- This topic has 27 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 19 years, 8 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Hey, over on Al Lowe’s message board, and other message boards, the rumor is Sierra is developing a new Leisure Suit Larry (even Al admitted he heard the rumors, although he isn’t involved). On Al’s message board, someone got an email from Sierra in response to another email saying a new LSL was currently in development. Well, I fired off one too to see if I could get a reponse, but I don’t know if I have the address right. Is
Link:presscontact@sierra.com (mailto:presscontact@sierra.com)
right? Sierra’s website doesn’t seem to have an email for comments, just technical issues. So, does anyone know of Sierra’s email for a question like this? Or did I get it right the fiirst time?
Thanks,
Nate -
(re: Rumor Is a New LSL Is In Development, But I Have a Question….)
Well there was also a huge rumor just recently about a new Space Quest also… and several things that even seemed to suggest it… the only thing that bugs me if there is a new LSL… is that Al will not be on the team… then it’s not LSL… just another knock off with the LSL title… Al is LSL… -
(re: re: Rumor Is a New LSL Is In Development, But I Have a Question….) Yeah, I heard that Space Quest rumor too. Apparaently it’s been cancelled (AGAIN). But that may not be a bad thing. Apparaently they wanted to add some action elements to the design, which by Space Quest’s nature, they shouldn’t have. But oh well! Hopefully in a few years, when the adventure genre gains a little more steam, a new ADVENTURE Space Quest VII will come. And I dunno about a new LSL being bad if Al Lowe isn’t onboard. He does embody all LSL is, but 6 games is enough reference material, and sometimes change is a good thing.
But, does anyone have a new email address I can use to email Sierra? Like I said, I used
Link:presscontact@sierra.com (mailto:presscontact@sierra.com)
, but I don’t know if it worked. If anyone has another one, please share!Thanks
-
(re: re: re: Rumor Is a New LSL Is In Development, But I Have a Question….) Hey all! I got some great news (and some bad news)!! I got an email back from Sierra (guess I had the address right all along) and the email confirmed a new Leisure Suit Larry is in development!! He said there wasn’t any other information he could give at the time, so he didn’t (he didn’t say whether or not it was a adventure game, but I hope it is). He also mentioned Space Quest (this is the bad news). He said a new SQ was being looked at, but was shelved due to low interest. While that’s bad for Space Quest, I’m still happy about a new LSL. If the game does well, it may lead to more adventure games from Sierra, like maybe a new King’s Quest, Police Quest, Quest for Glory, Gabriel Knight, and Space Quest. Anyway, here’s the message he sent and the one I sent.
{
As for the Quest games, Space Quest was being looked at, but got put on
the shelf as tests showed there wasn’t much interest. I do know the LSL
is in development, but don’t have much more info at this time than that.Michael Bowman
Manager Online Support
Vivendi UniversalPlease include all previous messages when replying.
—–Original Message—–
From: Nathaniel Basque [mailto:iamonecrazymofototheextreme@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 3:04 PM
To:presscontact@sierra.com
Subject: New Adventure Games?Hi there! I’ve been hearing some recent rumblings that Sierra is working on a new Leisure Suit Larry game. I know this goes against the whole “since it’s not announced, don’t talk about it” policy that’s been carried so many times before, but is it possible for you to give some confirmation that a new LSL game is in development? I’ve been a fan since the early days, and a new game in the series would really make my day! If the game is in production, I hope it stays true to the series’ roots as an adventure game
and I hope Al Lowe (the creator of LSL) can be involved somehow! Even if a new LSL game isn’t in development, I would like to throw my support behind a new Larry game. Same goes for King’s Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, Gabriel Knight, and Police Quest. I believe all these series deserve another sequel (and many more sequels to come!) as they represent some of the best the adventure genre has to offer. The adventure genre is starting to make a comeback (due to the high number of recently announced adventure games, even from Lucasarts!) and I hope Sierra begins to contribute new adventure games to the market, as they use too.Thanks for your time,
Nate -
(re: Rumor Is…)
It was long-known that a new SQ game was in the works and then cancelled. I’d bet there’s more interest in SQ than in LSL, certainly SQ is potentially more marketable. I don’t think anything Sierra does is going to revive those old game series and adventure gaming. The best thing they could do is re-release their classic series in bundled packages… but they won’t do that because then they’d have to tech support them, and they wouldn’t want to do that, nor would they want to go to the trouble of making the games compatible for new systems. Furthermore they wouldn’t sell unless Sierra did a nice job of packaging them together and that would cost too much money too.
