The game didn't appeal to me personally, but it's a shame for Smeds. Honorable of him to give refunds though. A lot of other devs out there would've just vanished with the money.
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Already looked like it was heading that way and if their genuine in their refund offer then it's a case of stuff happens and then moving on without too much of a fuss. If not then get the popcorn ready.
I dunno, Kim Kardashian is pretty hot. I would miss her decorating the borders of many sites.
I specifically said if you take her looks and money and family coattails away - as we are talking about TALENT not looks/money. Kim is a perfect example of fame without talent.
I know, but that's what she has. There are plenty of people whose talent is their look. That's like saying if you take away Tom Brady's arm, he would be a bum.
The truth is, probably the majority of famous people are such because they are just gifted or circumstance, and through little to no fault of their own.
So one game doesn't get funded and the company decides to call it quits? Granted, that was the only game they had in the works, but still. So much for perseverance.
From PAX "most innovative" to nothing. Wow, that escalated quickly!!
But....but...it was the "game he always wanted to make"..?! That leaves me wondering what game he always wanted to make comes next...these guys always somehow appear back again somewhere down the road after a few years.
Always bad to see a game go down, but let's be realistic here... perhaps this product could have had a chance on the mobile market, but then most of these stupid kids with their mobiles aren't able to grasp a concept as deep as this game had it.
Maybe someone will buy the license for $1 and it's development continues with a skeleton crew of fans and part-time devs or such.
I think it is pretty pathetic when people praise the idea of others losing their jobs just because they had a vision that did not pan out. I feel bad for everyone who worked for the company and wish them the best. The game had some interesting ideas.
So one game doesn't get funded and the company decides to call it quits? Granted, that was the only game they had in the works, but still. So much for perseverance.
I dunno, Kim Kardashian is pretty hot. I would miss her decorating the borders of many sites.
I specifically said if you take her looks and money and family coattails away - as we are talking about TALENT not looks/money. Kim is a perfect example of fame without talent.
I know, but that's what she has. There are plenty of people whose talent is their look. That's like saying if you take away Tom Brady's arm, he would be a bum.
The truth is, probably the majority of famous people are such because they are just gifted or circumstance, and through little to no fault of their own.
It has nothing to do with talent, gift or circumstances. It is all about money.
You take an individual, you market that individual in various places generally used for crowd controlling (media). You promote that individual as someone who is to be admired, followed and emulated. Humans will do exactly that. You just collect the money made in this process. Dont be naive, these celebrities are deliberately manufactured to generate profit.
I will never understand how it is possible that this scheme works. Why does anyone buy those magazines covering stories about celebrities, why do people click on the news on the internet which say "Celebrity X has a new boyfriend, they went shopping together...", why do humans follow celebrities on social media, how is it even possible to brainwash humans so much that these celebrities cannot even walk on the street without being surrounded by crowds. Guess I owe this to my personality disorder.
A thought crossed my mind.. He could probably finance the game by himself I would guess. Being a higher up a company for so long surely he a few million stashed away by now. It wouldnt take that much to make a game like HS. Now all I am getting is that he wanted free money to make more money. If the game was his dream game then he should finance most of it himself.
So one game doesn't get funded and the company decides to call it quits? Granted, that was the only game they had in the works, but still. So much for perseverance.
Tough to develop games when you have no money
That didn't stop them from running multiple crowd-funding campaigns for Hero's Song.
I think it is pretty pathetic when people praise the idea of others losing their jobs just because they had a vision that did not pan out. I feel bad for everyone who worked for the company and wish them the best. The game had some interesting ideas.
He's a millionaire many times over. If Hero's Song was the "game he always wanted to make", then he could have just funded it himself. Instead he tried to piggy back on the kickstarter craze to make an isometric MMORPG that looked like it crawled out of the year 2001.
I don't feel bad for him at all, and if there's one person in the industry that I'd like to see permanently depart from it, then it's John Smedley. He went from brilliant innovator to wallet harpooning schemer during his time at SOE/Deybreak. The fact that such a huge name in the industry couldn't pull together the funds to make such a low rent piece of crap, while the guy who made Shadowbane and Wizard 101 was able to secure the funds, just goes to show how much he damaged his own reputation among gamers.
How the guy who made Planetside 1 turned into the guy that made Planetside 2 is beyond my comprehension. One was clearly made for fun and the other was clearly made to drain players piecemeal of their cash.
Hopefully this is the point where he'll make his exit and go work for some online poker palace or something to finish out his career.
The backlash against crowdfunding (via kickstarter or early access) is happening and its going to make using crowdfunding as a main tool for MMORPGs very difficult. While gaming is generally a good fit for crowd funding, MMORPGs are not.
Obviously part of this was the Smedley factor, but not all.
There are lots of crowdfunding projects that don't get off the ground. The message needs to get out to lots of people, JS will have helped here. It also needs a compelling story though - work done in advance - which needs money. chicken-and-egg.
Sad news but kudos to PixelMagic for commiting to refund all backers. Helping to ensure that future projects have a chance.
I think it is pretty pathetic when people praise the idea of others losing their jobs just because they had a vision that did not pan out. I feel bad for everyone who worked for the company and wish them the best. The game had some interesting ideas.
I don't. Anytime you take a job it's your responsibility to know what you're getting yourself into. If you choose to work in a field that's risky in terms of success (game development is one of them due to market saturation), you have to learn to deal with failures if the idea doesn't pan out.
