Did anyone catch this news story?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Proteus Tempest, Apr 14, 2022.

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  1. Proteus Tempest

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  2. Barugon

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    There's a whole thread on NFTs where we've been talking about it.

    Also, Massively Overpowered seems to really hate SotA.
     
  3. Burzmali

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    Well, they aren't huge fans of titles that have difficulty delivering on promises, they can be even worse about Chronicles of Elyria for example.

    Also, few companies make it personal to the point that high ranking members of the team show up and lose a digit of their age in the comments, that'll earn you extra attention most places.
     
  4. Dinsoo

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    It is what it is, right?
     
  5. Time Lord

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  6. Dinsoo

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  7. Barugon

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    Here's a clue: don't pay for a game that hasn't released yet.
     
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  8. Dinsoo

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    Solid advice!
     
  9. Time Lord

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    For that, I will point to recent developments which have occured under our current staff which have done more for our game in the very short time they've been with us, than much of what we remember under Portalarium.

    Do you want Richard Garriott back or Portalarium back? I think they did a good job, but I also think they were getting burnt out a bit at the time, because they seemed to always have a hard time remembering what people came for and were asking about in all the interviews leading up to what became of our game under the Potalarium unbrella.

    Richard Garriott's creations and life has always had pioneering painted all over it in everything he's ever attached himself to. Pioneering new ways, new things and new adventures is a risky business where the critics will always cry foul because of their attachment to conventional ways.

    So,
    "what about the actual developers? where do ethics play? are we doomed to failure?" ... I will say, "we're doomed to risks in indi games".

    But I will also say that many players came here looking to "make money and not a game", which I think this new project is getting a scrutinized look for, or adding to that critical eye being cast here.

    There's also industrial forums combat which always happens around these type of events, from competing industry leaders and their own interests. The gaming industry surely doesn't want Richard Garriott or his friends upsetting things with another smash hit like UO... "that would litterally finacially devistate them".

    Ultima and Richard Garriott have a huge following, because he's a true legend that has constantly challenged the industry through his inovating ways.

    Always going where no other gaming developer has ever gone before:
    [​IMG]
    ~Time Lord~
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
  10. Barugon

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    I follow it religiously now. If a company desires funding, they can find it elsewhere. When their product ships then I'll consider it.
     
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  11. Proteus Tempest

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    He had a huge following but starting this new game gimmick so soon in my opinion is in bad taste. It to me is a let down. I'm not surprised that he IS doing it. IT's just to soon I think. He is making a big risk for himself and Starr. Garriott could lose a portion of his fan base.

    This is true. Many came to capitalize and we have all seen that which strikes a cord with this new game gimmick. IT just screams something wrong. NFTs? In days gone by NFT items were developers who made a promise not to make any more "rare" items. That was a NFT. Now the term is just a gimmick for entrepreneurs to try to buy and resell. This is disturbing really. It may be the popular thing right now but..... disturbing.

    I'm not sure this is possible anymore. Rich came in at a great time to make The Ultimas and UO and its been copied many many times. Can another smash hit be done to that degree?


    Another thing that bothers me is the current potential for CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Maybe not at a legal level but between Catnip Games and Shrouds player base at a social level. When Garriott is heading up a new company and can summon Spears to do his bidding it pulls MUCH attention away from Shrouds game development. Rich is still very much in charge then. Is Shroud truly on a back burner now? I feel like this is a conflict of interest to the player base and could erode away that fan base Rich has.

    This is concerning.

    Some time ago Spears talked about switching Shroud over to the UNREAL engine and converting all the items and going open world would cost like 6 million dollars. Inside myself I hope this new game is something that we could transfer to and our old pledge items would be the first NFTs. I'm not holding my breath though and I'm not dropping a dime on the new game. I'm kinda done with this roller coaster ride..
    In the new description of the new "gimmick" (lol) game it says some of the same things that were said about Shroud....... This could end so badly. :(
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
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  12. Rook Strife

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    Is it just me or does the new game sound like Shroud of the Avatar.... except a crappier version of it

    lol
     
  13. Proteus Tempest

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    Perhaps its a re do.

    If it is then, in my opinion the developers need to change their business tactics and not do what they did at the startup of Shroud and let us know whats going on. Many things were started when I joined at release 11, money spent and then the rules were finalized afterwards. Things were a bit bitter then.
     
  14. Ancev

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    If it's a re-do then do what crypto currencies do: fork the currency and give all of the existing SOTA players an equal stake in the new game. Not entirely sure what that would look like.

    I might move on from MMO's for awhile after this though.
     
