Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: Beautiful game engine

« on: July 08, 2007, 03:42:25 PM »

Wow. This has got me concerned. Zergon's posts where deleted? Where did they go? Zergon doesn't seem like the person to deleted his own posts, so I am guessing it must of been an admin who did it.

That in itself is a very scary thought. Censorship. Someone posts opposing views and arguments instead of keeping it "civil," it gets deleted

I do not believe in that at all. Keep the bad with the good. I thought we were living in an age of freedom of speech. As long as it remains valid and not about inappropriate subjects, it should be respected

I will leave it at that. I am just sitting here, shocked, shaking my head that this occurs. Has there been other occurances similar to this?

Thank you for reading

Tori

2

General Discussion / Re: Beautiful game engine

« on: July 07, 2007, 09:46:04 PM »

 "...Is your new game engine being paid for by people on the team?..."
 Yes, we are paying for use of the engine but not in the MMO Licensing sort of way. It is a game engine that is fairly well known and has a great licensing scheme that works well for us. We are also paying for various aspects of development, when/where we can. All I can say at this time.
 
 "....Or do you have investors giving you money?...."
 Right now? No.
 
 "....How will you attract consumers to the new game?...."
 I will not get in to this right now.
 
 "....Who are the list of people developing the game?..."
 Look at the Future of Layonara post and they are listed in there.
 
 ".....A list of names and their role. All game companies have this information freely available without fear of "theft"...."
 This will all be talked about at a later time when the game site goes live. For a list of names the Future of Layonara post. Best I can offer right now.
 
 "....Are you making your own engine, or modifying one?..."
 Modifying.
 
 ".....What is the current progress of it? 20% done?...."
 Sorry, I will not state where we are at this time.

Thank you for your effort at answering some of the questions, truth be told they are not satisfactory.

In thinking of terms of commercialization, These types of answers will throw any chance of investors. It appears its in secrecy, and misdirection of answers.

Personally I think these are quite simple questions to answer. A mission statement of your product will go along way to attract investors and alleviate jitters among your community. I do hope the engine you have chosen to use is as highly customizable and tweakable as the Crystal engine. Although I fail to see a problem in mentioning which engine you are modifying.

Note, this is a personal view not an attack on you at all, but investors like to see reliability, and stability in a group of people they are investing money into. So far the impression I have gotten, is this could very well be vaporware, or something along the lines of a game in development for over 5 years, only to be a peice of junk.

I look forward to any constructive arguments and posts.

Thank you for reading

Tori

3

General Discussion / Re: Beautiful game engine

« on: July 07, 2007, 08:20:56 PM »

H
 
 As for Tori, that looks like an interesting game and I wish anybody on the team running or anybody playing it all the fun in the world. Every person playing games (or running a world) is doing it to have fun and the definition of fun or enjoyment is different across the board for all of them. Perhaps this is a good world for them to check out and perhaps it isnt, but just like I stated above, choice is a wonderful thing in life. When something is free and choice is exercised then great things can (and often do) happen. I personally think it is wrong, disrespecful (regardless of what you feel about Layonara or the community) and unprofessinoal for you to advertise on a game world/community site about another game world/community site, that is what a place like MMORPG.com is for (check it out if you havent, it is a fanstastic site). Sites like that are dedicated to trying to support online gaming worlds/communities, not just an individual world/community and it where this sort of posts should go. And yep, the game industry can be a nasty beast that is for sure; I will just leave it at that.
 
 To everybody, please keep this thread respectful. And please do not advertise game worlds on other game world sites as it is the respectful, proper, and professional thing to do in any world/game community.

Thank you for your reply. With respect, it is not advertising for a game world. That was used as an example of the Crystal Engine. The free engine available on the first link. I used that game world, just to show everyone how powerful it is. And as a choice to use for developing a world around. You can make stunning visuals with it, and I was impressed when I heard it was free. The page for the engine shows other projects in development, all with nice graphics.

Again, I reiterate that it is not advertising. If it was I would of said it was, then proceeded to be heckled for it.

With respect, can any of my questions in my post above, be answered in a factual, non biased way? I am very curious in the direction you are headed, with developing  everything yourself.

