Re: Make Up your mind: Game or Business (was Re: World Developers Needed!)

On 20 Jun 2006 10:32:03 -0700, "Occult Entertainment"
<entertainment.occult@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

And why would we pay money to our developers when we don't make any
ourselves and we give our product away for free?!?
And as far as our NDA shrieking anything in superhuman tones...let's
get back to reality for a second: it exists for a reason. We don't want
anyone else claiming our ideas. We give full credit to people who
submit ideas and help us out - as well as to our developers - but they
are still OUR creations. Why shouldn't they be protected? We've spent
years developing these things. (Although you can't tell by the tiny
amount of information on our site about some of our projects - but that
will change)

After watching some of the messages going back and forth, I finally
decided to take a look at your website and some of the ideas expressed
therein.

Before I say anything about the ideas, though, I'd like to know who
proofreads your website and when you'll be drowning him in a bucket of
sludge. I'd like to watch, but if you're charging admission....

Now, on to some of what you've provided regarding your product(s).



Zymph

Suns
That's right. Zymph has three suns - "Phaeros", "Aereos", and
"Sauruos". This does not mean that the three-sunned planet is a
perpetually hot place - it has the same temperature conditions as our
Earth does. The suns are nothing more than stars that are closer to
the planet than our own...

The first thing I thought of, the very first, when seeing this was
"The Three Suns of Amara" written by (I had to look this part up)
William F. Temple in 1962. Why do I remember this? Because when I
was in junior high I made a short film, trying to replicate the light
(3 suns, 3 different colours, complex shadows) described in his story.


Moons
Although Zymph is commonly referenced as "The Three Sunned Planet",
most people don't know that it also has two moons. These moons, or
"Nyla" and "Aylana", as they are called, are large and beautiful to
behold. Many a Zymphian has spent hours gazing upon their beauty...

Mars has two moons. Admitted, they're small, not large, but still...

(Just as an aside, who refers to it as "The Three Sunned Planet" but
also doesn't live on it and thereby know that it has two moons? I
thought you said this was a fantasy environment, not a science fiction
one.)


Calendar
There are 12 months in the Zymphian calendar: Naru, Vem, Nue, Ly,
Temb, Gaust, Gara,Yam, Cem, Lir, Aeur, and Tobo Each month has a total
of 28 days, and each day has a unique name: Urda, Dun, Dir, Ture,
Desar, Sur, and Nod.

Hmm. 12 months, 28 days to a month, and 7 unique "day names". Wonder
where that comes from? Admitted, our (calendar) months average 30
while our lunar months are 29.5, but still...


Seasons
Zymph has the four standard seasons just as our Earth does, and they
occur in the following months:
Winter: Tobo, Naru, Vem
Spring: Nue, Ly, Temb
Summer: Gaust, Cara, Yam
Autumn: Cem, Lir, Aeur

Bog standard.


Holidays
Yes, Zymph has holidays just like Earth does. Although none of them
are the same, they are there - here are a few of the better known
ones...

1 Naru, Godsday
A Universal Zymphian holiday. A day to honor the Gods. Shops close,
people tend to stay with family and close friends. It is generally
believed that doing bad things on Godsday is not very smart and will
bring the wrath of the Gods - all of them.

That's how a lot of our holidays used to be, until they got
commercialized.


13 Temb, Day Of The Dead
The second and only other major holiday in Zymph besides Godsday that
closes shops, it is a time for Zymphians to honor the dead....a time
to honor all of those one has loved and who has passed away...Illyanas
followers, however, deal with the holiday a bit differently. They
believe one should celebrate death, rejoicing and embracing it. They
believe that death is a part of the circle of life, and thus should be
respected, revered, and treated like any other aspect.

Sort of like Mexico's Day of the Dead?


Timeline

0 The Awakening
A time in history where Zymphians simply came to conciousness. Wise
men say man was not created then, but was wiped clean of past
transgressions and given another chance.

500-501 Time Of No Magic

763 Monomoi
Ygrydr Qng broke away from the Tharu-lal, taking a small band of
followers with her. After a long journey, they settled on an island
(which they named after her) and began calling themselves "Monomoi"
(which means 'they who are seperated') Unfortunatly, Ygrydr never got
to see her people become a civilization - she died from a heart attack
as they reached the island they were to settle at...

