DaGaffer
Down With That Sorta Thing
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 18,511
GAME set up the first DAOC forums on BW/GAME.NET as official European forums for the game (I know because I did the deal with Koch who were the DAOC distributor because basically they were fucking their own forums up). It was one of many monetization plans we were trying out to keep the whole show on the road until we could get our digital distribution platform across the line. The money we got from running BT's servers had kept us going for a couple of years but when they closed down we were strapped for cash (I'd done a deal with NTL and a couple more forum deals, and the lads had built a really clever clan server system, but GAME pulled the plug before we could launch any of it).
When GAME pulled the plug DAOC was one of the largest forums on the platform so Deebs decided to keep it going on FH, which he launched as BW closed. (GAME kept the BW IP because when we bought the BW assets we kept the tax loss as a benefit and there were still residuals; GAME did it again when they bought Gameplay; those tax losses were huge and subsidised GAME's online activities for years, but I'd gone by then).
So when FH launched there were two popular forums; OT (DAOC) and General (BW), which eventually merged.
When GAME pulled the plug DAOC was one of the largest forums on the platform so Deebs decided to keep it going on FH, which he launched as BW closed. (GAME kept the BW IP because when we bought the BW assets we kept the tax loss as a benefit and there were still residuals; GAME did it again when they bought Gameplay; those tax losses were huge and subsidised GAME's online activities for years, but I'd gone by then).
So when FH launched there were two popular forums; OT (DAOC) and General (BW), which eventually merged.