Updates Regarding Crypto Kingdom
HIGH!
Building Codebase from Scratch
First off, the developers will be building a game/codebase framework from scratch for CK. The current CK codebase does one thing alright -- the market order system -- but the rest isn't developed or documented at all. As we want to allow player modability, the current codebase just doesn't cut it.
Developers are considering Django (as it utilizes Python, which a lot of crypto-interacticing codebases use). Development will be made with open source design in mind. The frontend will be open source and the database will use a public/private key setup so it could be be public as well, and hopefully living inside of a blockchain. The backend will be REST API.
Treating Project as Fork; Game Takeover of Risto-Related Assets
The game was paused by Risto in 2016. All the depository chaos was in 2017. We got PJ off the codebase here at the start of 2018. That's almost 2 years of pretty much zero activity on a game where the majority of the depth/action happened from its founding in 2014 to around mid 2015 before it was moved over to the "Ultima" version. Once "Ultima" hit, the scale/scope of the game was majorly narrowed, and we never saw the same level of depth as was present in the spreadsheet version of the game. So that is 2 years with nothing going on really and 1 to 1.5 years of sucky gameplay.
The crypto ecosystem has changed a lot since 2014, and we think several things need to happen for CK to have a chance in the current environment. One issue the game has had since 2017 is Risto's depository nonsense. We have PM'ed with Risto some recently, and others have talked with him in person, and it is pretty clear that he has no interest in returning to CK.
CK had a core group of players on IRC near the end of the "Ultima" days, but even before that, there were many more players who also put money into the game. We are still surprised when talking casually with other crypto types and hearing them mention putting 100, 500, or even 1,000 XMR into the game in 2014/2015. Even a mere 100 XMR is more than $30k in the current market environment! We want these casual types to return to the game. And of course, we have major players like Karl Hungus who put 30,000+ XMR ($9 MILLION PLUS!
) into the game, but who weren't around during the depository madness in 2017.
Overall, the game needs a pathway to growth, which means promotions/marketing to new users, bounties for development efforts, etc. Therefore, what we are going to do is treat this new CK project as a "fork" if you will, meaning that the project/game will be taking over Risto-related accounts and will not be dealing with any of those upaid depository transactions that Risto incurred.
Aside from the fact that the depository withdrawal values are now at laughably high fiat levels due to the recent x10 surge in crypto prices, only about 20 unique users were present and overlapped on the unpaid withdrawal spreadsheets (both B1 and E1). Additionally, many of these same users also still have a sizable amount invested in the game in terms of land, items, and in-game currency, and we hope that revitalizing the game will bring value back to these assets.
To add, there is also the issue of verifying claims, as many did not even include themselves on the spreadsheet (myself included, and I am owed millions of dollars from Risto personally). Just to use one person to illustrate this depository insanity: does it really make sense for the game to compensate a user like "HannaMaaria" 35.8 BTC (so $350k at current values) and 53,500 Euros when she did absolutely nothing for the game and only sang at Risto's embassy for a few hours?
Only looking at major accounts, here is what we are thinking:
https://i.imgur.com/vLrjeKU.jpg
Accounts in yellow will be taken over in full by the game. These are either Risto-related accounts or were already game accounts.
Accounts in green are corporations that we believe Risto controlled. In-game currency held by these accounts will be distributed to current shareholders. Then they will just act as holding companies unless a game-specific purpose is created for them later. We are thinking, for example, of NewCorp functioning similar to "Phoenix Trust" as it holds a lot of land/property.
Accounts in orange we are unsure on. If there are any claims to these, let us know. "FuriBliz" in particular looks very suspect.
In any event, this will give the game room to grow without changing relative ownership percentages of in-game currency and items for any other users.
HIGH!
Building Codebase from Scratch
First off, the developers will be building a game/codebase framework from scratch for CK. The current CK codebase does one thing alright -- the market order system -- but the rest isn't developed or documented at all. As we want to allow player modability, the current codebase just doesn't cut it.
Developers are considering Django (as it utilizes Python, which a lot of crypto-interacticing codebases use). Development will be made with open source design in mind. The frontend will be open source and the database will use a public/private key setup so it could be be public as well, and hopefully living inside of a blockchain. The backend will be REST API.
Treating Project as Fork; Game Takeover of Risto-Related Assets
The game was paused by Risto in 2016. All the depository chaos was in 2017. We got PJ off the codebase here at the start of 2018. That's almost 2 years of pretty much zero activity on a game where the majority of the depth/action happened from its founding in 2014 to around mid 2015 before it was moved over to the "Ultima" version. Once "Ultima" hit, the scale/scope of the game was majorly narrowed, and we never saw the same level of depth as was present in the spreadsheet version of the game. So that is 2 years with nothing going on really and 1 to 1.5 years of sucky gameplay.
