Scott Hartsman returns to Trion, takes CEO role

Ayeshala_sl said:

Thread worthy I thought.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08...akes-ceo-role/

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Wow. I didn't see that coming. I wonder what this means for Rift and Trion's future MMO plans.

You can expect another incredibly hyped MMO that will turn out to be junk like Rift.

I hope he has an idea for a MMO. B/c people really give him a ton of credit so I want to see how he runs something from start to finish. I've said it before that I didn't agree with some of his philosophies but opinions change overtime. I guess i'm just not as sold on him yet as others are.

Yea, hard to deny his ability to run a team and transparency which was appreciated during rift

I would've been more excited if he was replacing Smed. Of course, this type of experience definitely puts him on track to do so in the future.

I would let a drunken janitor replace smed =)

I can't wait to be disappointed by their next distillation of a popular product.

yeah.. I would like to see Scott push out a MMO in this role just lay to rest the question of his credibility.

Agree with others that I would like to see Smed or Georgeson replace with Scott but we'll see how it turns out. I thought Rift was a great game. Probably the best beta and release i've ever ben a part of to date. Also agree it was simply just something already done.

Utnayan_sl said:

Definitely a good thing. But Trion has changed dramatically since when Rift was being developed.

I would probably be more excited if he was in charge of game development rather than runninng the entire organization. I still think it is good though as his management has always been top notch, people like working for him, and he puts the customer first.

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But will they relaunch rift as it should have been with true dynamic content ? They really missed the mark when the decision was made to scrap that approach... RIFT would stand much taller if it was about the dynamic content and open world pvp around that..

Technology is there.... perhaps ?

hmmm...

Krassus_sl said:

You can expect another incredibly hyped MMO that will turn out to be junk like Rift.

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Rift was pretty damn good I thought. Just the same ol ' same ol' was the problem.

For me as a tank it was a bad game and I realize im in a smaller %. Most of my guild and friends enjoyed the hell out of it and I did to some extent.

The things that really made it bad for me was multiclassing that was horribly done. As a tank we were pidgeon holed into primarily Pal / R / VK from Alpha --> RoS and who knows after that I quit by then. The raids were tested months before release and nothing was done to fix major issues reported. The nerfs to dungeons which I can agree overall was a good decision for the majority of people but for us rose glass wearing kids I preferred the challenge. It made winning actually feel like you accomplished something and the loot matter more (I love loot). The rifts failed horribly, invasions were supposed to be landscape changing and innovative and ended up a flat gimmick.

I wonder how much money these guys have and what they are working on. Rift and Defiance sold well but not in the money-hats territory, and Defiance has probably not even come close to making money. End Of Nations, their MOBA (retooled from Rise of Nations) is in alpha right now.

Archeage, a korean MMO, is being published by them sometime this year (already out in Korea) and may be what he thinks as the formula for success: take MMOs from other countries and publish them as f2p in America. Development risk is minimized heavily, you get to leverage the expertise you have in MMO launches and cash shops and customer service and f2p. However, BlueHole has tried this with TERA and hasn't had much financial success either.

Incoming Rift NextT announcement..

Good for him though. Never did get a good vibe from Lars Butler. He was pretty cocky.

ThunderCougarFalconBird_sl said:

Never did get a good vibe from Lars Butler. He was pretty cocky.

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Lars was the founder and did put some of his cash down to start the company. He also brought in Hartsman to be his tech/creative guy. Butler was a former EA executive, and part of me wonders how much of their crappy corporate mentality he brought to the table. If I had to guess, I'd say Hartsman was never sold on Defiance and that might have hastened his departure in a political fight with others. The fact Defiance somewhat tanked and they laid off most of their staff probably opened up the Board's eyes on things.

Bringing Scott back to Trion is a good thing, in my opinion. I hope he can build a nextgen MMO, but really he might be focused more on making Rift more profitable.

Is Lars still at Trion?

Krassus_sl said:

I would let a drunken janitor replace smed =)

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LOL. I wouldn't go that far, but yes I think Smed has made some pretty bad decisions on his watch but he keeps getting lucky, so I don't see him going anytime soon.