How much of Bill Roper's personal money is being spent to keep HGL alive?

[lockwoodx]

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/5411/screenshot157993thumb30ol7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Wobbley]

He is blowing alot of money on HGL, but its for all those promotional parties :3

[Destroyer72]

Well why would anyone think this game is endangered to begin with ? Without knowing the exact numbers of sales and players it's pretty much one's assumption without facts.

[Asuka Kazama]

Why would anyone think Roper is paying anything out of his own pocket? Ever heard of investors?

[lockwoodx]

Why would anyone think Roper is paying anything out of his own pocket? Ever heard of investors?

Becuase it's fun speculation. Remember the internets are serious business!

[Asuka Kazama]

Not really, cause all it is is a veiled "omg the ship is sinking" poll heh. Roper is livin large. Probably leaves $1000 tips lol.

[Darksaber]

Um, dont EA pay them now?

Im sure Bill isnt destitute, put it that way.

[lockwoodx]

Not really, cause all it is is a veiled "omg the ship is sinking" poll heh. Roper is livin large. Probably leaves $1000 tips lol.

You might have a valid reason to bitch if this wasn't the Plains of Dispair. ;)

[edujackass]

they are using all the money that came from founders offers and the monthly fee now to promote hellgate.

[Asuka Kazama]

They got to run the trailers as commercials and frequently. Now is a good time to do so since nothing big is coming out for a bit. Or rent out the Cow Palace south of FSS HQ and have an HG:L convention with VIP passes to the Roper Room hehe.

[Ave]

Seeing as it was in top 10 bestsellers list for November in US and did equally well in Europe and the servers cost next to nothing cause they are instanced then i should think they are all doing rather well tbh.

[The Fury]

Yeah I don't see what all the goddamn doom and gloom is about, on the official forums you would think the game is dead already because of all the tool kits running around proclaiming that "FSS is bleeding money, and the userbase is dying!" Granted FSS is probably taking a loss at the moment, and the game costs tons of money to develop, but to make it to the Top 10 in sales is no small feat, considering how many games are released in any given month. It's not a you're #1 or nothing type deal, if your game is there it's making someone money, if your game is close to there it is still making money, if your game is top 20 it is still probably making money.

[lockwoodx]

Yeah I don't see what all the goddamn doom and gloom is about, on the official forums you would think the game is dead already because of all the tool kits running around proclaiming that "FSS is bleeding money, and the userbase is dying!" Granted FSS is probably taking a loss at the moment, and the game costs tons of money to develop, but to make it to the Top 10 in sales is no small feat, considering how many games are released in any given month. It's not a you're #1 or nothing type deal, if your game is there it's making someone money, if your game is close to there it is still making money, if your game is top 20 it is still probably making money.

I don't bother with the official fourms. They are beneath me.

[wilebill]

Look, why don't we wonder what brand of toothpaste he uses?

[The Fury]

I personally wonder what brand of underwear he prefers, Bill seems like a fruit of the loom man to me.

[lockwoodx]

Look, why don't we wonder what brand of toothpaste he uses?

Shhhhh I was saving that poll for march. Now you ruined the suprise! :(

[Ave]

I don't bother with the official fourms. They are beneath me.

Isn't it cause you got banned?

[lockwoodx]

Isn't it cause you got banned?

Yeah I got booted from their forums for bruising a few egos. They would lock good constructively negative threads that were trying to get at the heart of some issues, and all because fanbois would wine and cry about it. In a very civil manner I tried to take it to personal messages with some of the mods to get some reasons behind the narrow minded nature of what was going on.

None of the moderators on their forums had personal messages turned on at all which really pissed me off they would stick their heads in the sand like that. I was left with no choice and used the only avenue left at my disposal to communicate with them and created a public thread asking for some explinations as to such shady and cowardly moderation on the official forums of all places where they should be proud of their integrity and interacting with the community.

Their reply was just as cowardly and pathetic as how they had been hiding behind having personal messages turned off. The thread was deleted and I was banned. Under expliantion it's listed as "none". Under time left untill unban it's listed as "never". On the brighter side of things they also cut me off from customer support by cutting me off from the forums. Since I had paid for that support along with my subscription I made it very clear they provide an alternate form of support or give me a refund, and I got a refund.



Wow I did? There is a search function you know ;) This is old News (http://www.hellgateguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10790&page=3) from the countless threads about nazi moderation and over the top censorship on the official forums. I didn't fit the typical brain washed wide eyed blindly nieve fanboi criteria they only allow in thier forums.

[Iuris]

He's sure not to be burning any of his own money. That's what companies are established for, after all - so you can cut your potential losses.

However, I'm sure that many a hoped for bonus has been lost over this game.

[harbinger]

Although doubtful at first, it can be the occasion to ask ourselves :
"What did FSS developpers gave up to give us that game?"

From the senior members, the obvious is : "A job at the world biggest money making machine ever built".

Even if it was because they wanted to start something new, you have to have balls to quit a job where a game like WoW more or less secure the salary for 10 more years (with all the brainwashed people roaming the servers).