-
(re: re: Rumor Is…) I can where your coming from, but I have to disagree. While Sierra isn’t what it use to be, they’re still a good company. I enjoy many of their new games, even if they aren’t adventure. Sierra is the business of making money, that why they haven’t been producing adventure games, since the genre wasn’t that profitable. If the adventure genre did become profitable again, you can bet Sierra would be right there, producing adventure games. And adventure games are becoming profitable again. Action games are a dime a dozen nowadays, and a new genre (or an older one) is going to resurface due to a resurgence in interest. More and more adventure games are actually making money (look at Syberia and The Longest Journey, they both sold very well), and as a result, more and more adventure games are being put into production. At this year’s E3, there were more than a dozen adventure games on display (tripled what it usually is), and a good chunk of them looked good. Dreamcatcher is starting to gain some momentum in the industry, and Lucasarts is making a comeback with Full Throttle II and Same & Max: Freelance Police. Sierra most likely knows they’re sitting on a goldmine of adventure properties, just waiting to come back. If this new Leisure Suit Larry is an adventure game, it’s most to likely to test the waters, to see if an adventure game can make a profit. If the new LSL does well, you can bet Sierra will bring out more properties.
As for adventure collections, I don’t see why Sierra won’t produce new ones in the near future. If they go to Ebay, they’ll see that adventure collections fetch a pretty price. This shows there’s a demand for them. The production of a new collection wouldn’t be that much, the games are already produced. All it would need are updated system requirements, maybe an emulator that can reproduce the specs of earlier computers (to fix speed and sound problems). -
(If it were me…) If I were running Sierra today, I’d be tempted to do a online massively multiplayer game based on Space Quest.
Chris, my son, is playing Star Wars Galaxies, and is addicted. I’ve been watching him play .. a very cool product. If something like that were done, with a good sense of humor – it could be a awesome product.
That said, the development cost for a game of that sort has to be in the $5 million plus category. You would need a LOT of subscribers to make it pay out. So, it’s easy for me to speak, but I’d have to really think about the potential market. -
(re: If it were me…)
Ken, that’s an interesting comment. I remember you saying before that even if you had retained control of Sierra, you may have moved the company away from adventure games anyway. If you were running Sierra now, and planned to make a SQ MMORPG (did I get the acronym right?!), would you see it as an adventure game? Or more as a way to attract the market that Lucasarts has already developed with the Star Wars games, since it’s also a space theme?
In other words, what is it about Space Quest that would make it a better “massively multiplayer” game than King’s Quest or Quest for Glory? (I’m not suggesting that one of the other franchises would be better, just wondering why you mentioned Space Quest.) Do you have any opinions on what the Myst people are trying to do with URU?
I’m just curious — I’ve never played an MMORPG (although I am tempted to try The Sims Online) so I don’t really know what they’re all about. Guess I’m wondering about what “might have been” if you still controlled Sierra in today’s market…
-emily
ps I just tried to update this post, and was given the opportunity to update your post instead. It’s working now and i’m not sure I could replicate the problem. After writing my post, I clicked the “Click here to see your message” link, and then might have clicked “Previous post” to re-read your post, before clicking back to mine. Then when I clicked Update, the text of your post about Star Wars Galaxies appeared in the edit box…
-
(re: re: If it were me…) Emily:
I’m working on the code now that updates messages. I’ve not seen what you’re reporting before – so, I’m not sure if I fixed it or not.
