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They already made a game out of it!

I used to play Jumpgate, a fun little MMO Space Sim. There are no "skills" per se, your skills piloting your ship are your actual skills piloting the ship. I recommend a good joystick for this one =]

There is a bit of a grind, as you need to level up your experience level and your reputation (with 3 different factions) to buy most equipment.

The physics are somewhat realistic. To stop your ship, you have to turn your ship around and reverse thrust. Docking is a little tricky, and new players sometimes mess up and wreck their ships in the process. I have done this more than once =]

At higher speeds, the physics become unrealistic, as your ship will reach a maximum speed based on how powerful your engine is. When I first started playing, it was frustrating to slowly chug through a sector and have higher level players with faster ships just zoom right by.

All in all, I had a lot of fun when I used to play. Here's the URL:

http://www.jossh.com/

I see a lot of you are more interested in content than the eye-candy-of-the-month status quo. You should give http://forums.jossh.com/ a look.

Themis [..] is involved with a failing or failed business [..] Jumpgate

I don't know about the others, but Jumpgate - a four year old game - is still very much alive and you can play it right now if you want to. They still have a hardcore group of regular players - and the game is still actively maintained with occasional new content and bug fixes. This is not my definition of a failure.

The company isn't failing either - the creators of Jumpgate, NetDevil, are now working with NC Soft on Auto Assault, a MMO car combat game.

The game doesn't try to be a sim in any way, and the graphics are horrid for the requirements. If you're looking for a space flight sim instead of Duck Dodgers Online, I would recommend Jumpgate instead, which can be found at http://www.jossh.com/

You missed out on Jumpgate.

It's an MMO space sim. Yes, there is leveling, in which you can get clearance to get new weapons and ships, so it's not like everyone's flying the same thing. And while a light shuttle will be atomized by a heavy fighter in a matter of seconds, a good pilot in a light fighter can take down a mediocre pilot in a heavy fighter. And there are a lot of classes of ships; everything from light shuttles to interceptors to heavily armed transports to fighters to freighters to bombers. Equipment is all handled based on a factional system (3 factions; one emphasizes efficiency, one shields, and one firepower).

Unfortunately, Jumpgate's way past its prime. It's still around, but it rarely peaks at more than 100 players anymore. It's a shame, too, because that game has an awesome community.

[gamepimp]

NetDevil is indeed the publisher of Jumpgate, the one and only *persistent world* MMORPG... spaceflight/combat simulator.

But I digress.

The developers at NetDevil are, quite possibly, the coolest bunch of dudes that own a game company there is.

See, in Jumpgate, the developers from NetDevil have not only listened to their players (we have had major game changes implemented following player-initiated ideas), they CARE about their players. In this map HERE, you can see many "sectors" named after famous/dedicated players and/or squads.

"Lothars Landing", a station in the game, is named after one of the original players, who did a LOT to advance the game in early beta. "Klatches' Hold" is named after the giant of Jumpgate fan sites, Gossip, who also happens to be the author of GLUE, a soapbox engine for blogs/discussion sites.

That's just a couple examples. Another is, they named a sector after a player's child that died in a tragic housefire. ("The Chase")

AA, like their first title, should be a great, original game, with tons of potential.

[/gamepimpoff]

Expect to see more of the same in AutoAssault - both in originality, developer understanding, and support of their playerbase.

I don't work for NetDevil, either, but those of us that have been around them for a while (especially us beta testers)can tell you - they're a great bunch of guys to buy from.

I think it'll most definitely be worth checking out. They have a history of being creative, going against the flow of "popular gaming conventions", and trying to do the best by their players. Do yourself a favor, and keep an eye on these guys.

[gamepimp]

NetDevil is indeed the publisher of Jumpgate, the one and only *persistent world* MMORPG... spaceflight/combat simulator.

But I digress.

The developers at NetDevil are, quite possibly, the coolest bunch of dudes that own a game company there is.

See, in Jumpgate, the developers from NetDevil have not only listened to their players (we have had major game changes implemented following player-initiated ideas), they CARE about their players. In this map HERE, you can see many "sectors" named after famous/dedicated players and/or squads.

