WIP'S PROFILE

If anyone knows a good web designer, let me know.

Why would I care about the thing I have poured my life into for almost a decade, is being botched? Are you really so dense as to question this?

Locke, there is nobody else to run it. I've said this repeatedly and I refuse to be dragged into a public debate on why exactly that is.

I'll just respond to a few common subjects I've seen touched on in peoples posts.

#shmup didn't cause this. Final Tear 3 didn't cause this. These things are merely manifestations of larger problems that exist. I cannot solve all these problems by writing more code. Or by removing code (forums).

Turning off the forums would simply be ignoring issues. But the site also can't just sit around and fester.

So I guess place the blame on... the universe?

Unfortunately the site didn't get to reach being alive for four years.

On April 2nd I am going to shut the site down. I realize that it falls very close to April Fools, but I wanted to give people notice to move their information. I have no plans to shutter the IRC channel.


The years have been filled with repeated hills of frustration and excitement. There has been a lot of great things that came out of this community. When it was buzzing and passion was in the air, it was an absolute joy to come here.

This was to be a den of passion. Passion to create and show the world what you've accomplished. Game development allows you to imagine a world and fill it with emotions, challenges, and goals. Striving to make something EVEN BETTER than what you had done before.

But over the years, the real ugly truth of this community has overpowered any shining successes. People are incapable of working together in a positive matter. Pride has blinded others. An aura of superiority and supremacy has clouded judgements. Passion has been replaced with poison.

I have not been immune to such poisonings either. Rather than play protector, I have played favorites. My motivation for betterment was washed away years ago by corporate betrayal. Literally. I've grown bitter and angry towards the community when I should have helped protect it. This I am sorry for and apologize profusely.


Passing the reigns, you might say? No. The ship must sink to try and wash away its stench. I have invested a lot of emotional energy into this place and it will hurt me the most to see it die. There is no better person to allow a child eternal rest than their own parent.


So let's talk take aways. What did we all learn in the 3 years of RMN? I can't answer that for any of you, but I can answer it for myself and share some history.

The goal of this website was to kill Gaming World. The many years ago when I was younger, myself and a few others felt wronged by their activities. This site was born out of that goal. It has evolved and changed during its lifetime but the underbelly of a weapon was still intact. GW has all but been wiped off the internet, replaced with a shell of its former self. RMN was near-sighted when it came to this. GW was already dying and being overshadowed in popularity by other places. Newer sites were able to market to what was hot much better than RMN did. You can see this by citing the lack of activity here compared to places such as hbgames and RRR.

Few people know this, but a few years ago RMN was almost sold. Yes, we were selling out. Except in this case they weren't corporate pigs, but a very good company named Think Services, which has changed their name to UBM TechWeb. These are the people who own Gamasutra, GDC and other established industry companies. RMN was to become the official website for RPG Maker and Indie Game Maker. Holbert and I were to continue running the site and our editorial staff was about to come into creation.

Unfortunately the deal fell apart at the last minute. A surprise launch of Indie Game Maker by Enterbrain absolutely shattered the entire plan. UBM has been very kind to us and continues to host this site for us, truly proving their worth and merit as a company. A great thanks goes to them for this.

Through the years, we've had struggles and problems with staffing this beast. Part of this is due to the fact the site runs off my code which lacks intuitive moderation capabilities. The other is that it is just hard to find good help. There are so many people interested in themselves, making jokes of others, and worse.


It is too bad that things could not have worked out differently. I would have loved for this place to climb to the top of amateur game development and be a beacon of quality and craftsmanship but also humility and respect. That isn't what happened. It has some cool tech behind it, but you don't need tech to create. The best creations come from passion and respect.



Will this site ever be back? It's entirely possible. We've got a good domain name and I'd be a fool to let it go to waste! But don't hold your breath. Go across the vast fields of the internet and find new homes. I'm sorry this couldn't be your home forever but there are too many things wrong to correct.