perhaps a suggestion complimenting your statement would be nice, swat.

i personally have grown tired of the background. call me unreasonable, but thats one of the main reasons i've taken to other sites, along with the fact that reality needs me.

i shall return to the abyss.

Well this has turned into a case in my original point for this thread.

IF mods, fan projects (i.e. fan built FL2) , a new/overhauled site, new server, minor coverage of new games (i.e. DS1) , community resource/service projects (i.e. the forge and coop) , better community coordination/communications, community consolidation, and even a completely new "next gen" game thats now sort of an indirect FL sequel, cannot give TLR the boost it needs to survive... then, seriously, what will?

At this point that question is starting to become rhetorical and the answer could very well be nothing.

For the past six months I have tried to push for TLR to coordinate with the greater FL community to come up with a solution to this problem. There are a lot of people still active on the various FL sites and many of those sites owe their existence to TLR in one way or another. If the community were to rally together to solve this problem and coordinate an effort to implement a few (or even all) of those ideas, I think everyone would be surprised at the results, the community would revitalize itself.

If I could rally the community I would probably try but I'm not in a good position to do that and I don't know the community outside of TLR that well. I still believe TLR staff are the only ones in a position to effect any kind of change in the FL community. So I'm trying to do what I can with my projects to provide the various community leaders with building blocks they can use to build a foundation for a large scale cooperative effort...

The results are: OL was largely ignored as a possible FL sequel, and if not ignored then met with indifference bordering on hostility, even after it started to show real progress. The forge site was largely ignored until I started to move ahead with it, then BP asked me to put it on hold until TLR got its new server in "a few weeks" (that was back in December on OL's IRC channel). The coop got about the same response, largely ignored. My suggestions for rallying the community, other ideas for community cooperative projects, ideas for the website, ideas for a dozen other things...all largely ignored.

All of the stuff people largely ignored adds up to a lot of talk, planning, and research, with no real action. Now I've had enough and my patients have finally run out.

Unless someone has a better idea I'm going to move ahead with the forge and coop on my current VPS account. Its not much but it will bring results for OL, its sister projects, and maybe a few others willing to join us. From there I'll move to change OL's focus, rather than something connected at the hip to TLR, OL will blaze a new path forward for any members of the greater FL community and any TLR members looking for something better than...well, this stagnated mess.

In a couple weeks I'll submit a news article to TLR with my progress like any other FL community project.


-MegaBurn

Lead Designer and Webmaster,
Openlancer Project

like i already said.. im working on a concept
it will take some time but changes will come

Let me put it this way......

If we are ever going to see a Freelancer 2 (Freelancers: The Return) etc..or whatever..
We AS A COMMUNTIY absolutely MUST work together on this.
We have to start by keeping our expectations within reasonable limits and I have to tell you now, some of the stuff I've seen listed are way out of orbit at the present time.
If were to even attempt some of the suggestions, we would end up in a tangled mess that will NEVER be completed and the result in the short/long term of it will be just another DEAD END and eventual DEATH of the FREELANCER Dream with a lot of angry, dissillusioned and dissappointed people.

I've seen the promise this game has and it WAS left WIDE OPEN for a sequal.
We can change it's face and add things..but we're going to have to stick to the basics and expand on those possiblities.
It is NOT IMPOSSIBLE to create a new story line to pick up somewhere AFTER the original ended. BUT, we're going to have to come up with some serious programming expertise to make it work and we are going to have to come up with NEW CHARACTERS...(albeit, they could be "related" or decendents of the originals)

There are enough incredibly brite people here to pull it off.
We're going to have to stop this individuality, bickering and inter-fighting over copyrights and intellectual property for the duration of its development until it is DONE.

COPYRIGHTS are for those whose buisness it is to clearly make a profit off the original product. Not much more than that. Beyond that, we settle into intellectual property disputes and THAT still at best is a shady area of gray.
HOWEVER...IF WE PULL TOGETHER....
we will as a whole own the total (secondary) copyright and NO ONE SINGLE individual will have final power over it.
This will have to be "Corporate" venture in nature.
However, since this is a sequal to the original, we cannot OWN the ORIGINAL COPYRIGHT..but we can SHARE the OWNERSHIP of the SECOND.
We are going to need a board of voluteer directors.
We already have a lot of talent.

What say you?

I am a little concerned that we may end up with another Halogen. That would be terrible.

Still, best of luck to anyone who wants to take on such a mammoth project. I'll wish you luck, speed and freedom from stupidity. (Whoever gets the reference gets a cookie.)