Tag: Firefall

Mark Kern Responds To Departure From Red 5


firefall

Recently we learned via a leaked email from Red 5 Studios that Mark Kern had been voted out by fellow board members. In a blog post on MMORPG.com, Kern gave his well wishes to those remaining at Red 5. As for his alleged termination, don’t believe everything you hear. Kern refers to his leadership at Red 5 as his Kobayashi Maru test, going on to use multiple film references to convey a rather vague point.

For the past twelve months, I was presented with a Kobayashi Maru test.  When that occurs, the Captain must always find his own solution.  While there have been rumors about whether I was demoted, terminated or maybe even corporately executed, I will only say this: remember that Han always shot first.  It does not matter if the person revising history is George Lucas himself, because Greedo never shot first (sorry George).

As internal office politics often go, we may never know what really happened at Red 5 Studios apart from some anonymous employee comments.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Mark Kern Removed From Red 5 Studios


firefall

Hello, timing. Earlier today, Gamefront.com broke the news that CEO Mark Kern has been voted out by board members at Red 5 Studios. An internal email leaked detailing that Kern no longer had any authority within the company, and that further information would be given at a subsequent company meeting. Red 5 reached out to Gamefront, confirming that Kern was indeed no longer with the company.

As of Thursday, December 19th, Mark Kern is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of Red 5 Studios. Mark founded Red 5 Studios in 2006 to provide exceptional game entertainment along with a world-class team of developers working on the MMO Shooter, Firefall. Red 5 Vice President of Development, James Macauley, will be moving into the role of acting CEO. The team at Red 5 continues work on Firefall and looks forward to all that we have to offer in 2014.

The Escapist has reported contact from Red 5 employees detailing Kern as absent, visiting only to make arbitrary decisions, and disruptive to the company.

(Source: Gamefront)
(Source: Escapist)

MMOrning Shots: Mad Hatting


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That hat is ridiculous, and I must have it. Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Red 5 Studios and their open world shooter Firefall. There isn’t anything particularly spooky or scary about Firefall’s Halloween event, but there are skeletons. Kind of. Did you know that Firefall is valued at $100 million? Check out the open beta at http://www.firefallthegame.com/

Red 5 Studios Sees $24 Million Investment


Arclight

You may remember The9 as the developer in charge of World of Warcraft’s operations in China up until 2009 when operations moved over to NetEase. The9 is also the parent company of Red 5 Studios, the creators of the oft-delayed and ever changing MMO shooter Firefall. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, The9 plans on issuing $24 million in stocks to Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Ltd. That name may be a mouthful, but if the deal goes ahead as planned, Oriental Pearl will have a twenty percent stake in the company.

Firefall is valued at $100 million and is currently in open beta/soft launch.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Firefall Shuts Down PvP In Preparation For Launch


Arclight

Firefall may have started with PvP, but as development has continued the focus has shifted away from PvP in favor of PvE, to the neglect of the former. While Jetball was a fun idea, it attracted less than 3% of the game’s population. In response to the waning quality of PvP life, Red 5 Studios has announced that they are shutting down PvP completely to retool it in preparation for a better future.

So we’re going to regroup, rethink, and deliver the best PvP system we can that can be enjoyed by everyone. We don’t have a timetable for this, but at some near future point we will shut off the PvP aspect of the game, which we feel does not represent Firefall at its best, and relaunch that part of the game when its ready.

We look forward to what Red 5 Studios has in store for us.

(Source: Firefall)

Firefall Is Sick of Trolls, Will Be Kicking Them Out


I’ve talked about the fine line between trolling and constructive criticism, one that generally doesn’t seem to be understood by trolls. And while MMO developers aren’t fans of trolling, they are also generally reluctant to expel their (often paying) customers for throwing up a fuss either in the game or on the forums. Firefall developer Red 5 is not one of those developers. In a post on the forums, CEO Mark Kern posted a stern warning: Continue trolling, and you’re out.

So, I have to say for the first time that I’m disappointed in some of the community. The amount of threads here saying that e-sports is all we care about, despite all the information we’ve posted about PvE being our focus is disheartening to those of us working hard to make PvE awesome.

More so, the amount of shortsightedness and selfish trolling and self-important pontification I see from armchair game analysts is stunning. We’re not done with the game yet. We are showing you our early builds, warts and all, so you can share in shaping the game. We welcome your feedback, but not your Chicken Little “sky is falling” ranting from those whose imaginations are not capable of looking further than the nose in front of their face and who ignore everything we say and do and have done in the game for you.

We do listen to you guys, more than any other game company on the planet, and we have proof because we show you builds so early, that they are incomplete… so you can help us fill in the blanks. But instead of embracing the concept, a vocal minority of you have taken up arms in the forums, with pitchforks and a sense of selfish self-entitlement I have never even imagined possible.

If you intended to frustrate me, you have. From now on, we’re going to start moderating the negativity on these forums for the sake of healthier discussions.

