Farewell, Au Revoir Pee Wee

After a year and a half of FF art, I am no longer involved with FF nor Dakota Interactive as of yesterday, PST.

It has been a roller-coaster ride from the start! I have so many juicy stories to tell but unfortunately, my professionalism gets in the way.

As long as this lasts, I may continue to stop in once in a while to see the status of FF as it was my puppy from the start... also to read the loving, supportive, funny, friendly, competitive, pissed off, infuriated, hostile posts from this tight knit community.

Take care of each other!
CXB

wow this says a lot about the recent changes and further proof of Dakota's inability to retain veterans.
I have enjoyed your Art works CXB!!! all the best for your future.

Let us know where you go next CXB. Gl matey.

First AtomicHermit and now you?!?! Why does Dakota keep getting rid of all their good artists!??!!?

Good luck in your endeavors!

Id like to hear some of those stories. .. lol. Good luck sir

Stories or nothing happened!

Take care CXB.

I've said this before, and it keeps making more sense .. I think they intentionally screwed up the game so people would stop buying pacts and that way they could go broke. Broke -> game shutdown. You have to admit, rumors of the game shutting down, firing people and then this nerf thingy .. It's a setup.

Hate to hear this. Looks like further evidence of the games disarray. You will be missed cxb.

I've worked in a game company that produced gaming products similar to FF and frankly, the missteps of Dakota are mind-boggling. The game could have been both lucrative for developers/publishers and an enjoyable game for players while maintaining integrity. Unfortunate a talented artist has left the group!

First me, then Marcus and now finally you.
You are now a FF veteran like me.

We started a hell of a game and had some awesome fans & players that supported this game. I am staying as long as FF is out there, hope you drop in more often.

We need to get you 3 a special group. "Creators" ?

Sorry to hear the news CXB. Hopefully any non-compete or limitations of your talented career are unenforceable since the leadership team initiated this action.

Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!

So atomic amd cxb are creators of ff?
Correct?

And Marcus

Sad that Dakota ran off 3 creators of the game because of their inability to keep customers.

This does not bode well. Best of luck in your future endevours CXB. Be sure to let us know if you get involved in any other game projects so we can check them out.

I truly appreciate all the support from you folks!

are they trying to have the game foreclose? they banned the people who invests most into the game smh. pirates and strapp

CXB, I know you aren't with Dakota anymore but isn't there a way to talk some sense into those retards? First they nerf the hell out of all Agi teams then they start banning random people with no explanation whatsoever.

Short answer to that question is no.

I second all sentiments.

CXB-5000 I wish you well and your services will be greatly missed

please let us know if you head to a new game that we can try

@CXB, did you do the artwork for the anomolies, if so can you please confirm that you gave them a penis. It has bugged me for ages lol

No, there are no 'penis' in any artwork. And CXB did not draw the anomolies. I had a hand in creating them. There are supposed to be space sprites, that is it, nothing hidden in them. 'All' line art passed through me, and while I may have added an Easter egg or two in a few, I assure you there are no NSFW in any line art.  
You Sir, have an active imagination !

He sees penis' everywhere!

So did Dena buy the projects rights from you guys and kept you on as the lead developers then Dakota comes in buys the slowly outsources everyones job to the cheapest workers possible till they pushed out the original team? Is that a close representation of how it all shook down?

I assume Dakota using the excuse for cheaper labor because mobage was going, "make more money for us or close the doors.".

I'm speculating here of course but I'm just trying to figure out how such an amazing concept/game got turned into what it is today... my official one word speculation : GREED? Or BOTTERS?

Thanks atomic, I dont know whats wrong with me ffs lol

Kendohs wrote:

Thanks atomic, I dont know whats wrong with me ffs lol

Spending too much time on pornhub!  

Art, I think you might be barking up the wrong tree. I read somewhere, about the time that I found the forum, that the ownership had shifted to Gameland Studios. Not certain if Dakota sold to them or Gameland Studios sold to Dakota.

