So, NFTs? Yea or nay?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by oplek, Jan 22, 2022.

?

NFTs?

  1. Yea

    5 vote(s)
    8.1%
  2. Nay

    51 vote(s)
    82.3%
  3. Eh

    6 vote(s)
    9.7%
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

    Messages:
    8,336
    Likes Received:
    28,405
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    ~SOTA Monk~ ~Monastery~ ~Thailand~
    [​IMG]

    Allot of what gets "snidely said" in articles about this and about our own game in particular has ethics comparble to any of our own online comments here in our forum, reddit, twitter or any other posting venue. Just because it has a fancy background on it's own web site, it's all still subject to the way in which it's painted by the author of it.

    I'll say this again, "I don't think there's anything nefarious going on here". Artists need to find ways of funding their artworks, and making video games is no different because they too are artworks.

    I'll also say that there's no breach in loyalty here, as this is "our team", meaning programing artists we have followed through the years and decades of Ultima. These are artists that have inspired us, and like a new or old girl friend, we all knew they've had girl friends before us, after us and during our relationship with them. To think they were ever married with us alone, is just an unjust demand. We bought into the people, we did not buy the people themselves, the artists we have followed here. The developer's rent and morgages must be paid, while the game/s are made in the ways they always have been.

    SOTA may not be "on fire" when compared with other gaming titles but it's also surviving when all these talking head gaming journalists have been constantly counting us out. But here we are.

    "But here we are" <---<<< This is a very good reason not to dangle our game on some hopeful NFT thread of string, even when that NFT is full of our own creative team. Our SOTA is "still here" and if anything happened in this new NFT, here we will still be standing, and without any big brother holding any of our assets as they sink or swim, which is something that new ventures tend to be like in their early launch phases. They were above board with this new venture, there's nothing odd or under-handed here. I'm super happy they have made this public early so we and our game of SOTA can inovate and continue developing in anticipation of this new game coming so that we can show more promise as well through "developing unique", because if we build unique, then there's mo competition at all, only a different game with different challenges through different ways which only SOTA can do.

    I would rather think that there may come a time when this new NFT pays us, or benifits us, or our programing, or our own advertising, in indirect, or direct ways, "when they are more stable", all the while we are benifitting, even now from being mentioned that we are still...

    :eek: "Very alive and kicking" :D!'
    [​IMG]
    Free advertising is always one of the best advertisings one can get, bad ethical press or not ;)
    We, just as Dr Loveless still have new inovations up our sleave they may not yet be aware of :confused:
    I love our team being a part of this and I do look forward to having all our team's games as mine.

    I wish them the best of luck in this :)!'
    But NFTs are not best for SOTA right now :thumbs up:

    ~Time Lord~:cool:
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2022
    Braumeister likes this.
  2. Sargon

    Sargon Avatar

    Messages:
    447
    Likes Received:
    708
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Illinois
    Where was that stated?

    Nevermind, I found it. The problem I see is, there is no guarantee on the amount of land that will eventually be sold. I can pay $500 now (hypothetically) to secure a piece of land, but the supply is completely out of my control and could have a significant impact on the value of my purchased land. What is to stop them from continuing to create more and more land, similar to how SotA continued to sell way more POT's than were initially planned?

    Unless they are saying they are selling 1,000 plots of land and those will be the only plots offered for the lifetime of the game. In that case, the supply is restricted, but at the expense of future growth. What is the motivation for a new player to join a year later if all the plots are already gone and their only opportunity to obtain one is in the RMT marketplace?

    It is a delicate balance - How do you encourage people to buy land now and reward them for doing so, while also providing a path to ownership for future players?
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2022
    Enfo and Time Lord like this.
  3. Aurelius Silverson

    Aurelius Silverson Avatar

    Messages:
    687
    Likes Received:
    1,585
    Trophy Points:
    93
    The answer to that will depend on what the creators of the game think they want to do - if you plan a short term 'life' for the game, where people play for a couple of years but essentially then move on to other games, your approach will be completely different to someone who builds a game with the intention of of lasting decades or more. I think one of the underlying issues in how Shroud has gone is there was a significant disconnect between the playerbase, many of whom were looking for a really long term game that would build and sustain a community they enjoyed being part of (as many would claim UO originally did, although opinions vary on how well that has lasted over time) and a design and development ethos that certainly had the desire for a solid enough game with many innovative ideas and systems, but foresaw a probably limited lifespan compared to what many of us hoped for.
     
    majoria70 likes this.
  4. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    11,752
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Female
    I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that we've established NFT isn't coming anywhere near Shroud.
    If so, then there is nothing to worry about on that front.
    What -other people- decide to do in -some other game that doesn't actually even exist yet- is their business, and it doesn't matter if I'm interested in playing that game or not, or if I trust it or not.

