Catnip Games Discussion Thread

I believe you have made some really good changes @Chris , I know others have noticed. It will be interesting to see what partnerships you can gather. I think a CS will help a lot with publishing what you do in streams and giving you forum feedback so that you can spend more time creating. I of course wish you luck and applaud your courage in taking it all one your shoulders. I imagine this leaves the debt with Port and allows you to change original promises and such going forward. I do caution you to be careful there and put out plenty of notice and get real feed back from a majority of players and not a trusted personal few.

This change does explain the $ of new items on the store of course, but maybe give us some pick X deco package that we can contribute toward and eventually get or something of that nature. It is really tough on POT owners who have already spent a lot to obtain the POT, let alone the supporting deco, deeds and such. Of course this means that when you told us that Darkstarr nerfed the making blessing shrines as deco idea; it was actually you changing your decision. So a little angry about that.

 

@Chris SOTA was built on RMT from the start. This game will never have mass appeal the quality doesn't live up to other games in the genre.

I stated early on once property and rares were devalued it was a race to the bottom. Welcome to the bottom. The SOTA niche was a unique IP with rares and exclusive items costing money but mostly holding their value or even appreciating in time. Most of us didn't buy to make profits from the game but we liked the virtual rarity. Once the rarity dissipated the virtual goods had no intrinsic value. Owning a Castle deed was no more special than owning a village deeds outside cosmetics in limited cases. No one spends $500, $50, or even $5 on a dragon statue if everyone has a dragon statue.

Unlike many, I never cashed out my virtual items. The money wasn't important to me, I only ever wanted a thriving game. Once SOTA lost it's niche the majority of the community stopped spending and many left. Removing RMT isn't going to help the population long term. F2P people don't stick around because there is no incentive to play and frankly the game mechanics are tedious at best. RMT is the incentive to play, remove it and watch what happens.

A few relatively simple changes would ensure a thriving market in SOTA which would ensure a thriving game. I've stated my piece, up to the new CEO to decide on their actions and consequences.

Congratulations too!

 

Ahh, ok.

 

Do you see the contradictions in your statements? RMT has hit bottom and everything lost it's value, BUT RMT is the incentive to play.

It's already a niche game because of RMT and the "virtual rarity" of items, but removing RMT isn't going to help pull it out of the niche status and appeal to a wider base of players?

This is where I agree with Chris. RMT has taken it's toll on the devs and scammed people on the forums. Time for a new company and a new business model.

 

I'd argue a lot of other issues is why the population dwindled. Don't forget, RMT and the promise of rares is what funded the majority of this game.

 

Yes, but, there should and can be a happy medium somewhere. Port removing RMT from any official company sites does indeed remove them from having to try to police it. The best and fair thing to do is for them to continue to produce a mixture of items, allow people to have outside transactions and let the market work it out. Trusted sellers would soon appear (if we do gain population to sustain a real economy) and scamming would be reduced because players would have a trusted reliable 3rd party seller and wouldn't need to participate in risky transactions.

Most of the scammers would not have a market and reputable businesses catering to the legit player market would ensure security.

 

RMT might have funded it, but look where it's at now. Rares can still be a thing, if Chris release something ONCE and only once, but selling them for money doesn't do anything for rare items except make them still obtainable.

 

It was doing fine until they drastically slashed the price of items at the request of some. Then put all the rares back up for sale so rares no longer existed.

Meanwhile, those people left anyway, and the money dried up because now items aren't worth anything, before they were.

I could have kept building my empire for five episodes. Now I just would like to recoup some of my foolish donations and maybe own one house in Tortuga. The war on merchants is over, we can all be poor fishermen now, owning nothing, but content in our austerity.

But I do hope the game thrives, so hopefully those who campaigned for everything to be worth nothing will put their money where their mouth is.

 

The forums now were supposedly only for "trusted sellers" and look where that got us. There's no way to police it on the forums or off the forums. The more population you have the more bad actors you will get that want to scam the higher population.

 

Then it really wasn't a donation was it, you were buying inventory for your empire. In hopes that you could profit off of video game and retire the good life? I'm not trying to rattle you up, but virtual real estate and pixel property shouldn't be used as an investment tool. That's what actual brick and mortar real estate is for, or gold and silver speculation. You can actually hold something that has value.

 

It drove me away. When I could only sell items or buy items for real cash and realized some people played the game as a job, I quit.

 

I spent well into 5 figures on this game, including a $12k LOTM pledge. When I was considering purchasing the LOTM, I checked to resellers just to see if they were "worth it". At the time a LOTM was selling for $9500. I thought, close enough lets support the game and know that if things didn't work out I could likely recovery 80% or so. Seemed fair to me 20% was definitely worth the entertainment. Many items were purchased similarly not for resale but knowing they held some intrinsic value.

FYI, I sold almost nothing and what I have sold long ago went DIRECTLY into buying more SOTA assets. I wrote that money off LONG ago as wasted.

I am currently playing an amazing game called Mordhau, that I paid $29 for on Steam. I bought it about three months ago and already have 140 hours in the game and have been EXTREMELY entertained. In fact since then I bought a second to run a server and an extra $15 to show my support for the developers. All told under $100 on the game and its been immensely fun, developed by a very small independent studio of just a few guys.

So spend thousands more on SOTA for it to be worth tens or nothing later or spend $100 on other games to get hours and hours of entertainment. I stay with SOTA, and never left, due to the community. I respect the community. I rarely play the game because its just not fun to me.

Now if Chris can SIGNIFICANTLY turn the population around, remove RMT, and keep funding levels sufficient to improve and expand the game in a timely manner. IE: Deliver at least 5 fully developed episodes within the next decade. I'll FULLY support him. As someone who spent thousands on the game and now spend pennies, I'm letting the CEO know of my displeasure and grave concern for the "plans".

I know focusing on RMT and exclusivity funds several other niche MMOs very nicely. I know focusing on RMT funded millions for SOTA. I don't know removing RMT will solve anything but could easily sink the ship.

I'm off to go gank some fighters with my Cleaver in Mordhau. Real PVP!

 

Turned out it was a donation.

You can buy them for in game gold or Crowns you buy from others. I know people that paid for entire towns this way.

And I would hate to judge people for having even an in game job. From my understanding, it helps some of them eat.

 

No, the forums were never represented as official trusted sellers

 

I think this is what the anti-RMT crowd doesn't get.

"This is a stupid amount of money to spend on a game, but I can support a game I am enjoying being part of create, and at least if I need I can pull it out later, as it has a value."

People literally helped pay for their chemo by cashing out. That is a solid way to fund a game in my opinion, have value for your stuff and people will be willing to pitch in more.

Now, compare that to what we hear now: "$45!?!?!?!?! That's way too much for ANYTHING! Every OTHER game...."

And that's right. No value means no value.

So no value players, pay up! It's your turn. Waiting to watch you support for thousands of dollars, lets see it happen.

 

A donation is when you give and don't expect anything in return, but you expected the items you purchased to hold or at least gain value in return.

 

I heard those complaints about the $45 dungeon teleport. In the past, I would have gladly bought a dozen. If I knew they wouldn't be worthless or a few dollars in a month or so.

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/trusted-traders-program.91876/

 

I donate quite a bit to charity each year, expecting nothing in return. What I spent on SOTA was not a donation, I expect(ed) a return.