Messages

31

Announcements / Why did SpiritWars vanish for 4.5 years?

« on: October 23, 2013, 11:08:18 PM »

SpiritWars was the creation of my husband, Randy Chase.  He was the designer, developer and principal programmer.  The game was launched in 1998 and was on-line continuously until his sudden and unexpected death in 2009.  I took the game off-line at that time as I know very little about information technology.  I approached many people about helping me to bring SpiritWars back.  Some made promises to me that they did not keep, others declined to help.  Some believed that if they were to help, they would be entitled to an enormous share of any profits that might be generated.  Some told me that the game was too old to merit any investment of time or money.  I received inquiries and requests continuously since Randy's death to bring back the game.  I can do that now thanks to a great software engineer named Bret.  Watch for his posts on the forum.

32

News / BIG BIG BIG NEWS!!!

« on: October 19, 2013, 11:00:50 PM »

SpiritWars is COMING BACK!!!  The contract with the programmer will be signed in the next few days and then I'll have more news for you.  It has been 4.5 years since Randy died, and I've tried many times to make this happen.  This time it looks like it will!  The programmer has already reviewed the code and a plan is in place.

A SPECIAL NOTE to those of you who made suggestions to change the design or model:  Randy was committed to a fair and level playing field rather than a model that gives a player with more money an advantage.  We will be keeping the subscription model rather than selling spirits.

The stories that some of you have posted here on the message board about what SpiritWars meant to you have meant a great deal to me.  I have carried your stories in my heart as I've grieved.  I've been learning to live a different life than the one I had with Randy.  It's been hard work and a lonely journey.  I am excited that I will have the SpiritWars family to surround me once again.
                   Love, Lyn

33

News / Progress???

« on: September 24, 2013, 09:48:37 PM »

For the last six weeks, Eric and I have had a programmer reviewing SpiritWars code.  We will meet with him in the first week of October to discuss his findings.  Stay tuned for updates here.  (And wish us luck!)

34

Introductions / Re: Can download but Can't install SW

« on: November 13, 2012, 06:25:19 PM »

SpiritWars is NOT running.  The server is not functional.  Eric and I have talked to a couple of programmers but have not been able to accomplish anything yet.  I'm sorry.  I just started a new job today.  I'm hoping to move forward with SpiritWars but have just run into obstacle after obstacle.  I'm SO tired.....
          Lyn

35

News / Attention!!! Attention!!! Attention!!!

« on: November 02, 2012, 06:44:10 PM »

Attention please!!!  We are being inundated by bots attempting to join so they can post spam here.  Today I have 56 "members"  awaiting my "approval".  It appears that NONE of them are human.  I'm tired of wasting my time to go through them trying to determine if any of them are legitimate, so here is the plan:
   If you are a guest and really WANT to become a member of this forum so you can read and post here, please send me an e-mail expressing your interest.  Please explain why you want to post ie., you are a former player, you are interested in learning more about the game, etc.
  You can send your e-mail to news (at) spiritwars (dot) com.

Another bit of frustrating news:  When Eric and I purchased an e-mail marketing product from GoDaddy, we were somewhat misled.  It appears that they sent out only 23 e-mails out of the 10,000 we had attempted to send.  We will now try to send out a few hundred every day or two...UNLESS...any of you have a suggestion that Eric and I can deal with.  Eric is busy with school and I cannot even use the correct terminology to discuss all this stuff.

A third bit of frustrating news:  The programmer that we started talking to is not able to help us at this time.  He is a lovely young man but just cannot take on a project of this proportion.  We will press on.....
                                                Lyn   (aka Mom)

36

News / Re: Advice, please

« on: October 09, 2012, 07:05:19 PM »

Another update: Just wanted to let you all know that I have begun the process of talking to programmers.  I've spoken to two so far.  Although neither of them could do what's needed, both said they knew programmers who might be interested in the project.  I will continue the process, but I work during the day, so it's hard to find time to make the contacts during business hours.  I anticipate having a little extra time on Monday.  If you are a SpiritWars player and know programmers who program in both Visual Basic and Java, please send them my way.
                            Lyn

37

Introductions / Re: Welcome back!

« on: October 07, 2012, 10:21:18 PM »

Hello friend.  Thank you for coming back to check on things.  I am Randy's widow.  I'm a nurse, not a computer person, so I'm sort of flying blind, but I think I want to find someone who can change it from its current Visual Basic and Access to Java so it could possibly become a Facebook game.  When it was written in 1998-1999, the internet was still young and people were using dial-up connectivity, so Randy built it with the mindset that it had to have a very low bandwidth requirement.  I'm wondering if now it could be all be done on the server side?  My problem is that I don't have money to just hire a programmer--or maybe it needs a team of programmers.  (I hope not.)  I wish I had a sense of how much it's going to cost to do the conversion, then I could do better planning.  If it will involve big bucks, Eric (Randy's and my son, now 18) and I have discussed the possibility of trying Kickstarter or another crowd funding source.  Please let us know if you have any suggestions or advice.  We would be very grateful.
                     Lyn

38

News / Re: Advice, please

« on: October 06, 2012, 01:10:53 PM »

An update:  Eric and I explored options and ultimately purchased a one month "Express E-mail Marketing" option from our internet provider, GoDaddy.  The system required us to send a notice first, giving recipients the option of subscribing to our "marketing campaign" or declining.  Thus far, very few people have actually received our e-mail as most either declined to subscribe, ignored us or reported us as spammers.
We have, however, reached several players who have registered here and have posted.  We have also had to deal with many spammers here on this forum.  It is frustrating to me to be reported as a spammer and, at the same time, receive SO MUCH spam here!
If you have any contact information from SpiritWars players who have not yet registered here, please let them know about the forum.  I am very grateful to all of you who have come here and encouraged us, given us advice and offered to help.  We will press on!
              Love, Lyn

39

Introductions / Re: Wewt!

