Author Topic: EA shut down Kesmai Studios (Read 4654 times)

DoKtor GonZo · « **Reply #30 on:** March 24, 2001, 01:32:00 PM »

Has there been any official news from EA about closing Kesmai, or any messages posted by Moggy, GE, or the rest to substantiate this? Right now it seems like just a very solid rumor.

-DoK

Brat · « **Reply #31 on:** March 24, 2001, 02:02:00 PM »

Howdy DoK...

No...Kesmai has not been closed. The Airwarrior 4 project has been cancelled and several people were laid off (Moggy and GE being in that group). EA is spinning their wheels trying to convince everyone that they have plans to make serious improvements to the AWMV code and poor Mage and DOSE are stuck in the middle trying to make sense of it all.

Bigweek is very somber about the whole issue right now...and it seems as if people are coming out of the woodwork to show their support for the community. Except a few EA employees that took it upon themselves to come here and make some pretty nasty comments and undermine any relationship being forged for the move from Airwarrior to Aces High by a large group of now former Airwarriors.

The damage control was handled VERY poorly in the public eye...if it were not for Mage, DOSE and Quarters being in Bigweek and calming nerves after a few EA reps made the stupid mistake of stating that if it wasn't for the people at Kesmai and EA paying the bills...there would be no Airwarrior...then I fear there would be several guys wearing pocket protectors standing on the front lawn of EA headquarters and hurling burning sheep through the office windows.

I have a feeling that after all the dust has cleared...this may have a pretty positive effect on the flightsim community in finally bringing together two groups of online sim addicts that have been at each others throats for close to a decade.

Imagine the hate that will passed around as Airwarriors and Warbirds collide in the same arena after this many years...

Hello HiTech? Hold on to your shorts guys...this is gonna be one wild ride.

on a final note...picture this if you will...

next years Aces High convention...

(shudders)

[This message has been edited by Brat (edited 03-24-2001).]

Westy · « **Reply #32 on:** March 24, 2001, 02:45:00 PM »

Nothign with specific details from EA itself DoK. Just confirmation from a couple of the remaining employees. What Brat says is "spot-on"

-Westy

DoKtor GonZo · « **Reply #33 on:** March 24, 2001, 07:50:00 PM »

Doing this during at the end of the week of GDC is also pretty crappy timing. A week sooner, people could have at least brought resumes. EA hated us at Motorsims too ... some of the things they'd tell people in the pits at races about us was hilarious. So I ain't surprised by this kind of move.

As for AW and WB players in the same arena - they'll be easy to pick which is which. The WB people will be HO'ing all the time, the AW people won't. The player community itself I think will get along fine.

What I think could be more interesting is if AH does indeed capture the bulk of the AW players, how iEN will respond with WB3. If they start losing market share, will they bail or push forward?

And ... FWIW ... I did float the idea of having the AW and WB Con's co-located a couple years ago. They were both gonna be in Dallas a month apart anyway.

-DoK

Betown · « **Reply #34 on:** March 25, 2001, 05:31:00 AM »

Me being one of the younger member of the AH comunity, AW was the first flight simulator I ever played. AW2 was pretty cool at the time and amazing for me. Graphics where really crap but hey

Shame to see it die. I hope that we can pick up some of these guys. HTC will never sell AH. Because now we have a big chance to expand our player base 2 fold. I hope the AW comunity has the sense to come here instead of WB.

Brat · « **Reply #35 on:** March 25, 2001, 12:13:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by DoKtor GonZo:
And ... FWIW ... I did float the idea of having the AW and WB Con's co-located a couple years ago. They were both gonna be in Dallas a month apart anyway.

-DoK

Heh...you still scare me.

"Yes officer...they started it...they stole our sheep and put a dress on it...so we had to get them back by driving the cattle through the convention room floor"

Beurling · « **Reply #36 on:** March 25, 2001, 01:45:00 PM »

The Warbirds and Aw communities did meet in battle. Over a year ago when Ah started.

Warbirds kicked aw's butt.

EYE

Grayeagle · « **Reply #37 on:** March 25, 2001, 04:10:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Brazos:
I remember,

Getting into a dust-up with GE when they went to AOL. He had just been hired and was bragging about how AW would now have the deep pockets to crush WB. Guess not, huh?

