Editorial Section: Perhaps this will seem a bit odd to going live on Christmas Day (here in the States, anyway), but it's one of those things that I've been working on for about four months now, and feel like it's about as good as it's going to get. It's articles and interviews like this one that really drive home the realization that I have indeed become a writer. I'm sure some will think that just because I've been doing this for so long that I should somehow 'feel' like a writer, but oddly enough, I don't usually feel like a writer. But when something this amazing, this large, and this... impressive comes my way I simply have to sit back and enjoy the awesome. And rest assured, this is an awesome opportunity for me. The person whom I was able to interview was once an integral member of the MTGO team, he was a programmer known mostly as 'elf'. If you've been around MTGO for a while, you'll know the name. If you're a newcomer that's only really experienced V3, you may not. Either way, kick back, grab the popcorn, and enjoy!
Basics:
Erik Friborg: First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself. What is your name and who are you?
Michael Feuell: My name is Michael Feuell, and probably most know me by my online handle "elf". I am a software developer and a gamer. I started playing Magic when it came out, and was a level 3 judge for the Pro Tour. Around 2004 I joined Wizards of the Coast as a Software Developer. I have 2.5 kids and live in Bellevue.
EF: What was your job title and what did you do for WotC and MTGO?
elf: My title was Lead Developer and Game Development Manager. I was in charge of the software development and managing of the software development teams. I started with Magic the Gathering, added Dungeon and Dragons, and when we split into separate studios, I chose to go with the D&D side where I felt I was needed more.
EF: How long, roughly, were you involved with MTGO?
elf: About four years, from the Champions of Kamigawa Block until the release of V3.
EF: There were reportedly two teams in WotC during the V2 and V3 parallel development time. Which team were you on?
elf: I was on the V2 team, also known as the "live" team. Just before V3's release, I acquired the V3 client team as well.
EF: What was your most rewarding experience with MTGO?
elf: Being recognized for the effort I had made and being placed in charge of the team. My first act was to hire 3 new developers, all of them MTGO players as well as software developers.
EF: What was your most cringe-worthy experience with MTGO?
elf: Finding out that none of the v3 team played Magic. I was stunned. We set up sessions for people to be paid to play just so that they could learn the game. Some put some effort in, others not so much. I still think one of the most important things you need as a game developer is some subject matter expertise. Fortunately, the current team all plays and loves the game.
Technical:
EF: When you were working on V2, there were many, many issues of instability. In addition, seemingly none of the 'fixes' was able to keep the instability at bay. Was the true culprit ever known, and if so, what was it?
elf: The true culprit was bad management. The day they let my old boss go, I was just a bit happy. There had been an executive order to "not waste any resources fixing v2 while we had v3 in development". The theory being any time and money spent on v2 was a waste as it was being replaced soon. For four years, they told me "soon". The last 6 months of v2 being around we were finally allowed to try to address some of the instability, but we never had it as a high enough goal or sufficient resources to really give it the effort it needed.
Probably the biggest technical culprit was the size of people's collections and the way the old master server would cache them. If we could have reduced the number of cards in people's collections it would have had a large impact.
EF: There was a hard cap of users on the V2 server. Bots + players counted toward that limit. Were there any measures taken to reduce the bot impacts on V2?
elf: There were many steps taken during the release events. We had scripts and customer service reps tracking down bots, and people with multiple log-ins. There were client changes to prevent multiple log-ins, but for the most part outside of release events the user cap was not an issue.
EF: What was the stance on bots from a programming perspective?
elf: From a programming perspective it was neutral. The concern was a community one. Did they provide a service? Were they annoying? In general, people like the bots and the service they provide, while at the same time not liking the spam that they did. Most of the larger online merchants I talked to said that in game spam really did not help them any. The chief culprits were annoying small fry. I did what I could to add chat and text filters to the client so you could ignore the spam.
As far as bots that were writing their own clients, we had from a legal perspective protection that it was a big no no. But I spoke with many of the bot writers and the general feeling from my end was that what they were doing was pretty cool. Our servers were robust enough so they were not able to cause any harm.
EF: The stability of the servers on V3 seems much better, however, there are still a lot of bugs. Namely around trading and the escrow system. How did the escrow system get approved?
elf: I wasn't asked.