"Lothars Landing", a station in the game, is named after one of the original players, who did a LOT to advance the game in early beta. "Klatches' Hold" is named after the giant of Jumpgate fan sites, Gossip, who also happens to be the author of GLUE, a soapbox engine for blogs/discussion sites.

That's just a couple examples. Another is, they named a sector after a player's child that died in a tragic housefire. ("The Chase")

AA, like their first title, should be a great, original game, with tons of potential.

[/gamepimpoff]

Expect to see more of the same in AutoAssault - both in originality, developer understanding, and support of their playerbase.

I don't work for NetDevil, either, but those of us that have been around them for a while (especially us beta testers)can tell you - they're a great bunch of guys to buy from.

I think it'll most definitely be worth checking out. They have a history of being creative, going against the flow of "popular gaming conventions", and trying to do the best by their players. Do yourself a favor, and keep an eye on these guys.

[gamepimp]

NetDevil is indeed the publisher of Jumpgate, the one and only *persistent world* MMORPG... spaceflight/combat simulator.

But I digress.

The developers at NetDevil are, quite possibly, the coolest bunch of dudes that own a game company there is.

See, in Jumpgate, the developers from NetDevil have not only listened to their players (we have had major game changes implemented following player-initiated ideas), they CARE about their players. In this map HERE, you can see many "sectors" named after famous/dedicated players and/or squads.

"Lothars Landing", a station in the game, is named after one of the original players, who did a LOT to advance the game in early beta. "Klatches' Hold" is named after the giant of Jumpgate fan sites, Gossip, who also happens to be the author of GLUE, a soapbox engine for blogs/discussion sites.

That's just a couple examples. Another is, they named a sector after a player's child that died in a tragic housefire. ("The Chase")

AA, like their first title, should be a great, original game, with tons of potential.

[/gamepimpoff]

Expect to see more of the same in AutoAssault - both in originality, developer understanding, and support of their playerbase.

I don't work for NetDevil, either, but those of us that have been around them for a while (especially us beta testers)can tell you - they're a great bunch of guys to buy from.

I think it'll most definitely be worth checking out. They have a history of being creative, going against the flow of "popular gaming conventions", and trying to do the best by their players. Do yourself a favor, and keep an eye on these guys.

[gamepimp]

NetDevil is indeed the publisher of Jumpgate, the one and only *persistent world* MMORPG... spaceflight/combat simulator.

But I digress.

The developers at NetDevil are, quite possibly, the coolest bunch of dudes that own a game company there is.

See, in Jumpgate, the developers from NetDevil have not only listened to their players (we have had major game changes implemented following player-initiated ideas), they CARE about their players. In this map HERE, you can see many "sectors" named after famous/dedicated players and/or squads.

"Lothars Landing", a station in the game, is named after one of the original players, who did a LOT to advance the game in early beta. "Klatches' Hold" is named after the giant of Jumpgate fan sites, Gossip, who also happens to be the author of GLUE, a soapbox engine for blogs/discussion sites.

That's just a couple examples. Another is, they named a sector after a player's child that died in a tragic housefire. ("The Chase")

AA, like their first title, should be a great, original game, with tons of potential.

[/gamepimpoff]

Expect to see more of the same in AutoAssault - both in originality, developer understanding, and support of their playerbase.

I don't work for NetDevil, either, but those of us that have been around them for a while (especially us beta testers)can tell you - they're a great bunch of guys to buy from.

I think it'll most definitely be worth checking out. They have a history of being creative, going against the flow of "popular gaming conventions", and trying to do the best by their players. Do yourself a favor, and keep an eye on these guys.

[gamepimp]

NetDevil is indeed the publisher of Jumpgate, the one and only *persistent world* MMORPG... spaceflight/combat simulator.

But I digress.

The developers at NetDevil are, quite possibly, the coolest bunch of dudes that own a game company there is.

See, in Jumpgate, the developers from NetDevil have not only listened to their players (we have had major game changes implemented following player-initiated ideas), they CARE about their players. In this map HERE, you can see many "sectors" named after famous/dedicated players and/or squads.

