All I can say is i reaaaaly hope they announce a release date at blizzcon. Frankly I think it's a Little cruel to announced it over a year ago and still not have a date. And it seems to me that the more they talk about it the further away it gets. Seems like every time bashiok comments on something he's reminding us it's not done yet. And I'm thinking, why the hell not?! Is anything done? I mean, God bless em, they want to do a good job, but a year without a date?... I think that's a bit much, even for blizzard. I'm beginning to suspect that they are suffering some kind of internal issues and setbacks an that d3 will be stuck in production he'll forever.
I did a business plan myself last year. The most time consuming part for me was putting together a cashflow chart.
I would suggest going to www.sba.gov. It has a metric crapton of info on assembling a business plan and getting funding.
Aside from working to start my own business, I've worked in a small business as the owner's right-hand man for almost two years now, and from what i've gathered there are three things that customers and clients respond to:
1. Friendly service--this makes people want to give you business
2. Prompt service--when a customer makes a request, do not wait, attend to it there and then. People are used to slow service, so if you are consistently prompt you will have already exceeded their expectations.
3. Competent service--both of the above are worthless if you don't know what you're doing. Competence, like promptness, is a rare and valuable commodity. Unfortunately, you have to learn competence mostly through trial and error. All the research and study in the world will not prepare you for the hands-on demands of business. You just have work your ass off.
There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. In each of those galaxies there are anywhere from 10 million to 1 trillion stars. So even if we assumed that every galaxy had the minimum number of stars in it, that'd be 10 million x 100 billion stars that might provide the right conditions for orbiting planets to sustain life. There's this thing called the "Drake Equation" (wiki it), that attempts to factor in all the variables and arrive at a final number of planets that would host intelligent life. The equation puts the number at about 10,000 planets.
Also, there have been experiments in which scientists simulated the atmosphere that must have existed before life evolved on this planet, then they ran electrical currents through it to simulate the lightning that would have existed in the atmosphere. The result was that in a very short time, the chemical compounds that constitute the basis of earth's biological life began to form. Point being, if the conditions are right, life begins to form pretty easily.
Plus, there was that meteorite they discovered that look like it had fossilized microbial life in it.
And in addition to all that, some scientists say that ammonia-based life also seems possible. (Humans are carbon-based; this is basically the "alien life doesn't necessarily need an earth-like environment" argument.)
So, all in all, it doesn't seem too far-fetched. However, we may be disappointed at the kind of alien life that probably exists. It may just be bacteria or something (but even bacteria, compared to all the dust and gas that makes up most of the matter in the universe, is extremely complex and pretty amazing). But who knows?
I think the UI is a freakin work of art. I find it very visually pleasing, the skill menus, inventory and life globe area thing.
I'm a little bummed about the uniques not being in gold anymore. Where did they say that? Maybe i'm just in denial, but I don't know if they actually said that.
Some people pointed out that the armor equipped in the inventory was not accurately displaying on the character model--but the game still is in development, and the armor we see in the screen shots displayed on the character is probably just a placeholder. If you think about it, people seem to be worried about them cutting corners on character appearance because of the way it was limited in Diablo II. But that was eight years ago, and while Blizzard is doing some controversial things, on the whole they know what their fans want and they know what's expected of a game made in this day and age. I mean, if they weren't listening, why did the publish that picture of the thousand pounder? There was lieterally nothing different except for the statues that some fans criticised months ago. It was as if they gave us that picture for the sole purpose of saying "we're listening".
At any rate, I have faith in them to make a great game. They're taking their time, they're focusing on producing the absolute best product that they can. Good things are bound to result.
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I would suggest going to www.sba.gov. It has a metric crapton of info on assembling a business plan and getting funding.
Aside from working to start my own business, I've worked in a small business as the owner's right-hand man for almost two years now, and from what i've gathered there are three things that customers and clients respond to:
1. Friendly service--this makes people want to give you business
2. Prompt service--when a customer makes a request, do not wait, attend to it there and then. People are used to slow service, so if you are consistently prompt you will have already exceeded their expectations.
3. Competent service--both of the above are worthless if you don't know what you're doing. Competence, like promptness, is a rare and valuable commodity. Unfortunately, you have to learn competence mostly through trial and error. All the research and study in the world will not prepare you for the hands-on demands of business. You just have work your ass off.
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Also, there have been experiments in which scientists simulated the atmosphere that must have existed before life evolved on this planet, then they ran electrical currents through it to simulate the lightning that would have existed in the atmosphere. The result was that in a very short time, the chemical compounds that constitute the basis of earth's biological life began to form. Point being, if the conditions are right, life begins to form pretty easily.
Plus, there was that meteorite they discovered that look like it had fossilized microbial life in it.
And in addition to all that, some scientists say that ammonia-based life also seems possible. (Humans are carbon-based; this is basically the "alien life doesn't necessarily need an earth-like environment" argument.)
So, all in all, it doesn't seem too far-fetched. However, we may be disappointed at the kind of alien life that probably exists. It may just be bacteria or something (but even bacteria, compared to all the dust and gas that makes up most of the matter in the universe, is extremely complex and pretty amazing). But who knows?
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I'm a little bummed about the uniques not being in gold anymore. Where did they say that? Maybe i'm just in denial, but I don't know if they actually said that.
Some people pointed out that the armor equipped in the inventory was not accurately displaying on the character model--but the game still is in development, and the armor we see in the screen shots displayed on the character is probably just a placeholder. If you think about it, people seem to be worried about them cutting corners on character appearance because of the way it was limited in Diablo II. But that was eight years ago, and while Blizzard is doing some controversial things, on the whole they know what their fans want and they know what's expected of a game made in this day and age. I mean, if they weren't listening, why did the publish that picture of the thousand pounder? There was lieterally nothing different except for the statues that some fans criticised months ago. It was as if they gave us that picture for the sole purpose of saying "we're listening".
At any rate, I have faith in them to make a great game. They're taking their time, they're focusing on producing the absolute best product that they can. Good things are bound to result.