Your question about why I think Space Quest would make a good massively multiplayer game is a good one.
Roberta was watching Chris play Star Wars Galaxies last night and made the comment that she would like to do something similar in a Kings Quest-style world. I suppose any theme could work – although I still like Space Quest better than Kings Quest.
My thinking (off the top of my head):
A science fiction game can have things like teleporters, for rapid movement
Kings Quest should be family oriented, and not have fighting (although Roberta and Sierra disagreed on this point) – for a massively multiplayer game, I think people would want to fight sometimes .. a sprinkling of fighting fits Space Quest more so than Kings Quest
Massively Multiplayer games are kind of “geeky” at this point in time – I’m not sure they are mainstream. They are something males 25-45 play, not people my age, kids, or even most females (yes – I know this is a sexist comment – but, I believe stats would prove my point). The demographics of a Space Quest would match this audience better than Kings Quest’s demographics (which were very balanced across age groups and sexes).
-Ken W -
(re: If it were me…) This isn’t quite Star Wars Galaxies, but Clan Lord is perhaps one of the most interesting on-line games out there. I think this humorous flyer sums it up best. The community on the game is just awesome. Maybe more importantly, the involvement from the game’s creaters is very high, even though it’s more of a MMMORPG (Moderately Massive Multiplayer…). It’s a classic. I’m a college student who can’t afford on-line games, but I look back on when I played the beta 4 years ago and smile. Just smile.
One of the things Clan Lord shows is that you don’t need five million dollars to make a game where the essesence of it is revolutionary. I’m on a quest (more of impatiently waiting and trying to figure out just what it would entail) for a “new” game – a game with something that I haven’t seen or played before. For example, I’m very excited to see what Bill Roper and the other 3 who left Blizzard North will do with their new company.
To continue with my train of thought, I’m fully expecting that if a new game does materialize (which it most certainly already has but has not yet been found by me), it’ll happen by a smaller company, and will probably never reach the masses due to the fact that it’s so easy to buy big budget games. That’s part of what was lost when the mainstream game industry switched from little guys to giants. Then again, the small game industry before the giants took over was just about as large (probably smaller even) as the small game industry today.
To me, I have huge amount of respect for the little fantastic games, and they stay closer to my heart than the mainstream games do. Another example of a great game that had an original idea with a small or nonexistant budget is AirBurst. The game play is simple yet original, the graphics are attractive, but the experience is revolutionary (so was the price of $5). Yet another example are most of the games made by Ambrosia Software. I consider it an asset to a company when I, just another customer, can chat up the president via a conversation. When the company gets huge, that’s usually not possible.
These games may never reach the height of popularity or bring in as much money as say, Everquest, Unreal Tournament, or Star Wars Galaxies. But to the people they do reach (like me) they create memories. That’s a certain part of their charm. I can always show them to somebody who hasn’t played them before. For me, they fulfill that which is lacking in today’s mainstream game.
– Mike Belisle
p.s. Yes, all of these are Mac links. One thing I like about the Mac is that the developers who are content with just reaching the Mac market have a habit of just making great products. When some of my favorite companies – Bungie, for example – have hit the big time on Windows, the charm has gone away. I think it’s largely due to the need to now satisfy 10s of millions of gamers instead of to satisfy a million. That charm is further deteriorated when supporting the Mac starts being percieved within the company as a liability instead of an asset. To continue with Bungie, their old series Marathon had charm and spunk. It was original and it was a trendsetter. Halo however, is good, but it has neither charm nor spunk. If you don’t have a Mac anymore, I apologize for all the Mac links… Ambrosia has had some of their games ported. I’d highly recommend Escape Velocity: Nova (a series which has a format that is also ripe for the online world).
p.p.s: This post also doesn’t deal specifically with Sierra. But I feel the message of it embodies something that existed at some point in Sierra’s history. -
(re: re: If it were me…) Great links!
