Hellgate: London

This is not entirely just down to someone having a bad day. If you read his blog post, he mentions in detail many problems that Flagship are having. They are not just a "bad day".
And of course after such negative PR, Flagship would as the first thing they do try to salvage what can be salvaged, and that is what they are doing. To say that Guy's post should be ignored because Flagship always tell the truth is naïve.

I liked Guy Somberg's blog post. He wrote in a well-reasoned manner, which caused sympathy from my side, because he was clearly a loyal employee of Flagship. I interpreted his post as a man resorting to his last means. Under normal conditions he would never have written such a post, because everyone knows it isn't just something that will go unnoticed, but to use a cliché then it was a cry for help. I view it more as a way to internally express his desillusioned mind to his employers, but doing this in an external way. He is someone that don't want to leave Flagship but a low morale over a certain duration of time can force someone to resign.
When saying this, then he is absolutely true:

I was surprised and disappointed at the community's response to my words, which were more directed at my family and friends to describe my state of mind at the time, than to give any sort of insight into the company.

People should not react too heavily to his words, but that doesn't mean they are not true. He should be allowed to express them, but as it is with the internet then everything is blown out of proportion and there is seldom room for subtleties and introvertedness.
 
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Regardless, you still don't know if they are true because all kinds of people rant behind the scenes at any social group (inc work). I'm pretty sure HGL is nowhere near as popular as they hoped that much is true but without working there this means little to nothing as far as I'm concerned.
 
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He is someone that don't want to leave Flagship but a low morale over a certain duration of time can force someone to resign.

What ever the cause for low morale the company still has the same amount of people working.

"In total, we have over 100 employees working for both studios," he said. "As is typical in the industry, after a game is released some people naturally want to work on something else and they leave the company to do so. But in total we have had less than 10 percent turn-over and have rehired for all needed positions," said Brevik.

The original news I read sounded like the company was loosing people and was soon gonna go belly up. Now its just 10 people who were hired to other companies - possibly with better wages - going up the career ladder etc and those 10 empty places were instantly filled with new people.

And I dont see anything special abt that. I myself have changed firms twice in just 6 months for money and career reasons. People in the old job were always bit depressed though to see people leave (me included) but thats life. After you spend certain amount of time in same job you get kinda attached to the place and people in there.
 
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Hellgate's success in the east continues - its the best-selling pc game in Japan currently:

Japan: 1. Hellgate: London (EA Games), 2. Lineage: The Cross Rancor (E-Frontier), 3. Ragnarok Online Summer Package 2008 (E-Frontier), 4. Final Fantasy XI: Vana'diel Collection (Square Enix), 5. The Sims 2: Ikea Home Pack (EA Games).

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=104489

"The Japanese language version of HGL was just released here. Before that you had to jump through hoops to buy an import of HGL or pay through the nose for a North American/European (English) copy.

Which many did, there is a large community of Japanese players on both NA and EU servers. They just do not talk much."


The big patch number 2 is still in works:
The Lowdown on Patch 2.0 and 2.1

Discover that which awaits you in the Abyss, brave Hellgaters! The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) is rapidly taking shape and form and we’re ready to share some of its most exciting offerings with you. As Hellgate: London’s second major content update, the Abyss Chronicles boasts an impressive and lengthy list of new features including a major class rebalance, new environments, new enemies, new skills, new bosses, and new inventory slots . Then there’s the Consignment House, Attribute Respec Vendor, item linking, achievement rewards, and lots more. Suffice to say, the Abyss Chronicle is big. Very big.

Plans are already underway for the patches beyond the Abyss Chronicles. A small content summary for Patch 2.1 has been included as well. This update will open up an entirely new side to Hellgate: London in the form of ranked player versus player (PvP) gameplay. Originally slated for release with the Abyss Chronicles, the decision to release new PvP content as part of a supplemental patch was brought about by a desire to introduce five cohesive elements of PvP in a single update: ranking, matchmaking, rewards, achievements, and Capture The Flag. Together, these features will provide a robust PvP experience within the Hellgate: London universe.

