All Posts by CaesarsGhost

you know what's funny?  People who are flipping out about SecuROM have no idea what StarForce is...

I mean you want to talk about bad copy-protection software?  StarForce wrote the BOOK on it...

When StarDock released Galactic Civilizations 2, and refused to use StarForce protection... StarForce hosted the torrent and linked to it in the official Forums.

there's no reason... with a MMO it required logged in authentication.

SecuROM wouldn't be worth it, wouldn't help, and you don't need the CD/DVD to play a MMO to begin with.

Course, the WAR install Discs made me install EA Downloader which doesn't list WAR or use the Downloader to update... so it's entirely possible they'll just start shoving it on all their products.

I've been part of 5 Startup MMO companies, 2 of which never even became public and one of which folded a week after the gamelaunch.  One axed half the staff after squandering the startup money in a few months (we designers got axed because they could "do that on their own").  And this one seems far more likely to work.

I've done consulting for 1 startup MMO companies... they weren't prepared at all and were looking to make a quick buck.  They closed up shop last I heard.

And for a few months I ran my own company (albeit NOT MMO) to make games.  The reason was because after seeing all these MMO companies failing (quickly at that), I didn't want to get involved, and I didn't want to spend the time/money that MMOs require if I couldn't finish.

If you want some advice:
Make a game or 2 that's NOT a MMO before you delve into MMO Development... MMOs are *the hardest* games to create, on any level.  Perhaps a Single/Multi RPG, test out some of your concepts.  Rack up some of your experience from within your team, earn a little bit of namesake, establish some good company credit.

This will also help to get you more Investment money in the long run, a good company name and reputation will go a long way.  In addition if you can show that the company has already been profitable, which will help you partially fund your bigger, MMO, project.

If you're still bent on a MMO:
there's much to learn that, if you have never been in development, you're going to learn the hard way.  MMO Development is a multi-year project, and not for the faint of heart.  If you'd like me to look at your plans (be it business, timeline, or expectations), I'd be happy to give you my advice.

I ran VG on that back in 06 when I worked at RR...

I'd be willing to say that if it runs VG it'll run WAR.

they both look like they have 2 or 3 different artistic directors, so there's no cohesion... but to me WAR's graphics appear to mesh together, where Darkfall's throws randomness to the wind with what graphical enhancements each art model will use... which ultimately turns me to vote for WAR.

On a side note for the OP: when you're trying to compare 2 games, you should chose a less blurry picture for the one you want to favor.  Honestly, if it's a motion or heat blur, it's ruining the experience of the screenshot.

Originally posted by DeaconX

On several ocassions I've put this theory to the test and had the opportunity to fly to new areas of the country... a few cities are much nicer then I originally thought.

Just remember... if somebody's a complete twit online, offer to go to their house so they can say these things straight to your face.  You might laugh when you get there for one of the following reasons:

A) Their mother answers the door while they peer out the window from upstairs.
B) They call the police for fear of you (I'm 5'9", 130 lbs, not very scary.  Make sure you keep a log on you of the conversation where he/she gave you the address).
C) Bring a condom (happened once... no joke)
D) Notify SOMEBODY that you're going there just in case.

All in all, I've done this 8 times and counting.  Never once has the person actually managed to say anything to my face they repeatedly said online for weeks prior... nor have they used the same attitude.

One guy was 38 and still living in his mother's basement in Kansas City... which was even better then the 15 year old kid who sent his mother to the door to get rid of me.

Don't stand for them to be douchebags, put them on the spot!

Insanity Note: I have had a gun pointed at me when I got there... there was no talking but I'm pretty sure he was scared.

Monetary Note: Doing this is VERY expensive... do so as your funds are available and you're sure you'll gain the upper hand overall.

Actually I'm surprised with all the homebrew DS stuff nobody's done it there yet...

Originally posted by JestorRodo

 But losing more then half of your customers is not smart and far less profitably then having over a Million of them -

 To draw a comparison,WArhammer  has over a half a million customers and its been out for only a few weeks now , SOE has to run 6 games to have then same amount of players - thats not smart nor profitable.

