Matrix Games Forums

Because you can long and track who's playing this game? My only concern is that if this game hits its swan song and it will sooner or later my fear is the sever will simply go away unless of course you promise the sever will always be supported as long as m/s is around. Can you guarantee that?

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi guys,

It's not intended as DRM, though I can understand why some might see it that way since it relies on a server. The truth is that it does require additional development time to implement non-server PBEM. For War in the East, we already had non-server PBEM in there when PBEM++ became available. PBEM++ has proven so popular and so much easier than normal PBEM that we wanted to get that in there too, but there was no reason to remove the old PBEM as it was already implemented. For Germany at War, we had a choice to either implement PBEM++ or an improved traditional PBEM system. Between those two, PBEM++ always makes the most sense. I agree that in an ideal world we would be able to do both, but that's not always possible. We have many other games with just PBEM++ and the community has been very happy with them.

If there is enough demand for traditional PBEM, we'll see if it's feasible to add it in. We're not opposed to the idea, it's just additional development time.

Regards,

- Erik

I am not saying you would and I am not saying I would, but I WILL say this much.

I have watched great games, remain great games, but, the security of the file process was lousy if it was anything at all.

I have seen games where competitive play was worthless, as a file being sent is not immune to inappropriate behaviour.

I applaud the development of Slitherine's opponent matching service. As I see it, the ONLY way I will play vs another is WITH their service and it likely will be the reason they DO remain years from now.

You do not need to agree with me of course, but, then again, I am not required to think old style pbem is worth anything either.

Now I do say not having hot seat is a major nuisance. Because in a lot of cases in the past, I was the only person playing the game, and I was ok with that. Its not easy having a board game set up indefinitely, and THAT is really the only thing that makes computer games superior to board games. Playing the AI is not in my opinion a reason.

Remember boys, Slitherine Group is not EA or any of the other companies that make MMOs that burn out fade away and then become not worth the resources. I expect the servers to remain as long as the company remains. I don't see any reason to panic that one of my games might lose something in 10 years though. Most of my games are lucky to be of interest that long to begin with.

ORIGINAL: rogo727
Because you can long and track who's playing this game? My only concern is that if this game hits its swan song and it will sooner or later my fear is the sever will simply go away unless of course you promise the sever will always be supported as long as m/s is around. Can you guarantee that?

No one can guarantee that, of course. I understand this point of view and in an ideal world we'd have both types. I explained my point of view above, that if we have to choose from a development standpoint where to put our time, PBEM++ makes more sense as it leads to more PBEM games and more community involvement. It's as simple as that.

I have no problem at all with normal PBEM and I understand that the benefit is that it will always be there, no matter what. Most of our games have good old manual PBEM, but from the results we've seen, PBEM++ is just a better solution. The only drawback is that it does require a server.

Where we can do both, we will, but I wanted to make sure to explain that it's not a trivial difference development-wise and that we included PBEM++ in Germany at War simply because it works better, not for any other purpose.

Regards,

- Erik