Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling

Fog said:

WoW wasn"t rock-solid when it launched by any standards; I don"t think we need to have a point-by-point argument here. It wasgreatby MMORPG standards, and OK by big-pieces-of-software standards, and it was solid enough to be fun. But it sure wasn"t rock-solid, and there"s plenty of room for someone to launch with more stuff, better.

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A shame people have a tendency to forget that.

The biggest trouble is people comparing WoW in it"s current condition to other MMOs at release. Until development models for MMOs move away from the "Oh fuck, we"re going to have to cut content/polish at the last minute due to funds and deadlines", WoW is going to sit atop the heap.

Unfortunate. I enjoy WoW, but sure could go for a game with more non-combat variety and a sandbox/open-PvP type game with plenty of PvE content.

I"m surprised Curt hasn"t posted about this yet, but TenTonHammer has a very good interview with Irena Pereira, the UI designer they added to the team recently. She"s extremely talented, and the interview reinforces that the core beliefs of the game are in the right place.

Exclusive UI Interview with 38 Studios" Irena Pereira | Ten Ton Hammer

UnchainedAcolyte said:

A shame people have a tendency to forget that.

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That"s because it isn"t relevant. WoW when it released wasn"t in the best shape it"s ever beenbut it was still in better shape then the compeition.

I mean if WAR/AoC/nextbestthing goes back to it"s investors and says, "Well, sorry about all the bugs, lack of content and just general unfun gameplay...but if it"s any consolation four years ago sometimes raids would bug out in WoW!"

So no, we didn"t forget. "Uninstall your mods and delete your WTF folder" anyone? We"re all painfully aware of some of the bullshit that went on.

But it doesn"t matter anymore.

Granted it"s still not as stable as I"d like, (oh look, BDF is down again! Thanks Mal"ganis for shitting up the rest of the battlegroup!) but any competition is going to have to beat WoW now.

How WoW was 4 years ago is meaningless for anything but an academic discussion comparing various MMO launches.

Like I said, it"s only for academic comparisons. Otherwise it holds no real bearing how well they launched comparatively unless they launch at the same time.

You can certainly learn from other peoples lessons (the aforementioned "Don"t release before WoW unless you want to get your shit pushed in") but other then that...

Back in the U.S.. For anyone interested I blogged while on tour and it can bechecked out hereThere are a ton of photos posted there, as well as on myfacebookandFlickr account
It was the trip of a lifetime, now back to work.
Two things here

1) I didn"t mention Irena"s interview (linked above) but I think she offers great insight into what we think and feel here

2) What WoW or any game was like at launch is pretty much irrelevant. You launch to expectations set by games IN the market in their CURRENT state, nothing else. Using another games failures or screw ups at launch is making excuses for your own piss poor work.

Will we execute flawlessly? No, but we"ll execute to the best of our ability and that will be better than it"s ever been done before or we"re just talking out of our butts, which I"d like to think we don"t do.

Ngruk said:

2) What WoW or any game was like at launch is pretty much irrelevant. You launch to expectations set by games IN the market in their CURRENT state, nothing else. Using another games failures or screw ups at launch is making excuses for your own piss poor work.

Will we execute flawlessly? No, but we"ll execute to the best of our ability and that will be better than it"s ever been done before or we"re just talking out of our butts, which I"d like to think we don"t do.

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And McQuaid said the same thing almost word for word... Doesn"t every dev for every company say that? The proof will be in the pudding, its all lip service right now.

Not trying to be a dick or anything like that, but stuff like that means nothing when the game isnt even in alpha let alone a solid beta.

Bongk said:

And McQuaid said the same thing almost word for word... Doesn"t every dev for every company say that? The proof will be in the pudding, its all lip service right now.

Not trying to be a dick or anything like that, but stuff like that means nothing when the game isnt even in alpha let alone a solid beta.

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Not trying, but succeeding!


The concept is correct though. The competition is what is on the market, and what will be soon. If what is on the market now, learned from their mistakes and built a better product that is available currently, its absurd to justify mistakes and failures that were made 4 years ago, in a your product. If they learned, why haven"t you?

Talk is cheap, but they are looking at it properly at least. Lets hope they can follow through.

(See how easy it is to not be negative?)

I don"t really care what anyone else said, the proof is in the pudding. I spent 23 years in a job where the "proof" was aired nightly to a few hundred million people, and I have no issues having to back up what I say.

While I"d love to sit here and preach about stuff that you already know, I"ll keep my trap shut for now. WTB screenshots of any sort . Also I"m digging the Christmas Munch, or should I say... CRUNCH?

I want a GodWarsMUD translated to an MMO.

Ngruk said:

Back in the U.S.. For anyone interested I blogged while on tour and it can bechecked out hereThere are a ton of photos posted there, as well as on myfacebookandFlickr account
It was the trip of a lifetime, now back to work.
Two things here

1) I didn"t mention Irena"s interview (linked above) but I think she offers great insight into what we think and feel here

2) What WoW or any game was like at launch is pretty much irrelevant. You launch to expectations set by games IN the market in their CURRENT state, nothing else. Using another games failures or screw ups at launch is making excuses for your own piss poor work.

Will we execute flawlessly? No, but we"ll execute to the best of our ability and that will be better than it"s ever been done before or we"re just talking out of our butts, which I"d like to think we don"t do.

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facebook link doesn"t work. flickr picks are rad though.

Am guessing you have to be friends on facebook for the link to work. Ain"t no way I am friending you geeks... wait, I am one of you... damn.

On the plus side, with a 2 year expansion cycle you"ve got plenty of time to catch up to WoW content-amount-wise

Tyen said:

Added you newb~

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Me too.

Ngruk said:

Am guessing you have to be friends on facebook for the link to work. Ain"t no way I am friending you geeks... wait, I am one of you... damn.

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you can make some photobooks public

Edit: Wrong thread

Ngruk said:

I don"t really care what anyone else said, the proof is in the pudding. I spent 23 years in a job where the "proof" was aired nightly to a few hundred million people, and I have no issues having to back up what I say.

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Glad to hear it, like I said I wasn;t trying to just troll. I have just become jaded over the years by the endless lies. I am sure you know how it is. I just hope you can back up what you say, because very few have been able to.

I do know, I"m one of those same players who"s been jaded and mislead for years if not decades. I don"t trumpet this teams ability lightly, they will deliver, they"re too talented not to and I think have a boss that understands they"re the experts here.