Who is behind this game?
What is an MMORPG?
Is the game multiplayer-only?
Will there be a monthly fee for Vendetta Online?
How can I get the game?
Is the game frequently updated?
Can I play the game over a modem?
How will the game continue to evolve?
Who are the developers on the Vendetta Messageboard?
Who is behind this game?
Vendetta Online is a product of Guild Software, Inc. We are a tiny company of four people located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Many of us have been friends since our early teens, when we wrote programs in our spare time for what was then known as the 'demo' scene. In 1998, we started developing a single product in earnest (this game), hoping to acquire outside funding to push the team to a more 'normal' size. At this time, however, MMOs were still considered a pretty unproven commodity: UO was a tenuous success, EverQuest had not yet launched. Publishers found the idea of a game based on a monthly fee to be 'unusual' and not suited to their retail-driven 'unit sale' business model. In addition, at that time we were completely unproven as a game development team, with little other than our technology demos (which were rather good) to demonstrate our development abilities.
With a small base of funding acquired through good fortune during the internet boom of the stock market, we continued on our own, refining and improving our engine and 'technology demo', while trying to shop it around to interested parties for additional funds. Eventually, in 2004, our funds were nearly exhausted, but we found interest in a then-financially-troubled publisher, Strategy First. They were eager to launch titles that might keep them afloat, we were eager for any chance to keep ourselves afloat, so we took our 'Vendetta Test' game (then in public alpha, and only a small fragment of the game we had planned to make) and crunched for a little over half a year to make it viable for launch. Thus, in November of 2004, with our company then completely broke, the game was smoothly launched with full retail presence in North America. From this launch, and our previous public alphas and betas, a core base of supportive and interested users was formed. Our small userbase has continued to sustain us, up to the present. Vendetta Online has not yet become the game that we originally intended (due to lack of team and funding), and we continue to build on both our old design-goals from the 90s, as well as new design goals that have evolved over time and gameplay. We have become, in a sense, the 'little company that could', four guys in a room in Milwaukee who build an MMO.
What is an MMORPG?
MMORPG is a long acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. MMORPGs generally involve thousands of people playing simultaneously in a large 'persistent' universe. The universe is persistent in that it continues to exist (and persist) after the user stops playing. When you return, your character will be there, just as you left him/her, but events may have transpired in the universe while you were away. In this way, people around the world can play together, online, populating a virtual 'universe'.
Examples of well-known MMORPGs could include World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Lineage, Second Life, and others.
Is the game multiplayer-only?
Yes. Vendetta Online is entirely multiplayer.
Is there a monthly fee for Vendetta Online?
Yes, the game uses a subscription-based business model, used to pay our server and bandwidth costs, salaries, and to fund ongoing development of our independent game (we do not have backing by any major company or publisher). Some platforms have a free download with a short free trial, others have a paid download with a much more lengthy included trial (iPad includes a free month of 'Lite' access). After the trial time expires, multiple options are available:
Lite Subscription
A new option available to mobile users (iOS, Android), this gives access to the game for a cost of only $1 per month, but with a level cap on all characters, as well as no ability to create or serve in the leadership of a Guild (you can join guilds, however). All other access is unlimited, and the 'Lite' account may be used from any platform, so if you create a Lite subscription on iOS or Android, you may also play with your PC, Mac or Linux desktop, OUYA game console, WinRT tablet, or any other platform that features Vendetta Online. It is also important to keep in mind that our game is based primarily around player skill, so while there is a level cap, the limitations are not nearly as significant as they might be in a game based purely on level progression. You can still join the Military, take part in major space battles and much of the other dynamic gameplay.
Premium Subscription
Our traditional and 'full' subscription access, this gives unlimited and uncapped access to the entire game, including higher-level endgame constructs like building your own capital ship. You can also create Guilds and serve on their leadership. Premium subscriptions start at $9.99, and go as low as $6.67 per month, with discounts given for purchasing larger blocks of time.
How can I get the game?
VO was originally sold in most major North American retail outlets, following the launch in 2004. The retail version included a free month, a poster of the universe map, and several other bonuses. Since then, most people have simply chosen to download the game for free from our website. As there has been some interest in an updated CD-install of the game, for those with limited bandwidth, we may begin offering this directly in 2007.
Is the game frequently updated?
Yes, our game is one of the most frequently updated in the industry, with patches usually appearing on Friday evenings. The significance of the updates depends on how far along we are in our particular development direction. Our overall direction can be gleaned from the Development Trac / Wiki, and also from sporadic posts to News and the Suggestions forum. Even if we're in the midst of a complex, long-range development arc (one that must be fully completed before releasing), we make an effort to do 'minor' content drops and improvements in the meantime.
Can I play the game over a modem?
