[MUD-Dev] Indie MMOG's

[Derek Licciardi]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> Derek Licciardi wrote:

>> I'm sorry I have to totally disagree with this.  Our single
>> biggest weakness is funding.

>> Properly funded I could complete a team that would erase any
>> doubt about the team's ability.  I, myself have over ten years of
>> MUD experience to draw from and my partner used to be very active
>> at the highest levels of volunteer support for EQ.

> No offence, but how much money have your text muds produced? How
> many profitable businesses have you run? I don't know what your
> text MUD experience is, but if it's as a player, well, who
> cares. If it's as a hobbyist, that's worth a little more, but it
> still doesn't show you know how to run a business.

> It sounds to me like your biggest hurdle to getting off the ground
> is money. But your biggest hurdle to getting money is convincing
> publishers you're not a wanna-be. We've found it difficult to
> raise the money we need to do a graphical MUD and we're second
> only to Simutronics in the text space. We've proven we know how to
> run an online games business over the last 7 years, proven we can
> generate significant profits from it, have obtained a somewhat
> high-profile license for the project, have a high-profile team of
> leads, and so on.

> 10 years ago it was fine to "just" be a text mud hobbyist and move
> into graphics. Worked for Raph (albeit it not as an entrepreneur),
> worked for McQuaid, and so on. Today I think a publisher would be
> insane to hire a hobbyist to lead a large-scale commercial
> project, much less fund a company whose principals have no actual
> experience on the commercial side. (Again, no offence is meant to
> anyone here.)

> It seems to me that you're complaining you can't get funding when
> you've actually done nothing to show that you can produce an ROI
> on that funding.

It's not a complaint at all.  I know where out weaknesses are and
there are things about our company that haven't been said on this
list like our track record in the business arena that proves we can
run and grow a company, etc., etc.  My point was really to
illustrate that money is and has been our biggest hurdle.  Why we
haven't been able to secure it is another matter entirely and
doesn't remove its relative importance to our plans.

If what I stated came off as complaining then that was not the
intention.  I was merely flatly stating our experience to date.
Nothing more; nothing less.  I was recanting the things we had been
told by various people in and outside of the industry.  Does that
hide the true problem underneath? Maybe but more than one company
has passed on a good idea only to have it bite them later.  So who
is right, the publisher with a low risk, conservative portfolio or
the entrepreneur that chases a dream until it comes to fruition?

Convincing publishers that we are not wanna-bees is getting a bit
easier.  After all, chasing funding and working towards the n-th
demo to impress a publisher does at the very least show commitment
and determination.  Besides with the way these games are being
cancelled we might be the only ones around when the pendulum begins
to swing the other way.  *chuckle* All other things considered your
point is well taken and we have always been well aware of the
difficulties of overcoming those very perceptions.

Derek
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