The Matrix Online Producer Letter

Lack of a cinematic means I won't really be looking forward to patch day anymore.

Rarebit wrote:

ArchDuke wrote:

I go away for one weekend, ONE WEEKEND, and this game goes to pot. Party resulting in Syntax blowing up, no more cinematics, I mean come on!

Why did we ditch the cinematics? Is it money? Is it that the higher-ups just don't want it? For crying out loud, they're one of the most enjoyable things about this game. Now where do we look do for an introduction into the chapters? The Sentinel? Right, right... *sigh* A bluepill newspaper telling us redpills about major threats to the Matrix.  Storywise, that just doesn't make much sense to me.  I'm super PO'ed that they're getting the axe.  I mean, do we not even get a cool ending cinematic if we're pulling the plug on them?  Or are those two wireframed yahoos cavorting around the last gasp of our cinematics? 

There better be something good about Chapter 10, because this Producer Letter is scaring the *poop* out of me for our community and this game.


Remind not to take the weekend off ever again.  I might come back and they've moved our servers over to The Agency (where they've taken everything else from us to).

Pff you're just jealous you missed the blow up party. =P

And as I said earlier in...hm I think it was this thread, maybe not...the Sentinel is not coming back to try to do what cinematics did. It's still the Sentinel.

   If I may ask then...What is going to pick up the slack that the demise of the cinematics leave if not the sentinel? If we don't get a static (non live event) formal introduction to new events, most players will not be able to follow the storyline....We are use to having to piece the details of the story together from riddles in the Sentinel and other sources (ie missions), but to hinge the story on a one time event is not the answer...because players want to see the story unfold before them not come here and read a posted summary and screenshots just to know the current state of things.

Perhaps a new type of Archive mission could be implemented, one that "replays" the high points of a live event to a player or group of players...These reenactments would ofcourse lack interactivity other than fighting and clicking the npc's to "talk" to them, and would also be shorter in time frame. For example if Flood called the mervs in to combat a force of accleterated exiles at a sensitive point in the system..Flood's dialogue and the combat could be reasonably reenacted in mission format, and with it another added bonus...Players of all servers could enjoy the lives events no matter their server of origin or timeframe...Also the oppertunity for more archive rewards...

V

I suppose it will be mostly Live Events that have to pick up things that might have been handled in cinematics before. And we've been doing story-critical stuff in live events for quite some time now; I try to have the main points of things that happened in a critical live event mentioned in the next critical mission, but yeah, anyone who hasn't been checking out the live event posts, or asking other players in-game, will have been missing a lot of the story detail.

Even if I could crank out all the missions that would be necessary to do it, there's really no way that the mission system can recapture what goes on in Live Events. When I plot out each new subchapter, I very specifically divide the action up between things that the mission system can handle, and things that Live Events can handle, so they can complement each other. Each of them does things that the other can't.

EDIT: Hm, I could also mention that when I was writing out the next year or so of story over the holidays, I sketched out the mission/event highlights for each subchapter, leaving the cinematic parts blank (at that point I wasn't absolutely sure we wouldn't be able to do cinematics of some sort...I had some insane idea before Christmas of speed sketching them myself =p). I came back to fill in the blanks for what would happen in cinematics, and found that I'd already covered the real dramatic points in missions and events. I don't know if that might have been a subconscious adjustment or what, but I think it's definitely a sign to me that now that I have a year's more experience telling the story through missions and events, it's much easier to see how we can bring the plot into the game itself, instead of having to rely on essentially out-of-game cinematics. So I'm really not worried about being able to tell a story at least as exciting as we've had to date without cinematics. It would be really cool to have cinematics to provide highlights, and yeah you don't get cool animation and sound effects from a Live Event post, so it does take more effort to absorb what's going on, but lack of cinematics won't cripple the actual storyline itself.

You do have a fair point about the critical missions. I know for a fact that a number of people don't run them anymore (I'm pointing rather excessively at Goligoth for one) and when I was with the cyph's I wrote a few mission summaries on the faction website and people like Goligoth liked them as it helped with the story as there are points and little details that you only get from them.

I do have a wondering though about how live event reports can possibly be made easier to get through though, as if people are wanting to get information off them you do have to sit there and read through the mass of screenshots, it's never fun

You know how people have been positive about the large scale events during the anniversary? Are there any thoughts to do them every now and again? I'm sure people wouldn't mind a gap between normal live events and/or release of missions if there could be big events again. Oh and I know that you get over a certain number then the servers start having a mental breakdown but they're still great

   Well I've never been a man of many words (as indicated by my post count), but I've played MxO since Beta, and I feel the need to say a few words now.

