If in devlopment means charging people(pre-orders) 50 % percen more than everyone less without notice and charging people a monthly fee- then yes. That "project manager" is probaly as full of crap as brain is.
Let me give you a business lesson. A company can do whatever they want with their products.. basically. They can change prices when they want, charge what they want, discontinue it, bring it back again.. whatever. Hell Turbine is RE publishing AC2 soon.. I know everyone remembers what ac2 was when it launched and that was from a freakin MS backed company..
anyway this thread is stupid.. I am goin to play battlefield 2..
No marketing plans will be made until we own the rights, and I don't even want to begin to think of how we'd compensate those who already own the game.
From someone that dont plan on buying the game 2 options seem ''nice alternatives'' to me.
- Give them a MUCH longer free trial period if they buy the new titles and provide the info of their original purchase, or a cheaper monthly fee until they get the value of the ''refund'' repaid.
OR
- Release 2 products, the full game for everyone to puchase. An expension for those who own the original title, for much less money cost then the full game. (main trouble is folks may purchase the original Mourning now + expension for cheaper most likely)
Anyway, those are only 2 suggestions from someone who will never play a PvP enforcing game anyway.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Originally posted by strouse I know everyone remembers what ac2 was when it launched and that was from a freakin MS backed company..
If they made a bad release with D&D, I can predict Turbine been completely destroyed and sued to death before 1 year past after a shitty release. Atari & Wizard of the Coast can easily rip Turbine to dust should they mess it, and I doubt they will refrain from doing it. On the bright side, if Turbine do great, Eternal Glory for them in the Halls of Heroes!
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Originally posted by DerfelCadarn Originally posted by -Jaguar- Seems we have some financial experts here. I do agree it is a burden and the game is failing but I still don't think it would take a bit to sell. If they are going to sell it for less than what it cost to develop I don't see why they won't just try to work it out themselves. They stand more to gain by trying to recover it themselves since they are going to lose either way right? If they do keep it going and turn Mourning into an at least somewhat better game they could get a publisher and more funding. Also they could get more by selling a more fully developed game. And aren't the intial high costs over, financial experts? Just my opinions. I'm trying to give logical reasons other than "brian lies." My logical reason why "Brian Lies" is simple- 1) Being that his company has no other games, and has no proof that it even exists. No money either. I have searched it. 2) One doesn't use the phrase "Suck my balls" in regards to business parners. 3) He doesn't seem to have a clue on how this deal even works. My logical reason why I think Dave probaly want to sell. In finances, one has to know when to suck up their pride. Like stock, either sell for less now, or watch the stock come crumbling down. In lose-lose stutations like Mourning, funding it more could just be a waste. Cutting now might be more financidally responsible. They stand some to win, but the chances of lose are far higher. Although intial costs are generally over- you have to consider the game is still in a beta state. The costs for deveolpment still need to be high to bring it out of beta. Horizons LLC also has the new cost of keep servers up(hmmm... mabye not), Fileplanet, all the Devs involved among other expenses. It also been said before that it might be impossible to pull the servers out of their shape. Spoon said their is a critical code that was not implmented at the begining leading to alot of lag and unstablity. Could takes many more months or years to solve. This on top of the fact, all over the net, Mourning reputation with business practices and the game itself are horrible. Why keep funding a game that gamers think is a totally joke is beyond me.
First off, as I told you. Dave is NOT a buisness partner. You guys are hung up on that. Secondly, it's not like Egomancer is going to go ahead and confirm rumors that they're going to pull the plug on their servers here shortly. When the paperwork is complete, I'll post them, with the appropriate parts blacked out (such as signatures and such). Seriously, if you were one of the heads of a development company who made a game, would you come out and admit you're closing your server down? I wouldn't, that's for sure. As for staff, we've already filled all the positions. As I stated before, we planned to make our own original intelectual property title as our first game, for everyone to get paid. However, this opportunity fell into our laps and will require a lot less work than the other project of ours. Even using an existing engine, with a small team, it'd take at least a year to get the game out, and no one wants to wait that long to get paid. That's why we were concidering this project. However, until I know for a fact that we're going to redevelop this title, I'm not going to say anything else. Why? Because this has become a flamewar against me, for asking a simple question. "Would you concider playing Mourning if it was developed by another company, a different PR staff, and a better publisher?" Instead, this has turned into a "You're a liar. You're unprofessional." etc. Seriously. If you don't believe that the company I work for is obtaining the rights to the game, fine. Keep it to yourself. Or, put it in another thread. This thread is not for that. As for the company I work for, we have a website up ONLY with official documents for those on the staff ONLY. We're scattered across the US right now until we publish a game. Then, we'll be getting an office set up. We didn't want to be at the whim of some random publisher, which is why we're focusing on making a game first, and getting an office second. As a final statement, one I've aready made, there will be a press release to all the major gaming websites, when and if we decide to redevelop Mourning. If you'd like to flame me, please, do so in a PM to me, or in a seperate thread, as it's COMPLETELY off-topic.
