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Questions for Incarnate
Incarnate I personally have a few questions that I'd like to ask you, its more a Q & A kinda thing.
1).what is raybondo's role in Vendetta's development, I've only seen him when server restarts are about to take place and sometimes responding to support tickets, but what is his role in development?
2).what is your current goal for 2022 in terms of vendetta's development? such as new content, new missions, etc.
3).At what point do consider vendetta to be "a big hit in activity" in active players?
4). Are guild software's servers ONLY used for VO or are some used for other methods of income to keep VO thriving?
5). Have you ever thought of opening a donation type system for VO to keep the content rolling out?
6). What made you think of the "framework" for VO? was it a another game? or a completely random and original idea?
7). what happened to the other 2 developers that worked(?) for guild software?(or at least I've heard there was a total of 4)
8). 10 years from now, what do you envision Vendetta to be? including the projection for networking and other types of software to evolve.
sub note for 4). i am not into networking or much of lua/programing in general
1).what is raybondo's role in Vendetta's development, I've only seen him when server restarts are about to take place and sometimes responding to support tickets, but what is his role in development?
2).what is your current goal for 2022 in terms of vendetta's development? such as new content, new missions, etc.
3).At what point do consider vendetta to be "a big hit in activity" in active players?
4). Are guild software's servers ONLY used for VO or are some used for other methods of income to keep VO thriving?
5). Have you ever thought of opening a donation type system for VO to keep the content rolling out?
6). What made you think of the "framework" for VO? was it a another game? or a completely random and original idea?
7). what happened to the other 2 developers that worked(?) for guild software?(or at least I've heard there was a total of 4)
8). 10 years from now, what do you envision Vendetta to be? including the projection for networking and other types of software to evolve.
sub note for 4). i am not into networking or much of lua/programing in general
Can you clarify the purpose of
"sub note for 4). i am not into networking or much of lua/programing in general"?
"sub note for 4). i am not into networking or much of lua/programing in general"?
probably mean explain in lay term
what is raybondo's role in Vendetta's development?
1) Ray is deeply involved in programming the game. While there is always some level of collaborative input, Ray usually doesn't make player-visible design or development decisions, he implements whatever plan has been defined (generally, by me).
what is your current goal for 2022 in terms of vendetta's development?
2) That's a really big question, probably best answered by looking at the history of Newsletters, because I can't really type everything out right now. We're still working on most of the projects mentioned in there, but we are frequently delayed by other left-field requirements (iOS now requires a "delete account" button in the game, for instance, this entire concept is a big undertaking), or unforeseen issues. A couple of our previously announced goals would include the total redux of the game UI, as well as the new economy rollout. Neither of those have been completed yet.
At what point do consider vendetta to be "a big hit in activity" in active players?
3) That isn't really a meaningful question for me? I'm interested more in growth trajectories, player retention, new user acquisition, game operational and administrative overhead, etc. There's a whole matrix of those challenges, and they fluctuate based on the size of the userbase. Being "too successful" can also be terrifying, even destructive, for a persistent-world game (a million new people showing up in a day, for instance). A number of MMO companies have been put out of business by being inundated by too many new-players too quickly. So, being "a big hit" is not always a good thing, unless one climbs towards it fairly slowly and predictably. Plus, managing population issues like toxicity, and handling that problem at scale, relative to different new cohorts of players, can also be a big concern.
We're working towards a period of substantial growth of the userbase. But there isn't a fixed number I can point to and say "X is Success!", because X will change based on the overhead and type of game activity going on. Populations will always fluctuate based on marketing campaigns and other activity; right now I care more about making the game more accessible to new players, adding more content, and fixing a lot of existing problems.
Are guild software's servers ONLY used for VO or are some used for other methods of income to keep VO thriving?
4) Vendetta Online's servers are exclusively used to host and operate Vendetta Online. Guild Software has additional internal development servers, which are used to develop Vendetta Online. We do have VendettaMark and some other projects, but those are a small fraction of our time investment, as they are infrequently updated (and they're based entirely on the game's development, anyway). Like most game companies, there have historically also been deals that exist to highlight partner products and the like, using Vendetta Online as a product demo.
But, we don't have some secret e-commerce company or bitcoin-mining operation, if that's what you're asking. I don't really know what "other stuff" you think we would be running on our servers.
Have you ever thought of opening a donation type system for VO to keep the content rolling out?
