Time away from Sota

~"Agreed, But Apocalypse How? For Now, SOTA's Ability to Remain in Orbit is Just Fine With Me"~


No game made in the last 5 years has lived up to it's hype I think it's just the nature of games and it's only the rare ones that truly make any groundbreaking impact. There's just no "end all be all" in gaming, much less in crowd funded gaming.



The way I see it, hype comes and goes and the better games have returning waves. The crowds may run away in horror from single game playing burnout, or even over toxic interaction with other players... it happens, but there's also something about the games and communities we return to that doesn't go away because we "liked it". We may not have loved it, but we liked it or it's conceptual dream it presented to us and we want to check back in with that dream we all bought into. We weren't fooled and we're still not fooled. We've been arguing and dumping on this game of ours ever since I can remember and I came in directly after KickStarter.

During my resent time testing the new player entryways to our world, it's been rare that I've been there and found myself all alone. There's always someone there with their new character, or they're a new player playing for the first time, but the point is, that they are there in a quite steady flow. That to me indicates re-enforcement to what I've already stated, that there's something that still draws us to our SOTA gaming title... Even though I play in the Asian time zone, there's always someone or some new character there entering our world for their very first time.

We're free to play now, which means that kids and adults who can barely afford a computer will be searching for our game to play. Asia continues to be an emerging market of such players as their countries continue to establish more middle class income levels for their people. We're a sophisticated game, meaning that people of all ages can come play, yet most of us are of the upper age brackets, and as those middle income levels rise world wide, so does their age and expendable income levels. SOTA is here to stay, maybe not in the AAA ratings, but it's based on what some consider old tech/graphics and such, yet that's what I call familiar surroundings reminding me of where I've felt most comfortable in online gaming.

Then there's current events which are dragging down the entire industry as a whole. I have one of my own real life family members who holds down 3 jobs just to make ends meet while a maniac rules the world right now, where only those that have can afford more than free and have the free time to enjoy something more than just a first shooter shoot'em-up game which can either be played for a short time or a long one when they want to escape our real world's insane leader's madhouse. Currently there's a gaping whole in the middle class of largest gaming market share on the planet and we still have years to go if we hope to rectify that situation and recover our game development funding bread basket again.

We're not the only game with these same problems. There's not a game title out there that's not feeling the burn right now because consumers don't have the time or the money to do much more than they can squeeze out of their current concentration camp/gulag financial lifestyle.

Aim High, Hit Low, or with luck sometimes we can hit the middle, SOTA still hits high in a few areas with the rest of it's underdeveloped content hitting the low mark. Most isn't hitting the high mark, but it is hitting the target which is reflected in the number of players that can be seen entering into our first instance scenes. Even if those are returning or veteran players, it shows a dedication and a will to restart a character from scratch to make a personal playtime commitment.

To name a single gaming title that's crowd funded and has a thoroughly satisfied player base right now is almost impossible, because they're all coming up lacking, all in their own ways.
But there's no doubt about it, "our quests currently seem like they're made by the Hoover Vacuum Company" and there remains allot else yet to be improved on in our game.


~Time Lord~

 

To answer your question, I will simply point to the draft R66 release notes that Darkstarr posted on these forums:

• Path of Love: To promote the most polished aspect of the game we now send all new players to the Path of Love versus a choice of one of the three paths (Truth, Love, or Courage).
• Path of Love Starting Area Polish: We did a polish pass through the Isle of Storms, Battle of Solace Bridge, and Solace Bridge Outskirts. We improved conversations, journal entries, NPC barks, quest data, compass markers, placement of world objects, the manner in which Kinsey points players to nearby quests, and the manner in which Edvard recognizes his escort is complete.

Release 66 Instructions Feedback Post

If they are still polishing these starter areas, and forcing all new players back to the path of love, then no, I would save that quest reset.

 

I like how you edited that first pic using panels from Elite Dangerous by the way. The problem with crowdfunding is how everyone pictured it too. Others pictured it like a single player game online, others as multiplayer game online and others as mmo. That creates different expectations from the start and different focus. I seen in the forums a few months ago someone saying SotA doesn't need a quest and storyline system and go without like other sandbox mmos do - while others played SotA mostly for story. Then again there is always some that like everything - a variety - like me.

There is a general consensus in the net that every single mmo released last 10 years or so didn't live to the hype. While it is partially true that many were copying each other and we had reached a point that all games felt the same we did get some variety with crowdfunding(with less polish though) despite all the negatives crowdfunding has for both the client and the developer. The harsh reality is we changed too, we are older(average mmo gamer I found in early 00s was in early-mid 20s with a lot teens playing too), and older people is harder to get hyped as they seen a bit of everything. Our first mmos also had the hype of exploring a new gaming type, socializing while playing a game along for first time etc. Also by nature when we were teens or on early 20s we were far more open to talking to "strangers" in games and making friendships so we had a lot more active friends in lower populated games. These feelings remain always in memory but they cant be reproduced as we were first-timers. Unfortunately that overblows our expectations when starting a mmo - it did mine as well but I came to realise it over time. So if we talk strickly on hype I don't expect any future mmo to live up to hype and more importantly keep a lot of hype along its lifespan. Its one reason you see lots new ones start with a big population before dropping to a fairly low but loyal playerbase amount.

But that I don't get the ultimate hype doesn't mean I don't enjoy a mmo, especially if my expectations are realistic

 

Well said @rebbieforever ... and we all reach a saturation point at some time or another where we're just not going to get that new game high without living in Colorado ~TL~

 

Spot on

 

Some interesting game player data...

~TL~