[MUD-Dev] Dragon Empires is cancelled

[Dana V. Baldwin]

Matt Owen wrote:

> Is the cancellation of this, and all the other previous hi-profile
> MMORPG cancellation, money related? or is there something else ?

> I'm hoping it's mainly money related, and not other technical
> hurdles. The beauty of the hobbyist side of MUDs and MMOGs is that
> money is rarely a factor (well it is to a degree, but a lot of us
> just choose to ignore it over our passion for the craft ;) ).

> I'd like to see in a few years time, hundreds of at least
> half-decent amateur projects up and running that people can
> actually play, offering a greater freedom of choice, unlike the
> current crop of professional games that are basically the same
> game in new clothing. To some extent the Game Design world is
> becoming Hollywood in it's fear of innovation.

Many of them seem to be money, at least on the outside. I've had the
opportunity to speak with a coupe of the atest cancellations
(sometimes from many sides of the arrangement) and while money is
often key, the inability to manage a sustained infrastructure is
also a part.

One recent cancellation was cited with a STAGGERING US$100k plus
(substantially plus) network service and support contract. They
didn't have anymore players than we do really and we do ours for
US$8k per month and a remote sys admin.

While it's money in that case, it also means a lack of being able to
do the back end in a resonable way, which is often overlooked. I
thank the stars that we got what we did together so many years ago
(non location based server architecture with a bag of other "wow
that's really smart" ideas thrown in). As much fun as it is to hear
peoplle describe a revolutionary server structure, it's more fun to
actually have gotten lucky and had one for some time. (not my work,
not bragging, just a very important task that can doom a small
developer, cost per customer).

On the future, it was great to hear Jack from CoH talk at this years
Austin Con. He really came across as having great ideas for making
games that were not entirely based on what had come before. And not
in that pie in the sky way that many dreamers have but in a very
realistic "I've thought about it" way. As we move forward, if we can
as an industry match more people like this up with companies that
believe that the game must be right before ship and must have tools
for content as the number one priority, I think we'll get your 100
diverse games. They'll (MMP) certainly have to have to be more
differentiated than they are now if we're ever going to find the
people to fill them.

Dana V. Baldwin
a.k.a. "Gophur"
Producer
World War II Online
www.wwiionline.com
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