Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling

Imho shackling yourself to someone elses IP isn"t worth it.

Take the general premise and copy it with your own names and plot twists... that way you have the freedom to change things around if you want, and you don"t have purists bitching from launch.

Scaffa said:

Well, WoW was sold pretty much on being by Blizzard alone thanks to rapid fanboyism. There are plenty of Salvatore / Todd McFarlane fanboys.

Click to expand...

I never played warcraft or starcraft. The only game from blizz i had ever played was D2 and that had no influence whatsoever on my buying WoW. UO was what brought me into MMOG"s as i was a rabid Ultima series fan.

Regarding growth of the MMO market.

I think everyone in this thread has vastly underestimated how EQ grew the market. I haven"t seen any numbers but I had some talks with SoE guys about how their turnover was pretty bad. Sure their active subscriptions peaked at around 500k but over their many year run, how many total accounts were created? How many people gave an MMO a shot because of EQ? They might not have continued to play for long periods of time but they were introduced to a persistent online world.

Smed! It couldn"t hurt to release those numbers right? How many unique Everquest accounts were created over the life of the game?

I"d be willing to be that a large number of these folks picked up WoW when it came out and found whatever EQ lacked.

Dear god D&D is a horrible structure for an MMO. Many of the scaling and design issues that WoW has had for characters come from D&D. GMG, who I consider to be one of the few upcoming MMO"s who could be a "WoW killer" would be greatly depressing to me if it built a D&D based game.

KharzaWHA? said:

Dear god D&D is a horrible structure for an MMO. Many of the scaling and design issues that WoW has had for characters come from D&D. GMG, who I consider to be one of the few upcoming MMO"s who could be a "WoW killer" would be greatly depressing to me if it built a D&D based game.

Click to expand...

But the LORE could be really great imo. Just buy the lore.

My god, they have R.A. Salvatore!

Who wouldnt want to beat down Drizzt or Elminster?

-Arukk

Arukk said:

But the LORE could be really great imo. Just buy the lore.

My god, they have R.A. Salvatore!

Who wouldnt want to beat down Drizzt or Elminster?

-Arukk

Click to expand...

Me.

The Bog said:

Me.

Click to expand...

Too much of a challenge?

-Arukk

Because I"ve always thought D&D was a bunch of wank.

The Bog said:

Because I"ve always thought D&D was a bunch of wank.

Click to expand...

Fair enough, but for the record, you?re missing out on some great lore.

/shrug

-Arukk

Windows Vista has been released to a rather small degree of accolade, and a far greater amount of dissent (hi2u DRM!). While the OS doesn"t offer a whole lot in terms of gaming, the exclusivity of DX10 may end up playing a large role in the future of PC gaming. Assuming, of course, an open source OS (OSOS? OSx2?) or Apple"s OS don"t take the forefront, but I digress.

Is GMG currently or planning on developing their game as a Vista-exclusive title, or will it also be available to the Apple/Linux crowd?

Also, any Senior Gameplay Designersmay want to send GMG their resume.

And there"san interview with Moorgard and Blackguardon WarCry from 3 days ago.

Erronius said:

More than likely. I can remember a ton of "Goodbye, cruel EQ" posts, and those peeps left for good. In WOW, its more "Screw you guys, I"m going to another server/faction to reroll".

I agree with your whole post actually, and I"m not sure many would argue against it in a major way. I think a lot of people lost interest or got fed up with the earlier King of the Mountain/content bottleneck, or any of the usual EQ gripes.

Of course I have no way to actually prove/disprove any of it, especially when it comes right down to retention %"s. While I suspect WoW is retaining very well, at the 2 year mark, I do have to concede the possibility that in the vast sea that is 8 million+, it might be harder to notice, say, 20k cancellations in WOW than it was in EQ, with the lower number of current subs at any given time that EQ had. It might just not be as noticeable overall...I"m sure you get my point though. Though I would be suprised if that were the case, just acknowledging the possibility.

Damnit I"m missing the Bush address, not that I could stand listening to more than 5 minutes of it anyways...

Click to expand...

