Why no passionate millionaires play PC games?

[Wardo]

Hi, this has always intrigued me, some guys finance a flight around the globe with their own money, some buy extensive car collections, some use their time and influence to make TV shows, but why isn't there any player with tons of money investing from his own pocket on an independent game (ie. without a publisher to ruin the game). It can be done, George Lucas did it with Star Wars and he was poor, there has to be a game freak out there willing to create unique great games, not the same crap we have in stores today, had yesterday and will have tomorrow.

Did the EB team considered begging rich RTW fans to hire professionals to assist with the mod? Or have you considered, after releasing EB and fixing the bugs, working out a game project and beg some old retired rich man to invest on your idea for his grandson's enjoyment? If I had 50 million right now I'd hire the lot of you to make the true "Rome:Totally Publisher Free" master piece, 10 years in development, any ammount of freelance coders, painters and modelers to assist you, or as much as 50 million can hire...

Seriously it would only take 5 very rich men to support this project instead of them buying Yatch's, how hard can it be to convince them?! A Yatch or the best game ever made for PC?! Is Bill Gates happy with the current selection of games on the market today? These same-ol same-ol franchises do sell, yes you will sell an FPS with cute graphics, but when you throw something completely unique, new and well made on the market, it sells tons, tons more!!! I'm talking about The Sims, I find it an extremely boring game, but it sells alot, RTW done right would sell far more than Creative Assembly will EVER profit!

Rest assured, as I mentioned before, as soon as I have 50 million on my hands, things WILL change, if I ever find myself an old retired bored rich man, I will remember the past, and when that indie dev comes asking for help with his innovative project, I'll make the dream come true.

I remember a time when games weren't all released based on a pre-approved formula (ie. all your default Ream-Time-Strategy and First-Person-Shooter games out there) and you actually had alot of variation, when I buy an RTS today I know exactly what I have to do before even installing the game, build resource gatherer, gather resource, expand facilities, build massive army, zerg away. I'm loosing the main hobby of my life, computer gaming, simply because there are very little new good games! I have much more old stuff installed on my PC than new stuff! My world has already ended, time to get out there and make 50 millions.

[Sfwartir]

Good idea!
I'll be happy to add an additional 50 million to that project, as soon as I've earned such a sum. (Right after I have fullfilled my grand plans of buying myself a Bavarian castle and the conquest of Andorra.)

[Silver Rusher]

[Freeze]

Wardo is right, I still enjoy Sudden Strike and the addon more then any other WW2 RTS that came out since then. Sudden Strike was like one of the first and imo it is still unbeaten. Dungeon Keeper and Populous:The Beginning come to mind also, they were very inovating games for the time. Recently Perimeter and Soldiers Heroes of WWII were very original. Also Black and White. So Wardo there is not much innovation but there is some left, like Lionhead studios thats coming up with 'The Movies', 'Spore' and 'Black and White 2'.

[Steppe Merc]

No. Because then they'd want it there way. We want it our way.

[Chilly5]

wow, i need to join EB and get some payment for all my hard modding!

[khelvan]

Actually, certain members are actually wealthy and have contributed to support our work (for those things that do cost money). Also, I know for a fact that some wealthy celebrities do love to play computer games; One in particular played Ultima Online when I was playing that game.

You might be surprised by who plays such games.

[Simetrical]

I once saw a review in PC Gamer by a sports player (possibly famous, I wouldn't know). He said that he got to such-and-such a point in such an amount of time, and was confident enough in this achievement's unbeatability that he offered one of his jerseys, signed by himself (estimated market value maybe $10,000, IIRC), to the first person to provide proof they did better. I think the game was something Myst-related, maybe?

You just wait. As the current video game-obsessed youth generation grows up and gets money, you'll be seeing more high-profile gamers, that's for sure.

Actually, certain members are actually wealthy and have contributed to support our work (for those things that do cost money).

What does cost money? I don't think RTR has any expenses except the website, which is covered by ads. All your artists are volunteer, you aren't using copyrighted material, you don't have a website, so . . . ?

-Simetrical

[Shrapnel]

Yea I agree. While you need money for websites, servers, etc.etc. You do not need vast amounts of money for making a mod. It is not like they have to release it in stores and so have to buy the boxes and manuals. Also they do not need to buy large amounts of servers from a companie. If they were making a game from scratch and were planning to sell it in stores then they would get money, they would probably get payed by the publisher, 'cause tehy would have to spend all their time on the game and not have a seperate job. I'm not saying that getting the mids done quickly wouldn't be good i'm just saying that with an army of skinners, modders, etc. etc. You might aswell start a new company. This game is just a part-time mod and so does not need vast amounts of money

[Wardo]

Thanks all of you for replying to my thread.

I never hold expectations unrealistically high not to let myself down, but by EB's previews this mod will be of much superior quality than the original RTW game ever was, so my point was that passionate gamers can do a far better job when they are not pressured by a publisher seeking proved selling formulas and in a tight schedule. If I ever lead a game project, I know from mods like these you need gamers and fans working on the game and not bored random "professionals" doing their daily routines without love for their work.

I can only dream of what the EB team could do if they could plan a game from start, with an army of professionals to assist them, and without sales-formulas interference or unrealistic schedules. But for now I'll content myself with the EB mod.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Lionhead studios thats coming up with 'The Movies', 'Spore' and 'Black and White 2'.

Lionhead seem to be the only company making anything original. They make incredibly good games.

[khelvan]

Actually, we do have a website; it just isn't public yet. It is where we upload/download all our versions and are running our closed beta. We have had some work done on an actual web presence as well, though it isn't quite ready.

[Sheep]

I once saw a review in PC Gamer by a sports player (possibly famous, I wouldn't know). He said that he got to such-and-such a point in such an amount of time, and was confident enough in this achievement's unbeatability that he offered one of his jerseys, signed by himself (estimated market value maybe $10,000, IIRC), to the first person to provide proof they did better. I think the game was something Myst-related, maybe?

I think you are talking about Curt Schilling, future Hall of Fame pitcher, who plays/played a lot of Everquest.

[Han]

make RTW campaign map multiplayable with minimal lag and you got sometihng going here...