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Chat with Aristotle and other LFN owners this Sunday (March 18th 2007)


tk102

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Will a transcript of this chat be available somewhere afterwards? I think I'll be unavailable traveling during this time, but really want to know what is said.

After the chat interview, we'll post the transcripts.

We'll probably post it both at SWK.com and here as well.

 

Sweet! I think the chat will be packed!
It could be. If the server starts having problems handling too many users, we may have to cap it so that the Q/A can still take place. But don't worry, the transcripts will be made public. ;)
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I'm hoping that some of you, like StarWarsPhreak, are also curious about the origins of LFNetwork itself, what goes on behind the scenes, etc. :)
Do we really want to know what goes on "behind the scenes?" XD

 

Actually, I would like to know. That's probably an interesting topic. :)

 

I'm curious if the admins were already buddies when they started or just piled all their sites together when they discovered they had common interests?

 

I thought of another question for the LA guy: what's the likelihood of a (relatively quick) PC port of that new SW game, The Force Unleashed? I know it took a long time before LA ported KotOR, even with the phenomenal sales for that title. I don't have a console so I'd be stuck waiting if - or until - it is done.

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Update: LFN Owners Interview on Mar 18; LEC reschedules

 

There's been a recent change in plans concerning Sunday. The Mar 18 chat will be with owners of LFNetwork only. LucasArts will not be able to attend this Sunday's chat but has tentatively rescheduled for Wed, Mar 21. We will post any updates as we get them.

 

About LFNetwork

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For the LF owners:

 

Traditionally the site has been focused mainly on PC related LA titles. With the apparent trend towards consoles, do you expect to follow this trend with the site? Where do you see the site headed in the future based on feedback/input from LA?

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^^^

Excellent questions, Prime.

 

I'm not sure that I'll be able to make the Sunday night chat session but...

 

For the LF owners:

- Any plans for a forum dedicated to The Force Unleashed?

- How many people actually have an ownership stake in LFNetwork LLC?

- How much money would it take to buy LFNetwork LLC?

- What has LFNetwork's "biggest moment" been? (besides what it took to put the network together in the first place :D)

 

For LucasArts:

- How will support for the PC platform figure into LucasArts' future games?

- With the understanding that LucasArts plans to release only 2 Star Wars games per year, what type of non-SW games might LucasArts fans look forward to (besides Indiana Jones)?

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As someone who's been here since JK was in it's heyday, I've always been curious whose idea it was to merge all the various LA forums into the lucasforums we see today? Does a forum reach a set number of posts or face deletion? Are there any plans for future merges with other forums such as developers of lucasarts games (bioware, obsidian, raven, etc.)

 

So, not exactly ground breaking questions, but it's a few things that I've thought of.

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tk102 Welcome again Aristotle

Jae Onasi Hello!

Aristotle Thanks for the invite

Visac Hi everyone

Ray Sup Aristotle

Jae Onasi Hi Visac.

Ray And Visac!

Darth Moeller hello Visac and Aristotle

cutmeister All hail "The Giver of Justice"

Visac Is there a IRC login for this chat?

Jae Onasi Hi Prime

Prime ahoy

tk102 no Visac, it uses LF's authentication through cookies

Ray Hey Prime!

Visac ok, I though this is an IRC chat or something.

Jae Onasi I'm glad you knew what he was talking about!

Aristotle Interesting setup. I like it. Drives traffic to a specific site

Prime Hey Ray.

tk102 welcome everyone to the swk.com chatbox

Aristotle I guess the lack of our LEC contact hurt our crowd tonight a bit, but I can guarantee an exciting LEC visitor in the near future. Within the next couple weeks. They were simply busy with GDC this week

Jae Onasi Is anyone else joining us tonight?

Aristotle So, again, our humble apologies for that misque

Jae Onasi No worries!

tk102 We're happy to have you and Visac join us. I've currently locked the chat for the time being

Aristotle We shall make it worth the SWK fans wait though....

tk102 just to keep it from getting too confusing

tk102 go ahead Jae

Jae Onasi Well, thank you both for coming tonight.

Jae Onasi I was hoping you could introduce yourselves for all of us who haven't met you yet.

Aristotle So we currenty have locked out more visitors or hace you limited the ability to talk / ask, etc? Just to clarify as some others may be en route

tk102 (just the ability to speak, not the ability to view)

Jae Onasi We can unlock as needed.

