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A really interesting article regarding Horizons:
Motorhead
Member UncommonPosts: 1,193
This is some good reading.
This article is like the 'E! True Hollywood Story' on Horizons.
http://www.gamemethod.com/archive/394.php
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"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." -- Batman
Comments
Very interesting article.
Putting aside the issue of accuracy (i.e. I am rendering no opinion regarding accuracy), the article certainly makes for a great "story". Even if you never heard of David Allen or Horizons, the story would still be a good read.
Spooooon!!!!
Spooooon!!!!
Why in the Hell did I even include that 4th survey answer. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment...
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Frodo has failed. Bush has The Ring.
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"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." -- Batman
Well I actually read th article after clicking on the 4th item
It's very interesting and very sad too, if it is all true then i really feel sorry for DA, his company, his vision, taken over by someone who's only interest was to make a quick-buck
// Carl
Currently Playing :
SWG : Europe-Chimerea, Cuthulu, Master CH/Ranger/Scout
DAoC : Midgard, Prydwen, Rhwbanz (+Rhwbanzz)
CoH : Guardian, The Master Therion (Blaster), morbid angel (controller)
// Carl
Currently Playing : EQ2 of course
I was gonna try Horizons, but I won't now.. see if David Bowman gets any of my money!
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
Vendor buy us all a decent MMORPG bank guards recdu recsu
Interesting yes, but still only one, biased, side of the story. Unfortunately AE will only reply with "no comment" but it would be interesting to get James' side of the story.
To me, seems like business and garage gaming don't mix. Sucks that the days of single programmer games are gone. Investors are less likely to allow people with extreme untested ideas experiment, opting more to go with tried and true, and secure, methods. (Suppose this excludes 'known' designers. Sid Meyer, Carmack, Chris Taylor, etc)
Tangent, you are one of those that what DA complained about just like the foolish Investor group A...."There is some truth in what everyone says". It is people like that that can never decide or willing to deal with the actual truth.
As for AE, Now all this makes sense. I have been following HZ ever since the beginning and when DA left and all what was going on. The forum messages, some odd statements on the site and then Wham forum closed. Like itf it was hiding somethings. All the stuff gong on at AE was strange. Even when I went their to apply for a job in summer of 2001. The atmosphere there was very strange indeed.
I bought HZ, just for the heck of it, eventhough I knew it wasn't the HZ I awaited for so long and beta shown than very obviously. But I never paid past me free month and the cancellation option of going to this odd website was also not typical like other MMO's. Anyway, after reading that article a lot of things make sense. I think I will take a drive today by AE and see if my CD will shatter on their brickwall. Too bad they even got the 49.99+tax off me for the game. Funny though that a snake ate and snake (Bowman firing Jones). Maybe the company will fall in on him.
Well, I sure hope any of you that want to respond to that article read all 9 pages of it and not just the first page.
Well, Lets get a boycot going on this. Lets see if we can get HZ to crash faster than SB!
Anyone wanna try to give it a Deadend Deadline date as of December 2004?
"Feel free to hate me, but hate me for the right reasons."
"Your still ignorant if you believe the first thing you see when the blindfold is removed."
"Be smart enough to know I'm smarter than you."
Just in RE: to Rudnoc. I don't see how what I said had anything to do with the situation he was refering to. Seems to me like they were making completely baseless claims about someone and the Investors were clinging to some tired cliche. I don't think that's the same as wanting to know both sides of a story. The problem is that could be a very good way to win an arguement; say I just complain about everyone who disagrees with me. If someone has evidence to the contrary then you should take your own advice and "deal with the actual truth", rather than dismissing them.
Breaking it down for you (due to the content of your post) if they had EVIDENCE that he was being a creep then who gives a shit if he cries when people accuse him. In that case tho, there was NO evidence so the Investors had to make a judgement based on DA and James' word. As it was said before, business sucks... it's about what will make the money, not creative license. To me the story seems more sinister than it has to be. A) Creative person has lots of new and contreversial ideas for a video game.
Forms company and seeks investors. C) People who are PAYING for the product and have a lot of money involved act on rights they had set up to protect their investment. D) People with more game design experience enter and Creative person (who is adamant about HIS vision and features) is scrapped so that there is less conflict on the team. Crappy? Hell yes. It's this type of action that drains the life out of most mediums. Suprising? No, we choose rampant capitalism so we have no right to complain. Welcome to U$A
LOL....do you think we would be talking about this if we lived in a socialist goverment?
....hmmm no ....Tangent can suck my butt.
I just finally got around to reading this article. Very good read!
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Played: AC1, DAoC, E&B, SWG
Tested: AC1, AC2, DAoC, Eve, Planetside, Rubies, Lineage 2, MU Online
Omg poor David He finally closed and his second company
I usually dont read long articles in the web, especially for things that dont interest me personally but this was very interesting.
With all those hundreds of games that constantly are releasing and others that are in development one can only wonder how many companies close (before or after the products completion), how many trickeries take place and how many dreams fall apart. Finally, gaming its a very cruel business like any other.
Ps. Make it sticky please or place it in a article archive.
I read it and several other sources of information too.
Of course I don't get the whole picture but I think Allan is not the man to lead a company and produce a product to the end. He left his new company, pharaoh productions, without finishing 3 out of 4 products. On the other side, I think Davod Bowman is a tough businessman. It's not nice pushing the original founder and creator out of his own company, stealing his ideas and making them his own. Allen should have fired Bowmam relatively early to keep control but he hasn't the nerve to do.
In my opinion, HZ would still be in alpha development phase and run out of money if Allen stayed. Well, just what I think about that.
Looking at the original concept, I think 80% of Allens Ideas are implemented.
PvP is not. PvP would make HZ a completely different game, mutch more like other games. Take a look, the original plans were to make total PvP available. Killers would suffer some disadvantages, but witch true PvP fan cares?
Families and religion is not. I hope they will be implemented sometimes in the future.
Furniture is not. This is just Objects that have to be created. They say they are working on that detail.