"Lothars Landing", a station in the game, is named after one of the original players, who did a LOT to advance the game in early beta. "Klatches' Hold" is named after the giant of Jumpgate fan sites, Gossip, who also happens to be the author of GLUE, a soapbox engine for blogs/discussion sites.

That's just a couple examples. Another is, they named a sector after a player's child that died in a tragic housefire. ("The Chase")

AA, like their first title, should be a great, original game, with tons of potential.

[/gamepimpoff]

Expect to see more of the same in AutoAssault - both in originality, developer understanding, and support of their playerbase.

I don't work for NetDevil, either, but those of us that have been around them for a while (especially us beta testers)can tell you - they're a great bunch of guys to buy from.

I think it'll most definitely be worth checking out. They have a history of being creative, going against the flow of "popular gaming conventions", and trying to do the best by their players. Do yourself a favor, and keep an eye on these guys.

If you like spaceflight that is not just point and click, but actually requires skill with a joystick, check out Jumpgate

Last night on Netdevil's Jumpgate, a pseudo-physics based space-sim, we noticed a small influx of new players. We didn't ask them, but we think it has partially to do with this.

For you EnB'ers who are on the lookout for another space-sim, Jumpgate has a (free!) trial download, with 10 days free. It's also one of the cheapest MMPOGs on the market, at 9.95/mo.

It has a robust (while not quite realistic - even in space your ship has drag. It makes it easier to fly. Otherwise docking would be a nightmare. What I don't like about the model is that ships have hardcapped "top speeds" .. but I can ignore that for the most part.) flight model. Flying a cargo tow with several hundered units of Iridium is MUCH different than, say, flying a medium fighter with no cargo. Bring your joystick for this game, kiddies.

PvP is a main aspect of the game, with guild warfare and pirate tools. If you don't like PvP, but still like combat, there are always the purple space creature menace, Flux, to eliminate. The other aspect is the realistic economy - from miners comes raw materials, which stations refine into processed materials, which combine into products like missiles and engines.

Artifact hunting is another thing to do, but I haven't looked much into it.

Granted, the graphics are slightly out of date - but it's not about the graphics... It's about the gameplay! If you're close-minded and simply want another point and click MMPOG, don't try this game. If all you've played are point-and-click MMPOGs in the past, take it for a spin. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised.

Disclaimer: I do not work for NetDevil, nor do I have any affiliation with them other than being a paying customer.

EVE is just point&click and requires no skill to play, on top of being extremely boring. There is a small game out there called Jumpgate. It doesn't have the eyecandy that EVE has, but its flight and physics engine is superbly done and the game requires decent hand-eye coordination to be able to fly around. Community is small but very friendly. The emphasis is on PvP, but there are players of every type. Most of the RP is player driven, and money can be made in various ways. Communication between players and devs is constant and open. The download of the game itself is not very large (121MB w/music 53MB without) and 10 day free trials are available. Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement, but the game is really great, and the people who play are very passionate about it.

Anytime you're playing a game with very concrete game mechanics, you're forced to play inside of those mechanics. Sure, you can try and "flex" your way around the mechanics if those you're interacting with agree to breach the mechanics - but it still doesn't escape the fact that the experienced is flawed in some way.

My simple point is that electronic games with strict mechanics and no "dungeon master" type player is not a good vehicle at all for proper roleplay, at least not compared to pen and paper games where imagination is king.

The only MMORPG-styled game I currently play is an online space sim, Jumpgate. Its community management is done by the Themis Group, who do a pretty good job at maintaining the official event-driven RP of the game. That said, RP outside of the official Themis mold is a bit weak, since they can do things to alter mechanics (economy changes, terrain changes, etc) that we players cannot.

There's a game that tried this. It's called Jumpgate. They partnered with 3DO. 3DO screwed them by putting nearly 0 marketing into it and assuming all rights to the game.

Then Netdevil bought the game back from 3DO and are running it themselves, quite profitablby I might add.