Release 33 Lot Deed Raffle Winners

If you live in or know of a PoT why not help that town and make it a resident use lot of some type. Helps give the PoT more substance. Sooner or later you may get to the point where folks enjoy stopping by in the PoT.

The town can find a way thru donations to help bear the tax burden. Meanwhile it stays under your name with the Governor co-owned. other deco folk set up as trustee.

 

A friend bought a taxable deed in the store. Now she wants to sell it because she realized the tax burden is more than what she can farm. I can not even offer her half of what she originally paid as a bunch of raffle winners are offering the same deeds now cheap. This simply sucks. I am a trader, I adjust fast with the market and I am sure I can find some way to even make a profit from this raffle disaster. But those who are loosing out here are normal trusting players who bought stuff with real money from the store and who are asking themselves why they spent $1050 on some taxable city lot deed that can now be raffled for a few gold pieces. And when stories like this and disappointments like this spread on the Internet it hurts SotA and all of us. Just do a Google search for SotA and you will already find a lot of troublesome stuff out there. We really don't need more issues of that type.

 

There was always supposed to be a way to get a deed in game. They haven't changed that. Just because you didn't know that before dropping your money into deeds you were guaranteed to get does not mean they changed things on you. If your going to speculate on things then get facts before you do it. The fault didn't lay with Port on this one. It lands square on anyone who is upset their deed is worth less because they didn't bother to learn what they were buying beforehand.

 

If it bothers u so much, sell off everything you have for big price increases as you do, and leave Sota!

 

That's more of not paying attention to what is going on before you make a purchase, seriously. Taxes have been discussed for quite a long time. No one knew how much it would be and it's been in testing for a while showing how it was, and how it increase. The information was out there. * shrug*

Also how about holding onto it until you can find a good use for it or afford it. These lotteries aren't going to last forever. There will be a end point. Sometimes one has to look a little further out.

Again IMHO

 

Everytime something like this happens, some backers do exactly that. I meet them when they come to our website and sell out.

I am bothered, because in the long run SotA will go down the drain if there is no respect for people who make real money purchases through the store and if the value of their purchases tanks before the game has even been released. You should be bothered too. SotA needs more players and more backers and more players making real money purchases, not less.

The implicit understanding of any crowdfunding effort is that the earlier you support the project, the better deal you get. At least until release/shipment you should not get undercut or devalued. A crowfunding project or game that disappoints this basic expectation from most of its backers does not only damage its own reputation, but it hurts the whole crowdfunding eco-system.

 

The disaster is that there are people out there doing nothing actually for the game but using it to profit.

This is what will drive more players away than most anything else. The fact that the game is being designed for those using it to make profit than actually play and develop the game, and yes it is happening weather actually intended or not.

These raffles and other move to actually return normal value to items is A W S O M E.,

 

Exactly.

 

The disaster is an attitute that totally disrespects the people who financed this game. Suckering people into parting with their real money, up to thousands of dollars to then laugh at them and ask for "returning normal value to items" which in your opinion seems to be close to free is deeply unethical. You are suggesting to screw most of the players who purchased expensive items in the store and crowdfunding effort for SotA by now turning around and giving those for free or for cheap to everyone who was not willing to support the game with such an investment.

You should also ask yourself who is actually contributing to a game:

a) someone who funded the development of the game with thousands of dollars since day two of the Kickstarter and who has since brought dozens of active players to the game

b) someone who just lately joined the game when the food has already been cooked and the tables laid, who then spent his time farming in some mines, put gold into raffle tickets and is now selling lot deeds for a dollar profit

A raffle that mostly rewards those who can farm gold the fastest in no way benefits the playerbase as a whole. While devaluing the contributions of people who financed the game it is still not encouraging any meaningful gameplay or contribution to the community in the game.

 

I've looked at your website, some example listings:

Twin Spires - We buy for 170, We sell for 700.

LotM Pledge - We buy for 8000. We sell for 15000.

Perhaps instead of selling to you your friend would be better off to list these things in the marketplace where people pay more than half instead of less than half?

