May 2000
- Interesting online game Brian Green
- Bayesian statistics Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Client Technology Jon Morrow
- Client Technology Todd McKimmey
- Client Technology Andrew Wilson
- Client Technology Ben Greear
- Client Technology Greg Munt
- Client Technology Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- Client Technology Joel Dillon
- Advogato J C Lawrence
- tdbm etc. J C Lawrence
- text user interface Eli Stevens
- text user interface Chris Gray
- Legends of Kesmai, RIP Raph Koster
From the Legends of Kesmai website
(http://www.gamestorm.com/adventure/legends/):
start quote--->
To all Legends of Kesmai community members:
It is with great sorrow that we announce the departure of Legends of Kesmai
from the GameStorm service. On May 29, 2000, Legends of Kesmai will be
retired.
If you are a regular Legends of Kesmai player, you will be receiving a
special offer from Ultima Online. To ensure that you are able to take
advantage of this opportunity, please check to make sure your account
information is updated and valid </account/>.
We regret that we must discontinue Legends of Kesmai - we understand this is
a real loss to many of you. We are confident, however, that the new and
exciting developments happening with the GameStorm and EA.com union will
more than compensate, and we hope you'll give us the benefit of your
thoughts and suggestions as we try to make the summer launch of EA.com
everything you want it to be. If you have something you'd like to
contribute, please send an email to loktalk@gamestorm.com <mailto:>.
We hope that you will accept the Ultima Online offer and help us preserve
the passionately united community of Legends. You, the players, have
sustained Legends of Kesmai for 15 years, and it is our hope that this
devotion and perseverance will continue to thrive in the Ultima Online:
Renaissance community. The community found in Legends is unlike any on the
Internet - it is a legacy in and of itself, and it should endure.
To the Legends community, thank you for your continued support of Legends of
Kesmai.
Sincerely,
Your Legends of Kesmai Staff
<---end quote
The rant at Lum the Mad's is also good (http://lum.xrgaming.net/):
start quote--->
I HATE ELECTRONIC ARTS SO FUCKING MUCH
Monday, May 8, 2000 - 5:12 PM [Filed by myschyf
<mailto:myschyf@xrgaming.net>]
Islands/Legends of Kesmai. The granddaddy of online games. Fifteen years ago
two guys named Kelton and John made an online game and sold it through
Delphi and Genie. Before they made Air Warrior, before they made BattleTech,
before NWN, Gemstone, Realms, UO, AC, EQ and all the other little games that
have come and gone there was I/LOK. On May 29, 2000 this game and its
fifteen year legacy dies <http://www.gamestorm.com/adventure/legends/>.
Electronic Arts, may it rot in hell and die a slow lingering painful death,
is pulling the plug on this wonderful, delightful little game. The players
of this game, some of whom have been around for the majority of those
fifteen years, are being offered special deals for Ultima Online:
Renaissance. Oh and its hoped that the players will "...give us the benefit
of your thoughts and suggestions as we try to make the summer launch of
EA.com everything you want it to be." The players probably wanted you to
continue the goddam game -- just an idle thought, no idea where it came
from.
These people in for a surprise when they come to UO. I know I was when I
came to UO from LOK. Gone was the nice community I had been used to. What
can you expect from UO? Instead of waiting for you to finish what you are
doing or politely ask if you need help you can expect people to barge in and
help themselves -- to both your experience (although you don't really gain
experience in UO) and your loot. Instead of going to a conference room to
find help when you die... oh right... there are no conference rooms in UO.
You need to download ICQ <http://www.mirabilis.com> and IRC
<http://www.mirc.com> in order to communicate with your guild, your friends
and your community. Well once you have all that downloaded and you figure
out how to use it in conjunction with UO, if your friends have it too and
have also figured out how to use it they can help you. Don't expect help
from a stranger in the game though. This isn't one of those pansy-assed
games where the players are nice and polite to each other and actually give
a shit -- oh nonono. If a player offers to help you its probably either to
a) loot your corpse; or b) PK you out of malice. Welcome to UO.
By the way don't expect someone that kills you either purposefully or by
accident to ask for your forgiveness. In UO people don't worry about killing
each other because if it happens you just turn red and can't go to town. But
that's ok! All you have to do is play for 40 hours and if you don't kill
anyone else you'll turn blue again. Oh did I mention that there is NO
penalty whatsoever unless you kill five or more people in a specified period
of time. This is confusing I know. You really should go read up on penalties
for pking on OSI's web site <http://www.uo.com>. Be prepared to spend a lot
of time looking for the exact information you need. Be prepared to spend
even more time figuring out the convoluted system that is PK penalities.
Better yet why don't I just be nice and give you the URLs to some good fan
<http://uo.stratics.com/> sites <http://cob.xrgaming.net> which have managed
to organize game information better than the company that created the goddam
game and managed to put up message boards because until very recently the
game company itself didn't see a need to put up its own message boards,
despite the fact that the message board sites put up by the fans get
approximately 60-70 thousand hits a day. You'd have thought someone would
have purchased a clue before now.
Somehow, right now, it just seems so appropos that OSI is owned by EA. A
cut-throat, inept corporation that owns a cut-throat, inept game company
that produces a cut-throat, inept game. How fucking poetic is that? Will UO
gain that many more subscribers from killing LOK? Probably not. To be very
honest LOK never did have that large a player base. On the other hand it
didn't cost that much to maintain this player base either. I doubt LOK cost
nearly what one UO shard costs to maintain. But hey we all know how it is,
save a few pennies, kill a little history -- all in a day's work. Its
biznezz. Who cares if you whack a legend in the name of the almighty dollar.
