On hold does not mean "Over". Considering DR and GS are slowly dieing along with the rest of the MUD commnunity and Simu knows it, I doubt they're willing to write off HJ, which could be their only hope of staying in business for another decade, so easily.

Also just because HJ itself is on hold doesn't mean the HeroEngine is. With a smaller staff, It's entirely possible, like I've been saying for months, that they've put HJ on hold because they need to complete work on the HeroEngine first.

It's not a case of lies, evil lies, and/or bell peppers, it's just a case of unfortunate circumstance and prioritization.

I've been waiting for this game forever.. I had a lot of interest in it, its sad to see that it was never fully developed.

Originally posted by Draq

On hold does not mean "Over". Considering DR and GS are slowly dieing along with the rest of the MUD commnunity and Simu knows it, I doubt they're willing to write off HJ, which could be their only hope of staying in business for another decade, so easily.

Also just because HJ itself is on hold doesn't mean the HeroEngine is. With a smaller staff, It's entirely possible, like I've been saying for months, that they've put HJ on hold because they need to complete work on the HeroEngine first.

It's not a case of lies, evil lies, and/or bell peppers, it's just a case of unfortunate circumstance and prioritization.

I agree that this game's fate seems to have fallen to the realities of the market. What looked like one of the more promising PvE stories integrated with the HJ gameplay engine is just another victim of  circumstance. I can't remember now how many years I've been following this game, off and on. Somewhere between 5-10. At least the engine will see the light of day thanks to Bioware and TOR.

So maybe this game is "on hold." Maybe in another 5 to 10 years it will have a playable alpha. While there's nothing wrong with that, I'd have to disagree somewhat with Draq. On hold does not mean "over"...but after 10 years go by, in the MMO industry, still on hold means the same thing as cold in the grave. Look up the definition of "vaporware" and you will it listed as "Hero's Journey."

R.I.P. HJ.

Originally posted by lancelot76

Originally posted by Draq

On hold does not mean "Over". Considering DR and GS are slowly dieing along with the rest of the MUD commnunity and Simu knows it, I doubt they're willing to write off HJ, which could be their only hope of staying in business for another decade, so easily.

Also just because HJ itself is on hold doesn't mean the HeroEngine is. With a smaller staff, It's entirely possible, like I've been saying for months, that they've put HJ on hold because they need to complete work on the HeroEngine first.

It's not a case of lies, evil lies, and/or bell peppers, it's just a case of unfortunate circumstance and prioritization.

 

I agree that this game's fate seems to have fallen to the realities of the market. What looked like one of the more promising PvE stories integrated with the HJ gameplay engine is just another victim of  circumstance. I can't remember now how many years I've been following this game, off and on. Somewhere between 5-10. At least the engine will see the light of day thanks to Bioware and KoTOR.

So maybe this game is "on hold." Maybe in another 5 to 10 years it will have a playable alpha. While there's nothing wrong with that, I'd have to disagree somewhat with Draq. On hold does not mean "over"...but after 10 years go by, in the MMO industry, still on hold means the same thing as cold in the grave. Look up the definition of "vaporware" and you will it listed as "Hero's Journey."

R.I.P. HJ.

Interestingly, lnowing Simmutronics this could still happen, even if the game released in the next 3-4 years plenty of people would still pay to play it.

For those of you that didn't know, and still visiting these boards, HJ and the engine is sold to another company.

So HJ isnt a [object Window]simutronics[object Window] game anymore. The [object Window]new[object Window] company seems to have some interest in kicking the game back to life.. but who cares nowadays anyway...

[object Window]

More info: http://www.heroengine.com/

I'm glad it was passed on.  Simu can kick rocks as far as I'm concerned.  They wasted a lot of peoples time with the hero council and didn't even bother to say thank you or give us a heads up on what was going on with the game.  

From what I can gather, it wasn't exactly 'sold'. Looks like they split it off completely from Simutronics. Not sure if it was a company split or what, but I can't find anything on an actual sale.

= = =

Bah... I was wrong. Idea Fabrik purchased the Hero's Engine from Simutronics in August. They are offering new licensing options for those who want to make a MMO. Not exactly cheap, but could be an option for those who want to make an MMO and attempt to make money at it.

