[Jump]

We got a message from Elathiel that there is a interview with Istvan over at MMO Portal. Here's a snippet.

We recently had the pleasure of talking with "Istvan" of NetDevil, Ltd. Read on to hear all the wonderful things planned for Jumpgate!

MMO Portal: Thanks for this time today, Istvan. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and what role(s) you fill on the development of Jumpgate?

Istvan: Thanks for the opportunity to talk about Jumpgate on mmoportal.com. I was hired by NetDevil in late 2002 as an assistant maintenance programmer, but I'm the de facto project manager for the game now. I've got responsibility for all debugging and maintenance, server support, design and implementation of new features, and also handling NetDevil's contacts with Jumpgate's support and billing teams. Before I became an employee of NetDevil, I was a beta tester for Jumpgate, so my involvement with the game stretches back more than six and a half years.


MMO Portal: Jumpgate was released in 2001 to critical acclaim and is regarded by your players as the best thing since sliced bread. Can you give us an overview of the game and the unique niche it fills?

Istvan: Jumpgate is novel because it is one of extremely few MMOG flight sims out there. We tend to get thrown in with MMORPGs, but Jumpgate really wasn't designed as one. Rather than having an avatar that you have to "level up" or "skill up" to gain capability or access different parts of the game, Jumpgate is solely based on player skill. You don't point and click and passively watch your ship fight: you have to fly the ship yourself, hands-on, usually with a joystick. That's what seems to excite people the most. The learning curve is fairly fierce, but it's quite possible for a new player who has a feel for flying to defeat in combat a veteran player who's been in the game for years. There's also plenty to do in the game besides fighting, although the flight model and combat are perhaps Jumpgate's most characteristic elements.

Read the rest over at MMO Portal.

[GrimGriz]

The bolding is mine.

Discussions about a graphics update happen practically all the time at NetDevil. The need is blatantly obvious, but the manpower and expertise to tackle such a significant renovation haven't been available in the past, and the time it would take has thus far always been committed to other very necessary tasks.

[vorlon31]

quote]but there's serious consideration being devoted to making use of more of the absolutely vast in-sector volumes.[/quote]

sexehh

[Radi]

Interesting GG. But I think there are some other forces at play here.


Think about it. Ms stated that will ship dx 10 and it will not be backwards compatible. So, after a while (read: 2-3 years), people will not be able to play Jumpgate cuz they have upgraded to vista. Dx 9 will be supported but only in software mode. I do not know how that good is gonna be for Jumpgate (even thou most PC's now have more than enough power to run Jumpgate anyway).

While it sounds it can take alot of time, devs have to look into the future. So graphical update becomes a necessity for Jumpgate (or soon it might become).

[Jump]

So what is MMO portal anyway? It's seems to be a brand new venture yet they got an interview with Istvan.

My guess is that it is a new Archon/Themis project.

Didn't he sell that other game/portal site? Whatever that thing was called.

[Nohbody]

Originally Posted by Jump

So what is MMO portal anyway? It's seems to be a brand new venture yet they got an interview with Istvan.

My guess is that it is a new Archon/Themis project.

Didn't he sell that other game/portal site? Whatever that thing was called.

There doesn't seem to be, as far as I can tell from domain whois data, any connection between MMO Portal and Themis.

And I believe you're thinking of Warcry with that last bit, Jump. Their whois data most definitely is connected with Themis, the administrative/technical e-mail addresses being TG addresses, as well as one of their nameservers pointing to themis-support.com.

[Jump]

Seems to be the same guy that founded gamergod.com. A site that disapeered.

Whois data can't be relied on.

[Nohbody]

Whois data may not always be reliable, but it's better than "I think they're related".

portalsnetwork.com was registered May of last year (though I don't know when it actually went live, Wayback Machine doesn't have any listing for it; there's nothing saying the WM's crawler was blocked by robots.txt or WM was asked by the owner not to archive the site, both of which WM specifically states when they apply), which hardly makes them "brand new", especially in internet terms.

[Jump]

why not just look at the first post date.

[Nohbody]

You know, there's nothing saying that the forum goes live the same time as the rest of the site...

[Jump]

Yes there is.

[Elathiel]

Hi there!

I was doing a monthly snooping of our backlinks and came across this thread, so I figured I could answer the questions you all have raised.

I am Chris Johnson, aka Elathiel. I am one of two founders of MMO Portal.

The whois data should all lead back to me personally... I'll check to make sure it does and that I updated my new contact info after moving from New Orleans to Kansas last year (damn hurricane).

We are not now, or ever have been, associated with Themis, although I've spoken to some of them a fair bit and they all seem like awesome people.

I was not the founder of GamerGod. I did serve there as Lead Editor and Director of Marketing for 9 months, but left in Feb '05 due to a disagreement over the direction of the site.

Back to MMO Portal... We launched quietly on Feb. 1st of this year, shook some bugs out, then re-launched not so quietly on April 1st. We actually began building the site under a different name at the end of Feb. '05 in our spare time. We realized 5 months later that we'd bitten off far more than we should have by including anything and everything MMO-related with just the 2 of us, but it was too late to turn back lol.

We've tried doing things a bit different than most and it has paid off very nicely. We've been getting a lot of accolades from game devs on what we're trying to accomplish, which is probably why we've been lucky in snagging interviews, screens, etc. fairly early. We have huge plans for the near'ish future as well.

As far as my personal thoughts on Jumpgate... It is one of the most underrated games I have ever seen/played in my life. Don't worry though... I have this odd feeling there will be some crazy cool announcements coming down the pipe in regards to planned upgrades.


Lastly, I hope you guys know what a tremendous guy Istvan is. He loves Jumpgate as though it were his own child... seriously! Talking with him about the game has been such a pleasure and I just wanted to make sure you all know how much he 'has your back'!

[Jump]

We all Like Istvan too and respect his hard work a lot. However, he, as well as NetDevil, never give this fansite the time of day, let alone any cookies. So it's always bewildering to see them off cavorting with strangers.

Good luck on the site and let us know if you have any Joystick fun you want mentioned here in the future.

[Radi]

Originally Posted by Elathiel

Don't worry though... I have this odd feeling there will be some crazy cool announcements coming down the pipe in regards to planned upgrades.

Now you are taunting us.

On serious note, I hope it is something big.

[GrimGriz]

Just from things Istvan has said...I expect a minimum a graphics update to be announced.