Visac Ok, makes sense

Jae Onasi So both of you are owners?

Aristotle Great. Well, as for an introduction, I go back with LFN 10 years as of this years to its earliest origins... back when jediknight.net first started. However, even before that site there was mixnmojo, and votj, etc

Jae Onasi votj?

Jae Onasi I had a big gap in games between Atari and Kotor. :D

Aristotle Valley of the Jedi... swoosh's old site for jedi knight

Jae Onasi And you, Visac?

Visac Well, I started a JK map review site called HyperView in 1997/98 that was hosted at JK.net

Aristotle And yes, Visac and I are two of the owners of LFN. To make a long story short, as the years ticked by and we hosted more and more sites and expanded to different games aside from Jedi Knight, we eventually merged with mixnmojo to create LFN, which all together between major portal sites and hosted sites has near 200 sites overall.

Visac I ran it for about a year or so, and then had to take a break for a few years. About 6 years ago I came back and started LucasFiles.com with LFN.

Jae Onasi How did you all decide to come together and form one big site?

Aristotle Apparently I was convincing enough in what I had envisioned to get them to jump on board with the concept of having one massive LEC community

Aristotle Sorry.. I just got booted

Jae Onasi We're back. :D

Visac Me too

Aristotle Did you get that last answer about how the sites joined?

Jae Onasi Gotta love modern technology. :)

Jae Onasi I see 'apparently I was convincing enough in what I had...'

Aristotle Anyway... one funny thing folks might want to know about the evolution of LFN is our relationship with LucasArts and Lucasfilm ...

Visac back

Aristotle having some tech issues I see.... well, hopefully we can work through these easy enough

tk102 (am fixing this in the hopes of preventing it)

Rogue Nine I love getting booted

Jae Onasi Take a deep breath, all is OK.

Jae Onasi I'm back too.

Jae Onasi And what was your original vision for LFN? and with LA?

Aristotle Getting to one of your questions about our relationship with LucasArts and Lucasfilm, it stems all the way back to 1997 .. .when I got a call at law school from the lead programmer at LEC for Jedi Knight, Ray Gresko (who since went on to form Nihilistic) ... and he made me swear on my first born to never even reveal we talked...

Aristotle They were not allowed any "web" communication whatsoever as LEC legal strictly forbid it.. but programmers would call me in secret in an effort to help the mod community... as the community started editing jedi knight files completely in the wrong fashion

tk102 very interesting...

Jae Onasi How did you guys get connected?

Aristotle A LOT has changed as you can now see most companies now even release tools for mods and Lucasfiles is now the only officially sanctioned exclusive site for LEC game mods... but it took years and years

Jae Onasi Through the website I take it?

Jae Onasi While we're on the subjects of mods, what's their official stance on that?

Aristotle It also took many, many months of negotiations with LEC, legal contracts, visits to skywalker ranch, etc.. etc.. but they knew the stronger we became and stil become, the better for both of us. We will be visiting them again in August btw

Aristotle Mods are fine, so long as they go through lucasfiles... everthing and anything is up for game via lucasfiles

Jae Onasi And fanfiction?

Aristotle We have worked out an agreement on that topic... luckily as I practice law myself I deal frequently with LEC and Lucasfim legal

Jae Onasi So we shouldn't worry too much then?

Jae Onasi :D

Aristotle Contractual obligations, etc... although we are also under a very strict NDA and most of the contract terms are of course confidential. However, that allows us to see their games and concepts well before the general public. They are quite good to us. Our relationship is very, very unique and I like to think we take good care of each other now that it has been 10 years

Aristotle No, no worries... anything that goes through Lucasfiles is officially sanctioned by LEC so long as the disclaimers are agreed to

Jae Onasi Anything new on the horizon for LFN and/or games?

Aristotle We just launched LucasWiki.Com last week (Visac's idea) and we have big plans for that

Jae Onasi What are your plans for LucasWIki?

Aristotle That will be the one place anyone on the web can hopefully go use all of LEC and Lucasfilm's intellectual property for anything LEC or Lucasfim related... ANYTHING ...

tk102 expanding into all Lucas canon/trivia/games etc?