EF: Why was trading and account content details built around the escrow system in the first place?
elf: I honestly had very little to do with V3, and was pushing for it to be outright canceled, never mind delayed, up until I switched to the D&D studio. It was my opinion that we would have been better off scrapping it and working on v4. An opinion that was shared by many, but in the end not enough of the key players.
EF: Was V2 done with an escrow system?
elf: V2 was a number of hacks on top of the existing system that had been built in cooperation with Leaping Lizard. Many of the original design decisions made sense for the scope they were dealing with, which were essentially small 1000 person servers with limited size collections. It was recognized early that V2 could not scale with either the customer growth or the collection growth.
EF: WotC folk (such as Worth and Gordon) have admitted to the original team being overwhelmed with the work needed for a fully in house product. Who was in charge of making the call to go in house and how was it approved? Meaning that if the team that was tasked to create V3 wasn't up to the task, who decided that they were and how did it get through management?
elf: It's one of the age old software engineering problems. A weak developer, no matter how much work they output, is going to slow down a project. The core problem here was in hiring cheap developers instead of good ones. There was a constant fight at wizards over developer pay. Much of my team and I took 50% pay-cuts from previous jobs to work on Magic because we loved the product. There were many other developers though who were just happy to have a job. The bulk of them are no longer with Wizards.
You also have a problem of hindsight here. It's a lot easier to look back and say "we had the wrong staff" than it is to look ahead and know before they do it, what the staff you have can't do. That said, Alan and I from the beginning were complaining about what we expected to happen.
EF: In your opinion, how much work would it be to plug a collection server into the current V3 architecture, assuming the team was dedicated to the task?
elf: There's not a whole lot that could not be accomplished by the right people working on dedicated projects without interference. You will notice that there are a whole lot of qualifiers in that statement. Wizards' current hiring freeze is certainly going to hurt attempts to get more staff on board.
EF: A frequent complaint from the players is that as WotC fixes something it breaks something else. In my experience, this usually indicates version control issues and/or communication inefficiency. In your opinion, was this an issue on the development team?
elf: This might be a can of worms problem. The more the team was looking into V3 to fix what had been handed over the more we found problems in the code, and even worse problems in the underlying design.
EF: The new UI is slated to be done in WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). The WPF helps guide developers to good practices, however, there are still a myriad of ways in which it can be done incorrectly. Do you feel that this move is a correct move overall?
elf: I've been hacking with WPF the past couple years now and I've found that even when you do things wrong, it's still better. I look back at what we did with the D&D Character Builder and I wish I could change so many things. It was our first WPF product and a learning experience and yet it managed to win an award for its user interface design. Something I am particularly proud of. Another great team.
My one hope for the next client is that they manage to separate the functionality from the presentation sufficiently to allow a client customizations community to build up. We have some amazingly creative people in our player base. Give them the tools to make something fantastic and they will.
EF: When the plug was being pulled on V2... what were your concerns?
elf: That we would alienate and lose a significant portion of the customers. That we would lose profit, and correspondingly that we would lose jobs. All three of which happened.
EF: Do you know what happened to the old V2 servers? Re-tasked, destroyed, encased in lucite?
elf: The physical hardware? I do not know. I would imagine we simply stopped paying to use it and it was re-purposed. I do not actually know.
EF: Are there any other technical items you would like to share with the public at this time?
elf: I've said it a million times. Do not blame the current developers if there is something you don't like about Magic Online. Chances are no one asked the developers for their opinion.
Gleemax:
EF: Gleemax, gleemax, gleemax.... just how far did the gleemax implosion damage go?
elf: Pretty far. At the end of the day I'm ultimately out of a job because of the lack of success of a product I was not associated with.
EF: How bad were the effects on WotC and the MTGO teams when Gleemax was scrapped?
elf: It hurt in a number of ways; financially most obviously. We also ended up with some reorganization. Policy wise it meant a massive increase in new procedures and paperwork associated with everything we did. A lot of new overhead was introduced to try to enact some measure of accountability.
EF: Many people, including the upper management at the time, were let go during the scuttling of the Gleemax project. Have you kept in touch with any of them?
elf: I stay in touch with many of my friends from Wizards, regardless of what project they were working on. There were a lot of surprises at which people were being let go; amazingly talented people. In many ways it felt like a lot of the people being let go were the visionaries and we what we kept on board were the hard workers.
