RPGDot says 'Goodbye'

Dez said:
Rpgdot/gothicdot was the site that brought me into gothic.. :) I used to visit that site almost every day that time..I'm glad that rpgwatch is here to stay. By the way it would be wonderfull if someone could salvage all preciouss info and findings.
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Myrthos saved all the data, but it´s too much work to make new sites out of it. Furthermore we decided that we don´t want inactive network sites. No staff, no site. No exceptions. When I asked the last time about volunteers for a GothicWatch site only one community member (I even remember his name ;) ) wanted to invest time. One person is not enough to run such a site, even if almost zero technical know-how is necessary due to our comfortable CMS. I don´t want to do it anymore. 6 years is enough.
 
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Gorath said:
Myrthos saved all the data, but it´s too much work to make new sites out of it. Furthermore we decided that we don´t want inactive network sites. No staff, no site. No exceptions. When I asked the last time about volunteers for a GothicWatch site only one community member (I even remember his name ;) ) wanted to invest time. One person is not enough to run such a site, even if almost zero technical know-how is necessary due to our comfortable CMS. I don´t want to do it anymore. 6 years is enough.
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zero technical know-how? That sounds like me. :biggrin:
 
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It just goes to show how things usually die with a whimper rather than a bang.

It also goes to show the third law of thermodynamics (according to biology) that tendency for something to break down is prevented through life - hence the Watch is internet darwinism at its finest..heh.
 
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Interestingly, I replied to that thread, and when I got an email and tried to view the link, Google is now trying to block the site as an 'attack site'.
 
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Weird, I recieved the same message. It was fine yesterday.

This is what google is reporting.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 279 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 2 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 08/02/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 08/02/2008.

Malicious software includes 2 scripting exploit(s), 2 bot(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 1 new processes on the target machine.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including d3m00n.net.

1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including pinoc.info.
 
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Now i could be wrong but...i have seen other web-site/servers showing similar screens when closing or transferring data when a permanent switch-off takes place - a kind of "shock screen" to leave visitors in a bewildered state.

i suspect jolt has 'pulled the plug' on rpgdot.
 
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I was able to get there through Safari, but FireFox refused. May try again today ... but why bother at this point?
 
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Thanks txa1265, yes it was due to FF3, got through with IE o.k. :blush:
- the dot' still lives....for now.

Q - but why bother at this point?
A - I'm working through the gothic database.
 
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Does anyone know the specifics of why the Dot shut down at this point (the big picture is clear, but I'm wondering what broke the camel's back)?

Chris Avellone messaged me to ask me if I knew why it closed down. Cool testament to the street cred RPGDot had with the CRPG community. My first big interview as a reporter at E3 '05 was with Obsidian. It's easy for companies to treat you like a fan site if you aren't from a major gaming site, but they treated me like gold solely because I was there on behalf of RPGDot. (Well, Obsidian does seem special in their kindness and generosity on the whole).
 
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No, I've had no contact since the split. I know Myrthos spoke to them at a technical level for a while but I doubt he has any current contact with them.

I would suggest they struggled to build a community and as far as I could see, their newsposters were paid Jolt staff (rather than volunteers). That obviously changes the economics and as their traffic fell away, I guess it wasn't worth it.

They also hadn't fixed technical and layout issues from before we left - so more manpower needed to make certain things actually work.

But I'm just making presumptions.
 
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Jolt has been swallowed. Maybe OMAC´s business isn´t running news sites.

June 18, 2008: OMAC Industries Acquires Jolt Online Gaming

Dublin, Ireland. OMAC Industries, the Persistent Browser Game (PBG) publisher, today announced an agreement to acquire Jolt Online Gaming, one of the leading online games communities in Europe. "We're very pleased to welcome Jolt and its community into the OMAC Industries family", commented Dylan Collins, CEO of OMAC Industries, "we think that there are great opportunities between our existing and in-development PBG titles and the fantastic group of players and staff that Jolt has".

Jolt Online Gaming was founded in 1999 to provide services for serious online gamers and companies alike. The company is widely known for its community forums and games hosting services, as well as its involvement with well-known PBGs such as Planetarion and Londinvm.

The acquisition is expected to close shortly, subject to the customary due diligence.

OMAC Industries was established by an experienced team of online games professionals to specialise in Persistent Browser Gaming. The company has a range of projects in development, which will be unveiled later in 2008. Nation States 2, the sequel to the hugely popular original, was announced earlier this year by the company and is due for release in summer 2008.

