Trust and Doing the Right Thing (regarding Early Founder Pledge Gifts/Transfers)

I got a couple referrals built up (not from gifting) and with me upgrading with this gifting $40 to get a Founder account, I was over the Knight's level. I decided that for the extra amount that Lord was possible. So it does work in generating more funds for the game.

 

Someone who was planning to upgrade their pledge level could "sell" the $40 founder upgrade for $30 (losing $10 but gaining the $25 referral bonus) and actually give every 4th gift pledge for free and still come out ahead.

#1) Purchase $40 gift pledge, sell for $30, receive $25 credit = total: -$10 cash, +25 credit
#2) Purchase $40 gift pledge, sell for $30, receive $25 credit = total: -$20 cash, +50 credit
#3) Purchase $40 gift pledge, sell for $30, receive $25 credit = total: -$30 cash, +75 credit
#4) Purchase $40 gift pledge, GIVE FOR FREE, receive $25 credit = total -$70 cash, +100 credit ($30 ahead towards purchase of next level)

I considered doing this as a benefit to the community, but this "doing the right thing" issue has somewhat rocked my previous fixation on upgrading my pledge. I really wanted a hunting dog, too, and was planning on trying to talk some friends into the game but again ...

 

kind of a lot of work seeing how there are plenty of people who want to spend the actual cost of $40 cause they don't want handouts. And if you want a dog... get a dog. Then once you get the dog, feel free to invite your friends to the game because in the long run, the more people the better.

 

Wow, I probably should have skipped Kickstarter and just waited.... This is an annoyance for me, but it's not the first thing Portalarium has changed up after I've thrown my cash at them; bundling the prosperity items comes to mind. Don't tell me, next you are going to jump on Steam and offer the game for $19.99 with full Beta Access? Is the stretch goal with Lord British and Darkstarr going to turn into thumb wrestling after the goal is reached?

I have been supporting this game as heavily as I can, but I'm not feeling inclined to give anymore for the time being. I'm not so trusting as I once was....

My two cents.

 

Thank you Dallas. I think the point of contention is actually the decision published in this update then, and everything that occurred after that is moot, because the Kickstarter, which promised "Kickstarter-only" rewards, was funded, locked in, withdrawn from bank accounts, and ended on April 7.
X

 

Classy, upfront, and to the point. Thank you for continuing to show great leadership for this game.

(And squee moment getting called out by Dallas. You guys rock, sir

 

I feel that everyone who contributes to the game before its release is a "Founder". Everyone on this forum is helping make this game into a reality!

 

Its a little sad to me that they will continue to promote these practices as 'working as intended', however I appreciate that they took our concerns and considered them and clarified things for us.

Thanks Dallas.

 

Thanks Dallas, I hope everyone can move on from this now and focus on the game That's what we're all here for, to be part of the making of the Spiritual Successor to The Ultima Series.

 

$ ~Trickle Down Foundernomics~ $

By using this system, some one that I haven't ever personally met sent me a $50.00 USD gift Founder gift account !!

Because of M'Liege doing so, I just upgraded that founder pledge account to Knight.
I will keep my original pledge benefactor Ancestor account and upgrade it to Citizen, then gift that account to my Son for Xmas 2014, as well as sending 2 other new accounts for my grandchildren to join us in the fun.

I live on the other side of the Earth from my extended family, yet by the generosity of my un-met (anonymous) Founding Gift LiegeLord, "That person made all this possible for me and my family" and to that I will always be beholding to them...

And thus Portalarium will pocket another some (haven't figured it all out yet) maybe $970.00 more than they had when I first pledged as benefactor.

Thanks Portalarium... and THANKS My Founding Liege Lord
~TL~

 

@Dallas

First, I would like to thank you (and the entire development team) for allowing us to participate on the journey; I have no doubt that this is going to be a great game.

Second, let me say that I am stoked that other gamers can get the same benefits as founders. This will make their gaming experience more complete (I know I would want that if I showed up to the party an hour late). I think keeping your promise from the final days of the KS campaign for gifting pledges is also a huge plus for the game (just check out the delta on how much has been raised in the last 5 days). All I can say is @DarkStarr better practice his fencing (just kidding, I know Lord British will take it easy on you).