  15. Proteus Tempest

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    Richard is likely.... In my opinion, trying to come up with that next best idea that will make a new great game or fix the last one.

    Grabbing the current popular things in society and adding it to his game.

    He doesn't need gimmicks.

    I think this is a bad moment to try this when episode 5 has not been implemented for Shroud.
     
  16. Time Lord

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    @Proteus Tempest , I do hear what you're saying here and many of the concerns are justified. I myself wonder how much overlap there will be in a sort of "copy paste" sort of way within the programing of it, yet we truely don't know what anything will look like or be or play like within this new project.

    I personally am calling for SOTA's initial aluring rays of sunshine that were assumed to be a part of our game get fulfilled, especially in light of this coming new project. I do think we already have seen steps in that direction within our fishing which I have no doubt will even continue to be improved, yet agricuture is lagging far behind and steps toward further astrology have been nonexsistant after the Sun and Moon magic got connected to it. These being the three core issues which took up 30% of developer's interview times before we got started, it's those issues which need addressing now, as these were what was to set SOTA apart from "all other games". They thus combined were to cause SOTA to be "truly unique" and not just another UO or Ultima.

    If SOTA takes the unique path which it was sold to the public by it's initial salesmen when they first began speaking to investigating reporters, SOTA could drag itself out of it's niche within a niche of a smaller niche and even more tiny niche than it has been dug into. If for instance, it takes the rest of it's skill trees and connects those skill trees powers to whether or not their associated planet were in the sky, then SOTA would take the lions share of a niche all to it's own, because no other game does that, and that's one of the premise that was aluded to during it's most early mentions.
    If they don't do that, I highly doubt that SOTA will survive. It's all a matter of being "totally unique or not", as it currently stands, it's not.

    Meanwhile, further into this, and what holds our SOTA back...

    Is it's Hale Bopp styled tech cult culture o_O...

    Our SOTA continues to be dominated by well meaning technocrats who thrive on a consistant flow of bland, unwavering and anti-wave functional data, who have slowly pushed our game into a niche of a nich of an even smaller niche, into a tiny niche of a market, where 20 people compare data of the last grind-fest under a microscope searching to see if any skill build or selection of cards in their decks had any slight advantage over the other, while waiting for the next spawn cycle to begin o_O Very well meaning they are, yet very blind they also are due to their data dominance addictions. Our world bending to them and not the other way around, they know all, tell all and also help all, because it takes allot of help from them to understand the world they, hand in hand with our developers, have developed due to these, niche of a niche of a smaller niche and even a more tiny niche of technolian ways. They are not bad people, they just know not what they do when viewed by the common dumb audience of the masses of us that seek to play video games while seeking to escape reality.

    :rolleyes: It's in this way, that we, lead by the technolians, are like a cult waiting for the next "Hale Bopp" to come take us away o_O... which this seems to be taking shape only due to the nature of our technolian overloards who are always on the hunt for the next "best thing", or in this case, "next best thing" o_O...

    The issue of "control" is at center stage here when we talk of who or what's responsible for how we got here. It's a psycological issue we battle here, a psycology of game design (we have had countless threads and arguments about this in our past), how it's not a democracy here, even if you paid to get here or backed the game heavily. It began as an autocracy, with Richard Garriott the Lord British himself at the helm, then, as our team shrank ever smaller, developed into an oligarchy of like minded technolians. Our oligarchy of technolians like what they like and they like to dominate through bland unwavering data as I mentioned before.

    We are a Hale Bopp culture with Hale Bopp ways. For instance, ask our top players what they are seeking and they will not say "New Britannia", instead they will say "challenge", and the next big challenge or new game that comes along and... :eek: "Hale Bopp!" :confused:o_O they are onward to meet the challenges in that new game o_O but they will return for a week or two when we release a new hunting area, or there's a new skill to dominate. Then after those two weeks of their return, they are then off to play another game as the challenge minded technolian nomads they are, while a few stay for the grind of very predictible data driven repetetive victories of their mastery in control and control issues, as technolians love "Order, not Chaos".

    When Technolians Rule, then the order of the day is "Order" o_O not Chaos... this is where the "sticking point comes"...
    I will say this as long as I have breath, because we paid to see these things happen;

    • Astrology
    • Agriculture

    [​IMG]
    But in particular, "Astrology".

    "A Ton of Chaos"

    When our panets rule our skill powers, we will have achieved what our game was touted to have and thus achive "Chaos". We invested a ton of development time and money, along with weeks in player time to get our planets to their current perfectly timed orbits, yet only use two of them in the way all should be attached each to their respective ruling skill trees. Yet it was here, that the technolians objected to this well touted SOTA unique feature. They, supported by our technolian developers objected, because it made balancing issues easier for the developers and orderly control issues easier for our oligarchy of technolian players.

