Court ruling returns Stargate Worlds MMO to Cheyenne Mountain

[CharlieMopps]

http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/2010/11/09/stargate_cheyenne-mountain-entertainment/

Not that anyone really cares but it's news I guess.

[eldaec]

Because it isn't worth clicking on the link and the OP doesn't tell you wtf...

 - The court have given the developers their shit back which some other fucks say they had a claim on - the devs are in bankruptcy protection.
 - MGM has pulled the Stargate license.
 - Some idiot developer who apparently runs the show compared his situation to Tony Stark in Iron Man, because that is what grown ups do when a company is at steak.

[Chimpy]

 - Some idiot developer who apparently runs the show compared his situation to Tony Stark in Iron Man, because that is what grown ups do when a company is at steak.

Do you get a baked potato and texas toast with a company in that state?

[rattran]

http://wiki.onlinegamers.org/index.php?title=A_COMPANY_IS_AT_STEAK

History.

[Shatter]

Dont give a shit anymore about this title but what I would like to know was just how close to launch it was.  6 months?  1 year? 

[raydeen]

Dont give a shit anymore about this title but what I would like to know was just how close to launch it was.  6 months?  1 year? 

I recall some sort of contest sponsored by SciFi (Or maybe they were SyFy at that point) where the winner would have his likeness reproduced in the game. Seemed like it wasn't too far off at that point. I think it was back when Atlantis was still on. I don't think SG:U had premiered yet.

[IainC]

Dont give a shit anymore about this title but what I would like to know was just how close to launch it was.  6 months?  1 year? 

One of the guys at work is ex CME, he says there was no way it was going to launch in any reasonable timeframe.

[bhodi]

Didn't Jerrith work for CME?

[eldaec]

What the fuck is texas toast?

[Soln]

toast is more interesting than CME at this point.  Frankly, if they could launch toast from the back of a truck there, people would be impressed.

[SnakeCharmer]

Dont give a shit anymore about this title but what I would like to know was just how close to launch it was.  6 months?  1 year? 

Sometime between now and never with emphasis on never.  The beta...or rather, friends and family alpha that had 18,000 people in it...was absolutely HORRIBLE. 

[UnSub]

MGM pulling the license is pretty much the game. I expect a new announcement that someone else has picked it up because MMO studios are desperate for IP and MGM will appreciate the licensing money.

[Shatter]

Would it really be a bad investment for a company to pick this up, relicense(doubt thats a word but hey) and finish it?  We always see number like 100 mil for an MMO to be developed so if this one is already 3/4 done and you can pick it up cheap...dunno.  I guess I am looking at this heavily for the IP value.

[Jerrith]

Didn't Jerrith work for CME?

Yes, I did. :)

It was about six months before the planned launch when the financial troubles hit, and when they did, it really brought development to a crawl.  Morale is huge, and being behind on paychecks really killed it.  Could it have launched in six months?  Yes.  More time would have, of course, helped.  I can't imagine the game being restarted now, and with bringing a whole new team up to speed, I'd imagine it would take at least a year (with a fully hired new staff), if not more to finish it.  The problem with that is, I think the game would look too dated, by the time they got it out...

I personally played some at home (limited access beta server available all the time to employees) and had gotten an SGC side character up to level 18 or so.  Basically, through the tutorial world (SGC), the first Dakara world, Omega site (SGC town world), and most of Beta site.  Had access to the next two worlds, though as I recall, those were where things started to get buggy.  Up until there, the whole thing was playable as a normal character, no cheat commands, etc...  You could earn money (Naquadah) buy upgrades in stores, etc, etc.  Really, everything you'd expect from an MMO up to that point.

In terms of performance issues, during the 1 hour public tests, yes, there were some big ones.  For what it's worth, we'd tracked them down, and the very last public 1 hour test went very smoothly.  Many people had (and I don't blame them) given up before this point - it was very frustrating / almost impossible to play when the problems were there.

There were four starting areas, each of which consisted of a personal tutorial instance, followed by a shared newbie area.  Of the four starting areas, the evil human / Jaffa area (Castle) was probably the best, followed by the good human / Jaffa area (SGC/Dakara).  The Asgard area (Ship above Pertho / Pertho Genetics Lab, and Pertho) was playable, and interesting, though a bit long, with some large dead spaces to walk through.  The Goa'uld one (Egypt, in the past) was the least complete the instance was playable (at least at one point) but I don't think the shared area was fully populated with content / quests, to let you get to Harset (evil town). 