And for the record, I was born and raised in Massachusetts. No Romanian blood whatsoever. So no, I'm not egomancer's cousin. As a matter of fact, I myself have never spoken to him through text or email. Nor have I been on their boards.
Honestly, with all the bad press and so on that Mourning has, I think the only good thing to do with the game is scrap it and work on something new.
The MMO market is so flooded right now, it really is a gamers market. Meaning that the people who actually play the games control which ones are popular and which ones fail. For your game to be popular, you have to entice them to play it. You can't just slap on some pretty logo or a popular franchise name and magically have people love it.
That's one of the big things about SWG, is because it was the Star Wars license, they figured everyone would play it and it'd be the most popular thing ever. So they cut corners to get the game out sooner, and relied on the SW name to make it big. Only once people actually played the game, alot of people realized how much SOE had really cut short the game, and they didn't play it. It could've been the best MMO out there, but it can't go on the name or a flashy web page alone to be successful.
I don't think there's really anything that can be done to save the Mourning game, even if the game itself is good, which I hear it's not.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Brian I'll stay on topic for ya... well kinda. Why not just do everything you say your gonna do and not even connect yourself publicly with Mourning?
Is it just to get publicity cause I am having trouble understanding why you just don't aquire whatever code your buyin and announce your new game unrelated to Mourning.
What aspects of Mourning do you intend on keeping and can you give a descripton of your plans?
Originally posted by Sporn Brian I'll stay on topic for ya... well kinda. Why not just do everything you say your gonna do and not even connect yourself publicly with Mourning? Is it just to get publicity cause I am having trouble understanding why you just don't aquire whatever code your buyin and announce your new game unrelated to Mourning. What aspects of Mourning do you intend on keeping and can you give a descripton of your plans?
What is being planned is this: quite literally a re-release. But not of the same rehashed code and content and bugs. Phase one of the internal development cycle is to boot up the game on our internal server, and root out ALL the bugs and fix them. After that, our texturers will begin sharpening the graphics, and modellers will begin making new things to add to the world. While that's going on, content writers will be reviewing what's in the game, fixing anything that's off, and adding in a lot more content. From that point, we'll make sure every feature of the game is working, and possibly add in some more things such as new spells, skills and such. Once we're happy with that, we'll open the testing to some selected people that we know and trust, and have them try it out. If they think it's good, we'll run an open beta. Then, if all runs smoothly, we'll re-release the game with a new name (something that includes Mourning in the name is highly likely at this point, but is subject to change). But again, we may never reach that point, and scrap it. Right now, we're looking at an existing game, with a HORRIBLE reputation, and a market that's already saturated. We'd need to pull off some pretty impressive new things to even be able to profit from it. There's a lot of people who seem at least open to the idea of a new company running it, but there's also a lot of people who are hell bent on making me look like a liar, and wanting to trash talk anything having to do with this project. I've already showed this thread to my boss, and we're having a meeting to discuss if we want to even continue or not, as there's no longer a clearcut picture of people's opinions on the game anymore.
I think that you should ignore those few naysayers out here, and try to resurrect a game that had a lot of potential, and still does to this day. However, unless you can PROVE that it won't be simply another scam, people will still remain mistrustful. So go ahead, show us that you can pull it off, and you will manage to get full support from the community. I think.