EF: Is there anything else you'd like to say about the Gleemax initiative?
elf: Gleemax was a textbook example of trying to do too much at once. Instead of starting with the core ideas and building outwards, massive amounts of funds went into creating an infrastructure to support projects and customers that we did not yet have. At the end of the day, we didn't even get the infrastructure.
Wrapping up:
EF: If you had to do the whole situation over again, is there anything you'd handle differently? If so, what would it be?
elf: It's hard to say. At the end of the day, I'm out of a job because I made too much noise about what I saw as wrong directions. Rocking the boat is rarely a smart move. Executives don't like to be told they're doing it wrong. When it comes back to them that they were in fact wrong they really don't like that there was someone on staff that had pointed it out.
Would I have done things differently? Unlikely. I was passionate about my job, the product, the people I worked with. I would not want to change that. I'm really proud of the staff I worked with and the efforts we did. When people found out I was let go I was really moved not just from the reaction in the public, but by the reaction internally as well.
EF: What are you working on now?
elf: A number of small freelance products. I've been looking at local game companies and at Microsoft. Most of my friends that left Wizards moved out of state to take new jobs, but I'm tied to the local area and will be here for some time I think.
EF: What are your plans going forward for the next 12 to 18 months?
elf: More freelance work. If I can find an interesting start up, or a position with a game company I might take it. I'm clearly disappointed with working for public companies where the stock price is more important than the people, the product, or the customers. If I find something that I'm excited about I would I would not turn away.
EF: Knowing that your former colleagues at WotC are going to see this interview, is there anything you'd like to say to them? Any words of warning/encouragement to the folks that are there now?
elf: It's tough to say. The folk that remained behind are really great people. They have some challenges ahead of them. Nothing that they can't handle work wise. The biggest challenges will be organizing it all into realistic time lines.
EF: Anything in general you'd like to add to these questions?
elf: It was a privilege to be able to work on Magic Online and interact with all the players, dealers, and staff. I really enjoyed my time there.
Discussion Items: A reflection on 2009 -
Algona has started his yearly tradition thread regarding the year in summation on the MTGO boards and for MTGO. Great read and great place to say hello to the fellow players.
No more promo cards for events! -
Props to Sir_Bruce for catching this, as I completely missed it. He has pointed out that soon promo cards will ONLY be available from MOPR's. There haven't been any more details about this change yet, but I'll let everyone know if anything else gets pointed out!
No resolution yet for TSP Bonus Redemption -
We're still in a holding pattern after Worth's statement that he's looking into what can be done. Until then we'll just have to wait patiently to get some sort of response from someone with the authority to do something.
MTGO Event Notifier -
This is a pretty cool program posted by Plejades on the WOtC forums. It's essentially the biggest missing piece of Client side functionality to date... namely the ability to be prompted that something besides a game action has happened on MTGO.
Promos re-distributed? -
You know that ultra cool promo you love in your collection? Well, essentially that card can be regranted and tied to anything WotC wants. Enjoy!
Card price discussion:
This week we saw some more of the same as last week, namely, Extended staples are CLIMBING quickly, what with the insane amount of awesome that is going to be involved with Extended on MTGO. And I have to admit that I've been bitten by the bug as well and have started compiling lists and decks for the format, hoping to sneak in some early season points for my MOCS goals and maybe even get in on a PTQ or two, who knows?
As far as non-Extended climbers, namely a couple of chase cards from Exodus are in the list. Also, Blastoderm and Obsidian Fireheart round out the price increasing cards. Fireheart seems like a decent card in the Mono Red Burn decks floating around in that he's a solid beater, punishes control decks, and is easy to cast when your deck is all mountains...
For the droppers... a lot of the Exodus chaff is falling like rocks. Also the alternate art Serra avatar is dropping in anticipation of this weekend's FREE Momir Basic tournament. Look for her, and all the other expensive avatars, to drop fast over this weekend. Everything else that fell is Classic based, and pretty interesting, if not kind of expected by this point. I mean, fewer Classic events firing, no Prismatic needs, and 100 Card Singleton being the 'other' Classic format with support is kind of putting the pressure on the card prices to maintain their value.