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The Abyss Chronicles (Patch 2) Content Summary

• New Abyss Quest Line with Five New Boss Fights:

o Travel to the all new Parliament Square and help Titus of the Cabal fend off the rapid spread of the Abyss, a new Demonic underground that grows in size as Demonkind consumes more of our world. The only way to halt the Abyss is to seek out and destroy those who control it. Lure the five Abyss Lords from their cursed realm by collapsing their Hellrifts (a new Rift for each of the boss types), then confront the masters as they emerge to investigate the problem. Five repeatable boss runs with five new bosses! Features three new environments and some reworked environments.

• New Shared Stash System:

o The Shared Stash will now feature separate panes for each gameplay mode: Normal, Elite, Hardcore, and Hardcore Elite. Items currently in your Shared Stash will be placed in the correct pane.

• Major Rebalance of the Blademaster Class:

o The Blademaster class has been significantly rebalanced with changes to almost every skill. Overall, they should do more damage and have many more options than before. Some of the highlights include Strength now stacking on top of the skill percent bonuses – a huge boost – and Blademasters can now gain a Surge with any melee attack or with any melee skill (rather than just when killing something with a Surge skill).

• Improved, Configurable Guild Controls:

o Guilds will now have four titles they can assign to members. The titles can be renamed. There can only be one Guild Leader. Non-subscribers can only have the lowest title. The Guild Leader can configure what the middle two titles are allowed to do including invite new members, promote and demote existing members, kick members, and send all-guild e-mail. The lowest title is not allowed to invite, promote, demote, kick, or send guild e-mails.

• Consignment House:

o Players can place items into the Consignment House to offer them for sale at a set price. All players in the same gameplay mode can see and purchase that item. The Consignment House currently only offers a “buy out” price, there is no bidding.

• Three New Skills for all Classes:

o Skill Scrolls are new items which unlock the new skills and allow skill points to be put into them. For example, the Spider Mine Schematic unlocks the Spider Mine skill for Engineers. The Skill Scrolls will be tradable and can be used by all players; however, they drop off of boss monsters in the subscriber-only Abyss levels. Only a few of the skills will be enabled in the first Patch 2 build that goes to Test Center. Here are a couple sample skills to whet your appetite:

1. The Summoner will get a melee demon transformation with zombie minions.

2. The Blademaster will get skills that use up Surges to do things like perform a group heal.

3. The Engineer will get Spider Mines.

• Trinket Inventory Slots:

o There will be two new Trinket inventory slots. The first trinkets will drop as cursed rings which can be cleaned up through the Transmogrifier. These cursed rings will mostly drop in the Abyss levels, but they can be found elsewhere too. These items are tradable and can be used by all players.

• Attribute Respec Vendor:

o Bob, the Attribute Respec Vendor, will allow you to spend palladium to remove points one at a time from an Attribute and add them to your unassigned Attribute Points pool. The cost to remove each point goes up with character level.

• Stack Splitting:

o You will be able to right-click on a stack of items and select to split it into smaller stacks using a new radial menu option. A dialog will pop up and let you type in how many items to place in the new stack.

• Gameplay Changes:

o Character defenses against Secondary Damage Effects have been increased.

o Shield Overload has been removed from sword weapons.

o Strength has a much more significant impact on melee skill damage.

• Item Linking:

o Players will be able to enter a clickable “link” to an item’s details into the chat pane by right-clicking on the item and selecting the Link Item option on the radial menu.

• Achievement Rewards
• New Armor and Weapons for all Factions
• New Monster Types
• New Chat Color Scheme
• Many bug fixes and performance tweaks.
• A few more features yet to be announced.


Patch 2.1 Content Summary

• PvP Ranking
• PvP Matchmaking for Teams and Individuals
• PvP Points and Rewards
• PvP Achievements
• Capture the Flag PvP Game
• Improved predictability and balance for the attribute feed system.

http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=95551
 
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