timROGERS
04-02-2006, 12:03 PM
I feel that I've wanted to rant about this for a while now, and as I have some spare time today, I thought I'd write something just for the fun of it. Sorry if I sound like a complete moaner but most of the sensible people on this forum will agree with my views.
OK, firstly, I strongly oppose these wannabee Habbo Hotel like chat sites that have no plan, budget or business model. Most of the people that attempt to start them are about 10 years old and have about £2.50 to spend on it, and think that they can make it and be as successful as Sulake. Well, sorry to trample your dreams, but you can't! Before Sulake even started development it had a strong business plan and a budget, which it got from attracting high paying investors that were interested in the dotcom boom.
Firstly, how many of the hotels actually have some form of idea of how they will make money apart from "I WIL SELL FURNIZ PLS" and "I WIL GET NIKE AND ADDIDDDAS TO ADVERTISE AND THEN I WILL BECOME UBER RICH AND LIV IN LYK SPAINZ". You need a business plan, and most of the people on this forum are nowhere near capable of making a decent one. You'll need to hire someone good that can make your idea appealing and not just a pipe dream, and to be able hire such a person, you will need some sort of investment - they'll definetly be wanting £800 a week for there services, and if you find a good name it'll most likely cost more.
Secondly, where is your budget? How many people, at the age at which they play Habbo Hotel are really going to have either the money straight off the make the ideas happen, or the kind of public power to get an investor to just come up to you and say "Here £1 million so your can start Glabbo Hotel"? I doubt anyone is stupid enough to make such a high risk investment, I'm baffled as to how Sulake managed it, although probably the main reason was the dotcom boom before the turn of the milennium.
Thirdly, do you actually have a lone skill or no someone that has the skills to build the actual client? The answer to this question is almost certainly no - think about it, how many people know Lingo and advanced director, Macromedia Server and enough PHP or Java to create a working backend (sort of like Habbo's Housekeeping). If anything, the backend is easy compared to the other things, but actually getting it to change anything in the game is extremely hard, it's not the kind of thing to do as a quick weekend project - you'll have to give up everything if you want to be able to work - if you're too slow your investors will stop your funding, therefore stopping the projects.
Finally, I'm not saying it is totally impossible, as it isn't. Jabba Town and Fusion City are reasonably new and I beleive they will actually get there, but they had a large budget, people experienced in the field (many of the Fusion City people worked for Sulake at some point, and Jabba Town payed Fizz Studios to create it all) and were adults that had the time to get into a project, most of us here are just teenagers, with more important things (like getting qualifications) on our minds.
So, beware before you undertake anything, but if you really think you can do it, just try! But hinder what I've said!
Tim
OK, firstly, I strongly oppose these wannabee Habbo Hotel like chat sites that have no plan, budget or business model. Most of the people that attempt to start them are about 10 years old and have about £2.50 to spend on it, and think that they can make it and be as successful as Sulake. Well, sorry to trample your dreams, but you can't! Before Sulake even started development it had a strong business plan and a budget, which it got from attracting high paying investors that were interested in the dotcom boom.
Firstly, how many of the hotels actually have some form of idea of how they will make money apart from "I WIL SELL FURNIZ PLS" and "I WIL GET NIKE AND ADDIDDDAS TO ADVERTISE AND THEN I WILL BECOME UBER RICH AND LIV IN LYK SPAINZ". You need a business plan, and most of the people on this forum are nowhere near capable of making a decent one. You'll need to hire someone good that can make your idea appealing and not just a pipe dream, and to be able hire such a person, you will need some sort of investment - they'll definetly be wanting £800 a week for there services, and if you find a good name it'll most likely cost more.
Secondly, where is your budget? How many people, at the age at which they play Habbo Hotel are really going to have either the money straight off the make the ideas happen, or the kind of public power to get an investor to just come up to you and say "Here £1 million so your can start Glabbo Hotel"? I doubt anyone is stupid enough to make such a high risk investment, I'm baffled as to how Sulake managed it, although probably the main reason was the dotcom boom before the turn of the milennium.
Thirdly, do you actually have a lone skill or no someone that has the skills to build the actual client? The answer to this question is almost certainly no - think about it, how many people know Lingo and advanced director, Macromedia Server and enough PHP or Java to create a working backend (sort of like Habbo's Housekeeping). If anything, the backend is easy compared to the other things, but actually getting it to change anything in the game is extremely hard, it's not the kind of thing to do as a quick weekend project - you'll have to give up everything if you want to be able to work - if you're too slow your investors will stop your funding, therefore stopping the projects.
Finally, I'm not saying it is totally impossible, as it isn't. Jabba Town and Fusion City are reasonably new and I beleive they will actually get there, but they had a large budget, people experienced in the field (many of the Fusion City people worked for Sulake at some point, and Jabba Town payed Fizz Studios to create it all) and were adults that had the time to get into a project, most of us here are just teenagers, with more important things (like getting qualifications) on our minds.
So, beware before you undertake anything, but if you really think you can do it, just try! But hinder what I've said!
Tim