5) Yes, people used to make PayPal donations in the past. "Donations" are kind of an odd situation for a for-profit company to engage in, but we might do something again down the road. More likely, though, we'll offer some exclusive purchases or some such (rare ship-skins, that kind of thing).
The other problem with tying donations to "content" is that the reality-of-development doesn't actually work that way, most of the time (you end up working on "delete-account" buttons for iOS, not because you want to, but because you have to). If the sums get really considerable (say, $50,000+), that could be meaningful.. but then you're talking more about building a whole crowdfunding system. There have been lengthy historical discussions about that on Suggestions, where I've weighed in, but that's not a small undertaking either.
There's also just a lot of order-of-operations stuff required to make things actually work properly, and be manageable and maintainable. Players usually want The Shiny Thing, and not to hear about the 17 other problems that have to be solved before we can make The Shiny Thing, and that's tough to reality articulate in a donation / feature-bounty type framework.
What made you think of the "framework" for VO? was it a another game? or a completely random and original idea?
6) I was inspired by a lot of things.. a whole swath of sci-fi content I had consumed, for years, across TV, movies and books, plus some games. The popularity of early "modem Doom" gave me the notion that a persistent-world game was probably technologically possible over phone connections, along with prior experiences like "Red Baron" on The Sierra Network (a very early pay-per-minute online flight-combat experience) similarly proved it was viable.
Technology was the biggest hurdle, not gameplay. But in terms of gameplay, I certainly played the first two (DOS-era) Wing Commander games, as well as Tie Fighter. I also usually cite Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception, which is also mentioned in the similar FAQ entry. Generally, the idea of VO was pretty fixed in my head by around 1994, and we started working on early network games not that long after.
what happened to the other developers that worked for guild software?
7) We famously built the original "retail" game to release with four people, but those are not the only people who have ever worked on the game. There were various-and-sundry others at different periods, plus short-term interns. If you mean Waylon and Andy, they ended up moving out of WI and followed their careers elsewhere. The game has been operational for 20 years, the company for something like 25; not everyone wants to work on the same thing for that length of time.
10 years from now, what do you envision Vendetta to be?
8) I don't really have a simple answer for that. My goals are more short-term. I would really like to see VO fully realize my goals from the late-90s, which is.. a lot of different stuff. Exploration, economy, dynamic territory, large-scale warfare, etc. We've covered a lot of ground, and some things are much further along than players will currently realize, but there are still challenges we have to overcome to actually get everything out the door, and fun, and stable, and scalable.
So, to put it simply, I guess I would be really happy if, in 10 years, VO were just the fully-realized game I had always intended, with an enthusiastic and happy player base enjoying it. I'd also like to break some records for battle-concurrency along the way, that would be pretty cool.
Constructing a single-universe, linearly-scalable MMORPG, with a completely custom engine and server back-end, and frequent concurrent updates across a wide variety of mobile and desktop devices and platforms, is most certainly the single hardest type of product to make in the entire game industry. This isn't a boast, at all; but does give some hints as to why everything is so involved, and time consuming. Thus, my 10-year goals don't really need to be "You will land on planets and build cities and then be able to fish from an ocean that is simulated to a molecular level". Making pie-in-the-sky goals doesn't mean that much to me.. it's more important that things actually be fun and stable.
1) Ray is deeply involved in programming the game. While there is always some level of collaborative input, Ray usually doesn't make player-visible design or development decisions, he implements whatever plan has been defined (generally, by me).
what is your current goal for 2022 in terms of vendetta's development?
2) That's a really big question, probably best answered by looking at the history of Newsletters, because I can't really type everything out right now. We're still working on most of the projects mentioned in there, but we are frequently delayed by other left-field requirements (iOS now requires a "delete account" button in the game, for instance, this entire concept is a big undertaking), or unforeseen issues. A couple of our previously announced goals would include the total redux of the game UI, as well as the new economy rollout. Neither of those have been completed yet.
At what point do consider vendetta to be "a big hit in activity" in active players?
3) That isn't really a meaningful question for me? I'm interested more in growth trajectories, player retention, new user acquisition, game operational and administrative overhead, etc. There's a whole matrix of those challenges, and they fluctuate based on the size of the userbase. Being "too successful" can also be terrifying, even destructive, for a persistent-world game (a million new people showing up in a day, for instance). A number of MMO companies have been put out of business by being inundated by too many new-players too quickly. So, being "a big hit" is not always a good thing, unless one climbs towards it fairly slowly and predictably. Plus, managing population issues like toxicity, and handling that problem at scale, relative to different new cohorts of players, can also be a big concern.
