RIFT: Year Two State of the Game (part one of two)

[intrinsc]

i really wonder who snatched him up. Eso, Titan , Everquest 3 .. all of them would strongly benefit from the hartsman.

I'd see him go with what he knows: Everquest franchise. I doubt he would want to build a new MMO with a new MMO company like Bethesda Online. And, well, Project Titan has a giant team working with it already and already has a direction. Scott seemed like a pretty smart guy with a great view of what he wanted to accomplish and his past experience in EQ, along with his brain, could do great things even if EQ Next is EQ1 with a new engine.

[No Quarter]

I'm not really shocked by this. Trion is still growing, expanding, and defining themselves, so you can't expect anyone to last long until the company is a bit more established, in my opinion.

Why would you get rid of/let go one of the founding members of your company who has been in the mmo industry for almost 15 years.

All this confirms is Trion isn't doing as well as people think they are and he's doing the smart thing and getting out while he can.

I bet tomorrows "update" will say Rift is going free to play.

[Ardor]

Thanks Scott for all you've done to make Rift a great place for us to spend our time. Lots of time. Waaay too much time. Anyhow, thanks! (I think).

[intrinsc]

Why would you get rid of/let go one of the founding members of your company who has been in the mmo industry for almost 15 years.

All this confirms is Trion isn't doing as well as people think they are and he's doing the smart thing and getting out while he can.

I bet tomorrows "update" will say Rift is going free to play.

We don't know the circumstances of his leave and anything anyone says is pure speculation. Knowing that, you can't classify his leaving as a "letting go" or "getting rid of" of anything based on that same premise. Therefore, it invalidates any argument anyone could have against the well-being of Rift.

[lunacat]

This is sad news I think you have done a wonderful job with Rift and I hope the reason you are leaving is for an even greater opportunity elsewhere.
Best of luck with whatever your next project might be Scott, I'll be looking out for it.
Thank you.

[Amethyriel]

We don't know the circumstances of his leave and anything anyone says is pure speculation. Knowing that, you can't classify his leaving as a "letting go" or "getting rid of" of anything based on that same premise. Therefore, it invalidates any argument anyone could have against the well-being of Rift.

yes, but rift will loose quality under even the best and most positive of circumstances, by not having scott around anymore.

[Xillean]

Sad to see you go Scott, I wish for the best for you.

[Ajax1114]

We don't know the circumstances of his leave and anything anyone says is pure speculation. Knowing that, you can't classify his leaving as a "letting go" or "getting rid of" of anything based on that same premise. Therefore, it invalidates any argument anyone could have against the well-being of Rift.

Sometimes, when it comes to logic, all you need is a probable argument.

[intrinsc]

yes, but rift will loose quality under even the best and most positive of circumstances, by not having scott around anymore.

That's not necessarily true. Quality is at the hands of the people making the content. Scott wasn't a content producer. You see where your logic falls? He was a decision maker, and though some of his decisions were great, some were very bad(ID gating, anyone?). Either way, quality has nothing to do with him. If you want to pin quality on him, then he was a terrible leader because some of the content in Rift has been some of the buggiest I've played in 9 years of playing MMOs. That's not the point. He was a great leader and some of the quality that faltered could be blamed on, like I have said before, a growing company that doesn't have everything quite worked out, yet.

Why is Blizzard so good at released quality content patches?

A) They do less of them.

-This is something we take for granted. You want faster content? Prepare to have content that is tested by less people(this is solely based on Rift's smaller population) that will naturally be buggier based on less testing and larger strains on developers.

B) They have been doing it for way longer than Trion.

-Even if Trion is a collection of excellent veterans and young up-and-comers, they can not replace experience working together over years.

All in all, I don't think quality can suffer from this and is solely in the hands of Daglar, now. I have a feeling Daglar has been in charged long before today's letter from Mr.Hartsman. He has been everywhere! In this time, I have experienced one very memorable bug: Crucia. On top of that, we have souls that have not worked as intended for over a month.

This is par for the course, but he has shown, through some moves in class devs, that he is a guy that can call the shots and employees clearly respect because they do what he wants. But, as with all games, these things evolve and change over time, so if new class specs are less hybrids than today doesn't mean in 2.5 that hybrids won't make a come back. In that regard, class changes don't concern me much.

[Slipmat]

Why would you get rid of/let go one of the founding members of your company who has been in the mmo industry for almost 15 years

From the Rift Wiki page, not the definitive source but have to go with what you get

rion Worlds, Inc. was founded as Trion World Network by Lars Buttler and Jon Van Caneghem in 2006. Buttler formerly worked for EA as vice president for global online, while Caneghem was an Executive Producer at NCSoft

Scott gets listed as:

Scott Hartsman, Chief Creative Officer and Producer.

Full source >> http://telarapedia.com/wiki/Trion_Worlds

[Thedarkside]

He must of saw how terrible pvp was. Any ways i'll miss you dag we had some good fun times

[Nadili]

I have no words I am very sad panda.

Scott was the reason I came to Rift best of luck in your next project.

Russ Brown for President!!

[Balmore]

Thank you Scott, and good luck in whatever you will be doing! :-)

[Akerling]

NOES!

Atleast give us a Traditional Scott Heartsmans Leather Jacket for wardrobes!

[drkdragon909]

While it is sad to see Scott go i see this as the logical step in the games life. Yes he was a great lead and will always have a great amount of credit for what rift is, even in the future, as he helped build it. I believe that what Scott was for rift was someone who was meant to get it together finished out into the world and make sure it learns how to walk on its own, after that you have to let your kid grow up and become its own entity you cant baby it forever. He will be missed because he was so experienced and smart but at the same time that experience can stunt an mmos growth by sticking too much to what is "known".

Whatever your future holds Scott i hope that it is fun lucrative and satisfying and from me and i would assume most of the community, THANK YOU!