Donkey Dong to the rescue

Yep, that was soooo 1000 posts ago. :D

Look for my editorial in the NY Times tomorrow.

I'm sure nakedzorro backs him as well.

ok bye.

but what i don't understand is people don't have a problem with 2D dots reenacting the action in Football Manager, why do they have a problem with 3D player models in MF? is it just cuz we know football more so we can spot the problems? i know jack about soccer and i couldn't tell you if one of the 2D dots was in the right spot or made a move that corresponded to the text. at this point i'd rather MF's players to 2D dots (no offense to Marc). i'm not apologizing for MF. for me the humor in all this was the handling of this the release date. it was never about shitting on a indie developer who bit off more than he can chew. sometimes when you aim big you miss big. i won't buy this game but i can respect trying to bring an idea to fruition. if only they weren't clueless on how to run a company i think you'd find more supporters than just the blind fanboys.

This is a quote from Daivd in the sportplanet interview. This has to be a repost, I can't believe everyone would have missed it. The entire interview is pure comedy gold actually.

When you go from a 2D representation to 3D graphics you bring in SO many more elements. You're actually seeing the players and their motions, versus vague representations of their overall music. If we saw a little dot run a slant route and then a ball end up in his hands we say "ok, cool, I completed a slant". If we see a 3d graphical guy run open then turn backwards to run across the feild in a "slant" backwards, and then the ball is thrown by the qb, passes THROUGH a lineman, gets the wr, where it sticks inside his belly, with his hands coming down 1/2 a second later we notice some issues.

Did that make sense? I seem to be in ramble mode today.

If this game was billed as a text-sim with an added graphical representation of the action, I would think the graphics were fine. Since this game is touting its graphics, it is fair game to mock the cheesiness of the graphics.

I think this is a good point, but I think there's a reason behind the acceptance of a 2D display featuring circles and the dislike of a badly constructed 3D model. In the FM case, the developer is putting forth what is obviously not supposed to be an accurate representation of the players but an accurate simulation of their movement on the field. I think it succeeds pretty well, although my soccer knowledge isn't that great. In the other case, with Maxi Football...the 3D player models intimates a representation of the players AND their movements on the field. From what I've seen it fails in both regards. I think Maxi Football would have been better off with an X's and O's representation of accurate football movement than the bad 3D models that were created. In any case, I think the graphics themselves are only a small part of the problem that Maxi Football will have.

i understand you. but i guess i don't scrutinize my games that closely (graphically speaking). i'm much more critical of the text sim aspect of text sim games. the graphical part (2D dots in FM, 3D players in MF or Madden) are more icing on the cake. i concern myself more with the boxscore. did my team follow my gameplan or did i waste my time with all the gameplan screens? that sort of thing. the graphical element is more of a "visual aid" sort of thing.

and of course, there's the expectations aspect - first time game from an indie developer. hell, look how long it's taken Markus to get OOTP right and it still has some glaring issues. not sure what people were expecting with the game. that's why i say i find the humor in how they're botching the release date and their lack of PR. that's funny. a guy trying to advance a niche genre not realizing the undertaking he put himself in? meh, not as funny.

exactly. i wish they would have made this disctinction. people would have calibrated their expectations accordingly.

They've actually gone out of their way to separate the game from the text sim style football games.

Principally by disparaging the latter. Slick move, that.

was gonna use "shitting on" but yeah, that works too... :D

FM

The 2D dots for the most part do. And they are backed up by an excellent simulation engine, which is the true core of it. EA Sports' Total Club Manager is probably the better parallel since it tried to do what is being done here and succeeded in doing neither well.

The implication of focusing on 3D development, especially as a small developer, is that you are forced to spend a lot more resources on graphics rather than gameplay. That means the either the gameplay will suffer or the release date will stretch. It's not about shitting on an indie developer, but it's obvious to me what they did wrong to get to this point and because of that, why this will not be a good game. I agree that it really comes down to being clueless as to how to run a company as it's really more of an understanding of how to scope the size of what you are doing, rather than the actual doing of it.

