duplex
12-07-2009, 05:24 PM
Hello Community,
I am happy to see the worlds of Face of Mankind filled with people. Open Beta has begun and it looks promising indeed.
Now I would like to take a moment to explain a few things that I always wanted to say. I would like to speak about the state of the game and a possible future of Face of Mankind. My words come out uncensored and I didn't want them tweaked or polished. So please keep all the language errors you might find for yourself. Maybe you could sell them on eBay one day.
Face of Mankind has a long history, a very bumpy history I have to add. Most of you know that it wasn't easy for us to develop this game and bring it out to an audience that would love playing it. The first try back in 2006 wasn't very successful. The game had many problems, of which the technical difficulties were the most obvious. The Face of Mankind server technology has come a long way since then and I can certainly say that we now have something we can truly build upon. We have also revised many aspects of the game, of which some may not be understood by you right away. Rest assured that with us (Duplex Systems and Nexeon Technologies) you can be sure that things will never stand still. We are constantly changing the game and are never afraid to take risks for the long-term good of the game.
Those of you who don't know, one thing is important to note, though. We are not a large team and we have very limited resources. Actually, I can say that we created this game mostly out of our own pockets, for many years now. Limited resources means we have limited man-power, resulting in things usually taking a lot longer as with bigger companies such as you all know from the MMO market. It also means we don't have much money to spend on fancy new content, artwork or comprehensive marketing campaigns. God knows we would really love to do all that. There are so many ideas and concepts for new features and content that would keep us busy for a lifetime.
I'm telling you this mainly so you can understand why the things are as they are. Why some things take longer than expected or are not completely polished when they come out.
We are doing our best, though, and often more than that. Face of Mankind still has flaws and weaknesses. We are aware of them and we're not ignoring them.
We will constantly work on improving every aspect of the game and we appreciate your help and input in the process.
Face of Mankind does not work very well in a closed community, which is the main reason for taking the game into Open Beta. Not every new player will immediately like the game, as it is VERY different from the MMORPG standard. If you are new and are helpless in FoM, always talk to your fellow faction members. There are quite a few veterans who mostly welcome you with open arms if your open for new experiences. Once you are past the first difficulties, you will most likely find fun and excitement. A good start would also be watching the comprehensive tutorial that is included with the Open Beta installer package. Even though it can't cover all aspects in detail, it should give you a good overview of most of the features in Face of Mankind.
We have planned for Open Beta to last about 2 weeks. After these 2 weeks there will be 2 types of accounts available: Free accounts and premium accounts. You will hear about the details of those in due time. We will tell you what advantages a premium account give you, or what limitations free accounts have, however you want to see it.
Now it's clear that in these next 2 weeks we won't be able to perfect everything. But we have to move on and, to be honest, get the dollars and euros rolling so we can add new features and content and generally improve on the Face of Mankind experience.
As what kind of things can be expected in the future, there will be a more detailed "Roadmap" revealed later on. But to give you an idea, there are many plans including new worlds, NPC's, new objectives and items. We understand that overcrowding is slowly becoming a problem in the Dominion and to help ease this we will be adding the first additional world very soon.
I would like to wish everyone a good time in Face of Mankind. Even with things not being perfect, I am sure the game has something special to offer.
EDIT: Since many seem to be worried about another wipe, I'd like to add the following. After discussing the question in the team, if nothing goes horribly wrong, we see no need for another wipe. :)
-duplex
I am happy to see the worlds of Face of Mankind filled with people. Open Beta has begun and it looks promising indeed.
Now I would like to take a moment to explain a few things that I always wanted to say. I would like to speak about the state of the game and a possible future of Face of Mankind. My words come out uncensored and I didn't want them tweaked or polished. So please keep all the language errors you might find for yourself. Maybe you could sell them on eBay one day.
Face of Mankind has a long history, a very bumpy history I have to add. Most of you know that it wasn't easy for us to develop this game and bring it out to an audience that would love playing it. The first try back in 2006 wasn't very successful. The game had many problems, of which the technical difficulties were the most obvious. The Face of Mankind server technology has come a long way since then and I can certainly say that we now have something we can truly build upon. We have also revised many aspects of the game, of which some may not be understood by you right away. Rest assured that with us (Duplex Systems and Nexeon Technologies) you can be sure that things will never stand still. We are constantly changing the game and are never afraid to take risks for the long-term good of the game.
Those of you who don't know, one thing is important to note, though. We are not a large team and we have very limited resources. Actually, I can say that we created this game mostly out of our own pockets, for many years now. Limited resources means we have limited man-power, resulting in things usually taking a lot longer as with bigger companies such as you all know from the MMO market. It also means we don't have much money to spend on fancy new content, artwork or comprehensive marketing campaigns. God knows we would really love to do all that. There are so many ideas and concepts for new features and content that would keep us busy for a lifetime.
I'm telling you this mainly so you can understand why the things are as they are. Why some things take longer than expected or are not completely polished when they come out.
We are doing our best, though, and often more than that. Face of Mankind still has flaws and weaknesses. We are aware of them and we're not ignoring them.
We will constantly work on improving every aspect of the game and we appreciate your help and input in the process.
Face of Mankind does not work very well in a closed community, which is the main reason for taking the game into Open Beta. Not every new player will immediately like the game, as it is VERY different from the MMORPG standard. If you are new and are helpless in FoM, always talk to your fellow faction members. There are quite a few veterans who mostly welcome you with open arms if your open for new experiences. Once you are past the first difficulties, you will most likely find fun and excitement. A good start would also be watching the comprehensive tutorial that is included with the Open Beta installer package. Even though it can't cover all aspects in detail, it should give you a good overview of most of the features in Face of Mankind.
We have planned for Open Beta to last about 2 weeks. After these 2 weeks there will be 2 types of accounts available: Free accounts and premium accounts. You will hear about the details of those in due time. We will tell you what advantages a premium account give you, or what limitations free accounts have, however you want to see it.
Now it's clear that in these next 2 weeks we won't be able to perfect everything. But we have to move on and, to be honest, get the dollars and euros rolling so we can add new features and content and generally improve on the Face of Mankind experience.
As what kind of things can be expected in the future, there will be a more detailed "Roadmap" revealed later on. But to give you an idea, there are many plans including new worlds, NPC's, new objectives and items. We understand that overcrowding is slowly becoming a problem in the Dominion and to help ease this we will be adding the first additional world very soon.
I would like to wish everyone a good time in Face of Mankind. Even with things not being perfect, I am sure the game has something special to offer.
EDIT: Since many seem to be worried about another wipe, I'd like to add the following. After discussing the question in the team, if nothing goes horribly wrong, we see no need for another wipe. :)
-duplex