Will this be the first of the mmorpg's that truly cater to the mud market with a graphical interface? Previously, most mmorpg's have been too linear, not really developing a storyline in a way that a mud can. Will Simutronics finally create a graphical environment that can do it?



Whoops, misspelled their name in the topic title.

I think it would be really great if they did.

The MMO market needs to grow OUTWARD in a lot more areas rather than just focussing on refinding a single model of gameplay (level grind).

I also think it would be great if ONCE AGAIN it was a company from the MUDing world that showed the SOEs and Blizzards of the world how to make something truly interesting and innovative.

Yeah, and it sounds like Hero's Journey's combat system may actually be trying to take advantage of the graphical medium to do things that don't really work in text, which will be interesting if they manage it well.

--matt

That would be neat. Certainly worth giving a shot.

Good luck to 'em.

This sounds awesome. I've been saying they need to do something like this for a LONG time, but since I don't program MUDs or graphical games, I could never do it myself.

I'll agree the GM thing sounds very over rated. It's not like people in MUDs and frankly in Everquest etc. don't try to do that, but they just don't have the time for most people. Referring to them as "Genius GMs" made me laugh too. Perhaps if players are allowed to do this GM thing then it could be good, otherwise I don't see what the point of talking about the GM tools is if they're admin tools- players don't care about that. It will probably bring more people to their other games however, and thus to MUDs.

Not to mention that you likely don't have 10+ million dollars!

--matt

Although, if you get 10 million dollars in the near future, we should definitely talk. Definitely. Keep me updated on your 8 figure status please.

--matt

While I applaud their efforts I really can't bring myself to trust Simutronics on any level. Playing Gemtone 3 for a few years soured me to their false promises and utter lack of initiative. However, they talk well, and who knows, maybe this one will turn out.

I think if you are looking for a more 'MUD Like' system in a MMORG, you might want to check out Roma Victor (). They are a smaller development studio that is focusing their game on RP and a more realistic world and mechanic system. The combat especially reminds me of MUDS with its lack of HP and targettable areas (albeit via mouse movements instead of commands). Then again, most games end up being a lot less than is promised, at least initially. I will have to see how it pans out.

Let's see. Simu announced at one of their Cons the projected opening date of HJ..this was back in 1999, I'm pretty sure. Maybe 1998. They projected its opening for alpha testing for 2000. They're still plugging away, 5 years later, announcing the projected opening. Good to know they're consistent, anyway.

If they're really lucky, by the time they actually DO open HJ, it won't be so utterly obsolete that no one will bother.

The current HJ is a completely different project. They dropped the first HJ years ago and restarted this one a couple years afterwards.

--matt

Yep, it's consistant alright. They did the same with the sorcerer guild, and demonic summoning, three different towns, etc. etc. etc.

The sorc guild as I've heard it was completely changed from what it was intended to be. That was after they opened the building that was originally written by players and then gutted and rewritten, then left to gather dust while they worked on some other stuff instead for a couple of years. Demonic summoning was supposed to be this amazing, innovative, unique coding monstrosity, but from what I've heard, it never really turned out to be what it was intended either. Three towns were started, two of them almost completely built, and two of them were dropped entirely. The third was dumped and rewritten, a few years later.

Consistant? You betcha. That's why most of their players attribute the phrase "REAL SOON NOW" to Simutronics, Inc.

Definitely, though if I had 10 million dollars I'd hire Howard Scott Warshaw to remake E.T.  Because I could.  Only, I'd give him about twenty years to make the thing and it would be THE GREATEST GAME EVER FASHIONED BY HUMAN HANDS.