noamineo wrote on Dec 20^th, 2016 at 3:55pm:

Agreed. I never played it either, but they feel like kindred spirits. It would cost Turdbin little to release the server code, and it would help them by making people feel less skittish about spending money in one of their games when it's showing signs of weakness. Most people won't stock up on points if they think the game might be closing soon, but knowing Turdbin has released the server code for games they stopped supporting will make the end feel much further off. Not that points help when the server code is out, but the "gut feeling" has an influence beyond strict calculations. Turbine can use all of the good will they can get.

That's it, fish sticks, get your hopes up nice and high.

5 Foot Step wrote on Dec 20^th, 2016 at 3:52pm:


http://www.pcgamesn.com/ddo-lotro-indie-studio-standing-stone-games

January 31, 2017.

Severlin worked on it.  Doesn't that just boost the confidence level?

noamineo wrote on Dec 20^th, 2016 at 8:32pm:

I disagree. You don't have to release *running* source code, leave the calls to the proprietary libraries but don't include them. People who want to run it at home have the option of buying a license for the proprietary library or rewriting the source to use something else. In that respect it's much easier to release source, and it's more useful in the long run.

Now if you're talking about *selling* a home server product, then it does have to run and you do have to do the rewrite yourself, but I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about releasing the source and letting the community fix it up themselves. And that *is* as easy as dumping it on sourceforge, or better yet, github.

notajedi wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 7:22am:


From the above it seems your perception of mobile games is that mobile games = kids or mobile games = girls.  That grown men play consoles and/or PC games.

This is not accurate.  Game of War:Fire Age, for example, is largely dominated by adult males.  And females.  That mobile game prints money.  I played it for a while but quit because it is largely P2Win.  You can't achieve the highest level of city buildings or troops without spending mass cash.  And there were a shit ton of people doing that.

Pokemon Go, which is about as kiddie as it gets from a concept perspective, had a heavy adult contingent.  And female.  (Although I'd suspect it had a higher ratio of kids to adults than other games). 

Clash of Clans demographics state that 50% of the population is between 21-35.  And 23% in the over 35 demo.  Only 27% of their demo comes from under 20's.  Candy Crush as 40% in the 21-35 demo and 40% in the over 35 demo. 

I'm sure the GoT market is targeted at 16+ and there is a huge number of potential players in that market.  Several orders of magnitude larger than the potential target for a PC MMO.   

Asheras wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 11:06am:


Those mobile games are fricken money-faucets. I read an interview with a guy who'd spent $9,000 on Game of War over the course of a year. His guild leader was in it for over $75,000, its sickening.

But those games are quite literally P2W, as in you can just pay money to stomp all over people. Theguild leader was the best player BECAUSE HE'D SPENT $75k. After the first couple of weeks, if you aren't dropping $100 every 2-3 days, you're basically useless.

Frank wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 10:35am:

Turbine even managed to predict your special kind of stupid.  From their Transition FAQ posted 2 days ago: 

Quote:


You just keep on herpa derpin, don't you?  When are you going to stop pulling random, incorrect statements out of your ass?  You're the Tilo of factual statements.

Stay tuned. Big things on the horizon. Can't say much more than that but the past week has been both busy and exciting.

PS: see you in game novalis

noamineo wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 12:04pm:

No, it doesn't. You are allowed to show your calls to the library, you just can't include the library itself. If you figure out a way to make the case that showing the calls or declarations is infringing, Oracle would like a word with you 

noamineo wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 12:04pm:

LOL, somebody would buy Turdbin's code?! Selling code requires documentation, and a basic understanding of what you've got. Turdbin clearly has had neither for a very long time.

noamineo wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 12:04pm:

When you release a closed source product you have to worry about re-distributable licences, installers, platform requirements, etc. When you release source code, you have to go through the list of files and make sure you have no executables or linked libraries that came from somewhere else.

Unless you've gone through the utterly useless and extremely difficult task of taking purchased code out of the files the vendor gave you, which gains you absolutely nothing, there is no purchased code in your source. Only in your compiled code. Unless their server software is written in HTML and ASP.NET, running as an IIS web service (which would explain a lot of their performance issues, but would be incredibly stupid even by Turdbin standards) the purchased stuff is pre-compiled and you only link to it.

So in general it's far safer and easier to release source than compiled code.

If you know of a specific package for game servers that comes as source that you build your source into, I guess that could lead to what you're talking about, but that seems like quite a stretch. I've written software for distribution for 30 years now, purchasing countless libraries and tools along the way, and not one has been like that.

Do you know of one in the gaming industry? I'd certainly stop disagreeing with you on the point if you could show me a concrete example they might have used. And I'm talking about their server code, not the game engine, or their web site. I could see a web site they bought as a template and filled in, but that's not the server code. I don't want to call B.S., but I'm having an awfully hard time seeing how it could be so.

The only really important question any of this raises is:

When will/have they started working on a true DDO2?

I feel like I have to defend a bit--there are easily 3 of the remaining DDO devs that are worthy. A couple have returned to the game because of this deal.

Good luck to them, it is a stay of execution, but as a game dev I have to root for them. We have enough crap layoffs and stuff in this industry, seeing a few dudes dodge the bullets and save their projects is pretty awesome.

majmalphunktion wrote on Dec 21^st, 2016 at 9:01pm:


+1

Seeing Torc back on there is good shit.
Smaller companies are sources of innovation.
Here's to hoping for another big company buyout in 2 years when the indie steam runs out.