Well, WoW"s numbers are undoubtedly somewhat because of its own success. People begin playing because so many others do. If 9-10 of your good friends play WoW, and it looks kinda maybe interesting..Chances are you"ll try it. If you like it, you"ll continue playing. Its like that with any activity, which doesn"t bring about a moral issue.

However, there is a major point in EQ creating a lot more MMO players. I"d wager a good 20% of WoW"s playerbase played EQ at some point in time.

Hey folks! Been awhile I know but it"s been hectic when you combine getting ready for the upcoming day job with this gaming thing we got going on!
Anyway, I still check in to see who"s ripping who, read about the boards thoughts on the other stuff that"s out there and get a pulse on the largest group of mad people in the game space!
Stay tuned over the next few weeks for some cool things from us in the way of announcements and other stuff.
It may not be earth shattering just yet but it should be some pretty good insight to what"s happening around here.
I can let you in on a little company stuff.
You can always tell when a design meeting is about to begin because I look across the table at Danuser and he generates his "Not today Schilling, not on my watch" look....
It"s gettin" real interesting around here

how"s the japanese learning going? you are using rosetta stone software right?

looking forward to seeing what the sox come up with for a rotation this year...you, beckett, dice-k, papelbon, wakefield, ya"ll have what- potentially- 7 starting pitchers on hand if the lefty (tip of the tongue cannot think of his name) comes back from his chemotherapy/rehab in good shape. (i"d rather papelbon be in the pen as a closer, buuuuut -due to that shoulder- if he can perform just as good as a starter without said arm issue..)

Curt had aninterview with GameDaily.comthat was released today. While most of the interview is stuff we"ve heard before, the bolded part below was new to me.

[Interviewer] So, this isn"t a fun little side project for you?

[Curt Schilling] [lowers voice]Our flagship product has a 55- to 60 million dollar budget.I"ve got people who are committing their lives and their families to moving to Boston to be part of this company. So, no, this is not a hobby. I"ll tell you this: I don"t have any different aspirations in this industry than I did in baseball. I want to be the best in the world.

Click to expand...

This is about the same budget WoW had. I don"t mean to draw unfounded parallels, but itdoesmean the financial backing for something incredible is in place. I"m excited.

how"s the japanese learning going? you are using rosetta stone software right?

looking forward to seeing what the sox come up with for a rotation this year...you, beckett, dice-k, papelbon, wakefield, ya"ll have what- potentially- 7 starting pitchers on hand if the lefty (tip of the tongue cannot think of his name) comes back from his chemotherapy/rehab in good shape. (i"d rather papelbon be in the pen as a closer, buuuuut -due to that shoulder- if he can perform just as good as a starter without said arm issue..)

Click to expand...

Finally someone talking about something important.

Tell Francona to ignore the doctors and put Papelbon back in as closer. That kid is a sick closer.

Ngruk said:

Hey folks! Been awhile I know but it"s been hectic when you combine getting ready for the upcoming day job with this gaming thing we got going on!
Anyway, I still check in to see who"s ripping who, read about the boards thoughts on the other stuff that"s out there and get a pulse on the largest group of mad people in the game space!
Stay tuned over the next few weeks for some cool things from us in the way of announcements and other stuff.
It may not be earth shattering just yet but it should be some pretty good insight to what"s happening around here.
I can let you in on a little company stuff.
You can always tell when a design meeting is about to begin because I look across the table at Danuser and he generates his "Not today Schilling, not on my watch" look....
It"s gettin" real interesting around here

Click to expand...

This is when I stop listening to devs. When they start sounding like an infomercial with phrases like "stay tuned..." and "...what"s happening around here." Honestly, that exact post could have been copied and pasted from 100 other boards.

I was enjoying this thread immensely when it was clear the big cheese was coming in and spending some of his scarce time explaining things and addressing real concerns of board members. I don"t think I"ve ever seen a game dev or company official engage in that level of interaction with a fan base.

However, those days appear to be over. Sad, really. Time to tune out all the "stay tuned"s and wait for a game release.

Druixx said:

This is when I stop listening to devs. When they start sounding like an infomercial with phrases like "stay tuned..." and "...what"s happening around here." Honestly, that exact post could have been copied and pasted from 100 other boards.

