MiniGame (S.MG), November 2014 Statement

S.MG has a total of 88`096`605 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009988 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009923 BTC.

S.MG realised no operating revenue this period, and is not expected to realise operating revenue next period. The P/E implied value per share is thus 0 BTC.

S.MG has Special Stock Warrants outstanding, as follows :

Provisional statement, will be considered accepted within 24 hours. Make any observations or corrections below.

Without going into too much detail, the general schematic for work organisation in this project was as follows :

1. Research available offerings and select a tech platform on which to develop the game.ⁱ
2. Create a number of test versions as part and natural byproduct of studying, adjusting and expanding the platform to suit our needs.ⁱⁱ
3. Release a basically playable, early version of the game - to be constantly improved throughout its lifetime.ⁱⁱⁱ
4. Declare the game "gold", have players pay to continue playing.^iv

The move from point 2 to point 3 above was originally scheduled to happen either right before Thanksgiving or right before Christmas, these being traditionally the right times to be releasing games. Unfortunately, as it is always the case, development has run long, and it is obvious now we won't be making either target. Rather than push and rush things I prefer the slower strategy of missing the window entirely, and coming out with a product better polished for the wait in the lull of early 2015.^v

Contrary to what you might expect, it was not coding that presents the largest impediment to keeping schedules in this project - under the enlightened leadership of my longtime CTO software work is proceeding apace, generally even ahead of storyline and plot work, parts which I can just suck out of my pen directly!

Artwork, however, is an utter disaster. I have been fortunate enough to retain an actual expert doing a lot of 2D support^vi, but other than being somewhat on the expensive side (which I do not nor would ever begrudge an actual expert), there's a sharp limit on just how much material one pair of hands can produce, and moreover, not all work is fit for or should be done by experts.^vii

The middle market, the people who are reasonably skilled but looking for an opportunity to prove themselves, and especially in fields you would expect are exactly central to a young man's heart such as 3D modelling, are in a situation so sorry as to defy any description. Such is the nefarious influence of the inept socialist state^viii : why should the young man of moderate ability work himself to the bare bone to achieve moderate success, when he can just sit at home and play reddit all day long, "changing the world" with the magical power of magical thinking while Nanny Fed pays for the groceries ?

But, throwing one's hands up in the air out of indignant displeasure at a world that emphatically fails to conform to expectation, reasonable or otherwise, is not the way of the businessman. Consequently, I am taking specific measures to remedy this defect in the fabric of the universe, as follows :

This thing, printed in lush 300 dpi resolution on A4 self-adhesive paper will be placed this coming week by the entryway to thirty or so local artschools here in Buenos Aires. And if that doesn't yield me at least a couple 3D modelers, I'm going to start kidnapping kittens and young maidens. Fair warning.^ix

Other than graphic artists, ~ which by the way we still need, hello young people looking to matter in the world of tomorrow, this is your roll call ~ we also still need dedicated package maintainers, especially for the Windows platform, as described back in April. This is a paid position, see there and get in touch.

1. Completed late June 2013. [↩]
2. First release, displaying a lot of basics for public scrutiny, such as you know, the general look of a map, basic performance, stuff like that, July 31st, 2013. Three ulterior versions, each increasingly more developed, released throughout 2013 and early 2014. [↩]
3. The proper terminology is unclear, but I guess this would technically be the move from alpha to beta ? [↩]
4. Obviously inasmuch as Eulora will work on a Bitcoin basis, it will at no point be a "free game" in the sense this is generally understood by the people Naggum doesn't like. Nevertheless, there's a huge difference between a 0 EV casino and a - EV casino : while some people make more than they spend and some people make less than they spend in both cases, the operators only show a profit in the second case.

   While it may seem to the common man a tempting proposition to skim all in-game activities to show a profit, this is not how Eulora will be managed. Instead, all in-game activities will be secularily neutral EV, with fees being extracted through a disclosed, isolated mechanism. In practice this will consist of requiring that all characters either eat or die - as you recall death in Eulora is permanent. The minimum amount of basic food required per unit time as well as its cost are easy to set so as to emulate what seems a reasonable 15-20 dollar per month subscription fee. [↩]

5. Which is why this report is early - since there's not going to be any material changes in the financials, I prefer to release the information as the decision is made, rather than simply sit on it. [↩]
6. Let's do that whole sneak peek thing, shall we ?

