Hello all,
I am a small time games developer, mainly muds and small community games, never been in this for profit my primary aim has always been to run a game for a comunity, aslong as it didn't stop me buying food everything is fine..
I am a project manager but skilled in c/c++/mysql and java with a small team who have been with me for about 10 years.
Being an avid fan of Auto assault I was like some others sadened to see it die, it was flawed and suffered heavily from the population catch 22 "need more players but people who want to join need more players".
So when A.A was cancelled I began to develope a business plan with the idea of contacting Ncsoft about a restart and continued development of A.A.
After sounding out business/brand names I came up with a very simple plan if Ncsoft were interested, firstly the subscription model or formula:
As I said not in this for profit so, free to download, free trial.
1)Pay subscription: 5$ per month for that you get not only primary customer support but added in game packages which I won't go into them but it did include player run/guild run garages.
2)Free to play: nothing is ever "free" this would be paid by the in game bill boards carrying real world regional advertising, nothing intrusive but hey your playing for free.
Me and my team believed it would work experienced people who are use to creating heavy fun plot line driven events that even on muds had people walking away from there pc with there mouth open something to talk about for days.
Like I said a comunity idea with a cohesive focused roleplay not only created and started by us but a system of "nobles" players who wished to bring there own events and ideas.
But it has all gone south at the first hurdle and yes i'm pretty frustrated.
We made tentative inquiries to Ncsoft, most of these enquiries were it seemed ignored, but i'm not the kind of person to give up easily, finally we got a reply after getting past the low level customer support and employees.
A reply that was simple and to the point.
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Response (Ben) 09/14/2007 03:15 AM
Hello,
Thank you for contacting PlayNC Support with that information.
However, NCsoft does not accept any unsolicited business proposals. Please let us know if you
have any further questions.
Thanks again,
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Basic meaning that unless we ask for business offers we don't accept them, this seemed a little strange and I wondered if there was some miscomunication.
So I contacted again through different channels explaining it looks like A.A is just sitting on a shelf doing nothing, explaining A contract in there favour with all profits from advertising/revenue except for a reasonable amount for bandwidth/development cost would go straight back to them for no effort.
So I get another reply
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Jason,
You will need to please direct your request to NetDevil®, as they are the development studio for Auto Assault. We are unable to provide any further information about that product.
Regards,
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At this point I feel like i'm chasing my own tail, but I think to myself *oh netdevil kept rights to A.A it all makes sense now, so off I go to contact the listed business contact at Netdevil.
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Hi Jason,
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we are not the right company to speak to. Auto Assault has always been published by NCSoft so I think it is best to contact them.
I am not sure who will be the right person to speak to but you might contact NCSoft Austin for more information.
This is their contact page : http://www.ncsoft.com/eng/nccountry/country_01.asp
Sorry that I can't be of much help in this. Good Luck!
- Grace
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Thankyou Grace for the quick reply.
So That is the point i'm at, if anyone knows any of the high ups at ncsoft or has a contact details for anyone I could speak to or just send this post to them.
It is sad but seems like people involved would prefer A.A to just rot away on a shelf
User Comments
I would keep pursuing NetDevil because surely they still have rights to the source code while perhaps NCSoft might have rights to the IP itself. Too bad you didnt go to the Austin GDC NCSoft was probably there. Problem is NetDevil is probably reusing the engine for their next MMO projects so its for sure getting used. but you are correct the assets to A.A. is probably just sitting on a shelf.
I wisk you luck thats not a bad idea friend. I wish Game Developers shared their content more with the fans.
This is very interesting, I knew the game was good, but I never got around to testing it out and then they canceled it before I could give it a try. Anyways, NetDevil would be my best guess too; the hard part is finding out who the right person to talk to about this would be as you already know.
Good luck when you are able to get a hold of the right people.
We played AA from beta to just after launch and I have to say that one was a pretty bad game all the way around. Good theme, great idea, bad implementation. AA could have been good with real content and power struggle but the only real point of the game was to hold the everchanging control points that boasted a minimum benefit (at best) to the faction controlling them. No content or end game=people quitting=server pop=dead game.
Hmm, first of all I'm not sure how far you're going to get through email. You realize that they've probably had a gazillion offers throughout their history just like yours. The best thing to do is to put together some type of portfolio, a game plan, and make a nice presentation with all the facts - show them that you mean business and that you have the skills to pull this off and then try to get a personal meeting with someone. They probably receive emails from every two bit hacker, programmer, dos kiddie and java programmer out there to run their games or provide private servers, etc... You'll need to show them that you have the servers, manpower, strategy, and starting capital to pull this off. Running a mmo of this magnitude is a very hard job and completely different from running mud games. I'm not sure what kind of programming is involved but I know it'll take more than C++ and Java, you're going to need database people, People who can run and repair servers, programmers, Multimedia, and so much more. If you feel that you can pull it off then by all means keep at it, just realize what it's going to take. This will be a full time job more or less. Can you afford to do this and still eat?
Anyway, I wish you all the luck but you might be better off taking small steps and starting with smaller mmo's and work your way up to these types of games. Build a portfolio, show companies that you'll have the skills to run successful games and then doors will open. Good luck.
I'm thinking Saga of Ryzom might be a great place to start...heard they're looking for a buyer and are motivated to sell
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