What is going to happen in a few years time when wartune etc is no longer profitable?

[the-wise-one]

There will come a time in the future when wartune [or any current online game] is no longer cost effective for any company to run as players will have either become bored/maxed out. Perhaps it would happen because gaming fashion changes, lets face it no one plays pong or space invaders these days.
Perhaps it will happen because newer better games will take the players from the old games, but one thing is CERTAIN - there will come a time, in the not too distant future
where there is no money to be made hosting a wartune server.

What I want to know, is when that happens, will Wartune be put out into the public domain, so people can still play it (there will be hard core people who never want to stop playing) either for fun or nostalgia? Or even just to show the grand kids what we used to play?

I hate to think of spending such a large amount of my time playing a game (yeah I know there are better things to do with life) when in a short few years its likely the game will only be a distant memory and a mention on some wiki pages.

It would be nice to have some re-assurance from the powers that be, that one day, when its no longer profitable, it will be released to the hard core fans who can run their own servers...

[mrbamman]

whether you play on r2 or kabam or kong..those people are publishers....basically they pay to license the game from proficient city...which i believe is in china....so...the publishers have no real vested interest in seeing declining profits over time...they'll bail well before the break even point im sure.....proficient city, the maker of the game, probably has many more games in china and in development.....they make their money when a game starts and even when a server starts......if they still weren't making tons of money then they would shut it down because that's their business model from what Ive read and seen. but you are right...no one will know what wartune is after a while as new games come out....i think the extreme pay for play is not something you can sustain over a long period of time.....I know that if i see the names proficient city, R2, wartune, kabam, or kong on another ad for a game, ill never play it. I also doubt whether this game will be alive in two years..this is already a declining player base with very poor customer support. I'm sure they all the publishers have future plans that don't include wartune.

[Arlad]

servers will be closed eventually.
i've played alot of online games. when it's time to end, then it must end.
let it go.


also, remember that the toons are property of R2. even if some fans managed to open a private server, they have no access to the data stored on r2's servers. except if they they illegally obtained it.

[the-wise-one]

Yes, I also get the feeling things wont last that long (as long as they could with really good support etc).
Its a shame as they could really get a lot more money if they did things like

Had good support.
Were less devious (I feel they trick people into balen usage etc).
More honest (I feel they do not refund where they should, its not a sign of a good company IMHO).
Had better documentation / help.
Farmed out the old games to the public domain, so people after investing thousands of hours of their lives and or lots of money could at least
know they had a chance of playing the game a few years down the line.

At present, Im getting the feeling Im going to lose all the time and effort I put in when it becomes less profitable for them, and I really wont be up for starting over on a new game if the same will happen again.
Which means they will lose out on a player.

I fear many players may feel the same in a few year if they suddenly cannot play anymore. The industry could be killing itself of by being short sighted.

[the-wise-one]

servers will be closed eventually.
i've played alot of online games. when it's time to end, then it must end.
let it go.


also, remember that the toons are property of R2. even if some fans managed to open a private server, they have no access to the data stored on r2's servers. except if they they illegally obtained it.

Which is why im wondering if they would be willing to release it to public domain in years to come when its of absolutely no use to them.
It would only be sitting on a shelf somewhere on a backup drive, rotting away doing nothing.
When it could be keeping fans happy and more likely to spend money on new games.

[Arlad]

People should realize, this type of games are NOT aiming for long term profits. Should i remind people about the presentation of R2 games's CEO Jared Psigoda?

[MemoryLane]

Oh god, that video is so over played and so taken out of context that it's not even a clever response to anything anymore.

No, the english version of the game through R2 will not go 'public domain'. It's not a game that just sits on a shelf, pop it in when you want to play it- it's a live server, that takes money for bandwidth, website, the physical server, and an active host to maintain it because it does need to be rebooted once in a while.

Just to clarify, mrbamman, Proficient is not the developer of the game, they are another english version publisher. The developer of the game is splashed across the loading screen- 7Road.

