I'm pleased to announce that Iron Realms has hired Chad McHenry, known as Traithe here, as producer for our next text MUD, based on the work of Raymond E. Feist. Until his hiring, Chad was the head admin and driving force behind Shadows of Isildur, a popular roleplaying-focused MUD.

Welcome aboard Chad!

--matt

I second that. Traithe is going to do a fantastic job with this project. I wish him luck, although I don't think he'll need it.

Hehe gratz traithe!

Is this to say he will not be working on Shadows of Isildur as a driving force in the future?

Ah, thats unfortunate. Its sad to see people sell out, especially what seemed like good people.

Good luck to you.

Traithe's a great pick, a good and thoughtful mud admin. Congratulatins, Traithe, and good luck in your new endeavor! I hope Shadows of Isildur will be able to manage without your driving presence.

I like to think we're getting someone with more than 'just' a coder's skillset too. I have confidence in his abilities as a designer and leader as well, which are skillsets equally as important as coding for what he's going to be doing.

How RP oriented is this new mud going to be? Anywhere close to SoI?

Well, little to nothing has been decided about the game at this point, but it will definitely not be roleplaying required. Roleplaying required games are, with all due respect to those who enjoy them, not popular enough.

--matt

A hobby is an activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure. When your paid for your hobby it becomes your regular occupation.

Iron Realms Entertainment, from the information available on their site, and from general implications from their actions as a company thus far have not been to create products that people enjoy. Its been to create products enjoyable ENOUGH to have people pay for them, and to churn out many to cover many genres and thus get the most amount of people to pay for them as possible. Its stated that the company approaches game creation on a business model.

Unless my perception of Traithe was incorrect, I believed him to be someone who was not in it for the money, but rather creating an enjoyable product that everyone could enjoy equally. (Free, with no gimmicks attached). Iron Realms creates products where the advancement of your character is tied to how much of your real money you put into it. It would be entirely different if they were upfront, pay-to-play across the board.

Money is not everything, I'm afraid. I'd much rather do something I enjoy, for free then, as I said, 'sell out', and make it my perogative to work money out of people.

You entire 'business model approach' to gaming and game-design is really divisive to what has always been a for the players, by the players type of community. All the original code-bases were designed with free-use as a paramount objective in the long-run.

If I love killing people, and made a living doing it, someone would object likely. Personal gratification isn't always foremost. And I'm saddened that people would abandon their hobbies for corporate pittance.


Anyways, good for you I guess.

Congratulations, Traithe, and good luck.