Instead of the regular Ham Jones charts, I'll show off a requested chart: the timeline of card value with the Pauper queues firing and redemption coming back being pointed out. Below, you'll see the results of that chart. The first red vertical line is Pauper queues, the second red line is redemption "coming back". Notice the huge jump in Commons from the Pauper queues... also notice the second jump after the redemption process returns. Next week, I'll delve into the actual sets that were part of that jump (as in, I'll break down which sets gained value and when). However, based on what I've seen so far, constructed support helped regain a lot of demand for cards, but redemption, even if it's just a psychological improvement, really impacts the overall demand on MTGO's secondary market. Of course, there is some overlap on those timelines, so next week's chart regarding the exact sets that moved will be even more
enlightening
.
Tournaments:
The huge FREE Momir Basic tournament is coming this weekend, and it's sure to tank the prices of all the avatars on MTGO.
CCC Momir Basic Tournament
START TIME: December 27, 9:00 am PST / 1700 UTC
SIZE: 33 players minimum, 2048 players maximum.
DURATION: 6 rounds of Swiss play
LOCATION: Premier Events room
PRODUCT: Momir basic deck (60 basic lands and Momir avatar) required.
ADMISSION: FREE – No Event Tickets or other product is required.
PRIZE SUPPORT: Prizes are based on the total match points at the end of the tournament. Each match win awards 3 points and each loss awards 0 points.
Points
Product Prize
18
25 MTGO Avatars (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
15
12 MTGO Avatars (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
12
9 MTGO Avatars (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
9
5 MTGO Avatars (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
6
3 MTGO Avatars (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
3
1 MTGO Avatar (winner’s choice of any previously released avatars)*
Conclusion:
I hope that you all have a safe and happy holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas or any other specific event, I hope that you all are safe and take the time to get through this season, and these times, in one piece. We're all in this together.
Great article. I love the interview. We kind of know what management they have and hope that they have corrected the problem. Unfortunatly we will only know when all what they are doing is fixed( UI, Collection server and others)
State of the program is one of the best article about mtgo and i read everyfriday
I don't know much about the situation at Wotc, but I'm curious if Elf would go back to work for them, if they offered him his job back. I would like to start a petition to get this done if he wanted it. I think he was one of the most influential people that kept me playing online during the dark period. He was very upfront and honest with us, on the messageboards.
Great read hammy.. I'm glad we got some real insight as to what happened during that dark year of V2 to V3 Transition
I liked he said they should allow community players help redesign the client. Hes right Players who love and spend their time on this game will be more apt to provide an interface for other like minded players. I will also help to extend the life of the game. I never did quite understand why MTGO did not get behind the Skin your Dream contest. There was a lot of money given out from members within our community. The forums showed peoples passion and desire for the change. Unfortunately after I ran that contest. I felt bitter towards the management. I had run a lot of contests and events in my time on MTGO and this was the biggest thing ever The players doing the work were not given any aid or encouragement. I know one of the contestants either rebuilt the client or changed it so much that there was serious questions as to what was all changed that he was sent a cease and desist letter. So it is not at all like they were not in tune with what was going on. They just chose to ignore it. That always had me puzzled. Worth and myself talked on a few occasions about the contest. Cuz as it grown and the more people were getting involved i wanted to get MTGO involved. all i got was a cold shoulder. Sad turn of events for that possibility.
Im so glad he brought up Gleemax. Man oh man. What a total waste of time and effort. I dont think i necessarily agree so much with his idea of lacking foundation. The foundation was here. Its inside the fourms. Sometimes even myself forget threes a massive flow of players funneled in and out of the fourms. Cross advertising within the confines of the boards would have helped gleemax in a lot of ways. Course gleemax.com itself wasn't event set to go. It seriously felt like a project thrown out there after someone went drinking one night. There was no focus. And the focus that was present was not pointed at the players but rather the products.
Watching gleemax go down made it easy to implement MyMTGO. Watching how a large company like WoTC can fumble the ball so hard. Put a lot of perspective on what had to happen to make a site like MyMTGO successful. Tweaker had the know how and ability to put up a mini site like they did with a limited focus and make it work. Our game needs tools and an outlet to intermingle with one another. MTG Has always been about the community of players. We all for the most part learned how to play this game in our schools, churches, kitchen tables, dusky broom closets, or at our neighbors house. when V3 came out. the boards were so divided and had become a place of huge contention that the players needed and looked for an outlet. They were looking for a way to reconnect with each other in a different manner then through the game. I don't think WoTC should totally abandon this idea. but they should go to the drawing board this time with the customers as a focus. because all the rest will fall into place.
