| Author | Revenue |
|---|
| How does the owners of this website keep themselves operational? How do they earn besides donations ? And are donations sufficient to keep this website running for long ? I am worried that I might invest time and later this website goes bust |
You never know how much this game gone from scratch, some people here still stay more than 15years. Loyal player always here. No matter how long they Hiatus they always comeback
Ah, we have app version too at aplle store and googleplay or apk store |
The game has been around for a long time and makes more than we think. There are always thousands online and the majority of players are hardcore, some donate thousands or tens of thousands.
If this game was going to die it would have died in the early 2010s (it was facing legal pressure and updates were once per year) I expect it to be around for a while. |
I have been playing it since 2009 myself
Just wanted to know what keeps it going |
for Acean:
What was the legal pressure about? |
Well the game is the most blatant of blatant rip offs of heroes of might and magic.
The whole concept is copy and paste IP theft.
For those unaware HOMM was a popular game in the late 90s.
Ubisoft (big games company) bought the rights to the series in 2003 and planned to launch heroes of might and magic online in 2005. The project got delayed and eventually opened in 2008.
Coincidentally this game launched in 2007 (on .ru).
This part is speculation but the obvious conclusion to draw is that the admins here were fans of the original HOMMM and knew about the HOMM online launch. When the project got delayed they thought hey we can make a quick rip off version ourselves and use the fact that we are in Russia as our legal defence/evade a court case.
Naturally Ubisoft took a dim view on this. This game (although much smaller scale) was obviously in near direct competition with the very expensive one they launched legally.
This game was a bit too small scale for ubi to actually pursue through Russian court but apparently there was some kind of agreement where ubi got in touch with LWM and told them to stop marketing and expanding the game. They weren't so bothered about the Russian side but were not allowed to advertise in English otherwise ubi would pursue them and sue them into the ground. Considering LWM is really 2 guys plus support staff running a bootlegged rip off game they would get absolutely crushed by ubisoft's legal team.
All the above is based on rumours and snippets from interviews on hwm daily so can't really be verified though. It passes the 'does that make sense' test though.
The English side was left to wither and die and the server eventually merged with .ru. No more legal headache for the admins, no English competition for ubisoft. Today circa 5% of players log in through .com.
(At one point we all hoped the game would get acquired by Ubisoft and they would make it better) |
| This game is based on *some other game*. Back then the company owinng that game had its own online version in mind (actually came online for some years). So possible copyright infringements were an issue back then. |
for Acean:
Thanks for the detailed answer. I never put 2 and 2 together that this was a ripoff of HOMM, I thought this is just a popular genre. Your explanation makes complete sense.
I do remember seeing online ads for the .com version though on some other gaming sites, as late as 2013. But that was after I joined, it may just be catered for me specifically. |
Found out that HOMM online flopped and they switched the servers off 5 years ago. Makes me feel old and in a way sad. Once upon a time the battle between ubi and lwm was a big talking point here.
Guess LWM won in the end. |
| So will LWM switch off the servers in future considering it's a small scale rip off project? |
| As long as it is profitable (through diamond sales), it will be on. These numbers are not at all transparent to us so we don't know. Though more likely than not, they are making massive amounts and have no reason to turn off the money printer. |
| actually roulette is what keep the servers up |
I agree it will be here for some time. The costs of operation are low compared to the revenues so there is no incentive to switch off. It can be run as is for 10 or 20 years and people will still play.
I am expecting it to one day 404 without advanced warning, just cease to exist. No telling when that will be. |
for King_Luigi:
Can you explain how roulette keeps the servers up? |
| lose gold on roulette -> donate $$ -> convert purchased diamonds into gold -> lose gold on roulette |
