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I remember when I first found this game....in beta infact, in function, this game was far superior to any space mmo around. Nothing compared graphicly, and the realtime-twitch based gameplay and combat was unheard of in the genre, in presentation the game needed work, I have not tried it since then, however i do know that I loved it. I still love it, and check up on it from time to time like a child, given up for adoption due to my wife leaving me for her vacuume selling boss, concerned for its well being,keeping a close eye, just in case..... so tell me, why do so few people play this game? If there were 200 people on the server at any given time it would be plenty for me prey upon, you see space piracy is my dream, please help me make it come true what can be done?
A few reasons come to mind:
* Lack of development resources. We don't have a cool "community manager" who does nothing but coordinate and run events all the time.
* Lack of game polish. The game has some flaws, and has had them for awhile. Some of them are embarrassingly old. Reasons include the above "lack of resources", as well as development, organizational and personnel issues. The game has a lot of great pieces, some of which need to be sewn together into a better "whole". That's kind of what we're trying to do this year.
* No marketing budget. We do what we can with the free exposure we can get. We don't have much money to spend on marketing. A lot of major gaming sites will no longer cover us, as we don't meet their minimum-size requirements (kind of a chicken/egg issue, and we didn't have much marketing support at launch either). EVE probably spends about $30k per month on marketing. I don't think we had that much for a year, even back when we had publisher backing. NCsoft spends like $15 million on marketing a given new title. We.. didn't get that.
Anyway, we're trying to make more out of what we have, this year, and at least push the gameplay to the place we want.. even if no one knows about it :). We have our email list, and a few other resources here and there. It's my hope that if we make the gameplay, they will come.
* Lack of development resources. We don't have a cool "community manager" who does nothing but coordinate and run events all the time.
* Lack of game polish. The game has some flaws, and has had them for awhile. Some of them are embarrassingly old. Reasons include the above "lack of resources", as well as development, organizational and personnel issues. The game has a lot of great pieces, some of which need to be sewn together into a better "whole". That's kind of what we're trying to do this year.
* No marketing budget. We do what we can with the free exposure we can get. We don't have much money to spend on marketing. A lot of major gaming sites will no longer cover us, as we don't meet their minimum-size requirements (kind of a chicken/egg issue, and we didn't have much marketing support at launch either). EVE probably spends about $30k per month on marketing. I don't think we had that much for a year, even back when we had publisher backing. NCsoft spends like $15 million on marketing a given new title. We.. didn't get that.
Anyway, we're trying to make more out of what we have, this year, and at least push the gameplay to the place we want.. even if no one knows about it :). We have our email list, and a few other resources here and there. It's my hope that if we make the gameplay, they will come.
John, I've always wondered why Guild hasn't pursued someone to invest and publish/distribute the game.
I can only assume that you'd be afraid that obligations to such an entity would mean higher pressure to produce rapidly, and hire more developers, both of which have the potential for staining your vision for VO.
If that's true, I can definitely appreciate and respect that, but I'd have to encourage you all to take the challenge and take VO into the next level that it deserves, you have what I believe to be the platform for a future killer-game.
If I'm wrong about the above and you HAVE searched for an investor/publisher but haven't had any luck I'd either think you guys are just drastically unlucky, or you haven't really looked.
I'd be shocked if Guild hasn't already been approached by someone about this.
With more development time, VO -seriously- has the power to be one of the best mainstream mmo's ever produced.
I can only assume that you'd be afraid that obligations to such an entity would mean higher pressure to produce rapidly, and hire more developers, both of which have the potential for staining your vision for VO.
If that's true, I can definitely appreciate and respect that, but I'd have to encourage you all to take the challenge and take VO into the next level that it deserves, you have what I believe to be the platform for a future killer-game.
If I'm wrong about the above and you HAVE searched for an investor/publisher but haven't had any luck I'd either think you guys are just drastically unlucky, or you haven't really looked.
I'd be shocked if Guild hasn't already been approached by someone about this.
With more development time, VO -seriously- has the power to be one of the best mainstream mmo's ever produced.
VO had an investor at some point in time. They went belly-up.
Money-men and artists don't mix.
Guys, keep the artistic juices flowing. When the time comes, there are plenty of us around to bombard the intertubes with the glories of Vendetta Online.
Guys, keep the artistic juices flowing. When the time comes, there are plenty of us around to bombard the intertubes with the glories of Vendetta Online.
John spent years trying to get investors but everyone hates outerspace.
I think 09 will be the year of VO, all that boring as hell framework building seems to be finally producing wicked gameplay features.
On the plus side, when they hit it big they only have to split the money four ways and they can call up former people they tried to get investment from and fart at them over the phone with their rich smug farts of success.
Yes, I said When, not if.
I think 09 will be the year of VO, all that boring as hell framework building seems to be finally producing wicked gameplay features.
On the plus side, when they hit it big they only have to split the money four ways and they can call up former people they tried to get investment from and fart at them over the phone with their rich smug farts of success.
Yes, I said When, not if.
You know this could be a good year to go for more investors. People are starting to appreciate sci fi more what with Star Trek(epic win movie) Terminator Salvation(awesome), and the like popping out. Sci fi has been neglected for some time TV, movie and game wise...also lets not forget the *twitch*"Excuse me while i go change my pants" awesomness of Starcraft 2 coming. Sci fi is on the rise! Now is the time to invest you money grubbing sons of...
Now is not the time to welcome just any investor.
