Normally, I try to resist the temptation to do this,
but I just can't resist this time. The whine on the official boards and
a few other places has reached a fevered pitch as of late. Why? All over
an
announcement on the official site and on
Warcry about the
Syndicate being promised 150 beta accounts.
I
won't bother linking to the lengthy dissertations on the board about how
Ubi is pulling a PR ploy. I won't bother linking to the lengthy dissertations
that people have posted explaining how their guild deserves it more because
they are active on the boards and have been waiting... months... What I'm
going to do is point something out that many people don't realize... The
people at Gencon etc, were not the first people to be promised beta accounts.
You see, there was a time when there was word of Guild Beta and many guilds
were tipped to the idea that they were on a list of guilds that would be
participating... maybe... someday...SOON... Many of these guilds were also
following Shadowbane from the Carnage.net days. But that was awhile ago.
So, let's take a trip in the wayback machine for a moment.
Exhibit number
one from the
World Map FAQ. Is it just me, or do some of these guild names look familiar?
They
should! While most of the guilds shown on the Region view were made up
by individuals here in the Wolfpack office, some of them were filled out
by pre-existing Guilds (from other games) that volunteered to be in our beta
process. In the latter case, we had these Guilds provide us information
on their name, crest, population and motto. We thought this would give the
Map a more realistic look and feel, and better illustrate what we’re building.
Oh... really? Those guilds volunteered to take place in beta did they? Let's take a look at
exhibit number two, the maps. Take a gander at the Interactive Demo Map from January of 2001. These guilds are as follows:
Region of the Empty Lands- The Regulators and
The Begotten.
The Begotten was Zelnik's former guild and the link goes to his website
he was going to build before he was picked up by Ubi Soft.
The Region of Irydni-
Drow and
The Syndicate The Region of Alvaetia- the now defunct
Crimson Empire and the
Undead LordsThe Region of Ethyria-
The Lost Order of Akalabethia and
SinisterThe Region of Rengerston-
Circle Noir and
Disciples of the Dark Hand The Region of Vanderlund-
KAAOS,
Shadowclan,
Covetous Crew and
The Knights of Glory and Beer The Region of the Burning Lands-
Forever Xiled and
The Brotherhood of Crimson Knights The Region of Carloon-
The Pluggers The Region of Tariponto-
League of Pirates and
The Combine Take
note of the creation dates- November 2000. This announcement came out in
January on the news sites and had been getting attention for awhile before
that. The guilds listed above were also in talks about guild beta long before
the announcements and the map went live on the site. I know this because
I am formerly of the Undead Lords.
These guilds have been waiting
a long time to get into beta. Take note also that one of the guilds listed
is the Syndicate. Big surprise isn't it? I
Interviewed
Syndicate leader, Dragons, in December of 2001 about where they stood as
we were getting "closer" to a possible beta. Faust also had written
two part article for
Aerynth Atheneaum
awhile back as well. So, they aren't new to the community... they just aren't
as loud as others. The same goes for many of the guilds on the list above.
While
I'm sure that there are some representatives from the guilds above, that
doesn't constitute a guild beta. People are placing "PR Blunder" tags on
Ubi Soft when these guilds were known to Wolfpack before Ubi Soft came into
the picture. Of course Ubi Soft knows who these guilds are now because they
hired... (you guessed it)
Zelnik and
Vosx to take care of community issues.
I
hate to blow away the cries of "conspiracy" or "unfair" here. If anything,
the Syndicate should be saying "It's about time." The other guilds should
now be saying "Where's ours? Screw the people that were promised betas at
GenCon.. We were first!" Though many of them have also given up all hope
that what was promised to them will never come to be and have been playing
other games to pass the time.
At this point all I see is Ubi Soft
and Wolfpack being damned if they do and damned if they don't. You can't
make all of the people happy all of the time. It's just not going to happen.
Whine more here, there's plenty of cheese.
