Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Stryke 9 on July 17, 2004, 01:31:17 pm
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Right, Styxx, Setekh, etc.: Sorry about the new thread, but the old one's half spam and nobody seemed to have a clear idea of what was going on, anyway. Hopefully starting fresh will clear the air. Also, if any spam (i.e. people making crap posts based on their personal opinions about our chances of raising enough money, whether it's even worth it, etc.) appears in here, could one of y'all delete it? It really kills any productivity when half the people in a discussion are just flapping their lips and not doing anything.
Now. This is getting kinda annoying. There's a few very fundamental steps that need to be taken in order to set up this fundraiser to buy the Freespace license, after which everyone could freely discuss it all they like, but as of now none of that's gotten anywhere. So. I will reiterate what needs to be done- it's all pretty basic, at least once we get past the stage of who's-doing-what, and everyone needs to figure out that part of it and start doing it. Really, the amount of good an attempt to raise cash for the license is gonna do drops exponentially after the end of this weekend, since outsiders will lose interest, someone else will buy the license before we even get a chance to get if off the ground, etc.
To reiterate:
I've already offered to help fill out the forms. I'm not the best person to do it, but I'll give it a shot. I was too exhausted last night to start it properly, so yeah, this is still at zero, but in all honestly I'm kinda shocked that nobody else offered to help or anything. If someone else offers in the next couple hours, they are totally welcome to head that job. It's mostly a buncha boring form-filling, y'all have done taxes before. That's step one almost outta the way, albeit probably the least critical one- we could get by without any charity status whatsoever, it just makes it more appealing to the large bidders. Link will be posted in a minute.
Now, someone needs to set up somewhere to put this money, and a way everyone with a credit/debit card/paypal account can get to it. It's gotta be absolutely secure and trustworthy, else nobody, especially not I, will send any money to it. There should be a mechanism to relatively painlessly return funds to those who donated them should the effort fail. While it's possible that just setting up an online bank account and letting Steak have exclusive withdrawal access would do the job, ideally no single person should be able to, say, siphon off funds- even if we know they wouldn't do that, there's lots of people who don't, and the attempt to raise enough cash will founder on them. Do NOT just post if you've got an online bank account- like I said, this needs to be something a bit more reputable than the infamous boob-job thing. Setekh has already, unless I'm mistaken, volunteered to man this in another thread (and feel free to correct me if I got the wrong impression), everything will default to him if there is not an easy way to set up an independent account.
Someone needs to set up a webpage with a submission interface for it- simple as humanly possible, designed like a standard Web order form so nobody'll get confused, needs fields for the relevant amount/pay type/info stuff, name, whether they want the donation to be anonymous, **** like that. Needs to send the money to the account and the other stuff to a single reasonably protected database, 'cause we'll probably need it. Someone with, y'know, PHP experience, which'd probably mean Styxx if he's willing.
Someone else needs to give the page all those nice things like 'special thanks' listings and regular insults and Derek flames to get the hate crowd (by far the largest interested group) going. This could really be anyone who's remotely personable and has at least the IQ of a concussed squirrel, which most likely means someone like aldo or Shrike or Thunder or whoever- if nobody is interested (which I doubt) I'll do it on a weekly basis unless I get shipped out to Morocco or wherever this year, but ideally someone else should. I'll check with an0n to see if all this **** can get hosted on a Nodewars page, he's probably got more capability to deal with a large influx than anybody else.
Once we've got that settled, and the account is working and getting its inital donations, then everyone can settle back and worry about all this other stuff, like negotiations with Interplay and all- it'll be a while before there's a need to act again on that front. But first things ****ing first. Until then, any other talk on the subject will probably strictly counterproductive. That means you too, Stealth. Agreements? Disagreements? False statements about penis size or potential donation amount? Other thread.
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Just wondering, what kinda of goal amount are we going for here?
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To be determined, I think. The guess is $150,000, but that's without anybody having done any research. Someone'll have to talk to Interplay to get that information.
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To buy a company: take the gross yearly sales (or the net, depending on the accountant) and double or triple it.
So, take the gross average yearly sales of both titles, over their lifetime, and double it. It will have to be far more than about 500 grand, which is probbaly the minimum an all new game budget would be, and that would be a budget for about 12 months. So, you'd want to recoup development costs.
