I wanted to just post this in hopes that SOE Executives will read it, (Which I highly doubt!).

 Dear SOE,

     I am writing this post in hope to give you some feedback, and reality of your current situation.  I deeply love the forums, and I hope you will be working hard on it over the next few days (as in overtime work).  I just do not see why you couldn't simply purchase VBulletin or something like that.  VBulletin has been tested for basically over 2 years or more and it is very stable and reliable and it is definitely WORTH every penny to purchase instead of trying to code from scratch some forums.  The only reason why I think you didn't is because of Marketing or Human Resources.  I think that something is deeply wrong with SOE when the only influence or basically anything connected to your websites/forums is because they are not SOE employees. 

      I just do not see your employees (Webmasters) putting any effort into the SOE websites.  I think if you gathered up a bunch of paying customers who can code great websites a chance to make a website which should be the OFFICIAL website for a game, and I would guarantee it would be updated.  I have not seen one update on the MxO website since Gosh I don't know how long.  The only thing that EVER gets updated are announcements.  But other than announcements I believe the website now is just a waste of good resources.  I personally don't think paying customers get the quality of communication they should be.  I don't know where to go if I want to ask SOE a question, and since your home website never gets routinely updates it is just amazing that you have the money to purchase games and yet not hire a dedicated webmaster(s). 

    What is the money going toward?  I think if you calculate MxO of having 30,000 members currently active and times it by $15 a month/customer that is a pretty good sized cash amount per month. (Roughly $450,000 per month!)  I do not know exactly what the servers cost per month, but the MxO team needs more manpower in it's grips.  The current team does an excellent job with the resources they are given, but the game needs to just get better than it already is.  The current team knows it needs to get better but they have their time limited with what they can and cannot do.  Now if you have lets say 40 people working on MxO and each get about $60,000 a year salary.  That would be  $2,400,000 a year.  And since MxO has about $450,000/month and times 12 that is $5,400,000 a year.  I don't know how many people are on the MxO team, but if there is/were 40 people working on MxO, I would like to know where the extra $3,000,000 goes?  And if the servers cost $1 Million a year that still leaves $2 Million left.  I just would really like to see SOE's budget and what money is being spent on, because obviously it isn't spent on Forums/Website Updates/Or Expanding Current staff on games.  (I remember when we had a Live Event Team   ) 

    But to end it all, I still think SOE is a good company, but it just has to many flaws.  I remember back in Monolith days when SOE was going to buy MxO.  I was like "I love the idea that SOE bought the game, then maybe the team will get bigger since it is SONY.  And I think this will be a great change for MxO to have since SOE sounds like a promising company.".  So please still make this a true statement, because the road we are heading on just keeps getting bumpier and bumpier and I am just seeing a river ahead with no bridge.  So to anyone who reads this please take my concern in thought, I hope that SOE will read my message which is just my own opinions. 

 

 Sincerely another Customer,

 

 

Frink

 

"All the statements made in this post are by a sole individual, this individual is entitled to his opinion as the 1st Amendment grants him to.  This individual's statement should be represented with the up-most respect and as optimistic as possible.  It is NOT this individual's motive to hurt anyone's feelings, but to rather get his feelings out.  This individual in NO WAY represents any party, group, affiliation, clan, faction, crew, religion, gang, or archivist.  This individual takes full responsibility in which he says.  This is not a /rant but just an /opinion or /feedback to SOE about his personal feelings."  ~ I hope some customers will smile because we see this way to much.

First of all, you do realize that executives get in huge trouble if they were to give any forward-telling statements, like "SOE plans to scavenge all it can from games like MxO and move those resources to its future untitled DC comics project that will take advantage of all the positive features of MxO." 

Second, I doubt that this game has seen 30k active accounts even after it sold 40,000 units.  You must understand WB thought they could hype up a crowd of WoW size without copying what makes WoW...WoW.   Again, just dumping money in the garbage.  I think this game only exists today to recoup the monies invested.  That's it.

Third, MxO isn't a game on its own anymore.    It's a game in a portfolio of games otherwise known as Station Access or Station Pass.  This creates a problem for a game that only targeted matrix fans and found gamers with high-end computers.  It's obvious WB (as usual) didn't do their homework to figure out, "How many matrix fans had high-end computers (which was apparent if they were on the forums at the time, they would have learned that the same ppl who would sit on the forums for hours didn't have a computer that could withstand the game's requirements).   I don't think they figured out how much bandwidth costs as this game's beautiful graphics would come at a cost to the company that maybe the market can't handle i.e. recoup bandwidth costs for the company (esp. if the revenues don't go directly to the game).  I think WB figured they could piggy-back on AOL (not sure, it just makes sense).  As WB investors began to complain about its executives propensity to dump money into "Broadband Operations" (AOL and other operations such MxO), it became quite apparent that this was impossible.   SOE took this license and the licenses of other working titles.

But, this game still has the same computer and bandwidth requirements.  This leaves us with a choice keep the game apart from station pass, if the players get ticked off because their best buddy is kicked off for exploiting the game, (which has happened several times), allow it to die if it never gets fixed.  Or, put it on SOE welfare...cut cost, get rid of devs, and, make sure that this game becomes profitable before the world ends.

And, this is where we are.

Please stop mentioning LET that was a totally different company and situation. Where does all the money go?  I suspect it all goes into operations.  I think what keeps this game afloat with "additional development" is the advertising.  Reasons to not use Vbulletin: increased costs, lack of control.  Of course, many ppl who make websites for a living could make a better website that's not the issue.  A person who could make a better website than most could also put in a "god" module that could be difficult to find for those who are not concerned with web design.  Again, a control issue.

Thats an picture from www.mmogchart.com
I had calculatet something.
15$ x 30.000 = 450.000$

Of the team we know Walrus, Raijin, Brenlo, Baelish, Rarebit, TheJurimen, Penguin, Serenity,  Ryujin, TSR-Bill, TSR-DavidK, TSR-CoryS,
Let us say they get each 2500$, thats a nice loan in my eyes.
12 x 2.500$ = 30.000$

So, now to the Servers..... I had looked at Gameserver Hosts and I had found one who sells the servers for any game, 32 players per server and inclusive the traffic for 100$/month.
30.000 / 32 = 937,5 Servers (These are normal Servers, not mmo Servers!)
937,5 x 100 = 93.750$

So, now let us calculate all together.

450.000$ - 30.000$ - 93.750$ = 326.250$

For one Year it is 3.915.000$
I had asked my self too where they realy do spend all the money in..... I mean ok, updates needs time, but it isnt all the updates. It is the small amount of good events, the content and for everyone outside us the high lag.
For me, here in germany I have a Ping of 200-400ms -.-

SOE=/=Sony. SOE is a private company. No investors, no financial reports that have to be published, etc.

I believe SOE is owned by Sony Pictures. You may be able to find out info about SOE through that information, but I highly doubt you'll find anything relating to SOE in the general Sony filings you linked to.

I'm thinking the talent charged with making these games make a few bucks more than 60k.  That may seem like a lot to some but it's really not.  As I understood it, the forums were changed into order to be able to take control of it themselves and be able to to upgrades as they want... changes as they want.