We're working towards a period of substantial growth of the userbase. But there isn't a fixed number I can point to and say "X is Success!", because X will change based on the overhead and type of game activity going on. Populations will always fluctuate based on marketing campaigns and other activity; right now I care more about making the game more accessible to new players, adding more content, and fixing a lot of existing problems.
Are guild software's servers ONLY used for VO or are some used for other methods of income to keep VO thriving?
4) Vendetta Online's servers are exclusively used to host and operate Vendetta Online. Guild Software has additional internal development servers, which are used to develop Vendetta Online. We do have VendettaMark and some other projects, but those are a small fraction of our time investment, as they are infrequently updated (and they're based entirely on the game's development, anyway). Like most game companies, there have historically also been deals that exist to highlight partner products and the like, using Vendetta Online as a product demo.
But, we don't have some secret e-commerce company or bitcoin-mining operation, if that's what you're asking. I don't really know what "other stuff" you think we would be running on our servers.
Have you ever thought of opening a donation type system for VO to keep the content rolling out?
5) Yes, people used to make PayPal donations in the past. "Donations" are kind of an odd situation for a for-profit company to engage in, but we might do something again down the road. More likely, though, we'll offer some exclusive purchases or some such (rare ship-skins, that kind of thing).
The other problem with tying donations to "content" is that the reality-of-development doesn't actually work that way, most of the time (you end up working on "delete-account" buttons for iOS, not because you want to, but because you have to). If the sums get really considerable (say, $50,000+), that could be meaningful.. but then you're talking more about building a whole crowdfunding system. There have been lengthy historical discussions about that on Suggestions, where I've weighed in, but that's not a small undertaking either.
There's also just a lot of order-of-operations stuff required to make things actually work properly, and be manageable and maintainable. Players usually want The Shiny Thing, and not to hear about the 17 other problems that have to be solved before we can make The Shiny Thing, and that's tough to reality articulate in a donation / feature-bounty type framework.
What made you think of the "framework" for VO? was it a another game? or a completely random and original idea?
6) I was inspired by a lot of things.. a whole swath of sci-fi content I had consumed, for years, across TV, movies and books, plus some games. The popularity of early "modem Doom" gave me the notion that a persistent-world game was probably technologically possible over phone connections, along with prior experiences like "Red Baron" on The Sierra Network (a very early pay-per-minute online flight-combat experience) similarly proved it was viable.
Technology was the biggest hurdle, not gameplay. But in terms of gameplay, I certainly played the first two (DOS-era) Wing Commander games, as well as Tie Fighter. I also usually cite Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception, which is also mentioned in the similar FAQ entry. Generally, the idea of VO was pretty fixed in my head by around 1994, and we started working on early network games not that long after.
what happened to the other developers that worked for guild software?
7) We famously built the original "retail" game to release with four people, but those are not the only people who have ever worked on the game. There were various-and-sundry others at different periods, plus short-term interns. If you mean Waylon and Andy, they ended up moving out of WI and followed their careers elsewhere. The game has been operational for 20 years, the company for something like 25; not everyone wants to work on the same thing for that length of time.
10 years from now, what do you envision Vendetta to be?
8) I don't really have a simple answer for that. My goals are more short-term. I would really like to see VO fully realize my goals from the late-90s, which is.. a lot of different stuff. Exploration, economy, dynamic territory, large-scale warfare, etc. We've covered a lot of ground, and some things are much further along than players will currently realize, but there are still challenges we have to overcome to actually get everything out the door, and fun, and stable, and scalable.
So, to put it simply, I guess I would be really happy if, in 10 years, VO were just the fully-realized game I had always intended, with an enthusiastic and happy player base enjoying it. I'd also like to break some records for battle-concurrency along the way, that would be pretty cool.
Constructing a single-universe, linearly-scalable MMORPG, with a completely custom engine and server back-end, and frequent concurrent updates across a wide variety of mobile and desktop devices and platforms, is most certainly the single hardest type of product to make in the entire game industry. This isn't a boast, at all; but does give some hints as to why everything is so involved, and time consuming. Thus, my 10-year goals don't really need to be "You will land on planets and build cities and then be able to fish from an ocean that is simulated to a molecular level". Making pie-in-the-sky goals doesn't mean that much to me.. it's more important that things actually be fun and stable.