Tanlaus wrote...
Bannor, I pretty much agree with your argument- very well stated by the way- but am absolutely puzzled by your use of quotation marks. ;-)
Hehe... no real way to "stress" a point in text. Could, theoretically, use pronunciation marks, and really butcher the words up that way I guess, but sadly, English punctuation/pronunciation, was always a weak point in my education.
Most of what I was stressing is the idea of a "team". They are few and far between and don't tend to last very long, especially with long term projects. In our environment here, it has been proven time and again, that teams don't last. Someone feels slighted in some way by not gaining all the recognition that they feel they deserve when they are included in the group/team congrats and glamour. The rest of the stressing is relagated to payment. Direct, cash, payment. Folks that hang around here are all involved with other things in real life. For them to devote the amount of time needed to be a successful "team" they have to have funding. Enough to pay their bills at least. Otherwise, they get lost in working overtime at their "real" job to pay those bills, and just don't have the energy or the time to accomplish much for a hobby game.
Some folks are really skilled at scripting, some at writing, some at building provided they have a toolset, others at creation of creatures, some more at creation of buildings/environments and still more that have skills with texturing those different things that others create. Few, have ALL of those skills at their disposal. Sure, they can dable at this and that, but are they truly all that skilled? So, it boils down to having the "team" work together for a common goal. Common idea, common storyline, and being willing to sacrifice some things that they thought they wanted/needed to see happen in the hopes that the final product will reach a point where it is actually playable, much less salable.
When you add in the stressors caused by the gnerally thankless community, it gets really bad. Sure, folks use the stuff, but they don't care about how much work went into getting it created, nor do they care WHO actually did that work. So, the artists get frustrated. Their "name/fame" is lost in the fray, and they move on to doing something else. When this happens more than once or twice to a "team" thrn the "team" dies, typically a lonely death too.
Hey, I am 100% behind anyone willing to payup and provide a living to me that wants me to help create a new game. Is that likely to happen? I don't think so. Definitely not around here. I work long hours, for little enough pay as it is. Spending 80 hours a week working on creating a new game would not be unreasonable expectation, provided that I wouldn't have to work 60 hours more, somewhere else just to be able to eat and pay the mortgage.
I have spent litterally thousands of hours of personal time creating for the NWN community. if I had been paid the lowly sum of $3 per hour, I might be able to pay the car payment and mortgage for a few months... beyond that? Well, prices keep rising, wages keep falling, and the taxes never cease.
Think about it... say you need 3-6 programmers, SKILLED folks. Good at getting things done. Those guys don't come cheap. But lets say you can convince them to join for the lowly salary of around 80K per year, for a 3 year contract. So, low end, $240k, high end $480k, just for your programmers... now add in 3-6 graphics artists.... they don't come cheap either, nor should they, but now we are talking close to $1million for a single year. We still don't have a writer (sotry writer) nor do we have builders, creators whatever you want to call the guy that lays out the areas the players will walk around in. Sure, maybe some of that can get done by the graphics artists, but truly, their skills are better used for creating the objects than laying them down in various configurations.... anyway, 2-4 builders... maybe they come cheaper... Say $40-60k, will pick the middle and go with $50k... that's another 100-200k per year.
I am positive that other employees are needed too, and that is LONG before you get to real quality assurance... (Which should be part of the budget from the start, never wait until the end, because by then, it is much too late).
Equipment? Would you be willing to turn your own personal computer over to some company so they can make a huge profit while all you get is a yearly salary? And, does that computer need to be upgraded to the latest and greatest prior to release of said game, say three years down the road? That's another $5k per seat at the start. (2 computers over 3 years both at top of the line when purchased) Yes, it could be purchased cheaper, but a business tends to have other expenses too, so just roll that in...
Advertising? Heh... just how much money are the current folks running for president spending already? And that is long before the final primaries... so, several million added there. Granted, advertising can wait until near the end, but it can't wait forever, as the investors want feedback that they have wisely invested in whatever game you are building.
Multi-national? Whelp, you need translators for that, and not some google webpage translation either, you need someone skilled in the different languages, that can translate the meaings of phrases into something that makes sense in the other language.
Add in a few lawyers.. necessary in this world unfortunately, and another couple hundred grand disappears, the higher the expected profit made from the game, the higher the legal fees will be as well.
So, now we are talking that you need what? 10-15 mill to get started? Then what, started on what? You don't have a story yet, you don't have a working game yet, you have nothing your builders can play with yet.
Creating a game is NOT cheap. Creating a good game, much less a great game, is even more epxnsive.
There are articles all over the web about how MMO's are making money, most are slowly moving to the pay per item type of thing... the game comes free, but the costume that EVERYONE wants to wear is $5 and the Sheild is another $2.50 etc.... So your investors have to wait until folks, real folks, start playing, and paying for that play before they even start to pay off the debt. It gets harder and harder to convince them that you have the brightest and shiniest sword in the inventory, and that folks want to own that sword... after all, there are dozens of competitors also offering a sword, maybe not the same shape, or color, or weight, but they offer one.
Now, get a "team" to commit to something like this. Especially in today's economy. Remember, they have to follow the leader... and the leader has to lead them. The team has to abide by whatever decisions were made by the "excutives" that created the company... the idea, the goal.
It CAN be done, and 10 years ago it WAS done by more than one company, but that just means that you have all the experienced competition already out there searching for that same $5 per costume payment.
Do it all for free? Nope, won't happen, sure, you get some folks that like to play around with a hobby, but those folks are not capable of creating a fully working game regardless of the tools given them. They need the rest of the "team" to accomplish it. That is the sadest part too... the ego's get in the way. Since folks are doing it for free, they feel they deserve the credit, and they do, for whatever work they accomplish, but no single person can create it all. Not by todays standards in gaming... and those standards rise every 3 months or so. Hardware requirements go up, costs go up, but typiclaly, the free cash that folks can spend on such doesn't go up nearly as fast.
