[Catnip]

It's a shame, because the screenshot is interesting looking, and the subject is interesting (at least the little they told us in the synopsis). However, it's never good news when people are advertising something for sale right now, and they don't tell you the actual cost or release date. It sounds to me like there might actually BE a game that is in the works, and the person working on it is trying to get funds to complete it. That's just my take on it. It's way too iffy to bank on any return on any money spent, though.

[Manhunter71]

I googled Lord of Misrule and Visionary Designs (the supposed developer).

All I got was a link to a forum with 15 people registered but no posts, and links to Amazon who are selling books called "Lord of Misrule", although none of them ar eby Ray Clarke.

Hmm.... curiouser and curiouser......

[Dianetix]

OK...HOLD IT!

I came on here to tell u about a great new adventure game.

So far all I got for my trubble is cr@p from badmojo, and a LOAD of hassel.

Let me set this straight with u all.

I AM NOT anything to do with those guys. NOTHING, NADA, ZIP….

I was just telling u about a new game I found nothing else.

Now, I am gonna answer some of the posts cos I feel like Im being accused of something here that isn’t nothing to do with me.

I think ill start with badmojo cos his post really wound me up .

“I found the same post you just made HERE”

Well, doh! Of cause I posted it somewhere else. You want me to write a separate post every time I tell someone about the thing! Grow up.
I even said that I have sent an email to the news team on this site about the thing, so don’t start trying to say I am just posting for that company just because I posted about it somewhere else.

“I could be wrong.. but this is just weird. There's this new and un-heard-of adventure game that appears out of nowhere to a community full of people who thrive on finding new adventure games.”

Ooooo….let me think about that one. Mmmmmmm So your saying that unless you or someone else on here finds out about a “new” game then it must be odd that other people can do it?!?

Look mate, I found a new game from a company who does adventure games. Get over it.

“Then I find this on the game's website..
Quote:
Well, the site is now updated and you can now go to the download page to download a sample E-Book of TLOM. Please note that to run this E-Book you MUST unzip the file to a directory and then just run the EXE file. It has been virus checked and is clean.

So, what..? This is the demo? An e-book that's... an exe? Weird, once again. Hey, at least it's been scanned for viruses!”

Er…I feel like your trying to trash both what I said and this game for some reason.
Why are you implying that it says that on the company’s site when it DOES NOT.

On the authors site it says that. And if you go to the authors download page it say this…..

“Here you will find new downloads as they happen. For now please click HERE to download my older story archive or click HERE for the sample E-Book of The Lord Of Misrule.
Please Note: You MUST have Direct X 9 or higher to run the E-Book. If you DONT have Direct X 9 OR if you have an old computer system then click HERE to download an E-Book that will work with your system.”

So if your gonna say something negative about this game or the people who make it or even what I post…at least get your facts right.


“Oh.. and if you go to the area where can PURCHASE this game (wait, no screenshots? no demo? barely any info at all?) It links you to THIS. (yes, that's where you actually "order" crap from this guy...)”

TOTALLY WRONG! There ARE screenshots. You can download them from the site in a zip format.
There IS a demo. I did manage to dl it (tho it took a lot of goes) AND the demo is being mirrored by game spy (I think its them, will have to go look again….but it IS a well known mirror site).
And what you going on about when you say no info on the game. God, there is info on it on their site, the authors site and other sites I found. They also have some great reviews (on-line) AND if THAT was not enough, the local newspapers carried a press release on the game, AND the BBC and ITV are wanting to do a NATIONAL (in England) news report on the bloody thing.

How much more “info” do u need??????

And yes, I have read the newspaper review/press release so I know that its real.

And I DO hope when you say “that's where you actually "order" crap from this guy” you were not saying that your ordering the game from me….cos its noting to do with me.

“But wait! THATS NOT ALL! If you order within the next 3 seconds............!!
Quote:
The normal retail price (The one you will pay in the shops) is £24.99, but for the first 500 people who buy it from this site, you will only pay the special price of just £4.99. That’s an 80% discount, and you will only get this discount if you order from this site.”

WOW…..so here we have a game firm who not only want to sell their game (isn’t that a strange concept!! *sarcastic) but a firm who has offered people the chance to get it at a discount if they buy direct from them and if they are within the first 500 users.