And if HG:L sink (which it is still far from doing) then they might lose more than money.

Think about reputation, motivation and so on...

And these don't come in unlimited supply either.

[Asuka Kazama]

Corporate forums 99% of the time have pretty strict posting guidelines. Basically it means when you're in their house you respect their rules which you agree to do when you register.

Granted we're considerably more lenient than the official forum mods but we also have an expectation that people post with some maturity and decorum. We still have rules we ask people to abide by.

[The Fury]

He's sure not to be burning any of his own money. That's what companies are established for, after all - so you can cut your potential losses.

However, I'm sure that many a hoped for bonus has been lost over this game.

Yes Hellgate only reached #6 on the November sales charts and will probably still be top 10 in December. I'm sure they are all mixing the cyanide kool-aid as we speak

[Corth]

oOoh! kool-aid!

I didn't even vote. All I hope is that hellgate keeps goin. More locations and even darker themes. I dont care who spends their money to make it, as long as it's made :)

[Rubix3]

It has been a bumpy road so far , 4 years of development does not come cheap and a possible reason for joining with EA and the early release. It must of hurt a lot of people in the wallet.

[Kriptoniter]

man, you must ask if his liability is limited or unlimited...

[Vogon]

Although doubtful at first, it can be the occasion to ask ourselves :
"What did FSS developpers gave up to give us that game?"

From the senior members, the obvious is : "A job at the world biggest money making machine ever built".

Even if it was because they wanted to start something new, you have to have balls to quit a job where a game like WoW more or less secure the salary for 10 more years (with all the brainwashed people roaming the servers).

And if HG:L sink (which it is still far from doing) then they might lose more than money.

Think about reputation, motivation and so on...

And these don't come in unlimited supply either.

Yes, but freedom to create your own baby has it's own costs and rewards.

I hope this does well for the team.

Who knows, maybe HGL II maybe the WoW slayer ;)

[Pekonitri]

Zero percent.

[Eternalchaos]

to the poster who said HG:L will remain n the top 10 in the month of december.. the figures just came out

HG:L didn't even make the top 10.. here are your top 10 sellingPC games for the first 2 1/2 weeks of Dec (didn't include christmas sales)

CoD4
Sims2: Bonvoyage
Sims2: deluxe
Crysis
HL2 orange box
Sims2: teen style
WoW
WoW:battlechest
Nancy Drew
WoW: BC

Oct they were #2 and #3 Nov #6 Dec not even top 10 :) get that cyanide kool-aid ready. UT3 had "identical' spots and the last #'s show that it didn't even hit 50,000 units yet. Crysis is now well over 100,000. Still I think HG:L sold enough in the first Month (#2 and #3 when it launched those first 2 weeks) + enough people pony'd up $150 for a founders to keep the game afloat for a while

[MadDawg2552]

He might have spent a few dollars getting the company up and running, but once you get investors involved you don't spend a single penny of your money again. If the company goes bankrupt, you collect your last paycheck and lock the doors.

[dprijadi]

attacking bill roper as a person because one hate hellgate is a wrong thing to do.. hellgate isnt made by just one person. lot of ex-diablo member also responsible for its creation.

imho, billroper and team now expanding HGL to korea and japan and i do see great success fro HGL in Korea/Japan as korean is very very fanatic with diablo and HGL is diablo3.

what i see in FSS is that they are not like John Romero and Co. where they waste investor's money in useless things like office decoration etc.. i see FSS guys as serious ones and they really want to create the best game ever.. (in my OPINION, HGL fits that criteria)..

thats all

[Ave]

Nice one dprijadi you managed to resurect a dead old thread thus bringing it to the attention of new people

/slapshead
:cool:

[Strangelove]

/facepalm

and you say you dont like necromancers in diablo?

[lockwoodx]

Nice one dprijadi you managed to resurect a dead old thread thus bringing it to the attention of new people

/slapshead
:cool:

Careful Ave if she digs up too many of my old threads the forum newbies might find out how often I tore you a new one. :mrgreen:

[Ave]

Oh no how will I live with the shame :rolleyes:
You know I think I'll cope somehow, it'll be hard but I'll soldier on.

Hey hold on I put you on ignore, how the hell im I seeing your post??

[dprijadi]

hmm what is the rule here for posting on old thread ? 1 month ? 2 month ? if that so, should old thread be locked before some noob like me post in them ^_^

cheers

[Asuka Kazama]

hmm what is the rule here for posting on old thread ? 1 month ? 2 month ? if that so, should old thread be locked before some noob like me post in them ^_^

cheers

We don't lock threads unless we need to, we just let the thread die. Like I said, people rez old irrellevant threads because they didn't know it was annoying to do so. How old is a matter of judgment. Bringing up a thread which died 2 months ago about things wrong in a patch that was several months ago is a no no but rezzing a thread about the difference between the CE and regular edition of Hellgate:London because you have a question about a particular item is better than making a new thread about it as it avoids clutter. Just please check the dates first =).