If you could give 38 just one piece of advice...

Originally Posted by Horder

BTW, anyone who sneaks in two or more suggestions gets negative infinity points.

Originally Posted by Ngruk

I'm good with hold to your promises, shock the world, dominate the industry to start....

Ah HA!!! That's 3, which means negative inifinity points for Ngruk. But since I'm a nice guy, for a mere 1% ownership interest in 38 Studios, I'll get you out of this hole and grant +infinity points. Deal of the century!!

Originally Posted by Ngruk

I'm good with hold to your promises, shock the world, dominate the industry to start....

Can I have that in writing? On a hoodie??

Ok, so how about a t-shirt??

I have no qualms with giving 38 Studios the benefit of the doubt when it comes to holding to their promises and shocking the world. Nothing has made me think you are capable of doing otherwise.

However dominating the industry is a really lofty goal. Now do I think its possible? Yeah I do since there are alot of companies in todays mmo climate that have left the userbase wanting. However there are also other companies that have through sheer quantity of game offerings (Sony) or sheer number of sold accounts (Blizzard) done a decent job of dominating the market. There are other companies waiting in the wings too that have a chance at dominating the market but thats because they have big name IPs there to garner a lot of interest.

I guess my question is with a fresh new IP no one has ever seen, can 38 studios really dominate the marketplace or will they just carve out a healthy chunk of it for themselves?

Originally Posted by Pirotess

However dominating the industry is a really lofty goal. Now do I think its possible? Yeah I do since there are alot of companies in todays mmo climate that have left the userbase wanting. However there are also other companies that have through sheer quantity of game offerings (Sony) or sheer number of sold accounts (Blizzard) done a decent job of dominating the market.

It's interesting the comparisons that can be made from these 2 examples. SOE tries to gobble up anything that feel might be profitable to them. Increasing the games they offer to get the "station pass" sale. Even if any one of thier games alone cant keep interest, they hope you will jump back and forth between titles.

Blizzard had a different goal. They looked at their competitors and examined them for what worked, and what didnt. What was fun and what was just annoying. WoW didnt re-invent the growing MMORPG market they improved on it and refined it. They added their unique Lore and increased that as well. WoW isnt the best game but it has the greatest appeal due to its refinement and simplicity.

I havent been on this forum long enough to get a clue what the Genre will be, but regardless, it all comes down to presentation. If a game isnt "fun" you can add all the "eye candy" of a next-gen graphics engine to it and all that will do is make it a beutiful turd. The term "fun" is dictated by the genre, the target market, and the niche your trying to fill. No game is perfect for everyone and trying to be "everything-for-everyone" will lead you into a never ending developement cycle.

So my advise is make a game that appeals(fun), is easier to understand(GUI), has depth(quests/crafting/lore) before counting the number of follicles you can put on an Orc snout.

I think we're all waiting to see what genre to catagorize this in. Thus, the Watch Party!

'twill be interesting, won't it?

I think Bob is secretly writing a game quest that will involve hunting down and killing a goddess named Eilastraeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Who has a high priestess named Cher.

Originally Posted by Laethyn

Who has a high priestess named Cher.

That spontaneously breaks out into pop-rock song every so often?

Yuz guiz r nutz! Love it!

My only advice would be:

"Dont make a game, make a other reality"

Dont just take several working mechanics and add a grafical background. IMHO a MMORPG should be a breathing world that is living without us players interacting.

temp

For me it would be Quality!!!!!

Start early, and take it very serious. You might be making a game, but your quality can't suffer. Companies wait till the end to worry about the quality of the product. Then the find out some of the core features or sub system don't work or don't scale. Then they are stuck spending time on those issues instead of polishing and tuning the product for fun. The way to kill a good product or idea is never getting to the polish and tuning phase.