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Troika probably closing down


Antagonist

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I guess everbody heard the news by now, but I shall post this nonetheless. This is taken from the RPG Codex:

 

The following is a sad little e-mail which will come has a dissapointment to many here at the Codex, and has been circulating for a couple of days, was posted yesterday at No Mutants Allowed. It reveals that Troika is selling its office equipment, supplies and computers off, and that more importantly, it reveals that Troika is closing its doors:

 

    LIQUIDATION SALE

 

    After 7 exciting years, and 3 published games, Troika Games is closing its doors forever!

    EVERYTHING MUST GO!

 

    * Computers - P3 & up

    * Monitors 13" - 21"

    * Desks

    * Chairs

    * Conference Tables

    * Filing Cabinets

    * Cubicle System

    * Canon Copier

    * and much more!

 

    Saturday, Feb. 19th 9am - 1pm only 17991 Cowan in Irvine (Cash & Carry)

    Let our loss be your gain.

    Please feel free to forward this email to anyone that may be interested in the sale.

 

 

The words I previously said about Troika were harsh, and uncalled for and for this I apologise. It is truly sad to see the demise of a company with so much potential, as well as the same company that brought us one of the best RPGs in recent years, Arcanum.

 

David Marsh of Troika has confirmed this e-mail to be legitimate, and had this to say to me:

 

    Time to pop the champagne Exitium.

 

 

I'm not going to gloat. Despite the words I had to say on Troika's demise a few weeks back, I've come to realize that I'd have only popped a champagne bottle if Troika proved resilient to the test of time and adversity and managed to live on.

 

 

Too bad, despite all their design flaws and bugs I really liked Bloodlines and found Arcanum very entertaining. Even if many people have mixed feelings about Troika I don't think that it's a good sign for the RPG market that have higher aspirations than Bioware.

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I liked two of their games; but they failed. It's their fault. No mercy for fialures. Hoepfully, they've learned from their experiences and move on.

 

 

"Even if many people have mixed feelings about Troika I don't think that it's a good sign for the RPG market that have higher aspirations than Bioware."

 

That explains the dungeon crawl known as TOEE, and the FPS known as BL. Yup, deep role-playing aspirations...

DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.

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"I guess since both Obsidian and the Troika are in Irvine, that would be a more logical place to start looking around for work than thinking about the country where you freeze your balls in no time!"

 

More than likely. Besides, if you really wanted to work for BIo; working for Obsidian is the next best thing as you are working on BIo sequels anyways. :huh:

DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.

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I didn't like Troika. Arcanum was fun, enough at least, but it was the ToEE debacle that put me off to Troika. That said, I am saddened by their closure. Why? It's not just the human perspective (having been unemployeed after a company went bankrupt can make one very sympathetic), but that Troika never learned. That's the kicker for me. I would much rather have seen them learn what they did wrong, correct those mistakes, and release games which lived up to their grandiose promises, than go under and be no more. Unfortunately, it was my experience that they preferred to ignore any sort of criticism (constructive or otherwise) and focus on the fawning of the former Fallout fanbois. This, then, was Troika's fatal flaw: not the production of buggy games, or their constant blaming of publishers for all their problems, or failing to deliver on even the simplest promises, but failing to learn from their errors and make the corrections neccesary to keep them a viable CRPG developer. For that, even I will mourn Troika.

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The Troika CEO's probably never put too much effort into developing the finer points that makes a good and honest relationship with a publisher, at least that is what it always seemed to me... otherwise Activision would never have pulled the fundings so easily. Well anyway, they're better off in creating games than leading a company, that's the job where The Doctors or Darth Feargie are better at. :ermm:

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The Troika CEO's probably never put too much effort into developing the finer points that makes a good and honest relationship with a publisher, at least that is what it  always seemed to me...

[sarcasm]sir timmy? what? never... just... never. [/sarcasm]

 

taks

comrade taks... just because.

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If they are really going under it's depressing. I saw huge potential in all of their games. But they never made a sequel. That's the sad part.

