moghead
22-01-2001, 16:48
got this email.. any1 with BW account should as well
mail from "support@barrysworld.com" <support@barrysworld.com> Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:27:37 GMT
to
cc
subject BarrysWorld to end
memo Dear BarrysWorld Member,
The End of BarrysWorld
======================
Ok, lets cut to the chase. BarrysWorld has gone into voluntary liquidation as we’re running out of money and with the market in its current state we’ve not found anyone prepared to fund our 2nd round of investment.
We’ve spent our money wisely and according to plan, we didn’t raise the enormous sums that some others did, and we lasted longer than them.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, we’ve stuck to the plan, we and our investors always knew that we’d need further funding now, but the whole market is falling apart and everyone is frankly too scared to invest the amount of money BarrysWorld requires to run in its current form.
And Yes, we’ve spent months pursuing alternatives none of which have worked out despite all our efforts and how close we got. No cigar though.
The ramifications of this are extensive but can be summed up in the sentence:
Unless a last minute rescue offer is successful, anything to do with BarrysWorld will cease to exist on or about the 31st January 2001.
By everything we really do mean everything - all the game servers, public, bookable and clan servers, all the leagues, the hosted sites, the email accounts, the dialup, the irc servers, the news and reviews, game guides, the team/player/recruitment lists - damn we’re really proud of what we’ve built...
Certain issues need to be addressed promptly. Anyone with a BarrysWorld email address or hosted site needs to make alternative arrangements as soon as possible. We’ll be mass emailing everyone we can think of to try and drive this process along as best we can.
Clan servers will not be offered for renewal, those Clans that paid beyond our closure date will need to get refunds from their Credit Card providers for services that have not been provided and those that paid by cheque will need to contact our Liquidators.
We’re not happy about that either, sorry. BarrysWorld is no longer under our control and we are simply unable to offer refunds, as we don’t hold the purse strings anymore (that’s the way liquidation works apparently, bear with us here, we’re new to this).
Someday online gaming will be financially feasible, but that will entail the consumer paying directly for the services he or she receives. With the death of BW that day gets closer, so you should prepare for the day when GSP’s etc charge for Gaming Services. Ironically we’d just finished our pay-per-play engine, our soon to be announced BarryBank (http://www.barrysworld.com/membership/Barrybank/default.asp) which allowed us to charge for services like Bookable Servers, or offer micropayments easily to our Hosted Sites, we’ll probably put a demo live on the front page for the hell of it.
Those that tried to survive on the funding from dialup call revenue and/or advertising are dead or in their death throws, this market has collapsed. Supported by our business to business deals we survived longer than most, but even we found that it is simply not feasible to run gaming services with a long term future on this model.
So what happens now? Well the English legal system takes its ponderous course, until some point when the lights are turned off on what’s been our lives for the last 4 years. We’re intensely proud of what we’ve built, both before and during the 9 months we’ve had funding. BarrysWorld today is a home for more gamers than we dreamed off in those early days, and provides a lot of cool stuff to a lot of people, we’ll certainly miss it.
We genuinely believe there is a viable, extractable business inside BarrysWorld, just waiting for someone with a bit of vision to recognise, we’re of course open to offers of a rescue deal, so if you want to talk to us, then get in touch quick ! Mail us at rescue@barrysworld.com or rescuebw@deathace.net or ring Ted on +44 (0)208 650 6804.
It might help if we could tell potential buyers whether gamers would be prepared to pay for BarrysWorld or not - PLEASE fill in our form: http://www.barrysworld.com/membership/vote/voteform.asp to let us know. Its important, tell your mates to fill the form in, regardless of their stance on the matter, we really need feedback on this.
Once you’ve done that, you might like to sign our book of condolences ;-) in our General Forum (http://forums.barrysworld.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=71). If you want to talk to any of the BarrysWorld team and have trouble contacting them, then email Ted at his backup address at ted@wibs.demon.co.uk and he’ll make sure you’re put in contact with the appropriate person. What we did we did bloody well.
Ted, DBs and the rest of the BW Team.
