rowbet

Mzzery - I did refer specifically to your #169 post because my comment was not relevant to any of your other posts.

I agree that descriptors like "stupid" can be inflammatory, and are probably best avoided.

I still think that posts 165, 166, 167 and 169 were one person saying "I can understand why people don't like being 100-stam hit for PVP DQs", and three people saying "if you don't like the risk, then don't do the hitting", and the subsequent escalation was because no one recognised that these were two different issues.

Anyway, I was trying to encourage calmer discussion rather than looking to criticise anyone, and I'm not really here to be BP's advocate, so I'll keep quiet on the issue now.

Maybe more careful reading of the forum would help here (unless its me that needs to take my own advice, and the following is a complete misinterpretation).

As far as I can tell, BP was reporting that she lost a level as the subject (2nd P) of someone else doing *their* PVP DQ on her with a 100 stam hit.

LL, Cal and Mzz (post #169) seem to be reacting to the opposite scenario (BP doing the PVP for her own DQ, and then thinking she was complaining about being bountied for it).

It is hard enough to get a balanced, reasoned PVP forum thread as it is. Lets not add the problem of reacting to what people aren't saying.

Steve - I was thinking ring-fenced and not just general funds

HD: (i) I fully understand that the opportunity for such an initiative is long past in many people's (maybe even everyone's) minds. (ii) HCS did put a *lot* of time and effort into Eldevin during beta, and for perhaps a year afterwards. That is a long time ago now, but it did happen. My interpretation is that they hadn't understood just how much effort was required to make Eldevin fly, and just how much of a learning curve they had to go through: 3D projections for better camera angles, wasd movement, non-browser client, problems with different platforms... --- all things that HCS had to go back and re-engineer, and into which they did pour a lot of coding time.

While I would really like Eldevin to be developed much further, I think we have to be realistic, Steve. It is "business / common sense" for a company has to use its resources to ensure its future prospects. All businesses have finite resources, and they all have to take hard decisions about whether to spend them on existing projects or move them to take advantage of much more lucrative opportunities that might arise. These decisions are much starker for small companies than for large ones, as they just don't have any spare resource. Customer loyalty is one factor in these decisions, but to me, "business/common sense" says that being able to pay your employees is a much bigger factor.

Maybe the missing business opportunity in all this is the one often mooted in Legacy discussions: getting specific financial commitments from players to buy developments---a bit like an organ fund some churches run. Perhaps it is hard for HCS to estimate how much time/resource they would need (there is a history of things taking longer than expected), but they could at least float the idea to see how strong the player commitment is.

having said that, we would need to be realistic about what we could actually buy. I reckon it would take about 500-1000 players paying monthly supporters fees to support one person working full time on Eldevin.

So..... that was it? The annoucement, a lot of bye's and farwells, some angry people, some bullsh*t and it all over again. No response from HCS at all. Wow I have to try this with my students. I tell them they all failed the test, they will response, and I just keep silent! Cool, I will try this. Will keep you all informed.....

I don't think that is quite the right analogy. I'm trying to decide whether it should be

"I failed to set your test properly" and then keep quiet when they complain, 

or

"You students failed to turn up for class, so I'm not going to prepare a lesson tomorrow"