Velea I see it as a good step and hopefuly with-in a week or two we will see some more names of the Old Devs in the Dev Team and not the World Management Team. Those are going to be 2 diffrent things. But you may be right and maybe thier will never be a dev team, but I do not see the game going on if a Dev Team in not created and put to work.
I see they only have two GM's assigned. I wonder about the fate of the third shard and 4th shards....
Flsssssh Rsssssst
The appointed "Rhyming Rhapsodizer" of Blight
Former Guild Leader of Blight's Conclave of Shadows
Very nice and professional introduction. Good communication.
It is a positive step in the fact that EI is indeed interviewing and hiring former Tulga staff with experiance in different areas of the game. It is a positive step in showing that EI isn't just sitting on their hands.Originally Posted by Velea
It is unrealistic to assume that this is cumalative of the entire EI effort to integrate new personel in with former Tulga employees and move forward with the game, since the process of interviewing, salary negotiations, and hiring of former Tulga employees can't be any different that it is in other job fields, meaning it takes time to go through the process.
It is not unrealistic to have hope, or to applaud steps taken in the positive, especially in the face of all the negative reaction to this point.
The assumption, per your own statement and in lieu of official announcement here or on GN's site at the time I post this, that they are not contracting GN to continue hosting isn't necessarily an evil or negative thing.
The very fact that you stress your opinion as having nothing to do with the statement that GN is no longer hosting, and you yourself are no longer involved with Horizons adds a distinct bitterness to the overall tone of your message that implies the opposite.
So please, offer me factual evidence that this is indeed the extent of EI's involvment with Horizons, that no further staffing is forthcoming, That no development will occur. That nothing will be done to improve the game from this day forward. And please point out to me where the Official Statement is concerning GN's discontinuing Hosting of Horizons since I am sure the Unity community would be greatly interested in such.
Until then, I will accept the positives for what they are, and allow EI benefit of the doubt. If they are to hang, then it will be because they took the rope themselves, not because I joined a lynch mob.
Khargu...not GN...Gi.net aka gamersinfo.net, which tulga had contracted with for quite a bit of work...
Ack, right you are, time to go get the prescription checked on my glasses.
Until a Moderator deletes or allows me to edit said post, I retract all comments towards GN or the Poster as an employee of GN. The rest remains the same.
Last edited by Khargu Wildeye; July 28th, 2006 at 04:46 PM.
Interesting.
As long as this is understood to not nearly be the whole team I won't get concerned just yet.
I'll feel a lot better if they announce a big list of down and dirty coders and artists, many with extensive game experience, at least one DirectX guru, and at least a few devs from TG. Especially coders from TG.
The thing which concerned me about EI is they appeared to be more into hosting and sysadmin type things then they were into development. Both are needed for something like this. I'm comfortable that they can keep the servers up and running (as long as the server software doesn't hiccup) and connected to the Internet etc. I'm somewhat less comfortable that they can keep the database healthy although that'll probably be ok. I'm worried about their ability to fix bugs and add features requiring extensive coding changes and in-depth technical knowledge without making things worse.
I'm willing to give them time before I panic, but I'll feel better when I see some coders and artists. The more the better (as long as they're good). I consider designer types and even managers to be froth -- nice to have but the game won't die without them. Coders and artists are the meat and potatoes without which it simply isn't going to fly.
I've coded for a very long time. I've been called a lot of things, but "dirty coder?"
Khargu, you should have the ability to edit your own posts. If you cannot delete one of your own, please PM me or another moderator and we will be happy to assist you.
I don't know why, but I'm thinking that the team that was announced yesterday is goigg to be it. One of those guys was one of the recent hires, by the way, so I'm not sure how much he actually knows about what's going on with Horizons unless he was an extraordinarily fast learner.
EI Interactive might find they have to hire one or two more folks down the road, but I don't forsee another big team announcement. Taking bets....
Landowyn of Order
The Steelworks
Specializing in a little bit of everything
If I recall correctly, and I may not, it seems to me that keeping Jeff Gully on is a good move. He has been around since beta, and has been doing the system administration and game updates, and so from a hardware and network standpoint he should know the score.
