I just read the thread through (the SEED comments).
Pity so few people actually know anything about the process of game developing - and especially something as complex as a MMORPG. It's even worse that most of the talks about SEED is based on pure hear-say, and not actual facts.

Facts are, that the team was VERY dedicated. And that both minor and major storylines were planned - way ahead of what you actually got to see. A few of you might remember the SteamBaths. And that was just the next thing in the pipeline. More playerdriven events in the line of "Esme's Tree", the "Hacked Chimbot" and the opening of SteamBaths, as well as major events ,were on the drawing board.

The team was not incompetent and we were certainly aware of the lag and bugs, but the investores insisted, despite our pleas, to launch prematurely. It didn't matter how much we stressed the fact, that it would be devastating to the project. Noone want's to pay for buggy entertainment, yet alone have to deal with it. Where's the entertainment in that?

At the time of launch, SEED had been in developing for 2½ years or so - the first 1-1½ year with a sceleton crew, primarily trying to get proof-of-concept going, in order to get the proper financing for the rest of us who was on the team for the last year+.
Most of the graphics assets were redesigned and rebuild from scratch at the time when RGD expanded the crew.
No doubt we would have required at least another year with the 20-or-so people we were on the team at the end, just to get our current game base and content straightened out. But that was not up to us to decide, unfortunately.

In time SEED would have had all the player driven stories and events you wanted it to have, as well as some major plots like contact to the lower cluster, the attempt to repair TAU, and surface expeditions. It would have had a fine-tuned repair/crafting setup and the political plots and schemes as the "combat system".
SEED would never let you play the same quest twice, and the game would evolve constantly - even when some players are logged off, others would play and possiby uncover new stories and events - same as it happens when you yourself sleep - and thus creating a much more dynamic story and game.
- and who knows what else. This was the essential idea with SEED - real RP'ing with a high level of player influence of SEED's further development.

It's fair to say, that at least 70-80% of the team, were (and still are) hardcore RPG'ers - many of them well-known on the danish RPG scene, both as players and some of them also as writers. This team bled for the dream of a MMORPG which was more true to ACTUAL roleplaying, rather than just the cookie-cutter, hack'n'slash games of current days.

*edit* This is not me bitching and whining. Just trying to set a few things straight

Cheers

Last edited by HateTank (2009-04-27 11:41:54)

hm...maybe i should consider the idea of getting rich..just so i could be that crazy guy who threw a ton of money after crazy game projects

But yeah, i am pretty sure most of us know you guys worked real hard on it. The stranges comment from mmorpg.com is a guy who says something like "its a shame, seed could have been a great PvE game" huh... more like RPG-PVP hehe