Schilling's Green Monster Games

[gehrig38]

Understand this, and I apologize for not having it stated there or anywhere, but it will be soon. The sample newsletter you generate on the site IS NOT the actual newsletter you would get. That one is much more personal and tailored to you. The newsletter the site generates is a generic one for your class and level only, a way to show you what it 'could' look like. The one you receive is far more personal and detailed to you.

P.S. One more thing. Up to 69 the newsletter is a 'step ahead' of you. The letter informs you of what's coming skill/spell wise in addition to what you have just gotten. As well as telling you of the level appropriate instances/BGs and TS stuff.

[cevik]

For the record, I just went back and did a lower level character and the newsletter was way more helpful! :)

[Cheddar]

Buy Neocron and relaunch it.   Shit.

[Count Nerfedalot]

Wow, Blizzard should pay you to run that service.  It almost tricked me into resubscribing!   

So when is it coming out for EQ2?

[schild]

So when is it coming out for EQ2?

lol

[Draegan]

I have a friend that still plays EQ2, I try to make fun of him at least once a day.

[Venkman]

That's a cool idea, but I can see what there were some challenges developing a revenue stream. It competes against analogous services Blizz would therefore be compelled to support as well and/or allow revenue to be generate through. Slippery slope. Having said that, they should buy it FROM you and push it into the game. They have zip for actual tangible advice to players after the first round of "here's how you move" "here's how you fight" stuff. Everything else is basically extra-game.

[gehrig38]

As time goes by I think the reasons behind not selling it, or the proprietary tech behind it, will become apparent.

[Bzalthek]

[Tale]

I have a friend that still plays EQ2, I try to make fun of him at least once a day.

I don't play it, but the EQ2 community isn't such a joke. In the last 12 months, all the oldschool "played everything" EQ1 players I know from 1999-2002 have taken their MMORPG addictions to the EQ2 raiding game - even the ones who never liked EQ2 before.

[Draegan]

I have a friend that still plays EQ2, I try to make fun of him at least once a day.

I don't play it, but the EQ2 community isn't such a joke. In the last 12 months, all the oldschool "played everything" EQ1 players I know from 1999-2002 have taken their MMORPG addictions to the EQ2 raiding game - even the ones who never liked EQ2 before.

I'm not commenting on the community, but the game.  I never liked EQ2 but I enjoy busting his balls because he does.  Granted his fist MMORPG was L2 and he loved that game.  I ridicule him for that as well.

[Drugstore Space Cowboy]

R.A. Salvatore has a new book out,

[Yegolev]

Since we are making dumb posts, if Kurt ends up working for the Braves, he can PM me for a free lunch.

[WayAbvPar]

Instead of handing out free lunches to millionaires, you need to get Caffeine Free Cherry Coke Zero on the market! I will buy a case a month easily.

[Lantyssa]

Instead of handing out free lunches to millionaires, you need to get Caffeine Free Cherry Coke Zero on the market! I will buy a case a month easily.

Good luck with that.  I can't even get him to put Lime Coke back on the market.

[gehrig38]

In case anyone was interested, we relaunched http://www.azerothadvisor.com/ the Azeroth Advisor this past week, with WotLK being launched. The new content is all Wrath relevant, regardless of class (even the Death Knight!), race, content, all of it! There is a ton of new content and I'd be interested to hear from 70s how the new stuff looks.

[buttons]

In case anyone was interested, we relaunched http://www.azerothadvisor.com/ the Azeroth Advisor this past week, with WotLK being launched. The new content is all Wrath relevant, regardless of class (even the Death Knight!), race, content, all of it! There is a ton of new content and I'd be interested to hear from 70s how the new stuff looks.

Is the idea of competition lost on you? Are you really paying your employees to enrich yours and other peoples WoW experience when you're going to be pimping your own title soon?

Does this not strike you as the sort of thing the insane would do on a sunny afternoon?

[gehrig38]

Ya that whole competition thing is something I just don't get....

I'm paying my employees to continue working on software that will be a small but vital component to Copernicus and the community of fans we'll be servicing.

Enriching ANY companies customer experience is ok by us. As long as we are benefiting in some fashion from the experience of doing it, it's all good. We are continuing to perfect the tech and the product that is the Azeroth Advisor. WoW players are MMO players, MMO players = good, more MMO players = great!

If these players check out Copernicus, and leave, it's on us, but before that any chance we can instill confidence in MMO players as a company, or otherwise, we'll take advantage of.

[buttons]

I'm paying my employees to continue working on software that will be a small but vital component to Copernicus and the community of fans we'll be servicing.

You're data-mining playstyles. We get that.

Enriching ANY companies customer experience is ok by us. As long as we are benefiting in some fashion from the experience of doing it, it's all good. We are continuing to perfect the tech and the product that is the Azeroth Advisor. WoW players are MMO players, MMO players = good, more MMO players = great!

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty confident that isn't a business plan.

The thought process here went something along the lines of "The more WoW players use the Azeroth Advisor, the more we'll know how they play, when they play and what they play in the game, as well as how many people play any given way. We can then cater to a large subsection of WoW players hopefully creating a profitable game. That's great in theory but the whole thing smells like this:

1. Datamine WoW
2. ?? ??
3. Profit

[schild]

Three question marks makes an emote, jackass.

[gehrig38]

I'm paying my employees to continue working on software that will be a small but vital component to Copernicus and the community of fans we'll be servicing.

You're data-mining playstyles. We get that.

No we aren't. We are providing what we hope to be an experience enhancing community service tool, period.

Enriching ANY companies customer experience is ok by us. As long as we are benefiting in some fashion from the experience of doing it, it's all good. We are continuing to perfect the tech and the product that is the Azeroth Advisor. WoW players are MMO players, MMO players = good, more MMO players = great!

