LOL

I second that opinion sidepocket

edit: and jayeffaar

This comment was edited on Dec 17, 12:57.

damn, Pvthudson01 -- If you think my lazy ass is going to read all that, you're sorely mistaken.

There's a Doom 3 review on "Video Game News"???

In other news, Kennedy was shot and Armstrong walked on the moon...

review of Everquest II. Why does that not surprise me?

lets take a look at a few facts:

Article repost of something that got edited and banned on the IGN Boards:

When I joined the EQ2 Vault staff almost a year ago, there were few people already dedicated to Everquest 2 in a way that they would join a commercial websites staff, commit to bi-weekly submissions, just to get into beta. I was o­ne of them.

I thought "What the heck.. You like to write, and you want to be in EQ2 Beta, so you might as well let IGN make some money off your work".

And that they did. Hundreds of thousands of players have generated ten thousands of dollars for the IGN run EQ2 Vault in various revenues, due to a group of volunteers that was dedicated and (other then the Vault Manager, Deathstryker) working for free.

In the beginning we fought against the total lack of any news and resorted to creating stories and cartoons. Although unrelated to the game, many people enjoyed it and my column (Gezak's Ganksquad) got a few tenthousand hits by the first month.

EQ2 Vault enjoyed a good working relationship with SOE and some people say that in exchange for favourable reviews, beta spots were granted. When we did a Q&A, live o­n IRC or written, SOE was given the questions beforehand and could choose what to answer and what not. We then made it look like it was a actual conversation. By the time we did this in the DevChat o­n IRC many people were suspecting it because o­ne person "slipped" up and mischatted something in the main channel.

Anyway, we did them good and it was common understanding that we would get beta access for these small favours. Beta was pushed back more then o­nce, and after long months of waiting and trying to make a dollar out of a dime (in information and news terms) word finally came that beta would be there soon.

3 Weeks later we get a message from SOE saying that their "policy" has changed and they will no longer allow press members beta access.

We were, lets say, "amazed".

I was less then happy and vented quite a bit o­n this disrespectful topic (on our Staff boards) , but our newer EQ2 vault members were quick to say that it was probably in the best interest of the game. This whole thing for the first time sparked some controversy among the staff who had until then been 100% dedicated to Everquest 2.

None of them had betaed the game yet and they were basically running off the information everybody else had (plus a few bits of "secret" information). Like the timeline that was set out pretty good months ago, and the "Fun" of SOE saying "uh we missed that deadline, Suchandsuch has been pushed back", when we already had known that months in advance that there were never any plans to release Suchandsuch at the announced date - it was merely to keep people o­n the edge. Most notable was Beta and release. Pretty firm dates were given early o­n (party due to a slip in a SOE employee's interview that was even public but nobody other then me seemed to have realized it - when I posted o­n it got deleted.) We knew the months of beta and release back when people were still guessing for a June beta .. it was funny to see. SOE inched from month to month ("Beta May" "Beta June" "Beta July" ...) when we knew all along its going to be late fall.

Gotta do what ya gotta do I guess.

Zip to beta time. After another "policy" change - The first o­ne still had me guessing what in the world you would think to take a baseball bat and hit the press with it ("No Beta for you") - just to turn around 2 weeks later and say "Hers your keys". I download the client and start the game. Amazing music welcomes me to EQ2, i'm almost ecstatic - this was what I waited for almost a year. As I do my tutorial I recognize that the water around the tutorial boat looks different then in the videos.

This leads me to investigate and zoom in closer to objects and textures. Not the same graphics! Even though I ran o­n a 9800 the graphics didn’t match the videos. Well to make a long story short, after some investigation and back and forth it became obvious that the graphics engine was "toned down" and character models had received a substantial decrease in detail because the game just wouldn’t run at any speed with the intended features. It ran now, and rather smoothly, so I said alright.

By that time I could categorize the videos that had been floating around as o­ne reviewer put it: "doctored". They were scripted versions of the "not in game but great" graphics engine (anyone remember the character creation with the dark elf and the female paladin in the white gold armour?). The things that went o­n there (The orc video with the orcs behaving naturally, taunting, forming, etc.) were pre-scripted and filmed like a movie.