So, if interplay were funding a dev team, and they paid 500 g's to build it, then, they would want to see at least that in sales (actually, probably at least double that in sales, but lets just break even), that means they would be looking for 1M in sales, maybe over a 2 year period.
I expect that fs1 and 2 sales combined were under that number (500 a year), given the ridicule we have subjected them to for bad sales.
Now, they are NOT a healthy company. But, I would seriously expect that it is worth more than 150k.
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the above is a gross oversimplification of an extremely complicated valuation process, FYI.
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That's fine. Your guess is not really worth anything at this point, 'cause we really don't know. If someone contacts Interplay and gets a figure, that's worth hearing, albeit not in any fucking way relevant to this thread. Until then, idle speculation elsewhere.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
That's fine. Your guess is not really worth anything at this point, 'cause we really don't know. If someone contacts Interplay and gets a figure, that's worth hearing, albeit not in any fucking way relevant to this thread. Until then, idle speculation elsewhere.
I just sent an e-mail to [email protected]. That's assuming if they still use it.
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Yeah, it'll definitely be a problem finding out who's still employed there, and hence what's still working. Phone would probably be best, but if you can email them that's gravy.
Anyone got anything on the account front?
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Nope, I'm a minor, and note even a minor in the States at that. Too much complications.
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I can provide webspace with PHP and MySQL, although I've got no MySQL experience so I'm not the man to set up the form.
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Hmm. I keep getting mail return errors.
According from IGN, here's the phone number and fax...
Phone
(949) 553-6678
Fax
(949) 553-9549
Unfortunatly, I'm not a conversationalist so if someone is willing to give it a shot.
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Are you sure those aren't Interplay's old numbers? Their landlord kicked them out of their office building, so those might no longer be valid. Maybe we should ask someone at NMA (http://www.nma-fallout.com). They probably send gay porn to Herve Caen's inbox on a regular basis, so they'd know his email address.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Someone else needs to give the page all those nice things like 'special thanks' listings and regular insults and Derek flames to get the hate crowd (by far the largest interested group) going. This could really be anyone who's remotely personable and has at least the IQ of a concussed squirrel, which most likely means someone like aldo or Shrike or Thunder or whoever- if nobody is interested (which I doubt) I'll do it on a weekly basis unless I get shipped out to Morocco or wherever this year, but ideally someone else should. I'll check with an0n to see if all this **** can get hosted on a Nodewars page, he's probably got more capability to deal with a large influx than anybody else.
I can do a simple HTML page for this that I can update every few days, unfortuneately, I'm leaving for scotland wendsday for 7 days, then i have drivers ed within hours of getting back, then i have a concert the next day, so that'll be a 9-10 day gap i'll be unable to do stuff in... Perhaps if we can get a hosted page here, that way several of us could have access to it, and then other people could update it as it became needed... (dare I say it, but a collection or fundraiser forum? It'd keep stuff neater)
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It's not exactly difficult. A shared FTP account and a timeslot schedule would mean a bunch of people could maintain the thing with a minimum of fuss.
A forum-run fundraiser would probably be a bad idea. You see how much crap fills up HLP. You can see how little constructive has actually been done here in the past coupla days. Sure, people can discuss it here or something, but that'll be separate from the fundraising process itself. Don't need anything complex like that- just simple HTML and a few blocks of text. Less is more here.
Uh... any word on likely accounts, though? I'm PMing Styxx about a sumbission mechanism...
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I've got an FTP account setup.
The URL it goes to is
http://s93727692.onlinehome.us/fsfundraising/
Edit: PM me if you want access and I'll make you your own FTP account, same URL.
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Uh, damn, you and an0n at the same time.
Can you take as much bandwidth as Nodewar?
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Aight, still need to work out an account. Waiting for Styxx to show signs of life, but I'm pretty sure that end of things can be taken care of. Any ideas, or does Steak handle de monies?
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5 GB/month, IIRC.
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Er, an0n says he has 30Gb. I don't honestly know if we'll even approach either of those figures, but better safe than taken down by irate webmasters.
