A queston of judgment (re: reliquaries)

Thinks signed photographs has been better than reliquaries

 

I liked it. I don't know what a reliquary is, but I think it is a very creative idea. It is certainly something I would classify as thinking outside of the box, which is what separates the truly talented from the rest of the pack.

Cypher Black.

 

These were really not directed at us; notice that they have game access included. Sure, an existing backer could purchase them, but I expect they would like to get new blood (so to say) into the game.

If and when these sell, I hope they put a Red Cross type Make A Difference bundle together with the exclusive items, so they can be available to existing backers at a reasonable rate. And, like Cirsee said, to give this a positive spin.

 

This is actually a great idea that I could help you guys set up fairly quickly. Good PR.

 

I personally have not the slightest problem with it. It is his blood and if he wishes to auction it off by the pint , I say bravo. It is just an item equivalent to shrunken heads sold long ago, a carny would scoop it up in a heartbeat. In this day and age offense has become the edge of media rants. I pay absolutely no attention to them. To some they are squeamish, so it it more an issue. In this day and age where money rules, blood it seems is in high demand, especially Richard's.

 

Constantly judging everything just makes human beings unhappy. In the act of judgment, there’s a built in amount of dissatisfaction with the current moment and a desire to change how the world actually is to some idealized version of how you subjectively think it should be. If you want to suffer even more, focus on your feelings of dissatisfaction. This world is large enough for both people that enjoy blood reliquaries as art and people that don't.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

That's f***ing brilliant!

 

I doubt they felt an actual need to do this..

I could get behind this.

 

+1

Blood Bundle... do it... do it now.

 

Personally, I think there's far too much focus on PR aspects here.. either way. But if they want a blood donation drive I'm all for it.. not because it's good PR but because it would help people. I don't think Richard is driven by the PR machine and I don't think he should be. If people want to take offense at something that otherwise has nothing to do with them.. then that's their problem. There's no sense in dancing on rose pedals trying not to offend anyone.. for some people seem to look for things to be offended by regardless. Whether it makes any rational or moral sense or not.

No one person (and notably no kittens) were harmed by this. There were no ill intentions. Why beat yourself up over it?

 

I completely agree with OP.

This game has got so much bad press for several reasons........it really doesn't need a PR stunt going wrong.
To create the item is questionable in itself........to then ebay it as part of a package for $5k is just irresponsible. Fueling the perception of SotA is a rich persons game coupled with that is disgusting.

If Portalarium haven't got a marketing person, its time to get one. If Portalarium do have one, then it's time for a re-think. The last published numbers were shocking and stunts like this will not help anyone.

 

I agree, right up until the moment it potentially negatively affects the numbers of new customers. Which, by the comments on all those news articles? It has.

 

We've raised over 9 million dollars so far. I think we're doing fine without the armchair marketing team.

 

Church of the Dark Star - Not Darkstarr... And I have no interest in buying his blood. In fact in Discord yesterday I was asking "please don't do this". I couldn't watch. And immediately requested the permission to cast a protection spell on it should it sell. I am wiccan .. I know the negatives of blood magick. Those who practice have just been given the opportunity at a low price of 5k. I do not think it was for anything other then give people something unique, I do not think it was necessarily in bad taste. But it certainly is dangerous... For reasons that personally strongly believe in. Very , Very dangerous.

With that said, I feel badly for Starr - He looked very pale, very sickly from it. I may have said I wanted blood items in the game. I personally requested blood water in my lakes in Blood Omen Caverns - It goes with the theme and is at the Blood River. There is nothing wrong with this... It has a lore to it.

But in no way would I want his real blood. Digital blood items sure, fake, non invasive, non harmful and not dangerous (for reasons set above) there is nothing wrong with.

.......................

I would also like to point out that Richard Garriott has *always* been about finding the line and not just pushing past it but not even seeing it. He has killed children in his games, set up rooms that made you question his sanity and has taken different lines and burst past them like they did not exist. For this, I give him kudos.... Think game of thrones - Someone has to do it.. It is the unique and different ones that will be remembered... If they are talking about it... then it will be remembered. It is when you do the exact same thing as everyone else.. that they will forget.

So as much as I think it was even more then I would have done... and I have requested at least a protection spell be placed on it. I feel there was no lines drawn other then how queasy it made my stomach -- I Have no qualms about blood, but needles.. I can't watch!

 

Over 3 years........$9m is not a big number.

 

It's a HUGE number that many games never see, let alone a self funded game like this one.

Would I love to have 100+ million like Star Citizen? Sure. Could we do better? Yes.

But is the path to better through the opinions of random guys on the internet? Nope.

 

It's weird. And it got them in the news. I assume the goal was to get in the news.

People who take the news and say "I'm not buying that game because RG is auctioning blood" probably weren't going to buy it. I think a 5k auction for a game developer's blood is going to end up in a number of news places, and I would imagine the idea is those people then click back and look at the game.

The article missed that the virtual meat of the auction was the digital items. I already have a box of weird gaming stuff I've collected and could have put it in there if I was interested in the digital package.


Also FYI - the listing has been removed.

 

We will have to agree to disagree on what a big number is for a business of this size. I can't remember the exact numbers (if I had the time I would dig them out) but the growth of playerbase is absolutely appalling, the vast majority of funding is coming from the same people (not new ones).........reasonable to large sized backers are dropping like flies.......bad reviews everywhere.

Alarm bells ringing everywhere coupled with lots of red flags...........if anyone really thinks SotA is in a good place and that selling more items at crazy price (even ignoring the fact that most reasonable people would find the items themselves pretty disgusting) is a good idea......they are seriously deluded.

I mean seriously selling "art" that contains your own blood............really? Is Kanye West working at Portalarium now?

 

Thanks to the negative news people and others the listings have been pulled - http://www.ebay.com/sch/ragarriott/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Sad that you cannot do what you want without others crapping on your parade...

 

Why was the listing removed?