  I was amazed by this game when I first saw the trailer on the Matrix dvd and still when I actually started playing it. We had ingame AIM, a MP3 player, Movie character likenesses/voices, awsome cinematics, a very unique combat system, an awsome story, live events, and a very large and vibrant Dev team.

  Slowly these things were taken from us. First AIM was removed (no big loss there, thought it would have been a nice tool for story progression), and interlock combat was dumbed down (or rather removed in my opinion, the joined animations were not in my opinion what made interlock). All these things were removed when SOE bought the game from Monolith (who truthfully didn't have a clue as to what they were doing in the first place.). These things were acceptable though because we were told then (like we are now) that these losses would eventually make the game better.

  Next to go were the actor likenesses ( Most like Ghost and Niobe were due to other companies already owning the 3D likenesses) Slowly but most unnoticably the voices of the character began to change as well though the new voices were just as good so that was no big issue. Though while this was all going on our Dev team was being "cut back" to an almost unfimiliar shell. Then things like bug fixes and major issues began running rampant without being addressed..(Like floating static objects in the game world, unbalanced classes, broken animations, Vista incompatibility, and 8800 series incompatibility.). Though to be nice the remaining QA dept. Did TRY to fix some of these things, but mostly were relegatated to fixing typos in mission text...Now some will say that there are "work-arounds" for the major issues like the Vista problems and the 8800 lag, but I say to them it is not my hardware that is at fault, we pay for a working game. Players who paid $50 for a game and then $15 a month for service should not have to use a "work-around" for it to funtion, and sadly these issuse have not been address in a timely manner.

Then while our Dev team was being mangled by SOE, the linear evolving story began to suffer..The loss of the Sentinel...the loss of net based puzzels/websites (though the AB team has renewed some of these features), and instead of being linear became a revolving loop of ...This is the new bad guy for the next 6months to a year...He is trying to destroy/harm the Matrix you must stop him, this though was interrupted by the renewing of the war, and then quickly the Matirx returned to buisness as usual... here is your bad guy for the month...But on an upnote we do still have our live events, though they do not sparkle like thay once did, due to the cut backs on our beloved DEV team.All the while we were told by SOE and our DEV teams that these things in the long run would help to make the game better.

 Now we lose our cinematics...the only link some of us players had to the story, (because lets face it unless your a high school kid you're not going to be able to make it home at 5pm EST to make it to a live event.). And now we are told as we were back then after losing so much and seeing no real improvements..the loss of the cinematics will in the long run make the game better...

  I'd just like to say to the DEV team you guys are some of the best I've ever seen you've been fighting an uphill fight since the beginning. Datamine is proof of that and I salute your work on it...though in my opinion resources could have been directed elsewhere had you just made Downtown a free for all pvp zone, and upped the taps and spawns.

Now on to a fwew summary bullet points..

THINGS REMOVED

-AIM

-INTERLOCK

-UNIQUE CHARACTER/VOICES

-99% OF OUR DEV TEAM (and with it the "feel" of the Matrix in the story and quality.)

-QA TEAM

-CINEMATICS

-95% OR OUR PLAYER BASE

THINGS RETURNED FOR OUR LOSSES

-DATAMINE

-MASSIVE GAME BREAKING BUGS AND LINGERING "SMALL" ISSUES...

It truely makes me sad to look at that list, I love this game or did....It use to be the highlight of my day to get home from work and jack in with the other Broodies, and the large community, but both have disappeared along with most of the games features. I mean if I wanted to play by myself, grinding missions in a nearly empty world, with a mission only driven story. I'd play one of Acclaim's free mmorpg's, atleast there they have regular content updates, large DEV teams, and are nearly bugless. Sure these games make most of their money from adverts, but what does it say about MxO if we can't even keep ingame advertisers?

This brings me to my final topic...What exactly are we paying for? As far as I can see it is this...

 -A stagnant game world, reskinned equipment (using the same models over and over), no variety in activities..(either you mission, mine, pvp, or stand around)

Now what does a Free to play MMO offer?

- Reskinned equipment, endless grind with nothing else to do and a vague overall story driven through mission grind.

Those two lists look pretty similar to me, and it saddens me to see how far MxO has fallen, in the beginning the game was 100 times more than what it is now, but still we are told that we must sacrifice what little we now have so that the game can become better...So I ask SOE we have paid our sacrifices in content so when do we "get blessed" with this elusive "better"?

It is rediculous to think that we are paying for a game that has been stripped down to nothing more than a fighting simulation, and we say thank you when they remove even more content with the promise that this is the price we must pay inorder to improve the game.