Aristotle And have it not only sanctioned, but supported and promoted by LEC.. that's our next major project. I have a call with them on this very topic next week... along with several yet to be disclosed goodies you wil all find out about soon enough.

tk102 that must have been something requiring negotiations.

Jae Onasi You are a tease.

Aristotle Yes, we have every intention of expanding, but not going to the extent of a force.net ... we like our niche and have done just fine with it.

Jae Onasi Are there any plans vis-a-vis Force Unleashed?

Aristotle Plus, LEC likes us just where we are as well.

Aristotle We will also be putting in a major new effort to revamp our console coverage from top to bottom. Major new interviews, exclusives, contests, sites of course, etc. Get ready for the console revamp shortly

Jae Onasi Does the move in the console direction affect how the site will work with PC gamers?

Aristotle I think our readers will be extremely pleased with the console effort, but we would NEVER alter our dedication to our PC readers. They are our bread and butter.. .literally

Aristotle Of the millions of visitors we get daily, most are for PC .. but we hope to expand that

Jae Onasi OK, gotta ask because this was the number one queston we got--Is there going to be a Kotor 3?

Aristotle LFN is about to enter a very exciting period... and remember, we all do this on the side.. but folks like yourselves make it all happen too

Aristotle The dedicated folks on the forums and sites are more valuable then we can ever express

tk102 I think he's avoiding the question, Jae...

Jae Onasi :)

Aristotle Ah... the KOTOR 3 question.... let me just say ... don't forget the NDA we are under... but I will say stay tuned

tk102 :D

Jae Onasi Fair enough. How much work is LFN?

Jae Onasi What kinds of things do you have to do on the back scene?

Aristotle All the owners have their specific functions... and it's a large operation in the end

Jae Onasi With the huge number of forums, I'd imagine it would be. What types of duties do you split?

Aristotle I generally dea with LEC and Lucasfilm on joint projects and legal issues.. and deal with our advertisers and general business development. Greg is a jack of all trades and does lots of everything

tk102 Greg=Visac correct?

tk102

Visac Greg, that's me

Jae Onasi What keeps you going on what is essentially a volunteer position?

Aristotle Michael and Chris also do so much of everything it's hard to sum itup easily.. and Matt is our amazing tech guru. As far as the forums go, the kudos goes to folks like Mett, Thrik, Matt, etc... and yourselves.. .we just pay the bills.

Aristotle We owe much of the forums success to others than us.

tk102 Michael = ZeroXscape Chris=ChrisC3P0... (?)

Visac Correct

Aristotle I wills say this though... for years the network ran in the red and costs us thousands and thousands jsut to keep alive. At least these days we're in the black and trust me, we do it for the fun and community, it's not a financial windfall or anything

Jae Onasi Still, this can be a _lot_ of work to do on a regular basis.

tk102 on behalf of the community, thank you for persevering through the 'red' years

Aristotle Well again, folks like darthmaul UK, Darth333, all of you here, etc... alll the folks at mixn, you guys are what we are.

Jae Onasi I figured it was likely something you enjoyed doing more than anything else--what part do you like best?

Aristotle My favorite part is working so closely with LucasArts and Lucasfilm .. and when they flew us out there, put us up, wined and dined us and let us know they wanted to make sure we stuck around for the long haul... it all came home. Sitting in skywalkwer ranch with George there... well, that says it all.

Aristotle Course the prince of England was there as well... so I am sure you can imagine where his attention was.. but his people are fantastic with us and always have been

tk102 :^:

Jae Onasi That would be a dream of many a SW fan. :D

Aristotle They really are fantastic with us. Frankly, they spoil us and we just keep their online community alive and well

Jae Onasi You know, I'd be wondering if I had the right fork if I was dining with Lucas and Charles....

Aristotle and I say "We" as in all of us ... not just he owners. I cannot stress that enough. LFN is not about the owners, it is about folks like you guys even more than us.

Jae Onasi Well, I imagine all of us here enjoy it very much.

Jae Onasi Where do you want to take LFN in the future?

tk102 Is there anything else you'd like to add Aristotle or Visac?

Aristotle It's hard to believe it's been 10 years already working with them. So much has changed... the network is so big... but hey, I love our community.

