Will you be part of a Kickstarter/Pledge for the next Episode release?

You...you can call it sex therapy? Why am I just now finding this out

 

When it comes to pledge rewards, Portalarium is in a real hard place if they do an Episode 2 Kickstarter. Many of us already have the Episode 1-5 rewards so they can't put any of that behind a paywall for existing backers. And at this point I'm not sure whether they will get many new backers compared to the original kickstarter. So besides housing, what will they be offering as pledge rewards?

To me it seems like they promised too much in the original Kickstarter - not an uncommon thing for such projects. For now though I'm mainly concerned with them getting a decent Episode 1 game out.

 

After coming back from SOTACON, I can firmly say this. No one on the Dev team is even considering E2 and it's, in reality, the furthest thing from their minds except to store possibilities for the future. Their only concern for now and until E1 is released is E1, period.

And it was confirmed that it has always been in the plans to Kickstart each and every episode. What the needs of those Kickstarts will be is undetermined and , again, not even on their radar.
As I stated early there is no viable point to this conversation. IMO.

 

My kind of guy I'd like my viking longboat to be fully functional one day so I can lead my crew to raid bandit and pirate strongholds Between tbe two of us, we should provide enough entertainment for spectators and bored avatars alike *toast*

 

I agree, they seem to have painted themselves into a corner, battling with even getting the underlying game right after some years (despite it not being that complex), let alone getting the first episode out the door...

Does anyone seriously think there's going to be an appetite, player wise and financially, for another four to come after it? I just don't see it happening, despite the fact some people are already paid up for 1 through 5.

Some people will, of course, declare me a heretic of the highest order for suggesting the game might not make it through all the episodes, but for those no longer wearing the rose coloured glasses, what do you think?

 

It would be like making a game...calling it say...Ultima I...and then coming up with 8 more after it. I mean nobody would play it after the first couple surely. Absolutely no market for that sort of thing

 

Ultima's, at the time, with each iteration were cutting edge. They were the best at what they did. Gameplay, graphically, everything.
The series was created by a rare special mix of people who happened to be 'almost gifted or born to what they did'.
I think that Origins grouping was a very very rare occurrence. It may not re occur.

 

Makes you wonder how a thread like this wasn't simply locked over a month ago. This and ''Population Concerns'' have more bumps and views than the rest of the forum combined.

They're basically both battlegrounds for the die hard fans who will back the game for nothing in return, versus the few people who just want the game to die no matter what it takes, and this thread is the perfect example of that because everyone in between those two can't possibly speculate whether they will pledge in the second kickstarter because they have no idea what the rewards will be or what the game will be like by then.

To allow this type of thing to continue just drains morale out of the entire population, including the mods and the developers.

 

I agree, but then again, what happens if a thread gets locked? People complain about censorship...

 

Make me a coffee. White, with 2 sugars.

 

Like it matters, those people will complain about anything.

If I make you a coffee then I'll have to make everyone else a coffee..

 

This is my opinion:


A Good made Game will speak for itself.

The morality goes up and down based on the quality of the Game and how many have fun with it.

Not based on the Forum Postings.

 

I used to play on this one UO freeshard that thought the same thing. The only moderator was the owner, and he had two developers. He was a roleplayer who didn't like to moderate IRC or the forums, so instead he just opened up a subforum for trash talk and let everyone go wild in there. For a while, there were two guys trolling eachother hard, until one day, one of the guys started posting the other guys IRL pictures, non stop, for about a week. Eventually he got banned, so he kept coming to the IRC and making new VPN accounts, to spam and call the owner names. In the end, with a population of 300+ the owner decided to shut it down overnight with no warning. All because of forum bickering.

Incase anyone hasn't figured this out by now, MMO's are community based. Community therefore plays a role in generating population. When people come and see pointless bickering being embraced at this magnitude, they tend to go somewhere else, especially when it costs them money to get started, because they want their time investment to be worth something in a few years, and not just deleted tabula rasa style. Know what I mean?

I guess my point is that, this is a new concept in a sense. It's a kickstarter game with millions of dollars worth of pledges sold and a decent size fanbase, so what we're seeing here is a ton of people who are basically beta testing. Normally, when beta testing, what you want to do as a developer is weed out all the testers who aren't really giving you quality feedback, and just wasting your time. But since everyone here paid money, you can't do that. You can't kick them from the game, you can't mute them on the forums, so what other options are there? I guess moving garbage threads like this out of the main discussion section? Nope, can't do that either because someone might call you a fucking retard for suggesting it. I swear, even if I didn't buy into SotA, I would still want it to succeed out of sheer appreciation for the Ultima series, so trust me when I say the most likely cause of this games downfall/inability to make it to a the first expansion will be fear of censoring low quality feedback and senseless bickering and then a(nother) summer launch.

 

HERETEK! Wait, wrong universe.

Well I would say it really depends on the first two (yes, 2) episodes.
The first one will get sold and played one way or another. A lot of much much worse games are still out there and survive. Even compared to SotA as it is now in it's unfinished state.
But if the second episode isn't TeH sh*t (in a positive way)... Well in that case I guess the second episode would be the last one.

 

We are not Beta Testers - We are Crowdfunders - Investors in a "Vision" - Supporters of a Idea.

I did not pay to be a Beta Tester. Never read that.
But i can play the Game and see if i like or not like what they are creating during development.


There is no need for any of us to Test anything. Actually it is nice that many are doing it.

But we can rightfully talk about if we should spend more money on the Game or not based on how it is currently performing in this game.
Some of us still took a risk of spending money , alot of money. And i respect that they invested money. And i respect that even if they only did spend 45 Dollars or 5 Dollars that this gives them a right to speak about the concerns.


That is happening on the Forum naturally.




Lets take your 2 examples:

The Population Concern thread was not created because someone wanted to be "negative" about the game and the people posting wan´t the Game to fail.
The reason is - The GAme has, even so it is Early Access - a low population.

And we all are smart enough that this Game needs a healthy player base to succeed. So we are concerned about our investment.

Simple!



Then this thread:

Why does a Gamer create a Thread: "Would you be part of a second Kickstarter Pledge.

Simple: He is concerned that he will not see a second Part - but it is a criteria to make a purchase decision or further invest into the Game.

Also this customer wan´ts the Game to be successful. Very simple.


Non of your examples is worthy of a "Negativity " Lock or "going against the Game".


And the Huge Participation in both of those Threads means either - some are having a wonderful discussion - or many are interested in the subject.

 

Actually DS & LB were astonished that there is even a thread about it. I believe it was DS that stated that no one on the team will ever respond in a thread like this. They also stated that it would be totally counterproductive to try to sign up folks for the game now because it's still needs a lot of work and they know how painful the starting process is for new players.

 

I am not sure if this is good news.

 

I think some wan´t to feel security that they will invest into a Game that will reach the 5 Parts. Nothing wrong about fishing in the Forum about others opinion about it.
But i understand that this does not require a Dev response.

But i understand where such a thread comes from. It is all about "shall i invest" or "not invest".

 

I think it is GREAT news IMHO, why go off on tangents about something that is not even designed yet and the foundation of the game in general is not done. Smart move. No energy wasted on what if's.....*shrug*

 

Well in my opinion that is all about PR and communication. Again. Port already had several communication fails. And this statement is, in my opinion, transporting the wrong message.
You can read it as: we don't care about customer concerns.
I don't read it that way. I understand what you and they are trying to say.
But try to explain that to the people in.... Let's say the SotA subreddit .
Beside: quite a few people aren't convinced that the actual deadline can be met. And we don't get a comment about it. Of course rumors are running rampant.