Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Maxxius]

Originally Posted by Cadrid

Yes, it is. Stop being such a purposefully abrasive jackass. If you're going to bring "it" to "The Man" at least back it up with some kind of substance. No one here finds your mudslinging bickering impressive or interesting, just obnoxious and childish. Bring the tough questions all you like, but stop derailing this thread with your petty, unsubstantiated whining.

I dunno. Tad basically asked for "substance." I would like to see more too. Talk is indeed cheap. What Curt has done in the baseball world is irrelevent to the MMO world. I am "hoping" for a good product, but at this moment that is all I can do. Hope. I am still cutting 38S Slack, but I do want to start seeing something "real."

[Tyen]

I'd take Kenny Lofton over David Justice anyday.

[Burf]

Originally Posted by Maxxius

I dunno. Tad basically asked for "substance." I would like to see more too. Talk is indeed cheap. What Curt has done in the baseball world is irrelevent to the MMO world. I am "hoping" for a good product, but at this moment that is all I can do. Hope. I am still cutting 38S Slack, but I do want to start seeing something "real."

Come join us in General in the Obama vs McCain thread. There's plenty of "hope" to go around.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by James

Three times if he can work in a reference to popular 1980 musical Xanadu.

How long were you waiting to work in a post referencing Xanadu?

[Agraza]

I understand the existence of fandom for 38, but I can't understand how rabid it is. Haven't y'all learned this mistake by now? The jury is still out. I doubt we'll even get any info this year.

[James]

Originally Posted by Draegan

How long were you waiting to work in a post referencing Xanadu?

Clearly longer than Mr. Schilling, who let me down. You let me down.

[Draegan]

The only thing Curt's done is something that you can really praise him for. He's not making the game, developing systems, animations, code, server structure etc etc. CEO's hire people. Look who he has with his team. He has a lot of talent under the 38S name. That's the important part and something everyone can praise him for.

I mean come on... they have Blackguard for god sakes. They can't fail.

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by James

Clearly longer than Mr. Schilling, who let me down. You let me down.

How about a fish sandwhich and a Men Without Hats Video?
YouTube - Safety Dance- Men Without Hats

[Blackguard]

Originally Posted by Maxxius

I dunno. Tad basically asked for "substance." I would like to see more too. Talk is indeed cheap.

Yes, talk is cheap. It's even cheaper when you make promises about game features before they are implemented and fun, especially if they end up not making it into the final game. That's why we're holding so much back; we want to talk about what we've done, not what we plan to do.

Originally Posted by Draegan

I mean come on... they have Blackguard for god sakes. They can't fail.

That's true.

[Moorgard Mobhunter]

Originally Posted by Locithon

I seriously don't understand Tad's criticism. Didn't they promise to give that presentation beforehand...and it turned out they weren't far enough along to release ip info at the time?

Nope. We were very clear with Ten Ton Hammer, when they asked us to do a panel at NYC Comic Con, that we would not talk about the game. They wanted us to speak anyway, so we said we would talk about what it's like to live through the first year of a startup dev studio. And that's exactly what we did, in a presentation titled "Creating the Online Entertainment Experience: Year One."

Anyone who felt their time was wasted by watching the video of the panel didn't read the title of it. If it was called "38 Studios Reveals New MMO" and all we did was talk about cakes, you'd have a point--but that wasn't the case.

We've said over and over again that we aren't going to talk about the game. Curt mentioned some months ago that we had thought of revealing the IP at this year's Comic Con in San Diego, but we changed our minds. It just makes much more sense to talk about the IP when we can also talk about the game, since the latter is what drives the former.

Should we just lock ourselves in a bunker and not engage in interviews or conversation until that point? Arguably, but the reality is that Curt Schilling, Todd McFarlane, and R.A. Salvatore are all public figures who get attention whether they want it or not. Plus, we have a few team members who are active in the gaming community apart from what we do at 38. There simply isn't any realistic way to completely go dark, which is why we keep saying over and over again that we are not going to talk about the game.

I don't know how anybody can call this overhyping or pimping our product. We haven't said *anything* about the game except in the vaguest of terms in press releases, and a few interviews where we've discussed some of the philosophies behind it. Trust me, we turn down far more requests for interviews than we actually give. We really do try to be as quiet as possible, but when someone calls us out it is likely that Curt is going to feel the need to respond, and I will feel the need to clarify. It's a vicious cycle, and only you can stop it!

Originally Posted by tad10

Taking shit? You think that you've taken a lot of shit? Your perception of reality vis-a-vis shit taking is seriously distorted Mr. Schilling. You are a successful athlete and head of a company and have (as far as I know) always been quite successful. Generally people in your position are the ones that hand out shit -- such as your post above. The people who take shit are those who don't have millions in the bank, who don't have rabid screaming fans, who can't start companies to follow their dreams.

Far be it from me to need to defend Curt, but your post above is so far off the mark that I have to say something out of a general sense of needing to correct the Internets.

If you think Curt doesn't take shit for the things he says, you haven't read the comments on his blog, any MLB message board, or any Red Sox forum. Pro athletes take far, FAR more shit than anyone in the games business, especially ones who put themselves in the public eye like Schilling. The stuff Yankees fans say about him makes ANYTHING said about Brad McQuaid sound like a nursery rhyme. Some of your other comments are fair, but thinking that Curt lives in some ivory tower where no mud can touch him is just simply incorrect. Don't take my word for it: do five minutes of research.

[Sharmai]

Originally Posted by Tropics

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The single most serious issue MMORPG's seem to face IMO is the sustainability of the early leveling and growth focus that these games have, often looked at as the golden age of the games with fond memories compared to the later times in the games when the playerbase has become maxxed out and the game shifts from the focus of skill and level advancement to loot collecting in raids. The expansions as they have been done in these games to date offer a small term temporary return to such a play style with a level increase, but by the time they do this those that yearn for the advancement playstyle are either playing an alt or have quit the game altogether.