Thanks anyway, though, really. I'm sure you could help with the webpage stuff and all.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Right, Styxx, Setekh, etc.: Sorry about the new thread, but the old one's half spam and nobody seemed to have a clear idea of what was going on, anyway. Hopefully starting fresh will clear the air. Also, if any spam (i.e. people making crap posts based on their personal opinions about our chances of raising enough money, whether it's even worth it, etc.) appears in here, could one of y'all delete it? It really kills any productivity when half the people in a discussion are just flapping their lips and not doing anything.
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Agreed.
Now. This is getting kinda annoying. There's a few very fundamental steps that need to be taken in order to set up this fundraiser to buy the Freespace license, after which everyone could freely discuss it all they like, but as of now none of that's gotten anywhere. So. I will reiterate what needs to be done- it's all pretty basic, at least once we get past the stage of who's-doing-what, and everyone needs to figure out that part of it and start doing it. Really, the amount of good an attempt to raise cash for the license is gonna do drops exponentially after the end of this weekend, since outsiders will lose interest, someone else will buy the license before we even get a chance to get if off the ground, etc.
To reiterate:
I've already offered to help fill out the forms. I'm not the best person to do it, but I'll give it a shot. I was too exhausted last night to start it properly, so yeah, this is still at zero, but in all honestly I'm kinda shocked that nobody else offered to help or anything. If someone else offers in the next couple hours, they are totally welcome to head that job. It's mostly a buncha boring form-filling, y'all have done taxes before. That's step one almost outta the way, albeit probably the least critical one- we could get by without any charity status whatsoever, it just makes it more appealing to the large bidders. Link will be posted in a minute.
Wish I could help you, but the atlantic and the pacific ARE barriers ya know :p
[quote
Now, someone needs to set up somewhere to put this money, and a way everyone with a credit/debit card/paypal account can get to it. It's gotta be absolutely secure and trustworthy, else nobody, especially not I, will send any money to it. There should be a mechanism to relatively painlessly return funds to those who donated them should the effort fail. While it's possible that just setting up an online bank account and letting Steak have exclusive withdrawal access would do the job, ideally no single person should be able to, say, siphon off funds- even if we know they wouldn't do that, there's lots of people who don't, and the attempt to raise enough cash will founder on them. Do NOT just post if you've got an online bank account- like I said, this needs to be something a bit more reputable than the infamous boob-job thing. Setekh has already, unless I'm mistaken, volunteered to man this in another thread (and feel free to correct me if I got the wrong impression), everything will default to him if there is not an easy way to set up an independent account.
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I suggested this in the Hardlight channel; I know the owners of a small Hungarian gaming company (4 Point Games) they run an online browser-based webgame called Droidarena (www.droidarena.com). I used to write for them and know some guys pretty high up. Thing is, they won't buy the license or help us with money (all their cash goes into supporting the game), BUT, we can probably ask help in holding the rights, if not using them. They are an officially registered corporation (with a contact address in the US) and would have every right to hold onto the IP from interplay. They also have a safe, secure system for holding money and transactions (to recieve money for the Premium accounts), so we may be able to ask for help in setting up our own system or using theirs if it's possible. I still haven't asked anything yet, but I'd prefer if Setekh or someone official from HLP were to come with me when i did go to ask.
But another option was also suggested on #hardlight, that we contact microsoft on this. To me, it sounds like a good idea - as pointed out, Microsoft has developed some pretty decent gamestuff in the past, and with the publicity FS2 is getting, they may prove as a viable option.
Someone needs to set up a webpage with a submission interface for it- simple as humanly possible, designed like a standard Web order form so nobody'll get confused, needs fields for the relevant amount/pay type/info stuff, name, whether they want the donation to be anonymous, **** like that. Needs to send the money to the account and the other stuff to a single reasonably protected database, 'cause we'll probably need it. Someone with, y'know, PHP experience, which'd probably mean Styxx if he's willing.
Someone else needs to give the page all those nice things like 'special thanks' listings and regular insults and Derek flames to get the hate crowd (by far the largest interested group) going. This could really be anyone who's remotely personable and has at least the IQ of a concussed squirrel, which most likely means someone like aldo or Shrike or Thunder or whoever- if nobody is interested (which I doubt) I'll do it on a weekly basis unless I get shipped out to Morocco or wherever this year, but ideally someone else should. I'll check with an0n to see if all this **** can get hosted on a Nodewars page, he's probably got more capability to deal with a large influx than anybody else.