And your bitchin about it!!! Whats your problem here? For years us adventure gamers have had bugger all to see as far as proper adventures are concerned. Sure we have had things like Syberia and stuff like that, and lots of so-called action adventures which are NOT real adventures as they pander to the “lets run round and beat/kill/shoot everything in sight so we can get a key for a door” squad. But now a good solid adventure comes out and you think its somehow wrong for them to promote their game by offering it at a discount?
I not only played the demo, which was good, but I bought the game and I can tell everyone that it was the best £4.99 I have spent in a long time. it’s a great game. So instead of complaining, go buy it or download the demo and THEN after that you can have your say. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

In fact why don’t you contact the company and ask them some questions eh? Then at least you will know what’s what with things in stead of assuming…. which is all your doing here.

“I have a feeling this game doesn't exist. I also have a feeling theres people out there hyping up this "game" hoping people will order it (and, of course, will never recieve anything in return).”

Well I got the thing, so that blows your assumption out of the water don’t it.



Now Ive said that, apart from feeling much better, I can answer a few of the other posts points as I had a bit of the same problems as other here.

@Catnip:

“However, it's never good news when people are advertising something for sale right now, and they don't tell you the actual cost or release date.”

I could not see that at first, but I found the info in their News area. They don’t have a price for America or out of England, but I emailed them and they said that all anyone would have to do is to convert £4.99 to USD (or wherever they live) and that would be the price they would pay. I think it works out at $9 or something.

@artwking4

"I haven't even been able to find the book for sale anywhere or even any mention it (there are others books, but not by "Ray Clark"). While I was searching for information about the game, though, I did find the website of a guy who said he was a freelance artist and did some concept artwork for this game. So some obscure website of some artist's offhand mention of his contribution to the game lent some shred of credibility to the whole thing, for me at least."

I found a lot of art sites like the one you link to. Apparently, that company used a few freelance artists to do some extra work for the game. But as for the book, I did not find anything about it. But when you order the game you get an option to get a version of the book as an ebook, which is what I did, or you can get it shipped to you as a paperback.
The ebook was well put together and I don’t have a problem with it. But it may be a good idea to email the author over the paperback.

@kitzingmarko

“I will definitely not use a download program from an unreliable source. They can tell me a thousand times that the program has been virus checked, it still can be a trojan horse.”

Yes agreed. But its just a downloader. I run a couple of checkers and also zone labs firewall, and the downloader did nothing it should not have done.

“Where are the screenshots?”

On the site. But better shots are on the review sites.

“Why is the site such a mess?”

Yep…..I had that too. But it was because I was running in a higher res then their site. They do say that it designed for 800*600 and it looks just fine if you view it at that res.
But I didn’t have a problem with navigation as it’s simple. Just click the area you want on the left side.
I did have a MAJOR problem with downloading their music tho. At the top right you can download and play some game music. It is rather good. But the icon sometimes did not appear. It seems ok in Firefox and v7 of Netscape, but IE was a pain.

Ok, that’s all I can say on this apart from the fact that like anyone who is looking to buy a game, I checked them out and found out as much as I could before I paid. I do not have any probs in recommending the game, and you know what, I say support them cos they are supporting us the adventure gamers.

Simple as that.

And if anyone has anything to say about it, why don’t you just email them and ask em instead of running round with all these IF’s and BUT’s…..it’s the only way to find out the answers to your questions after all.

PS: I am sorry if I offended anyone with my rant at badmojo but I hate being accused of something that I have nothing to do with.

[eriq]

This smells VERRRRRY fishy to me. And I don't like fish!

[fov]

Hi Dianetix,

Please understand, people are just concerned because we haven't heard anything about this game and the game's website, mechanism for download, etc is pretty strange. It's actually quite common for people to register with the forums for the sole purpose of pushing their site or selling something (this is called "viral marketing," and we don't like it ). You can't blame us for being cautious.

If the game is legit and you're really not affiliated with them, I'm sorry that people jumped to conclusions. But until we can find out more about this game or hear from other people who have played it, it's hard to take this seriously.

-emily

ps I'm a moderator here, and will be happy to talk about this further or answer any questions you have. Feel free to send me a PM if you want to.