   First off, iconic views of the 12 unique plants and the 24 unique animals to be populating the enchantedly magical world of Eulora (first off, obviously more stuff will be added over time) :

   

   And here's a colage of details :

   

   So that's 12 static models + 24 animated models + 6 models for player characters, all coming up to a lot of artwork that needs to be done. [↩]

7. There's a reason 90% by surface of the classical frescoes were not actually painted by the masters the work is traditionally attributed by, and that reason is that it doesn't nor should it take a genius to put a button on a jacket, or draw a chair in the background and some curlicue on the side. [↩]
8. From the logs :
   mircea_popescu
   

   if the Treasury were forced to convert the $1.4 trillion in short-term bills (on which it now pays an average interest rate of 0.056 percent) into 30-year bonds at the average rate it is now paying on such bonds (4.919 percent) the interest on that $1.4 trillion in debt would increase 88-fold.

   This is wreaking untold havoc on the entire known world, incidentally. It's not just the disruption it WILL cause as it unwinds. That's the small part. The big part is the disruption it has already caused, and it continues to cause each passing day. Like the stuff discussed above re USG agency Red Hat, fucking up linux. EXACTLY the situation of the giant ruining a chair. Linux is a nice comfortable chair. After Red Hat is done sitting in it, it will perhaps be still usable. Maybe. Like the woman that delivered a baby hippo will still make a good wife. Add to that all the idiots living off "free money" that was GIVEN to them ("usg is making up money and giving it to redhat to implement its policies ; whereby control economy is now called "do-ocracy"), while selling themselves on and trying to sell everyone else on how they're "making a positive impact". The sheer amount of plain idiocy being imported into the software of the world by this avenue far exceeds all the idiocy that could ever be imported into openssh or the kernel. Because people do this, there's idiots whose careers are entirely constructed out of "advising start-ups", like undata is keenly aware.
   undata Painfully so.
   decimation In my opinion, USG's crimes are not 'active' in the sense that they scheme with redhat for evil - USG's crime is that if failed to use the resources and human talent at its disposal to advance the art of computing at all.

   mircea_popescu There's nothing more corrosive to a state, and a society, and ultimately a culture, than fake money. It's the curse of fucking doom, you don't even need enemies if you got that.
   undata It makes people unable to think!
   decimation A very small part of the US population has any idea what it really means to economically run a business (turn a profit), and that part isn't in power.

   mircea_popescu It's like nobody bothers to wish ill on the cancer patient. That's why Russia and China are not even remotely interested in a large scale war. Just wait the sarcoma victim out.
   decimation Heh China is happy to buy the paper actually.*
   undata I have literally screamed "We need to make money!" at multiple jobs before setting out on my own.

   ---
   *Think about this. Why is it that your enemy is encouraging your actions ? Think good and hard on this topic. Why ? Did you buy Russia's paper back when it was a contender ? Did you buy its paper when it briefly ceased being a contender, in the 90s ? Are you buying it now ? Well... ? I'm sure it's all because Putin doesn't understand how the world works, is it now. [↩]

9. We are also looking at either buying or simply reusing extant material that comes under an adequate license.

   What will never happen, never, ever, no matter what, come hell or high water, is us paying a first world salary to anon peeps belaboring under the delusion that they're "artists", and in so being they're entitled to live off their "work".

   Art is not tech, where you can live off your actual, positive, provable skills. Art is art, you live off your name if you live off it at all, and this is how you make a name for yourself. Bite the bullet already, because notwithstanding the pipe dreams coming out of the TV set and the nutty ego trips your senator is more than happy to lay out on you if it'll get the vote, there isn't a way out nor is there ever going to be a way out.

   If Kim could suck up when she was nobody, so can you. I don't care how great your ass is - it certainly isn't as great as hers - and sure as syrup nobody gives a shit how great you think your ass is. It ain't.

   Get busy pouring your soul into tangible shape for very little money. Today. Right now. While you're still young and still can do it, while I'm still around and sorta looking. Maybe it comes to something. Do not delay, that's a luxury you can not in any shape or form afford. There's barely going to be enough bread in the future for have-beens, maybe. Nobody is making any sort of plans for the could-have-beens. [↩]