Either way, 2 ownership changes in under a year spells either unparalleled success, or a concept that was out of sync with the marketplace. The ensuing turmoil from this type of leadership frequently causes LOTS of difficulty until the business finds it's niche.

Sadly, the game had a niche and a following that was trampled.

Lol dalt. I have moved to xvids

^^ Much of the game work had been outsourced in the last few months. Which I was totally fine with because the quality of content was drastically improving. And are you sure you aren't thinking of Gameview Studios? That was the company that owned the rights to the game prior to Dakota.

All I can say myself is that while gameview was running the game I was actually spending real cash money on this game. As soon as Dakota took over that changed quickly

Arthainius wrote:

So did Dena buy the projects rights from you guys and kept you on as the lead developers then Dakota comes in buys the slowly outsources everyones job to the cheapest workers possible till they pushed out the original team? Is that a close representation of how it all shook down?

I assume Dakota using the excuse for cheaper labor because mobage was going,  "make more money for us or close the doors.".

I'm speculating here of course but I'm just trying to figure out how such an amazing concept/game got turned into what it is today... my official one word speculation : GREED? Or BOTTERS?

You make it sound nefarious, when it is anything but. It was their game, their money and they hired a lot of people, including me to make the game.  

But yeah, BOTTERS was a very critical issue.

As in every game like this. Was there really nothing Dena/Gameview/Dakota could do to stop it? I mean they had to have a pretty good idea of who was doing it right?

Way I see it Dakota handles just the game mechanics not the sales correct? If so then the owner should remove dakota for their shitty ass, management in the game. I emailed them over 5 months ago and still no answer, pretty fucking lame DAKOTA.

mamoncrief wrote:

As in every game like this. Was there really nothing Dena/Gameview/Dakota could do to stop it? I mean they had to have a pretty good idea of who was doing it right?

Yes, can't understand that either and other than who was doing, there are very easy ways to stop botting or make it useless. It was implemented in some games I played before I began to play FF.

Ya its called world of Warcraft. Once something is repeated over an exact series a certain number of times its pretty obvious. ..... I called out the REAL cheaters along time ago and look what happens..... instead of them banning his ass like they should have along time ago
they work a deal with him to try and get more of their top players banned in return for the accounts he originally botted. Its the most ass backward company I've ever heard of and they are sooooooo lucky this forum is here . We could have killed off their game so long ago if we wanted and they just keep tempting us.

Arthainius has a point.  Here is an idea that I had a little while ago and I will post it up here for comments and discussions.  If it gets way off topic, a mod can move it out to its own topic.

What if we form the “Forum Teamsters”?  Let’s face it, the forum members essentially comprise the majority of players who rank in the top 200 or so in each event.  Yes there may be 3-4K total players but we are the most vocal/active.  So what if we had TFB, FFF, Pirates, L Hunters, R Farmers, retired veterans, plus other forum members all join the Teamsters in an open invite?  The purpose would be to send a financial message to Dakota during the next Raid event.  Since the events are structured in a way that we basically compete against each other for rewards, we could collectively set the pace of the events.  If we all agreed not to purchase any resources, savages, or pact offers during the event-that would send a message.  If we then all agreed to play the event as normal, but only use natural regen and not spend any saved resources (ie we all go into hardcore farming mode), we further reduce the Dakota income.  No violation of the TOS here folks.  We can all “slow play” any time that we want.  

Of course we run the risk of minimally not placing/winning the normal reward you might win otherwise (but with so few spots getting Lethals these days, is it really that big of a sacrifice?).  Also, we risk potentially dealing a fatal blow to Dakota if they are financially as bad off as we theorize.  But we could send a message that hits them right where they care and listen-their bottom line.  We could let them know that they are not bringing in fresh players that are going to be spending more money than the current player base.  We could let them know that all of the changes in the last month (merc nerf, random banning, metadata, less Lethals, and I can go on and on) are not appreciated by their customers.  We could let them know that we understand that they are running a business but there are better, more fair, ways to do it.  And they need to turn things around fast or perhaps the Forum Teamsters decide to slow play until we do see positive change…

^ I like the idea, but it would only end up them getting out of business.