“About half our player base is more interested in playing through the story than playing online!”

I think they have come a long way from say daggerfall....they go inside when it rains and work at forges and such....they dress themselves and they go to bed.

See the thing is they took a lot of these ideas from Ultima 7....that game is over 20 years old and no one has made that level of immersion since.

 

My post was in reference to this comment.

It comes off as if you didn't want those books in game, for single player online.

Your later comments you bring in the part about the devs incorporating those books into lore. I missed that part, my mistake.

I couldn't imagine anything a player, or group of players, do being incorporated into lore without being submitted for editing first. If the devs ad hoc feed us a scene that can go multiple directions based on the choices of the players. I can see that being used for later content.

 

Heh, I think you misunderstood me....I meant putting things they read in book, like say lord of the rings...and making an ingame city based on it and wanting that as part of lore...

I don't care about the books...that's just fiction.

heh, this got way out of proportion.

 

They can dress up as Ewoks and the POT owner can be C3PO praised as a deity. It's POT, do what ever, but what happens in a POT stays in a POT.

 

Man I tell ya, you got that right rune... fanatics abound. I just don't get it...why do people have to be so inflexible? Also, I just don't get the whole..."we own you because we love what you did <insert time period here> and by golly, we refuse to accept your right to evolve". Speaking just for myself, I didn't play games prior to my 1st MMO 20 years ago. With SotA, I find myself intrigued to explore the Single player option as well as playing on the MMO side. Seems to me there is room for everybody who WANTS to to be able to make THEIR home in SotA.

Hmmm maybe some peoples real fun is just complaining. That camp has certainly found a home here.

Maybe at the end of the day fanaticism will be found to not be a virtue

 

Unless you are THE Avatar then it's not fanaticism, it's enlightened.

 

And once that line is crossed there's no going back. Everyone is going to have his/her list of things to exclude from online or multiplayer game mode.

 

Not me. MMO all the way. I *might* dig into the storyline if a server fault interrupts the MMO side of things... unless of course the MMO content is so shallow I don't last.

 

I agree, what happened? MMO socialites took over

 

i wonder if they count folks like me on both sides of it... i plan on playing single player till finished, and only then go online.. (online for setting up my PoT with my guild, but nothing else until finished with single player.)

 

I'm here for the MMORPG aspect for the most part. This isn't the title I would have even entertained for a single player RPG, it wouldn't have even made my list. For the single player aspect there are far more compelling titles in the works with more interesting features built with bleeding edge gaming engine. On top that there is no need to spend a lot to get them. To be fair once the internet made true MMO's possible it confounds me that the single player RPG are popular at all, but that is just me. These statements may seem provocative, but it's just my opinion and I'm not looking to get into a debate about the merits of my subjective opinion. The secondary MMO aspect is good enough for me to invest and that is what really matters in context. Just stating for the record, to get it out there what brought me to this game.

When I upgraded just last week to the Ancestor pledge I was pretty disappointed to learn I wouldn't be getting the alt slots. As result I have some buyers remorse issues, because from my point of view I way over invested for a lot, house and few extra bank slots. The episodes mean next to nothing to me, what I really wanted were those alter characters for different configs when they are implemented. I guess I don't really understand why the option was removed from the pledge with lots of testing to be done yet. Alas that is another topic though.

 

the MMO part of the game is important. But it is exactly 1/4 of the game. the other 3/4 are single player offline/online and friends only online.

 

SOTA made a huge mistake in the roll out. Pricing for single player offline should be competitive with ALL other SP games out there. Pricing for the online stuff should be set higher due to the ongoing costs of maintenance and ongoing development. IMO, the offline price should be quite a bit lower than the online starter price. People who want the offline game only have not, nor should not have spent even one dollar towards this development yet. That is unless they want to donate funds to help. The huge gamble, of course is offering Online at a set price with no recurring fee or subscription. IMO again, a mistake, hopefully not a fatal one.

 

i don't think they made a mistake at all.

many aspects of the offline play will be using the same or similar mechanics as the online play, just focusing on a single player experience instead of multiple folks interacting. - they are still creating the game for sp when they are making the mp content too. i do not think they will be so different they are like two seperate games entirely. they aren't simply ignoring that mode entirely during this phase of development, we the mp community just aren't an active part of that phase of their development.

 

And THIS could be a fatal mistake. I don't think that single player fans want to play a game that is an MMO at it's core. They want a true single player game with single player mechanics. If SotA plays like an empty MMO in offline mode they won't reach many SP fans and those who already bought the game because of the single player mode might become frustrated, angry and feel cheated.
I think a huge part of the success of SotA depends on how the single player mode is presented, how it plays and how it feels. If it doesn't feel like a true single player RPG then the whole game may be in trouble...

 

What if it plays like a single player game with multiple people?

 

You mean in online mode?
That is the tricky thing Portalarium has to do right. SotA needs to play like an MMO in online mode and like a single player game in offline mode. But I cannot see how this will work without creating different game mechanics, different UIs etc.

 

All I have to say on this subject is that it's nice that you can do both. If you feel like playing with other people, you just go to online. If you prefer to play alone, well you just go and play alone. I really think it's great to have the choice.

 

MMOs are as strong as ever, stronger if you're just counting numbers of players. They are just distributed over far more games than ever before. There's a reason that the largest project in Kickstarter history is an MMO (and it's not just Chris Roberts), and add to that the commercial success of Korean MMOs like ArcheAge (which is now being developed for China, watch those numbers soar). FFS, even Sid Meier is getting into the act with Civ Online (coincidentally being developed by the same team that developed ArcheAge). No, MMOs haven't peaked, there are just more bad ones than ever before and the "early access" funding model has soured a lot of people. This project would never have achieved its funding goals as an announced single player only game. The psychological boost it got from the perception that it was the "spiritual successor" to UO (many players' very FIRST MMO experience) is incalculable.

There is no legal obligation to adhere to an original Kickstarter vision. People pledge their money knowing that they have no control over where or how that money is used, just a statement of vision. "Evolution" is not only tolerated and expected, it is actively encouraged by the crowd sourcing model, which purports to grant the very freedoms that publishing houses trample upon. The consequence of your hypothetical is the utter destruction of this team's credibility in the marketplace, not a breach of contract suit.

Single player games are enormously popular for the same reason that masturbation is. You can do it alone, any way you want, with zero commitment or accountability. Multiplayer games require interaction with other human beings and the creation of social contracts and conventions that are messy, complicated and often painful. Masturbation will always be with us, but no single player orgasm will ever match the ones that derive from social interaction. Humans are naturally social beings and anything that can be accomplished alone behind closed doors will always be far more exhilarating when shared with friends and loved ones. Long live the MMO.

 

Yeah. No.
That's not how mixed calculations work.