If I have the opportunity to eat crow in a few months, I'll gladly do it.

And therein lies the real beauty of Mxaimum Ftooblla, it's customizability.

With this MF, it doesn't have to be pudding, it can be anything. Canadian Bacon, Chicken Soup, a Mars Bar, scrapple ... whatever you want.

Matrix is in way over their heads on this one, but I'm guessing that they are not the type of company to withhold a demo in hopes of maximizing sales. My impression of them is that they are very much a gamer's company. Releasing an awful game with no refund policy would do more harm than good. I'm guessing that there simply isn't a demo available, and getting one ready at this point could likely take a long time, given the lethargic pace of development the game has seen.

They are likely between a rock and a hard place at this point. I would think they must be getting an indication that the game isn't ready for release, but they likely have some kind of contract with Daivd that commits them to releasing the game. If I were Matrix, sitting there with an awful game in no state of release, yet facing likely legal complications with Daivd if the game doesn't get released, I would likely release the game with a money-back guarantee. But so much of this is speculation, and I'd love to hear what type of business arrangement they have with Daivd. Who knows, maybe the game is awesome and we'll all love it.

And for the record, I am not Blitzberger on the Matrix forums.

THEY RELEASED SCREEN SHOTS WHERE THE DEVELOPER MIS-SPELLED HIS OWN NAME!

Let's not lose sight of things here, people.

If this guy had worked hard and gotten all the little details right and expressed a positive attitude and a willingness to listen to his customers . . . and only failed because his ability did not quite match his vision, I am sure that the community here would be behind him 1000%. We would appreciate what he was trying to do and respect that he was trying his best to do it.

But, he's been a jerk and made comical errors that indicate a woeful lack of attention to detail and a slackass effort. That's the combination that has made this gold, IMO.

duh duh duh... duh duh duuuuuh. duh duh duh duuuuh duh duh duh duh duh

Very fair assessment, GB -- I hope you're right and I'm wrong. I would liek for Matrix to at least retain its dignity through this (though I have no other dealings with them).

I sincerely hope the game is successful, but all indications are that it will be a disaster. To me the greatest single indicator revolves around Quiksand's comment earlier in this thread about the complexity of programming an AI to effectively handle different rule sets, different numbers of players on the field, and different field dimensions. Programming an AI to handle so many variables strikes me as being nearly an impossibly difficult task, let alone one that someone could handle on their own. I would think that before someone thought about making such a game, they would instantly realize the enormity of trying to program an AI to handle it and turn down the “customizability” a bit.

Fine, I thought, maybe the programmer is brilliant. But when I read a comment from the programmer that the gamer must choose playoff teams manually because the routine to select playoff teams would be too complex to program given all the league variables, the warning buzzer on this game went off full tilt. To me, writing such an algorithm seems straightforward compared to the enormity of writing code to handle so much on-field complexity.

Again, I wish nothing but success for the game, but...the omens are bad and I will wait for others to report of the game's brilliance before I buy this one.

Speaking of which, I don't think I'll ever be able to spel Daivd the right way ever again. DAMN! did it again!

DAIVD, DAIVD, DAIVD!!!

AAAARRRRRRRGGGG!!!!

DAIVD!!!



FM

He is counting on the gamers to come up with custom playbooks to handle whatever rule-set (and field dimensions, number of players, etc.) that they are using. And counting on gamers to not use plays that are AI-busters.

Sounds like there will have to be about an encyclopedia-full of house rules to make this game even remotely playable.

That's very true. This community has supported a lot of other small developers even when the games were somewhat lacking because of future potential and a good attitude.

This thread has gone gold.

I see a whole new sub-chapter of this thread forming... Tell everyone at what point did you discover that this game was going to be a joke. Lots of promise there.

Damn...did anyone see what was in the "Message for the flamers" thread?

Something else that sent off alarms for me was that he thought the Georgia Tech mascot was a bulldog. Now, it's one thing if he were developing a CFL only game but this game is being billed as a game that can simulate college football, Pro football, etc. I'm sorry, but if he doesn't even know basic college football information why should I expect him to understand the various styles of college football playbooks out there.