    My only concern about this is that they are taking our Chris, and using him for their -other game-, and well, we need our Chris. He's ours. And there's already a lot of stuff that he doesn't have time to do on THIS project alone - its what we always hear, not enough hours in the day to get it all done, to get it all tested, to get it built, etc. And we accept that, mostly graciously (usually, lol). But then to be told that despite the fact that we are resource constrained, stretched thin, and there's not enough time, now he's going to be working on another project entirely, well...its a bit of a face slap.
     
  5. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Technically, you can handle that with a smart contract, though that means trusting that the contract was implemented correctly, which currently has a success rate that wouldn't look out of place as an MLB batting average, and that can't be compromised by a bad actor, which seems to be a vanishingly small percent these days.
     
  6. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    When the SNES was released, Nintendo declared in their home magazine that its release would not reduce their commitment to the NES as a platform. I must have been around 12 when I read that, and even then I knew it was baloney.

    SOTA's remaining player base are those stalwart individuals that have proven time and time again that they will open their wallets for a game with great promise if somewhat less great implementation. Those are exactly the folks they'd need to make Shroud 2: NFT Boogaloo a viable project long term, once all the NFT bros handle the heavy lifting of getting the initial funding.

    If Catnip is involved with Shroud 2: Secrets of the NFT, I would say that with some near certainty, that some day you'll be encouraged to "port" your character over to the new game, for a modest fee if you don't take advantage of this limited time offer, so you can enjoy the benefits of their new technology and buy those tasty, tasty tokens.
     
    Time Lord, kaeshiva and Adam Crow like this.
  7. kaeshiva

    kaeshiva Avatar

    Messages:
    3,054
    Likes Received:
    11,752
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Female
    I'm not really interested in virtual property, reselling, trading, or using the game as some sort of investment. I like to fight evil and take its stuff, hang out with my friends, and play dress up. I have no problem throwing some money - even large sums of money - at the team who builds and support my playground so that I can continue to enjoy doing these things. I have zero interest whatsoever in trying to cash out, get a "return" on money I've invested buying virtual clothes and toys. I'm not opening my wallet for the great promise, I'm paying for my continued entertainment. And when it stops being fun, then I'll go spend my money elsewhere.

    That being said - I'm extremely dubious of anything to do with blockchaincryptonftwhatsit. There's waaay too much dodginess around it for my comfort. I really hope Shroud doesn'tt go this route - 'cause if it does, I wont be going with it because quite frankly, there's just far too much uncertainty and not enough established regulation around this whole new digital currency flimflam. I've invested a lot of time and money into Shroud, into my character development, into my guild, and my town, and I've enjoyed the journey. But I'm pragmatic about the fact that this is a video game - if the lights get turned off tomorrow or next month or next year because they decide to build Shroud 2: NFT-Palooza or w/e - well, its been a good run.

    I hope it doesn't happen, but, the owner of catnip being heavily involved in "the next project" doesn't fill me with confidence.
     
  8. Enfo

    Enfo Avatar

    Messages:
    246
    Likes Received:
    355
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Texas
    The best method - you dont sell land. You sell non essentials like deco amd fashion, which is the true end game.
     
    .dao. and Sargon like this.
  9. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    That's the old mindset unfortunately. With NFTs it's all about Play 2 Earn, so you need to be selling something that provides a return on your investment. The model seems to be:
    1. Sell a bunch of "resource producers" e.g. land or factories or knockoff pokemon.
    2. Use money from initial offering to fund development
    3. ...
    4. Profit
    With step 3 to be filled in once a company figures out what it actually is.
     
    Sargon and Enfo like this.
  10. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    5,676
    Likes Received:
    11,810
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Location:
    Dara Brae
    I agree that if SotA does cease due to the new MMO being developed that is taking Chris away from us. So be it. NO biggie. We have talented devs taking care of us right now.

    If the worse case scenario happens, I hope Catnip does the right thing by letting us
    - keep playing SotA offline with no initial online check during the first run. I believe right now when you install SotA and play for the first time the game needs to "phone home" to activate. I could be wrong.
    - Make one of every POT kind that the offline player can "own. They we won't loose out POTs and what we have built. We can rebuild.
    - Make some tool available to offline that lets us change system parameters like: system difficulty of NPC monsters (so if I want to trounce over everything I can or make it uber hard), etc.

    Right now I am playing SotA and loving every hour of it! 4,672 hours logged through Steam.

    I am going to go and play right now and create my own adventure. :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
    Lily Byrd, Braumeister and Thor99Plyr like this.
  11. Proteus Tempest

    Proteus Tempest Avatar

    Messages:
    1,820
    Likes Received:
    2,538
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Location:
    Tempest Reef
  12. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

    Messages:
    15,679
    Likes Received:
    24,293
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm not able to find it. Can you provide a link?
     