I know you had the best of intentions and I would never think anything otherwise however, I feel as though my identity has just been taken away. I feel that supporting during the KS campaign no longer means anything. I have nothing left to show that is uniquely tied to the fact that I was a kickstarter, not even an emote, not even a cloak, not even a pet. Yes, it was probably my own misunderstanding about the pledge gifting and reward structure, but I firmly believed that kickstarters would be able to identify themselves in game as a KS supporter.

I have no clue how popular of an idea it would be, but personally I would love something as simple as an emote for the purpose of maintaining the KS identity that many of us have held onto since the beginning of the project.

With kind regard,
Koldar

 

I no more wan´t to be connected or named a founder or a benefactor.

This has caused me, and many others to much confusion, false expectations, unnesessary discussion , accusion and false statements.
I just wan´t to be a supporter.

I urge Portalarium to move even further and remove all and adjust all to only be "Supporter" of the game prior to release.

I urge Portalarium to make all Rewards available to everyone till the end of the year.

This will make it shure that nothing wrong happens anymore.

I have walked in these founder shoes long enough. We had tensions Founders Knights Houses vs Benefactor Knights Houses.
We fought unneeded battles because of Lots Priority, unfair treatment , to high cost, getting to much compared to others and this will be ongoing.
Everyone cries out of not beeing there in time, missing out to pledge , wanting to be a founder...


I say good bye to it. Hate those Founder shoes. Feels like some shoes i do not wan´t to be in anymore.
Feels like , look at him, he wants to be special and is complaining if he does not get it or can´t read.
That is not me.
Throws them into the corner....

Runs out barefoot like a hobbit and feels free again!!!!

I am a Supporter, that is all i want to be! Period.

All the rest you are doing is awsome. And i stand behind the project.
Having a great time. I love the community how it is involved.
There is so much more interesting stuff you are doing then the pledge rewards and status you get. Back to helping Stephen find out how to make the Imp.

Much easier to have fun if you do not expect anything to be a award for a special group or date of time that had been set.


Closing this founder- benefactor book.

 

Dallas, I'm afraid your posting made my feelings even worse and confirmed my guess that Portalarium will tell us with flowery phrases that you do not give a damn about our disappointment. And that's not the first time but prior I have been shocked about it, this time unfortunately not. You, Sir, could truly be an advocate (or maybe actually are one) or a politician. But I think you have overlooked one thing:

I pledged on Mar 10 2013. End of Kickstarter funding campaign was Apr 7 2013. So Apr 7 2013 was the dead line to cancel my pledging. At this date I didn't know and wasn't even able to know what would be communicated after this date. Maybe you communicated the "feature" prior to single members of the community after they requested it but there wasn't an official information for the hold community.

Maybe many of us didn't realise what the statment on April 9, 2013 really meant for us (although I'm still of the mind that this hasn't been revealed clear enough as there were several announcements telling us things like "Kickstarter only"). But there is no doubt that this statement was made 2 days after Funding and Kickstarter end and not before the end of the funding dead line.

Maybe you have made further promises to single members in an unofficial way before end of funding dead line or officially after funding dead line. There still is the fact that I pledged and helped funding against the background of these tiers being just for backers that pledged during funding campaign and just for their own use.

So what you tell us is that prior "promises" aren't of value any more if there have been others in an inofficial way or newer ones later?

 

Thanks Dallas your a top bloke appreciate the update I can't imagine that was easy to write.

I've seen a number of complaints on the forum to upgrade all accounts from Benefactor to Founder, well I'm against this as it goes against what was promised to begin with. What was promised has been outlined by Dallas already in this thread and I have no complaints with this as I've been happy to see some of the people I've come to know on these forums get upgraded from Benefactor to Founder and I feel rightly so considering their passion for this project. These are people that are following SOTA's progress constantly and have been an asset to this project from the moment they heard about it promoting it, offering advice and providing a pleasant community to be a part of. As a Founder I have been given the right to reward these individuals and while I wouldn't upgrade just anyone there are many on here I would be happy to provide such a service and a few that I would even go so far to fit the cost out of my own pocket.

