Flav wrote on Jun 5^th, 2015 at 1:20pm:



They own multiple game companies.  IIRC from their annual report Turban rolls up into a larger video game/entertainment umbrella.

which was outlined by arkat in the very next post to which I replied.   

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:

Sounds a lot like a "no fire" clause got worked into his contract as part of the WB buy-out.

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:


I have heard this phrase before, in my experience it translates to:

"I have lent the son of a bitch a large some of my personal money and know if I fire him I will never see it again."

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:


Would be pretty easy to get naked pictures of your boss if they knew your schedule, made the mistake of thinking you were going to follow it, and proceeded to pound some hole in your own damn bed. /tinfoil hat off.

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:


Have you commited to co-op yet?

Munkenmo wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 9:19pm:


no...but my gut says it will happen.

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:


I'm curious why you felt MOTU was a clusterfuck from your perspective.
I know players have mixed thoughts about it destroying the lvl 20 end game and such, but I thought it injected a bit of newness to the game which I thought had begin to stagnate.
What part did F play in the MOTU strategy?  Selling it to VIPs by calling it an expansion?

majmalphunktion wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 7:33pm:


That euphemism has numerous connotations.
Regardless of what it is, it looks like he is entrenched.
Perhaps his organisational and industry knowledge is too valuable to lose? 

Sounds like it will take a change of mgmt to remove him, but only if the new manager is strong enough to not allow professional ass kissers on the team.

Hiding wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 10:57pm:


Fernando Paiz.
His wife Kate Paiz was producer on DDO which saw the start of the decline in DDO, and then she was "promoted" to LOTRO Producer where she summarily destroyed that game too.
Not sure where they are in the orgn now.

With any luck, they'll get flushed out when IC closes.

Hiding wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 10:57pm:

Fernando: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=677OoDGU0ig

That's him, successfully convincing WB management, apparently, that customers are not being sold a service or a product. They are victims, and the best monetary investment strategy is to punish them for trying to enjoy a game. They will actually respond to punishment by giving more money, in the vain delusion that this money will go towards improving the game. Because (ha ha!), they think they're purchasing a product.


DropBear wrote on Jun 6^th, 2015 at 11:21pm:

He's answered this before. (I'm going from memory, so it's likely I'm missing or misattributing some key elements.):

MOTU ushered in a host of new behind-the-scenes software issues, by being built on top of existing architecture, rather than working with it or changing it. MOTU itself didn't show the degradation of performance, because much of it was built while the kludge system was being developed to stick on top. Subsequent releases were all hugely impacted.

That's independent of how the quests/destinies/lootz/end game were affected, and whether the player base liked the changes.

Hiding wrote on Jun 7^th, 2015 at 1:24am:

I'd enjoy it more. But difficulty is not really the issue. Difficulty is a means. Enjoyment is the issue.






That's what makes Fernando's approach so deadly to gaming: According to his approach, enjoyment is an unnecessary and expensive feature to provide. Far easier to provide a MacGuffin to grind for, and make that grind as endless as possible. Random, rather than predictable rewards cause players (and rats) to stick with it longer. This is exactly why they think they can succeed in the mobile market. Players aren't having fun, but they're coughing up money anyway. Being able to eliminate what the customer wants is a dream come true for any businesses.






In the Paiz business model, customers are expected to leave, and there is no return plan. Customers are not viewed as a renewable resource, nor are they viewed as possessing even rudimentary herd intelligence. If one cow drinks from a stagnant pool, finds it's pretty salty, and only drinks from that pool until it dies, the other cows in the herd never go near that pool. Far worse if the cow mentions it just realized what an insufferable cauldron of shit it was drinking before it dies.






I think Fernando's been successful in one aspect: DDO customers coughed up more cash before leaving. The unsuccessful part is that Fernando assumed the product was shit to begin with. So Infinite Crisis, logically, started out as shit. LoTRO and DDO have been systematically and inexorably turned into shit. Customers reach levels of tolerance for shit that they would never have reached otherwise, but the consequence is a non-renewable customer base.






Paiz' business model is the strip-mining of the video game industry.

Hiding wrote on Jun 7^th, 2015 at 1:24am:


I can't say that I know Kate well enough to make that type of character assassination of her, and to be honest her gender is irrelevant in my assessment.
If the other bitch you refer to is Sev_Pay, then I'll roll with that because he's obviously someone's (or everyone's) bitch.
I base my criticism only on observable performance over time.  Unfortunately we have no idea whether Kate, F virus or they're both equally as appalling at understanding customer needs.

I've said it before, the sad thing is that even drug dealers have more concern for their customers than the Paiz's - because drug dealers at least they understand the concept of return business.

Regarding WB booting them, my strong suspicion is Paiz's know how to talk the talk, so the 25yr MBA suits from corporate (with STa experience) will come in and hear the Paiz's tell them exactly what they want to hear and they'll probably get promoted.  F virus hasn't survived this long without having adapted to corporate game playing.

If they happen to send someone on with a bit of experience in dealing with BS artists, then we might have a different story.  Fingers crossed.

DropBear wrote on Jun 7^th, 2015 at 4:06am:


Hey, it's WB, maybe they'll make it pay per view! I'd kick in a few bucks to see that. Or like America's Got Talent  - our votes count.

Set up opposing kickstarters, the "Keep F" and "Boot F" factions, and the one that gets more pledges wins, the losers get their money refunded. We don't know which faction won until the end of the interview, where we get to see his reaction on live TV.

Talk about monitization!

Revaulting wrote on Jun 7^th, 2015 at 3:36am:


I Liken his tatics more akin to casino tactics. they fleece you fast and hard. While they all have loyalty type programs to entice the regular hardcore gamblers to stay loyal, they don't really care if folks visit a different casino the next time since their player attrition will be reciprocated by other casino's losses.