If you cant handle the heat, go work in a more stable industry.
A thought crossed my mind.. He could probably finance the game by himself I would guess. <snip>
Entirely possible - at least a good chunk of it anyway.
However what he probably wouldn't want to do is fund the project and then see it sell very few copies. Making a huge loss. Which is fair enough imo.
By the same logic however the crowdfunding and EA were essentially marketing / pre-sales campaigns. And having failed (presumably) to attract "enough" interest they have pulled the plug.
RIP Smed's career as if he had one at this point anyway. The game would have had a better chance if they didn't use his name to promote it. That guy has done nothing but fail for the last decade. It should have been obvious with the multiple crowd funding campaign fails that this was going nowhere. The only thing positive is that they are supposedly giving full refunds. I'll give them some respect for that since I'm sure that is coming out of smed's pocket. I wonder if Star Citizen is going to do this? Don't hold your breath on that one guys.
First game of a new studio and they list permadeath as a main feature. Saw this failing from the word go. Such a small market want that type of game.
So it's not the fact that it lacked almost all of its promised features and that permadeath feature was in fact an easy obstacle to get past (I played the game) I think it is niche sure, it's a 2D game with a odd camera view and too many classes. It lacked a lot of things and saying permadeath was its downfall is short-sighted if you ask me. Especially since a lot of players, including me, aren't too fund of WoW-like mmorpgs where it's all about getting that lucky RNG loot every week by repeating the same dungeons over and over to get items everyone else has or will get and then repeating it in later expansions after discarding that said rare loot.
MMORPGS need more depth and a more vibrant economy. Having the ability to lose something is much more engaging than not because if you can't lose anything you aren't truly risking anything then where is the thrill and the excitement? I don't know maybe you're right but I still want games to break out of the usual wow clone mold and do something different for a change and just because this game failed doesn't mean games that have permadeath as their feature is somehow doomed to fail too. It isn't even like that was its downfall to begin with more so it has to do with their lack of core features.
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What if I told you, next time he will try to initiate "another game" which is supposedly a mini version of Hero's Song?
Smedception!
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
The truth is, probably the majority of famous people are such because they are just gifted or circumstance, and through little to no fault of their own.
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
But....but...it was the "game he always wanted to make"..?!
That leaves me wondering what game he always wanted to make comes next...these guys always somehow appear back again somewhere down the road after a few years.
Always bad to see a game go down, but let's be realistic here... perhaps this product could have had a chance on the mobile market, but then most of these stupid kids with their mobiles aren't able to grasp a concept as deep as this game had it.
Maybe someone will buy the license for $1 and it's development continues with a skeleton crew of fans and part-time devs or such.
This game had just as much potential as a blank piece of paper but didn't even touch what Ultima Online did back in 1997.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
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Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/I don't feel bad for him at all, and if there's one person in the industry that I'd like to see permanently depart from it, then it's John Smedley. He went from brilliant innovator to wallet harpooning schemer during his time at SOE/Deybreak. The fact that such a huge name in the industry couldn't pull together the funds to make such a low rent piece of crap, while the guy who made Shadowbane and Wizard 101 was able to secure the funds, just goes to show how much he damaged his own reputation among gamers.
How the guy who made Planetside 1 turned into the guy that made Planetside 2 is beyond my comprehension. One was clearly made for fun and the other was clearly made to drain players piecemeal of their cash.
Hopefully this is the point where he'll make his exit and go work for some online poker palace or something to finish out his career.
There are lots of crowdfunding projects that don't get off the ground. The message needs to get out to lots of people, JS will have helped here. It also needs a compelling story though - work done in advance - which needs money. chicken-and-egg.
Sad news but kudos to PixelMagic for commiting to refund all backers. Helping to ensure that future projects have a chance.
I don't. Anytime you take a job it's your responsibility to know what you're getting yourself into. If you choose to work in a field that's risky in terms of success (game development is one of them due to market saturation), you have to learn to deal with failures if the idea doesn't pan out.
If you cant handle the heat, go work in a more stable industry.
~~ postlarval ~~
However what he probably wouldn't want to do is fund the project and then see it sell very few copies. Making a huge loss. Which is fair enough imo.
By the same logic however the crowdfunding and EA were essentially marketing / pre-sales campaigns. And having failed (presumably) to attract "enough" interest they have pulled the plug.
So it's not the fact that it lacked almost all of its promised features and that permadeath feature was in fact an easy obstacle to get past (I played the game) I think it is niche sure, it's a 2D game with a odd camera view and too many classes. It lacked a lot of things and saying permadeath was its downfall is short-sighted if you ask me. Especially since a lot of players, including me, aren't too fund of WoW-like mmorpgs where it's all about getting that lucky RNG loot every week by repeating the same dungeons over and over to get items everyone else has or will get and then repeating it in later expansions after discarding that said rare loot.
MMORPGS need more depth and a more vibrant economy. Having the ability to lose something is much more engaging than not because if you can't lose anything you aren't truly risking anything then where is the thrill and the excitement? I don't know maybe you're right but I still want games to break out of the usual wow clone mold and do something different for a change and just because this game failed doesn't mean games that have permadeath as their feature is somehow doomed to fail too. It isn't even like that was its downfall to begin with more so it has to do with their lack of core features.