Thank you for reading again

Tori

P.S: To LynnJuniper, you are forgiven =]

4

General Discussion / Re: Beautiful game engine

« on: July 07, 2007, 07:05:03 PM »

Thank you for the replies so far, although it started negatively and showed me an alarming amount of what lonnarin referred to as "Fanatical loyalty" in this community. Being loyal is one thing, but what is shown here shows me there is a huge problem in this community. I'd hate to see behind the scenes here, what I've witnessed scares me a lot. Please feel free to drop me a line if you feel like to vent. I am objective and not biased.

I've been reading the forums for weeks now and the thing on the new game engine got me concerned. The gaming industry is nothing like the entertainment industry. It is much more cut throat and dream shattering.
For every one successful game, there are around fifty that fail. Take account the niche layonara sits in and your chances of success are roughly 1% for any kind of financial success.

As father chaos pointed out, its like re-inventing the wheel. Some companies do not have the resources to create their own engine, so they license from other companies, or use an open source one like the crystal engine. It is a money saving choice and greatly increases your chance for any kind of profit. Even with these choices, your chance of success are still narrow. The consumer is a fickle beast and can turn on you destroying companies, or they lose such amounts of money they are sold to bigger companies and their talent recruited to their own.

What questions I would like answered, which they can be without screaming "Theivery" as an excuse.

Your plans for the new game. Is it pay to play, or the game is free? Do you charge for bandwidth, or do you charge for the game and the play is free?

How will you attract consumers to the new game?

Who are the list of people developing the game?

A list of names and their role. All game companies have this information freely available without fear of "theft"

Are you making your own engine, or modifying one?

What is the current progress of it? 20% done?

Providing details like this will keep people more interested in the progress, instead of statements "We will give you more information when we feel like it"

Thank you all again for participating in this discussion, and no, I do not have any projects I am promoting. I am just a concerned gamer.

Tori

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5

General Discussion / Beautiful game engine

« on: July 07, 2007, 04:52:27 PM »

I've been browsing around, looking at the thread for a new game engine for the next version of this world layonara. From what I've read, it seems the nwn version is shrinking and my understanding it's going for pay as you play.

I've been looking for neverwinter nights worlds to play on, and keeping a watch on this one. The world seems very nice and the people good. But I can't understand the reasoning to go to a pay system to compete with games like World of Warcraft.

Unless you are going to sell the rights of the world to a large publishing/development company to broaden your user base to actually make money, the logic in this is flawed. As I see it, The user base here is too small to support a commercial venture, and if you stick to developing everything yourselves, to support the world of layonara without making it broad appeal, it will fail.

New users will think "Why should I pay for this world I know nothing about, when World of Warcraft is solid and there are millions of users to interact with? Is it guaranteed there will be users to roleplay with? Or will I shell out money to wander an empty world? "

So unless you sell layonara to a publisher with funds to advertise and get new people interested in shelling out their hard earned coin, I dont see a private comercial venture working out.

Now on another note. Why develop your own engine when there are free ones to download and develop your own world around?

Main Page - Crystal Space 3D

In todays market its impossible to make your own game engine for commercial profit and gain through a very narrow niche such as layonara.

Take this completely free world of Planeshift PlaneShift - A 3D Fantasy MMORPG

They have over 400,000 users, and a passion for the world. They make it completely free for their users. Layonara can take lessons on their model, unless the team behind want to make money, and not do it for passion.

Such beautiful graphics for a free mmorpg game. I was shocked when I saw them.

Here is a few:











And before you say anything, no I am not a promoter or user of Planeshift. If my time permits me to play games, I may join up. For now I just browse the web and post my views where ever.

Now, please be adults when posting your replies, Use logic and facts maybe doing research before any inflammatory posts.

It also would be handy for the team here to give a roadmap with more information instead of generalizations. The masses panic too easily with lack of information and general statements like "We can't tell you now, don't worry about it you'll love it"

Oh, before I submit this post. Is your new game engine being paid for by people on the team? Or do you have investors giving you money?

Thank you for your time in reading this.

Tori