I think there are a few backers that simply see this as an open door in which everyone will receive founder status which they feel waters down their original pledge.
So with that I just thought I should point out a couple of things in case people haven't noticed.

SOTA currently sits at 65,759 backers pretty awesome for a crowd funded game.
We recently saw the Market Place Forum open up where founders are upgrading benefactor accounts, now with this I thought I'd do a quick tally as to how many responses we got from that.
In total it was: 123
So in a player base of 65k we have 123 responses, arguably we don't know for sure how many accounts have been upgraded but with these numbers I hardly think it warrants an upgrade of all accounts to Founder status nor does it greatly diminish the prestige of the founders pledge.
In addition to this this service will only be available for about 60 days and after that it's done.
There are already 22,322 Founders in the game so does it really matter if a few more are granted this bonus would you even be able to tell once the game goes live, would you actually care?

This is a new process for the Dev team and this is not uncommon for situations like this to arise it's one of the reasons why development is done behind closed doors.
We are all individuals but from my perspective I enjoy reading and seeing how this is all being constructed and while I don't agree with every decision the developers make I'm happy to take the good with the bad.
There is simply far to much to like about this game to dwell on some poorly deceived ideas or decisions that may occur, sometimes I think people need to look past their grievances and focus more on the positives.

 

+1

+1

+1

+1

+1


The Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go.

(Friedrich Schiller, Fiesco’s Conspiracy at Genoa, original: "Der Mohr hat seine Arbeit getan, der Mohr kann gehen.")

 

Thanks for the post Dallas. I didn't realize people were still able to become founders until lately when it caught attention at the forums.

I've been proudly backing this game as an early founder and felt like my supercool keyboard warrior status was threatened by this. But after having slept over it, I can't be bothered to worry about this. Some people wanted to gift founder pledges, and they are doing so - if it helps to fund the game, that's good. *shrugs*

Bring on R3.

 

@Dallas, in an issue akin to the Judgement of Solomon, this is a clear explanation of the why, looking to provide as positive an outcome as possible, thank you also to DarkStarr, no easy choices here.

As someone who previously backed a game in development that never made it to release I feel that one has to expect and accept changes during the process. Absolutes promised early on often have as in this situation a real cost in goodwill later when you are in the detail trying to adjust your targets to meet a goal that was hypothetical and you are at the point of making reality. The more backers and thus money the less niche the game will be and that is a good thing. Perhaps the answer for early founders who should be recognised for that early faith and the risk they took, is an in-game dated plaque that recognises their early faith in SotA to display above their hearth or door, for those without a place, perhaps something similar that can be displayed on a weapon, a unique rune, something like that.

For me, the less tiers the better, anyone at this point is still taking a chance - I say this after taking over an hour to work out how to craft a chair.

+1 kudos Grayhawk on the very cultural referencing!

 

They can use many pretty or legal words. We know what we (some of us) feel, we all know (even Portalarium) how the pledge system and rewards works, and we know what they broke, is very simple. If you can accept it or even you like it is ok, but is normal that other people feel not "that good" with this. Is not the first time that they do something "weird", but is the most serious and worst one for me.

Some people that are claiming here are not doing this to make a worst game, they made it possible and they were since the very first day making a better game.

 

I can accept the unending ambiguity of the community fundraising process. But let me point out that we now have a three tier community: kickstarter founders, benefactors, and gifted founders.

The resolution of the ambiguity only benefited the last group. I am not saying that there should be no gifted founder level pledges - I didn't sign up to control the process. I am only saying that it might be worthy to consider how resolution of ambiguity can benefit those who have been here from the beginning first, then benefactors, then newcomers. Such I think would be a respectful nod to your early supporters while continuing to unfold the fundraising process as you wish.

 

I second what Vyrinor proposed.