They were not in game.

Alright, well the people still thought the videos were real, and I was bound not to tell them they weren’t. Anyway, I move o­n.

(Here is where i had originially posted a few lines about EQ2, but since i have a better review about it i'll link the full article here : http://www.gezak.com/article94.html )

After about 2 weeks I feel a lot of tedium and ask myself why I even log o­n EQ2, its about as fun as pulling teeth. Still I need to get my work done and I catalogue around 200 NPCs. I see more and more things that just aint the way they were announced. I see things that o­nly by the farthest stretch of imagination you would be able to conclude that it wasn’t a purposely misleading argumentation SOE made.

For example: You can solo in EQ2. Sure you CAN. You CAN become President, you CAN fly to the moon.

Is it something that will perceivably happen with any likelihood? No.

But you still CAN.

It tell you what I cant: I cant tell anyone that the interview that we did today is full of the statements that say you "CAN". I cant argue with people o­n the boards who accuse me of being a dumbass because I don’t back up anything I say with data because i’m bound by EQ2V.

I cant write an article that has a single negative word about EQ2 in it.

Hell, I made a portion of the FAQ which is basically a pretty technical rundown of what information we have. But when I read it o­nline it is a glorified version of it. What’s that? Words like "Great" "Wonderful" "Exciting" and "Innovative" have been inserted into every sentence and the FAQ now reads like a ad instead of a information.

So as we progress with beta I start asking around o­n the Staff boards what people think of EQ2. Most people say its great, and when I raise some questions (It has less quests then WoW?, Why is the public being mislead o­n soloing?, Why do we not inform but instead remain to bring a all-positive perspective?) I get private messages saying that people agree with me but cannot say so publicly because they are afraid to get in trouble with the EQ2 vault management and are afraid to lose their beta access. (We were told basically all the time that we would be removed from beta if we didn’t do exactly what were told to do).

So after I post my "Everquest 2 outquested" article o­n www.Gezak.com, Deathstryker removes me from EQ2 Vault and says he will also remove me from EQ2 Beta.

As of today, I am still in beta.


The bottom line is pretty much what I posted o­n the staff boards before I left them:


This was my reply to it:

--------------------------

Hello all,

I have recently received message that I have been removed from the EQ2 Vault Staff due to me violating the NDA with articles that I write for gezak.com

I will not go into arguing about that but you are all invited to visit http://www.gezak.com and see for yourself.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all my fellow staffers, who have been a great team and a wonderful environment.

Personally I will never sell my integrity for money, and I will even less sell my integrity for no money at all. I feel that SOE is purposely misleading customers and has been doing so for a long time.
I think of the Vault as a independent gaming website that will inform the customer and player about games, not as a means for more marketing under the cover of independence.

Free Speech is o­ne of the most vital rights we have and if we prostitute ourselves to companies we volunteer to give away a right that forms a basic freedom in our society.

So I want to tell you all,

Thanks, stay sharp,

and remember there’s a kid out there that will spend all his money for a game because he reads your articles. Dont let him down.

Best Regards,

Gezak

------------------

Let me clarify: Most people would say that EQ2 Vault is not an independant reviewer. Vault is owned by IGN, who is part of a larger Media Company from Canada. Vault Managers are paid officials that get paid to promote certain games to create interest in the websites and the game itself. Some people say there are agreements between these game producing companies and the site about a "good review for special news" deal.

As i see it, the goal is not to inform the customer, the goal is to create interest in the game and the website, to sell copies of the game and earn advertisment money for the hits o­n the site. If you are looking for a place where someone will inform you and not listen to paid officials run the company line, look elsewhere.

EQ2 Vault has, in the past, especially through its paid officials, released many reviews and articles that can o­nly be described as "not corresponding to reality", and they seemingly have no intention of changing that.

There is a large amount of smaller websites run by individuals that will give you a much better picture, because they dont get paid to glorify the game.

This comment was edited on Dec 17, 11:16.