Now I know it was stated that the story would continue in Live Events and now in the Sentinel, but for those of us that can not attend lives events that leaves us reading one incoherent piece of a short story a month for $15, and that is just NOT acceptable. That would be like authors charging you by the chapter to read their book....And what if we have to unsubscribe for a while and the Sentinel is replaced with a newer version...When we come back are we suppost to jump around asking what happened while we were gone?

 And now to the comment that MxO was not shutting down...Do you really believe that if the hand full of active accounts dwindles below 1000 in the next year or so, that SOE will continue to fund (what little they do now) this game....I say no they wont, but they may not shut down the servers, they will just leave players in a DEV-less, broken world with an unfinished story in the hopes that another notch in their game belt will lure some station access players to purchase a "game".

Seriously I don't see MxO making it until its next anniversary, though SOE may be nice enough to allow this little community drama to play out until then if just to give us a nice send off, but I doubt they care that much.

Thanks for reading my novel..

V

Please name one game SOE has not messed up?

I suppose it will be mostly Live Events that have to pick up things that might have been handled in cinematics before.

Rarebit wrote:

I suppose it will be mostly Live Events that have to pick up things that might have been handled in cinematics before.

/facepalm

So how are situations like this...






...going to be handled by live events? o.O The cinematics brought everyone up to speed on what was happening the moment the patch went live. Using live events you'll only be able to inform one org (properly) on what is going on with a LE character.

(btw it would be nice to get a response to my idea)

Rarebit wrote:

I suppose it will be mostly Live Events that have to pick up things that might have been handled in cinematics before.

/facepalm

So how are situations like this...

<Cinematic pics>

...going to be handled by live events? o.O The cinematics brought everyone up to speed on what was happening the moment the patch went live. Using live events you'll only be able to inform one org (properly) on what is going on with a LE character.

Niobe: Then the Sentinels zoomed over to Stanligrad *Zoom* where they attached to the wall and started cutting though *buzzzzz* then the Generals Sentinels came over the wall and shot them *buzzzzes while spitting*

Also not to forget that how many people actually make it to Live Events?  And how terrible filled with spam they get?  And we cant see what actually is happening until the next day as thats when its posted.

I am just worried that the story in this game is just turning into a novel, all words

I think they'll have to be a lot more "I put on my Robe and Wizard hat"ish.

Niobe: Then the Sentinels zoomed over to Stanligrad *Zoom* where they attached to the wall and started cutting though *buzzzzz* then the Generals Sentinels came over the wall and shot them *buzzzzes while spitting*

How about one of those live events (and recaps) where only the LETs interact with each other, in secret?

kou_urake wrote:

How about one of those live events (and recaps) where only the LETs interact with each other, in secret?

I would think that could work?

MotorZ wrote:

kou_urake wrote:

How about one of those live events (and recaps) where only the LETs interact with each other, in secret?

I would think that could work?

Well if you are going to do that might as well get someone to film it with Fraps and add subtitles to it. " />

If I wanted PVP I'd be on the Vector server

Come to think of it...wasn't there a 30 second test video doing the full animated type of cinematic on odj's site somewheres?

or with the rigger in 3DSMax.

LtCmdr_Tsusai wrote:

Come to think of it...wasn't there a 30 second test video doing the full animated type of cinematic on odj's site somewheres?

Was that the one of Void hanging upside-down?

So how are situations like this...






...going to be handled by live events?

I can see something like those things being a problem, but I'm sure Rarebit has a fix for them somehow.

But also, think about how awesome it would have been to be there when Halborn showed up out of nowhere and everyone went '*CENSORED*?'  And think about how awesome it would have been to be there when Carlyne showed up and everyone went '*CENSORED*?' again?  It seemed like a lot of dramatic things happened in the cinematics and the Live Events were never as 'OMGWTFBBQ' as the cinematics were.  Now the Live Events should be filled with even more storyline changing and dramatic things than before.

Yes, I'm sad the cinematics are gone, but I'm pretty excited to see how things continue without them.

POwedMxOplayer wrote:

If I wanted PVP I'd be on the Vector server

You talking about datamine? You do know you can get up to 9x the normal $info amounts while data mining in there, right? There had to be some sort of stoppage from all out inflation.

Vedren: Go ahead and try MS.  Also, if you have a lot of money you're not going to need, I know rather a lot of people who will. 

Walrus: It just occured to me, at least in so many words, that you haven't told us anything about the production of MxO.  You didn't tell us about what is coming, only what we have and what we're losing.  That's why this doesn't qualify as a 'Producer's Letter'. 

You know something, you're right. I had to go and have a read through it again just to check but you're totally right.