Originally posted by brian72282 Originally posted by Zippy While we all wish that Mourning would be placed in competent hands the OP's post is just not believable. If you want to sway someone announce the deal in the media. Give the story to mmorg.com or anotehr site and let them confirm it. Or take your new property and post it on the Mourning website. Coming on to a board and insulting other companies, besides being entirely unprofessional and immature tends to remove any credibility your claims may have had. Even worse is the thought that you may acutually take over the game. Insulting the former devs and sony regardless of whether ot not the insults have merit leaves, your wild claims, choice of venue and general utter lack of professionalism leaves little hope you could develop a game any better than the Mourning devs have done. If you ever do the get the game. My advice would be to choose a different spokesman.
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
Originally posted by Zippy While we all wish that Mourning would be placed in competent hands the OP's post is just not believable. If you want to sway someone announce the deal in the media. Give the story to mmorg.com or anotehr site and let them confirm it. Or take your new property and post it on the Mourning website. Coming on to a board and insulting other companies, besides being entirely unprofessional and immature tends to remove any credibility your claims may have had. Even worse is the thought that you may acutually take over the game. Insulting the former devs and sony regardless of whether ot not the insults have merit leaves, your wild claims, choice of venue and general utter lack of professionalism leaves little hope you could develop a game any better than the Mourning devs have done. If you ever do the get the game. My advice would be to choose a different spokesman.
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
MMORPG fans are some of the most gullible people in the world. Every new game lies to them about features, beta dates, releases, customer service, and so many other things. But they keep coming back and they keep believing. Given this past behavior it is not suprising that some here may believe Brian. But add in Brian's insults and behavior on these boards and his alleged Mourning buyout really tests the gullibility of mmorpg fans and makes me think he believes that we are not only gullible but bloody stupid as well.
MMORPG fans are some of the most gullible people in the world. Every new game lies to them about features, beta dates, releases, customer service, and so many other things. But they keep coming back and they keep believing. Given this past behavior it is not suprising that some here may believe Brad. Vyt add in Brad's insults and behavior on these boards and his alleged Mourning buyout really tests the gullibility of mmorpg fans and makes me think he believes that we are not only gullible but bloody stupid as well.
Well...
To which Brad are you referring exactly? Aradune from Vanguard? He did deliver some promises he made in the past, so did many companies out there.
As to the gullible part, Brian is prolly just someone making fun and reading reactions for the fun of it, and why not play his game all along?
Gullible is to believe blindly. I hope I will always keep a little nice part in my to want to believe in some nice stuff! Now to believe a company in particuliar, this is something that they need to deserve, and no, I dont believe any MMORPG maker when they talk, Johny teach me not to, yet I always want to believe! So I read and ask questions and check a lot.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Originally posted by Elnator Originally posted by brian72282 Originally posted by Zippy While we all wish that Mourning would be placed in competent hands the OP's post is just not believable. If you want to sway someone announce the deal in the media. Give the story to mmorg.com or anotehr site and let them confirm it. Or take your new property and post it on the Mourning website. Coming on to a board and insulting other companies, besides being entirely unprofessional and immature tends to remove any credibility your claims may have had. Even worse is the thought that you may acutually take over the game. Insulting the former devs and sony regardless of whether ot not the insults have merit leaves, your wild claims, choice of venue and general utter lack of professionalism leaves little hope you could develop a game any better than the Mourning devs have done. If you ever do the get the game. My advice would be to choose a different spokesman.
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
I came to a fansite to see if there was still support for the game. No offense, but marketing studies only show so much. We have all the paperwork done and in order, so we're not worried about them trying to say "Oh, well since people like it still, we'll charge you (insert $ figure here)". At the moment, we're nt sure what we're doing with the property yet. We may not do anything at all. At this point, I think the best thing to do would be to just do whatever we're going to do and announce it. While we're a small start up company, it doesn't mean we can't do as good a job as one of the big ones.
So far this thread is 7 pages long and still counting...whcih truly beggars belief since this thread is totally ridiculous.
As a corporate lawyer with an elite US firm, i can only say that if Brian is indeed telling the truth, the company he works for consists of a bunch of brain-dead amateurs. 100% of all acqusitions ae kept confidential until after they have been concluded in my experience. Or is Brian & Co. re-writing the business rulebook??!
I'm only posting to say that everyone who has posted in this thread (including myself and many others whose opinions i usually enjoy reading) should be ashamed of themselves.
