Some guesses made from ignorance
Jagex does not tell us how they run their company and they have no reason to. But it is kinda fun to try and guess why Jagex is doing some of the things it is doing . . . even when the answers are unpleasant.
Some dots:
1. Jagex got a new CEO late last year. (Geoff Iddison came over from PayPal)
http://www.developmag.com/news/28689/PayPal-exec-becomes-Jagex-CEO
2. Jagex made several heavy handed changes to the game to prevent real-world-trading and to reduce credit card fraud.
3. Jagex failed to make it's announced deadline for the second half of the new Summoning skill, which was due in February
4. Jagex announces an entirely new business, Funorb, which is also due in February.
Connecting the dots.
What is Funorb? It is a new thing Jagex is doing for the casual gamer. It will start with 18 new games, some of them shallow, some of them deep, none of them having anything to do with Runescape. They say they will release an additional two games every month. Games are not just whipped up overnight, they take time to create so Jagex has been working on this stuff for a long time.
I think there has been a physiological shift in the thinking and planing within the company. They realize that RS will not last forever, so the company needs to look for the next area to grow into. They also know that RPG sequels can not save the franchise. In other words, Jagex feels they have to grow away from Runescape. RS is a cash cow which will fund investment in the next new thing (Funorb).
If Jagex felt that their future rested in Runescape then they would treat it with caution: "Don't rock the boat", "Don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg", and so on. But if they think of Funorb as the future then RS is less important. They look for ways to reduce the cost of keeping RS going (cut RWT, credit card fraud, reduce customer service, and so on). If the future (Funorb) and the past (Runscape) are both having difficulties meeting deadlines in February then you move resources away from RS and shift them to Funorb in order to make sure Funorb has a successful launch.
I believe Jagex saw that RS membership had peaked, so they have put the product on the slow track. It will still be maintained and updated, but it will not get the best developers, or the most attention.
Some of what they have done recently makes sense in this light. From a business perspective it seems like the right choice. From a players perspective it sucks.
Funorb links:
http://www.jagex.com/
http://www.funorb.com/
http://www.funorbworld.com/media/gallery/
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8858&Itemid=50
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17136
Funorb shots:
Some dots:
1. Jagex got a new CEO late last year. (Geoff Iddison came over from PayPal)
http://www.developmag.com/news/28689/PayPal-exec-becomes-Jagex-CEO
2. Jagex made several heavy handed changes to the game to prevent real-world-trading and to reduce credit card fraud.
3. Jagex failed to make it's announced deadline for the second half of the new Summoning skill, which was due in February
4. Jagex announces an entirely new business, Funorb, which is also due in February.
Connecting the dots.
What is Funorb? It is a new thing Jagex is doing for the casual gamer. It will start with 18 new games, some of them shallow, some of them deep, none of them having anything to do with Runescape. They say they will release an additional two games every month. Games are not just whipped up overnight, they take time to create so Jagex has been working on this stuff for a long time.
I think there has been a physiological shift in the thinking and planing within the company. They realize that RS will not last forever, so the company needs to look for the next area to grow into. They also know that RPG sequels can not save the franchise. In other words, Jagex feels they have to grow away from Runescape. RS is a cash cow which will fund investment in the next new thing (Funorb).
If Jagex felt that their future rested in Runescape then they would treat it with caution: "Don't rock the boat", "Don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg", and so on. But if they think of Funorb as the future then RS is less important. They look for ways to reduce the cost of keeping RS going (cut RWT, credit card fraud, reduce customer service, and so on). If the future (Funorb) and the past (Runscape) are both having difficulties meeting deadlines in February then you move resources away from RS and shift them to Funorb in order to make sure Funorb has a successful launch.
I believe Jagex saw that RS membership had peaked, so they have put the product on the slow track. It will still be maintained and updated, but it will not get the best developers, or the most attention.
Some of what they have done recently makes sense in this light. From a business perspective it seems like the right choice. From a players perspective it sucks.
Funorb links:
http://www.jagex.com/
http://www.funorb.com/
http://www.funorbworld.com/media/gallery/
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8858&Itemid=50
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17136
Funorb shots:
posted by Knifestorm at 12:44 PM
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