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Gold Crowns of the Obsidians

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, May 27, 2016.

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  1. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

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    hehe.. I fully intend to have one of those myself...

    Hmm what PvP pots might I visit???

    :)
     
  2. Solazur

    Solazur Avatar

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    Now to be perfectly FAIR.... everybody that cashed in at the 2500g price should do the honorable and virtuous thing...

    We need a custodian for all those ill gotten gains..

    I nominate.. hmm oh I know... ME

    EDIT: I just thought a wee insertion of levity wouldn't be a bad thing in this (at times) contentious matter :xD
     
  3. KuBaTRiZeS

    KuBaTRiZeS Avatar

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    The thing is, Crowns = Power. Why? Because Time = Power, Time = Money hence Money = Power; Money = Crowns, Hence Crowns = Power! Sorry for the false syllogism but it was too juicy to let it slip :D

    But i do think that Crowns = X*Power. And the beauty is in the X, because that means that i don't think the only way to powers are Crowns, or that just by having Crowns you are granted absolute power; what needs to be discussed is just much power they grant and how much they should grant, or the value of X. That's why i'm discussing against GCOTO as mandatory items for repairs, because i keep thinking that no matter what scenario you describe, or how sophisticated the game ends up being, in the end you can put in any situation a player wearing his "casual gear" and the same player wearing his "top gear" and the one with more chance of success is the latter. That's why if i'm being able to repair my gear more than the rest of people, i'm at advantage because i enjoy that extra power for more time.

    It's true that regarding PVP the risk must be acknowledged as well but the actual and most common risk is one of losing gold since we have the ransom system. Gold that will be available if the player bought enough crowns and sold them for gold. But that's not what worries me, because that's one of the shortcuts we were talking about. You can buy a bunch of GCOTOs and sell them to other players so you have gold to pay for your ransoms and have fun without having to grind it in single player in the first place :D The point is, still, that if you can allow yourself to wear good gear everytime, you will. And if you did, you'll be in advantage because if you'd fight against yourself in the exact same conditions but with poorer gear you would be, statistically speaking.

    I keep thinking that GCOTOs should be kept to buy convenience and swag, then leave other things like maximum durability repair to in game items, like strange mixtures prepared from rare resources, and applied by crafters. That way it makes sense, its another proccess from the raw materials to the final product that's dropped in the economy and people with GCOTOs have always the choice to buy one using the premium currency they acquired in the store.

    What i'd like to explore as well (and what worries me the most) is not why we are placing mandatory $ stepstones in the adventuring experience, but why we aren't focusing in convenience and swag. Most games have more than enough with that, and we have many "optional" aspects to monetize. Why not focus the monetization on the convenience elements? Things like alternative ways of housing, or character aspect change... Or if we want to talk about things that are already in game, we could monetize teleports, start on the overworld map from a scene after login out, and many other convenient things that people wanted to keep. Not that they make much sense to link a currency to that stuff... but neither has it linked to max durability repair :D
     
  4. KuBaTRiZeS

    KuBaTRiZeS Avatar

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    [​IMG]
    Bar'n Drocis! xD

    (Apologies for the typo. Don't know why the tag says Venkman instead of Budner :rolleyes:)
     
  5. Kytail

    Kytail Avatar

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    I don't agree with your sentiment in general, but you do raise a couple points that I can partially relate to. Partially.

    I, too, was under the impression that the budget they were following was more than enough to carry the game through to "the end" - being Ep1 and long into Ep2. I expected sales from Ep1+ to carry the game through to the release of Ep5 and beyond (if there's a beyond). I expected that they wouldn't over-burden themselves by committing to "too many new things" that were above/beyond the original Kickstarter promises. I would expect that, if a financial struggle were imminent, then simple "trimming the fat" would be in order; not necessarily firing people, but perhaps committing to less deliverables for release.

    Alas, my expectations have been someone shattered by a mere sentence:
    Anyone who knows my origin story in this community, knows that I came from Pathfinder Online (PFO), where they ran into a similar budget crunch. Granted, their model was entirely different from the ground up, but the fundamentals of their fatal mistake were potentially the same. The PFO devs/leadership were finding themselves a bit short on cash to see the project through to Release, and so they made some frankly stupid decisions (e.g. final wipe came waaaay too early!). In the end of that, I lost a large sum of Kickstarter investment to a game that will probably never release.

    So, seeing that sentence in the reasoning for making this decision to implement GCOTO... obviously would make me nervous!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 31, 2016
  6. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Kytail, Sinclair's post was removed, so the quote has been shortened.
     
  7. Xi_

    Xi_ Avatar

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    I feel the gaming industry is bubbling, and i fear it may suffer the same results as the tulip market of 1637

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

    and if Sota isn't careful they me be remembered as the game that killed kickstarter campaigns for games.
     