I was enjoying this thread immensely when it was clear the big cheese was coming in and spending some of his scarce time explaining things and addressing real concerns of board members. I don"t think I"ve ever seen a game dev or company official engage in that level of interaction with a fan base.

However, those days appear to be over. Sad, really. Time to tune out all the "stay tuned"s and wait for a game release.

Click to expand...

First off, the baseball season is coming up fast, which means lots of time training, coupled with the task of getting GMG up and running full-steam. That Curt even bothers to come hereat allshows his dedication to the gamer fanbase. He may not have big bombshells like R.A Salvatore and Todd McFarlane to offer, but something is better than nothing. Furthermore, this isn"t some empty robot talk to try and keep people hooked; each time Curt has told folks to "stay tuned" he offered a new tidbit. So, no, it isn"t a clone of every other developer post, because this developer just so happens to know the difference between a "week" and a "month".

Second, since the game is in the embryonic stages of development there isn"t a whole lot to say on it. They may have ideas and perhaps some general concept art, but to release it this early would only serve to either over-hype the game, or give something away to a competitor. Are there things we"d like to know? Sure. Whatever is given away though will lose the interest of folks in a jiffy, and you"ll be back to this spot. The company has onlyexistedfor about 5 months, cut them some slack.

Finally, Curt has been very approachable around here, and open with the community. If you want to keep up the dialogue why not offer a question or viewpoint instead of sulking? Pick at his brain or share an idea or concern; it"s unreasonable to expect him to carry both sides of the discussion.

I can see your point on the earlier post, because I don"t want to be dropping by here to use this forum as a "pre-media event" launching pad.
Been awhile since I"ve been able to chime in and I do follow this forum, though with the schedule making my days seem like they last 10 minutes it"s been a bit harder to contribute.
As far as coming soon stuff, it"s not earth shattering by any stretch, nor will I post here in advance of that kind of thing. Danuser would be all over me if I did and, well, I don"t want to have to wrestle him down and beat the crap out of him this early in our relationship.
There will be some news out of Maynard in the next few weeks, more than likely it will be towards the middle of next month...
Oops, did I just say that?
Seriously, the input here has retained it"s usefullness far longer than I thought it might and that"s a good thing.
Pre-production rolls along here and the last few days have been absolutely incredible as we really get into the grind of what this company was put together to do.
There is no question the landscape is changing in the MMO world and that presents some pretty awesome challenges for companies in our position.
Certainly not things we can"t overcome or defeat but it"s pretty awesome to see this thing begin to truly take shape.
The real job begins in earnest a week from now, but the pieces are in place and the die is cast from a core team standpoint, and I"d put this team up against anyone on the planet, the Maynard team and the Sox I mean.....

Ngruk said:

The real job begins in earnest a week from now, but the pieces are in place and the die is cast from a core team standpoint, and I"d put this team up against anyone on the planet, the Maynard team and the Sox I mean.....

Click to expand...

Cliches aside, isn"t this how everyone who is part of a team feels? I haven"t competed in a team sport since high school, but whenever I was a part of a team, I always felt that we were going to win. I am sure that feeling extends to software development as well as athletics. It"s the outsiders who are the ones who are pessimistic, or who see the realities more clearly.

These fantasy and sci fi mmos are really only scratching the surface of online worlds. It"s the sandbox type games that really are pushing the envelope, even though those tend to be less "fun."

It"s when you make your "interface" an MMO sandbox, and contain the games within it, that you begin to take advantage of the medium. I am surprised that consoles haven"t taken it to that step yet, although with xbox live you can see this beginning to take shape.

The online presence is either an extension of yourself in real life or an alter ego, or perhaps something in between, but shaping that online presence currently mostly happens on blogs, websites, forums (press releases and interviews for the more notable). Why shouldn"t the MMO medium encompass all of the above? Why should "going online" be different from the matrix of Neuromancer and Snow Crash? Just some things to think about if you really want to push things to the next level.

And that"s what it"s all about isn"t it? Pushing it to the next level.