The official press release can be found at http://www.barrysworld.com/content/pressreleases.asp?Article=117
mail from "support@barrysworld.com" <support@barrysworld.com> Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:27:37 GMT
to
cc
subject BarrysWorld to end
memo Dear BarrysWorld Member,
The End of BarrysWorld
======================
Ok, lets cut to the chase. BarrysWorld has gone into voluntary liquidation as we’re running out of money and with the market in its current state we’ve not found anyone prepared to fund our 2nd round of investment.
We’ve spent our money wisely and according to plan, we didn’t raise the enormous sums that some others did, and we lasted longer than them.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, we’ve stuck to the plan, we and our investors always knew that we’d need further funding now, but the whole market is falling apart and everyone is frankly too scared to invest the amount of money BarrysWorld requires to run in its current form.
And Yes, we’ve spent months pursuing alternatives none of which have worked out despite all our efforts and how close we got. No cigar though.
The ramifications of this are extensive but can be summed up in the sentence:
Unless a last minute rescue offer is successful, anything to do with BarrysWorld will cease to exist on or about the 31st January 2001.
By everything we really do mean everything - all the game servers, public, bookable and clan servers, all the leagues, the hosted sites, the email accounts, the dialup, the irc servers, the news and reviews, game guides, the team/player/recruitment lists - damn we’re really proud of what we’ve built...
Certain issues need to be addressed promptly. Anyone with a BarrysWorld email address or hosted site needs to make alternative arrangements as soon as possible. We’ll be mass emailing everyone we can think of to try and drive this process along as best we can.
Clan servers will not be offered for renewal, those Clans that paid beyond our closure date will need to get refunds from their Credit Card providers for services that have not been provided and those that paid by cheque will need to contact our Liquidators.
We’re not happy about that either, sorry. BarrysWorld is no longer under our control and we are simply unable to offer refunds, as we don’t hold the purse strings anymore (that’s the way liquidation works apparently, bear with us here, we’re new to this).
Someday online gaming will be financially feasible, but that will entail the consumer paying directly for the services he or she receives. With the death of BW that day gets closer, so you should prepare for the day when GSP’s etc charge for Gaming Services. Ironically we’d just finished our pay-per-play engine, our soon to be announced BarryBank (http://www.barrysworld.com/membership/Barrybank/default.asp) which allowed us to charge for services like Bookable Servers, or offer micropayments easily to our Hosted Sites, we’ll probably put a demo live on the front page for the hell of it.
Those that tried to survive on the funding from dialup call revenue and/or advertising are dead or in their death throws, this market has collapsed. Supported by our business to business deals we survived longer than most, but even we found that it is simply not feasible to run gaming services with a long term future on this model.
So what happens now? Well the English legal system takes its ponderous course, until some point when the lights are turned off on what’s been our lives for the last 4 years. We’re intensely proud of what we’ve built, both before and during the 9 months we’ve had funding. BarrysWorld today is a home for more gamers than we dreamed off in those early days, and provides a lot of cool stuff to a lot of people, we’ll certainly miss it.
We genuinely believe there is a viable, extractable business inside BarrysWorld, just waiting for someone with a bit of vision to recognise, we’re of course open to offers of a rescue deal, so if you want to talk to us, then get in touch quick ! Mail us at rescue@barrysworld.com or rescuebw@deathace.net or ring Ted on +44 (0)208 650 6804.
It might help if we could tell potential buyers whether gamers would be prepared to pay for BarrysWorld or not - PLEASE fill in our form: http://www.barrysworld.com/membership/vote/voteform.asp to let us know. Its important, tell your mates to fill the form in, regardless of their stance on the matter, we really need feedback on this.
Once you’ve done that, you might like to sign our book of condolences ;-) in our General Forum (http://forums.barrysworld.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=71). If you want to talk to any of the BarrysWorld team and have trouble contacting them, then email Ted at his backup address at ted@wibs.demon.co.uk and he’ll make sure you’re put in contact with the appropriate person. What we did we did bloody well.
Ted, DBs and the rest of the BW Team.
The official press release can be found at http://www.barrysworld.com/content/pressreleases.asp?Article=117