[Bobboau]

I'd actualy rather MS had the rights than DS,
I thought I'd never say anything like that,
I feel dirty somehow.

[Stryke 9]

Bob: Discussions will be continued here.

[JR2000Z]

n/m

[Stryke 9]

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.

[Lonestar]

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

[Stryke 9]

Well, can't beat that.

Anyone got any leads on Iplay?

[Singh]

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.

[Knight Templar]

Honestly, if Interplay can't even pay for the HQ building, I doubt they'd have a Singapore branch.

[JR2000Z]

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.

[Tiara]

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.

[Inquisitor]

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 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.

[Lonestar]

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.

[Stryke 9]

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.

[Inquisitor]

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.

[Lonestar]

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.

[Stryke 9]

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.

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.

[Lonestar]

Message me when you need anything done, it will be done within 24 hours provided its reasonable timing.

[Inquisitor]

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.

[Stryke 9]

Other thread, mate.

[Killfrenzy]

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?