Jolt closes NationStates 2

[Swartaz]

The flaws are why the game sometimes goes awol

[Daistallia 2104]

OMFG, how did we miss this?

Jolt announces Playboy Manager! 6th May 2009

Jolt Online Gaming and Playboy Enterprises Inc. Announce Playboy Manager, the Massively Casual Online Game!

Dublin, Ireland. 6th May 2009.

Jolt Online Gaming, the leading browser games publisher, is more than a little excited to announce the launch of Playboy Manager, the Massively Casual Online Game (MCOG) you can play on any Internet browser at any time.

In Playboy Manager, you play a crack talent agent managing the career of some of Playboy’s hottest up-and-coming models. Competing against thousands of other players, you will guide your model’s career toward her ultimate goal: Becoming a world-renowned Playmate with a permanent room in the Playboy Mansion!

“We’ve wanted to do a Playboy game forever,” exclaimed Dylan Collins, CEO of Jolt. “As enormous fans of the articles, we jumped at the opportunity to bring the game online for a huge audience. Who hasn’t wanted to manage a Playboy model?”

http://www.joltonline.com/news/10_jolt_ ... oy_manager



If Max doesn't do them down, I'd be surprised if the Hef's boys don't when OMAC tries to screw 'em.

(And, seriously, Max: have your lawyers contact Playboy enterprises as a warning...)

Oh, and I love the outright lie here:

Jolt Online Gaming was founded in 2008

So Jolt was founded by O'MAC'Phail was it???

[Starblaydia]

“As enormous fans of the articles..."

Yes, those two articles right there

[Ayumutopia]

I'm kinda surprised what with NS2 being so stable, well-thought out, and fun and all that.

[Sirocco]

We're well shot of them. They still owe me money for issues I wrote for NS2 and the e-mails I've been sending SINCE JANUARY have fallen on completely deaf ears.

Grr.

[Daistallia 2104]

We're well shot of them. They still owe me money for issues I wrote for NS2 and the e-mails I've been sending SINCE JANUARY have fallen on completely deaf ears.

Grr.

Mmmm... I wonder what Playboy Enterprises would think if various folks OMAC has screwed contaected them iwith due dilligance type info...

Have a lawyer handy, Sirocco?

(I know Max does...)

[Daistallia 2104]

And my most recent comments should indicate the esteem I hold OMAC/Jolt in. There are very, very few people I'd wish a pack of lawyers upon...

[Sirocco]

I'm going to leave any legal fidgy-widginess up to the boss. I've given up on getting the money back and quite frankly I just don't want to have any more dealings with them whatsoever. I guess what really sucks is that I can't include NS2 on my CV. Being paid to write's a pretty cool thing.

[Reploid Productions]

I'm going to leave any legal fidgy-widginess up to the boss. I've given up on getting the money back and quite frankly I just don't want to have any more dealings with them whatsoever. I guess what really sucks is that I can't include NS2 on my CV. Being paid to write's a pretty cool thing.

But would you really want them listed as a previous employer or a reference?

There's been a few rumors I've heard that Activision may get pissy at OMAC, too. A shame I haven't got any verifiable sources. The idea of Activision stomping OMAC brings a wicked little grin to my face.

[Daistallia 2104]

I'm going to leave any legal fidgy-widginess up to the boss. I've given up on getting the money back and quite frankly I just don't want to have any more dealings with them whatsoever. I guess what really sucks is that I can't include NS2 on my CV. Being paid to write's a pretty cool thing.

But would you really want them listed as a previous employer or a reference?

There's been a few rumors I've heard that Activision may get pissy at OMAC, too. A shame I haven't got any verifiable sources. The idea of Activision stomping OMAC brings a wicked little grin to my face.

Indeed. A nd Awesome, if true.

[Gauntleted Fist]

I haven't logged onto NS2 for months.

I don't think I'll miss anything there.

[Hamilay]

OMFG, how did we miss this?

Jolt announces Playboy Manager! 6th May 2009

Jolt Online Gaming and Playboy Enterprises Inc. Announce Playboy Manager, the Massively Casual Online Game!

Dublin, Ireland. 6th May 2009.

Jolt Online Gaming, the leading browser games publisher, is more than a little excited to announce the launch of Playboy Manager, the Massively Casual Online Game (MCOG) you can play on any Internet browser at any time.

In Playboy Manager, you play a crack talent agent managing the career of some of Playboy’s hottest up-and-coming models. Competing against thousands of other players, you will guide your model’s career toward her ultimate goal: Becoming a world-renowned Playmate with a permanent room in the Playboy Mansion!

“We’ve wanted to do a Playboy game forever,” exclaimed Dylan Collins, CEO of Jolt. “As enormous fans of the articles, we jumped at the opportunity to bring the game online for a huge audience. Who hasn’t wanted to manage a Playboy model?”

http://www.joltonline.com/news/10_jolt_ ... oy_manager

[Tmutarakhan]

Tmutarakhan NS2 is where I salve my conscience for the horrible things I do to the citizenry of Tmutarakhan NS1. Maybe when it dies I'll finally start treating the original Tmutties better.

[Palix]

I tried to get into NS2, but it just never took off. The original is much better than the sequel.

[Golden Rebirth]

I'm proud to say that, although I played NS2 for a while (as Random Kingdom), I never gave them any of my money (paying for custom flags just seemed ridiculous, and also I didn't have any money anyway), I eventually got sick of the whole alliance system (route through a massive list of new nations every day to set trade statuses and therefore ruin your nation's trade system, or you'll be kicked out!), and as soon as I read the first "NS2 is no longer associated with Max; NS1 is now independent" post, I thought "Screw this. My loyalty is with Max."

