Blizzard Layoff'.

They might be the first to go, but it's also the sign that these projects aren't worth spending the money to maintain. Cutting back customer support may be a quick way to save money, but it costs in the long run in lower customer satisfaction. It's a cycle, and it ends with the product just going away.

You're right Cal, but in WHO's case, I just can't see it quietly sidlling off into the sunset. There's too much behind it already, and not in a Tabula Rasa, 'bloated, aimless disaster' kind of way.

Personally I'm just predicting how long it'll be before EA...well...pulls an EA.

WoW players. They see anything that isn't WoW as the enemy. It's like a religion. It's not that WAR is bad, but it may have one or two points where it is better than WoW and that can't be allowed. It's as if they feel threatened even though there's no reason to.