Been a die hard gamer for 15 years now, the last 5 or so have been mostly online and nothing NOTHING will make or break a game like name recognition. In this case I would have to say it would break it. Keeping the name Morning would be a mistake. Even if you change NOTHING but the name that will still help you. You can say its under new management all you want, you can show people the dead mutilated corpses of all the devs who came before and it wont matter. The name has such a bad stigma attached to it now you would be shooting yourself in the foot to keep it.
Originally posted by stav1 So far this thread is 7 pages long and still counting...whcih truly beggars belief since this thread is totally ridiculous. As a corporate lawyer with an elite US firm, i can only say that if Brian is indeed telling the truth, the company he works for consists of a bunch of brain-dead amateurs. 100% of all acqusitions ae kept confidential until after they have been concluded in my experience. Or is Brian & Co. re-writing the business rulebook??! I'm only posting to say that everyone who has posted in this thread (including myself and many others whose opinions i usually enjoy reading) should be ashamed of themselves.
Just so you know, it IS a done deal. Period, end of question. So don't feel ridiculous. I do not own the company I work for, I'm just pretty high on the food chain when it comes to responcibilites. The paperwork's been finalized, and everything's done. However, since I am no where near the owner at this time, it'll be a while before I have access to the paperwork myself. Anyways, I love how everyone is more concerned about legalities than the topic at hand. Why can't some of you stay on topic? If you can't stay on topic, please, flame me in private. It's much more civilized.
Because its a great philosophical question, but one has to question any companies intent on purchasing another when someone fails to provide actual proof, and calls themselves high on the food chain... call me a cynic.. Brian, I hope it is true, believe me, but...
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash! Be water, my friend. ~Bruce Lee
Originally posted by stav1 As a corporate lawyer with an elite US firm, i can only say that if Brian is indeed telling the truth, the company he works for consists of a bunch of brain-dead amateurs. 100% of all acqusitions ae kept confidential until after they have been concluded in my experience. Or is Brian & Co. re-writing the business rulebook??!
As a private geneticist with a 1337 firm, i can only say im going to clone you in your sleep and have your twin sue you , mr. lawdog. we all know that the big shot lawyers dont envelop their life with their work they play mmoprg's all day and post b.s. on game forums.
anyway..to the point. i wish you guys the best of luck, and i believe what you say. why? becasue i read it and think it would be cool, and it wont hurt me emotionally , physically, or financially if you are lying.
I posted your claim at M.o.u.r.n.i.n.g forum and egomancer replied
"The game is not for sale and will continue to be developed by us. I have no clue who this person is."
Now i can understand that you said egomancer is not willing to admit it or he simply dont know about it. Second possibility is that he is telling the truth and you are not. It is also possible that Egomancer is lying and you are telling the truth.
If you can give us a proof of your claim and prove egomancer is the liar then people can get pass the legitimate issue of your claim and give their opinion whether they are willing to give Mourning a second chance if new development company take over the game.
Now on the topic, lets just say i believe you for a second, i will give Mourning a second chance because i love the concepts and i like to see it happen. You need to work really hard to impress people if you choose to keep the name "Mourning" and Video trailer might not be enought.
Brian what I suggest you is to stop all those speculations. Stop posting, til you closed the deal. After that you can make an official statement about Mourning new owner, and start a new discussion.
You had our opinion, that generally says that we are ready to give Mourning another try if the new Company is more serious than the current one. Keeping answering everyone attack it will drag you down the same route of the previous company, which is not very professional. You need to learn not to reply to all attacks and not to take it too personal, you will get lots of criticism in the future and being too defensive, is not a good strategy, Egomancer and Co. tried that already and that s one of the reasons why they failed. This post is becoming more like "shall we believe Brian or not?", which wasn't the purpose of this topic. "I believe it when I see it" There is not point in discussing it further, but for the moment I will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Good luck, and let us know about future developments
Comments
Let me give you a business lesson.
A company can do whatever they want with their products.. basically. They can change prices when they want, charge what they want, discontinue it, bring it back again.. whatever. Hell Turbine is RE publishing AC2 soon.. I know everyone remembers what ac2 was when it launched and that was from a freakin MS backed company..
anyway this thread is stupid.. I am goin to play battlefield 2..
