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The reason most farmers are so despised is simple: They aren't players. Their intentions are to make the game easier for one group: their clients. This leads to a total disregard for other players. They will cheat, steal, scam, spam, gamble, and backstab in any way necessary to achieve their ends and make a buck.

More fuel for the fire is the old Themis group article:(ironically, they consult with farmer companies.)

http://www.themis-group.com/uploads/Pitfalls%20of% 20Virtual%20Property.pdf

Found him... The Escapist is created and published by the Themis Group (http://www.themis-group.com/ which has an office in Durham, NC.
Henry Maxwell Steele ( http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/tnauthors/authors/stee le-m.html ) lives in Chapel Hill, NC, which is close enough to Durham to be considered "hugging" it. Apparently, 80 year olds speak in the 3rd person.

For a more thorough discussion of virtual property "ownership" than the links given in TFA try:

"Pitfalls of Virtual Property" by Dr Richard Bartle

Links:

Original PDF

HTML version from google's cache

SOE is notorious for launching games with content that is not finished or buggy (SWG Launch, EverQuest Expansion end game content, etc.). Blizzard on the other hand is known for at times delaying a game, and then delaying a game again just to work out all the minor bugs.

The question I would like to ask Slashdot readers is if it worth launching a game early, yet buggy to grab a certain market from competition? I know Themis group thinks a poor launch can cost a company millions of dollars http://www.themis-group.com/uploads/Cost%20of%20La unch.xls, but will the benefit of launching early exceed the costs?

Brian Whitener

http://www.gameguidesonline.com/

[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.

Dr Bartle works for the Themis Group a company that has a unique specialty of promoting online games. You can find his company bio here.

According to this he also currently works for the Themis Group.

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.

Jessica was contracted to Turbinegames [website] by the Themis Group [press release] where she is helping bring that game around.

It's interesting in that one chapter in the story says more programmers wont make it go faster becuase AFAIK Asheron's Call 2 the game she's bringing around has only 3 coders working full time on the game in production. It's even to the point that one of the leading websites AC2 Warcry the site manager quit out of disgust of the game's lack of vision into the "Elder" game. While the Site Manager says he still plays the game it's not the only other game with the same issues. It's a too common occurance in many new games and presents a challenge to all future game developers to not have these mistakes.

I guess the old site manager must be a progressive customer. He wants more content!

Jessica Mulligan does indeed have one of the longest and most respected resumes in online games. I was distantly acquainted with her back in 1989-91 when (as Richard Mulligan) s/he was product manager for GEnie's online games, and even then her knowledge of the field was extremely comprehensive.

Now she's involved in The Themis Group, an interesting venture that basically lets online game services outsource their customer support. (Another notable figure on the Themis team is the esteemed game designer Greg Costikyan.) Given the problems some online game companies seem to have with customer support, sometimes regarding it almost as an afterthought, I wish Themis well. They're good at conveying the important message that an online game company isn't selling the game, it's selling the service.

Jessica Mulligan does indeed have one of the longest and most respected resumes in online games. I was distantly acquainted with her back in 1989-91 when (as Richard Mulligan) s/he was product manager for GEnie's online games, and even then her knowledge of the field was extremely comprehensive.

Now she's involved in The Themis Group, an interesting venture that basically lets online game services outsource their customer support. (Another notable figure on the Themis team is the esteemed game designer Greg Costikyan.) Given the problems some online game companies seem to have with customer support, sometimes regarding it almost as an afterthought, I wish Themis well. They're good at conveying the important message that an online game company isn't selling the game, it's selling the service.