#ck213

Sorry to go on about this one, but it needs to be knocked on the head before people who haven’t got money to fling around do something silly. In short, before people we like get hurt.

Further to our post about this Habs business, Simmers have been passing further comment: Nikkei_Simmer is enthusiastic about it - Mikezumi less so:

Right, so the Habs were 'placeholders' and better ones are the plan.

So where were the screenshots of what they were projecting them to be like?

This is nothing new - way back in the days of the Sinclair Spectrum and its block graphics, the game designer Christian Urquhart gave an excellent interview in July 1984 to Sinclair User about how games back then were put together much the same way they are today - fleshed out from the bare bones. Only difference being back then they didn't expect people to give them money to complete the rest and release it.

Cororon meanwhile came back to that thorny question of 'but what makes it better than any previous version of the Sims series?' - whilst CK213 like us isn't going to trust millions being flung at people with no track record and looking for everyone simply to 'trust' them.

For Evalen, Goulsquash and Suzses meanwhile, it was 'nice scenery, shame about the stick shadows!'

CWaddell and Coco however were certainly not sitting on the fence regarding their feelings on their wish for a bonza bag of wonga in a short space of time.

Unfortunately Emily4331 and ZeeGee appear to have already made up their minds of the awesomeness of this before anything like a finished product has been shown.

ZeeGee's supposed analytical approach to this contrasts vastly to the screaming fangasms she's having over on the Sims Freeplay Unofficial Forum where she's a moderator, and is virtually giving them free adverts.

Indeed, when ZeeGee asks them about the above Simmers' concerns, all she gets in reply is a load of business speak waffle.

And this 'limited on time' line keeps on coming up - anyone else think this sounds too much like standard business hard sell to close the deal 'hurry now while stocks/offer lasts!'

Coco for one ain't buying the spin - she's been there before and knows what makes a good, viable proposition:

We couldn't believe what happened next - after taking on board Coco's points ZeeGee posted this:

But they didn't answer - they flannelled, as you can see in that final post from SFUF. Your enthusiasm appears to be blinding you to reality on this one.

Look at the line where he says:

'We have validated and verified our storyboard, game concept, functionality and overall time line with a two major games studios in Melbourne.'

'With a two'? Looks to us like someone wrote 'a major game studio' first, then decided to go back and big up their story.

That and promising they're going to include bits from Sims 1 to 4 and Sims Medieval smacks too much of saying to us what they think we want to hear rather than a tangible plan.

They still haven't come up for a start with a single explanation as to why they need two and a half million bucks for someone to sit by a computer, writing code. Where's the business plan? Where's the breakdown on what this money is going be budgeted to (wages, research, hiring of third party developers, etc).

After all, they manage to get as far as they have from only their bank accounts supposedly, so where does this sudden need for millions now come from?

There are kids sitting at home coding up games from scratch, only looking for Patroen and other funders once they have something finished to show for themselves - or simply using Steam, etc. as their entrance to the market and allowing the game to stand or fall on its own merits.

Ah, but these guys can't code, can they? They're wanting other people to do the work, which is why it costs so much.

Once again, that being the case, we would sooner people got in touch with Twallan, Aarin and her boyfriend and anyone else with a Simming pedigree who has demonstrated by their actions that they care enough about the game to code for it. Not some strangers simply seeing this as a marketplace gap to exploit and ergo may not have the community's best interests at heart, no matter what the rhetoric about how much they 'care'.

Ray Trevisan is rather fond of paraphrased versions of the old 'if you build a better mousetrap' analogies, well Steam, etc. are exactly that - you don't need massive overheads or marketing budgets when your game kicks the shit out of everything out there on its own merits. The word of mouth in an enthusiastic market will prevail.

Evidence for the prosecution:

Available from Steam as download only for years before it ever became available in the shops - and that game came out only after a four year gestation period out of their own money and very modest government grants.

This Ray Trevison is also another part of the problem. The guy runs a company called OTG which reads like some of the sort of blood-sucking parasites thinking outside-the-box entrepreneurs you see on Dragon's Den no matter what part of the world you live in:

Isn't it funny how whenever you read shit like the above, especially from a self-proclaimed 'socialist', you find yourself thinking about Bastille storming and getting enough balls of wool for an afternoon's knitting watching the guillotine?

From OTG's own website:

So where's the specifics about what clients they have worked for and on what projects? It's standard industry practice to do so.

Anyone can claim they've worked on a project with an Asian multinational telephone company, a governmental organisation, etc, etc. But unless you say it out loud with whom and when (where people can go to the companies in question to double check), then it could all be the bluff of a Puss in Boots for the Marquis of Carabas.

And if they're bluffing about this, what price this project and it's three and half million buckaroos pricetag?

(That's two and a half million in bloody rebel colonists American money, just under two million in Pounds Sterling, and 389 266 galleons, one sickle and five knuts if you're Harry Potter and looking to invest in the next Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes - give the kid his due, he's proved a solid investment strategist...)

We're sorry, but this story is sounding less and less plausible - and some people out there need to take a cold shower before they fling money they can't afford at those whom the kindest interpretation is are completely out of their depths (less kind is they see the Simming community as a bunch of easy suckers).