From someone that dont plan on buying the game 2 options seem ''nice alternatives'' to me.
- Give them a MUCH longer free trial period if they buy the new titles and provide the info of their original purchase, or a cheaper monthly fee until they get the value of the ''refund'' repaid.
OR
- Release 2 products, the full game for everyone to puchase. An expension for those who own the original title, for much less money cost then the full game. (main trouble is folks may purchase the original Mourning now + expension for cheaper most likely)
Anyway, those are only 2 suggestions from someone who will never play a PvP enforcing game anyway.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
First off, as I told you. Dave is NOT a buisness partner. You guys are hung up on that. Secondly, it's not like Egomancer is going to go ahead and confirm rumors that they're going to pull the plug on their servers here shortly. When the paperwork is complete, I'll post them, with the appropriate parts blacked out (such as signatures and such). Seriously, if you were one of the heads of a development company who made a game, would you come out and admit you're closing your server down? I wouldn't, that's for sure. As for staff, we've already filled all the positions. As I stated before, we planned to make our own original intelectual property title as our first game, for everyone to get paid. However, this opportunity fell into our laps and will require a lot less work than the other project of ours. Even using an existing engine, with a small team, it'd take at least a year to get the game out, and no one wants to wait that long to get paid. That's why we were concidering this project. However, until I know for a fact that we're going to redevelop this title, I'm not going to say anything else. Why? Because this has become a flamewar against me, for asking a simple question. "Would you concider playing Mourning if it was developed by another company, a different PR staff, and a better publisher?" Instead, this has turned into a "You're a liar. You're unprofessional." etc. Seriously. If you don't believe that the company I work for is obtaining the rights to the game, fine. Keep it to yourself. Or, put it in another thread. This thread is not for that. As for the company I work for, we have a website up ONLY with official documents for those on the staff ONLY. We're scattered across the US right now until we publish a game. Then, we'll be getting an office set up. We didn't want to be at the whim of some random publisher, which is why we're focusing on making a game first, and getting an office second. As a final statement, one I've aready made, there will be a press release to all the major gaming websites, when and if we decide to redevelop Mourning. If you'd like to flame me, please, do so in a PM to me, or in a seperate thread, as it's COMPLETELY off-topic.
And for the record, I was born and raised in Massachusetts. No Romanian blood whatsoever. So no, I'm not egomancer's cousin. As a matter of fact, I myself have never spoken to him through text or email. Nor have I been on their boards.
Honestly, with all the bad press and so on that Mourning has, I think the only good thing to do with the game is scrap it and work on something new.
The MMO market is so flooded right now, it really is a gamers market. Meaning that the people who actually play the games control which ones are popular and which ones fail. For your game to be popular, you have to entice them to play it. You can't just slap on some pretty logo or a popular franchise name and magically have people love it.
That's one of the big things about SWG, is because it was the Star Wars license, they figured everyone would play it and it'd be the most popular thing ever. So they cut corners to get the game out sooner, and relied on the SW name to make it big. Only once people actually played the game, alot of people realized how much SOE had really cut short the game, and they didn't play it. It could've been the best MMO out there, but it can't go on the name or a flashy web page alone to be successful.
I don't think there's really anything that can be done to save the Mourning game, even if the game itself is good, which I hear it's not.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
Brian I'll stay on topic for ya... well kinda. Why not just do everything you say your gonna do and not even connect yourself publicly with Mourning?
Is it just to get publicity cause I am having trouble understanding why you just don't aquire whatever code your buyin and announce your new game unrelated to Mourning.
What aspects of Mourning do you intend on keeping and can you give a descripton of your plans?
What is being planned is this: quite literally a re-release. But not of the same rehashed code and content and bugs. Phase one of the internal development cycle is to boot up the game on our internal server, and root out ALL the bugs and fix them. After that, our texturers will begin sharpening the graphics, and modellers will begin making new things to add to the world. While that's going on, content writers will be reviewing what's in the game, fixing anything that's off, and adding in a lot more content. From that point, we'll make sure every feature of the game is working, and possibly add in some more things such as new spells, skills and such. Once we're happy with that, we'll open the testing to some selected people that we know and trust, and have them try it out. If they think it's good, we'll run an open beta. Then, if all runs smoothly, we'll re-release the game with a new name (something that includes Mourning in the name is highly likely at this point, but is subject to change). But again, we may never reach that point, and scrap it. Right now, we're looking at an existing game, with a HORRIBLE reputation, and a market that's already saturated. We'd need to pull off some pretty impressive new things to even be able to profit from it. There's a lot of people who seem at least open to the idea of a new company running it, but there's also a lot of people who are hell bent on making me look like a liar, and wanting to trash talk anything having to do with this project. I've already showed this thread to my boss, and we're having a meeting to discuss if we want to even continue or not, as there's no longer a clearcut picture of people's opinions on the game anymore.
