The thread title really sums it up. Here is a really interesting article about how the creators of EVE Online failed to properly manage a game for nearly decade. I have never played EVE, but have considered it from time to time. However, after reading this article I have to say that I no longer care to give them my money. The article made it sound like the game was dying anyway. Which honestly makes sense for a game of its age.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/05/world-of-darkness-the-inside-story-mmo-ccp-white-wolf

I thought Square Enix was incompetent after they managed to work on Final Fantasy XIII for two years and only produce art assets and not know anything about how the levels fitted together, what the battle system was, what the story was, or basically any part of the game. However, they managed to shit out what some people consider to be an alright game, even with a directionless development cycle. So far they haven't managed to work on a game for a decade yet. Yet.

Most of the sources spoken to for this piece identified the same problematic CCP manager, who had little vision for what the finished game would look like.

“Not once could he answer any question about moment-to-moment gameplay or areas of focus,” says one source. “Instead, he preferred to deliver buzzword-laden rambles… It was not uncommon for him to communicate in onomatopoeia.

"I once saw him looking over the shoulder of a programmer at some bit of User Interface the poor guy had hacked together. He straightened up, put fingers to lips and said, ‘No, this isn't it at all. Make it more... psssshhhh’ He hissed on his fucking fingertips, like the air coming out of a bicycle tire, and then just walked away.”

I want a feature film starring Leo Dicaprio made about this guy.

Thanks for sharing, that was a great article! For the past couple of years it seems like the regular press have done a much better job at covering the game industry than games media has, which sadly is pretty easy to miss since people in the games media rarely seem to link to the articles in New York Times, The Guardian etc.

This is sad news. Both because the WoD dream is dead, and because of how badly it sounds like the entire thing was handled. It sounds like the kind of thing that if handled by a more competent company could have been interesting. Instead we're left with broken dreams. Broken dreams and no hope, since CCP owns White Wolf, so it's not even like we can hope that maybe some other company will come along and make a good WoD game, some kind of successor to the amazing Vampire: Bloodlines, MMO or otherwise. So that's very disappointing.

Oh god I remember this game from ages ago I think. Might have to read this thanks

I've been following this game for a long time and when I originally heard it was canceled I kinda just shrugged and thought "oh well". The linked article is very interesting and it's a shame that it turned out this way. At this point now I would also rather see a second Bloodlines-esque game.

This was a good article to read and very said to hear too.

Great article and a major bummer.

God, this is kind of really depressing in a way, but I'm also not surprised at some of the details. Given some of the colossal fuck ups of CCP these past 3-4 years, what I'm reading in this article just makes sense.

It is indeed a super sad state of affairs. While I haven't held out hope that this game would ever ship, let alone be any good I still wish it had gone somewhere. The whole thing just seems like a huge waste, firstly the acquisition of White Wolf and then not actually doing anything with what was essentially the second biggest player in tabletop RPG's (and arguably the biggest from the mid 90's to early 2000's).

If there is any kind of bright spot from all of this it's that CCP just might sell Onyx Path the WOD IP. Onyx Path is made up of a bunch of old WW employees and they have the license from CCP to make new books but it means they still need to deal with CCP (and CCP management) to make anything. Some of it has been really good but it seems like it takes forever for new shit to happen.

I have a soft spot for the WOD, especially Mage the Ascension but at least this seems to be rock bottom, hopefully they offload the IP to someone who gives a shit.

@iburningstar: moved...coming into E3, can you take a look at this topic please?

http://www.giantbomb.com/e3-2014/3015-7932/forums/e3-2014-you-press-conferences-forums-and-wiki-info-1485604/#23

Thanks

It always felt to like CCP got that team that was working on World of Darkness for some other reason and just ended up stringing along World of Darkness out of obligation instead of doing it because they were interested or had a plan.

Good article, but Nick Blood seems exceptionally bitter - perhaps too much to be a wholly reliable source about CCP. Especially because there aren't any other named people (other than Hilmar, haha) telling us what happened behind the scenes at CCP.

That said, after going through the whole Incarna debacle in 2011, though, I can certainly believe it.

The death of the World of Darkness MMO is becoming more depressing as I think and read about it. I remember seeing that animated teaser and being super excited. I've never been an MMO player besides a brief run in World of Warcraft, but the WOD is one of the few universes I would happily play an MMORPG in. Sadly, I've never gotten into Eve and to be honest I am super intimidated by that game.

Looks like I'll have to dig out Bloodlines again to get my WOD fix.