It is no secret that the maxxing out playerbase is a large reason these games slowly lose their charm to a huge portion of players, the low level areas turning into ghost towns, the inability to find groups for the few new players starting at the low levels, and the only people able to play at the high level in the raid focused end game needing a whole lot of spare time. WoW combats it somewhat in making the leveling so easy that people played alot of alts, but even that has proved to lose the charm and now that game as well is getting into the endless cycle of ramping up content in expansions to keep the people playing going at the high levels. EQ1 of course 14 expansions later is completely altered from the game it once was and so many people yearn for a classic EQ server, but that is a yearning for that early MMORPG feeling that would simply end yet again due to the nature of the game design not allowing for the continued focus that the games initially offer.

Somehow a MMORPG has to attempt to stop the mass moving up to that glass ceiling. When VG was being developed I got into alot of discussions about this and remortation was one major tool a game could use in expansions for the advancement of characters instead of level range increases that would allow for the reuse of low level content, and expansions that release more low level content to go along with the mid-high level and raid content. Expansions much like Kunark with the complete level range available and allowing old characters to not only start at the level 50 content and move up from there but experience it all. These games and the world they inhabit are at their most healthy when the playerbase is spread througout the entire level range and not when it all gets lumped up at the top. EQ was able to avoid the issue due to 2 main reasons, the large experience requirements to max out (hell levels and all) and the playerbase that was new to games like these. It was well into Kunark before the issue of maxxing out and having cleared most of the content was boring a large portion of the playerbase and made an expansion like Velious required.

I for one (and I imagine many others here) have no issue with large level curves that take a long time to complete. Interim rewards within levels such as an AA system that gives a person points to spend at interim times within the levels would help alliviate some of the feeling of stasis in a long level, perhaps more AA points being awarded within the higher levels when the experience and therefore time requirements are greater. Of course in EQ, as great a game as it was, the grinding of aviaks in South Karana for 5 or 6 hours straight to get a level is only a enjoyable memory in hindsite. WoW gets huge credit from me in making the leveling process vastly more interesting with the focus on quests that give real experience and the ability to group up in the instanced dungeons for very nice level specific loot. With a larger exp curve within the levels one would simply need more detailed quests keeping the players involved, perhaps having multilevel quests such as the Greenmist.

If the curve were large enough to warrant it raid content could also be added to the game for level ranges other then the maximum level, and that raid content giving a decent exp rate for the people involved so it again becomes another viable option of advancement to go alongside the questing and killing of normal mobs. Of course the raid content for, say, level (25 +- 5) characters would also drop valuable loot for people of that level range that would be superior to the normal or dungeon drops of that same level, much as raid content at the end game tends to be superior. Those raids would of course also be more difficult to complete, warranting the superior loot. Raiding does not have to be something only possible at the end game levels, and the inclusion of it and making it a viable form of exp advancement (along with quests associated with those raids) gives people who might remort in a system to combat the maxxing out playerbase the ability to keep playing a style of game they enjoy, since many raiders hate to suddenly have to stop raiding to level to some new cap.

I was wondering Curt, since you mention issues in previous games that you think were mismanaged and that you wanted to attempt to fix if this would be one problem you see and that you would aim to fix? Are you seeking a way to keep the entire game world active at all level ranges and avoid the inevitable maxing out playerbase that most of these games face?

How about EvE like sideways character development instead of vertical character development? Surely we can think of more creative ways to develop a character then just +10 str +20 str and +30 str. Don't get me wrong I still would like to see bigger and better items but how about making it a broader based pyramid instead of a almost narrow and tall one.

I.E. how about making so you can "sub-job" your character to any class you want but each additional "sub-job" gains only half the exp as before? Then make it so with a switch of a sub-job you could use the skills and items of that sub-job. For hardcore players it would be a goal to max out all their sub-jobs but for casuals they could just create a new character for max exp instead of leveling a new sub-job.

Another example (using wow as a reference) might be allowing a high end raid level quest which lets you have a "backup" profession. You can level up and learn this backup profession and then once per x amount of time you can switch your professions around and use the items associated with 2 selected professions. This shouldn't break the game and its a nice boost to raiders...

Just a couple of ideas...

[kcxiv]

This may not be the right place, but fuck it. If this is the end of your career Curt, I hope you make it into the hall. I think your post season success will get ya in. Had a hell of a career.

[Fadaar]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

This may not be the right place, but fuck it. If this is the end of your career Curt, I hope you make it into the hall. I think your post season success will get ya in. Had a hell of a career.

Ditto, as well as Smoltz. His postseason success is second to none. Been a Braves fan my whole life and have loved watching him pitch. For your sake Curt, I really hope that Glavine + Maddux + Smoltz don't all retire this year, gonna make getting into the Hall on your first try a real bitch.

[Jahooty]

Sorry to read the news Curt...

As someone who had their dreams cut short by Crohns Disease, I hope you can truly understand when I say that you have much to be thankfull for.

Maybe you can take this as a sign that it is time to enjoy life/friends...while putting out a kick arse game of course.

Hopefully the competitive fire that once made you a star pithcer in MLB, will now lead you to the unthrowning of WoW. OK maybe that is a tad bit much of a goal for a first title...heres to finding your niche market that shames LoTRO, EVE, EQ, CoH etc.

We will wait for the WOW-killer for your second title

Best wishes in your recovery

[Fythis]

Good luck in your surgery on Monday, Curt. Or, depending on when you read this, glad things went well. Even if your pitching days are done, it was a hell of a last start, and a great career before it.