[kitzingmarko]

Give me another download location like gamer's hell or worthplaying and I will try the game.

[qrious]

Originally Posted by Dianetix

OK...HOLD IT!

I came on here to tell u about a great new adventure game.

So far all I got for my trubble is cr@p from badmojo, and a LOAD of hassel.

Let me set this straight with u all.

I AM NOT anything to do with those guys. NOTHING, NADA, ZIP….

I was just telling u about a new game I found nothing else.

Now, I am gonna answer some of the posts cos I feel like Im being accused of something here that isn’t nothing to do with me.

I think ill start with badmojo cos his post really wound me up .

“I found the same post you just made HERE”

Well, doh! Of cause I posted it somewhere else. You want me to write a separate post every time I tell someone about the thing! Grow up.
I even said that I have sent an email to the news team on this site about the thing, so don’t start trying to say I am just posting for that company just because I posted about it somewhere else.

“I could be wrong.. but this is just weird. There's this new and un-heard-of adventure game that appears out of nowhere to a community full of people who thrive on finding new adventure games.”

Ooooo….let me think about that one. Mmmmmmm So your saying that unless you or someone else on here finds out about a “new” game then it must be odd that other people can do it?!?

Look mate, I found a new game from a company who does adventure games. Get over it.

“Then I find this on the game's website..
Quote:
Well, the site is now updated and you can now go to the download page to download a sample E-Book of TLOM. Please note that to run this E-Book you MUST unzip the file to a directory and then just run the EXE file. It has been virus checked and is clean.

So, what..? This is the demo? An e-book that's... an exe? Weird, once again. Hey, at least it's been scanned for viruses!”

Er…I feel like your trying to trash both what I said and this game for some reason.
Why are you implying that it says that on the company’s site when it DOES NOT.

On the authors site it says that. And if you go to the authors download page it say this…..

“Here you will find new downloads as they happen. For now please click HERE to download my older story archive or click HERE for the sample E-Book of The Lord Of Misrule.
Please Note: You MUST have Direct X 9 or higher to run the E-Book. If you DONT have Direct X 9 OR if you have an old computer system then click HERE to download an E-Book that will work with your system.”

So if your gonna say something negative about this game or the people who make it or even what I post…at least get your facts right.


“Oh.. and if you go to the area where can PURCHASE this game (wait, no screenshots? no demo? barely any info at all?) It links you to THIS. (yes, that's where you actually "order" crap from this guy...)”

TOTALLY WRONG! There ARE screenshots. You can download them from the site in a zip format.
There IS a demo. I did manage to dl it (tho it took a lot of goes) AND the demo is being mirrored by game spy (I think its them, will have to go look again….but it IS a well known mirror site).
And what you going on about when you say no info on the game. God, there is info on it on their site, the authors site and other sites I found. They also have some great reviews (on-line) AND if THAT was not enough, the local newspapers carried a press release on the game, AND the BBC and ITV are wanting to do a NATIONAL (in England) news report on the bloody thing.

How much more “info” do u need??????

And yes, I have read the newspaper review/press release so I know that its real.

And I DO hope when you say “that's where you actually "order" crap from this guy” you were not saying that your ordering the game from me….cos its noting to do with me.

“But wait! THATS NOT ALL! If you order within the next 3 seconds............!!
Quote:
The normal retail price (The one you will pay in the shops) is £24.99, but for the first 500 people who buy it from this site, you will only pay the special price of just £4.99. That’s an 80% discount, and you will only get this discount if you order from this site.”

WOW…..so here we have a game firm who not only want to sell their game (isn’t that a strange concept!! *sarcastic) but a firm who has offered people the chance to get it at a discount if they buy direct from them and if they are within the first 500 users.

And your bitchin about it!!! Whats your problem here? For years us adventure gamers have had bugger all to see as far as proper adventures are concerned. Sure we have had things like Syberia and stuff like that, and lots of so-called action adventures which are NOT real adventures as they pander to the “lets run round and beat/kill/shoot everything in sight so we can get a key for a door” squad. But now a good solid adventure comes out and you think its somehow wrong for them to promote their game by offering it at a discount?
I not only played the demo, which was good, but I bought the game and I can tell everyone that it was the best £4.99 I have spent in a long time. it’s a great game. So instead of complaining, go buy it or download the demo and THEN after that you can have your say. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

In fact why don’t you contact the company and ask them some questions eh? Then at least you will know what’s what with things in stead of assuming…. which is all your doing here.

