@jbadams:

Great input, thank you. I'm a bit in a rush but I'll explore your message and the links in it in detail later on today.

@frob:

Excellent input, yet from a certain product / development point-of-view. What I mean by that is, technologies change and allow for different approaches, and products in general can be like apples and pears, that seem similar yet are also very different from each other.

"If you honestly meant MMO, then I will assume your business plan details things like..." - yes and somewhat and no. The somewhat and no part not due to my oversight, but simply because at this time, that is not a real concern but "down the road" (AKA following "evolution" / versions of the game) they will become an issue. And yes, I meant MMO in the "down the road" project.

"So, did you mean a real MMO, or did you mean a more simple online game?" - thus, MMO in the long run but initially it would definitely be a "limited memberships" type of game. As good as someone can make predictions in terms of business development, there are simply too many variables, especially when going global, such as change of technologies over the years and market development and thus competition, therefore the future holds the answer on whether this project will ever truly become a MMO in the fullest sense of its meaning.

"...there is a link to how to develop a basic online world server in under a day, and develop a simple isometric online multiplayer world in less than a week..." - yup, done that myself already a few weeks ago in one day actually, with the graphics (not gameplay yet) capabilities and layout very similar to the game Jagged Alliance 2. So yeah, that was good fun and instant gratification with successful testing of a few simultaneously connected players.

In terms of funding the development, I have actually developed a new idea here and Kickstarter seems only an "add-on" viability, as the above mentioned YouTube vid also showed in the scenario of that developer, at least.

You can't really go ImperialConflict in the browser game space anymore(one programmer, working on hobby time and using clip art and commissions for other parts). Games around that concept generally only ever see 3 to 20 people online at their peak times(unless they're a member of the old guard), before the developers give up. It's just too competitive of a space now for new users.

You're going to need to be pretty awesome developer and friends with a couple of other awesome developers to try to compete for users against professionals at their day job. At least in a genre that is defined by player time investment figures that start at hundreds of hours over a time period of months or years. Which is why most indy games are short single player.

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Lets be honest when it gets to hobby time a lot of people really just aren't all that motivated, especially when you consider that for someone to be skilled enough to be useful probably has the same task as their day job. This means that you're going to need to be the major driver(IE the programmer, artist, or similar) to keep everyone motivated. Further more if it comes to hobby time people really don't care about your game till you're at the 90% point(IE: properly functioning, playable, and a little polished) and looking to get the last 90% done. After this point if you do nothing you'll get a person or two offering to help every couple of months.

Next you've been working on this for half a decade, which means you see this as "your project". Which puts it pretty much in the doomed category since that's not how hobby time really works(the closest thing would be people in the same hobby showing off their "baby", which you don't have).

So you've accumulated pieces over half a decade, that's a really really really long time especially after you consider someone can get working games from something like Eclipse (http://www.eclipseorigins.com/community/index.php?/page/index.html/homepage.html) in a few weeks, or artists(IE: people who are trained the opposite way programmers typically are) can make something like dust (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/180520/) after 3 years(with minimal previous programming experience). Someone design minded will be able to pick up programming a lot easier(thinking through a concept in a step by step process, finding failure points, and putting it in a communicable form(which actually describes how some do art so go figure)).

You also want to lead a team in a space where you have no contacts, those lack of contacts likely means you have never been a part of another team, and if never having been a part of another team means you have no experience. So logic would dictate you kind of need to first be a part of "someone else's" team so you can learn from their mistakes and successes, which actually goes pretty fast considering how fast most hobby teams fail. Being a part of someone else's team also means that you're introduced to a lot of people and their friends of similar interest and how useful they all are. Considering most indy teams fail it's not even poaching.

I would also say your timing is pretty horrible. If you've had asked a few months ago it'd be pretty easy to point you to someone of every game development discipline looking to add one last project to their portfolio for graduation.

The last thing you need to ask yourself is "would more than one of me even be useful to a team of 3 to 5?", if the answer is no you need to find a way to make it yes.