Off to a bad start Options

[Mole]

I hate to be a naysayer, but I think this little project of ours if getting off on the wrong foot. We?re already starting the make the classic mistake of wanting too much too soon. If we want this project to succeed, then we need change some things.

Here is it, essentially day one, and we?re already deciding on what server software to use, some people are even pricing out hardware, and some people are even arguing over how many people to allow in the alpha and beta phases. Slow down! If we keep up at this pace, this train is going to derail long before it even leaves the station let alone arrives at one.

First off, we need to decide if we want to give this project even the smallest chance for success. If we don?t want it to succeed and we just want to pretend to do this then let?s all just carry on doing what we?re doing.

If we want to see our goals realized and actually design an opensource UMMORPG, then we need to go about this the right way. We need to define our goals and objectives, our scope, vision, mission, and strategy (not necessarily in the order listed).

Once we have these things, then we can start to define our game world (at a high level) and all that it will encompass. This is going to show us what we want in our game and what we don?t want. This is where we will argue things like PnC vs WASD and other topics like that. This is going to get ugly. But we?ll eventually work through all of this and we?ll be better off for it. Notice that I haven?t even started to talk about what spells the so-and-so class will have yet. (That comes later!)

Armed with the above things, we should then be in a good position to determine how we are going to develop this game of ours. Since we?ll know exactly what we want (at least at a high level) we?ll be able to effectively determine our plan of attack.

When we know how we?ll go about solving our problems, then we?ll start development and we?ll start fleshing out things that will be in-game.

It should be noted here that I haven?t begun to talk about deliverables, ARs, and how we are going to track progress. That will come later as well.

This is going to be a long process. Those of you who are in this for the short-term investment are going to be disappointed. Those of you who are in this for the long haul need to stick around and make yourselves comfortable. The ?average? development cycle for a MMORPG by professionals (people who do this for a living) is 3 years. MR had already been going at Wish for 3 years, and they weren?t done; granted they developed some middleware along the way, so that slowed them down some.

Some of the things that we need to do can be done here in the forums, while other things are best done in a weekly meeting of some sort.

Do people think I sound like I know what I?m talking about, or do you all think I?m full of bunk? I want to hear your opinions on what *you* think we should do and about how *you* think we should go about doing this. I don?t want this thread to be used to discuss ideas for the game. I just want us to talk about how we should approach this.

[DeadPaladin]

very good post. i agree completely and that we have to be realistic or else ppl are going to be leaving left and right because we havent been getting anything done.

[Marku]

When i came here i knew that for this to suceed we had to stay realistic but we must also plan ahead so we know which way we're heading. Good post man ^_^

[Hankellin]

I agree that this will take quite some time to complete, unless one of us is VERY independantly wealthy and can hire MR to make the game for us.

We do need a plan and set goals otherwise all of this becomes a smoke dream.

Details can be worked out later.

[Marku]

just for alittle cash on the side maybe we should get some google ad's on the website???

[Cobra]

Very good post, i agree completely.




Regards,


Cobra

[Foresteer]

Also we must advertize but in the right places (like don't go on g4techtv.com and go "OMG WE IS MAIKING UMMORPG!!!11one") don't want to be flooded with power-leveling "l33t-d3wds" the more people we can attract not only will intrest rise (the more interest the more likey this project will stay afloat) but also chances of some gifted people willing to help will find us

We do need to pace ouselves naturaly.. but some of the gameplay talk won't hurt to much if kept to a minimum (we are all just so damned excited :D i am squeling like a 6 year old girl on this side of the internet) so some of that talk just can't be helped.. i just bearly missed the last IRC.. but IRC does need to happen as often as possible (we have a lot of things to pull together just to get the basics coherent with each other)

Forgive my ignorence but what on earth is a "wiki"? and ohh i got tons of ideas ;) don't worry your little head about that.. just waiting for the right time to dump them into applicable threads :twisted:

[Matto]

Good point mole, one I agree with whole heartedly. We definately need to get some sort of documentation in place. For the game we are looking to develope I would say an html design doc that can be openly veiwed online is a must, a team doc might be very usefull, explaining the team as it is, what they are doing and how they are doing it and whether there are any open spots available for others wanting to muck in.

What we must be careful of is not treading on each others toes, we are all eager to help out thats true but we need to be careful not to lose good developers through stress of project incompetance. I would say initially highlighting all the areas of the developement process, breaking it down until the groups are managable, assigning a team leader to these groups and enough members to complete the required tasks of these groups. each task should be managable or people will lose interest, lots of little things will get done quickly and form a larger piece of the development pie much quicker than than getting 1 person to bake a whole piece each. Where there are crossover points for 2 developer members try and get them to work together rather than leaving one out.

What we have here is an oppertunity to make a large impression on the world of gaming, MMOG's inparticular, lets not waste it. It would be better to take a month for sorting out all the details than to walk into quick sand and find ourselves gasping for breath in minutes.

Given that the skill system was a large attraction to many followers of wish, understanding how to split things up should be too difficult :)

Make sure everyone has something to do thats makes them feel good about doing it or acheiving it. I believe this way we could keep the support levels higher.

One thing I would like to see is the Project Wish founders to lay out some guidlines and hierarchy to the project so we can see who is who and what is what in terms of gaining and keeping some order in the short term. Otherwise I fear some self appointed leaders might make their mark and that would not be good.