Bah, hardly a question… It’s one thing to ask “What happened?” to the new scenario that was in development years ago, anyone else notice that there aren’t even any new games available to sign up for??? No 1650 1 or 2 weekers, no 2950 games available. Some legacy 1000 that’s probably been filling since 2006, an untold war thing and a 1650 Gunboat. What’s going on?
Brad
A “Facebook” game…? Sell my soul to the devil, sign me up, sure, here are my children’s blood types, microchip them while you’re at it…but seriously, “Facebook” anything…??? Gads man, it might be time to pull the plug if you’re that far into the matrix… 
[ul]
[li]FB reaches MILLIONS of users, worldwide
[/li][li]Application (One Ring Game) usage spreads through viral marketing mechanisms, requiring no advertising.
[/li][li]Lots of people are on FB many times/ day.
[/li][li]Social Network Games are HUGE. Zynga is up to $100M annual revenue on their FB/MySpace games. Hive7 (company I work with) is profitable and rapidly growing based on ONE game. We’re releasing 4 games this next month and growth should explode.
[/li][li]If One Ring is successful FB game, it will give ME Games / GSI a lot of income with which to fund whatever gaming projects they decide to fund. I suspect that’s a very good thing. I’ve always been concerned that the profitability of running MEPBM was suspect.
[/li][li]Beyond gaming, FB is a great way to keep up-to-date with distant friends and family. I personally have reconnected with many HS buddies, and get up-to-date pics from my siblings’ families. It’s very cool for this.
[/li][/ul]
Brad: retract head from sand; stand up; look around; new is not necessarily bad.
MEPBM will not be a good FB game (IMO). It’s too intellectual and takes too much time for the social network media. I have no idea whether One Ring will be a good FB game or not, but I’m hopeful! I know nothing more about it than what’s on the website posted above. 
Dave
Not against new, but I must be getting old as I’m finding myself with a newfound respect for privacy and an exponentially increasing distrust of “them”. My head’s far from buried, for the paranoid conspiracy theorists like myself, YOU’RE the one with the naive trust of “them”… 
hang on - One Ring is an MEPBM product…? This is where that whole telephone gaming thing went…? I get it now, that was your rationalization for why Kin Strife has died, any programming updates have never happened, and why there aren’t even any normal games showing as taking in players? I can appreciate a new start-up from a small outfit with a limited budget, okay. But as one that’s been told many things over the years, I’d like someone to come out with a definitive commitment and then either keep it - or clean up on why they didn’t. Fair enough?
David and Brad: Yes, it looks ominous when you combine the known facts out there.
Consider this management matrix: Nine years ago Harley takes over the American game. What to do with it? Three possibilites immediately strike me, as a nongame former manager.
ONE: “Improve”/erode/change the Stassun/Feild game to meet someone’s vision of what it ‘should’ be.
TWO: Leave the Stassun/Feold game alone and construct a successor game on the game designers’ shoulders. A Kin Strife, or something similar.
THREE: Go ‘lateral’ with the francise—say on Facebook, or some other platform.
Harley chose option one. Doubtless this consumed an enormous percentage of the available resources, man hours and customer goodwill. It then started on option two, which seems to have expired. If the company had chosen option two initially, the successor game would have come out years ago. Harley is now working on option three—it had better work or, I suspect, there will be negative economic consequences.
I don’t think One Ring is an “MEPBM” product per se, but I haven’t seen it or played it. Clint is executive producer & lead game designer or some such big important title. I think there’s a separate corporate structure - at least there’s a new name for the company that is putting out One Ring.
However, the thing of biggest value that ME Games got from GSI was the Tolkein license. So it makes great sense to leverage that license to a huge audience. I don’t think it should hurt MEPBM…
And as Ed says, of course any new venture where lots of time & $$$ are invested needs to do well or there are negative economic consequences. that’s business…
Dave
actually I agree with you completely (except that I disagree that I have “naive trust”… LOL).
In FB, there are lots of controls on who can see what in your profile, etc. You can have different “strata” of friends, wich different strata seeing different things in your profile. I use that set of controls myself.
You don’t own anything on FB. Play with your dinky controls all you want, but once you upload it, it’s now “their” information, whomever those boogie men are for you or me. It’s not the other users that concern me…
My guess is financial reality struck home.
Very few hardcore “tabletop gamers left”
Its a “Twitch” world out there today in gaming
Even if MEPBM had been improved to suit everyone, we would still be at the same spot, simple numbers IMO.
Small niche markets really only proper when they are the vanguard of an undertaking. Society would rather have their gaming results instantly and be in the visual domain.
JMO though
I’ll let Clint & Co. reply properly but whilst The One Ring is an exciting initiative, it is totally seperate from MEGames and targetted at a different market. The Kinstife module is due to go into playtesting shortly.
Well, that’s kind of a shame then, Clint was playing with stuff that I was hoping had evolved. As for KinStrife going to playtesting - what colour’s the KoolAide in your canteen…?
OK I’m on a totally different forum that seems to have the same problem. “Biting the hand that feeds it”
I go with Ruggha - I hate face book etc. Although I could join to play the One Ring if it’s good.
What we have is a great board game with limited appeal. Whilst Harley can run it and pay wages I’m not complaining. I have worked in the PBM Market and know it isn’t for money that this is done. If Facebook allows me to play the game I want to then that’s fine by me.
Let’s not forget Harley is a business and they need to make bucks out of the Tolkien franchise. Good luck to them and be thankful for what we have.
Anything else, like a new scenario, is a bonus
All the best to Harley and gamers who play this game, whatever scenario
Cheers
John S
Good luck to Harley a
Sorry but I am from Missouri
The answer is that Kin Strife is still in development. Clint could probably give a more accurate status update than I can but as far as I know …
The coding is mostly done but the time consuming input of all the encounters is still to be completed as far as I know. Once those are done there will be a first proper playtest.
Gavin
Isn’t that the same message that was trotted out in 2005 or 2006 or 2007?
I am not angry about KS or feel like Harly owes me a new scenario. I can also understand that in business, more lucrative projects come first. However “I would be man enough” (for lack of a better phrase) to keep my exsisting customers informed with timely info and a bit of forthrightness, of course that is just me.
/shrug
As far as I recall, yes.
First of all please note that I do not work for ME Games and am helping out on this on a volonteer basis so I don’t have direct access to the exact status.
The answer is that it is not the same message given out in 2005 and 2007. The coding changes to the program were only started in Oct / Nov 2008 as far as I’m aware so there is no way it could have been the same message as then. I believe that the coding is finished now (last month Clint told me it was just about done).
The start-up spreadsheets are all just about done and Automagic has been updated to account for the differences in the scenario.
The only thing I am aware that is outstanding at present is the input of the 100+ encounters which require careful coding and is quite a time consuming process. Then we will be getting on with the first proper playtest.
In the meantime there has been an internal playtest (using the existing code and hand moderating changes for the scenario) with 4 players (2 neutrals and two playing each side). This playtest was to check for an initial balance of the positions.
I know it seems like a long time but game design, balance and coding is not a simple process that you can just push out the door in a month … and Clint and the guys have to run the day to day company as well.
Gavin
Gavin, I am certainly looking forward to the Kin Strife. View it as a win-win. If it is the acme of teamwork and British Fairplay, then it should slow down nine years of anxiety to ‘improve’ the Stassun/Feild game. Alternately, if creativity and imagination are shown, that will be good also.