Now if they can just snag the other key developers, from both the past and present. I know, I know, wishful thinking. But hey, why not wish big?
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein
What the heck, I will throw my meager assessment of the situation in, since everyone else is
EI is in it to make money. How is this different than any other company out there? It isn't. And until we know they way they intend to make money off of Horizons, there is little to be done or said that is useful. We are stuck waiting to see.
But, there is some pretty simple math we can speculate on. Horizons had to come cheap. Certainly many times cheaper than it was to develop to its current stage. I mean, how many times can the same game go bankrupt? I think we were heading for 2. Maybe we still are, but that is again dependant upon things I do not think we currently have enough knowledge about, and must wait and see. Either way, that has to hurt the sticker price.
From a purely economical stand point, Horizons is worth the gamble. Think of her as your second house. Your first was probably a starter house, useful just to get you into the next one. That is probably how Savage is for EI. Now they have Horizons, which is much more the fixer-uper to bring maximum return on the investment. But to see those returns there needs to be a decent amount of work, because the value is all in the potential.
So EI has aquired a potentially very lucrative game, if they are willing to hire the people with the skills and knowledge to see it reach that potential. I personally think that it is economically obvious, and that EI recognizes this too. It wouldn't be worth the effort they have already gone to otherwise.
These things do take time, however. Needs have to be analyzed, a plan must be established, and contracts need to be negotiated. While I would hope that EI has already made significant progress on the first two, I expect the latter will take time as well. And I really doubt that any AE folks will be willing to work for the same pay as they have up to this point, given all the pain and anguish they have gone through over the last years. There are a few who would be well worth whatever they are asking, as they would both speed up the transition and put current users fears to rest. It is only with great trepidation that one should pass up a win/win like that.
Last edited by Theolaerynn; July 28th, 2006 at 09:16 PM.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein
You never heard the expression down and dirty? In this context I was just trying to convey a person who can crawl into the guts of a million line program and work on it at it's lowest, messiest level. Someone who is quite capable of writing a client, a server, a tool, whatever needs writing.
As opposed to someone who just uses a tool to input forms, quests, whatever. Such people are nice, but I'm more concerned they have people who can maintain and extend the code. If necessary a programmer can use the tool he wrote to input forms, quests, etc. A designer who can't program or can only program at an amateur level cannot write complex software and expect it to work.
Michael Hampden*(EI_Dyn in game, and on the forums) – Michael will be a Designer on the project, and will be part of the development team focused on Live Events. Michael has come from Tulga's Development team to assist us in the continuing construction of Horizons.
Jeff Gully (formerly of Tulga Games) and I will be working as the server operations and management team
************************************
how long have this 2 formerly Tulga staff members have been at tulga?
Michael was hired about a month ago. Remember Ophelea's announcement that they had hired Misanthrope and Dyn and a new artist? It was around the start of July. He was hired to be a writer. His first quest is the one that involves the named wolf on NT, can't think of it off the top of my head. Dyn is a wonderful writer and Ive always thought so. If EII has hired him as a writer, the game should still at least get good quests.
Jeff I dont know how long he's been around, but I know it has been a long time.
And has anyone thought to ask EII yet if this is the only people they are hiring from the old team? Others seem to be able to speak with them more than I can right now (I can't get in to game due to account issues *winks*). So if someone sees one of the new "powers that be" and could ask that of them, I'd appreciate it. As I said in my earlier post, I know some developers and contracted employees which they are definately NOT intending to employ. But I'd be curious if a team of what we've already seen is what they intend to try to run the game with.
hmm is that dude then also responsible for the community page?Nick Dobbins (EI_Nagafen in game) - Nick is a creative fellow who will work on the storyline team, Horizons Community programs, and marketing.
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The only thing is their is sooooooo much to do that , can they really stay with such a small team.
Nalrach, Healer & Guardian, Member of the "Iron Circle" guild
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