Personally, when Simutronics decided to dump Hero's Journey, they lost their credibility. Once that was gone, it was just a matter of time when they had to sell the Hero's Engine to stay afloat. Simutronics makes money on the backs of free labor mostly, so it's no surprise that they failed at a real business model.

Well I have been out of the loop for a while, but it's sad to see HJ dead.  I still have yet to find an MMO which captures the wonder and atmosphere of Gemstone III.  I had always thought Simutronics to be a stand up company, but now I realize it was the community which propped the company up.

Whatever, I wish Simutronics the best, but HJ really could have been something special had they followed the F2P Runescape route, but that ship had sailed a long time ago while this project was stalled and eventually went dark.

I agree with you Dark. I was looking forward to HJ since I had experience in DragonRealms for like seven (7) years. I was hoping HJ would be a graphical extension of that.

Now, it's done. Although Idea Fabrik owns the rights to it, it still doesn't seem to be in active development. Their focus is on the engine, not the game.

On a side note though, the license cost that they have on the Hero's Engine isn't bad. I'll be interested to see how SW:ToR looks, since it's completely built on the Hero's Engine. Could be a good selling tool for people who want to make a F2P MMO with a chance to make real money.

I personally dare anyone to make a quality MMO that has real roleplaying rules like the DragonRealms or GemStone 3 games do. Those roleplaying communities are amazing. Something truly missing in graphical MMOs in my opinion.

Originally posted by Isane

Originally posted by Hammertime1

Shame, the game had promise but the sooo long development period was pretty much a killer.

 

A variation on the MUDS simmutronics have made in the form of HJ would be great lets hope , they get a few dollars.

Amen to that.  I loved Dragonrealms...

Originally posted by calmyron

I agree with you Dark. I was looking forward to HJ since I had experience in DragonRealms for like seven (7) years. I was hoping HJ would be a graphical extension of that.

Now, it's done. Although Idea Fabrik owns the rights to it, it still doesn't seem to be in active development. Their focus is on the engine, not the game.

On a side note though, the license cost that they have on the Hero's Engine isn't bad. I'll be interested to see how SW:ToR looks, since it's completely built on the Hero's Engine. Could be a good selling tool for people who want to make a F2P MMO with a chance to make real money.

I personally dare anyone to make a quality MMO that has real roleplaying rules like the DragonRealms or GemStone 3 games do. Those roleplaying communities are amazing. Something truly missing in graphical MMOs in my opinion.

 Ahh yes, I have fond memories of Dragonrealms too, as well as a MUD known as Dragon's Gate.  I was so in love with Gemstone III that I couldn't devote as much time as I would have liked into other games, and I never even got that high in level in Gemstone III even though I played it off and on for years.

The roleplaying is unlike anything I have seen in an MMO these days, I felt like I was in a living, breathing Fantasy tale, it was fantastic.  If Dragonrealms, Gemstone III or Dragon's Gate could be translated into an MMO properly, it may not be the next WoW with 10 million players, but it will have a devoted and active community which is all these types of games need to make money and be entertaining.

I hope the Hero's Engine all the success in the world with The Old Republic, I'll more than likely try the game out for myself as well.  Had I the technical know how and the spare cash, I wouldn't mind working on my own MMO using this engine, but that's not going to happen.  I do love to write though so maybe I'll run into a group of people who would be willing to make their own MMO one day on their own time and I could contribute what I could (I almost did this with a group of others who wanted a proper Shadowrun game, I had the story all written out until the lead guy received an ominous cease and desist letter, he just gave up all together after that.)

Perhaps I'll see you around in one of these games, take care.

I was a GameHost for DR for about a year. Loved it at first, but after a year, they changed our job description from being able to help players to being just note takers for the GMs to deal with it.

Still, a very fun time in my life and I would love to put together a graphical MMO like DR or GS3. The amount of time involved is amazing though. Just doing GameHost duties was a huge time sink.

I would love to find a group of like minded individuals who'd like to group up and try to do it though. Ahh... dreams.