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I'd recommend being cautious on NW, at best.....
Once we've got that settled, and the account is working and getting its inital donations, then everyone can settle back and worry about all this other stuff, like negotiations with Interplay and all- it'll be a while before there's a need to act again on that front. But first things ****ing first. Until then, any other talk on the subject will probably strictly counterproductive. That means you too, Stealth. Agreements? Disagreements? False statements about penis size or potential donation amount? Other thread.
I'd rather say we get to Interplay first before Mr. Smart does; otherwise all efforts into setting this up will prove futile.
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There are few stupider things that can be done than to trust a large, publicly-traded corporation with anything. Never mind that MS would refuse, MS is a no. That other company is worth looking into, though, go to and post if they're interested.
I've not seen the Nodewars server go down in recent memory. It strikes me as more reliable than the other free alternatives, though I could be wrong.
And sure, it'd be great if someone contacted Interplay and, say, found out their asking price for the license. What I don't want is any more idle speculation. It's stupid and worthless. Also, that's about the full extent of our possible interaction with Interplay at this moment, we don't have anything to bargain with or even hold their attention for more than a few seconds, so while there's no harm in contacting 'em (we need to find their contact info sooner or later), it's not a pressing issue at the moment. The things I listed are, to one extent or another, and they're still incomplete.
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I'd actualy rather MS had the rights than DS,
I thought I'd never say anything like that,
I feel dirty somehow.
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Bob: Discussions will be continued here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,25183.0.html).
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n/m
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Once again, go to, whatever. That's really for the other thread, this one's more specifically about scraping together the dosh, or being able to at the drop of a hat, or whatever.
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If someone gets word from interplay the title is for sale ill donate money, webspace and a subdomain.
Webspace doesnt go down, can handle unlimited bandwidth a month, unlimited email accounts, on a subdomain of my business site. MySQL is also unlimited, actually the entire account is unlimited including amount of FTP users. Also has stats galore available if we want to see how the site is doing.
Just prove that Interplay has been spoken too and will consider us serious bidders, then ill give the space and even build the site in PHP completely dynamic.
Your entire web needs are taken care of, if you consider this webspace worthy of the cause :)
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Well, can't beat that.
Anyone got any leads on Iplay?
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not sure about IPlay, but here's the contact address for 4 Point Games.
4 Point Games, Inc.
1271 N. Davis #168
Salinas, CA 93907
- USA -
[email protected]
I'm going to check if Interplay have a Singapore branch, if they do, I have spare time tonight so I'll go down and check it out....that's assuming they have it.
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Honestly, if Interplay can't even pay for the HQ building, I doubt they'd have a Singapore branch.
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Again, depending on where they are in the bankruptcy thing, Interplay doesn't really have the power to do anything right now. If so, everything that deals with Interplay is now run by the state.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Anyone got any leads on Iplay?
I asked TCO, who works at a similar (but quite small) gaming company, if they might know something. Well, they didn't. :(
Sorry, I tried.
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Fine. Good luck.
I really don't WANT to be a negative nelly, but, realism grabs me by the throat when it comes to business things.
It's ridiculously complicated. You are talking about raising all kinds of cash. Let's pretend for a moment, that you actually CAN get the cash (and the purpose of my original post is to demonstrate that it IS alot of cash)? Who's on the board of directors, who has access to the money, how is the money actually stored? Who writes the check? What if it's stolen? Who negotiates with Interplay? Who pays for the plane tickets for the face to face?
What if the group is unable to buy it, how do you redistribute back to the massess without being sued for fraud?
You basically need a full time, bonded accountant type just to deal with that, how do you pay him/her? You're talking about rasing anywhere from 150k to 500k or more in 20 dollar increments. Each donation has to have a receipt so you can avoid the stuff above, information for each donor needs to be recorded and stored so you can find them when it all goes south? Does each donor "own a piece"?
It's not a matter of having some PHP skills and an FTP account. It's not a matter of having a bank account. It's not a matter of simply registering an LLC.
