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So so, as we all know, release is delayed. That might be a good thing because now Aventurine gets some time to start thinking again about distribution. There will be no boxed version on the 25/2, that would be impossible to manage. Not to think of all the different government rating agencies in Europe and the horrid long ESBR process in the US. So, it will come down, as announced/speculated, to a digital download. Oh happy day, what a party that will be. 100k-200k people sucking on the 18GB client. This will be a premiere in the mmo industry. I somehow don't see Aventurine bringing Filepanet or D2D on board. At the same time, I have very little confidence that Tasos and gang can pull it of by themself. We might just book a plane to Greece and pick it up ourselfs.
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We know there is a game and that it is good. Now I want to see if there is an infrastructure to actually carry it. As long such is not proven, my hands will stay clear. |
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Welcome I hope you will enjoy your time here. Greez |
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Originally posted by Complication It is Type O.
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Originally posted by bonobotheory
At least with a car you have a basis to assume it will be still around in a decade. Try this with a mmorpg and you will whine bitter tears.
Yes, it is about money. The money that pays my roof, gets my kids dressed (I do not have kids, its a figure of speech) and that, how W. says it, puts food on my family. The money does not stand in any relation to the emotional involvement. So, to bed I go.
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Originally posted by Draenor
Or not? Where was the Borat DVD again? Greez |
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Hello all,
I am a 35 year old lawyer of dutch origin, now working for about 7 years in the gaming industry. My current employment is with a german game developer that focuses on "next generation mmorpg". As a full blood lawyer, I am very, very dry when it comes to emotions, and just as dry will this post be. Dry but not without some in between the lines sarcasm. So if you can not handle such thing, stop reading now, and refrain from posting emotional, mental ejaculations in reply to this post.
If you do not know what the title of this post means, then have a look here. For the ones that do know, please bear with me for a little while. I can not guarantee that it will be its while worth, but certainly it will be of interest.
The gaming industry, in all its beauty, is about one thing and one thing only. It is about money. Big money, more money than the very most of the visitors roaming this page have ever seen or owned. Sure, even an industry like this one is made up by people, most of them in a legal relation with their company, called employment.
Computer or video games, especially mmorpg, do cause a bond between product and customer only seen (on a comparable level) with the automobile and real estate industry. And this is where the title of this post comes into play. We are talking about a product that is fully virtual and very much limited to a rather short life span. Let me draw a picture:
A product that costs (this is a easy followed example, not an industry standard) in its R&D and deployment cycle 10 million US$ and requires a period of 3 years to become shippable, in which no revenue is generated, will always be a highly risky venture. Now lets say that a staff of 30 people is leading this product towards hitting the market.
30 employees, 30 human beings, 30 professionals working for 3 years, every day on a project that makes up anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of their daily time. Writers, coders, visual artists, audio artist, PR folks, administrative people, web publishers, and even lawyers, that allow a virtual product to start dominating the very life they live. Indulging friends and family but far more than this, putting their name in the line of fire.
And what do they get? Flames, blames, none or half checked facts and discussions about these, fanbois and e-pen strokers, trolls and wannabe insiders of the industry. Of course, countless repetitions of the above mentioned on a single topic. Virtual interaction with the almost absolute security to be safe from any kind of physical repression. So different from a fist fight at the hotel bar @ Hotel Nordica during the first Eve Online fanfest, or not being pepper sprayed by Annaheim police during the first SWG convention.
Respect to everyone that speaks up against a specific CEO, community relation manager, Dev or Mod while using facts or serious arguments. Every poster that can elaborate on his criticism with arguments and suggestion of or for improvements.
But all these company and product bashing folks, these mindless criticizing people that have no experience or understanding of the matter they refer to. You wannabe industry experts, You "reality for virtuality" exchanging wimps. You have to start to understand that a game is a game is a game. It is not real and it is not your life. It is ,in the very best case, an amazing ride that is brightly lit, with loops and cures, ups and downs. But at the end it is just a ride, it does not last forever. Please also note, that 97% of all companies in this industry have folks like me that make sure that legal binding obligations, to eighter side of the deal, are fulfilled. And if it is not legal it is not binding.
No, I will not start to list examples. In a matter of fact, while I write this I lose all motivation to go on about this topic because it turns me into Don Quichotte. I guess I am not in the mood, or maybe not anymore, to fight windmills. So just let me just put a plead out there. Give some respect to the people who build these rides. I do not talk of the ones you read about in feature articles. I talk about the folks who's name you find in the credits, or the ones who do not make it even this far.
