The Training Grounds

Do you guys know is the designer of the Training Grounds, Juri Munkki, from Finland? Sorry, I don't know, the name just sounds Finnish..

Yes, he is from Finland. He is, in fact, the creator of Avara. Here is his website.

Juri was a really nice and great guy, I remember playing him in Pasta Bravo and Dodgeball back when I first played on my 14.4 modem. I even managed to beat him a couple times.

My friends and I have had various interesting conversations with him over the years (not recently though). Apparently he got screwed by Ambrosia pretty bad. He got like a shirt for making Avara.

He's from Finland? Me too! :laugh:

Cycle, on Jul 17 2005, 09:51 PM, said:

Apparently he got screwed by Ambrosia pretty bad. He got like a shirt for making Avara.View Post

You know, I'm really beginning to sense that Avara is totally un-cared for by Ambrosia. What I can't figure out is why. It's a really great game-- why should its community be treated like this?

Q-Lok, on Jul 18 2005, 12:18 PM, said:

You know, I'm really beginning to sense that Avara is totally un-cared for by Ambrosia. What I can't figure out is why.View Post

It's because they made a really bonehead move by not crippling the unregistered version of Avara, and made very little money from it. Nowadays there are too few players willing to pay for it to justify making any more updated versions.

In short, it's all about money, which Avara does not generate enough of.

Juri contributed the failure of Avara to a number of issues. The ones I remember are the crippling issue (apparently Juri tried to convince Andrew Welch to use a different system, but they didn't), the fact that the games interface was experimental (many people never figured out how to start a game!) and the fact that the engine was very dated compared to commercial titles when it was released.

And the community gets no support because it's so small now.

That's pretty much it. They still (sorta) support Avara, I mean they keep the tracker up. Well, you can't ask for much. I mean, Avara made like no money.

Q-Lok, on Jul 18 2005, 06:18 AM, said:

You know, I'm really beginning to sense that Avara is totally un-cared for by Ambrosia. What I can't figure out is why. It's a really great game-- why should its community be treated like this?

Well, let's see how it's "un-cared for".

You still have a website where you can download levels.
You still have a web forum where you can discuss the game.
You still have a tracker to be able to play the game.

The community (what there is of it) was treated better than how the company that distributed the game. Very few registrations = no incentive to put more work or money into the game.

I'm not going to have this discussion again - do a search.

EDIT: Oops. Wrong topic. Was just there.

This post has been edited by The Apple Cřre : 19 July 2005 - 09:49 PM

Taz, on Jul 19 2005, 03:41 PM, said:

You still have a website where you can download levels.
You still have a web forum where you can discuss the game.
You still have a tracker to be able to play the game.
The community (what there is of it) was treated better than how the company that distributed the game. Very few registrations = no incentive to put more work or money into the game.View Post

So... In other words, you're the only one who cares enough against it to actually do anything to get rid of the game, website, tracker, community, etc. Everyone else either likes, loves, or is at worst indifferent to it. Just get with the program and figure out that AmbrosiaSW is not "caring" for Avara; it is simply indifferent enough to remove the web resources.

The web resources take up valuable bandwith, Taz does make a point. It's all we can hope for that they will be "indifferent" about Avara, and continue to preserve the game.

@q-lok, on Jul 21 2005, 04:26 AM, said in Juri Munkki:

So... In other words, you're the only one who cares enough against it to actually do anything to get rid of the game, website, tracker, community, etc. Everyone else either likes, loves, or is at worst indifferent to it. Just get with the program and figure out that AmbrosiaSW is not "caring" for Avara; it is simply indifferent enough to remove the web resources.

Avara is pretty much at a 10 year mark, and died t around the 4th. I know this, because I was there. I was there well into the 6 and 7 year marks. However, don't take that as a bash to Avara. Avara got me started in 3D modeling, of which I now do for another SW company (which is why I havn't been on these forums in a long while, been having to moderate the ones I get paid to moderate).

You should be grateful that a company still runs their tracker for their game that does not bring them proffit. This game has, mostlikely at this point, 10-20 people still playing it at most. The game has had a good run. Don't bad mouth AmbrosiaSW just because they didn't fulfill your every wish with the game. Belive me, I wanted a new version as much as anyone "back in the day", but the first didn't make them money, why would the second? If you can't understand this, then you shouldn't complain. If you DO understand this, why are you complaining in the first place?

Hey Vader, Q-lok has not been heard from since last year... so there's really no point in replying to him at all, let alone to a 9-month old topic. I think everyone else has made clear why Avara is not ASW's Prodigal Son, and the fact the Juri Munkki is from Finland.

So why the sudden gravedig?

This post has been edited by Robert Marlin : 08 May 2006 - 03:19 PM