There's about a billion questions you don't seem to know to ask, let alone have begun asking them. And you have to have the answers before you start. You need to step back, stop worrying about FTP accounts, and THINK through this. If you have never done it before, you can't shoot from the hip and expect it to all be roses in the end.
I'll leave the fantasy world now, since mine are just idle speculations.
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I think we are going about it right. Someone is trying to contact somneone about the rights.
This is step one, which is being excercised.
Step two is to figure out how much money we need, and the kind of clout we need to hold the license.
The way i see it I can try and do SOMETHING, or sit idly by, and do nothing and complain to those who are doing something that they are being silly.
I decided to help because you get more bees with honey then you do with vinegar.
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Inquisitor: And you're expecting anything at all to happen any other way?
Yeah, I'm aware it's a complex issue. No ****ing ****. A five-year-old is aware it's a complex issue, thank you very much. However, trying to focus on every aspect of the complex issue at once is the fastest way to go nowhere, especially given how much like pulling teeth it's been to get anybody here to do even the very simple things I've stipulated. You've got to start somewhere, and proceed from there. I figured the best thing to start with was figuring out, should Interplay be willing to deal with us (and, right now, it is Interplay, BTW, though it might be the state of California in a month or so), do we even have the capacity to offer something in such a deal anyway. Then once it's been determined (if it is determined) that we have any business asking Iplay at all, we could worry about the legal technicalities, most of the finer points of which could be dealt with while the money is being raised. And my reasoning stands for now, 'cause I'm the one that's actually getting people to respond here. Lonestar's offer may have shuffled the best order to do things around a bit, but there's at least marginal progress being made, as opposed to the jack **** that was being done before I started this thread.
If you want to go running around like a headless chicken trying to cover every possible front, you're perfectly ****ing welcome. Have, uh, fun with that. Me, I'll take things one goddamn step at a time, and I can guarantee you I'll get more out of it than just the idle speculation from others you're gonna get your way. We'll see who gets anything accomplished first, eh?
If not, well, I'd appreciate if you did something other than sit there and *****. Go ***** somewhere else, for example. Or quit moaning and help the **** out, so we have time to get to that other stuff before it's too late.
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I believe, I have, and will continue to, help out. I believe I have contributed nothing but constructive comments. I believe that you were the one to tell me to mind my own **** business and keep my idle speculations to myself.
But then again, you're right, what do I know. I do nothing but ***** and prevent the community from getting what it wants. I've never done anything, clearly a roadblock to progress.
This particular subject is spread across how many threads, and what, at least 2 forums?
I've given you the target, it's over 150, and, if you are lucky, less that 500. I have given you a start to a list of questions that REQUIRE answers before you start setting up PHP pages for anything. If you don't, you WILL fail. No matter how strongly you feel about the subject, or how much progress you believe you are making.
This is the wrong way to do this. It is in NOBODY'S best interest, especially HLP's to pursue and waste precious man hours, and possibly money.
If you would like to discuss this matter with me, I am available by every chat medium in existence, and I believe my contact information is plastered all over the net. For now, please consider the things i have said, not as an attack, but as constructive criticism, and try not to insult me because you are mad at the situation. My speculations are neither idle, nor purely speculative.
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If you want to help then please post how you can do so, otherwise leave the debates for another topic.
I honestly think we should take this to a private area with those who are serious about doing this, and keeping it off HLP. its obvious we are going to get flak for trying to do what we think is right, therefore its easier to keep it behind closed doors.
Last thing we need after the past few days is more animousity on this fourm, so lets keep it clean. If you think were fools, thank you for your opinion, lets move on please.