Sort of like Moses taking the Israelites to the promised land, then
dropping dead as soon as he got them there? Nah.


900-1000 Time Of No Kings
A time when Zymphians simply had no ruler. This was ended after the
coming of the Ilum'na, the order of wizards who took it upon
themselves to bring order to zymph and crown the new king...

1015 Invention Of Airships
By Cermonius Tunn.

2000 The Endtimes

Locales

Locale (Island, Continent)

Monomoi (Ygrydr, Kanandor)
A group of elves who rebelled from the Tharu-lal and live underground,
isolating themselves from the world. They do not seek contact with
anyone from the outside world nor do they encourage it.
There are two differences the Monomoi have from their darker cousins:
for one, they are inherently good, and for two, they only use magic
through tatoos.
They are the only known civilization that does this.
SEE TIMELINE

Hmm. Good elves living underground, evil elves living above ground.
Well, at least it provides a better reason for the evil elves being
dark and the good elves being pale. But is it an original idea? No.


Organizations

Ilum'na
They whom crown the king. These individuals are comprised of powerful
wizards (sorcerers are not accepted) whom rarely speak - in a group,
only one is aloud to to. (The highest ranking.)
They pulled Zymph out of the Time Of No Kings by crowning a king and
giving him Ilum'na guards, and have been crowning kings since.
No one quite understands WHY they choose the individuals they do
(bloodline means nothing to them) but there choices thus far have been
very good ones. Except for one king (King Larimor the clumsy), all the
kings they have appointed have done great things before they died...





Welcome to Dark Earth - a dark vision of Earths present...and
future...

Just out of curiosity, are you going to go after Microprose for
releasing a game called "Dark Earth" in 1997? It was a game about a
murder in a post-apocalyptic Earth that had it's atmosphere loaded
with dust after a close pass by a comet.


What is Dark Earth? And why is it called so? Well, the "what" is
simple - Dark Earth is our Earth. It has the same history, the same
technology, and the same calendar.

So why is it called Dark Earth? To understand this, one simply has to
look at the events about to unfold...

Earth has always been a feudal planet. Wars over religion and ways of
thinking have rocked our planet since time primordial.

So it surprised no one when a large group of Muslim extremists
attacked Israel.

What did surprise some, however, was the result.

The United States reaction to the attack was swift - troops poured
into the small land, and many innocent people died. Surrounding Muslim
countries ordered the United States to retreat, saying too much
innocent blood had been shed.

The United States refused to budge.

A Jihad was declared, and a holy war unlike any ever seen before was
begun.

With super technological weapons and equipment at their disposal, the
United States seemed guaranteed to be the winner - until China stepped
in, saying the US had stepped out of bounds, and Russia joined the US,
saying they had every right to be doing what they were doing.

Soon afterwards, the rest of the world chose sides.

The Earths first true World War soon took place.

No one knew who launched the first nuclear missile. It triggered many
others though, and the Earth was soon devoid of life...

Okay, I've got to ask. Do you *really* think that the above scenario
is an original idea with you?


...Somewhat.

Several groups of people from different societies saw the inevitable
nuclear outcome, and made their way underground to avoid it. These
groups eventually banded together, and a large society was formed.
They had a great amount of technology at their disposal, and enough
supplies and science to survive for an indefinite amount of time.
As the bombs fell, the underground dwellers felt the tremors...but
were safe from the radiation and nuclear fallout that destroyed the
rest of the species.

Hmm, how many stories? Let's just pick one - A Boy and his Dog.

And how many games? Let's pick... hmm... Aftermath.


But all was not harmonious.

Civil war began underground.

The people divided themselves into two large groups, and eventually
separated from each other.

The group that left had very little technology and food, and were
forced to find ways to survive on their own.

And thus they did.

Years passed. The Earth was devastated not only by the effects of
Nuclear war, but also by meteors that pounded into the small planet,
putting up layers of dust that blocked the suns rays and froze the
tiny planet over.

