JS> In your opinion.  NOT ours.
  But I'm a gamer, and a potential customer!  Don't you think that matters at 
all?  Whatever happened to user input?  Or is it just getting in the way?
 JS> He'll know when it's released.  That's all that matters.
  So what happens if he just blew his budget on Unreal?  Congratulations, now 
he can no longer buy the game.
 JS> I'm sorry, but deal with it.
  Okay, okay... if I stopped being so inquisitive, would you rethink it?  I'd 
really like to make some headway into the game industry, and playtesting is 
one of the most logical (if not exactly glamorous) methods to do so.
 JS> I'm still here.  But the truth of the matter is that 
 JS> it's because of my own
 JS> personal choice.  If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't be 
 JS> here.  Period.  BBS's are
 JS> dead insofar as vendor support goes.
  Personal choice or not, you're still essentially representing your company 
around here.  If Bill Gates makes a fool of himself at a bar (you're not 
making a fool of yourself, BTW), you can bet that it won't reflect on 
Microsoft very well, even though he's off the job at that moment.
 JS> There will be a shareware episode.  That will not change.  Ever.
  Thanks!  Just don't make it super-short, like Shadow Warrior's shareware 
episode.  I didn't think it was really representative of the full game.  I 
hate to sound cruel, but I also think that you fell into the same trap that 
id did with the original Quake: the best maps were in the shareware episode.  
While the registered game certainly had its moments, it wasn't the same as 
with Duke 3D.
 JS> We have history on our side showing that we can do it.
  Including Shadow Warrior, rated 2 1/2 stars by Computer Gaming World and 
75% by PC Gamer?  I liked it more than that, but history should NOT be used 
as a justification.  Look where that has manged to get some game companies!  
Don't you remember all those sequels where companies basically ASSUMED that 
they would do well because they've done well in the past, and in turn they 
forgot to focus on making a great game?
 JS> you obviously don't get
 JS> it.  We do not want to spoil the fun factor.  When you play it, you can 
go
 JS> "Gee, this is cool" as opposed to "Oh, there's all the 
 JS> stuff I read about".
  I still say "gee, this is cool!" even if I've seen something in a magazine. 
 You forget that seeing a static screenshot or reading a short blurb doesn't 
actually show something to you in action.  I might draw the line at videos, 
though.
--- Maximus 3.01
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