Held der Arbeit

I completely blew it today and printed the wrong URL on the cover of a local magazine. From tomorrow on, 30.000 copies will flood Regensburg and give proof of my incompetence. How stupid is that. An internet company that cannot even publish a correct URL.
For this extraordinary achievement, I received this award from my colleagues. I know it is in German, but this can hardly be translated. So, for all of you, who understand German: Enjoy!

6 hours ...

... until I have to get up again, as I am going to Leipzig tomorrow. The GC (Games Convention) is one of the biggest fairs of the gaming industry world wide. I hope to meet a lot of interesting people, get a bag of new ideas (and merchandise stuff from competitors) and over all to have a bloody good time with colleagues and friends. I wonder if I'll end up drinking with that Nokia girl again ...

Oh, by the way: At this very moment, the Amsterdam video is the 37th most popular video (from Germany) of the week. :D Thanks. I thought it might be interesting, but that is really amazing.

Back ...

... in action. Amsterdam was great. The city and the convention were really a blast.
I was impressed by the fact how much love, time and effort our players are investing into their hobby. The room has been decorated with so much love, so many presents have been prepared in Tibia style, and most important of all, everybody was talking about the game with so much passion. This really gives you a kick and shows you who you are doing all the work for. A convention is a big boost for your motivation to make the game better and to always have your community in mind, whatever you do. Thanks for the invitation girls.
Tibiacity published some pictures. Check them out, if you're interested.
By the way: I was really lucky with the flights. Most of the flights to and from Amsterdam were canceled, except mine. I am such a lucky bastard.

Lufthansa ...

... is on strike. Brilliant. Don't they know that I am flying to Amsterdam on Friday and hopefully back to Munich on Sunday. I bet they know and just don't care. From what I found out, the flight just before mine got canceled. Same applies to the Sunday flight. This means, I will have a lot of fun at the check-in counter as a complete airbus-amount of passengers will still be grounded at the airport. Hurray. I am sure they are all very happy, don't care at all about the delay and would never give me that "You idiot, you got your flight huh? Show-off!"-look. And at the same time, Lufthansa is telling me that I am not allowed to carry any self defense weapons with me. Thanks.

I wonder ...

... how long it will take, until you find out. :-)

Edit: 8 hours till now, and still counting.
Edit: 11:23 pm ! Finally. Congratz Matt!
Edit: Well, I am actually surprised how long it took. I thought, our website gets scanned on a regular basis. Obviously not. For all of you, who still don't know, what I am talking about, check this out. Fiction Fighters. That's our new game.

Amsterdam ...

... shall it be. I've just booked my flight to visit the Tibia convention in Amsterdam in 3 weeks. This will actually be the first convention for me and I am really excited to see so many of our Tibia players in RL. I already have many plans on what to take with me as presents and goodies. Gosh, I am really looking forward to the trip. In addition, I will extend my stay for the whole weekend so I get to see the lovely city of Amserdam once again. Last time I've been there must have been 25 years ago, when I travelled through Europe with my parents. I still don't have an hotel yet, but I found a house boat you can book. I definitely want that.

Edit: I talked to my mom. It was actually 29 years ago, that I've been to Amsterdam. Gosh, I am old.

Making money ...

... is legitimate. I always get confused, when we are accused of making money. Why are people accusing us of being successful? Everybody wants to be successful in what he is doing. When you're in school, you wanna get good grades, when you meet a girl, you like to hear "You are a lovely guy". Well, when you do business, one of the key indicators is "sales". You're having a crappy product, you don't sell it. You listen to your customers and design the product according to their needs, you sell more. Is this kind of behaviour THAT condemnable?
No, we are not a students project anymore. We are a company. This basically means two things:
1. We are professionals
2. We have to earn money
The good comes with the bad. The bad part about it is that we have to think about success, and not only fun anymore. I have to admit that we evaluate projects.
The good part is that we can offer customer support, regular updates and not to forget a certain probability of not having to shut down your favourite game next week due to a shortage of funds.
So, to conclude my Saturday night rant: Whoever posts comments like "You only revamp Rookgard to make it more appealing to new customers and to make more money". Yes. You are right. Don't state the obvious. My advice to you is: Take marketing lessons. You obviously have a talent for it.