Author Topic: My take on WW2OL (Read 1494 times)

SB · « **on:** June 19, 2001, 09:11:00 AM »

I will grant you that my experience with WW2OL has only been inside the beta. I did not pick up the box version. I'm not going to debate gameplay or appeal to anyone here. We all know that different things appeal to different people. What I will address is the business case of CRS and Playnet.

Can we agree that WW2OL is not ready for prime time yet? Why was it released for a pay to play open beta? I believe that the financial backers pushed the release up to start to recover some of their investments.

Even if CRS sold 50,000 copies of WW20L their take on those sales would have totaled under $500,000. Not near enough to meet payroll for the last two years, much less the developmental costs and admistratitive costs of having a large office. CRS is depending on the subscriptions paying for futher development and maintaing bandwidth and server costs as well as paying for the billing and admin. They are not receiving that money yet and until the game is stabilized and for 30 days after that they won't. When the 30 day free trial is up there will be several people that will not pay a monthly subscription to play. It may not be as big a hit as AH's open beta since people had to buy the box version and most had to upgrade their computers to play. I'm not sure what the CRS business model is and where their break even point was calculated to be but let's take a quick look at a possible scenario.

After the game is stablized and monthly subscriptions start they get a 20% take rate on their game. 50,000 box sales equates to 10,000 customers which equates to $100,000/month income. Multiple routes to the internet are needed so players can get to the server if a router goes down somewhere so you're probably talking $10K/month in bandwidth costs. The staff at CRS numbers somewhere around 25 people and the average salary should be around $4K/month/person so there's $100K. Office space isn't cheap and neither is electricity and phones so figure close to $10K/month there. Misc expenses for 25 people probably run $5k/month and so on. Hmmm they bring in $100K/month and spend $125K or more. Every month that WW2OL runs without a subscription fee will put them furthur and furthur into a black hole. One that they may not be able to recover from, not because of the product but because of financial reasons.

The people at CRS and Playnet hit the dotcom investors at the right time, when there was a ton of excitement about the Internet. Now two years later investors are nervous about an unproven product and that my be the ultimate downfall of WW2OL.

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #1 on:** June 19, 2001, 09:31:00 AM »

All just supposition and actually quite irrelivant.

Play the game... don't play the game. That is what we as gamers decide. My decision has zero to do with anything posted above. It has solely to do with the game itself.

Oh.. and one figure you haven't actually factored in there... monthly revenue for the next two months: $0

AKDejaVu

Westy MOL · « **Reply #2 on:** June 19, 2001, 09:41:00 AM »

Good post and observations SB. IMO, it is quite relevant AKDejaVu. What did two years and 8 million produce? People saw "what" on June 6th. What would two more years and more money create? Who knows. I imagine the investors may have felt the same. Strike while they can during the perfect chance (June 6th, Pearl Harbour, no other major box games being released) to recoup something. Good luck to the preemie. Maybe it will live and maybe it won't.
There have been two years of hype, artfully marketing and questionable development In other words there is now a historical precedent (no I don't mean being infamous or the worst release ever to date) with which to speculate with.

Same with HTC. Same with iEN..same with EA, MS and many more.

Talking about the company and whether it's foundation is solid is as valid as talking about the product because no matter what Hotseat says the two, product and parent company, are intertwined.

-Westy

[ 06-19-2001: Message edited by: Westy MOL ]

Jammer · « **Reply #3 on:** June 20, 2001, 06:10:00 AM »

I object, your honour. That's speculation.

Nash · « **Reply #4 on:** June 20, 2001, 06:29:00 AM »

Anyone care to speculate why I can't seem to find an actual review of WWIIOnline anywhere?

I find it kinda curious...

With the amount of hype over these last two years with WWIIOnline heralding an unprecedented breakthrough in siming nirvana... Fed to us on an almost weekly basis by the various sim websites...

FINALLY WWIIONLINE IS RELEASED!!! YAAAAY!!!! REJOICE!!!!

...... right?

So why no mention of it on at *least* Dogfighter or SimHQ? Does it take two weeks to write a review? Are they keeping mum for a reason? Did Oswald act alone? The truth is out there.

Oh... just found this while lookin' around at SimHQ's message boards. I guess it's a compilation of new slogans for WWIIOnline that people came up with. Cheerleaders pls don't get bent over this... just some humour. Some of em are hysterical.

WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have flying tanks!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have more chat moderators then programmers!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: All your $39.99 are belong to us!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Animal friendly! Our animals can't be killed!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Home of the words dumbest beta testers!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Buy now and we might fix the game!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Buy now, play never!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Buy today, return tomorrow!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Did we say thousands of people would be FIGHTING online at once? Sorry, we meant CHATTING.
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Did you try a reinstall, a better computer, more ram, human sacrifice?
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Dozens playing now, thousands burning rat effigies!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Even we believed the hype!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Everything else just works!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have flying trees!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Two years in planning and we forgot the servers!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Hey, but the box is pretty!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Home of the pay beta test!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: If you close your eyes, it’s almost like it works.
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: What do you mean it’s not working? It runs on OUR machines!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: It will be better in two weeks, we swear!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Now shipping with KY Jelly!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Dozens playing now, thousands writing lawsuits!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Miscalculating on a scale never before seen on the web!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Buy two, we need money for servers!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our customers are so dumb they make excuses for us!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our street signs stop tanks!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our tanks stop for sheep, it’s not a bug!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The largest empty battlefield on the net.
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Get your copy now, supplies limited! (pre bankruptcy sale)
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Quake Sucks! (did that distract them?)
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Over 20,000 copies sold! (for severs that were ready for 500.)
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Released in the U.S.A. only! (we plan to hide in Europe from our angry customers.)
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Revolutionizing the game industry (and ruining it for everyone).
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Servers not included!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Simulated online play!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Home of the slippery grass model!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Don’t buy it if you don’t like it! To late? Hahahahaha, sucker!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The largest battlefield on the net (server being upgraded please stand by).
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The Message Boards are down. We’re not stupid!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The most amazing game you will never get to play!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The most exciting chat room in the business!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The real battle is getting online play!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: It’s not our fault, IT'S THOSE DAMN NEW CISCO SWITCHES!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: It's vaporware, it's a dog!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We sell Bridges too!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We should sell Ram for this pig!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Investing your $39.99 in Ram stock!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: What's a Mac, can I get frys with it?
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: What's Europe?
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We are not Quake (Quake works).
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We don't lie to the customers, we have PR people for that!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have your money sucker!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We train postal workers!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: A prelude to bankruptcy!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We are just trying to be realistic, war is not fun!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Servers up! Servers Down Serves up! Servers down!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Buy the CD now, download a patch the same size later!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Home of dirty code and clean chat (Moderators Included)!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Tin cans and wire not included!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have more 12 year old Nazi wannabees then you can shake a stick at!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Shake a stick and the servers crash!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: It's not our fault you bought the game!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our customers believe in the Easter Bunny!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our customers believe in Santa!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Our customers believe in the Tooth Fairy!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We do business the old fashioned way, we do it poorly!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: Proving that you can sell anything to Americans!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: The American Beta Test!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: AKA Tanks Online!
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: What the hell are F.P.S.?
WORLD WAR II ONLINE: We have more Nazis then Argentena!

[ 06-20-2001: Message edited by: Nash ]

Jammer · « **Reply #5 on:** June 20, 2001, 09:15:00 AM »

Yeah right...have your fun...and I'll have mine.

While [understatement] WWIIO isn't the most polished game to have been released [/end understatement] it's still fun in its own right, for those willing to overlook its flaws.

I don't know why so many seem so angry or upset with WWIIOL...if you don't like it just don't play it. No need to build up to a coronary because of a game...take a chill pill.

*shrugs*

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #6 on:** June 20, 2001, 09:19:00 AM »

If I paid $40 for something with so many promises, those promises had damned well be fulfilled or I would be mighty pissed off too.

As is, since I didn't buy the game, I am not mad, angry or upset.. I'm just having fun at the expense of CRS and some of it's lemming followers.

-SW

Jammer · « **Reply #7 on:** June 20, 2001, 09:24:00 AM »

Well see...I don't mind those poking at WWIIOL, because I know and aknowledge that it has got molto flaws, but I still have a lot of fun. Strange eh?

And if you pay $40 and don't like it you can always return it, right?

*sigh*

Nifty · « **Reply #8 on:** June 20, 2001, 03:12:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by SWulfe:
If I paid $40 for something with so many promises, those promises had damned well be fulfilled or I would be mighty XXXXed off too.

As is, since I didn't buy the game, I am not mad, angry or upset.. I'm just having fun at the expense of CRS and some of it's lemming followers.
-SW

hey, if I'm having fun playing, and SW is having fun at my expense of having fun in the game... well, what on earth could possibly be wrong with that??

I'm happy, he's happy! We're all happy!!!

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #9 on:** June 20, 2001, 03:24:00 PM »

I'm not happy until your not happy Nifty!!!!

-SW

Nifty · « **Reply #10 on:** June 21, 2001, 02:27:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by SWulfe:
I'm not happy until your not happy Nifty!!!!

(Image removed from quote.)
-SW

Well, I'm not happy because you're not happy!! wait, that means you're happy now! I'm happy now!! damn it, you'd be unhappy again... <cycle repeats ad nauseum!!!>

ps - your smilie has a butt that is as smooth as a baby's. Does he shave or use Nair???

Mighty1 · « **Reply #11 on:** June 21, 2001, 02:38:00 PM »

Well I never listened to the hype before WWII came out so I went into it not expecting much.

What I found was a game that allowed me to drive tanks cross country to cities and fight.

I have been a soldier and a pilot, a tanker and a gunner and have fun as each.

Does it have bugs? Sure! But what online game doesn't?

AKSWulfe · « **Reply #12 on:** June 21, 2001, 03:09:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Nifty:

ps - your smilie has a butt that is as smooth as a baby's. Does he shave or use Nair???

Wax and pull.

-SW
ps: Just jokin around w/ya.. if you like it you like it.

Nifty · « **Reply #13 on:** June 21, 2001, 03:44:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by SWulfe:

Wax and pull.
-SW
ps: Just jokin around w/ya.. if you like it you like it.

yup, I know! Someone has to joke around with you, ya know! <S!>

Dawvgrid · « **Reply #14 on:** June 22, 2001, 01:43:00 AM »