Yes, the game was designed from the beginning to be playable over a 56k modem, at 200ms latency. On average, our testing found that most users consume about 14kbits of bandwidth apiece, but this can vary widely by use-case. For instance, the more recent 'space battle' additions to the game, involving large numbers of ships fighting in a confined area, can saturate a modem connection. This is part of the tradeoff of the continuing evolution of an online game. When we started initial development, in 1998, modems were ubiquitous. Now, broadband has become the norm, and we have expanded and altered areas of gameplay to take advantage of this. Evenso, the large marjority of the game should continue to be playable over a modem for some time to come.
How will the game continue to evolve?
We have years worth of design and ideas for the future. Our game was always intended as a continual evolution, even beyond what has become accepted as 'on-going evolution' in most MMOs. Our intentions don't center around traditional 'content drops' in the sense of new races or ships (we do that sort of thing too), but rather gradual motion towards large expansions of the overall game. You could look at it in the sense of.. most games are 'fixed', they expand largely within the confines of what's already been defined. 'Addon packs' usually just push up a level cap, add another race, things that are all doable without really adding anything new.
Ours, by contrast, is actually actively developed (and 'addons' are always free). There is no aspect of the game that cannot be improved, as we see it, although there are certain areas where we are much more reluctant to tread than others (areas more likely to induce imbalance or make catastrophic changes to well-loved gameplay, are treated more gingerly, as one would expect). This outlook of 'active development' has its tradeoffs: some would say that a continually developed game is never 'finished' (true enough), and therefore permanently 'in beta'. This is not accurate in our case: 'beta', as a term, is defined as a feature-complete revision of software that is not yet stable. Our game has a very good record of stability, even with our continual patching, evolving and improvement of the feature set. From another perspective, we are constantly working to advance the game in genuinely new ways. For instance, continually deepening the interactions with NPCs and making the player's actions have more 'meaning' and impact within the universe. Long range goals of exploring totally new territory and landing on procedurally-generated planets. So on and so forth. Our focus is to take that which is 'good' in our game, and expand on it, while at the same time learning from that which could use improvement and replace it with something better. In this way, the development of the game becomes a journey, a process of progressive refinement, with each successive version (hopefully) a little better than the last.
This is critical to our view of development, and to the unusual community of users who have grown up around the game. Because VO is continually 'in progress', users actually get to have a voice in game evolution. Major changes and additions to gameplay are frequently posted to the Suggestions forum, well in advance of implementation, for player perusal and comment. And, as our users can attest, their comments actually get integrated. Sometimes suggestions appear in a few days or weeks, sometimes much longer, depending on what area of development is our focus at the time. But always, we listen, we read, we aim to make the greater game that much better by integrating continual feedback from the players.
It is also important to add, that while we actively listen and respond, we are not slaves to the whims of the playerbase. A game made by a committee would be terrible.. everyone gets everything they want, and none of it fits together very well. Any project like this has to be guided by a strong sense of design intention, and we temper the player feedback with our own goals. After all, Vendetta Online is not for everyone, and never will be. Many people don't even like combat-based games with non-optional PVP. We didn't make that design choice because we expected it to be the most broadly appealing in market share, we did so because that's the sort of game we want to make. In this way, we try to remain fluid with the evolving nature of our product, rolling in new ideas when they make sense in the 'big picture' of Vendetta Online, while still staying true to original design goals and gameplay philosophy. Like everything else, it's a Work in Progress. But, we've found it to be a pretty rewarding journey, and a lot of our more-vocal users would agree.
Who are the developers on the messageboard?
Incarnate is John Bergman, principal designer of the game and Managing Director of the company. a1k0n is Andy Sloane, one of our programmers, he wrote most of the network and server code, the low-level back-end architecture and underpinnings of the fundamental game. Raybondo is Ray Ratelis, responsible for the bulk of the 3D engine, graphics APIs, game client and more. momerath is Michael Warnock, who works on the high-level AI codebase, constructing various mechanisms for managing large groups of NPCs, economics, and other facets of the game from a 'nation' or 'faction' level, down to the individual player.

Page views: 3,674

Shareware($10)

Single player

Yes

Yes

320 × 200

3000 (Approximate)

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vendetta.zip - 63k - Run VENS.EXE to play
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DOSGames.com Review:Rating: 2
Vendetta is a shooting gallery style game where your goal is simple: Shoot all of the gangsters (?) that pop up into the many windows / doors / other areas that you can see. You'll need to watch the arrow near the top which indicates that a bad guy has popped up off the screen in that direction, then scroll over there with your mouse. That's about all there is to it; I don't know if there are levels or other gameplay elements, but I played for awhile and nothing else happened. The graphics are decent enough, but compared to something like Shooting Gallery this game won't hold your interest for very long. Also having to scroll the viewpoint with the mouse is janky and overly difficult, given that you don't have much time to react when a baddie pops up.

Vendetta, #986. Added to website: 2019-09-19. All copyrights, trademarks, etc, are property of their respective holders.