« on: September 20, 2012, 12:49:25 PM »

Hi Minmaxer!  I'm so glad to see you here!  And if I haven't expressed to everybody  how happy I am to see ALL of you here, please forgive me.  I've very grateful for your support.
            Lyn

40

News / Advice, please

« on: September 20, 2012, 12:46:03 PM »

Hi friends,
   Eric and I are still trying to figure out how to do a mass mailing to the SpiritWars community.  Randy had a database of about 22,000 e-mail addresses and we would like to get the word about the forum out to them, but we are technologically challenged.  I found a program on the internet called Send Blaster.  Does anyone know about that one?  Is there a better one?  Is there a better way?  We don't have time to enter all those addresses into a program by hand.  I'm hoping we can copy and paste them in. 
  The sooner we get the word out, the sooner we can start planning how to get SpiritWars back up and running.
  It was programmed primarily in Visual Basic.  Should we try to have it redone in Java?  Or another language?  Any advice you have for us will be greatly appreciated!
  Thank you all for being here.
                        Love,
                                Lyn

41

Introductions / Happy Birthday Eric!

« on: September 15, 2012, 09:31:29 AM »

Hi SpiritWars family!  This forum is here ONLY because Eric (aka Nat) was able to work with the wonderful helper at GoDaddy to get it up and running.  Eric also was instrumental in helping me reapply for the SpiritWars trademark that was granted at the beginning of August.  Eric will turn 18 on Tuesday, September 18th.  Please help me wish him a happy birthday.
                Lyn (aka Mom)

42

Introductions / Re: Wewt!

« on: September 06, 2012, 08:01:01 PM »

Hi JDizzle.  Thank you so much for your enthusiasm!  Eric and I are doing our best, but it's like slogging through molasses to get anything done.  I now have the trademark on SpiritWars again.  It expired after Randy's death and I didn't act fast enough, so we had to apply as if it were a new trademark.  But we did it and now I own it again in the "games" category.  Right now our challenge is figuring out how to do a mass e-mailing.  Randy had a large database of e-mail addresses, but we don't know how to send a message out to such a large group yet.  May I ask what your player name was?  Although I didn't play, I was in the chat rooms as Mom.

43

General Discussion / Re: Yay forums! Now if I can start the game...

« on: September 06, 2012, 07:55:26 PM »

Hi Bob,  thanks for your input.  I don't know how to get it up and running, but I'm trying--with Eric's help--to figure it out.  May I ask what your player name was?  In the later years I wasn't in the chat rooms much, but when I was there my user name was Mom.

44

News / An update from the family

« on: August 25, 2012, 09:48:12 PM »

Hello, friends.  After three-and-a-half years, we are trying to wake up the SpiritWars spirits.  I would like to provide you with the background and events that brought us to this point. 

SpiritWars, an online strategy  game, was designed, developed and published by my late husband, Randy Chase in 1998.  It appeared originally on Sierra’s WON (World Opponent Network) but a few years later, we took control and ran it on our own servers.  I never played a game of SpiritWars—I don’t really like games unless they’re Tetris—but in the early years, I was often present in the SpiritWars chat rooms as Mom.  Randy spent time in the chat rooms daily.  He loved the game he had created but, more importantly, he loved the players.

Randy had his 56th birthday on February 9, 2009.  Eleven days later he died suddenly and unexpectedly.  He was alone at the time of his death.  Although those who found him attempted CPR and the paramedics tried absolutely everything they could, he could not be saved.  The medical examiner and his doctor felt that his poorly controlled diabetes and his smoking caused heart disease.  Randy had no symptoms and no diagnosis of heart disease or high blood pressure.  At the time of Randy’s death our children Jonathan and Eric were 25 and 14 respectively.

I took SpiritWars offline because I didn’t know how to run it.  (I also took Randy’s other game offline for the same reason.)  The boys and I have decided to attempt to get SpiritWars up and running again as we regularly receive e-mails from former players expressing their enthusiasm for the game.

Here is the challenge:  Randy was a brilliant game designer but a self-taught programmer.  The game needs to be re-written to address some (okay, many) programming issues.  And because the technology has changed in the last 14 years, there are options that were not available at the outset.  I would like to see it rewritten in a language that would allow it to be played on mobile devices or, perhaps, become a Facebook game.  But I am a nurse, not a programmer.  We would like to get your input on how to proceed.  We have no funds to hire programmers, so we want to explore options.

Please use this forum to give us your ideas, your feelings about the game and to reconnect with players you used to know.  We had a wonderful SpiritWars community, a group of people who cared about each other, played with honor and treated each other with respect.  I will look forward to reading your posts and planning—with you—how to get the game up and running again.  Thank you for your help.
       Lyn, Eric and Jonathan