Non-anon

Cataclysm isn't going to break the previous sales record.

Ragnar and Gaute? How quickly people forget Tommy Strand.

http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/features/interviews/tstrand.shtml

Shawn and Rubi,

Long time listener, but this episode prompted me to become a first time poster.

Although, yes, it does can come down to a question of definition, clearly the

TERA spokesperson was referring to paid services and micro-transactions in

their traditional sense. A paid service is an account-based service which an

employee has to physically perform (i.e. move a character from one server to

another). A micro-transaction is a play-based item which can affect a

character's performance or appearance. These are micro because they are

generally a few dollars as opposed to the more expensive paid service.

Unfortunately, it seems you've attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill

on this issue. Surely, as reporters, part of your job is to dissect the

information provided by developers/publishers, examine the worth or truth of

the matter, and relay that to your readers or listeners in a form they can

understand. Unfortunately, there was a hurdle at the first point which may have

confused or alerted your listeners for no reason.

Secondly, I understand it's your intention to gloss over potentially fiery topics so that you remain in the good books of developers/publishers and therefore continue to obtain interviews which in turn gets you paid, but the way you discussed the Realtime Worlds issue was painful to listen to. It was quite obvious that the post written by "ExRTW" was more than just a rant and an attempt to "get back at the company". This result had been cascading over the last week and a bit and it was clear that there was more to the "rumors" of Realtime Worlds being in dire straits. It deserved more of a discussion than "Oh, that's rumour. Let's wait and see either way".

Lastly, Shawn, you mention that "they have Crackdown". Well, yeah, but they are also millions of pounds in debt. Right now, the royalties gained from that 3 year old game (which was already having its royalties sucked up by APB development) isn't going to be helping much at all.

Sad week for RTW, and as I said, it warranted more discussion.