Arkat wrote on Feb 26^th, 2014 at 1:33pm:

Thanks. 

You gotta fish a lot of lines if you want to catch anything.  Costs me nothing to post here, and if there's someone who reads it and talks to us and they're down with coming on for what we're trying to accomplish, everyone involved is a winner.

People forget there's more than one way to make money in this world by answering a newspaper want ad, or waking up and slaving away for someone else every day, or just bitching about how shitty their life is.

But, I still love the bitching on here, may it never stop.  Even if one day I'm part of a group that owns DDO.  I'll still sign on here and tell everyone to fuck off personally. 

Munkenmo wrote on Feb 26^th, 2014 at 1:56pm:


Entirely true.  The best projects are those funded by other people.

The people at the top of this thing have heli-ski money, but I'm sure they have boats to.

rest wrote on Feb 26^th, 2014 at 1:31pm:


You can't stop me motherfucker cause I'm on a boat!

varz wrote on Feb 26^th, 2014 at 8:04pm:


Thanks

This used to happen to me all the time as a waiter - people with 'business ideas' would constantly try to recruit me. Initially, when I was naive, I'd meet these people for coffee, see what they had to say. It soon became clear they were hacks wasting my time - and theirs.

Anyone who has a compelling idea and some business savvy isn't going to shotgun some website hoping to find the perfect business partner. That's what hacks do - people who haven't got the foggiest what they're doing or want to take advantage of others.

Business savvy people know where to look, know what they're looking for and hold targeted interviews with carefully vetted people.

So...let's pretend you're not a hack and I've got the skills you're looking for. Why should I give you my years of hard earned experience for your promise of potential money when I can contract with real businesses earning real money on exciting and new ideas that are, even now, transforming the computing and entertainment landscape?

Some of you guys really are a bunch of juvenile asshats.
The OP's request was pretty clear and simple.
Why does it require a flame?  So you can be funny and get in some cheap shots?

Maybe you should feel slightly validated that they are seeking non-conformists, rather than straight down the line gamers.

The OP's motivation are not all that relevant unless you are seriously interested and qualified, but they have taken the opportunity to explain.
So what's the problem.  If you think they are trolling, ignore it and move on.
Someone considering taking over the DDO licence - so what?
Is it possible - sure for the right price.
Is it likely - possibly not, lots of issues, depends how determined you are.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a change of ownership/mgmt as I think Turbine as a whole have done a poor job of managing the IP.  I'm not talking about devs, content or in-game minutiae, but the strategic decisions of the game.

To my mind, turning DDO around is definitely possible - even given the aging game engine.  Some of the latest content (Stormhorns) is visually impressive.  But eye candy doesn't retain players - play experience does.

What would it take:
I think it would take someone who understands Customer Service.  Turbine suck at this, and it is such an idiotic and low cost thing to remedy in an MMO, and would help with player retention.  Better GM's, more authority to fix problems, professional bug reporting, and make someone's KPI in CS be number of complaints resolved, rather than complaints closed!  Happy players means less players leaving which is a good thing.

It would take a concerted effort to remove as many serious game play bugs as possible, and tweak the balance of things based on informed player feedback (so you end up with game diversity and not just parties of friggin monkchers).  So improve the game experience of those playing - lots of people express their annoyance at game breaking bugs that are largely ignored.

Lastly, you would actively advertise your product to key demographics.  And make the stuff you do publish actually look professional, not like someone's kids low-res junior school project.  Essential to bring in new players and revenue.  DnD has a large and loyal player base across several generations - it should be targeted.

None of these are hard or particularly unique, and once these are bedded down, work on the tier 2 issues of new content etc.

So someone with a fresh set of eyes and a checkbook could easily eek some more years out of DDO - maybe even fund a DDO2 with updated and more development friendly game engine.  Who knows - none of us can see the DDO P&L, so it's hard to say how financially lucrative it could be.

Good luck to the OP.  Hope it works out and you do it right.

Hiding wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 1:10am:


You get any offers to work in the porn industry?

NaturalHazard wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 2:19am:


Other than your mom?

(your comment is funny, Naturalhazard)

DropBear wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 2:25am:



hahaha, I live in Tokyo and know quite a few headhunters. They don't use online forums to recruit people for top jobs.

Not a risk taker, huh? I work in an extremely competitive sector where 90% of the people fail.  The thing is - and the reason people are mocking the OP - is b/c we've all seen this before and it rarely turns out to be the rough, uncut gem its purporting to be.

But, yeah, send him your contact info and see what happens. I wish you both success, tons of money, and hope you own whatever IP it is you're setting off to.  If that turns out to be DDO or Turbine, I hope you turn it into the best game on the market.

NaturalHazard wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 4:10am:


At first I didn't understand why your dad was in the film too.

Hiding wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 1:10am:

Never been a waiter, so I don't understand how this happens, outside of what, LA?  Also have never recruited a waiter for anything.

I never said anyone had to give me anything beyond a background, and that's just to keep them from wasting their time?  Where do you get that you're going to be anally probed for information?  I wish I had the power to just rip people's knowledge out of them unawares, then I would be a true mindflayer.

I actually don't know who watches the Vault, any more than I know the exact makeup who watches the Mother Forums.  I'll give you an example from a local music forum that eventually turned into a local city forum.  Virtually no politician in a city of 2m+ people posts on it, but you better believe they're staff reads it, and they'll respond in reality to things that blow up on it.

You don't have to trust anything I say.  But, if you have to pay silos of employees to do your vetting for you, I feel for you.  Some of us can vett people without a need for HR employees.  We can sort business deals in our mind because we know how business works.  I appreciate the self-validation that the corporate pyramid brings for its denziens, but some of us get along just fine with minimal interaction with it.  Mind you, organization never stopped any place from being its own den of corruption and thieves.

DropBear wrote on Feb 27^th, 2014 at 2:14am:



It sounded like the following to me, and thusly received a post commensurate with the offer.