Hi Everyone,

The Guild of Blades is happy to announce that the first game variant for 1483 Online, 1430 AD is now available for play. This first variant rolls the clock back 53 years to provide a very different map and a 29 player massive multi player turn based game.

Game variants for 1483 Online are planned to be available for play only for our Empires of History Online Enhanced Members, but in celebration of its initial release, the first few games will be available to everyone for play.

If you are not familiar with it yet, 1483 Online is a 28 player massive multi player turn based online strategy game. Its software is free to download and games are free to play. No credit cards or other forms of identification needed. For further information visit us at:

http://www.1483online.com

Thanks,
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

Hi Everyone,

At long last, we finally migrated our discussion forums into our main web site at www.guildofblades.com. So feel free to drop by and discuss any of our Empires of History A&A variant games, or well, any of our games at all actually.

Thanks,
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

blazing saddles, spaceballs, caddyshack, airplane, top secret, naked gun, history of the world, young frankenstein, funny farm, planes trains and automobiles, pink panther, dirty rotten scoundrels, three amigos, fletch, dr. strangelove, the great race, the great dictator, etc.<<

Some of those are great, but I can’t remember laughing nearly as hard watching any of them as my wife and i did this past weekend watching Superbad. I came in expecting to watch you typical teen comedy perhaps a step up from the usual (the previews did look good), but got something far far better than expected.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

3.  Taxes are paid only ONCE on the purchase of a new product or service.

So…

• Folks who choose to reduce their tax burden by purchasing used goods (existing homes, used cars, etc.) could DRAMATICALLY reduce their tax burden.<<

Boy, could that be abused.

two companies partner with each other. I sell my products, retail, to another company for $.02 each. Another company sells their products to us for $.02 each as well. We pay the sales tax on that. We then buy those same products back “used” at a 50% reduction for $.01 each. We then proceed to sell them, tax free, to all the consumers we originally intended to sell them to, using a price of goods 23% cheaper than legitimate businesses playing by the spirit of the rules.

Also, regarding taxing a goods only once, manufactured goods are taxed just once. Unless they happen to catch import duties. In the design and publishing of our games, any component products that are a part of the final product for sale, we get tax exempt status on. So I don’t as a business pay sales tax on paper, ink, boxes, etc, then make a board game and then you pay taxes on it also. Just one tax, leveraged as a sales tax. Unless, of course, you want to look at corporate taxes such as taxes on profits, federal employment taxes, state mandated unemployment insurance, etc, etc. All of which influence the final price of goods sold.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483onine.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

Which incidentally I don’t think would dissuade anyone from trying to earn more money, even though they’ll pay higher taxes on those extra dollars.<<

You might be surprised. My Wife is from Thailand where their income tax is about 15%. When she started working here the tax rate was about 21%. With her newest W2 contract because it pays a lot better she’s getting taxed at almost 30%. She was sooo pissed off and contemplated quiting on the spot. Penalizing people for working hard and trying to achieve better and better things is a sure fire way to get people NOT to work hard or strive to better their lives. I mean, the truly Rich has many tax shelters and what they can’t shelter they blink about paying because what’s a few more percentage points on 10 million? Its nothing to them. But the middle class that works hard to save money and prepare for retirement and to afford for college tuition for the kids get penalized so much for achieving strong incomes that the progressive tax is a major means to prevent ascension from the ranks of the middle class to the rich. I mean, the lower class can climb their way to the middle class ranks merely be working hard, garnering work experience, and progressively upgrading jobs as that experience allows. But most traditional jobs have an income cap to them and a high tax at the upper end cuts those people off at the legs from securing a stronger financial future.

My Chosen Tax Structures:

1. No Income Tax whatsoever on ANYONE making less than the medium average wage (not sure if this should be based on a national average, or established locally by tweaking the national average based on local cost of living). Over the median wage a progressive tax starting at 1% going up to just 10% based on an percentile basis of where you are on the wage chart. The idea being pegging these levels to the job market with the intent to prevent greedy politicians from gradually lowering the thresh holds for each incrimental tax point.

2. State sales taxes (basic consumption tax), with food and medical items and services exempt. Key insurance industries should be tax exempt as well, especially any type of insurance which is more or less an essential of life (health insurance, car insurance, house insurance)

3. State income taxes. 2% at maximum. A revenue share can be worked out between the states and the fed. Exempt for anyone earning under the poverty level.

4. A single one time property tax when purchasing a property. Not annually. A minor (and I mean minor) tax reduction on reduction on this amount for 1 and 2 children, but nothing additional for more than 2 children.

5. Capital Gains taxes such as, stock dividends, interests gains or the sales of stocks. But I also think this should be on an annual basis only and ONLY when you chose to remove cash from those investments. Growth on the investments should be left with the investments, tax, free, and allowed to keep growing. I think a very small capital gains tax upon successful selling of a property might be ok, but only on the “Gains”. So, as the buyer, maybe you pay a state tax of 10% when you buy the property and lets say you buy a house valued at $200K. 10 years later you sell it for $350K, maybe a small tax of 5% of so on the $150K in increased property value might be reasonable.