Yeah, we've really brought them to a new level...

Our babies are growing up!

Umm ... you shouldn't?

That's another area where I expect there to be some UIC (if this thing ever sees the light of day that is) -- I bet the stock playbooks are going to be a sight to behold.

word mf mouth? Was that an intentional typo? Because if so, its subtlety is awesome!

Also, picking out the pirated logos should be a blast.

I'll bet you he learns which schools have which mascots when he gets his ass sued off for copying them without permission.

The guy has a MAJOR Canadian chip on his shoulder. Did you catch the snide-looking comment in the sportplanet interview about wanting to create a CFL sim "so I wouldn't have to play with guys I'd never heard of" or something along those lines. He doesn't just go out of his way to dis text sim developers. He goes out of his way to dis the NFL, too.

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! :D :D :D :D

I have not read that interview but let me tell you this, theres more of a chance of that happening with a CFL game than with an NFL game, at least for me :D

Should I consider myself a special breed of canuck? :D

FM

I don't think it is far-fetched that someone from another country would mistake Georgia Tech for Georgia. Do you know the difference between Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan State? Probably not, because I most likely just made them up.

Saskatchewan State is the agricultural school

Edit: Although with no states in Canada, I guess that would be hard

Looks like we aren't the first folks that have had to wait for this.

Is Bee trying to sell you a football sim that supposedly can be used to play Canadian college football?

But if I were creating a resource, part of the appeal of which is its ability to mimic Canadian colleges, then you might reasonably expect me to know the basics of Canadian colleges.

No one is faulting him for not knowing Georgia's mascot as a Canadian (well, SkyDog probably is, but on one else). But I think that it is reasonable to wonder how much research he did about American College Football before he tried to sell us a game based on the fact that it can mimic American College Football.

I'd like to propose a new rule for this thread: if you see something cool in the Matrix Games forum and want to comment on it here, please quote the original thread! Some of us barely have time to read this thread as it is, and by the time you make some obscure reference to something over there, we trudge on over, and we finally find whatever it was you were referring to, we usually find that it's been deleted/banned/edited/whatever, and then we've missed some great chunk of comedy.

So please, do us all a favor and not just say "Did you see what was said in thread X?" No, I didn't, please please please please please let me in on it!

Aw...message to the flamers has been *snipped*

Anyone know what it said?

It just had an image attached of about 15 people in a shallow body of water (river, lake, something) mooning the camera.

Dammit, they found a way to get to your sig. You must change it back!

No, they're irrelevant. :p

Exactly. Like I said, if he were creating a CFL only game...I might have thought it odd he didn't know basic college football information but it wouldn't have been a major concern. But he's selling the game as being flexible enough to allow me to run an NFL league, A CFL league, an Arena football league, college, high school, etc. If that's the case, he should have a reasonable level of knowledge of the basics and how each of those differ. Even assuming he's relying on me to create the playbooks, teams, players, etc.....without an understanding of the various styles of football, how could he possibly program the AI to react accordingly.

No, but I do have tickets to the beer tent on sale for $45. :D

Has anyone done a thread summary yet? Flere?

This exchange was pretty good. Especially Dong's response at the end.

Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:01:43 PM darthrider Matrix Recruit Posts: 7 Joined: 1/5/2006 Status: online I read another article about Maximum Football, I thought your name was Vicki?? Report | Post #: 1

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:05:18 PM Jennifer L. Winter Matrix Trooper Posts: 28 Joined: 2/15/2006 Status: online That would be David's EX-GIRLFRIEND. I am the one and only Mrs. Winter. I have the rings and photos to prove it. :) _____________________________ Jennifer L. Winter Media Relations Wintervalley Software (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 2

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:11:01 PM Erik Rutins Administrator Posts: 6845 Joined: 3/28/2000 From: Vermont, USA Status: online quote: ORIGINAL: darthrider I read another article about Maximum Football, I thought your name was Vicki?? Do you enjoy living dangerously? Regards, - Erik _____________________________ Erik Rutins Director of Product Development and Business Relations (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 3