Recession is a mother of dubious investors, investments and situations.
I would rather have John and his friends keep control of their company and continue at their slow pace then to see VO tumbling down devoured by some hostile takeover.
Recession is a mother of dubious investors, investments and situations.
I would rather have John and his friends keep control of their company and continue at their slow pace then to see VO tumbling down devoured by some hostile takeover.
Agreed
The other problem is server usage, I think. If you watch his developer convention presentation then Inc mentions some mmo's that use twitch combat like VO that went on a massive pre-release advertising campaign then had their servers explode when everyone started playing.
We aren't super concerned over server scalability. We can expand pretty easily, and we have a fair amount of extra capacity as-is. That concern was a big issue before release, and actually led to some decisions that may not have been the best (like the extremely large galaxy: good for scalability, not so good for a small player base).
I spent a lot of time trying to hunt down money before release, and had little luck. I am continuing to look at options for that, but a lot of my time is taken up with game design and other forward development. If I were to really "look for money", I would vanish for 6 months, which would not be good for ongoing development. I'm balancing as best I can.
Even if we do nothing but "make the game a lot better", this year, I think we will see an increased player base. We're one of the few titles that's broadly multi-platform, and our game practically runs on a toaster.
So, we're taking the route of Most Improvement, and following up what other investment options we can along the way.
I spent a lot of time trying to hunt down money before release, and had little luck. I am continuing to look at options for that, but a lot of my time is taken up with game design and other forward development. If I were to really "look for money", I would vanish for 6 months, which would not be good for ongoing development. I'm balancing as best I can.
Even if we do nothing but "make the game a lot better", this year, I think we will see an increased player base. We're one of the few titles that's broadly multi-platform, and our game practically runs on a toaster.
So, we're taking the route of Most Improvement, and following up what other investment options we can along the way.
Vendetta isn't quite ready for the mainstream anyway. Maybe next year.
I'm an investor. I fully support Raybondo. Sometimes I even send cookies/treats to the "starving developers".
Need more peanut butter...
Developers always need more peanut butter..
It's sweet, creamy, with protein.. and.. it's super-yummy spread on some nilla wafers..
Developers always need more peanut butter..
It's sweet, creamy, with protein.. and.. it's super-yummy spread on some nilla wafers..
Heh, OK Sarahanne, I stand corrected.
But. imho... "food and treats" investors are just making them fat and lazy.
Lean, mean and hungry developers bite harder. :P
But. imho... "food and treats" investors are just making them fat and lazy.
Lean, mean and hungry developers bite harder. :P
Maybe thats why she makes them treats, maybe Ray bites too hard.
*predicts imminent thread lock*
*predicts imminent thread lock*
Perhaps instead you'll reconsider a post that may well offend a very nice person.
"No marketing budget."
Inc,
I may be grossly simplifying the solution but, keep in mind I work three jobs... Photographer, photojournalist and chef no where in there is mentioned financial adviser. In addition to the stress of three jobs, there are the kidney stones and screaming baby and massive amount of various combinations of medications.
Anyways on to the idea...sell very small amount of stock in GU, I can not speak for all the players but I know that Cher and I would would buy GU stock just to help.
Inc,
I may be grossly simplifying the solution but, keep in mind I work three jobs... Photographer, photojournalist and chef no where in there is mentioned financial adviser. In addition to the stress of three jobs, there are the kidney stones and screaming baby and massive amount of various combinations of medications.
Anyways on to the idea...sell very small amount of stock in GU, I can not speak for all the players but I know that Cher and I would would buy GU stock just to help.
Selling a private offering of stock is.. non-trivial and requires a lot of corporate restructuring (and expensive attorney fees). It's possible to do, but it would be.. not necessarily worthwhile unless we had a bunch of people willing to make like.. mid-high five and low-six figure investments. And even then.. it does really complicate things. And the more people there are, the more complicated it gets. Especially if the people involved are international.
Heh, I guess we could technically go public on the pink sheets, with all the bizarro scam stocks that don't get listed on the exchanges. Then you could technically buy us through TD Ameritrade or E-Trade or whatever. That would be especially bizarre. I've been with one company that went public before (actually listed, heh) and it was somewhat nightmarish.
I really appreciate the supportive thought and willingness to directly invest in us, I'm just not sure if that's.. wise. If it was something we could pull off, it would be quite unusual. I'm all for thinking outside the box, but that would be pretty "out there". Either way would put a lot of new requirements on us.
Heh, I guess we could technically go public on the pink sheets, with all the bizarro scam stocks that don't get listed on the exchanges. Then you could technically buy us through TD Ameritrade or E-Trade or whatever. That would be especially bizarre. I've been with one company that went public before (actually listed, heh) and it was somewhat nightmarish.
I really appreciate the supportive thought and willingness to directly invest in us, I'm just not sure if that's.. wise. If it was something we could pull off, it would be quite unusual. I'm all for thinking outside the box, but that would be pretty "out there". Either way would put a lot of new requirements on us.
That is why I don't mind paying the 10 dollars each month instead of getting a cheaper bulk rate. More money for you guys. And trust me, I'm not gonna be canceling any time soon. Hell, I was still paying for FF11 for over a year after I stopped playing it.
My advice is, keep doing what you are doing. You guys have done an amazing job so far and I look forward to see what you have in store for us later on.
My advice is, keep doing what you are doing. You guys have done an amazing job so far and I look forward to see what you have in store for us later on.