Should Netmarble be allowed to squeeze Kabam like that? Should we (community) do something about it?

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  • The_0wenpusThe_0wenpus Member Posts: 252 ★★

    I didn't watch the stream... can anyone fill me in? What's going on?

    Kabam Miike and Kabam Jon no longer work for Kabam. It is widely speculated that there were layoffs, but we don't yet know for sure.
  • MrSakuragiMrSakuragi Member Posts: 5,239 ★★★★★

    I didn't watch the stream... can anyone fill me in? What's going on?

    Kabam Miike and Kabam Jon no longer work for Kabam. It is widely speculated that there were layoffs, but we don't yet know for sure.
    Rob you mean… Jon is still there and was on the stream
  • BringPopcornBringPopcorn Member Posts: 5,122 ★★★★★

    I didn't watch the stream... can anyone fill me in? What's going on?

    Kabam Miike and Kabam Jon no longer work for Kabam. It is widely speculated that there were layoffs, but we don't yet know for sure.
    If you look at one of the official posts and read between lines, you kind of can tell what happened...
  • PolygonPolygon Member Posts: 4,537 ★★★★★
    PT_99 said:

    July-4th deals will be of banger value. 🤧

    Was hoping it wouldnt so I could stay f2p lol
  • The_0wenpusThe_0wenpus Member Posts: 252 ★★

    I didn't watch the stream... can anyone fill me in? What's going on?

    Kabam Miike and Kabam Jon no longer work for Kabam. It is widely speculated that there were layoffs, but we don't yet know for sure.
    Rob you mean… Jon is still there and was on the stream
    Yeah, my bad, I meant Tob. Both names with o in the middle.
  • DemonzfyreDemonzfyre Member Posts: 22,024 ★★★★★
    Fryday said:

    Hi @DNA3000 ,

    I do agreed with you the between the players and MCOC developer team, there is a dialogue, fore and back on how a certain could be fine tune for the benefits of the developers, the players (community) and the games.

    While at time it can be a challenging one, where the 2 views doesn't meet, but overall I would say it is a healthy one which enables the game to grow and last this long.

    However, in my opinion there is another a relationship between Netmarble and the players, a business one, company and customers, therefore I think it is also important to have some kind of dialogue between two parties, because like we have seen from history, as soon as a company stop listening to their customers the deterioration of the company begin.

    I'm not saying the community "boycott" this or "demand" that, but at the same time like you say, Netmarble most likely doesn't even know these conversations the community is having regarding the affect on the action Netmarble "may" have taken.

    Would it not be health if there a way for the community to express the value of this space, the MCOC forum, livestream, other social media platforms as well as the team behind it. Because these things are also extremely important for the growth and longevity if the game, which in directly link the the company Netmarble profit.

    By investing into Kabam MCOC, including the community management side, Netmarble profit margin might (I assume) be slightly less (every slight), but it would ensure long-term profit, which would be health for the company.

    Could a survey or some other methods be an effective way to present this to Netmarble.

    The likelihood that Netmarble comes here and has an open dialogue is extremely, extremely small. Like nearly non-existent.

    The company I work for is majority own by Warren Buffets Berkshire Hathaway investment group. We're under the BRK.B umbrella.

    Warren Buffet has no involvement in what our company does. We don't get memo's from him telling us how to get better sales. We're an investment. Kabam, is the same. Netmarble is the investor in this relationship. While I'm sure the dynamic isn't apples to apples, I don't think Netmarble is constantly telling Kabam what to do. I don't think they're behind the scenes pulling strings.

    Marvel likely has way more say than Netmarble does in what happens with the game since it's basically a Marvel I.P. So while it's nice to think Netmarble has some sort of involvement, MCOC is likely just the cash cow for their other games.
  • 11993451199345 Member Posts: 557 ★★★
    Marvel has the I.P. rights to the characters, but Netmarble has the ownership of the gaming company; They have a responsibility to appease shareholders, maintain margins, etc, whereas Kabam is a subsidiary with its own relegated autonomy that answers to Netmarble.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Member, Guardian Posts: 19,658 Guardian
    Fryday said:

    Hi @DNA3000 ,

    I do agreed with you the between the players and MCOC developer team, there is a dialogue, fore and back on how a certain could be fine tune for the benefits of the developers, the players (community) and the games.

    While at time it can be a challenging one, where the 2 views doesn't meet, but overall I would say it is a healthy one which enables the game to grow and last this long.

    However, in my opinion there is another a relationship between Netmarble and the players, a business one, company and customers, therefore I think it is also important to have some kind of dialogue between two parties, because like we have seen from history, as soon as a company stop listening to their customers the deterioration of the company begin.

    I'm not saying the community "boycott" this or "demand" that, but at the same time like you say, Netmarble most likely doesn't even know these conversations the community is having regarding the affect on the action Netmarble "may" have taken.