The only thing I know that's coming in the future is the opening up of the buildings in Datamine and some sort of collector too but I guess that is what would be classed as relatively short term into the future...

*shrugs*

odj wrote:

LtCmdr_Tsusai wrote:

Come to think of it...wasn't there a 30 second test video doing the full animated type of cinematic on odj's site somewheres?

Was that the one of Void hanging upside-down?

Yeah, that one.

LtCmdr_Tsusai wrote:

odj wrote:

LtCmdr_Tsusai wrote:

Come to think of it...wasn't there a 30 second test video doing the full animated type of cinematic on odj's site somewheres?

Was that the one of Void hanging upside-down?

Yeah, that one.

Isn't 30 seconds only 6 but I only did it as a test. Credit goes to pyraci for the drawing and cinematic 8.2 for the sounds...

 http://www.odj310388.com/other/mxos...ercinematic.mov

odj wrote:

So how are situations like this...






...going to be handled by live events?

I can see something like those things being a problem, but I'm sure Rarebit has a fix for them somehow.

But also, think about how awesome it would have been to be there when Halborn showed up out of nowhere and everyone went '*CENSORED*?'  And think about how awesome it would have been to be there when Carlyne showed up and everyone went '*CENSORED*?' again?  It seemed like a lot of dramatic things happened in the cinematics and the Live Events were never as 'OMGWTFBBQ' as the cinematics were.  Now the Live Events should be filled with even more storyline changing and dramatic things than before.

Yes, I'm sad the cinematics are gone, but I'm pretty excited to see how things continue without them.

The problem I have with that is that the cinematics and critical missions are nice because they're something that everyone can experience first hand, regardless of RL work schedule and time zone.  Live events are not.

I'm interested in seeing more dynamic things in Live Events, but for the most part, a large percentage of players don't get to see or participate in Live Events until several days after when they're posted on the LE forum.

If the story is to be advanced via the Sentinel, it would be nice if there will be a way to look up previous editions as the story goes on, so new players to the game can catch up...  kinda like how you can watch old cinematics now.

Now yes, it would be cool if you could've been there when Halborn popped out of the Ascension monument.  I'm wondering if things like that can be translated into the critical missions. 

Yeah but we all know that $i has been useless for quite a while now...All you need is the small amount to level your skill trees which is easily made running missions/ archives...Noone I know has bought gear (clothing, abilities, weapons, bit/frags etc...) for a very long time. the only thing info is used for now is to buy rare things from past events ...rewards..documents etc...and that is a very small market. I mean the only reason anyone really data tapped after the spawns and such were added was to get the bits to make the overdrive etc...Not for the money. There is no real market present as absoultly everything can be character made.. except for boss drops which are easily surpassed by regular loot drops. And the pvp ...not really a "stoppage" to to inflation, you can bypass that easily by loading up Master Shadow and avoid the pvp all together.



V

Nerfing Datamine numbers was a pointless kneejerk reaction, you have to HAVE an economy before inflation can affect it.  The only reason it's possible to have hundreds of millions or billions in info collecting dust in your inventory is because there's a giant black hole filled with info that any user can draw from 24/7.  A MMO's 'economy' is the equivalent of scouring the planet for leaves and calling it money.

You know... players could always have been animating live events. For example, the rescue of Niobe from the pocket construct. Players just never really had an incentive until now.

I'm very excited by the prospect of players getting together to create animated recaps of some of the more interesting Live Events and making them accessible in that way for other players. I mean, why just have one cinematic showing stuff you can't participate in when you could have lots of cinematics that document things that players are achieving every day in the game. Why not a cinematic for that one Cypherite who blew up Old Zion? These things would also make a strong advertisement for MxO. Player videos documenting the big effects players have had on the story.

Unfortunately, I'm no good at drawing or using flash and I don't have a mic or any audio software, so I'm of no use to this cinematic production.

Walrus: It just occured to me, at least in so many words, that you haven't told us anything about the production of MxO.  You didn't tell us about what is coming, only what we have and what we're losing.  That's why this doesn't qualify as a 'Producer's Letter'. 

After reading the whole 17 pages of this topic carefully (took me about 2 hours lol), i see a few facts that can undoubtedly be stated:

1.Concerning Mxo's budget

Regardless of newcomers we get almost everyday (I often go to Uriah to help and answer questions), our player database is on a steady downfall rate, that would probably explain the budget cuts unless some of the people that posted are right about SoE getting all the cash in one spot and deciding where to spend it.
There is the option of making expansions instead of updates ( i'm not talking monthly - bug fixes etc) but new areas like the DM and new (not re-hashed) items.This has its downsides but it could help increase MxO's budget and it will also boost the marketing since magazines and sites like gamespot , IGN ,etc. would definetly advertise it.