I think that you should ignore those few naysayers out here, and try to resurrect a game that had a lot of potential, and still does to this day. However, unless you can PROVE that it won't be simply another scam, people will still remain mistrustful. So go ahead, show us that you can pull it off, and you will manage to get full support from the community. I think.
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
MMORPG fans are some of the most gullible people in the world. Every new game lies to them about features, beta dates, releases, customer service, and so many other things. But they keep coming back and they keep believing. Given this past behavior it is not suprising that some here may believe Brian. But add in Brian's insults and behavior on these boards and his alleged Mourning buyout really tests the gullibility of mmorpg fans and makes me think he believes that we are not only gullible but bloody stupid as well.
Well...
To which Brad are you referring exactly? Aradune from Vanguard? He did deliver some promises he made in the past, so did many companies out there.
As to the gullible part, Brian is prolly just someone making fun and reading reactions for the fun of it, and why not play his game all along?
Gullible is to believe blindly. I hope I will always keep a little nice part in my to want to believe in some nice stuff! Now to believe a company in particuliar, this is something that they need to deserve, and no, I dont believe any MMORPG maker when they talk, Johny teach me not to, yet I always want to believe! So I read and ask questions and check a lot.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Sorry it was a typo I meant Brian. I wille edit my post accordingly. Sorry about the confusion.
First off, I set my sig back when I joined this website, after I had 5 frustrating experiences with SOE's CS. I used to be an athlete myself, but I was playing on the old stereotype that so many people seem to feel is true. It's meant as a joke, but if it really offends you that bad, then I'm sorry. But you should probably not be so sensitive either. Most people here know it's a joke, and MANY people agree with the comparison. Anyways, when Mourning's servers close down, we WILL announce our project with a formal press release. I'm not acting immature in the slightest. As I said, right now, I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. I'm posting as a gamer, who was curious if there was still people interested in Mourning. Again, at least 3 seperate times in this thread, I've stated I'm not posting on behalf of the company I work for. Personally, if there wasn't any sort of fanbase left for the game, I would just tell my boss the truth, and we'd not even bother with it. Oh, and expect me to use a seperate handle for making "official" posts. The only sig that one will have will be my real name, title, and company. In any case, I don't think I'd matter to you or the others who's criticized me, and picked apart my choice of words. You'd be just as cynical if Sony, Blizzard or Mythic or anyone else for that matter picked it up. But hey, they'd not even put out feelers like I did. If they thought it had potential, they'd buy it out, throw money at it, then throw money at the advertising to try to make you forget about the past of it. My point is this: If you don't like my style, fine. Nothing will change that. If you liked the game concepts and want to see it improved, and made to be like was promised, keep an open mind. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised if you do.
Actually if Mythic, Blizzard or SOE picked it up I'd have relative confidence that they'd turn it into a decent title. Remember: All 3 of those companies have produced at least one (and in the case of Mythic and SOE multiple) extremely successful titles. None of their ventures, to date, have 'flopped' and while you seem to have some personal beef with SOE they are actually fairly decent on the Customer Service side of the house, and always have been. Matter of fact when they started customer service for EQ no other game had CS that was even remotely close to their quality.
And I re-iterate. If you want to be taken seriously you should behave seriously.
Nobody here is going to take a guy seriously who has shown zero professionalism, let alone any clue as to the business side of running any development projects. *IF* you were really part of a corporation that was looking to buy the code for Mourning the LAST thing you'd do is come to a fan site and ask people what they thought about it. Not until you had an ironclad guarantee of price and contract at any rate.