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:17:38 PM darthrider Matrix Recruit Posts: 7 Joined: 1/5/2006 Status: online I just happened to be reading an article about the start of MF in 2000 and David mentioned his wife Vicki and two dogs! (in reply to Erik Rutins) Report | Post #: 4

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:19:21 PM donkeydong12 Matrix Recruit Posts: 6 Joined: 2/23/2006 Status: online quote: ORIGINAL: darthrider I just happened to be reading an article about the start of MF in 2000 and David mentioned his wife Vicki and two dogs! DOH! (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 5

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:20:45 PM Jennifer L. Winter Matrix Trooper Posts: 28 Joined: 2/15/2006 Status: online Well, I don't know where you live, but in Canada if you live with someone for over six months they can be considered your "common-law" spouse. I know I'll have some 'splainin to do. _____________________________ Jennifer L. Winter Media Relations Wintervalley Software (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 6

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:23:33 PM darthrider Matrix Recruit Posts: 7 Joined: 1/5/2006 Status: online you have some splanin to do? (in reply to Jennifer L. Winter) Report | Post #: 7

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:23:40 PM Marauders Matrix Hero Posts: 330 Joined: 3/17/2005 From: Minnesota Status: online quote: David mentioned his wife Vicki and two dogs That's better than his dog named Vicki and his two wives! As far as the forum goes, it may be better to regard Jennifer as the PR person for Wintervalley Software rather than as David's wife. She does hold both titles, but the former is the only one that really matters here. (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 8

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:24:47 PM rroberson Matrix Legion of Merit Posts: 1074 Joined: 5/25/2004 Status: online I do like pictures :). We had elvis marry us...can you top that? _____________________________ (in reply to Jennifer L. Winter) Report | Post #: 9

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:26:00 PM Jennifer L. Winter Matrix Trooper Posts: 28 Joined: 2/15/2006 Status: online Mr darthrider: We have asked our feeder lady - Jennifer Winter - to address the dog comment. We are, most decidedly, NOT dogs. Although we do now share our abode with a canine, we never have been, nor will be dogs! See below. Sincerely, Hobbes Orenthal Winter and Tiger T.C. Winter Attachment (1) _____________________________ Jennifer L. Winter Media Relations Wintervalley Software (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 10

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:27:58 PM darthrider Matrix Recruit Posts: 7 Joined: 1/5/2006 Status: online nice cats! Just goes to show you can't believe half of what you read. (in reply to Jennifer L. Winter) Report | Post #: 11

RE: Jennifer Winter? - 2/28/2006 3:35:39 PM donkeydong12 Matrix Recruit Posts: 6 Joined: 2/23/2006 Status: online I heard Vicki was hotter. (in reply to darthrider) Report | Post #: 12

The Greeks had a word for Winters' problem.

HUBRIS

His pride has killed him on this game. He was(maybe still is) convinced that he could provide a football game that does everything. Nothing was too much for him. He'd have 3D graphics, multiple rule sets, career tracking, stats, everything that he could think of, and he'd do it all for version 1.0.

He made it impossible for success from the very beginning because he believed he alone could do something that no one else would ever attempt.

donkeydong is running amok.

The donger needs food. Hide grampas car.

Holy...

hope Jennfier never finds out where donkeykong lives....could be a case for CSI.

Apparently however, recent photographic evidence proves the Romans had this game. Unfortunately, it was lost during the Dark Ages.

lol





Shaggyra
Matrix Veteran





Posts: 101
Joined: 2/10/2006
Status: online It's ok baboonheart. We are all frineds here, and daivd is working hard on the game. It will be out soon. Make some more plays in your notbook to pass the time.

_____________________________

FBMax for Maximum Football

Awesome.

http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/02/donkey_dong_fla.php

Well done!

figures...

Bee has come on in a flurry lately...