2.Cinematics

I understand Rarebit's statement about the leak risk, property laws, rights , etc. but as others have suggested before me,(i think odj), the cinematics could be made after the update, thus leaking being harmless, since we already know the content.There is of course the problem of using 3d likenesses , which would definetly have to be supervised by the devs, but i believe that if a good screenplay is written in advance (i.e.: Hal turns, does this ,says that and explodes - specific character gesturing), the devs' time consumption would be greatly decreased, the rest being up to the editing team (video +audio).All of those volunteers involved in these production would simply need to sign a contract stating their obligations and consequences in case they do not obey what's stated within, kind of like EULA.The difference being, those volunteers would need to provide SoE with verrified personal information (name, location, etc.) to ensure no abuse is made.

 3.Things we lost

 Someone (sry for not remebering who), stated that we've lost alot of things since beta to now.First, i must admit that i wasn't in here for that long, but i am theoretically up to date to most of the things that happened.As far as I know from the people that were here that long, CG was a good thing , since glitchy , ugly, combat animations aren't something people want for their $15. As far as i'm concerned, Rarebit did a great job tweaking them.
Also, from what i've heard, the Voice Actors Union or whatever it is, wanted more money for the provided ressources so they had to let most of the unique voices go.Yes, the Sentinel wasn't updated for a long time now, but i think Paul, however others would consider him, did his best to make the MxO universe enjoyable by all.One has to remember we are only human.Sure, we can all be critics of the devs' work, but this should be done in a more constructive way, throwing dirt at people won't fix anything and besides, most of us couldn't have done a better job (those that could were polite as far as this topic goes).

4.Player involvement.

I agree with Tsusai, MMOs usually don't have this player involvement like we do (LESIG, etc.), but if SoE doesn't give a *CENSORED* about MxO, we do.And if we want this game to stay alive we will do our best to keep it healthy.I think speak for many Matrix and MxO fans out there that feel the same way.Hell, i'd even go do a fund raising to buy MxO from Sony  .If we can gather 1000 people they'll recognize us as a new religion "

I've seen a user's signature saying vote for MxO on an SoE forums poll.Went there, 15% MxO and a few others, 50% or more Vanguard.PoBS had 1%, rest had 0%.I do believe the low percentage on our side is alot more due to the fact that alot of people hate SoE's way of ruining games and don't even go on their forums, besides our player base.As for Vanguard...i guess they didn't have enough time to "fix" that one as well "

Last, but not least, I hope the devs will consider these...bold suggestions that me and the others (e.g. odj) made to help them help this great and unique game stay alive if not making it glorious ".What other game has this community involvement and love MxO does?Which MMO out there has the RP quality and powerful storyline we do?Who has devs that make the storyline in their holidays instead of "/mexico"? Perhaps i can't go around being proud i've seen a hobbit inside the Matrix (lol), or that i'm wielding a glowing stick, but I sure know what the people inside it make out of it and its events, and from my experience with MMOs, nothing compares to it.

Because I choose to.
NeoExcidious

Ok, heres how you stop bitching and moaning about the lack of cinematics, and just get on with it. Recreate one of the pre-exhisting cinematics but in a new format. Take that bloody godawful wireframe bloke one coming out of ascensionfor example. Create a storyboard for shots, long shots wide shots, profile shots etc, plan plan plan.

Then film the in-game environments and put the raw footage into a composition program like AE. Get your crap together, get a great artist onboard to act as a mock animator, create moveable characters that can be easily positioned, create breakdown poses for each character, and basically sling it all together and show the dev team you can create something 10x as better than the original shower of *poop* they put out for the consumer.

End of.

(Post edited for minor language -Jury)

I just have one little question about player made cinematic, if it's going to be in game or 3D, how are y'all going to do the main characters like Niobe, Veil, Merovingian, etc?

Well they would have to be offically sanctioned...Then I'm sure disguise masks would be given to the cinematic team...As most of the main characters are just disguises over generic redpill bodies. As for doing the voice work for them there would be no way to get them to sound like they did.

Before all that we need to get the devs' approval which would mean them getting the approval from SoE (if that's ever gonna happen) and it would mean they're willing to make this sort of...effort.Until that, Mona's right, no cinematics.

NeoExcidious wrote:

Before all that we need to get the devs' approval which would mean them getting the approval from SoE (if that's ever gonna happen) and it would mean they're willing to make this sort of...effort.Until that, Mona's right, no cinematics.

We don't need 'permission' from anyone, we can go out and start making the cinematics right away its just they wouldn't be official.