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Indeed, but keep in mind you're hardly the only one trying to crowbar in their two cents. Half of the threads about this are because the old ones had to be ditched with so many unasked (and usually uninformed) opinions flooding them. Even if you do know more about what you're talking about than I do (which, mind, isn't a given, despite what you may think), I don't see you either offering to or just directly going out and doing it yourself, so it's of marginal interest at best. I'm not really interested in just letting everyone air their personal opinion some more, 'cause it's hugely counterproductive. You wanna go do something, I sure as hell ain't gonna try and stop ya- but since you haven't offered any material support, which is precisely the thing we're critically short on, your view on how we should approach the matter is, well, frankly going to be mostly ignored by me at this point, and probably by everyone else. By all means, go ahead and find detailed information on what we'd need to purchase the license. Better yet, get a hold of whoever's running things at Interplay and get their take on it, which will almost certainly be very different from what some legal website has to say, and far more relevant. Until then, I really don't care to hear that I'm going about it all wrong, from any source that isn't an official in these matters (i.e. the Interplay guys), and I'm not impressed by attempts to distract from the core impetus of the project that seems to have gathered some momentum, albeit limited 'cos most people are more interested in "constructive criticism" than doing anything else constructive.
And, no, I think the PHP thing is just find as it is. We'll get contact info on Interplay, Lonestar will get the webpage ready for launch at an hour's notice for when we have a clearer idea of stage two, and then we'll sit down and chat with Iplay and any persons with legal experience around here, and work out the rest. When it gets to that stage, sure, I'll contact you if you want. Actually, it'll probably get posted up here and half the forum'll know we've got someone to talk to before I do.
Lonestar: Damn, you're right. After all that postage, naturally you'd have to duck right under my submit time and show me up.:p
Yeah. Further discussion to be continued in that other thread.
Though I don't know about moving this to a private space- after all, we don't know who's willing to help until they say so, and that's the precise point of this thread. I guess it'll be handy when things get more complicated and we'll be needing bulletins and coordination, though, so good call on that.
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Message me when you need anything done, it will be done within 24 hours provided its reasonable timing.
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Big kisses and good luck. Be careful with everyones hearts and minds. And be extra careful with their money.
This particular exchange is probably proof positive that you shouldn't be doing this. You're too angry. And you're not going to listen to anyone, no matter what their experience, if they disagree with you. Sounds a little like what some folks are accusing Mr. Smart of... Charge forward, anyone who gets in the way be damned.
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Other thread, mate.
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This is the first time I've raised my voice about the whole can of worms, but all I can say is that I'm with Inquisitor on this issue. It's all very well trying to raise funds to obtain the license, but there are so many things that need to be taken into account. I won't bother repeating or paraphrasing what has already been discussed.
All I will say is that if a well-thought campaign to obtain the FS IP is created, then by all means I will support it. The other thing I will say is that I'd rather no FS3 than have DS develop it. I've played BC3K and BCMil........or at least tried to.
Just an FYI, if this hasn't blown over by the start of September, I'll be dropping particularly unsubtle hints at ECTS over the whole thing. :) Any British-based companies you particularly like? :D
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Other thread. And we haven't exactly gotten far enough to consider that yet- anything beyond the specific stages listed here is the scope of the general discussion thread, or another project if anyone cares to start an endeavor focussing in another direction. I don't advise it, as it'll split the efforts of the community, but at the end of the day a lot of you have more hinging on this issue than I do so it's really your call.
All further discussion: Other thread. That's what it's for, I'll be reading stuff that goes on there too so don't worry. Unless you've got Interplay on the phone or a reliable bank service (or wanna take up the charity funding thing).
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My apologies, Stryke. I just didn't want to get bogged down in a load of debates, partly because my logic circuits are fried due to the fact that it's a quarter to two in the morning here and partly because my priorities lie elsewhere at the moment. :)
But I might still put my tuppence into the debate on the main thread. :)
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Paypal. No, I am not kidding. You need something that can deal with currency conversions and electronic transfers. Having just dealt with this issue with our publisher, our lives would have been SOOOOOOO much easier if they had just taken paypal. Don't make it too difficult for people to send you money. If they have to write a check, or worse, get a money order, you'll never see that cash. So, unless you have a merchant ID handy, or want to pay for a vitual POS terminal to process CC and debit cards directly, PayPal is one of the only banking services that can do what you need it to do.
I'll post all my negativity in it's own thread.
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Inquisitor: Thanks, I was considering the same thing. Paypal has its flaws (they lock up accounts for wierd things, apparently, and there's no legal safeguard against whoever's running the account stealing the money), but right now it's looking to be the best thing there is- just get Steak or somebody equally reliable to set up the account and not let the password take a walk anywhere.