Hmm. A nuclear war backed up by a series of meteorite strikes.
That's original, as far as I can remember. Silly, but original. Of
course, it's exactly like an interplanetary war where one side's
throwing rocks at the other's planets (as was done in several Skylark
novels, written in the mid 1930s)...


More years passed. The planet began to thaw.

The humans underground, who had been monitoring the planets condition
with their advanced technology, prepared to surface. The entire time
they were underground they did things to prepare themselves for this
glorious moment - skin treatment so they would not burn when they
finally arose, eye treatment so they would not become blinded by the
suns rays...

The smaller groups of humans who separated from the larger also
prepared - but they had changed much in their time apart from their
brothers. Because of the lack of technology and food, they turned to
cannibalism. When they realized that this would ultimately lead to
their death, they developed a plan - if they simply drained people of
blood, they could survive off of the other foods they discovered and
created from their underground environment.

Eloi and Morlocks, anyone? Or perchance "Vampire Planet"?


So they separated themselves, raised groups of themselves to be
mindless cattle with the sole purpose of feeding the others.

Soylent Green is *people*!

Alternatively, read "The Shiva Option" by David Weber. The "bugs", a
spider-like race, overruns human colonies and then breeds the humans
as a food supply.

Or, find any one of a number of modern vampire stories (such as Blade)
where vampires refer to humans as cattle.


This worked well, and they soon developed other unique technologies to
help them better survive in their harsh environment strict workout
regimens, age-defying technologies, strength and speed augmenting
drugs.

For only 19.95 a month, you too can be the vampire you always wanted
to be! Order now!


These super-humans were the first to rise from the darkness. It was
hard for them to adjust to the suns light, even though it was still
weakened by the dust of the meteors, and they found themselves prone
to skin burns and blindness.

They retreated back underground, developed protective lotions and
contacts for their skins and eyes, and they rose again.

They quickly built a city, and began propagating all the while keeping
with their blood drinking ways.

They developed clans, and the members of the most powerful clans ruled
over the weaker. Cattle were still raised all over the city, which
they dubbed Nexus, and hundred of years passed in this fashion.

Vampire clans. Vampire clans. Where have I heard of those before?


They came to greatly outnumber their more technologically advanced
brothers, who were still underground, preparing to rise.

This is the Earth that the technologically advanced Humans - the true
Humans - rose to: a Dark Earth, in more ways than one...

True Humans, hmm? Sure they're not Pure-strain Humans?




Welcome to MuN, a super-futuristic vision of Earths future.

Calendar

Calendar
MuN uses the standard Federation Of Planets dating system, which
appears like this:

CYCLE.DATE.TIME

CYCLE
Like Earths Year. A CYCLE is what DATE counts up to. When DATE reaches
365, CYCLE increases by one.

Lots of stories use "cycles" in place of the term "years". Unless
they're using it in place of "days", of course.


DATE
Like days in our current calendar, but they are not divided into
months. Imagine taking the calendar starting with January, removing
the months, and letting the days continue their enumeration (up to,
obviously, 365) and you have an idea on how DATE works.

So you're saying we're going back to the Julian dating system? It's
been, what, 475 years since we started switching from Julian to
Gregorian, I guess it's due for a revival.


TIME
The 24 hour clock.

So, if you wanted to tell someone that an event (say, your birth)
happened on the 900th cycle on the 5th, 5:30PM, you would simply tell
them:

900.5.530

Wouldn't they say 900.5.1730? Or does their clock roll from 2359 to
0000 at noon?


The Federation Of Planets

Too bad they're not United.


An entity formed by MuN and several other of the major planets to try
and keep peace throughout the universe.

The universe, hmm? They can't be satisfied with keeping the peace in
the (running downscale) filament, supercluster, cluster, cloud,
galaxy, spiral arm, or star cluster?

Sounds like they work hand-in-glove with the Lensmen, who keep peace
throughout the universe (well, in E.E. "Doc" Smith's stories, written
in the '30s and '40s, they do).



So, are you going to give credit for your ideas to those who've used
'em before? Or are you going to say that they're *your* ideas, and
nobody's ever thought of a post-apocalyptic world before?

As Sea Wasp (sort of) said, the odds on your ideas being original are
very, very small.
.

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