“I have a feeling this game doesn't exist. I also have a feeling theres people out there hyping up this "game" hoping people will order it (and, of course, will never recieve anything in return).”

Well I got the thing, so that blows your assumption out of the water don’t it.



Now Ive said that, apart from feeling much better, I can answer a few of the other posts points as I had a bit of the same problems as other here.

@Catnip:

“However, it's never good news when people are advertising something for sale right now, and they don't tell you the actual cost or release date.”

I could not see that at first, but I found the info in their News area. They don’t have a price for America or out of England, but I emailed them and they said that all anyone would have to do is to convert £4.99 to USD (or wherever they live) and that would be the price they would pay. I think it works out at $9 or something.

@artwking4

"I haven't even been able to find the book for sale anywhere or even any mention it (there are others books, but not by "Ray Clark"). While I was searching for information about the game, though, I did find the website of a guy who said he was a freelance artist and did some concept artwork for this game. So some obscure website of some artist's offhand mention of his contribution to the game lent some shred of credibility to the whole thing, for me at least."

I found a lot of art sites like the one you link to. Apparently, that company used a few freelance artists to do some extra work for the game. But as for the book, I did not find anything about it. But when you order the game you get an option to get a version of the book as an ebook, which is what I did, or you can get it shipped to you as a paperback.
The ebook was well put together and I don’t have a problem with it. But it may be a good idea to email the author over the paperback.

@kitzingmarko

“I will definitely not use a download program from an unreliable source. They can tell me a thousand times that the program has been virus checked, it still can be a trojan horse.”

Yes agreed. But its just a downloader. I run a couple of checkers and also zone labs firewall, and the downloader did nothing it should not have done.

“Where are the screenshots?”

On the site. But better shots are on the review sites.

“Why is the site such a mess?”

Yep…..I had that too. But it was because I was running in a higher res then their site. They do say that it designed for 800*600 and it looks just fine if you view it at that res.
But I didn’t have a problem with navigation as it’s simple. Just click the area you want on the left side.
I did have a MAJOR problem with downloading their music tho. At the top right you can download and play some game music. It is rather good. But the icon sometimes did not appear. It seems ok in Firefox and v7 of Netscape, but IE was a pain.

Ok, that’s all I can say on this apart from the fact that like anyone who is looking to buy a game, I checked them out and found out as much as I could before I paid. I do not have any probs in recommending the game, and you know what, I say support them cos they are supporting us the adventure gamers.

Simple as that.

And if anyone has anything to say about it, why don’t you just email them and ask em instead of running round with all these IF’s and BUT’s…..it’s the only way to find out the answers to your questions after all.

PS: I am sorry if I offended anyone with my rant at badmojo but I hate being accused of something that I have nothing to do with.

blah blah blah blah
just give us a link already....

[fov]

I did a bit of searching around and other than a few reviews on sites I haven't heard of, I can't find any info about this game that seems more legit or a download that seems less sketchy. Nothing on Gamespy, Gamespot, or Gamer's Hell.

It's a shame that the information surrounding this game is so dodgy. Even if I wanted to try to contact the developer, I can't find an email address to do so.

[artwking4]

I certainly WANT this game to be real... And Dianetix is certainly emphatic about it's existance, so I think I believe him. Still, it would help if you could provide us with actual links from other reputable sites that discuss the game. You mentioned Gamespy... Also, I still wish I could get the demo without using the company's downloader. Not that I'm worried about viruses and stuff, just that it said it was always busy. And being able to purchase it from an online store would put my mind at ease, too, as opposed to sending money by email... Well, I can wait for things to pick up on their end, and if it's as great as you say it is, we'll find out more about it and how to get it.

[fov]

All righty... AG has made contact with the developers and it *seems* this game does exist. Whether or not its truly an adventure game still remains to be seen.