I actually haven’t played any games in a LONG time. I know I should, but I’ve been busy coding on this – and, I have a one-track mind. I will pass along your message to Chris (my son) – but, my guess is that he isn’t thinking any other thought except Star Wars right now.
-Ken W -
-
(re: re: re: If it were me…) Random thought I had: I hear Vivendi Universal Games is for sale… 🙂
I’ve thought a few times about whether or not I would ever get back into the business. With my old company for sale, it’s pretty tempting. Roberta and I have spent some late nights talking about it. But, we always finish the discussion with the same answer: no.
Maybe someday that will change, but not in the near future. I do hope that somebody buys it, that wants to do great things – and, that whoever the new CEO is they cals me so that I can pitch in a few ideas on how to restore the company to its prior leadership position. Roberta and I really do think of Sierra as our child, and no one wants to see their child fail. One of my governing philosophies at Sierra was that I wanted to build a company that would still be there for future generations. Every decision at Sierra was about trying to build a company that could grow and survive for 100’s of years. Unfortunately, after the company was sold, the new owners focused so much on short-term results, they lost sight of the long-term. It’s a very sad situation.
Oh well…
-Ken W -
(re: re: re: re: If it were me…) You should get back in the buiness! I think it would be awesome if you and Roberta started again at Sierra! That company goes through CEO’s like no one’s business, and it would be great if you got the job again. When you were the head of the company, Sierra was always successful, but after you stepped down, the company kinda took a nosedive in industry position and a bit in profits, I think. It’s obvious that when the company was in its prime, you were incharge. You would think someone at Sierra would put two and two together and give you call.
Just out curiousity, if Sierra did call you, and wanted you to come back as CEO, a consultant, or something , would you take the position? You seem like your on the fence about whether or not you want to get back in ‘biz, and maybe all it would take is a final push :).
But anyway, I do really hope someday you get back in the business someday. I’d kill for more variety at Sierra than just FPS and RTS. I’d also trust you to handle older Sierra properties than just some guy looking for profits. I’m sure you wouldn’t rape any of the older series, but instead return them to their former glory. -
(re: re: re: re: re: If it were me…) Here’s a funny story (actually it’s a story that really irritated me):
Last year, I met with the guy running Sierra to see if I could do anything to help (a guy who has already come and gone). He mentioned that prior to his arrival, the people above him had commissioned a research group, for a huge pile of money, to study why Sierra was failing.
During the 18+ years I ran the place we consistently grew and were profitable. Since then, I really have no idea how they’ve performed – but it’s fairly obvious if you go into a software store that they’ve lost market share.
So… what did the research say? It said they should try to “go back” to the Sierra that existed before – including bringing back some of the old series. I never actually saw the report. But, that is how it was summarized to me.
Here’s the part that bugs me. If it were me doing the report, and the company had been profitable for 18 years, then lost money for 7 years. And, if I were charging someone huge money for the report: I would call the guy who ran it profitably and ask his opinion. How they were able to turn in a thick research report and never call me I can’t understand.
I know this makes me look petty, and ego-istic. Yes – my feelings were hurt. But, all that said – it just seems obvious to me they should have at least asked – even if they ignored everything I said.
Oh well…
-Ken W -
-
(re: re: re: re: re: Rumor Is a New LSL Is In Development, But I Have a Question….)
While the game won’t be the same without Al attached to it, if it’s a good game who knows what will happen. Hopefully it’s good. I saw screenshots of a game Sierra is developing based on the Lord of The Rings series, called the Hobbit and the screenshots look pretty nice. So who really knows until the game is actually done and out. Al usually answers emails. I’ve talked to him many a times. I guess the best thing is to ‘wait and see’.