6. Renters Tax. 1-2% tax leveraged on rented housing. This very specifically would be designed to encourage home ownership.

7. Taxes on corporations much as they exist today. No “special” or heavier taxes on industries just because they are large or more profitable than other industries. Where civil infrastructure or environmental costs are involved for the business to be established, operated/monitored, would be charged to the business as pass thru fees, not taxes.

8. Import taxes. Only where we chose to leverage importing fees on products. For instance, if China charges import duties on our products, we would return in kind. Import fees should never be considered a means for government to make up lost taxes from other areas. Where needed, port inspection fees may be reasonable if the cost of safe inspection of imported cargo is necessary to safeguard our country.

9. Wartime act, emergency spending. If the nation goes to war and the government needs additional funds to finance the military spending everyone above the poverty line could be assessed a one time annual fee, but no greater than 10-15% of a persons income wage rate for that whole year. This fee would be a “loan” to the government at a market rate APR that the government would have to pay back within a fixed amount of time at the declared end of the war. If, for some reason, a person could not pay the assessed fee when required, they should be able to get a federally backed loan from most any financial banking institute where the rate for that loan should be the governments APR plus maybe 1-2% at worst. With money for surplus military spending coming, at least temporarily, directly out of the savings accounts of the average citizen (as opposed to nebulously from our taxes), its a fair bet the average citizen will care a whole lot more about international issues and hold their elected officials more directly accountable. My bet is wars or major military actions or even UN support roles will only get approved by the majority of people come that point and if approved, at least they would have more personal accountability there. And with surplus military funding being having to come from loans accountable to the average citizen rather than taxes which the government officials all too often regard as “theirs”, they would know darn well that how they attempt to vote on such issues will very much impact their chances for re-election.

10. Not strictly tax related, but every citizen should have the right to establish a 401K program under their own name and administration, even prior to the age of 18. This is not something that would be registered with an employer, but rather with the individual so it need not ever be transferred or shifted to a Roth or whatever when you change employers. Money invested into the 401K should be pre tax, as now and all “market gains” as opposed to principle you put into the account, should get taxed at half the the standard capital gains rate when it is taken out for retirement.

Really, that should be about it. I have a hard time seeing where the justification for any other taxes should come from.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

As for moderation, all the current rules are just fine.

A moderator should not be empowered to delete posts or lock a thread in any discussion where they have been a participant in any manner other making moderator oriented comments. Regardless of impartial a moderator is in adjudicating an issue, the appearance of bias is there.

So we either need one moderator that won’t participate in the discussions, or two or more moderators who would steer clear of discussions already being engaged in by one of the other moderators.

Other than that, so long as moderators set their own political opinions aside and moderate only as based by the rules, then the rules are fine as is and simply need to be enforced.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

And to clarify Jen, you were suspended specifically for violating a forum policy which explicitly states that if you have an issue with a moderator ruling on an issue, you take it up with the site owner, admin, or another Mod privately.  Had this not been a formal written forum policy, it would not have been an issue.<<

Switch, being on the outside looking in I realize that perhaps I missed some of what happened. But what I saw was a long thread where both you and Jen were arguing over the value of the markets and to the degree they had risen during the current president’s term, with both of you choosing different dates and means of interpreting the numbers, both to fit your particular political view points. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.

But what “seems” to have happened next was that you put in your last word, then closed the thread. Jen then got in “trouble” for posting on the subject again my opening new threads.

Not really fair for you to engage in an argument, sneak in a final word, then lock out the person you were arguing with from responding. It was an abuse of your position, given your intimate involvement in the argument that was going on.  It was like saying your final word, then using your position of power to shut up the opposing view.

I have no problem with the thread being closed and if some other moderator had made the decision independently that would be fine. But the situation just looked wrong the way it worked out.

Maybe these sections need two active moderators so the “other” one can moderate when needed when the first one is too intimately engaged on the discussion?

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

1483 Online is still in beta testing, but it has come a long way since it was first launched. Right now only the 28 player, Europe 1483, is available, but our programmer (who is a college student) is now on summer break and working with us full time and we’re cranking out advancements very quickly and hope to have the 95 player full world out within a month, killing all known bugs in the same process.

If you have any questions feel free to post them in our forums, or on here. Either is fine.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guilodfblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

The only reason Eagle went into Poker in the first place is that their board games weren’t giving them a good enough profit margin to pay back a fairly substantial loan they had taken out, I presume, to crank up the production runs needed when they got placement with Comp USA (or at least I think that was the major chain they got placement with). That bank loan is eventually what killed the company. Someone in my family actually issued that loan, which I found out later.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com

Hi Everyone,

Since early 2006 the Guild of Blades has been developing some of its Axis & Allies variant board game and game series into FREE multi player online games. 1483 Online has been our flagship game for this project. This summer we will be completing the Full World edition of the game which will provide online play for 95 players per game.

Map Preview:
http://www.1483online.com/full_world.php

Nation List and Resources + Trade:
http://www.1483online.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=732

And while you wait for this exciting development to get completed, we still have the 28 player variant, Europe 1483 currently available to play and also free. Its at http://www.1483online.com

Thanks,
Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com
http://www.1483online.com
http://www.thermopylae-online.com