Braz

Yer memory needs serious work.
Nice try tho.
I was hired in July '95 as contractor.. went direct in September of that year.
Air Warrior for Windows went live on AOL a YEAR later.

As for havin deep pockets .. compared to what KesCo had before Newscorp bought them ..yes, they had deep pockets.

As for 'crushing' warbirds.. paying players a good enough indicator?
Or just how many were in the game each nite? The servers were FULL on AOL .. players could not get IN to play for quite awhile on any Saturday nite unless they came early and KesCo had to add servers for weeks to meet the demand.
It was more than anyone expected.
It was a fact, .. not braggin at all.

Warbirds came out when?
ROFL .. yer still an easy kill, Braz.

-GE (notes Braz hasn't changed .. ie: he was a 'healer' in EQ, askin a group he was 'healer' for why Cap died -a wizard- ..as 'healer' you have to 'heal' ..too much for Braz to grasp apparantly.. LOL)

Brat · « **Reply #38 on:** March 26, 2001, 12:52:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Beurling:
The Warbirds and Aw communities did meet in battle. Over a year ago when Ah started.

Warbirds kicked aw's butt.

EYE

Sorry Beuler...my mouth is already full of hooks at the moment...

Beurling · « **Reply #39 on:** March 26, 2001, 03:51:00 PM »

Brat there are mare than one ex aw trainers that cant pull one kill a mission here.

This is one chalenging game for most exaw's.
It takes several months to adapt for many.

The cool thing is that so many aw players now hang there hat in ah. Its pretty close to 50% of all the guys right now.

There are good players from aw here. It seems that the wb guys are often the wolves. While the ex aw guys are the sheep. Its a shame really

EYE

Brat · « **Reply #40 on:** March 26, 2001, 04:49:00 PM »

Snork!

I guess I'll have to take a survey then...

"excuse me dweeb...i'm taking a survey of all the pilots that i flew circles around in the arena today...are you from AW or WB?"

Grayeagle · « **Reply #41 on:** March 27, 2001, 12:41:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Beurling:
This is one chalenging game for most exaw's.It takes several months to adapt for many...
There are good players from aw here. It seems that the wb guys are often the wolves. While the ex aw guys are the sheep. Its a shame really

EYE

Yassir.. took me .. umm ..*two* nights ..lessee.. 6 flights? .. two assists so far? (shot a 109 up a bit but he managed to evade well enough to live .. hmm... ya .. on my 6th flight here)

By the two month mark I expect to be better than 1 kill per flight .. even goofing off in AW I could make 5 per flight, average.. for an entire 'campaign' ..and I have filled the kill buffer on more than one occasion, flying a Mustang (umm .. ya .. that was over 15 kills in a single flight for the dweebs that don't know) .. and ..in AW you cant just land, refuel, and takeoff again ..all the while having it count as the same flight.

Nice bit of score skullduggery that is

Can't wait to see you in two months

-GE

Vermillion · « **Reply #42 on:** March 27, 2001, 08:06:00 AM »

Hey GE, whats your callsign here?

------------------
Vermillion
**MOL**, Men of Leisure

Beurling · « **Reply #43 on:** March 27, 2001, 08:46:00 AM »

Welcome to ah greyeagle

Good luck i hope you do better than most <S>.

Brat you dont need to ask who is from where.
The guys scruming on the deck and dieing are the aw guys. The guys engageing with a small alt advantage and liveing are the wb guys.

The hardest thing for ex aw players to master is the fact that a ho is at best a 50/50 chance.

The sooner they figure this out the sooner they do well in AH.

I would check out lephturns aerodrome if i was new. There are some good ideas on how to beat the aw merge blues.

EYE

Grayeagle · « **Reply #44 on:** March 27, 2001, 11:50:00 PM »

Verm: callsign here is ..

.... wait for it ..

Grayeagle (go figure)

Beurling: as a great fighter pilot once said
'fill your windscreen with the enemy' (Erich Hartmann)

As for Head Ons.. fascinating that you think that is a viable tactic in AW. Ever played AW? ROFL. Those who ever attempted it died shortly afterward, every time. It's a dweeb move and marked the pilot as clueless, an easy kill.

-GE