 

I can understand why they didn't make Arcanum 2. Their post-game analysis was pretty much correct. The combat system wasn't very engaging.

 

However, I thought a ToEE sequel would have been fantastic. The problem with ToEE, in my humble opinion, was NOT that combat was fun and that the story was poor. The basic concept was good. They just did a half-job on everything.

 

For example, I thought the art was good, but the animation was sub-par. The world looked nice, but it didn't feel like it was alive. The NPCs and quests were neat, but the bugs overwhelmed them. Most everything looked like an amatuer product.

 

If they could have just fixed these things, the sequel could have been pretty good. But I guess they probably had problems with Atari and WotC, so maybe they just decided to cut D&D loose.

 

Finally, we never got to see the mysterious post-apocalyptic game.

 

Anyway, hopefully it's just a rumor.

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Oh well... sh1t happens.

 

That explains the dungeon crawl known as TOEE, and the FPS known as BL. Yup, deep role-playing aspirations...

Heh. And here I thought you liked BL. Suddenly you decided to change your criteria to make a point? :p"

 

How convenient.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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"Heh. And here I thought you liked BL. Suddenly you decided to change your criteria to make a point?"

 

Huh, I do like it. As you welll know I dislike the combat which ruins the role-playing it. Just because I dislkike one aprt of it doesn't mean i hate the game. Now, stop trolling.

DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.

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Huh, I do like it. As you welll know I dislike the combat which ruins the role-playing it. Just because I dislkike one aprt of it doesn't mean i hate the game. Now, stop trolling.

This statement is a contradiction. Let's see how.

 

First you say you do like it. This means, that despite its flaws, you enjoyed the game. That is consistent with what you have been saying these past months.

 

But then, and here comes the contradiction, you say that the combat ruins the role-playing. Since the combat and role-playing elements of the game are two separate parcels, one can't influence the other. Which means the only way to interpet that sentence is that the FPS combat which you dislike so much offsets the great role-playing, yielding an overall unsatisfying experience.

 

Behold: Volourn, or how to uphold two opposite opinions, simultaneously!

 

And please don't ask me to stop trolling, you know I like it too much to stop.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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I'm sorry to hear it. Most folks know I was not fond of Troika. I found their games to be massive disappointments, and most of their personnel to be unacceptably arrogant and rude.

 

But lots of people will be without their jobs, not to mention their dreams, and nobody with a conscience can take pleasure in that. I wish them all well in their new endeavors, and empathize with their current misfortune.

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I'm slightly disappointed but not surprised.

 

Troika had 3 bites of the cherry to produce a "Monster-Smash-Hit" game and each time they produced something decent, but seriously flawed. I think the problem with Troika games is that while some parts of their games came across as being of AAA quality, other parts were strictly amateur.

 

Saying that, I thought their games were improving with each title, so the collapse is a bit of a shame.

 

Also, I think the business acumen of the powers that be at Troika probably left something to be desired, considering that they seemed to be incapable of dealing with publishers on an equitable basis, and equally incapable of convincing any publisher they worked with to give them the time they need to produce a stable product in-line with their original vision.

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The troika people were definitely very arrogant and have never cared what the fans think of them. What kind of company exists for 7 years and doesnt even create a discussion forum for its fans?

 

Also, they were horrible designers. How retarded do you need to be in order to make a design decision that the identify spell would not tell you what an item does? Youve got to be a complete moron in order to decide something like that.

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You can make the sexiest game in the world (not that they did), but if it doesn't run properly and is full of bugs people won't buy it.

 

St. Timmy is a great lead designer, but he ain't cut out for business, is he?

 

Troika didn't make a single game I finished or enjoyed so...meh.

 

Cheers

MC

sonsofgygax.JPG

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The only one I enjoyed was Arcanum.. I loved that setting.. though the Fallout "wannabe" game mechanics left me feeling blah <_<

 

I've yet to try Bloodlines, but from what I've seen and heard I'll enjoy it... if I can play it.

 

I've never "borrowed" a game online before, but I'm tempted to with BLoodlines so I can "try before I buy" because I don't want to buy it if it won't run on my machine :p

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