-
(LSL without Al???) According to the latest news on the Allowe.com message board (who knows whether or not it is true) there will be a new LSL coming up. To me as a devoted LSL fan this is some great news…
But: What I read in some of the messages on this forum is quite a shock to me. How can someone possibly say LSL could ever exist without Al Lowe?? You can’t be serious. LSL is nothing without Al’s unique sense of humour and creativity. Personally I am convinced that Al put a part of himself into this awesome character and if Al won’t be there for Sierra, there can be no Larry for Sierra fans. Creating a new Larry without Al Lowe is like stuffing a puppet and I am not sure I would want to spend money to see this puppet dance. I really can’t help but not care about some Hobbit-screenshots. What I want is Larry Laffer and I want Al Lowe to make it for me. Just look at Daventry, or what become of it without Roberta’s supervision. It’s King’s Quest minus the charms and the magic. The result is nothing more than another dumb run-a-round and put-that-key-into-that-door kind of game. Does anyone here really want to see the same thing happen to Larry? I don’t!
If anything of those rumors should turn out to be true, it is time for the Sierra (Larry) comunity to show what it is worth and make Sierra hire Al in order to make our Larry live on!
doern -
(re: LSL without Al???) I asked Al about it. Word from Al himself.
I have absolutely no involvement with any game currently in production. I heard from Sierra employees that a new Larry game is being developed. I offered my services to the person I was told was in charge of its development. To date, I’ve heard nothing. Why? I don’t know. I’d love to work on another Larry game. Perhaps they don’t consider me qualified.
No, Al you are the only one qualified. There is no way im gonna buy the game. -
(re: re: LSL without Al???)
Al Lowe is awesome. In the 15 or so years he did games for Sierra, they always exceeded sales estimates, and came in on, or below, budget.
Al was very unique at Sierra in that he was one of very few designers who also managed the development of their own projects. On the early games Al even did some of the coding. On MANY occasions I tried to persuade him to take over all of development as VP Engineering.
Why Sierra elected not to involve him in the development of the latest Larry game is totally confusing to me. I’m sure someday I’ll hear their reasoning, and maybe I’ll go “aha.. that makes sense” .. but, I’m not betting on it.
-Ken W -
-
(re: re: re: re: re: re: If it were me…) Well, say they did call you to ask your opinion, what would you say? What suggestions would you give to help make Sierra more profitable? Would you suggest they start producing adventure games again? Would you suggest they re-hire some of the old designers? More aggresive marketing? Suggest they re-hire you as the CEO 😉 ?
You say he said the report was to find out why Sierra was failing; they’re failing? I knew they weren’t doing as well as when you were onboard, but they’re failing? Seemed to me their action games were doing pretty well.
I actually have a thought about why Sierra isn’t doing as well these days. During your reign, most of the company’s games did well, but what I think really made the company so popular was its brand name. During the late 80’s and early and mid 90’s, when you saw a Sierra product, you knew it was quality made. You knew the people who created it actually cared about making a fun game, as well as making a profit. When you looked through a Sierra catalogue, you learned not only about a game, but it’s designers as well. I remember reading about Space Quest III in an older catalogue, I also read about Scott Murphy and Mark Crowe. You knew what kind of games they made, so next time you say their names on a Sierra box, you knew what kind of game you’d get. When you bought a Sierra product, it came with extras, like a comic, or some other thing. I know most of those things were just copy protection, but they were made fun to read and use, like for Space Quest IV, The SpacePiston Magazine. It had the copy protection within it (a necessary), but it allowed you to interact with the game without actually playing, giving more bang for your buck! That was fun! You also had good customer service and customer policies. Sierra seemed like a company that actually cared and tried to EARN people’s money. Nowadays, you don’t know anything about the designers of the games, there are no extras for the games (they just give you a box, the game, and a manuel), and there isn’t any real customer service. They just make a flashy product to catch your eye, but ultimately, doesn’t deserve your money. You’d think with all the CEO’s Sierra’s gone through, one of them (besides you) would actually care about the company and look into ways to make it more successful, instead of a quick fix to raise profits for that fiscal quarter. -
(re: re: If it were me…) Here’s a link to an interview with me that answers many of your questions:
http://adventure-treff.gamesurf.tiscali.de/artikel/interviews/ken_williams_e.php
Link: (http://www.sierragamers.com/default.asp?msgId=16271)There is “zero” chance I’ll ever again be Sierra’s, or any other large company’s CEO. Been there, done that.
