Can you hear me now?

Our phone service is hosed. Here's a message our COO just sent to all employees, which was kinda funny so what the hey:

"It appears a work order for installation of a new circuit has caused confusion with the brainless phone company who has apparently cut service on the old circuit thinking the new circuit was going to replace it. It's not. You might have noticed the orange markings in front of the building. Those indicate the line run for the new circuit to be installed. This isn't the first time Verizon has screwed the pooch, and I don't expect it to be the last. They own the lines in the area so we have no choice but to continue to deal with their occasional incompetence."

While I'm here, in other news, quite a few studios have contacted me about a potential co-venture. I'm not actually looking to ramp up to 4 or so studios all at once, but over the next year. It takes about three months to ramp up with just one studio, fleshing out the game concept, etc. And right now I have one rock solid new studio I'm working with, and I'm meeting with another super-star candidate in a few days. Things are cookin'! I will say that I'm a little blown away by how many studios have, in fact, contacted me (and many I've yet to respond to). It's very clear that there are a boatload of talented, experienced independents looking for a fair shot at making a triple-A original game.

Comments

[Charles E. Hardwidge]

I’m taking a good hard look at the Verizon comments, other developers, and yourself and getting that same old, same old feeling. People do their thing in shades of black and white. I’ve got a point of view I could trot out but I’m not going to. Nobody wants to hear it, or pay for something that’s free, so I’ll just bow, smile deeply, and backpeddle towards the door.

I liked the discussions with Binu Philips, Raph Koster, and yourself, and some of the more informed and instinctive comments from other people. It’s always difficult to properly appreciate what people have to offer and just as hard to make sense in the other direction but, I think, discussion has tended to be more useful than not if you’re of the right mind.

Stay easy.

[Pag]

I'm not surprised you got so much interest in your offer to help other studios. There is no shortage of talent willing to work on interesting new stuff (heck, even without a studio I've been trying to come up with original concepts), but there's a definitive difficulty in getting the financing and support to get projects off the ground.

Do you think 3dRealms could evolve into some sort of game production studio, where you help external teams develop AAA games but don't produce titles yourself? That's kinda how movies are made, and I think there's a lot of potential for companies with that kind of approach. What do you think?

[Game Producer]

Another reason to use Skype :)

[Scott Miller]

Totally. I had a 60 minute conf. call yesterday using Skype, involving people from Canada and Finland, all for FREE. I'm about to switch to Vonage in my home, too. This Internet thingie is really kinda cool.

[Robert Howarth]

Call me old fashioned, but I wouldn't trust a business's telecommunications with an Internet phone service.

[Scott Miller]

Robert,

I've recently put Skype on my Dumb Companies To Avoid list. They make you jump through too many annoying hoops to use for a business -- you can only buy $10 of credit at a shot, and then, after a few times doing this on Paypal and your credit card, they do not allow you to buy more credit!?!? Um,... smart? Not so much.

Well, the do allow for a wire transfer, but talk about too much of a complete hassle, and they still cap you at $10!!! I mean, does this company not have a clue?

They were doing just fine until I discovered this gaping hole in their plan to conquer the world. Time to look into Vonage...