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty confident that isn't a business plan.

The thought process here went something along the lines of "The more WoW players use the Azeroth Advisor, the more we'll know how they play, when they play and what they play in the game, as well as how many people play any given way. We can then cater to a large subsection of WoW players hopefully creating a profitable game. That's great in theory but the whole thing smells like this:

1. Datamine WoW
2. ?? ??
3. Profit

1) Wrong
2) ?
3) It's a free service, so wrong again.

Not sure what your point is, or if you have one other than to say no thanks, which is cool, but it's ok if you just say that instead of circumventing your real point with arguments that assume you understand or know the intent of what we're doing.

[schild]

Curt, when can we stop referring to the game by that ridiculous code-name btw? It seems, I don't know, silly to even refer to it in public at all if you have to tie something else to it. You're making an MMOG, you hired veterans from the industry and other industries, wouldn't it be best to just shock and awe out of nowhere rather than this slow Mark-Jacobs-like burn? I can understand pimping the Advisor, but well, I don't know. I'm still kinda miffed that you make rounds on forums but have revealed Exactly Nothing.

May I ask though, self-publishing or going to look outside the company for that?

[gehrig38]

I think we'd be making a big mistake self publishing, given the huge bite we took in even going the MMO route. Way too much risk in both of those on their own, much less together.

It's Copernicus until I get the ok to say it isn't, sorry. I'd have spilled the beans a LOOOOOONG time ago if it were up to me, but it's not, sort of. Too much too soon = bad things when you try to meet unrealistic expectations.

I get that not much has come out, as a player first and foremost ya that isn't the coolest thing, but I am now on the other side of the coin and understand many reasons I didn't before.

The forum thing, well I've always done that. The thing is lots of people now know where to go to read about us when they have an interest in doing so. In the meantime I enjoy talking about MMO's, the business, game ideas and a lot of other things. It's helped me get a feel for the community in many ways I wouldn't have, and I hope given at least a small amount of insight into me, the company and our vision going forward.

[trias_e]

I think this is quite interesting and unexpected.  I like the way you guys are thinking.  Direct competition with WoW and simply ignoring that it exists isn't a good idea.  Hopefully this means you've been paying good attention to the recent failures as well. 

Where's that ass licking emote when you need it.

[Trippy]

I'm paying my employees to continue working on software that will be a small but vital component to Copernicus and the community of fans we'll be servicing.

You're data-mining playstyles. We get that.

Enriching ANY companies customer experience is ok by us. As long as we are benefiting in some fashion from the experience of doing it, it's all good. We are continuing to perfect the tech and the product that is the Azeroth Advisor. WoW players are MMO players, MMO players = good, more MMO players = great!

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty confident that isn't a business plan.

The thought process here went something along the lines of "The more WoW players use the Azeroth Advisor, the more we'll know how they play, when they play and what they play in the game, as well as how many people play any given way. We can then cater to a large subsection of WoW players hopefully creating a profitable game. That's great in theory but the whole thing smells like this:

1. Datamine WoW
2. ?? ??
3. Profit

Umm...you are an idiot. The techology they are developing for Azeroth Advisor is going to be used for their game when it's ready.

[Signe]

Not a 70 but I signed up anyway because I like this whole thing for some reason. 

Now I shiver with antici................pation.  See?

[trias_e]

Umm...you are an idiot. The techology they are developing for Azeroth Advisor is going to be used for their game when it's ready.

Not to mention, if people actually start using the thing, 6 months from now they can throw banner ads and announcements for their game all over the page.

[schild]

Umm...you are an idiot. The techology they are developing for Azeroth Advisor is going to be used for their game when it's ready.

Not to mention, if people actually start using the thing, 6 months from now they can throw banner ads and announcements for their game all over the page.

I'm sure Blizzard will eat their lunch if they attempt to turn a mod into an advertisement. Surely there's some sort of rule against that when developing mods for WoW.

[trias_e]

This isn't a mod from what I can tell.  It does data-mine WoW characters, so perhaps that alone is enough to allow Blizzard legal recourse.  I have no idea.

It seems to me that if Blizzard had that right, they would likely also have the right to shut them down simply for building the site under the name and copyright of 38 studios.

[gehrig38]

Then I would think it's safe to assume that they not only know about it, but are ok with it right?

[trias_e]

Heh, fair enough.  Regardless of any other advertising, getting your company name out there via a tool that players of the competitor will hopefully use, alongside developing for your own game at the same time seems like a pretty good deal. 

[UnsGub]

getting your company name out there via a tool that players of the competitor will hopefully use,

Fair to assume they are a competitor?  Blizzard will not only publish one MMO.

[Lantyssa]

Maybe Blizzard won't care as long as they're providing a benefit to the MMO community and not going around reverse engineering their code or running gold farmers.

It's not something I'll use, but good for Curt and company for trying something a little different which will hopefully benefit their own game and maybe others.  Heck, even if it only benefits WoW players, good for them.  (I say this as a former SWG Creatures admin, who got nothing but a cute little Rancor statue for my efforts.)

[UnsGub]

for trying something a little different  

Unsure if it is different, it is content for the consumer.  Strategy guide books companies are the ones facing competition as the content maker can now just do it themselves.  Rather than a custom client, Wow .exe in this case, it is just an email client.

Content goes to where the eyeballs are be that TV, email, browser, handhelds, computers, etc.  Content tied to specific software and hardware is the past and not the future.  The profit margins on content are bigger than on the tools to build and consume the content in the end.

[Lantyssa]

The method and customization is different, even if the delivered content is not.  Sometimes a market is about how things are presented and not so much what, if all else is equal.