Who Posted? Total Posts: 1,957
User Name	Posts
Bee	120
SkyDog	92
KWhit	76
QuikSand	64
cartman	60
sovereignstar	59
Toddzilla	54
JeeberD	53
rkmsuf	50
cthomer5000	46
Dutch	45
Bonegavel	44
wade moore	42
Antmeister71	41
albionmoonlight	38
SFL Cat	37
sabotai	32
MizzouRah	31
Hell Atlantic	30
DaddyTorgo	29
Eaglesfan27	28
FrogMan	28
st.cronin	26
gstelmack	25
bbor	24
Coffee Warlord	23
stevew	21
John Galt	20
JPhillips	20

Another thread highlight is Jeeber trying to bust a move.

Eh?

I rock! :D

edit: And thank goodness things are slow at the office.

This thread almost makes me want to learn how to photoshop pictures.

His comment to Jennifer was something like: "Hey! My sister's cats have the same names! Weird. Wanna make out?"

My New MASTERPIECE!

Maximum Obfuscation

Please let me know if you can think of any updates.

Enjoy

Most excelnet! Eirk and Daivd will siht their pnats!

Good stuff.

Nice!

Not only fun, but actually a very informative summary as to what has happened over the last couple of weeks without imbellishment.

I love the message at the end :)

Funny stuff.
Potential addition could be to include earlier info about releases.
Or was that the gold version?


I love using the word gold right now...

I stand in awe of you, sir.

PLUD!!!!11!!!1

I think this image needed to go super-sized to get the attention it deserves. I find the Chattanooga logo the second-funniest thing about this screenshot. Somewhere, Craig T. Nelson is licking his chops at the royalties he'll get off this.

Maybe Maximum Football can get some cross promotion by being the official football simulation for the Orlando Breakers.

And Chattanooga's coach is named Bobbie Bowdin.

Um. Does anyone know how long Daivd and Jennifer have been married?

Pointing out coincidences = flirting?

Doesn't matter, there's no way that I could steal her away from the hottness that is Daivd...

Looks like they got the name and logo for Minnesota State:

I've managed to keep my composure through this entire thread and not bust out laughing ... until this post. :D

It's been pointed out on their site that screenshot was from a beta tester mod...supposedly.

I believe somewhere in the labyrinth of posts over there it was mentioned that they got married last summer.

...hooo. Someone find out her maiden name, ASAP.

edit: If her email addy includes her maiden name, it's not her, but wow does it look like someone I know.

Does it matter at this point? I can't understand why you'd put copy protected material into any form of the game, beta or otherwise. Then to release screenshots of this?

Wouldn't it have been better to have designed a few boring logos or just have the damned helmuts be blank instead of doing this?

Sorry, didn't mean to throw logic in here.

This is an unbelievable thread. It really has it all.

Someone here must buy this game. We need to know just how bad this sucker is going to be.

Yes, especially with a Wow! added for emphasis. Would you have replied the same way if DonkeyDong12 had the cats named Calvin and Hobbes?

I wonder what magic Markus conjured up to handle playoff teams in OOTP...

I'm trying to convince SackAttack to review it, but haven't had much success yet. :(

The only question is who's brave enough to risk their computer's functionality to install this sucker and run it?

Anyone point out the notion that the Chattanooga Moccasins might bear a slight resemblance to this team?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=236

I'm suprised this doesnt use Starforce.

Jesus loves the little text sims, all the text sims of the world...

My desktop is due for a reinstall of Windows soon.

I may just have to give this thing a shot to see how bad it really is. If I get it, I'll do an Indy review on gamenikki. Anyone want to pitch in a buck or two? :)

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Choo - Choo

The developers of Starforce wouldn't agree to a deal because they were scared that MF would corrupt their systems.

You really need to convince SackAttack to get you a copy. I mean, seriously, if you give it a good review it would probably do wonders for their sales.

Bonegavel is on a roll.

We need to start an FOFC Maximum Football play tester fund!

Keep 'em coming.

We need the guy from Conan to say in his falsetto:

In the Post 2000...

Wow. I wonder how many posts and views we're gonna get for the "Here we go boyz..." post once this finally comes out. By then, we might have a whole new technology for posting and viewing messages.