It's been about a year and 8 months since I left CME.  I've totally given up on ever seeing the game recover and ship (I mostly had when I left).  It's a shame, since a bunch of people did some good work, but for this title, things just didn't work out.

[UnSub]

Would it really be a bad investment for a company to pick this up, relicense(doubt thats a word but hey) and finish it?  We always see number like 100 mil for an MMO to be developed so if this one is already 3/4 done and you can pick it up cheap...dunno.  I guess I am looking at this heavily for the IP value.

One issue could be who actually owns all the current work - CME seems to be a legal nightmare, with apparent spin-offs possibly looting the corpse (or taking what is rightfully theirs, pick your side). Plus MGM has grabbed back the license, so either you'd have to approach them, or invest in altering the art and content enough to launch your completely original IP, SpaceGate.

Plus MGM has filed for bankruptcy. Someone else may end up with the Stargate license in a fire sale.

[Paelos]

Not shocking that MGM went belly up. The best movie they did in 2010 was Hot Tub Time Machine, in 2009 it was FAME. 

[AutomaticZen]

Would it really be a bad investment for a company to pick this up, relicense(doubt thats a word but hey) and finish it?  We always see number like 100 mil for an MMO to be developed so if this one is already 3/4 done and you can pick it up cheap...dunno.  I guess I am looking at this heavily for the IP value.

One issue could be who actually owns all the current work - CME seems to be a legal nightmare, with apparent spin-offs possibly looting the corpse (or taking what is rightfully theirs, pick your side). Plus MGM has grabbed back the license, so either you'd have to approach them, or invest in altering the art and content enough to launch your completely original IP, SpaceGate.

Plus MGM has filed for bankruptcy. Someone else may end up with the Stargate license in a fire sale.

Think Syfy would buy it out?

[UnSub]

I've got no idea what position SyFy is in. They may do what they can to maintain access to the existing series, but buying the entire IP for future series development is another thing entirely.

[Sir T]

Depends on how the spin offs did. Since I think ots fair to say that they haven't exactly set the world on fire, I don't thing anyone is really going to be pushing for production rights.

[Sheepherder]

Which means it will be cheap.  Like the Conan IP probably was.

[Trouble]

Derp

[Sheepherder]

Obvious troll is obvious.

[Mrbloodworth]

I allays liked the magnetic boots as your first reward.

[NiX]

Oooook, General Discussion with the lot of you.

[rattran]

Better, to the Den with grilled bread product discussion. Get back to bashing the fetid corpse of CME, as per usual.

[Paelos]

Better, to the Den with grilled bread product discussion. Get back to bashing the fetid corpse of CME, as per usual.

Zero fun! 

[eldaec]

Better, to the Den with grilled bread product discussion. Get back to bashing the fetid corpse of CME, as per usual.

This thread was a far better CME commentary before it was censored.

Incidentally, you could at least move the 'civilised peoples school Americans on bread products while simultaneously providing insightful subtext regarding the notability of Stargate Worlds within the mmorpg community' discussion to serious business.

[rattran]

I could, but cleaning out completely non-related toast/breakfast discussions from a thread in MMOG Discussion is not something I enjoy. So to the den it goes. You want to argue breakfast? Start a thread in serious business.
And cleaning up a thread is hardly censorship.

[Paelos]

I could, but cleaning out completely non-related toast/breakfast discussions from a thread in MMOG Discussion is not something I enjoy. So to the den it goes. You want to argue breakfast? Start a thread in serious business.
And cleaning up a thread is hardly censorship.

Frankly I was wondering how far it would go. Two pages was surprising.

[eldaec]

completely non-related

You clearly missed the insightful subtext.

Those posts you dismiss so easily, they just weren't for you.

[Sheepherder]

And cleaning up a thread is hardly censorship.

That's what Hitler said about the Warsaw ghetto.

I'm thinking someone is going to buy this IP for a pittance and just finish the task of plowing it into the ground, because at this point you have to be stupid to invest in competing with Blizzard, and there are many up to the task.

[jayfyve]

Since Trion is cuddle friends with SyFy they should grab it. I'd really like to play in this world.

[UnSub]

Stargate Resistance to close its FPS servers in January.

Guess it wasn't under "a separate licence" at all.

Oh, and for something CME but not Stargate: the internal demo videos for CME's Deadlands MMO. The 2008 one is just ugly. The 2009 ones are slightly better.