If someone asked my advice about how to run any consumer product company, I’d say things like:
Focus on happy customers Focus on great product Focus on building product that is unique in the market. (some people run surveys to see what sells to decide what to build – I ran surveys to see what people wanted, that wasn’t already in the market) Focus on long-term results. If you always focus on a 10-100 year plan, the 3 month plan usually takes care of itself
With respect to games specifically, it’s not easy to say what I would do. Somewhere on this site there’s a powerpoint presentation I did a few years ago about how to build great games. I’ve been out of the games business for nearly seven years. I’ve played exactly zero games during that time. I’ve visited a computer store maybe five times (to see what new games Sierra has shipped). I’ve visited Sierra’s offices only one time. In other words, I am a horrible person to ask about running a game company in today’s market.
Things I do know:
Outside development is a sucker trap. Sierra shut down the internal development group and went outside. Don’t ask me why. There ARE times to publish products developed outside, such as Half-Life, but that should be the exception, not the rule. Even with a Half-Life, there are traps you can fall into. The big money in games today is not on the PC – it’s on the video game systems. I’m not saying that no one should produce games for computers – but, my sense is that the industry for PC software today, is like the old days when I had to make a decision about how much to spend on building games for the Mac – you need to match spending to projected revenue- and, if the market isn’t big enough to justify the investment, you make tough decisions. Multi-player gaming would still be an area I’d be interested in, but with caution. Lots of money has been lost chasing multi-player games. Sierra’s success came from my support of creative talent, and by focusing talent on products that made sense for them, and, on my strong belief that one strong author makes or breaks a project. Even when our products weren’t perfect (which they never were), the designers personality still came through in the product – and, if you like the designer, you’ll overlook flaws in the game. If you don’t like the subject matter, or the designer, a “perfect” game won’t entertain. Marketing is everything. Sierra was a well-oiled marketing machine. I’m a huge believer in supporting developers, but only after marketing has confirmed that the target market exists, and that the sales forecast justifies the investment. Focus on people, not product. Good people tend to build great product. Look at a persons track record. If their last game sold well, there next one is likely to. Don’t get fooled into supporting losers. I’ve watched lots of people who were clever talkers, and who spend days explaining why their game would have been a hit – if marketing had pushed it harder, or if the packaging had been better, or this or that. I’ve seen whole companies ship dozens of products in a row, all of which failed, each of which had a “good excuse”. I was known in the company for having zero tolerance for failure, and extreme support for winners. If your last product sold, you get a bigger budget for the next one. If it didn’t, I’ll still help you, but only to write a resume. If you study the entertainment business you will see that companies that are brutal about only hiring people who have “commercial success” tend to fair better than those that have a reputation as “nice guys”.
Anyway…
As I said earlier, I haven’t the vaguest idea how Sierra is doing, or how the industry is doing, or even what kind of games sell these days. If I were running a software company today, my first six months would be spent researching, and only then I would have meaningful opinions.
When I called Sierra last year to see if I could help, there was a specific thing I thought I could do for them. My hope was that they would have me visit with the developers every 3-6 months during product development, to look at two things; 1) is it on track to ship, and 2) does it look like it will be fun? Neither of these things require any “current” industry knowledge, nor any major time investment on my part – yet, are both skills that I definitely have.
Does that answer the question?
-Ken W -
(re: re: re: If it were me…) I think that answers any questions I had. I can understand where you’re coming from.
I’m looking forward to seeing how revolutionary your web site development idea can be. Since you mentioned doing research, what have you found in any research you have done about other companies with products like this? I’m curious as to your take on products such as
Link: PHP-Nuke(http://phpnuke.org/)
.