    I remention what I've stated above to point out the "Hale Bopp" tech cult styled ways, inwhich tech people seek easy control, dominance and with the bulk of them who will leave us some day when the next Hale Bopp passes by.

    So I say, "point the finger back at yourselves, ourselves" for having allowed this to happen, or not happen, to be or not to be.

    and for all those old Ultima Fans of us...
    The Guardian has always been seeking to have us caged in order, under his rule.


    In real life, we have seen Richard Gariott the Lord British having fought with foe after foe who sought to take creative control of his games, which has lead to this life long quest of his, to find more creative new ways of funding video games, while not giving up creative control.

    The mark of a Technolian, is that they don't like Chaos o_O and chaos is what is needed to bring us into true uniqueness among all other games, no other has what was planned for here, which is/was "astrology", our connection to the planets and their dominance over our abilities. Balance and Order have become our enemies, having lead us into a bland niche or a niche of a smaller niche of a tiny niche, because we followed these Hale Bopp styled gaming cult members to where we are.

    They are not bad people at all. They are very helpful and now nessesary because we've been lead into their world where order rules and chaos is forbidden.

    We should point our bad fingers towards "ourselves", because we together did this or allowed it to happen, all in the cause of order, which is evil.

    "Hale Bopp"
    [​IMG]
    "Beware!"
    ~Time Lord~o_O
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2022
  17. Enfo

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    I didn't read anything you wrote but I've gotten lost in the time tunnels and did not have any teleport scrolls. It was arduous. You put in so much time to keep me lost you have my respect.

    If you wrote anything that says "chris is in charge, not lord British" I agree. If you said something like " the new game is releasing 1000 plots of land so expand your credit limit or else you cant play the new game to its maximum potential" then I also agree.

    Thanks time lord.
     
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  18. Time Lord

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    Chris is Lord British's Merlin, and Merlin was not always beside King Arthur. He spent most of his time with the dragon and his magic. Chris is ours just as much as he is Lord British's friend, and Lord British is also our friend. It's quite possible that due to LB's association with our game, that our game will see improvements due to this new endevor.

    Chris is in charge! All Hail Catnip Games! And... they have been doing a good job advancing our game. Chris is inspired by gaming itself, so it's of no wonder he would lend his talents.

    ;) It also helps pay the rent/morgage, so I don't bad him at all in that regard.

    In Chris and Catnip I do very much trust!
    and I also trust in Richard the Lord British ;)
    What I wrote above is meant to sting as well as tickle our
    Technolian Hale Bopp Overlords :confused:...
    ~Time Lord~:)
    Thanks Enfo :thumbs up:
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2022
  19. Time Lord

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    Similar, but not, a few artworks from whatever it is or whatever it's called:
    https://www.pcgamesn.com/ultima-online/nft-mmo


    It doesn't sound like anything I'd like. It seems to be apealing to those who want to make actual money, of which I'm doubting will be enough to justify the hassle of having made it, if you make any at all from it.
    Tax Evasion and cross boarder transaction laws could change without a player ever knowing, thus rendering something needing a resposible money and finance minded player who may not mind being caught up in any law breaking way.

    Sounds like you'd need a personal lawyer or CPA just to insure you're not arrested for owning land in the game.

    While anyone reading this may not think that's a real consern or something to be very conserned about, just recently here in Thailand YouTubers have been being confronted by Thailand Tax Laws, forcing many monitized bloggers to re-regester their YouTube channels either back in their country of origins or regester their channels under a Thai Spouse's name for tax purposes.

    My point being, this new tech, could become easily subject to more hassle than it's worth, especially when it comes to fun, because there's nothing fun about breaking tax laws when the tax man finds you, when that tax collector comes armed with a new enacted law, seeking to collect $1.00 worth of taxes from you because you didn't file or fill in the right blank on that country's tax forms.

    Here in Thailand that wasn't a bank breaker for some, but it was a very large hassle and much more hassle than the amount of taxes the gov wanted to collect from them.

    Even cross world transactions through ways as PayPal have become issues involving Gov hassles. Currently PayPal Thailand has ceased the allowing of opening new PayPal-Thailand accounts due to such international financial law change hassles.

    It's something to think about before thinking about "creating a business in a game", which this new venture seeks to encourage a player to do.
    ~Time Lord~
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2022
  20. craftymethod

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    Could have been a Sota 2.0 but things seem to be 'over the horizon on a different mountian' re this project

    Like Laz said, where's portal in Portalarium here?
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2022
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