Aristotle Folks migh not see much of the owners, but we see a lot more than folks know... and we take input and suggestions very seriously

Visac Yeah, it was amazing to see the network evolve to what it is today over the last 10 years

Aristotle I think that sums up most of your questions in your email.. but I am happy to answer any specific questions anyone else has

cutmeister I want to say thanks to Matt for redoing the titles

Visac I am glad I was a part of it, and am looking forward to the next 10 years

Jae Onasi We've seen the SWK section grow in just the short time I've been here.

Aristotle the swk section is amazingly strong... reminds me of how jedi knight used to be

Rogue Nine Ah actually, I redid the titles, cutmeister

Aristotle you should all takea bow for that. Our hats are off to each of you for your efforts'

Commander Obi-Wan Thanks to niner then!

Commander Obi-Wan Thanks for the interview too!

tk102 Well you laid the groundwork for it, no question. I just want to say thank you for accepting our invitation to come share these stories with us Aristotle and Visac

Aristotle Hopefully we did not bore you too much tonight.. but I promise we will have an exciting LEC figure here soon to discuss some more issues

cutmeister Oops. Thanks Niner! :o

Darth Moeller actually i was more interested in this chat than the LEC chat.

Jae Onasi Aristotle, why would you think you're not exciting to talk to, too?

Jae Onasi And Visac, too!

Aristotle lol... well. ask darth, most of us lawyers are considered boring.. but I think we're two of the spicier ones. Speaking of which, where is my colleague tonight?

Samuel Dravis I assure you, you're not uninteresting.

Visac Thanks for having me.

Aristotle Well, let me thank all of you on behalf of LFN for having us. I know michael, chris and matt wanted to join, but they were tied up with prior engagements.

Commander Obi-Wan Thank for the coming! :D

Jae Onasi No worries. I think it's good to have a couple on at a time myself.

tk102 Thank you indeed. Apologies for the glitches earlier.

Jae Onasi Thanks much for coming, too.

Darth Moeller Thanks Aristotle and Visac :^:

Aristotle Okay, I'll be in touch you folks regarding our upcoming LEC person chat. Thanks again and goodnight everyone. It was fun.

tk102 :thumbsup:

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Visac I am still here btw

Samuel Dravis Thanks as well, Visac! I appreciate your work on LF. I certainly increase its bandwidth bills anyway.

Jae Onasi Welcome to the insanity portion of the chat. :grin:

cutmeister Hey Visac! I gotta question if you're willing

Visac sure

cutmeister @ Visac - what kind of changes have you noticed at LucasArts since Jim Ward took over?

cutmeister Whatever you are free to comment on anyway

Jae Onasi OK, I admit it, I forgot what Jim Ward does.

cutmeister Jim Ward = LucasArts president, Lucasfilm senior VP

Visac Well, I don't really deal with Jim Ward. From what I can say is that our relationship to LucasArts hasn't changed because of him.

cutmeister That's good to hear.

Visac Anything else?

Jae Onasi Humor mode way, way on: How tight are SuperShadow and Lucas?

Visac Now is your chance!

cutmeister LA went through a major re-org after he took over and I was curious to know if that had impacted LEC's relationship with LFN.

cutmeister But it's good that it didn't

Samuel Dravis Jae, I was curious about that too! Well, just a little. :D

Visac Well, whenever there is a re-org, there are a few kinks to work out. But LucasArts is still fully committed to working with us.

cutmeister And I know we're all quite happy that is the case! :D

Jae Onasi Sorry, couldn't resist. :D

cutmeister Would you characterize LFN as having a unique relationship with LucasArts that no other SW game fan site really has?

Jae Onasi Developing new relationships with new major powers-that-be are always going to create some level of change, I imagine.

stingerhs hey guys.

Jae Onasi Hi stingerhs!

Samuel Dravis stinger, Visac is still here if you have a question or two.

Visac Yeah, no idea about how close Lucas and SuperShadow are. ;)

Visac LFN definitely has a unique relationship with LucasArts. I doubt that any other SW gaming / community website has such a direct connection to them.

Visac I am lagging

Visac so I guess it's my time to leave unless you have any other questions for me

cutmeister @ Visac - Considering the 10 years it took to build that relationship how likely do you think it would be for someone to replicate such a relationship?

Visac With LucasArts?

cutmeister Yes.

cutmeister Probably a snowball's chance in hell, eh? :D

Visac I can't really imagine that happening.

Jae Onasi I don't know any other site that really does what LFN does.

