With access to the code, will you be able to do things like change
the map?
Along with that, would Harlequin then be in a position to buy rights
to other properties to use for similar games? Specifically, I've
thought the MEPBM "engine" would be GREAT for making a pbem version
of George R R Martin's "A Game of Thrones". I could see it working
for Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time", too.
Bob Hopp
(I tried to post this once already, so I apologize if it shows up
twice.)
With access to the code, will you be able to do things like change
the map?
Yes as long as it stays Tolkienesque.
"Could you "zoom in" on the BoFA area, making that area the size of
the full map, if there were enough players who were interested.
(That's just an example, I don't think that would be a good idea.)"
Yes - or focus on specific areas. But that would take a lot of coding to sort out so I doubt that we'd do that for a handful of players. Say it took 500 hours to develop that money would have to come back to us. So we'd work on bigger projects which the entire player base can use. BUT we might be able to create an engine where you can do exactly what you've proposed above.
Along with that, would Harlequin then be in a position to buy rights
to other properties to use for similar games?
Well ME Games Ltd would be and we've done that already for other game formats.
Specifically, I've thought the MEPBM "engine" would be GREAT for making a pbem version
of George R R Martin's "A Game of Thrones". I could see it working for Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time", too.
Yes but there's major legalistic and money questions here. We're a PBM firm and buying GSI is basically putting up a lot of our money and long term investment. There would be no spare money for anything else. Also development - who's going to do that? Ditto coding? Ditto Marketing - about once a month I get an email saying "I've got this great new idea for a game all you need to do is design, market, code, negotiate etc" Development time means no money time and PBM doesn't earn a lot as it is. Say 9 months to get a rough first draft game (probably double that) and then a year of testing and then you can start thinking about marketing and other forms of publicity.
Well you get the idea. Let's crawl before we can walk before we can run uh? I do LOVE enthusiastic players but on the other hand I am also very aware of our limits.
As a personal favourite I'd love to do a SciFi game - eg Dune. But that's hard to arrange. We've looked into it before and it costs a bomb. Creating another Fantasy game when we have the biggest Fantasy game on the market would not be as effective as other ventures for example. Hope the helps - although I don't want to damp anyones enthusiasm I do want to focus it in the best direction if at all possible.
Short answer: technically yes, logistically a lot harder.
Clint