[Arlad]

Oh god, that video is so over played and so taken out of context that it's not even a clever response to anything anymore.

enlighten me on how it's irrelevant to the discussion at hand, please

[the-wise-one]

Oh god, that video is so over played and so taken out of context that it's not even a clever response to anything anymore.

No, the english version of the game through R2 will not go 'public domain'. It's not a game that just sits on a shelf, pop it in when you want to play it- it's a live server, that takes money for bandwidth, website, the physical server, and an active host to maintain it because it does need to be rebooted once in a while.

Just to clarify, mrbamman, Proficient is not the developer of the game, they are another english version publisher. The developer of the game is splashed across the loading screen- 7Road.

The files that go on the server will be sitting on a shelf on a back up tape or drive though.
Servers are not that expensive, wartune could run on one that is paid for by fans (ie hosting cost only, fairly cheap) as they dont need to pay anyone's salary etc.
Wont even be that much bandwidth once the game is no longer profitable, as only hard core fans would use it. Website? Fans could easily take care of knocking up their own.
Reboots, takes seconds to log in via sftp and reboot a server, heck could easily set up a cron job to automate it

[MemoryLane]

In order for that to happen, someone's going to have to purchase the license for public use through a private server for the language and time zone. It would be a totally different type of license than the one R2 has to host the game.

It is something anyone could do, by contacting the developers and setting it up, but it's extremely doubtful that R2 would be doing that. Of course, the game does have a couple more years of life left, if you go by the reported statistics that the developer releases every quarter, so this discussion is really premature.

[ArtemisS58]

your forgetting the human population can reproduce and when the babies grow up and find this game then r2 gets more suckers to cheat money off from. and this becomes an endless loop until humanity goes extinct or loses the ability to reproduce. so games will always have players coming in at pretty much the same rate as players going out

[Eskendal]

Oh god, that video is so over played and so taken out of context that it's not even a clever response to anything anymore.

No, the english version of the game through R2 will not go 'public domain'. It's not a game that just sits on a shelf, pop it in when you want to play it- it's a live server, that takes money for bandwidth, website, the physical server, and an active host to maintain it because it does need to be rebooted once in a while.

Just to clarify, mrbamman, Proficient is not the developer of the game, they are another english version publisher. The developer of the game is splashed across the loading screen- 7Road.

Yeah, I watch the whole video twice couple months ago and, still don't understand why people are so angry. He's just explaining how Chinese browser games market work and what the North American market could learn from them. Only bad thing I saw was when Jared called whales dumb. But, I'm not a whale so I don't take it personally XD

[Arlad]

Yeah, I watch the whole video twice couple months ago and, still don't understand why people are so angry. He's just explaining how Chinese browser games market work and what the North American market could learn from them. Only bad thing I saw was when Jared called whales dumb. But, I'm not a whale so I don't take it personally XD

Well, that's what i'm pointing at this topic.

People should realize, this type of games are NOT aiming for long term profits. Should i remind people about the presentation of R2 games's CEO Jared Psigoda?

[Eskendal]

Well, that's what i'm pointing at this topic.

I know. Still hoping it will be profitable for them for a while.

[mrbamman]

Oh god, that video is so over played and so taken out of context that it's not even a clever response to anything anymore.

No, the english version of the game through R2 will not go 'public domain'. It's not a game that just sits on a shelf, pop it in when you want to play it- it's a live server, that takes money for bandwidth, website, the physical server, and an active host to maintain it because it does need to be rebooted once in a while.

It's so convoluted it's hard to figure out...I know at one time, no one even mentioned proficient city and then all of a sudden it was everywhere

Just to clarify, mrbamman, Proficient is not the developer of the game, they are another english version publisher. The developer of the game is splashed across the loading screen- 7Road.

It's so convoluted it's hard to figure out...not like there is an organizational chart laying around for us