    Would it not be health if there a way for the community to express the value of this space, the MCOC forum, livestream, other social media platforms as well as the team behind it. Because these things are also extremely important for the growth and longevity if the game, which in directly link the the company Netmarble profit.

    By investing into Kabam MCOC, including the community management side, Netmarble profit margin might (I assume) be slightly less (every slight), but it would ensure long-term profit, which would be health for the company.

    Could a survey or some other methods be an effective way to present this to Netmarble.

    I get what you're saying, I do. Let me offer you a thing to think about, and let's remove all emotion from this for a second.

    Picture the top twenty game titles that Netmarble currently publishes or otherwise gains revenue from. One day, Netmarble is going to ax one of them. Even if you think MCOC is immortal, a title somewhere will get canned. It is inevitable. And when it happens, there will still be thousands of people who love it still playing it. And there will be dozens of people still working on it, many of whom will become unemployed shortly thereafter. Picture in your mind the group of people who will make that decision, to destroy something thousands of people love, and end the livelihoods (at least temporarily) of a significant group of people.

    Whomever made the decisions that led to people being let go from Kabam? They answer to *that* group of people. Not us. Them. They pay the rent and they put food on the table and they continue to have a job tomorrow by making those people happy, not us.

    Ever been to Vegas? Ever play on the blackjack tables? Blackjack dealers love it when players win. Dealers don't get a cut of the casino's profits, they make most of their money from tips. When players win, they tip more. Even though the dealers are employees of the casino, and even though you keep hearing people say "companies are only about making money" companies are abstract entities: companies don't actually do anything. People do. And people tend to act in their own self-interest. Dealers don't care if the casino makes money, they care if they make money, so they don't care if the casino loses money, at least at their table.

    The devs don't make a cut of the profits from the game. They just get paid for their work. Their self-interest lies in making the best game they can and making the players happy (within reason) so that the game is successful enough to allow them to continue to make it. They listen to us because its in their best interests to do so. But the corporate people who make human resource decisions have no self interest in listening to us, so they are never going to come here and do so. They aren't going to take meetings with the players and go over surveys. The people who ax employees answer to the people who ax whole games and studios. They are going to do what they think they need to do to satisfy the expectations of those people. And *those* people don't care if you think you can run the company better than they can.

    I think most of the players of this game do not fully appreciate just how good we actually have it, when it comes to communications and feedback. Not all games have official forums. Not all games have official discords. Not all games have *any* developer public presence at all. In fact, most don't. Most mobile games out there are making tons of money while interacting with their players basically not at all, except for maybe a twitter account and a convention or two a year.

    I had decided not to post this thought, but I changed my mind. There are times I wonder (and this is not a recent thought) if the feedback that the corporate bean counters are constantly getting from us collectively is "player community presence only leads to players complaining about lack of transparency and poor treatment of players and bad attitudes; if we just pulled the plug on all of it all of these complaints would go away." I kinda thought people would get the wrong idea if I posted this a few days ago, even though this is something i could have posted on any random day in the last eight years.

    However, maybe that wrong idea is not wrong.
  • SummonerNRSummonerNR Member, Guardian Posts: 12,764 Guardian


    1) Kabam has 3 games. They had a fourth on the way ( King Arthur: Legends Rise), but it looks like Netmarble has assumed that branding. This is a thing, in that Kabam developed it but now it's seemingly out of their portfolio.

    So has this (King Arthur) game actually been moved to NetMarble ? (and, is it Kabam Zero that had moved over from MCOC to King Arthur, or was that a different Kabam Mod I’m mis-remembering that moved over, some time back).

    I know before it used to show as “Coming Soon” under the other games that Kabam has in the AppStore (Apple).
    And now it is NOT there.

    But it is also NOT there as a “Coming Soon” (or at all) under NetMarble list of Apps in the Store either.

    So, was that info from their website you saw, or just assuming because it didn’t show “Coming soon” under Kabam in AppStore anymore ?
  • DemonzfyreDemonzfyre Member Posts: 22,024 ★★★★★


    1) Kabam has 3 games. They had a fourth on the way ( King Arthur: Legends Rise), but it looks like Netmarble has assumed that branding. This is a thing, in that Kabam developed it but now it's seemingly out of their portfolio.

    So has this (King Arthur) game actually been moved to NetMarble ? (and, is it Kabam Zero that had moved over from MCOC to King Arthur, or was that a different Kabam Mod I’m mis-remembering that moved over, some time back).

    I know before it used to show as “Coming Soon” under the other games that Kabam has in the AppStore (Apple).
    And now it is NOT there.

    But it is also NOT there as a “Coming Soon” (or at all) under NetMarble list of Apps in the Store either.

    So, was that info from their website you saw, or just assuming because it didn’t show “Coming soon” under Kabam in AppStore anymore ?
    It was in beta. Kabam Pinwheel and Kabam Dork (Dorky Diggity Dave) were main MODs. I did see Miike in the discord several times.
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