For additional information about this press release, interview requests or general media inquiries, please contact media@omacindustries.com.

For additional information on Jolt Online Gaming, please go to www.jolt.co.uk

For additional information on Nation States 2, please go to www.nationstates2.com

About OMAC Industries: OMAC Industries was founded in 2008 and is building a network of passionate online gamers. The company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with operations in Los Angeles and Delhi. Its gaming properties include Swirve.com, Jolt.co.uk, NationStates2.com and Trukz.com More information can be found at www.omacindustries.com.
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Interesting. Their web page http://www.omacindustries.com/ shows they had been *very* busy aquiring companies April-June-July. Maybe some more will come ?
 
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Oh no. So this is why I can't go to this site. I thought there was somethin wrong with the server. Why and when did this happen? I just searched 'rpgdot' in google since the site wasn't working and got here and registered to reply and also because this site seemed nice too. I've read a few replies and it seems that it got closed because it was inactive?
 
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It is been awhile since RPGdot in decline and then closed. I have been there since 1998/99 and now here. RPGwatch is the "sequel" to the RPGdot.... ;)
 
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Labeeb said:
Oh no. So this is why I can't go to this site. I thought there was somethin wrong with the server. Why and when did this happen? I just searched 'rpgdot' in google since the site wasn't working and got here and registered to reply and also because this site seemed nice too. I've read a few replies and it seems that it got closed because it was inactive?
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The whole editorial staff left more than two years ago. Most came here. Since then RPGDot was on life support. It was canceled in mid 2008.
It hurt to leave RPGDot behind, but it was the right decision. The new site is better. The only sad thing is that the hosted sites are gone.
 
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lol, wow. I haven't visited RPGdot for a very long time. Just today I decide to check it again, and found it wasn't there anymore. I used to go there for Gothicdot during the time that Gothic 1 and 2 were new. Then I found out Gorath left, and it took some investigation to find out where he went which is how I found RPGwatch, I valued Gorath's information about Gothics while I was playing them.

So what happened exactly that made so many of the staff leave RPGdot and create RPGwatch?
 
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It's a long, ugly story that the powers-that-be don't particularly like to discuss. Suffice to say that when Rendelius sold the site, the new owners took the Dot in a bad direction.
 
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I stopped going to RPGDot.com when they decided to "flood" each WEB page with ads that popped up. If I recall correctly the advertisements were introduced by Jolt on the Dot and were quite extensive. Ads on most pages was a big influence that many contributors didn't want to be there anymore.

If you look at RPGWatch you see that the site is completely free of annoying advertisements. That's very refreshing in a world where most WEB sites are filled with them.

Some sites show an advertisement as an intro when logging into a WEB site. You can even bypass it by clicking "going directly to WEB site". That's acceptable to me. It means the WEB site earns some money without spamming their users with ads in every WEB page shown. I don't like is flashy ads popping up every time I want to open up a link on a WEB site. One problem with all these flash written ads is that they require quite a bit of bandwidth. I e. g. tried to read forum threads on the Dot on my mobile phone on the subway to work and then it was no fun suddenly having to pay for lots of junk megabytes of flash ads I hadn't asked for seeing.

I'm very grateful that the editorial people left the Dot to form the RPGWatch so we could continue to have a WEB site without lots of ads. People often forget to appreciate that not all sites have to be based upon earning as much money as possible. Some sites like the Watch exist because they care about the people visiting it. There aren't many left of them, unfortunately.

E. g. a similar place to RPGWatch is GameBanshee. That site is filled with ads for dating sites with photos of semi-nude women posing to get you to write to them. I'm really relieved we don't have to see such junk on the Watch.
 
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I think that having seen it all myself as well, I can say that I can speak freely for all of us here when I say that Peter has done a pretty good job at summing it all up. :thumbsup:
 
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Peter Stauffenberg said:
I'm very grateful that the editorial people left the Dot to form the RPGWatch so we could continue to have a WEB site without lots of ads. People often forget to appreciate that not all sites have to be based upon earning as much money as possible. Some sites like the Watch exist because they care about the people visiting it. There aren't many left of them, unfortunately.

E. g. a similar place to RPGWatch is GameBanshee. That site is filled with ads for dating sites with photos of semi-nude women posing to get you to write to them. I'm really relieved we don't have to see such junk on the Watch.
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AFAIK GameBanshee pays its authors (correct me if I'm wrong). They have to find this money somewhere.

Sounds like a good moment to remind everybody that your donations make it less likely we'll have to flood this place with ads. ;) :greengrin: :devilish:
 
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