I'd much sooner play a free, independently-hosted game (whose only financial goal is, or was, to promote a novel that was actually quite good anyway - and I would never have bought Jennifer Government if it wasn't for the game) with a long history, great community, and (evidently from his last post) a caring benevolent dictator (or oligarchy?) whose plans for the game don't involve milking its players for all they're worth, than a horrifically buggy knock-off "sequel" with no ties to the original where you have to pay monthly for features that we all take for granted in NS1 anyway.

In conclusion: Good riddance, NS2. May Jolt suffer for its exploitation of an awesome game.

[Anemos Major]

NS2: Less freedom, more tables. I did not sign up to experience modern day capitalism on my screen. There's something a lot more satisfying about, say, writing up entire descriptions about your armed forces as opposed to clicking a button and seeing something telling you that your armed forces are formed up of 2 men and a Renault because you have no arms economy, and because you haven't paid enough money. In addition, RPing a war... well, anything can happen (sometimes, too much happens). In my view, NS2 is the illegitimate child of NS1, who dropped out of secondary school, became a drug addict, failed to get a job and now died in the gutter. In my view, we should hope it doesn't come back from the dead; dig it a grave, bury it six feet under and leave it there to rot.

[Reploid Productions]

NS2: Less freedom, more tables. I did not sign up to experience modern day capitalism on my screen. There's something a lot more satisfying about, say, writing up entire descriptions about your armed forces as opposed to clicking a button and seeing something telling you that your armed forces are formed up of 2 men and a Renault because you have no arms economy, and because you haven't paid enough money. In addition, RPing a war... well, anything can happen (sometimes, too much happens). In my view, NS2 is the illegitimate child of NS1, who dropped out of secondary school, became a drug addict, failed to get a job and now died in the gutter. In my view, we should hope it doesn't come back from the dead; dig it a grave, bury it six feet under and leave it there to rot.

AMEN! One of the things that's kept me playing Nationstates since 2003 has been the utter lack of micromanagement; every other 'run a country' game I've played I got sick of because of the micromanagement and the simple fact that people playing longer invariably have an advantage and could (and would) whomp me. A game loses much of its charm when it's not fun because of micromanagement of stuff.

But here? Freeform roleplay? Choosing who I want to acknowledge and who doesn't exist to me? SWEET!

[Daistallia 2104]

AMEN! One of the things that's kept me playing Nationstates since 2003 has been the utter lack of micromanagement; every other 'run a country' game I've played I got sick of because of the micromanagement and the simple fact that people playing longer invariably have an advantage and could (and would) whomp me. A game loses much of its charm when it's not fun because of micromanagement of stuff.

But here? Freeform roleplay? Choosing who I want to acknowledge and who doesn't exist to me? SWEET!

That I've gone off and joined the gameplayers after 6 years of playing as an RPer/Generalite, but am dancig on NS@'s grave speaks volumes.

[Vitsmunir]

I have mixed feelings about NS2. One of the problem is the multiple world scenario. The second is the hopeless formula about the economy/GDP. The issues are repeating too often and member activities are non existent. On the other hand, some of the features of the game has their advantages. I like the development of industries, the breakdown of the governmental budget, and the ability to join multiple alliances, as well as its (promised but never delivered) war capabilities. I hope it can come back a better game or better yet, maybe updating NS1 to include the features (slowly and steadily, one of the things Jolt didn't do is thorough testing, which lead to economies lurching back and forth, annoying a lot of users).

[Reploid Productions]

I hope it can come back a better game or better yet, maybe updating NS1 to include the features (slowly and steadily, one of the things Jolt didn't do is thorough testing, which lead to economies lurching back and forth, annoying a lot of users).

Well, Max has expressed an interest in adding features to NS1 now that NS2 is dead in the water and disowned. Upgrading NS1 before would have dinged NS2's potential growth as the two would be directly competing. But now that restriction is out the door.

Of course, new features are going to be a (probably very) slow process because Max is more of a writer than a coder, and [violet], contrary to popular belief, has other obligations besides NS =p So keep your fingers crossed; we already have those new WA categories that are in the game (though I think they're presently basically being beta tested.)

[Kyronea]

Incidentally, do we know exactly when Jolt will pull the plug on their Nationstates forums, or is it going to be a sudden out of the blue thing?

[Erastide]

We don't know that they will.

[Kyronea]

We don't? I'd thought it was a foregone conclusion.

[Reploid Productions]

Incidentally, do we know exactly when Jolt will pull the plug on their Nationstates forums, or is it going to be a sudden out of the blue thing?

If we knew, we'd tell you. Supposedly the Jolt forum will hang around as an archive. I'd love to get the damn thing locked and left as a read-only archive; it would get people to finish the transition sooner.

Given that NS traffic accounts for a ridiculous amount of their total forum traffic (and by extension, ad revenue, unless EVERYONE has Adblock on), I'd like to think they won't just toss the NS forums. It'd be like shooting themselves in the foot, they'd be throwing away a sizable chunk of their ad revenue!

On the other hand, we also know that Jolt/OMAC isn't exactly known for making smart business decisions, either. At last check, what little communication we had with them has dried up; for all we know they could decide for some reason to erase the whole thing tomorrow. That's why we've tried to impress on people to backup anything they can't afford to lose for whatever reason. No matter what the folks still posting on the old forum like or dislike, one thing is clear: The Nationstates staff cannot guarantee the safety of anything on the old forum, nor can we promise that Jolt's staff will permit the same amount of discussion on sometimes touchy subjects that we do.

[Kyronea]

Ah, I see. Thank you.