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Well, no offense, but, that's one of the things I was alluding too before you told me to shush ;)
It's not terribly likely that you can get countersigned checking accounts set up virtually. You kinda have to be in the bank to do that.
We use PayPal linked to our corporate banking account, handled by our CFO, who is one of those full time bonded accountant types.
But PayPal is probably the best collection method.
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Seconded on Paypal, and I suspect umpteenthed on having Setekh as our 'Voice of the FS Community.' Steak has been a calm voice in a sea of fire and brimstone. I can think of nobody more suited to this role.........if he wants the job, that is! :D
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More importantly, Steak has already offered. :p
Inquisitor: Yeah, and I don't really have a lot against most of what you were saying, just that I don't want generalities in this thread, 'cause then we'll inevitably spiral off into fuzzy-headed what-ifs. Specific ideas and specific offers are quite different.
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Oh, has he? That's great. Add another notch to the 'tree of HLP getting the license.' :) That makes...........ooh, another .35 billion to go......:D
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Yeah, gonna doublecheck that 'cos a lotta people are saying a lotta things right now, and I've got a lot of things flying around myself (not even the majority being here-related- the Morocco thing was serious), but I remember it pretty clearly.
Ah. (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,25189.msg504719.html#msg504719)
I think there were some others, too, but it took me enough trouble to find that one.
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Well, we need some kind of 'head' if this little scheme goes ahead. Steak is the best option. :)
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I would help with money and can host the web page on Hades Combine, i could even give it a subdomain, like blah.hades-combine.com or something like that.
I also got 30 gb of bandwith a month and i barely ever scratch it, also the server has NEVER gone down, :P. someone else will have to make the page itself, i would only provide ftp access, also it supports, pearl, php, mysql, cgi, and if e-mails are needed i can give those out too.
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Just, I'll say this again, keep things calm. I didn't like the way things were going a few posts ago, but it seems to have calmed down now, so go ahead. We all need to calm down already.
:)
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You never answered my PM.:blah:
I'll take that as a "no", I guess.
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Er, I just got online, and I have tons of stuff to read.
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Ah.
...
I blame you anyway. For something.
You killed my dog, three years ago. Yeah, that's it.
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Oh, so it was your dog.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Inquisitor: Thanks, I was considering the same thing. Paypal has its flaws (they lock up accounts for wierd things, apparently, and there's no legal safeguard against whoever's running the account stealing the money), but right now it's looking to be the best thing there is- just get Steak or somebody equally reliable to set up the account and not let the password take a walk anywhere.
Afraid I still haven't been able to contact the other site's owners; but before I continue, I need to know if you still want me to?
From what's been discussed so far, I think an alternative solution may have been found, so it is necessary?
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As far as the account goes, I consider that settled unless something better comes along in the next couple days or Steak changes his mind. Having them handle the money'd be fine, but so would PayPal, and we should probably try and keep this as in-house as possible.
As for holding the rights, later on... well, I dunno. I'd talk to them and see if they'd be interested in doing that, certainly, having a preexisting corporation without a direct interest in the license itself take care of it for us would be awesome, but do try to avoid giving them the impression that this is anything but searching around for potential avenues of attack. Yours certainly looks like the simplest solution right now, but right now we're still in a very early stage. Oh, and anybody who's interested feel free to start up a discussion about other possibilities for this in, yep, you guessed it, the discussion thread. I know there's at least a few of you with direct experience in what's needed for licensing transfers.
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OK, good, I'm kinda bored, and having no schoolwork either, I'll see about this.
I can't code, sign forms, or provide space, but I have a cable conn, accces to google, and a bit of a mind. And I always wanted to try out web-stalking someone.
I'll try tracking down Interplay people. I thought Singh was doing about the same, and perhaps some others. Who's co-ordinating that? I suggest a seperate thread somewhere where Stryke has mod powers. (NW?).
Please tell me at least where to start, approximately.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
As for holding the rights, later on... well, I dunno. I'd talk to them and see if they'd be interested in doing that, certainly, having a preexisting corporation without a direct interest in the license itself take care of it for us would be awesome, but do try to avoid giving them the impression that this is anything but searching around for potential avenues of attack. Yours certainly looks like the simplest solution right now, but right now we're still in a very early stage. Oh, and anybody who's interested feel free to start up a discussion about other possibilities for this in, yep, you guessed it, the discussion thread. I know there's at least a few of you with direct experience in what's needed for licensing transfers.