<---end quote
The follow-up posts in the forums are, depressingly, largely "who cares, it
was 14 years old."
*sigh*
-Raph - Legends of Kesmai, RIP Clevmut@aol.com
- Medievia ads in PCGamer? Schubert, Damion
- Medievia ads in PCGamer? Rasdan
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) adam@treyarch.com
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) David Bennett
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) adam@treyarch.com
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) David Bennett
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Chris Gray
- FIrst LOgin REview (was attracting players) Chris Gray
- Addressing newbies Johan J Ingles-le Nobel
- Addressing newbies stoddart@slip.net
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies Chris Gray
- Addressing newbies Powell, Warren
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Chris Lloyd
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Chris Lloyd
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies Christopher Allen
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Addressing newbies Raph Koster
- Addressing newbies Christopher Allen
- Addressing newbies adam@treyarch.com
- Addressing newbies J C Lawrence
- Introduction Ian C. Smith
- constructive quests Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- new email address Travis Casey
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Par Winzell
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- [Meta] chest puffing (fwd) Matthew Mihaly
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair David Bennett
- Critique: Realms of Despair Kevin Scott London
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair Andrew Ritchie
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair adam@treyarch.com
- Critique: Realms of Despair Marc Bowden
- Software combinations Ian C. Smith
- Software combinations David Bennett
- Software combinations Erik Jarvi
- Software combinations Ian C. Smith
- Software combinations Scatter
- Software combinations J C Lawrence
- Hobby Muds and Money Maarten van Leunen
- Hobby Muds and Money Mordengaard
- Mud Clients Mud Imp
- update on selling Godhoods Matthew Mihaly
- update on selling Godhoods Brian Green
- update on selling Godhoods Richard Woolcock
- update on selling Godhoods Matthew Mihaly
- update on selling Godhoods Jeremy Hovance
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Raph Koster
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Dan Shiovitz
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Brian Green
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Matthew Mihaly
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG AR Schleicher
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG Mud Imp
- Ten Commandments for the next MMORPG The Inquisition Administrator
- Ten commandments for the next MMORPG David Wruck
- MudDev FAQ 2 Marian Griffith
- MudDev FAQ 2 Wes Connell
- The great myth of broadband Brian Green
- The great myth of broadband Madrona Tree
- The great myth of broadband Par Winzell
- The great myth of broadband John Bertoglio
- Effective use of the third dimension Richard Ross
- Effective use of the third dimension adam@treyarch.com
- Effective use of the third dimension Richard Tew
- Ten commandments for players of the next MMORPG Ananda Dawnsinger
- Free Speech Jeff Freeman
- Free Speech Ananda Dawnsinger
- Free Speech Par Winzell
- Free Speech Jeff Freeman
- Free Speech Jon A. Lambert
- Free Speech Schubert, Damion
- Free Speech Matthew Mihaly
- Free Speech Jessica Mulligan
- Free Speech Darren Henderson
- Free Speech kitkat@marcus.pants.nu
- Free Speech Gary Whitten
- Free Speech J C Lawrence
- Free Speech Geoffrey A. MacDougall
- Free Speech Jeremy Hovance
- RPGPlanet article: The Evils of Character Progression Raph Koster
- More storytelling - And also game secrets Chris Lloyd
- Marketing text-based games (was: Ten Commandments for the next MMORPG) Andrew Ritchie
- java performance questions (fwd) J C Lawrence
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Ola Fosheim Grøstad
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Lee Sheldon
- MUDs as art (was A footnote to Procedural Storytelling) Caliban Tiresias Darklock
- Any hungry Java GUI programmers out there? Par Winzell
- Any hungry Java GUI programmers out there? Par Winzell
- Supporting multiple output formats Nolan Darilek
- The 10 basic rules of a good PvP system Raph Koster
- Player storytellers? Travis Nixon
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims J C Lawrence
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Raph Koster
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Mordengaard
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Justin Rogers
- Thoughts about smarter Sims Jon A. Lambert
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Brian Green
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) J C Lawrence
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Raph Koster
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Charles Hughes
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Zak Jarvis
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Dave Rickey
- Advancement considered harmful (long) J C Lawrence
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Travis Nixon
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Paul Schwanz - Enterprise Services
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Miroslav Silovic
- Advancement considered harmful (long) Batir
- What I want, what players want Andrew Ritchie
- What I want, what players want Chris Jacobson
- What I want, what players want Jeff Freeman
- What I want, what players want Nicolai Hansen
- What I want, what players want Darren Henderson
- What I want, what players want adam@treyarch.com
- Domain Names and Trademarks Jon Morrow
- Domain Names and Trademarks J C Lawrence
- Domain Names and Trademarks Sellers, Michael
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Zak Jarvis
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds J C Lawrence
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Zak Jarvis
- Narratology WAS: Self-Sufficient Worlds Christopher Allen
- narratology WAS Self-Sufficient Worlds Angela Ferraiolo
- FW: Advancement considered harmful (long) John Buehler
- Narratology and its application to VR, multi-player games, and the like J C Lawrence
- FW: Advancement considered harmful (long) John Buehler
- coordinate systems Richard Tew
- coordinate systems Jon Leonard
- coordinate systems Kerem 'Waster_' HADIMLI