Re: PBM report

From: "MindShift Design" <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>

Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000

"MadCentral" <madcentral@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20001014185647.08829.00001687@ng-bk1.aol.com...
> >>Actually no licenses were ever sold or allocated to other moderators. No
> contracts or money changed hands. No animals were hurt in the development
of
> STSI, and neither were there any boy bands created during the interim. So
> it's a moot point.<<
>
> Oh damn.
>
> Okay, Jason.  You answered every point I made reasonably, calmly,
pleasantly
> and wittily.  I appreciate that, because you didnt have to do any such
thing.

If nothing else it cleared the air. There's a lot of disinformation about
what really happened with STSI and our plans for games,  all because we
didn't give out any information.

> It sounds like my points were unfounded, my suggestions without merit.  So
I
> apologise.  And I am REALLY looking forward to playing Suergan when it
arrives.

Not at all. A lot of your comments did have foundation, and it's something
that we're aware of. We left three groups of people in the lurch when we
didn't continue the development of STSI - the playtesters, the future
players, and the future license holders. And I'm the first to admit that we
fell prey to elements that we should have controlled better. I'm hopeful
that in the future we'll avoid this and be able to develop and deploy games
that will survive in the harsh US gaming market. Over here with the deluge
of cheap and/or fast net access, higher wages/salaries and spare spending
cash, shorter attention spans and open access to oodles of computer games,
PBM has it's place, but it seems to be geting smaller all the time. That's
just my personal perception and it may be skewed because I've been
personally looking at other US markets lately. To be honest, one of our main
issues is with pricing the games in the future. Over here in the US for $10
a month you can get unlimited play of an immersive graphical game like
EverQuest. Although a lot of the player base is different, some players of
games inherently pull back from paying $20-$30 a month to play a game when
they can pay a one-shot fee of $20-$30 and get a game like Warlords III
which can be played multiplayer with friends by email. It's also a different
format of game from most PBM games, and not as immersive with detail as some
great PBM games, but it seems that most people in the US have short
attention spans - this isn't bigotry but an observation of the people I've
met so far since I've been in the US since last January. I run of out
fingers and toes when I count the number of ADD and other attention
disorders. Perhaps it's the culture, perhaps it's the technology. Perhaps
this is a conversation for another thread <g>.

We're actually thinking of opening up the playtest for STSI and other games
as much as possible, a little like what you did for DungeonWorld. I know
that you've established a strong player base for it, so we may try and
emulate you a little in it. Giving away more or less free positions for the
length of the playtest would allow us to get access to the same kind of
feedback open source software gets without opening up the code as open
source. As much as I love and use open-source software I still perceive a
need for proprietary software, especially in niche markets like PBM where
commercial games take a lot of time and effort to develop and there should
be recompense for it. Free is great, but it doesn't put food on the table
for my family or any of the other GMs who run commercial gaming ventures.

And I appreciate any suggestions I get from someone who is running a company
that not only spits out new games every time I blink, but manages to have
great player retention, so feel free to "suggest". Otherwise I'd have to
start having conversations with the trolls in the NG, and we all know how
rewarding THAT can be !

> In the meantime, if you are ever back in the UK and looking for a job...
look
> me up. <g>

My wife has been making comments about moving back to the UK if Al Bore gets
into office here in the US.  So it may happen sooner than later. Unless my
daughter has her way .. I can't bear to think of the reaction we'd get if we
surgically removed the big screen TV from the living room and had to get rid
of all her Blue's Clues material because of a different TV system.<veg>

IIRC you guys use Macs don't you ? Just wondering if you've looked at OS X
and the new developer tools that are coming out for it ? Madhouse are pretty
prolific right now, but the tools seem to be something that would allow you
to be even more so, and do some really cool things in the future.

What I will say is that if any new company or GM starts up a game and wants
to know how NOT to get started developing and releasing a game, come and
speak to us. But only until we've got STSI out the door, and then hopefully
we won't be such a good source for that kind of information. <lol>.

PS: Can you tell that I've got a lot more time on my hands again these days
? That's the beautiful thing about slavery ... erm I mean delegation to the
troops ....

--
Jason Paul McCartan - jasonm@mindshiftdesign.com
CEO/President
MindShift Design LLC
http://www.mindshiftdesign.com

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References

Re: PBM report
"MindShift Design LLC" <admin@mindshiftdesign.com>
Fri, 13 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBM report
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Sat, 14 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: PBM report
"MindShift Design LLC" <admin@mindshiftdesign.com>
Fri, 13 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: PBM report
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Sat, 14 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000