Green Monster Games (Curt Schilling)

[Maxxius]

That's a mean looking Avatar there Curt.

[Faille]

It's all very well aiming to win the world series, and I would expect nothing less from professionals, but unfortunately the MMO industry isn't quite as forgiving as Major League Baseball! 8) If you full short, you don't often get a chance to pick yourself up, learn from mistakes and have another go next season.

Also would anyone expect a new team, or one that finished bottom last season, to have a realistic shot at the world series (no offence, but I put your company in that category since it has no track record as a whole, even if individuals have)? Or would you expect them to need a few seasons of building up to have a good shot?

Saying all that though, the beauty of the computer industry is that at any given time anyone, from a new company to a couple of kids in a basement, can come up with some revolutionary idea that just hooks people in. I do wish you guys all the best at being those guys! 8)

[Twobit Whore]

Well, technically you could compare his company to a new baseball team. Take the Florida Marlins for example.. they played their first game in 1993 and in 1997 they won the world series. Winning the title after just 4 short years of existence in the cutthroat world of professional sports is quite the achievement. How were they able to do this? An expansion draft. They got to choose from every team and current player who they wanted. It's very similar to hiring talented and accomplished people such as R.A. and Todd along with all the nameless guys Curt claims are experienced masters of their field.

Yes, I'd say that's a much better analogy than comparing them to a perennial loser with an established history.

Of course they could turn out to be the Washington Nationals.. and no one wants that.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Well, technically you could compare his company to a new baseball team. Take the Florida Marlins for example.. they played their first game in 1993 and in 1997 they won the world series. Winning the title after just 4 short years of existence in the cutthroat world of professional sports is quite the achievement. How were they able to do this? An expansion draft. They got to choose from every team and current player who they wanted. It's very similar to hiring talented and accomplished people such as R.A. and Todd along with all the nameless guys Curt claims are experienced masters of their field.

Yes, I'd say that's a much better analogy than comparing them to a perennial loser with an established history.

Of course they could turn out to be the Washington Nationals.. and no one wants that.

The Marlins won the World Series more through Free Agency than through the expansion draft. That said, they and the Arizona Diamondbacks both did something very hard to do in professional sports, especially for a young, growing team.

It's honestly great to see Curt carrying over that winning attitude with this new venture. You definitely want someone who truly aspires to be the best in their field running a company.

[Krag]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

If you don't screw up, don't lose, how do you know what it feels like to kick the crap out of people and win?

Heavy death penalties, corpse runs, broken and lost gear, grinding, pain and mental exhaustion incoming, y'all!

j/k

[Maxxius]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

. . . How were they able to do this? . . .

Dombrowski.

[Frax]

Originally Posted by Maxxius

That's a mean looking Avatar there Curt.

He cheats, he has an art staff.

[Draegan]

I wonder where Blackguard got it from.

[Frax]

Does the 60 days not start until opening day?

SI.com - MLB Spring Training - Sox place Schilling on 60-day DL - Thursday March 13, 2008 11:00AM

[Tropics]

Heya Curt, what are your thoughts on remortation in a MMORPG? Does such a system have a chance of being considered in your upcomming MMORPG (it would have to be worked in early in design). It seems to be a system that could create a far more sustainable gaming world for many years that the expansions only increasing the level range and adding only mid-high level content as we are seeing with WoW and as we saw with EQ's expansions after Kunark (Luclin was predominately mid-high level).

A game that can add such a fresh start for the players, adding almost that new game feeling by giving the players the ability to remort on their main character with new low level content in a new expansion they could then quest through and work through, with a real sense of progression due to the fact that the remort might cap 5 or 10 levels higher then their base class did and the remort likely having some new spells and skills through all the levels. It has potential to be a revolutionary game mechanic in this gener of games and would combat the game getting stale due to focus shifting entirely to end game content on the most recent expansion, as WoW is doing now and EQ did long ago.

[Cybsled]

Curt's avatar looks like the bastard child of a Beholder and the green planet thingy from the covers of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books ;p

In terms of making a franchise, it obviously is a solid idea...although it can take time to build. And it isn't always a guarantee. Riddick did this with the Dark Fury anime that tied in as a transition between Pitch Black with Chronicles of Riddick, as did Escape from Butcher Bay (although it was released commercially post-Chronicles or right around the same time, if I'm not mistaken). While Butcher Bay was a solid game and the lore for the Riddick Universe was intriguing, it didn't translate into mass commercial success. Chronicles was a decent flick, but it didn't make the bank the suits were likely hoping for. SiN also tried to do this with the anime (which, AFAIK, is/was doing well in Japan) + the promo stuff with Bianca Beauchamp, but the new SiN games just never really took off. I never got the sales figures, but it seemed to be all for naught in the end game-wise since the dev team kinda fell apart/disbanded.

I guess the point is that making a franchise can be a good thing, but it isn't a guaranteed success for the primary product you are hoping to push. Alot of that rests on the primary product itself + how much the public embraces your new world. I do think it is a good concept that you are trying to get some backstory out there, so to speak, so that it becomes a means of drawing people to the MMO.

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by Ngruk

I'm a gamer, a pretty hardcore (FROM A TIME STANDPOINT YOU RAIDING GEEKS!) gamer, I think I understand a lot of things that make games work and don't work.

You play and published a magazine for table-top WW2 wargame, i think that qualifies as hardcore no matter what circle you're in :P

I think a better question is

Garand vs Thompson - which is cooler?

[Faille]

Originally Posted by Cybsled

Curt's avatar looks like the bastard child of a Beholder and the green planet thingy from the covers of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books ;p

In terms of making a franchise, it obviously is a solid idea...although it can take time to build. And it isn't always a guarantee. Riddick did this with the Dark Fury anime that tied in as a transition between Pitch Black with Chronicles of Riddick, as did Escape from Butcher Bay (although it was released commercially post-Chronicles or right around the same time, if I'm not mistaken). While Butcher Bay was a solid game and the lore for the Riddick Universe was intriguing, it didn't translate into mass commercial success. Chronicles was a decent flick, but it didn't make the bank the suits were likely hoping for. SiN also tried to do this with the anime (which, AFAIK, is/was doing well in Japan) + the promo stuff with Bianca Beauchamp, but the new SiN games just never really took off. I never got the sales figures, but it seemed to be all for naught in the end game-wise since the dev team kinda fell apart/disbanded.

I guess the point is that making a franchise can be a good thing, but it isn't a guaranteed success for the primary product you are hoping to push. Alot of that rests on the primary product itself + how much the public embraces your new world. I do think it is a good concept that you are trying to get some backstory out there, so to speak, so that it becomes a means of drawing people to the MMO.

There's also the need to make quality products. Matrix attempted to make the transition to a franchise with the Enter the Matrix game, along with the sequels, and presumably the mmo. Unfortunately they were all of such poor quality that they effectively killed off the franchise.

[Cybsled]

Ani-Matrix was pretty sweet, though

[QforQ]

Originally Posted by Faille

There's also the need to make quality products. Matrix attempted to make the transition to a franchise with the Enter the Matrix game, along with the sequels, and presumably the mmo. Unfortunately they were all of such poor quality that they effectively killed off the franchise.

The Matrix would've been such a sweet world to have a game in...but they did kind of ruin it with a slew of luke warm games and a shitty MMO. Warner Bros. should pick the dev studios better for their huge IP licenses like The Matrix.