need constructive feedback on a project

[IkimashoZ]

If this is considered "spamming", I apologize in advance. I read this forum's rules, and I do not appear to be in violation of them by posting this, but interpretations are subjective, so admins, throw this post in the trash can if it offends you.

I'm working on developing a browser-based MMORPG using PHP/MySQL. I've read the sticky on this forum, which was quite helpful and got me thinking about my overall design. However, my game, which is called "The Online RPG 2," has the number 2 in it because the first one flopped. It lasted about a year, and major reasons it crashed were system imbalance. Although I had anticipated it would take about a year to reach the game's final location, it took most players only a few months. I underestimated such players' enthusiasm for the game. My attempts to add more content and satiate these players' need for more game simply added more complexity to an already broken system. The problems grew and grew with time, and having promised that I wouldn't dump the database, I saw no way out, eventually closing the game. I wish to avoid these problems with this permutation of the game, and hopefully here I can get the advice I need early on in development to avoid such a situation.

Link to the game is in my sig if anyone is interested in checking it out. Please let me know by replying here if you have any suggestions, comments, or especially constructive criticism. Thank you!

[onyxthedog]

If this is considered "spamming", I apologize in advance. I read this forum's rules, and I do not appear to be in violation of them by posting this, but interpretations are subjective, so admins, throw this post in the trash can if it offends you.

I'm working on developing a browser-based MMORPG using PHP/MySQL. I've read the sticky on this forum, which was quite helpful and got me thinking about my overall design. However, my game, which is called "The Online RPG 2," has the number 2 in it because the first one flopped. It lasted about a year, and major reasons it crashed were system imbalance. Although I had anticipated it would take about a year to reach the game's final location, it took most players only a few months. I underestimated such players' enthusiasm for the game. My attempts to add more content and satiate these players' need for more game simply added more complexity to an already broken system. The problems grew and grew with time, and having promised that I wouldn't dump the database, I saw no way out, eventually closing the game. I wish to avoid these problems with this permutation of the game, and hopefully here I can get the advice I need early on in development to avoid such a situation.

Link to the game is in my sig if anyone is interested in checking it out. Please let me know by replying here if you have any suggestions, comments, or especially constructive criticism. Thank you!


It sounds as if you have the skills and the know how, all that is left now is to write as much out on paper and read all the articles in the articles/tutorials section up on the navigation bar by Radu Privantu. Another is to recruit about a 100 bet-testers to beta test the crap out of it.

[rouncer]

Wow, so how many simultanious players were you getting?
Thats amazing, so people actually played your game? Im still scared
that noone will even show up when I get mine out there! :)

[IkimashoZ]

I started development on the original Online RPG in the summer of 2004. By the summer of 2005, it was dead. I had a lot going on in my life in addition to all the problems in the game. I decided to cut the game out of my life to deal with the other problems.

I never had the game actually log currently online users. It was just a status display on the screen. I think the most I ever had simultaneously playing was around twenty.

Is your game still online?