SOE is not as profitable as you think - I would sure love to see a balance sheet on them.

you realize that SOE is in complete financial security right now that they're bringing in so much money... right?

Also, if you're refering to SWG (which we all know you are)... it was well documented that at the time of the NGE the game was hemoraging players.  Not just losing them, they were leaving in the thousands, per month, ANYWAYS.  It was intended to revitalize the crowd to the new market of players that opened up.

Yes, it failed.  New ventures and changes to companies sometimes fail.

Did it ruin SOE?  no.
Did it ruin LA?  no.
Did it ruin your game?  in your mind, yeah.
Does your triad against the parent Publisher effect anything in the slightest?  no.
Are your posts funny?  YUP!  But only because it just shows how incredibly pathetic gamers are sometimes...

YEARS later you're taking this change out on Developers who probably were in College with a dream to work in the game Industry, who had absolutely NOTHING to do with it.  Right now some poor kid (term used lightly) is sitting at his Cubical at SOE programming a patch for a game possibly.  He just wants to do his job, but you'd spit on him probably because he's inadvertently part of your personal vendetta against the company he works for.

You're not hurting SOE.  They've already labeled you as clinicly insane probably... if I was SOE, I'd probably have done that too.
If you want a response you should try formal letters that are well written and articulated.  Citing bad and good points, and remain calm, but steadfast, in the face of rejection and adversity.

If you want to continue your completely worthless attempts at bashing a multimillion dollar corporation who's well established, and growing, by all means.  However, the longer time goes on, the less anybody will listen to you... and the less anybody will actually remember what you're talking about...

Originally posted by JestorRodo

SOE - use to have about a Million players - Now they have less then half that amount. Thats a far cry from smart and Profitably over these many years - SOE Died the day WoW appeared .

 

 

except for the fact they're making MILLIONS in their Online division?  And that they run, not 1, not 2... not even 3... but like 6 games that are all turning profit?

...and counting?

...how does that equate to "died", where it's the past tense of the current form "dying" which it is also NOT doing?

I think SOE is doing pretty good, if I had a successful company like that I'd be pretty proud.

Why is this on the Forums and not in the News section?

...why is the News Section so very...bare?

Why does ALL the news come through the Forums isntead of the main page?  I mean... that's just comon Websense...

Not overall, just one picture in particular:

I'm just curious... does anybody's desk actually LOOK like that?

Do I have the only cluttered work desk in the  world? (I don't, I know I don't)  And my home desk probably has about 10 empty beer bottles and who knows how many bottle caps.

What it looks like is that they have the EULA in the backround of the Installer Progress Meter... anybody who's assembled a package using the InstallShield knows that's not how it works. (also the scroll bar for the EULA is incredibly short... no?)

Is that a Mini-CD case there in front of the monitor?  or some sort of half-sized manual?

I've never seen the name on the back of the box in such big font... but that might just be a style choice...

In any case, good on you fans of DarkFall, that looks like your greatest shot of ACTUAL production value yet.  However, you'd think they'd have some sort of post like everybody else saying "Finalized BoxArt"...

I want it to succeed so people stop bitching about how graphics don't matter and gameplay with FFA PVP with full loot is important.

Of course, the industry as a whole has shown us that graphics DO matter, and FFA PvP with Full Loot isn't very successful really...

However, I feel that id DF succeeds, that at least we can hear people stop complaining about it... that's the success I'm shooting for... not neccessarily the game doing well.

Originally posted by Pelu

Stargate...

Not this one.  I've read you can play an extinct race on extinct worlds against extinct enemies.

A little continuity, might go a long way.

I'd stick with StarTrek, it looks pretty good and Cryptic knows what they're doing.

The one I'm using at my company.

There might not be many Dev tools... but it does things that'll make your head spin.  On top of that, it's *nix compatible (including OSX).

Originally posted by Aragon100

Originally posted by SignusM

Originally posted by GundamAce

Originally posted by tsitluc

Yes they have some unknown Greek DVD distribution company as their publisher because no real video game publisher would touch this.

