(Shocking) News!!!!!

[NullAshton]

Small boxes are cooler.

[DarkAnt]

Ok, I'm going to be harsh here and I hope you read this Aaron. I may not be an expert on the industry, but as an avid gamer who's been playing games since I was two and a half, I'd like to think I know something about games. Aaron, Star Fury did not have industry competitive graphics and neither will Space Empires 5. You don't have the money to do it. Nowadays if you don't have huge amounts of advertising and awesome graphics your game will always be a niche game. I'm sorry, but that�s just the way it is. The average gamer is going to conclude that this is a stupid spread sheet game when he can't figure it out in the first five minutes. He's going to tell his friends what a bad game and all of this will land Space Empires 5 into the bargain bin and beyond in no time. You�re going to have to deal with hackers, script kiddies and just generally malicious people who's goal is to just hurt Space Empires 5. Aaron, if you're reading this I'd like to say what joy the space empires series has brought me and as a loyal fan, I feel I owe you my thoughts when I think you are making a big mistake. You got greedy, plain and simple. Stick with shrapnel, the real world is too harsh for good games with less than fantastic graphics. I hope for your personal success as you have shown me and the rest of Malfador's fan base nothing but respect.

[Combat Wombat]

I also posted my 2 cents as a respone directly to the blog post.

[Phoenix-D]

My last couple of comments were in the "if you can't say anything nice" vein.

My actual reaction is a gut "Oh [censored]" feeling. SE5 was a instant order before this; now I don't now. I know Shrapnel doesn't screw with their games to make them more mass-market; I DON'T know that about Strategy First, and I'm worried about that.

It almost invariably hurts the game and it almost never actually works.

Best of luck Aaron, and while I don't know the circumstances involved this feels like a mistake.

[Baron Munchausen]

DarkAnt said:
Ok, I'm going to be harsh here and I hope you read this Aaron. I may not be an expert on the industry, but as an avid gamer who's been playing games since I was two and a half, I'd like to think I know something about games. Aaron, Star Fury did not have industry competitive graphics and neither will Space Empires 5. You don't have the money to do it. Nowadays if you don't have huge amounts of advertising and awesome graphics your game will always be a niche game. I'm sorry, but that�s just the way it is. The average gamer is going to conclude that this is a stupid spread sheet game when he can't figure it out in the first five minutes. He's going to tell his friends what a bad game and all of this will land Space Empires 5 into the bargain bin and beyond in no time. You�re going to have to deal with hackers, script kiddies and just generally malicious people who's goal is to just hurt Space Empires 5. Aaron, if you're reading this I'd like to say what joy the space empires series has brought me and as a loyal fan, I feel I owe you my thoughts when I think you are making a big mistake. You got greedy, plain and simple. Stick with shrapnel, the real world is too harsh for good games with less than fantastic graphics. I hope for your personal success as you have shown me and the rest of Malfador's fan base nothing but respect.

Remember how many times we have seen people complaining on the forums here about not being able to get SE IV in Europe or Australia or something? And then complaining about the awful shipping charges even if they could find a way to get it shipped to them? Wanna take a guess at how many more times people probably emailed him directly instead of posting in the forums? Probably a lot. And he has already had to deal with 'hackers and script kiddiez' for some time. Richard has already posted here in the past that they were estimating 10 copies of SE IV were pirated for every one bought. Maybe MM has judged that getting a major distribution channel is a better way to go so people who want his game can get it without having to resort to piracy.

I am also afraid of what the pressure of a 'marketting department' might do to the game, but I can see how he would want to get his product to as many people as possible and try to make money. But I suspect that even if it does relatively 'well' he won't make much due to the lopsided deals that these big-time software distributors make with the developers. It's very similar to recording contracts. The corporation soaks up all the money with protests of needing to cover 'expenses' and the artists can even end up owing the corporation money.

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmm Shrapnel has overseas sales sites for Dominions so I figure they would for SEV if it was here.

Folks.. Keep in mind that the same number of sales of SEV as SEIV had will give give Aaron the same money that SEIV did. With the shelfware+advertising model there is a substantial outlay of money from the publisher which gets paid back with interest before the developer starts getting any checks.

Definetly send the whiners to their forums. Have you seen them? The internal ones are the same software as this and not nearly as well setup. Its no wonder that most of their titles do their own boards off of different free sites. And many of them have some pretty extreme rules.

[Joachim]

Hmmmm,

Disapointing for Shrapnel, it must really irritate you when you work so hard with someone and they get up and go. I hope there are not too many hard feelings so that he can come back for SEVI.

What does this mean for the race to SEV tourney? What about the Beta slots and SEV copies?

[thorfrog]

Hey have any of you ever heard of Galactic Civilizations? That is thru Strategy First as well and it was a great CIV3 in space game. I'm not worried. I can't wait for SE:V. Just make sure that what ever you do you do not cheese out like MMO3.

[Fyron]

atomannj said:
Hey have any of you ever heard of Galactic Civilizations? That is thru Strategy First as well and it was a great CIV3 in space game. I'm not worried. I can't wait for SE:V. Just make sure that what ever you do you do not cheese out like MMO3.

Both GalCiv and Civ 3 were trite and pointless... I don't see much hope with Strategy First.

[thorfrog]

Well your welcome to your opinion but I think CIV3 and GalCiv were great. Galciv has been handled well by Strategy First and so will SE:V. Well I can hope.