Thanks Elf for doing this interview. I've been waiting for this interview for a good while now. It's sad to hear all of the things that happened due to bad management and hopefully things are much better now but honestly it's hard to say. There really hadn't been a lot of client change since the launch of 3.0 but there have been a lot of really good changes to tournaments(ptq's) etc. I still have mixed feelings about how WOTC is currently handling MTGO due to some recent and not so recent things that have happened.
I do however know there are some great people on staff that I do trust but I'm not sure how much influence they have on the system as a whole. Hopefully the management issue has been fixed but I guess only time will tell. WOTC if your reading this please do not let history repeat itself.
For those of you who just skim the charts, click on: Oath of Druids (lol, foreslash), Tarmogoyf (yup), Hallowed Fountain (whoa), Mox Diamond (down), and Engineered Explosives (whoa). Lich's Mirror has a broken chart by the way. I'll admit it, I don't click on every single chart either.
MORMIR BASIC TOMORROW DON'T MISS IT! GET YOUR BASIC LANDS READY! You will smile at least once. You might be attacked on turn 4 by a Lord of Atlantis and a NINJA. You might have to block a Black Knight with a Bramble Creeper. You don't have to play all 6 rounds if you don't have 6 hours. Just play 2 rounds, win an avatar, and go home. (Oh, you are home most likely.)
Elf sounds like one of the working guys, not one of the talented visionaries who were let go. (His words.) He transitioned to the D&D team, but then still got cut during the massive cuts? If he left on good terms, and he's interested, maybe bring him back for the Magic team this time? I was going to add "and he has the right skillset" as a condition, but forget that. Real engineers aren't defined by their current skills. A good engineer should be able to quickly pick up any new technology.
Elf is a great guy, who has been supporting the long before modo was a dream as a founding(?) member of #mtgwacky on efnet (irc) among other things. As such he gets big props from me just for his longevity and devotion. It is nice to have this great interview available to read at our leisure. It is a damn shame WotC couldn't figure out to best utilize him. Thankfully some really good companies have recognized his talent anyway. Great pick Hammy :D
I know, all you care about is the Jonas Brothers. Still, this IS a nice diversion from them and your Hello Kitty collection even if the article doesn't have as many pictures as you are used to. ;)
Elf is the Man...
by Anonymous (not verified)
at Sun, 12/27/2009 - 07:40
I always liked him , he was honest even when we bugged him on V2 crashes during launch days, i remember him posting on the forums about we are fixing the client.... etc on crazy hours (don't you sleep ? )
a great guy with a full stomach about the Wotc.
I thought that they always told us the V3 is much better then V2 (i terms of losing customers and profits.. thats intresting since Elf is saying V3 is less profitable then V2 .._)
I wounder....
Well, in perspective, when he was let go the client had about 800 or 900 players peak on V3, whereas V2 had 2000+ players before the change.
V3 now has 2200+ peak players during non-release times, and like 3000-ish during releases.
It's safe to say that if V2 was making money at 2200 players that V3 should be able to at least match that at 3000 players. I hope anyway.
16 Comments
Great article. I love the interview. We kind of know what management they have and hope that they have corrected the problem. Unfortunatly we will only know when all what they are doing is fixed( UI, Collection server and others)
State of the program is one of the best article about mtgo and i read everyfriday
2 thumbs up :)
great article as always ham,
those link about promos however arent working
any further word about lifetime points?
Really good interview. Its nice to actually hear some truth from wotc (even if its an xwotc employee), instead of all the lies.
I don't know much about the situation at Wotc, but I'm curious if Elf would go back to work for them, if they offered him his job back. I would like to start a petition to get this done if he wanted it. I think he was one of the most influential people that kept me playing online during the dark period. He was very upfront and honest with us, on the messageboards.
Great read hammy.. I'm glad we got some real insight as to what happened during that dark year of V2 to V3 Transition
I liked he said they should allow community players help redesign the client. Hes right Players who love and spend their time on this game will be more apt to provide an interface for other like minded players. I will also help to extend the life of the game. I never did quite understand why MTGO did not get behind the Skin your Dream contest. There was a lot of money given out from members within our community. The forums showed peoples passion and desire for the change. Unfortunately after I ran that contest. I felt bitter towards the management. I had run a lot of contests and events in my time on MTGO and this was the biggest thing ever The players doing the work were not given any aid or encouragement. I know one of the contestants either rebuilt the client or changed it so much that there was serious questions as to what was all changed that he was sent a cease and desist letter. So it is not at all like they were not in tune with what was going on. They just chose to ignore it. That always had me puzzled. Worth and myself talked on a few occasions about the contest. Cuz as it grown and the more people were getting involved i wanted to get MTGO involved. all i got was a cold shoulder. Sad turn of events for that possibility.