 

Seems to me like he is just trying to inflame people so they will leave the game and sell to him so he can make money, instead of playing the game and enjoying it like so many others.

 

There we are again: someone doesn't like the truth of what has been posted and uses an alt to throw mud at the poster.

 

Most of the people who are going to leave (and most of those who already left) are not spending their time reading forum threads like this.

Instead of bashing the messenger for pointing out the inconvenient truth, you should take the actual issue seriously. Because, if you realize it or not, we are still sitting in the same boat here when it comes to wanting the backer community grow and not get disappointed and leave. The best way to do this is to make sure that this was the last raffle of this kind and that items won't get infused into the economy below store value, no matter if they end up being sold via real money, gold, raffles or other effort. No matter what the currency used, it shouldn't lead to a situation where then items end up in the second hand market for a fraction of what they were sold for in the store. Any future raffle needs to have a very different prizes to ticket ratio.

 

Or you could view this as a positive. More deeds. More people can own property. More enjoyment. More people will play. Your problem is you are looking at virtual property as an investment. I didn't buy pledges as an investment. If you are looking for virtual investments, might I suggest the stock market.
Your problem is you are wanting this game to be a virtual stock market that is intended to be a game!
Now if people manage to make money off of the game then congrats to them. All the best!

 

I agree and said as much before, but somehow my post got ignored by the relevant party It really seems like campaigning...

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the place anywhere deed market once all the NPC and PRT towns are uncloned. If folks were paying attention to the landrush, they'll remember that a ridiculously large percentage of backers either failed to place or just didn't bother... There are thousands of place anywhere lots still available. As for the POT deed market, it's a suckers bet as speculation goes... those deeds could be oversold 100 times and it doesn't even matter because Governors control placement.

I'm a backer that went heavy for the game, and I did it to play the game... and I think the majority of deep pocket backers are here for the game and the enjoyment of being part of this community. I personally don't see the speculators and resellers as a bad thing... they're everywhere in every market you can imagine. People shouldn't let themselves get all worked up because you see a house listed for 600$+; I'd be very surprised if they ever sold for even half that. The Twin Spire in particular always cracks me up... it's a cool house and all, but it's like everyone forgot it's practically as common as a Baron home because of all the free Twin Spires that came with POTs.

I dabble in the market but I don't have the stomach for what these folks are risking... I imagine right now all of the resellers are puckered for what comes next... some of these guys have websites, some operate in whispers... but one things is for certain - none of them have a damn clue about what happens next.

 

You seem to misunderstand me here and what I am really concerned about. As a pure trader with short term self interest I wouldn't post here. I would either quickly try to take advantage of the new situation or quietly sell out and not share any concerns with others until I am done liquidating.

I am actually posting here for two reasons: 1. as a stakeholder in SotA and 2. as a person whose concept of fairness has been violated.

It just freaks me out watching this madness happening. Even the most hardcore of hardcore SotA fanboys should realize how dangerous and damaging this can be to the long term prospects of SotA and the community. You can not fleece your whales like this by one day selling them a lot deed for $1050 real money in the store and then the next month you flood the game and the second hand market with deeds that you effectively make available at a tenth of that value/price. Maybe you can get away with this once or twice, as people are making mistakes. But if this is the attitute and if this is going to repeat itself, I am seeing doom, seriously.

 

Well. If you are seeing doom then maybe Sota isn't your game, oh I know lets have a spelling contest.

 

This is absolutely correct.

Maybe Portalarium don't want the high rollers anymore, they have their money etc etc...... sadly that is the only logical conclusion I can get to. I essentially 'wrote off' everything I put into this as a bad mistake, my confidence, trust and respect for Portalarium started to dwindle a while ago. All I see now is poor decision after poor decision and no real effort to put any time or resource into fixing issues and truly expanding the playerbase.

I'm proud to say that I will certainly not be supporting another kickstarter for the game unless things start to drastically change.

 

I laughed when I saw they gave away 600 POT lots.