Pay tribute to my secretary and to the lady that comes by three times a week and cleans my office. Why are there so very few to raise up and state how much they enjoyed the score of the game. Why does nobody express his gratitude to the modeler that has spent so much time and effort? Why is it absurd to list the guy that maintains the air-co of our data center in the game credits? No wait, let me go wicked all the way, why does nobody ever thank the coders that make it possible hat you actually have a product you can hate so much?
By now this post is a dry something in my throat, I will most possible edit this post tomorrow, but for now I will hit bed and dream of a world dominated by compassion and loving kindness between people. Right next to a gaming industry that handles only open source codes, so "everyone" can try to make it better. Which will render every employee and me without income, but hey, the nice folks emulating away on our code sure will offer me a roof, or not?
Do you get what I mean? No? I am so sorry, or at least I try to be. Flame ahead.
Greez Longsnout |
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About the NDA!
From a strictly legal point of view, there is no NDA.
In legal terms an agreement is a defined / explained regulation you agree or disagree to.
When I got my beta invitation I only agreed to the EULA (end user license agreement) that did not cover any level of confidentiality for the beta testing. Before you ask, yes I do read every EULA or TOC or LA. I am a lawyer, it is part of what I do to earn a living.
On the other hand, when you read the FAQ of PotC, you will find that in the last section they do tell people not to communicate beta experience to 3rd parties. To bad that a FAQ is not legally binding, because you do not explicit agree to it.
Now, I have no influence on the fact if you belive or distrust my word. If you want to see for yourself, please sign up for the beta and within a few day you will have a first hand experience to judge.
As a general comment on the beta. This game is a blank embarrassment for every single person that worked on it. Oh, this seems to be a harsh statement? I am sorry, let me rephrase it: "OMG, Pirates of the burning sea is coming out, lets put a counter on the market real quick, based on a successful movie."
Now, feel free to flame ahead.
Greez
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Entered Beta today, first impression.
General Discussion « Pirates of the Caribbean Online 4/15/07 4:16:18 AM
Hi all, I would like to clear out some points. First of all, I do not recall having ever applied or signed up for this beta. Nor was I active in the community. The gods know where Disney got my email from. So I am sorry, but I can not instruct or advice on how to join the beta. 2nd, every beta I signed up to in the past was going hand in hand with being active in the community. Being active long before even a beta was announced. In all these betas I was doing time testing, serious testing, because I was interested in the the game its dev cycle and community. And yes, there was always this tiny little hope that the dev will listen. Some even did. As for PotCO, I just took the beta as a chance to get a look at the game. I didn't know anything about it before. I am not even sure if it is correct to call this a beta, because there is no official forum to discuss the game, nor is there a community basis. The ingame experience with other players leads me to belive that most players are of a younger age. This plus some earlier mentioned elements show me that this is not my game. Now, being a bit smarter, it is deinstalled. I do not troll betas. For all who still get into beta or join the game after release. I wish you a great time and tons of fun. Greez
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Entered Beta today, first impression.
General Discussion « Pirates of the Caribbean Online 4/14/07 8:05:42 AM
Woke up this morning and found a mail in my inbox that invited me to beta. There was no NDA, so I will speak open about it.
After installing the game and starting up the client, the first thing that hurt my eyes was a gigantic advertisement bar on the top of the screen. The same dumb, irritating, badly made animation flickers by over and over and over again. It is bad to be tortured with adds in a released game, in a beta version it just is plain annoying and insulting. Next, it seems like there is no way to run the game in full screen mode. There is an option for it in settings, and there is a large selection of different resolutions, but clicking them results in nothing. So best I can do is run it in windowed mode on 1024x768. The actual game takes place in a even smaller window. Loosing loads of possible space to the add and a useless menu bar on the left. Have a look at the screenshot. Oh, the settings you choose will not be saved, even when you click the save button. After every crash or relog you will need to readjust. The adds and the fact that the world does not fill the screen reduces the experience dramaticlally. Character creation is pretty simple. You choose your gender, bodyshape and hight. Then you move on the customize your face and your outfit. The facial customization offers a wide range of facial attributes. Unfortunatly the models are not that pretty, textures are outdated and character animations do not blow me away. It is an other comic style, Once in the world, you move with the arrows and look around with the mouse. There is a limitted zoom in/out option, no 1st person view. To attack you need to pull a weapon from one of 3 slots and then execute attacks with the left and right mouse buttons. There is a "timed clicked" combo system and a variety of special attacks you gain by progressing. I belive the game could be fun and has potential, but I did not long and far enougth to see it proven. I stoped playing after about 40 minutes, simply because the adds got on my nerves. Well, in combination with a sloppy fps. Should I go back playing it, I will update this post.
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