The crypto ecosystem has changed a lot since 2014, and we think several things need to happen for CK to have a chance in the current environment. One issue the game has had since 2017 is Risto's depository nonsense. We have PM'ed with Risto some recently, and others have talked with him in person, and it is pretty clear that he has no interest in returning to CK.
CK had a core group of players on IRC near the end of the "Ultima" days, but even before that, there were many more players who also put money into the game. We are still surprised when talking casually with other crypto types and hearing them mention putting 100, 500, or even 1,000 XMR into the game in 2014/2015. Even a mere 100 XMR is more than $30k in the current market environment! We want these casual types to return to the game. And of course, we have major players like Karl Hungus who put 30,000+ XMR ($9 MILLION PLUS!
) into the game, but who weren't around during the depository madness in 2017. Overall, the game needs a pathway to growth, which means promotions/marketing to new users, bounties for development efforts, etc. Therefore, what we are going to do is treat this new CK project as a "fork" if you will, meaning that the project/game will be taking over Risto-related accounts and will not be dealing with any of those upaid depository transactions that Risto incurred.
Aside from the fact that the depository withdrawal values are now at laughably high fiat levels due to the recent x10 surge in crypto prices, only about 20 unique users were present and overlapped on the unpaid withdrawal spreadsheets (both B1 and E1). Additionally, many of these same users also still have a sizable amount invested in the game in terms of land, items, and in-game currency, and we hope that revitalizing the game will bring value back to these assets.
To add, there is also the issue of verifying claims, as many did not even include themselves on the spreadsheet (myself included, and I am owed millions of dollars from Risto personally). Just to use one person to illustrate this depository insanity: does it really make sense for the game to compensate a user like "HannaMaaria" 35.8 BTC (so $350k at current values) and 53,500 Euros when she did absolutely nothing for the game and only sang at Risto's embassy for a few hours?
Only looking at major accounts, here is what we are thinking:
https://i.imgur.com/vLrjeKU.jpg
Accounts in yellow will be taken over in full by the game. These are either Risto-related accounts or were already game accounts.
Accounts in green are corporations that we believe Risto controlled. In-game currency held by these accounts will be distributed to current shareholders. Then they will just act as holding companies unless a game-specific purpose is created for them later. We are thinking, for example, of NewCorp functioning similar to "Phoenix Trust" as it holds a lot of land/property.
Accounts in orange we are unsure on. If there are any claims to these, let us know. "FuriBliz" in particular looks very suspect.
In any event, this will give the game room to grow without changing relative ownership percentages of in-game currency and items for any other users.
I appreciate the consideration to keep it open source. I agree that Ultima was probably one of the largest bottlenecks in trying to play the game. It became all about buying and selling as the entire game for newer players, while when I was watching during the spreadsheet days it seemed much more open ended.
There were parts of Ultima that were still managed through the spreadsheet, like the army encounters and tournament, and they seemed to be the most engaging parts, the story side of the market matching software that wasn't really incorporated into the website. The casino was cool too, and I think that was the direction that was being pursued - one where people would ultimately deliver their own websites that would provide the game utility to the end user, and the main focus of CK itself was just the order matching software.
In hindsight, maybe the focus should have been trying to put out a turnkey game with all modules centrally managed. Sure it's a proven business model and it seems to be the direction this is just beginning to be headed in now .. but that business model often relies on closed source executables in order to maintain the value.
There was a lot of people who put money into the game, I know I was upwards of 6k xmr. Of course saying that now has a lot more impact then saying it when it was less than three dollars or so. All in all I'm way up overall and I can't necessarily hold people accountable for capital gains in fiat on something that I traded hoping for something with a sub 1% chance to happen.
I think risto knew that as I suspect one of the motives of his repeated attempts to get people to go hang out with him at the end was that if in fact nobody really came when they thought they were having fun and possibly millionaires, they probably ain't gonna do much of shit if it went the other way ( it did). We just made a thread about it and carried on with life.
Also, doing some research about haanamaaria would reveal there there was a much longer engagement than a night of singing going on, so I'm not sure what that examples supposed to prove?
Overall I agree that a fork is the only path forward for this. Maybe we should take account of the percentage of the risto controlled accounts amount compared to the rest of the assets in the game? Any good numbers exist on this yet? Either way - maybe an auction of some sort with like 95% of the proceeds going proportionally to the old players that are on the sheet as being owed and 5% going to the new development is a reasonable idea, so long as the past generosity of the players is remembered knowing that with most of these people all you really need is a good idea and the balls to ask for a few dollars to get something off the ground.