Im so glad he brought up Gleemax. Man oh man. What a total waste of time and effort. I dont think i necessarily agree so much with his idea of lacking foundation. The foundation was here. Its inside the fourms. Sometimes even myself forget threes a massive flow of players funneled in and out of the fourms. Cross advertising within the confines of the boards would have helped gleemax in a lot of ways. Course gleemax.com itself wasn't event set to go. It seriously felt like a project thrown out there after someone went drinking one night. There was no focus. And the focus that was present was not pointed at the players but rather the products.
Watching gleemax go down made it easy to implement MyMTGO. Watching how a large company like WoTC can fumble the ball so hard. Put a lot of perspective on what had to happen to make a site like MyMTGO successful. Tweaker had the know how and ability to put up a mini site like they did with a limited focus and make it work. Our game needs tools and an outlet to intermingle with one another. MTG Has always been about the community of players. We all for the most part learned how to play this game in our schools, churches, kitchen tables, dusky broom closets, or at our neighbors house. when V3 came out. the boards were so divided and had become a place of huge contention that the players needed and looked for an outlet. They were looking for a way to reconnect with each other in a different manner then through the game. I don't think WoTC should totally abandon this idea. but they should go to the drawing board this time with the customers as a focus. because all the rest will fall into place.
For those of you who just skim the charts, click on: Oath of Druids (lol, foreslash), Tarmogoyf (yup), Hallowed Fountain (whoa), Mox Diamond (down), and Engineered Explosives (whoa). Lich's Mirror has a broken chart by the way. I'll admit it, I don't click on every single chart either.
MORMIR BASIC TOMORROW DON'T MISS IT! GET YOUR BASIC LANDS READY! You will smile at least once. You might be attacked on turn 4 by a Lord of Atlantis and a NINJA. You might have to block a Black Knight with a Bramble Creeper. You don't have to play all 6 rounds if you don't have 6 hours. Just play 2 rounds, win an avatar, and go home. (Oh, you are home most likely.)
Elf sounds like one of the working guys, not one of the talented visionaries who were let go. (His words.) He transitioned to the D&D team, but then still got cut during the massive cuts? If he left on good terms, and he's interested, maybe bring him back for the Magic team this time? I was going to add "and he has the right skillset" as a condition, but forget that. Real engineers aren't defined by their current skills. A good engineer should be able to quickly pick up any new technology.
Elf is a great guy, who has been supporting the long before modo was a dream as a founding(?) member of #mtgwacky on efnet (irc) among other things. As such he gets big props from me just for his longevity and devotion. It is nice to have this great interview available to read at our leisure. It is a damn shame WotC couldn't figure out to best utilize him. Thankfully some really good companies have recognized his talent anyway. Great pick Hammy :D
fascinating.... an interview all to do with something that is long gone. who cares.
half of it i didnt understand. you have annoyed me and now i add your name to my list of people i dont like
You have a list? :D Can you add me too please? :D
I know, all you care about is the Jonas Brothers. Still, this IS a nice diversion from them and your Hello Kitty collection even if the article doesn't have as many pictures as you are used to. ;)
I always liked him , he was honest even when we bugged him on V2 crashes during launch days, i remember him posting on the forums about we are fixing the client.... etc on crazy hours (don't you sleep ? )
a great guy with a full stomach about the Wotc.
I thought that they always told us the V3 is much better then V2 (i terms of losing customers and profits.. thats intresting since Elf is saying V3 is less profitable then V2 .._)
I wounder....
Well, in perspective, when he was let go the client had about 800 or 900 players peak on V3, whereas V2 had 2000+ players before the change.
V3 now has 2200+ peak players during non-release times, and like 3000-ish during releases.
It's safe to say that if V2 was making money at 2200 players that V3 should be able to at least match that at 3000 players. I hope anyway.
If you don't like it feel free to start your own article and interview whoever you like. The rest of us will continue to enjoy Hammy's.
To me, it sounds more like someone who has a grudge against her.
I just read Oath of Mages, I like the way they've balanced that cycle :P