    Cordelayne likes this.
  13. mystarr

    mystarr Avatar

    Messages:
    463
    Likes Received:
    1,092
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    My main concern is that Shroud has a very small team. The work/time Chris puts into the game presumably accounts for a significant amount of what gets done. If Chris is spending most of his time working on another game, then that's a loss of development time/resources for Shroud. Shroud can't afford to get even less done.
    (Put me down as uninterested in Richard's new project.)
     
  14. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

    Messages:
    3,333
    Likes Received:
    11,010
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
  15. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

    Messages:
    1,290
    Likes Received:
    1,771
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The insistence that the lauded block chain is going to be so much better than the old ways of trading despite it being used for the majority of scams currently playing out across the globe speaks volumes about him never learning the lesson of the million dollar encryption being defeated by the $10 rubber hose.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
    kaeshiva likes this.
  16. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

    Messages:
    5,676
    Likes Received:
    11,810
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Location:
    Dara Brae
    I don't trust Massivelyop.com never heard of it until they started to bash SotA for clicks to make Massivelyop.com money.

    In my opinion, SotA is not a failure but a success.
     
  17. craftymethod

    craftymethod Avatar

    Messages:
    1,133
    Likes Received:
    2,001
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I'd upload my town or lot to that system. Even character potentially.

    It seems Richard is now competing with Sota anyway... Our world integrates or likley population increases chance diminishes forever.

    I hope Richard looks back enough to let us know about any potential land sales, as we would need to get in ultra early hopefully as a reward for helping fund any parts of Sota tech that might eventually get absorbe such as world story building tech stuff.

    Sota could really make that game a great game but competition is competition. Sota wont be able to thrive, will need to sell as a sister game / world destination to get much traction at all. If they could sail on their ships and access our towns it would be a serious boon but ONLY if the will is there to do it.

    Sota is an instanced scene building game, SURLEY it could develop to build scenes from the community where others from richards same world could travel. Who would really mind installing two games if there is only a big loading transition between Port and open sea?

    The two projects will only thrive together if they are designed together. Especially if they are in the same world and litterally competing with each other in the MMO market place.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
  18. craftymethod

    craftymethod Avatar

    Messages:
    1,133
    Likes Received:
    2,001
    Trophy Points:
    113
    *Not the Episode 1 we wanted but its the Episode 1 we deserve...

    Although it feels a door is slammed in our faces with no bridge to this new place. (as so far, and sota adverts (potentially from chris' comment) seems far from cutting it).
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
  19. Braumeister

    Braumeister Avatar

    Messages:
    14
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    3
    I agree and that MMO site is only good for getting news on upcoming games or updates to existing games. They tend to lean heavily into current politics and political movements and their reviews and Op Eds tend to reflect that. When they started and were named something else, they were a bit more informative and balanced. Time has changed them and rearranged their priorities. There are very few games or companies they like. They tend to criticize any profit motivated game company or CEO. SotA is far from a failure. The game is complete and constantly updating. I wish it had a different and smoother running engine, but outside of that, the game is very deep and has plenty to do. I have deleted a good number of MMOs/RPGs over the years, but somehow I keep leaving SotA installed.
     
    Duke Gréagóir and Lily Byrd like this.
  20. Greyfox

    Greyfox Avatar

    Messages:
    1,680
    Likes Received:
    5,942
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    USA EST
    SOTA didn't fail due to a lack of NFTs. SOTA's most critical failure was failing to embrace the concept of capitalism in a virtual environment. SOTA's other significant failure was one on technology choices. A peer to peer client server having security issues and more importantly the choice of Unity as the game engine. Lastly SOTA failed from a project management standpoint. Waiting to implement core technology such as a quest system until late in the game development cycle. Core technologies should have been fully implemented very early in the development process (alpha stage) rather than tacked on late.

    SOTA had a very dedicated and loving community willing to bend over backwards and excuse many red flags during development purely out of faith in the development team. The problem with such a dedicated fan base is that dedication can turn to hate and/or disgust if abused. I would expect a huge outcry of negativity from prior SOTA community members (rightfully deserved) if any of the SOTA leadership tries to develop and market another game.

    The fact is SOTA could still become an incredible game if value were added to property and rare items. Chris mentioned he has done everything to remove pay to win and profits from SOTA which is exactly why SOTA continues to decline. Embrace capitalism SOTA is yet another example of how socialism fails every time, even in a virtual world.

    I never fault anyone for failing unless they fail to learn from the failure. I fear little was learned in the failures of SOTA as I see no change to demonstrate otherwise.
     
    Cordelayne, Enfo, Dinsoo and 2 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.