I came to a fansite to see if there was still support for the game. No offense, but marketing studies only show so much. We have all the paperwork done and in order, so we're not worried about them trying to say "Oh, well since people like it still, we'll charge you (insert $ figure here)". At the moment, we're nt sure what we're doing with the property yet. We may not do anything at all. At this point, I think the best thing to do would be to just do whatever we're going to do and announce it. While we're a small start up company, it doesn't mean we can't do as good a job as one of the big ones.
So far this thread is 7 pages long and still counting...whcih truly beggars belief since this thread is totally ridiculous.
As a corporate lawyer with an elite US firm, i can only say that if Brian is indeed telling the truth, the company he works for consists of a bunch of brain-dead amateurs. 100% of all acqusitions ae kept confidential until after they have been concluded in my experience. Or is Brian & Co. re-writing the business rulebook??!
I'm only posting to say that everyone who has posted in this thread (including myself and many others whose opinions i usually enjoy reading) should be ashamed of themselves.
Been a die hard gamer for 15 years now, the last 5 or so have been mostly online and nothing NOTHING will make or break a game like name recognition. In this case I would have to say it would break it. Keeping the name Morning would be a mistake. Even if you change NOTHING but the name that will still help you. You can say its under new management all you want, you can show people the dead mutilated corpses of all the devs who came before and it wont matter. The name has such a bad stigma attached to it now you would be shooting yourself in the foot to keep it.
http://world5.monstersgame.co.uk/?ac=vid&vid=59148058
Just so you know, it IS a done deal. Period, end of question. So don't feel ridiculous. I do not own the company I work for, I'm just pretty high on the food chain when it comes to responcibilites. The paperwork's been finalized, and everything's done. However, since I am no where near the owner at this time, it'll be a while before I have access to the paperwork myself. Anyways, I love how everyone is more concerned about legalities than the topic at hand. Why can't some of you stay on topic? If you can't stay on topic, please, flame me in private. It's much more civilized.
Because its a great philosophical question, but one has to question any companies intent on purchasing another when someone fails to provide actual proof, and calls themselves high on the food chain... call me a cynic.. Brian, I hope it is true, believe me, but...
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup,
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle,
You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can flow or it can crash!
Be water, my friend.
~Bruce Lee
As a private geneticist with a 1337 firm, i can only say im going to clone you in your sleep and have your twin sue you , mr. lawdog. we all know that the big shot lawyers dont envelop their life with their work they play mmoprg's all day and post b.s. on game forums.
anyway..to the point. i wish you guys the best of luck, and i believe what you say. why? becasue i read it and think it would be cool, and it wont hurt me emotionally , physically, or financially if you are lying.
It does sound like a fairy tale.... will it have a happy ending?
To not change the name is marketing suicide.
A change of name, either in part or in whole will be done. Which at this point isn't clear, but once I have more information, it'll be announced.
I posted your claim at M.o.u.r.n.i.n.g forum and egomancer replied
"The game is not for sale and will continue to be developed by us. I have no clue who this person is."
Now i can understand that you said egomancer is not willing to admit it or he simply dont know about it. Second possibility is that he is telling the truth and you are not. It is also possible that Egomancer is lying and you are telling the truth.
If you can give us a proof of your claim and prove egomancer is the liar then people can get pass the legitimate issue of your claim and give their opinion whether they are willing to give Mourning a second chance if new development company take over the game.
Now on the topic, lets just say i believe you for a second, i will give Mourning a second chance because i love the concepts and i like to see it happen. You need to work really hard to impress people if you choose to keep the name "Mourning" and Video trailer might not be enought.
Brian what I suggest you is to stop all those speculations.
Stop posting, til you closed the deal.
After that you can make an official statement about Mourning new owner, and start a new discussion.
You had our opinion, that generally says that we are ready to give Mourning another try if the new Company is more serious than the current one.
Keeping answering everyone attack it will drag you down the same route of the previous company, which is not very professional.
You need to learn not to reply to all attacks and not to take it too personal, you will get lots of criticism in the future and being too defensive, is not a good strategy, Egomancer and Co. tried that already and that s one of the reasons why they failed.
This post is becoming more like "shall we believe Brian or not?", which wasn't the purpose of this topic.
"I believe it when I see it"
There is not point in discussing it further, but for the moment I will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Good luck, and let us know about future developments