Jae Onasi In terms of fans and all

cutmeister @ Visac - Thanks for letting me monopolize your time!

Visac no probelm

Visac I usually stay in the background as all the other owners do. LFN is not about the owners and making them famous, it's about creating a community.

Visac So, I am happy to step forward every 10 years or so and answer a couple of questions.

cutmeister :lol:

stingerhs @Visac - i was wondering if there were any plans to expand LF's bandwidth to allow for less downtime when we get issues with too many guests.

Visac We are constantly trying to keep all websites and the forum running as smooth as possible

Visac The forum is a real hardware sucker, using up it's own dual core server. I think given the circumstances, with hundreds of users on there all the time, it's running good.

Visac But we are always making upgrades were we can

Jae Onasi I agree on it running pretty darn well for the number of users it gets.

Visac We are actually making more upgrades next week for the file hosting

Samuel Dravis You mean LucasFiles?

stingerhs that's good to know. and yes, the forums are running pretty darn well considering its on a single sever.

stingerhs keep up the good work. i'm sure that everyone here appriciates it. :thumb:

cutmeister @ Visac - Anything you wanted to add to what Aristotle mentioned about LucasWiki?

Visac yes, LucasFiles as well. Many file download on LFN websites are being served from our special file server.

Visac file downloads I mean

Visac About LucasWiki: Not sure how much I can tell without getting in trouble. ;) We envision it as a place for everybody to create LucasArts related content, game infos, cheats, walkthroughs, user groups, alliances, clans, stories, idea sharing, just about anything. It's taking SW Gaming Fandom to the next level.

Visac But there will be more details pretty soon

cutmeister I think it's a great idea. Aristotle did credit you with that one, right? ;)

stingerhs nice. that's definitely something to look forward to. :grin:

Visac Yeah, I had the initial idea, and after a quick brainstomring session with the others the project was underway.

Visac One of the things I love about being part of LFN. I can contribute to it in many ways.

Visac And always have an entire team behind me.

Visac Since we are all busy guys and spread out across the US, we don't get to see each other that often unfortunately.

cutmeister @ Visac - do you see any possible conflicts between LFN and LucasArts own forums in the future?

cutmeister LFN's forums are so much more user-friendly than what LucasArts currently uses for forum software

Jae Onasi Depends on the goals of LA forums vs LFN, eh?

Visac Not really. I think it is a healthy thing to do for LucasArts to have their own forums. We don't see it as competition or anything. LucasForums offers a much better community experience in my opinion.

cutmeister No question about that!

Samuel Dravis Yeah, LF is probably one of the most friendly boards I've ever been to.

cutmeister Seems to me the LucasArts forums gets so little support from LA themselves

cutmeister I much prefer LF

Visac cutmeister, I am glad to hear that

Jae Onasi You know, I never imagined I'd be so involved when I came looking for a Kotor solution.

stingerhs i agree. LF is much better than LucasArt's Forums. its friendlier and the discussions tend to lean more to the intelligent side.

stingerhs and the overall layout is much, much better.

Samuel Dravis I imagine you didn't, Jae...I just came here for cheats and now I'm stuck for 5 years..

Jae Onasi Well, it's certainly fun. :D

stingerhs hehe, i came here for Kotor mods, and i've been stuck here for 3 years myself. :p

Jae Onasi I came because I knew I had to get the rancor scent into the pile of bones and I just could not figure out how to accomplish it. :D

cutmeister @ Visac - I think it's a rare thing what LF has developed into. It's truly something special in today's world of "all about me"

Visac It's time for me to leave now. It was great talking to everybody.

stingerhs later Visac!!!

cutmeister Thanks again for coming Visac!

Jae Onasi Night Visac. Thanks!

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Ah... the KOTOR 3 question.... let me just say ... don't forget the NDA we are under... but I will say stay tuned

Did anyone else's eyes lit up at this point? :)

I know it's not much, but to me, it's something, cause if the answer was negative, I'm sure he would have said so...

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Thanks guys. I wasn't able to make it to the chat last night, and I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't been able to read this. :)

I couldn't agree more. Circumstances prevented me from attending, but the transcripts were worth gold!

 

Thank you for posting them tk, and excellent mc'ing there Jae. You two rock :thumbsup:

 

Too bad we never got a definitive answer on the Supershadow question.. :lol:;)

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