[fastboy21]

Originally Posted by Secrets [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Oh boy, where do I start with this misinformation...

The leader of a team isn't a CEO, you're thinking of the franchise producer, Dave Georgeson.
Smedley was a CEO, which means he had no involvement with the game's production or design at that point, beyond what makes the most money and keeps the studio afloat. This is standard for all companies in the games biz.
Smedley's job at that point in time was to make sure business deals went on as planned, to communicate with other companies, and to communicate with shareholders/investors the status of their projects. He was lied to by Georgeson as to how far along EQNext was.
That falls on Georgeson for lying to management about how far along his team was.

They had no AI programmers; the demo you saw for EQNext? That was all developers pretending to be NPCs. Completely shady, and you bet that Dave Georgeson was responsible, not Smedley, for that fuckup.
Holly Longdale was kept in the dark for the longest time regarding EQNext, too. She was mainly responsible for EQ/EQ2 and continues to be responsible for those projects. So don't blame her for Georgeson either.

Georgeson was brought in to try and monetize the game. His only experience was with Gaia Online and the original PlanetSide in terms of MMOs he's worked on. You can guess based on his resume how that went.
Destiny of Velious is the first expansion he launched for EQ2, and everything nosedived in quality starting with EQ2 Extended - which had blatanly P2W consumables, which later became EQ2's F2P model. They had a 'use Station Cash to revive' button when you died for crying out loud.

And the lizard squad thing... they called in a bomb to divert his plane. They had someone destroy his father's tombstone in San Diego's graveyard. That wasn't and isn't just a 'harmless prank' - that's MaceQuest level of sad.
Fuck Lizard Squad, there is no excuse for that behavior, and fuck you, fastboy21, for using that against Smedley's good name as if it were something he should be ashamed of. Hope Zachary and Bradley of Lizard Squad rot in jail for the rest of their miserable existence for what they put Smedley through.

Yah, you think the CEO of a company isn't the leader and I'm the delusional one.

EVERYTHING stops at the CEO. If Georgeson was the problem (and he certainly was, we agree on that) it was the CEO's job to control him. Still on the CEO.