[ SFO's 4 Year Anniversary ] - official "reflection" thread

[TMyApp]

[color=#000000ost_uid10]Looking back at it all.... wow... 4 long years...

I thought I'd start another thread for this momentous anniversary, however, instead of reiterating of "how it all began", I thought I'd mention some of the XvsSF/SFO moments that I feel made the biggest impact on me (personally) over the years... (and if anyone wishes, they can dig up my old "anniversary rants", and link them here as well)

Probably one of the more vivid in-game moments that I remember, is playing Nferno666 (for the first time). It was just few days/weeks after XvsSF was first launched on August 7th, 2001. I think the game that he and I had changed my perception of XvsSF, since he was the first person to "combo" me with the "corner of death" (and kick my ass in the process). This was something that was certainly not planned, while I heard other developers mention similar experiences with their games, it was the first time I felt like "wow... that guy did something that I never planned anyone to be able to do...". Since then, I have seen similar events happen dozens of times (but you always tend to remember your first).

On a more "negative" note/memory, weeks after the release is also about the same time I stopped telling the people I knew in "real life" (friends, co-workers, etc) about the project. Oddly enough, I noticed that a lot of them began to either resent my work, or, hate the fact that it was succeeding (it is as though they needed to see failure in other people's lives in order to justify their own disappointments ?? ).

Yet many more on the other hand, could not believe of the fact that I was never trying to make money on the game. No banner ads, no "buy now" button, and definitely not attempts to "sell out". (and believe me, I had my share of "offers"). Corporate losers from UK who wanted to turn the project into a "gambling fighting game", as well as some semi-insane person who wanted to offer me something like $50 for the entire source of SFO... *blank stare*... yeah, those will definitely remain in my memory :biggrin:

... there are a number of things I regret as well.... I think a lot of users slipped by that would have probably made good mods, but for some reason I never noticed them until they stopped being active. I also wish that I had more free time (overall) to work on the project (I'm sure most of you have noticed the fact that the updates have became more and more rare, compared to say... late 2001 and early 2002 years). There are just so many ideas and features that never made it into the game (which I still have written somewhere, on small pieces of napkin-like-napkins).... the good news is that: there is still time...

Of course everything has it's own and valid reason. (and the insane bandwidth requirements that SFO has still remains to be the biggest one). With every game change and update, I have to think "will I be able to handle the extra strain ?? "

Last month alone, we had something like 74,000 unique visitors, and at an average 20 meg SFO download, we are talking about almost 1.5 terabytes of data (a quick google search of various hosting companies will reveal of just how costly something like that is). And, to what end result ?? (way too many people have asked me that over the years).

I mean, as I mentioned before, XvsSF/SFO doesn't really "do it" for me. As most of you have noticed I don't play the game myself (outside of thousands of hours I've spent developing it). It only cost me money, and creates a number of problems and headaches in my life (servers going down, marve| threatening to sue, 300 emails a day, authentication database which now seems to want to corrupt on itself for no reason what so ever... and the list goes on). In fact, if you were to ask me "when was the last time I had fun making or playing SFO"... I don't think I can remember (I certainly haven't felt that in over 3 years). I can remember a ton of "bad times" though (such the spew of problems I just mentioned).

... yet despite all of that, I distinctly remember one point in my life... years back... when almost every person I knew (in real life, or online) was telling me to pull the plug on the game... stop it all right there and then... end the headaches, and to make sure that things in my life would not get any worse. And in that moment, I (ake: lowly ol' TMyApp) was the only person to say "no... the game will live... no matter the costs" ...

So why do I still bother ?? Why do I look at my computer screen... see my gigantic SFO to-do list... think to myself: "this is the last thing I want to do right now"... take a deep breath, and then spend countless hours trying to meet self-made deadlines for some weird-named "event" I thought up during my drive to work ??

... *thinking*... I already answered this question a number of times before, but, probably the last time I really put it into perspective was when I saw that god-awful "Spider-man 2" movie... I can't remember the exact line in the script, but, Doc-Oc had this rant of how if one were to have a talent, or a special skill... it was their responsibility to acknowledge the fact that it did not belong to them... that it was a gift for others, and that they were obligated to use it (for the good of humanity and such). Corny... yes (I'm sure Stan Lee was very proud :biggrin: ) but, somehow that concept seemed like something I could relate to (and was a big part of my own mentality)

Vanity aside... I'm not the greatest programmer... SFO is full of bugs and crappy/laggy network code that I should have re-written years ago, yet, I seem to be the only person on this planet (1 otta 6+ billion ??) who managed to create a multiplayer-capable remake of an old fighting game that spawned an active community of almost one million users (well, 916,717 to be exact :biggrin: ) ... and the fact that I did it first doesn't surprise me as much as the fact that in 4 long years, not a SINGLE knock-off has been made ?? (and I'm not talking about those crappy SF Flash games that have no 4-player, tag multiplayer support). I mean, SFO is out there... and (almost) EVERYONE knows about it (hell, it was posted on the Capcom forum a number of times, and, the first no-name person we talked to at marve| seemed to know exactly who we were).... so, everyone knows that it "can be done", yet, no one is willing to (or able to ?? ) create something better ?? (or at least as good ?? )

I suppose this... is what makes SFO unique... it's the only one of it's kind (for better or worse)...

That said, I'm staring at the top-scores stats right now... and the amount of games-per-hour is still as high as it ever has been (in 4 years)... I have never made a single attempt at advertising the game anywhere on the internet, yet, it seems to thrive and prosper on it's own. Every year I say the same thing, and every year it is true: "now, more people play the game than ever before"... and that is one thing that I don't think I (or anyone) can ever fully explain ... in short, SFO is this indescribable "gem"... and being the person who has first planted the seed (not knowing of what would eventually become of it).. it is now my responsibility to see it thru... in away, my work and abilities no longer belong to me... they are serving all those who enjoy SFO, and I am bound to dedicate myself to the project for as long as they desire for it to exist (which goes back to that Doc-Oc movie rant)

*reads above*... yeah, that train of thought just kept going eh ?? lol

Alright, before I open this thread up to wild rants and endless discussions, I thought I would leave everything on a good note, and perhaps one of my most memorable and cherished moments in the history of XvsSF/SFO:

Back in December 2001 (much to my surprise),

[alamgir]

Touching...