I don't know a ton about it right now, but we've been told that the system checker is only intended to make sure your machine meets minimum requirements before you download, to save time and bandwidth. It also sounds like the cap on the number of people who can download the demo at one time is going to be lifted relatively soon, and that the game is gearing up for a more widespread release. (To be clear: No one from AG has seen or played the game. We just emailed with someone at the other end of the developer's email address. So of course, although the fact that we emailed with someone is a positive thing, we really don't know any more than we did before. It's a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered.)

I will not have time to try this demo out until tomorrow night, at the earliest. When I get to it, I'll let you guys know what I think. If anyone else tries it, please tell us your thoughts.

[artwking4]

Good work contacting the developer! It didn't seem like an easy task... Were you able to actually download it? I'm still frustrated that, apparently, at any point in time, 350 people are downloading this demo. And I'm not one of those 350 people. The game better be good...

[qrious]

the system checker doesnt work for me. after a while i get the message "Runtime error 8003"

[fov]

Originally Posted by qrious

the system checker doesnt work for me. after a while i get the message "Runtime error 8003"

That doesn't sound good. What operating system are you using?

artwking, I haven't tried downloading it yet. I'll let you know if I'm able to.

[qrious]

Originally Posted by fov

That doesn't sound good. What operating system are you using?

artwking, I haven't tried downloading it yet. I'll let you know if I'm able to.

windows xp professional

[fov]

It might be worth waiting a week or so. I got the impression the demo is going to be hosted elsewhere... if that is the case, people can be more secure about downloading it and won't have to worry about the cap on downloads or the system checker. Even having been told what the system checker is supposed to do, I'm not very comfortable with the idea of it.

[Jackal]

I agree that caution is still recommended for anyone uncomfortable with the various... peculiarities of this game, its download setup, or ordering practice. We all want to be pleasantly surprised by a nice adventure game popping out of nowhere, but a little patience never killed anybody.

[Royal Fool]

Jeez, this looks like a really elaborate scheme to cheat people out of their money. Setting up multiple websites and all that... I don't get it. Just googling 'vdiuk' brings up various forum posts by various suspicious new usernames on each forum in question, always praising this supposed game and saying how great it is and then pointing people towards either the EGG site or the VDIUK site. This alone is very strange...

If this game has been in development for some time, it is strange it hasn't received any publicity. I did, however, find a message board named "Visionary Designs Incorporated", but even Google's cache page refused to show me anything of value. So that trail ended rather prematurely.

I did find an old Amiga game called Datastorm, published in 1988 for Amiga and developed by... you guessed it, Visionary Design.

I still don't know what to think. This all looks like some sort of extremely well-executed ARG, I have a hard time believing all of this. It's either a hoax or some ARG/viral marketing... that's all I can imagine. Why haven't we seen a shred of publicity on this thing?!

[kitzingmarko]

If there are 350 people downloading it right now, why is no forum member among them? Who else could know about this game? The game was talked about here and in some other place, that's it. Where does all these people come from, who are constantly keeping the number of downloads so high, that noone from here succeeds to get the game?
There is no game. It's a hoax or they want to get our money.
A system checker to check, if my machine meets the minimum requirements? I beg your pardon, but not even Doom 3 came with such a piece of software.
If there was a demo, why don't they send it to gamer's hell or some other place? They will take and distribute the demo. For free.

[lakerz]

Yeah, I don't know what to say. I decided to d/l the so called checker program and ran it. Takes more time than really seems necessary. I made sure all of my security was up to date in case it tried anything underhanded. Afterwards, I tried to d/l the demo but kept getting the server busy message which I agree seems strange given that 350 d/l this demo seems quite high. I tried d/l the two e-books, and it says I d/l them but doesn't say where it put them! I assumed it would be the directory I ran the checker program from but no. I tried searching my hard drive for them, but without knowing the names of the files it is rather hard!

So, mark me as still being VERY suspicious.

[artwking4]

Originally Posted by lakerz

I tried d/l the two e-books, and it says I d/l them but doesn't say where it put them! I assumed it would be the directory I ran the checker program from but no. I tried searching my hard drive for them, but without knowing the names of the files it is rather hard!

So, mark me as still being VERY suspicious.

Actually, I was able to download the ebook preview, and had a hard time finding it as well. I can't remember where it went, though... I deleted it after seeing what it looked like, but I didn't really read it. Not my kind of reading material.