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  8. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    I was about to jump all over you until I got to the end of that sentence, @KuBaTRiZeS. :)
     
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  9. Sargon

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    This is getting a bit off topic, but I fear one big mistake that was made was giving away too much content in the pledge packages for little added funding. Specifically, the inclusion of all five episodes at a somewhat reasonable pledge level felt a little unnecessary and limited the potential revenue from future chapters. I fear the next "revolt" will be when Kickstarter #2 is launched, where Portalarium tries to encourage existing players to back the project again for content that technically was already included in their original pledge package. That is completely hypothetical, since there hasn't been any confirmation of additional funding campaigns, but I won't be surprised if we see that happen. It remains to be seen how many times they can go back to the well and obtain funding from the existing customer base. That customer base is obviously a very loyal one and has carried the project a long way, but ultimately something will need to be done to improve the perception of the game to prospective new buyers. I don't know what that answer is, but additional micro-transactions probably won't help move the needle in the right direction. It becomes a tricky proposition to balance the need for current funding against what that funding method means for the perception of the product as a whole.
     
  10. Gideon Thrax

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    I don't mean to derail the thread here - but something to consider is the cross promotion that SotA has going with Star Citizen... if Star citizen would hurry up and award the SotA inspired crossbow to its players - that would generate some pretty incredible buzz for a million or so MMO gamers.
     
  11. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    Timing :)
     
  12. Kytail

    Kytail Avatar

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    (sorry to be off-topic again, but I'm pretty sure PFO already took that title - especially considering in 2013 they were, "the 20th project to raise a million dollars on Kickstarter and the 10th most funded videogame project of all time.")
     
  13. Sentinel2

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    So after nearly 50 pages of reading, the one thing I rarely see posted is how WE would have done it better. Is there another way we can approach this? How can Portalarium make money to be sustainable and grow? If not with COTO then how? Personally I'm not sure they are a good idea however I'm withholding judgement until we see the end result.

    Honestly I'd love to see the coins replaced with something that makes more sense for a 'repair durability' recipe.

    So with everything said, how can we make this happen? I'm guessing we've invested all this time, effort and money into a game we want to succeed. There have been a couple posts here and there in the thread suggesting alternatives. If not COTO then what?

    Mature responses appreciated :)

    (and no that's not a slap on anybody ::grinz:: )
     
  14. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    The most common suggestion has been some form of non-essential, voluntary subscription.

    The problems I see with this are:
    1. Portalarium has said that there would be no subscription... Though I believe there would be some wiggle room if the subscription were not required to play and was fluff alone.
    2. The bigger problem to me is that a subscription (presuming that it would award fluff items regularly) would require ongoing development overhead which would either increase operating cost to implement and maintain or slow the pace of development, enhancement, and issue resolution. Either option is counterproductive.
    Personally, #2 would be a larger issue for me. An optional, fluff subscription wouldn't offend me in concept.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2016
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  15. Moiseyev Trueden

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    I'm curious if they actually adjusted the add on store prices to be more reasonable (which could increase their sales as it would be easier on people's pockets and that definitely brings in more spontaneous purchases) how that would adjust their projected income. Unfortunately, it seems this is the way they decided to go so we will have to wait and see how it hurts/helps/affects things in both the long run and short term.
     
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  16. Skyo

    Skyo Avatar

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    Just do a subscription model. Any mmorpg player is down with it. Who seriously can't come up with 14.99 / mo..... Be trendy and launch it as a SAAS model.
     
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  17. Lord John Whorfin

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    Personnaly i'll pay everything it need to keep this game viable and live LONG LONG time same as UO does. But god please never go to a Pay to win kind of game. Right now i dont think personally COTO are a P2W style, but its close of the line. I believe in the team and i trust that will never go that way. But i really hope i'm right. Most of us (people i know ingame an i) i pledged a lot of money in this game cause its a pay to play. and we'll continue to spend money in thing in add-on store.

    I personnaly think a monthly subscription is a great way to assure a minimum of income, and like some people thing, probably 95% of us will be happy to pay a subscription VS look this beautiful game become a Pay 2 win. I'm sure the dev team already think about alot of solution and i trust that will go in the good way.

    But just want to tell my opinion: I dont thing COTO is a P2W style, but we dancing close the of the line, and i've not pledged that much to see a great game become a pay to win. I hope that will never happen.
     
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  18. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    you wanna come up with something that doesn't punish the non-griefers who flag in order to rez their pvp party members in friends-only instances?
     
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  19. Noric

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    Subscription model games have a problem with adoption rate these days, even if they do fine with retention.
     
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  20. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    Not an option.
     
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