nwg

Old post from JMM on the Lordz site :

Quote:

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:27 pm Post subject:

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After Les Grognards 1, there will be Les Grognards 2 (it's not the right name ...) with all other countries, and their doctrines.. The mini-campagn feature will be improve to support the campaign of 1815.

BTW, I would like to say LG1 proposes a mini-campaign mode (30 * 22.5 km).. At this day, it's only for MP or PBEM because the Great Tactical AI isn't able to produce good Operational plans.

But first, Les Grognards 1

JMM

On line battles will be very interesting in as much as who the better LG players will be. I wonder if good NTW players can also make good LG players. There may be the familiar faces (or player names) that excel at LG or we may meet new ones. I think the game will attract more people who are interested in the Napoleonic period historically and slightly less of the players who look primarily at the gaming aspect. In any case if it means me getting battered a lot less....then bring it on!!

IR

I'm sure your right, some like the challange of controlling every last unit like in ntw2 and others like the "bigger" picture where units can be ordered to do something and the detail of the movements can be left to the AI to carry out the players orders. I fit somewhere ablout half way between the two I think.


Yes, I bet your right, there is a mass of people waiting I'd say - in the background.......lets hope for hundreads of players in time, instead of just 20 or so as in ntw2.

I think you may be right on that one Gun, you only have to look at the forum for this game, there's a few familiar players that are easily recognised (yourself included) but most are definitely new to me. I've tried to find out the number of members that are registered on the forum as a rather rudimentary indication of support the game is likely to have but can't seem to find this out. It definitely looks as though there is significant interest beyond our rather small current group.

IR

I'd say so.....I'll be very surprised indeed if LG does not attract a lot of very serious interest when it appears.

I'd also guess it will be a very different type of "crowd" to the current ntw2 lobby players.

Hundred of MP type guys who stick around for the long haul..lets hope so. Initially though, theres got to be literally thousands of purchasers or I fear you won't see a lot of ongoing interest from JMM. He's poured years and years of effort into this game and if we want/expect support for a year or so after release then the man has to make a living. Remember, whatever the sale price of the game, the retailer and distributor (ie; battlefront) will need a cut for handling and support, so JMM will only see a fraction of the retail sale price (hopefully a large fraction, but it may no be).

I have to laugh sometimes when reading a post like I've seen often on the EiA Matrix website, some well meaning player will suggest a change that programmatically will mean a lot of work but he'll justify it by saying that he and his 4 mates will all buy a copy of the game. Honestly, you could probably earn more money flipping burgers at your local fast food establishment than designing, programming and selling most software. Guys see success stories like The Creative Assembly and Blizzard and assume everyone is rolling in cash...the grim truth is that wargames of the type we all like to play usually barely break even.

Cheers, M (who hopes for a minimum of 5 figure sales)

Don't get me started on this.......I'm always saying to anyone that will listen pople always want something for nothing, far too much now days people will not pay "full price" for anything. Everything is wanted on the cheap.

Think this though for a moment - at £50 a copy, say 20,000 sold you get ONE MILLION pounds.

Now that has to be divided up between JMM's 4-5 years working full time, the guys who are helping out, Battlefront, distributors and shops (if used). Also production cost's if it comes with a nice CD and manual - I hope so, I like big thick manuals.

That would perhaps be like a break even point, or maybe a small real profit (in very round numbers I'm talking here) so to make proper money either the cost has to go up, or more than 10,000 copies need to be sold !.

And that is if the game is reasonably successful!! You should also take into account that there is an element of risk that the game may not be as warmly received as we are expecting and as a result sales flop. In this case it's 4-5 years work for very little reward. In the end it's a gamble like any other business venture.

IR

Actually, what mention Moopere is the crual reality.

LG could be interesting a certain community of players but quite small in term of market.
LG would need a strong Marketing campaign before it is released, i wonder if BattleFront is well sized for that. BattleFront seems to be a quite specific entity targeting the wargamer market. No idea what this market represents, maybe important in the USA.

So far, the LG marketing is very limited, maybe due to uncertain release date. I would expect many articles in magazines & some advertissment pages.

But wisely said by Moopere, let's see how LG1 goes then we could speculate over its next step.

On the other hand, despite it's not same game style, if we think about how SHOGUN did start in 2000, (unknown game historical background, no anterior references from CA) we could sincerely hope that LG will make it through and get stronger.

Frog

Just imagine...
300-350 nwg group members buy that game and form the nwg community of LG. Some of us fight for empire of france, some for allied coalition.wah!
...and course with joining the histwar community...

Interesting thought, maybe a lot of those 350 are waiting for a "proper" Nap game before they join up to groups like N, KO, grogs, NBC etc.......and start to take part in MP Nap games.

Like you say, if they all get LG we should have no problem getting LG games......it's the big question of how long will a 3v3 LG game take and will it be a good stable system.