Underworld

[Valamir]

What Happened?
I show Underworld as going inactive, yet there've been plenty of recent discussions there, and I had been eagerly following along the development of the new version...

???

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Valamir,

GMS announced today that he's exiting the game industry, and that Underworld 2e would not be completed.

[Valamir]

Really...??

Where at, I couldn't find any announcement on the Adamant site, RPGnet, or RPGNews...?

[Paul Czege]

Ralph,

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11294

Paul

[Jürgen Mayer]

GMS announced today that he's exiting the game industry, and that Underworld 2e would not be completed.

While I can understand that you closed the Orkworld forum, cause John Wick doesn't have any online presence to speak of anymore and the forum was kind of inactive, I don't know if you have to close the UW forum as well. GMS may not be developing it any more, but he stated also that he will not stop posting in gaming-related forums, and that he'll continue to do RPG freelance work. In addition it doesn't seem that the forum was inactive - so I wonder, why close it down? We know that a game's not dead just because there isn't anything published anymore for it (isn't that somewhere in the indie game manifesto?). Why not just leave it open for the gamers to publish their UW-related material/links/whatnot?

Just curious...

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Jurgen,

The last time Gareth posted in his Underworld forum was 11 June 2002. We have moderator guidelines that dictate that the moderator be active in his own forum. Gareth was not. In addition, I did let him know that the forum would be closed, and he did not respond, much less protest.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi folks,

Guys, we handled all this by the book. Gareth has all the room he wants, if he wants it, and Clinton and I are fine with that.

However, the Forge specialty forums are publishing forums, and they're completely dependent on the publisher's commitment to the game remaining active.

I should clarify one point about that - in most cases, the publisher is also the moderator of the forum, but he doesn't have to be. For instance, the Hero Wars/Quest forum is not moderated by Greg Stafford. No, it's not an exception. Greg is committed to the ongoing success of the game.

As for fan discussion of Underworld or any other game, that's a topic for individual websites.

Best,
Ron

[Jürgen Mayer]

Clinton, Ron -

You mention valid reasons and that's just what I wanted to know.

I was just a bit surprised - I asked Gareth yesterday over at rpg.net why his game design column doesn't continue, then he responded that UW2 is cancelled, I come back to the forge this morning and see the UW forum closed because "GMS announced today that[...] Underworld 2e would not be completed" - and I thought "oops!"