Should tell you enough about how innovative , groundbreaking and simply amazing the game is.

This game is going to be a monumental failure.

From what I understand, they chose this company so they could maintain artistic control over the game.  Any major game publisher would have insisted they take the next two years to turn their game into a clone of WoW.
 

 

This.

 

Also, an old and successful company like Audio Visual wouldn't devote funds to create an entire video game division of their company if the game was going to fail.

 

True. They seen the game and have full confidence in what they seen.

If an established company wants to open up a new Division it takes little to no paperwork and NO money.  It can be done as easily as sitting somebody at a desk and say "This is our new division."

If they're spinning off a Subsidiary, then it costs some money (still not alot mind you)... but even then they can do it quite quickly and painlessly... especially if they are "old and successful", they'd likely be pros at it.

Don't let anybody fool you that creating a "New Division" of a company is hard, or costly.  Especially if the company in question specializes pressing discs and packaging them (shipping), and that's all they'll be doing for Darkfall as I understand it.

The above is not pro or anti darkfall or pro or anti AVE.  What it is, is an explaination of how corporate structure works.

I've begun telling everybody who asks me to get on Vent that I'm deaf...

One Guild Leader disbanded the whole guild because he didn't want somebody who couldn't be on Vent, but the guild stood up and said he was discriminating against deaf people.
(I feel kind of bad about that.)

Headsets give me a headache.  I have insanely accute hearing, I sit in my room in complete silence normally... most people can't hear my TV I keep it so low, and I don't listen to music much (if at all)...  And I absolutely hate the moronic garbage that gets spewed over Vent/TS when it happens. 

I've played TONS of games with no sound at all, including FPS style games.  I found the process to be quite enjoyable without sound.  There have been times when my game machine did not even have speakers hooked up, let alone a headset for Vent.

Saying you're Deaf works... normally they assign somebody to talk to you in chat.  But you should be a good player if you're going to do that, since it's extra work for somebody.

all i got from the op was "boo hoo, I'm a swg vet and I'm going to find another way to make some poor developer's life a living hell who probably had nothing to do with nge because I still have pictures of my x girlfriend propagating my apartment"

Get over it, she left you, she's not coming back.

Comparing WoW and Darkfall I can see.

But when youc ompare Blizzard to Aventurine you're basically comparing an Orange to a Zuccini... the matchup just isn't there.  It's the same problem with comparing Aventurine to FunCom or Mythic... you're comparing large companies with proven track records to a relatively new player.

Google to Cuil... that's a good example.  One's a mega-corp (who's name is now a verb) who redefined the Web, the other (while possibly better) is smaller and relatively new.

Compare the game, not the company... if you try the latter you're likely to get slaughtered by referencable statistics and facts available all over the net.

it's part of a corporate synergy... File Planet offers quite a range of advertising for games, many games work with IGN (Parent Company of FilePlanet) and NewsCorp (Parent Company of IGN) to get their game adspace and show off their game.  When you get reviews on IGN (Gamespy/etc) and previews, they often want your game on FilePlanet for "Exclusive Betas" because that will bring in FilePlanet subscriptions.

If FilePlanet offered your company a few cents per subscriber during that time, your company would do it as well.  Where there's a $ (or insert your appropriate currency symbol there) to be made, there's somebody who will figure out how to make it.  FilePlanet is well known and established.

I remember 2 years ago reading an article "Gaming on my FilePlanet Subscription"... for like $15/y, he continuously played Betas.

So are they "hiding" it from you?  no
Are they advertising it to people in greater circles? yes

After all, if you can afford a fileplanet subscription, you can afford a MMO Subscription.

a quick click on your user information showed all there was to be showed:

Spore launches on the 7th of September (also known as Sunday... tomorrow since you're in DC).  You're trying to upload to a server specifically set for a launch day.

The only people supposed to be playing are AU and EU right now.  Meaning you have a pirated copy probably...

All the other "User Content" you're seeing is likely the Maxis PrePackaged.

My girlfriend said "must've failed to read the nfo part about staying offline".