Personally I remember a time where alphas and betas were a privilege to join. Granted, this was a long time ago. But when I play MMOs in their alpha/beta stage, I see and abundance of whining over features not being complete, the presence of bugs, or features not being completely worked out. And that in itself isn’t the problem, as negative feedback is how a game develops into a higher quality product. But the people who Kern is talking about are more along the lines of:

“This feature isn’t complete, wow this game sucks why do I even bother playing, this company is going to go bankrupt and the game will fail because the devs are all incompetent idiots.”

But it would behoove Mark Kern to take this new proclamation seriously. Quite often demands to remove trolls turn into a hard culling of any negative feedback from the community, and that often leads to far more than just the undesirable folk leaving, either of their own frustration or through overreaching policies. And a game like Firefall can’t afford to turn its community away before it even launches.

Week In Review: Why Hath WoW Forsaken Me?


Thanks to World of Warcraft’s seven day welcome back week, I have something to hold my attention for seven days, at least until the little girl from The Ring comes through my television set to murder me (the joke’s on her, I’ll be playing The Room on a second television. Try and brave that to kill me). Other than the thought of impending death, I’m having a lot more fun on my recreated toon than I expected. I started a new undead hunter to test out the phasing and new quests. There are a lot of major changes to the game, like the removal of weapon levels and ammunition. I’m taking notes, and I’ll be doing a “Why Aren’t You Playing” on World of Warcraft at some point.

1. Earth Eternal Is Officially Back

At least to the point where you can play it. If you head over to the Earth Eternal website, you can log in with Facebook and install the client. You will need to make sure that the previous Sparkplay version has been uninstalled before you do, as conflicting installations can cause problems. There may be an issue with the requirement to sign in via Facebook, and you may have to wait a little while before the website recognizes that you have the game installed (this happened to me), but otherwise you can jump right in.

Earth Eternal is just as adorable as it was when we left it, and the game has undergone quite a substantial upgrade in the graphics department. Find me in-game, my username is Omali.

2. Bioware Hates The Heterosexuals

This falls into the category of “I wish this wasn’t true.” Over on the Old Republic boards, a poll popped up asking players what type of relationship they will pursue with their companion characters, choosing from same sex, opposite sex, all relationships, or none. Of course, this sparked a bit of a fizzle (not an explosion) on the blogosphere from the lunatic fringe, claiming Bioware was “discriminating against heterosexuals” presumably by not allowing them to spew homophobic drivel on the Old Republic forums.

What this ultimately ends up as is a matter of civil discussion, and people who don’t understand what that means. The subject of homosexuality is a touchy one, but in the context of the thread, Bioware was simply asking about your choice of partner, not your opinion on who will burn in eternal hellflame.

3. I Buy My Gold Straight From Kim Jong Il

This is an odd story, yet not all surprising. According to the New York Times, North Korea is employing hackers to break into South Korean MMOs in order to write bots for them to farm gold to sell for the government (and of course so his son can get his epic mount in World of Warcraft). The outfit that operates the bots reportedly brings in some hard cash, $6 million over two years, and is the same office that operates drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and other illegal practices for the glorious leader.

So the next time you see a gold farmer in-game, ask if you can have Kim Jong Il’s autograph. They like that. Also consider this another reason to gank bots in your favorite MMO. That gold you just looted could keep North Korea from achieving nuclear technology.

4. Firefall is Releasing Similar To Google Mail

In an announcement on the Firefall website, CEO Mark Kern has expressed his interest in launching the free to play MMO as close to the Gmail method as possible. The project is currently in friends and family beta, where it will slowly expand to allow more people. Oddly enough, Kern considers the game already “launched,” and believes that the expanded base is not bringing in new beta testers, but rather simply expanding a low-key launch to a wider audience via invitation.

First person to send me an invitation gets a free…something, I’ll figure it out.

5. Then Again, Darkfall Could See More Success

I admit, I’ve been hard on Darkfall for the past few weeks, given Aventurine’s refusal to acknowledge a wipe. I’ve hinted in the past that the wipe may have to do with the removal of certain skills, and revamping of others, explaining why Aventurine won’t call it a “wipe in the traditional sense,” or why the company feels that the issue won’t be as hot topic as players are turning it into.

What I have seen over the past few weeks is an outbreak of support for a wipe, even going as far as a full wipe. Some see it as a necessity to level the playing field, while others see it as a way to rid the game of ill-gotten gains through bugs, dupes, macroing, and exploits. Overall there appears to be equal pull in both directions on the forums, for and against a wipe of any sort.

My stance throughout all of this has not been predictive. Rather than trying to read the community and predict death or success, I’ve kept to stating the possibilities (on both sides) and citing past examples of wipes and their resulting success, or lack thereof. I’ve leaned a little more toward the death side of the fork in the road, so consider this a balancing “I still have faith this can work out” piece.