– Mike Belisle -
(LSL without Al???) I don’t know whether anybody ever replied to the question that had come up concerning an e-mail address one might possibly send complaints or ideas to. However I wanted to ask once again in case somebody has any suggestions.
The idea that stands behind it is to try to organize some kind of petition in case there actually is something to those LSL rumors and Al Lowe really is not involved!
doern -
(re: re: re: LSL without Al???)
Ok let me reiterate what I posted. I didn’t feel like writing a huge thesis on here about what this game might be like. Ok, it’s most likely going to suck, BIG, and maybe it’ll be the thing that finally kills this beast of a Sierra. What I was trying to say was that who knows what this game is going to be like. Yeah, No Al=sure fire death to Larry, but an attempt is being made, albeit a poor excuse of one and Al should have been the one to do it. I agree Larry isn’t Larry without Al Lowe. Unfortunately, we don’t have him involved with the project. Although I feel that if we do a boycott before the game is even out, it’s more reason for Sierra to not do anything with any of the old franchises and we’ll never see them again. I’m not a huge PC gamer these days for obvious reasons. I only turn my machine on to play the old games that we all are on here to remember. There’s nothing out there worth playing in my eyes, and Sierra doesn’t seem to want to listen to what we have to say. Well they did with this new Larry but are doing it all wrong. My point being in my last post was that who knows what this is going to end up turning into. Hell the project might even get shelved like all the other attempts Sierra has made. We don’t have the old company to work with here and they’re not giving up the rights so who knows what will happen. As for my referencing of the Hobbit, I only mentioned it because it’s the first in house developed game that I’ve personally seen lately, that was all. It’s probably going to suck as well, but it did look nice, is all.
-
(re: re: re: re: If it were me…) “I think that answers any questions I had. I can understand where you’re coming from.
I’m looking forward to seeing how revolutionary your web site development idea can be. Since you mentioned doing research, what have you found in any research you have done about other companies with products like this? I’m curious as to your take on products such as
Link: PHP-Nuke(http://phpnuke.org/)
.
– Mike Belisle”
Thanks for the link to php-nuke. It seems like a cool project, and one worth studying. I love all the stuff in this category. I’ve always been a fan of anything that brings people from around the world together.
As to how revolutionary my code will be: that’s an interesting question. I’m kind of curious myself. My primary focus on “revolution” is on the simplicity side. Sierra fans are not representative of the rest of the world. Sierra fans are smart, aggressive, inquisitve, ultra-computer literate – and, persistent. Normal people aren’t bad – but they don’t have the computer literacy that the readers of this board have.
Remember TSN? The revolution I reached for with TSN was to open online gaming to senior citizens. This is forgotten now, but the first 100 users of TSN were in their 70’s and 80’s, and had never used a computer. I’m VERY passionate about computers. Opening their use to a new class of people excites me.
My goal for this code is to open website creation to people, and groups, that would never dream of doing such a thing. Currently, only about 1 millionth of 1% of the world has ever built a website. I personally think it would be cool if everyone could. And, I mean a REAL website – not just a couple of static webpages. Websites are communities without geographic boundaries.
If my long-term goal is simplicity, “why is this site so confusing to use?”, you might ask. I would respond that it isn’t finished yet. I see this as a 20 year project, not a 90 day project. That said, there are already some things I like a lot. Building a new website, with a unique URL, with user authentication, multi-level security, file upload/download, photo galleries, etc – takes about 15 seconds. The resulting website is VERY configurable by the person who created it – and, very dynamic. Putting up a departmental intranet is no big deal. Putting up a website for your church group is easy. Cub scout troops with their own websites – easy.
I will know if I’ve succeeded or not with this code, and if I’ve done anything revolutionary or not, when if a year or two from now there are groups that would NEVER before have considered doing their own website – who build them regularly.
Make sense?
-Ken W -
-