True.
I'll post back when I can check with someone.
In the meantime, do try out the game there and get a feel for the community their (even though its small compared to here). www.droidarena.com is the main game, and the forums are over at www.droidarena.com/mnet :)
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http://nodewar.penguinbomb.com/forum/showthread.php?p=20966
(A thread about contact info for :I:)
I found 2 phone numbers, belonging to the same guy, plus his adress, and pictures from him with wife and kid (like that'll help), all from googling the DNS contact name. Any other names from :I: people to contact could be handy.
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Good boy. *pats Kasperl on the head*
:p
No, seriously, good job! now where getting somewhere.
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Not really, the physical post adresses are all for the same old Interplay building, currently only occupied by an empty, debt-collecting, landlord. The email addys are either @interplay or @hotmail, and the phone numbers I can't try out.
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Still, it's something, and it should be possible to find out a little bit more from there. Just having a few names and a general address gives something to work with (provided they haven't delisted their numbers or anything, which is quite possible).
EDIT: Yep. Unless he moved to Texas all of a sudden, phone's delisted. The guy who owns the office building would have some kind of forwarding info, if only 'cos he needs it if he ever wants to pick up on overdue rent... not that he'd necessarily give it to us, given how Iplay's been hounded by the press lately...
DOUBLE EDIT: I might have Renich (http://preview.ussearch.com/preview/preview.jsp;jsessionid=F3034A042FA194FC27B6F6C7FDEE91ED?adID=10002101&fc=blue&x=39&y=14&searchFName=Nathan&searchMName=&searchLName=Renich&searchCity=&searchState=CA&searchApproxAge=40). Sorta. Except that at all of those are close enough to Irvine to be the right Renich.
You know, come to think of it, someone just got a hold of Volition and it's quite possible they'd know how to reach someone in Interplay, via personal phone number or something. I guess we'll have to see what comes of that, but still, cool. You and Singh both- good work.
Hey, Singh, that's actually kinda a freaky game. I'd thought that genre had died back in the early 90s...
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****.
Is that Bobo retard one of us? If so, can some admin give me his IP number? I wanna murder the little ********, or at least make sure he permanently loses the capacity to type **** on the wrong forum.
There is now a need to move this whole affair to a more private setup. Uhm... mods, is it at all possible to have a private forum for discussing affairs here, for convenience's sake? I'd like to keep a thread out for volunteering and then move everything more solid to somewhere where every failed abortion on the Net can't find it and run around making ultimatums to Derek Smart.
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I did say Volition was *looking* into acquiring the liscense in the Avault thread. I didn't say that they were buying it. :p
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You'll notice this wasn't directed at you, but at Bobo.
We don't know what Volition's actually doing, and giving Derek the opportunity to go and get a better idea of that than we have before further calls are made wasn't the best move, but that wasn't what annoyed me. I may have had some reserve pissed-offedeness that I directed towards you, but nothing personal intended. Mostly I just wanna get face-to-face with the ****wad who's assigned himself spokesperson for the fundraiser, and do something to make sure he and his fellow morons don't attempt to fulfil that function again.
While I'm more or less on the subject: Krackers, no insult meant. He'd already dismissed you as a moron on art subjects just recently, and, well, you gotta admit, you aren't Venom. I'm not, either.
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Just wanted to bud in and tell you guys that you have quite alot of goodwill out there and alot of people that are willing to help ( me included ) if you succeed in setting something that feels serious (fundraising). I hope you'll be able to do it before it's to late. Good luck.
FS2 was the best Space Sim i've ever played.
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Thanks for the support falaffel! :)
Watch this space, things ARE moving on this front ;)
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Stryke: did you pay those 15 bucks?
Does anyone have another name of an Interplay guy?
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Kas: It was more than $15 for any information with a guarantee of being marginally accurate, and I'm not about to pay $200 bucks for some random bastard's private info when we could poke around a little more and get it for $50 or free.