A few days ago Enad Global 7 revealed that current CEO Robin Flodin is leaving the video game holding company and is being temporarily replaced by Ji Ham as acting CEO. For EverQuest gamers, Flodin was a brief breath of fresh air who seemed actively interested seeing the full potential of the EverQuest franchise realized.
It seems Robert Flodin sold some stock in the company for personal reasons and took advantage of the hype surrounding their purchase of Daybreak Games which he helped to manufacture and cashed out. Perhaps this is why he was asked to leave as some veteran EQ players have speculated.
Many EQ veterans got to know the charismatic Robert Flodin via his dynamic video presentations where he demonstrated enthusiastic appreciation for the legacy of EverQuest. In the brief time that his company owned the EverQuest franchise, it seemed like he actually cared about the fans and the games in the EG7 stable. Maybe it was all an act to hype the company’s stock prices.
His temporary replacement is the reclusive Ji Ham. Not much is known about him. There are no public photographs of him available on the Internet or on his LinkedIn page. While he claims to have a video gaming background, there are no details about what that is. I have never heard him speak or seen any of his writings on video games except boilerplate platitudes. I suspect the only passion Ji Ham has about video games is due to their ability to earn profits.
Ji Ham has never directly addressed the EverQuest community in an open letter or shown one iota of reciprocal passion for our beloved and venerable MMORPG. As far as EQ players are concerned, Ji Ham is a disappointing, uninspired, undistinguished, absentee custodian of the storied franchise.
The general consensus is that EverQuest and EverQuest 2 have been in maintenance mode since SOE sold the franchise to Daybreak Games when unknown Ji Ham came into the picture. There are only a handful of developers working on EverQuest right now. This means that Daybreak Games is spending as little as possible on the development of EverQuest while deriving the maximum profit potential from their players as they continue to milk them with various despicable play to win schemes such as purchasable Krono, loot boxes and potions for sale Daybreak Games in-game cash shop. This is good for investors but bad for players.
Holding companies like EG7 purchase video game intellectual properties as investments. They hope some of them will be profitable even if most of them will not be. All they need are a few winners to payoff, then they discard the losers. Rinse and repeat. These companies see video games as a commodity. They have no passion for gamers and could care less. These holding companies are intellectual property parasites who never invest in new ideas and instead leverage the risk, blood, sweat, and tears of others while they line their pockets.
Under the woeful stewardship of Daybreak Games, the San Diego and Austin based studio has allowed the EverQuest franchise to atrophy while taking advantage of the loyalty of their players by offering overpriced, value-menu sized, bug ridden expansions. The ossified skeleton crew at Daybreak Games does one thing and only one thing well: they excel at mediocrity.
In a recent video interview with Monsters & Memories boss Shawn Lord, former Daybreak Games developer Jeff Butler came out of hibernation and recently revealed that the EverQuest franchise was more profitable than any other product the entire SONY corporation has ever released. This astounding claim begs the questions:
Why has SOE and then Daybreak Games failed to fully exploit the legacy of this incredibly valuable intellectual property?
Why has it been 17 years since the last EverQuest themed game was released?
Bonus Question
Why did Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley consistently fail to create a new version of EverQuest?
Conclusion
I expect Ji Ham will stay true to form and continue to fly under the radar and be invisible as the interim CEO for EG7. The CEO title will be another notch in his belt. He knows as much about video games as I know about brain surgery and maybe that’s an argument for having him do nothing and not spoil the broth.
The only hope for the future of the EverQuest franchise is that Enad Global 7 will find a new CEO who has some semblance of authentic passion for MMOs and create a new version of EverQuest. (Apparently J. Allen Brack is available and ready to mingle!) I have every reason to believe this will not happen and instead we’ll get another money grubbing suit. As Pete Townshend remarked in The Who’s classic rock anthem We Don’t Get Fooled Again:
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
I don’t quite understand your problem with Ji Ham. Unlike Robin Floodin he didn’t sweet talk and do make people false hopes before selling out.
This is what Enad Global 7 is all about. Buy low, make a lot of fuss, sell high. And this is also kinda what Daybreak games does: Obfuscation and compartmentalization. Ready to sell their franchises piecemeal.
Standing Stones Games and Rogue Planet for LOTRO and PlanetSide, so indie and independent, fully owned by… Daybreak Games it turned out.
Whatever, Floodin selling means he doesn’t quite think stock is going up. I wouldn’t put the blame on DBG. Seems Enad Global 7 isn’t much different in being secretive and more about false promises than delivering.
EverQuest is not likely to rise anytime soon. Unless you would want it as … mobile experience. Now that would be evil. Better let it rest. And maybe you should give up hope for EverQuest and remember the good old times instead.
I just read my article and I stand by what I said. I was very clear about my concerns regarding Ji Ham. My problem is that I don’t know who Ji Ham is or what he stands for. He hasn’t made himself available to the press or to the EQ community. At least Brad McQuaid with all his faults (and other CEOs) could could articulate a cogent exciting vision for MMOs. Brad McQuaid spent hours answering emails from fans. Do you think any MMO CEO would do the same today?
What does Ji Ham believe? Does he care about MMOs or virtual worlds?
What has Ji Ham done to make EverQuest or EverQuest 2 better?
What has Ji Ham done to realize the full potential of the EverQuest franchise?
Do you think Ji Ham could have invented the Apple, iPad, iPhone, the Tesla or any other innovative product?
In today’s world, a CEO has to be an evangelist for their product/service and an activist for the people that use those products/services. Ji Ham is neither.
I love EverQuest. Ji Ham loves money more than he does EverQuest. Ji Ham is welcome to prove me wrong.
Let’s see what Ji Ham is made of. I challenge him to start a video game studio from scratch and see what he comes up with. Instead, he buys other companies and let’s other people do the dirty work. I’m not impressed at all by people like him who skulk in the shadows, shuffle other people’s money around and then collect big paychecks.
Ji Ham should fire every last person at Daybreak Games starting with that intersectional grinning dyke and start from scratch. Read the Glassdoor reviews about Daybreak Games to find out what a clown show it is. But Ji Ham has no fucking idea. Ji Ham has no fucking clue. I’ll gladly debate Ji Ham and anyone else that works in the industry man to man in an independent forum about how the EverQuest franchise has been totally mismanaged.
Flodin fooled us all and fooled the investors. I hope he enjoys his retirement chalet in the Swiss alps.
However, they could make a lot of money if they created a new EverQuest and hired talented people instead of the same old San Diego retreads that have been infesting the MMO industry and producing FAILURE AFTER FAILURE.
Maybe I should nominate Ji Ham for a Nobel Peace Prize. That useless punk Obama got one without lifting a finger. Merit means nothing any more anyways.
I’m not going to give up on hoping for a new EverQuest.
TL;DR I’m tired of useless idiots running most MMOs these days.
P.S. I just found out Joe Biden abandoned 51 U.S. military service dogs in Afghanistan. I’m pissed to say the least…
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/150-u-s-military-working-dogs-abandoned-at-kabul-airport-as-last-plane-leaves/