Weren’t these suppose to be sold and exclusive for early backers back in time?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Debcool, Jun 8, 2019.

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  1. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

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    Well, either Chris or Darkstarr went on record as saying that selling the prosperity tools was a bad idea since it verges on P2W. I guess bad ideas aren't as bad when you need the cash...
     
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  2. Fenrus MacRath

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    As a collector and potential reseller of said licit items, which I have cautiously and ardently squirreled away over the last several years, I am a touch butthurt by the vault. Some of my more high profile and vocal guild mates , much more so. After a long contemplation however, I think that Port needs to raise cash, badly to keep this game alive and out of the clutches of the evil software factories. I would rather they sell these items again than shut the doors and my digital treasure trove becomes truly worthless.
     
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  3. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    I feel that same pain o_O SOTA was gut punched (in my opinion) when whoever that adverting agency was, didn't deliver an advertising campaign which should have provided our game with a leg up instead of giving it a leg with a gimp :confused:
    I continue to feel flabbergasted of what little is known about that total catastrophe which has brought our game to this degree of what can only be best described as... "butthurt!" :( Your's, Mine, Our's and Theirs :(
    This is a real WTF moment when rare isn't always rare... :eek: they're not even slightly different :confused: They're truly strait out of the vault, because the real vault needs more money o_O~TL~
     
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  4. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    I understand why they brought back the Prosperity tools, and I can also understand the reason some existing owners feel burnt by that decision. What they really *should* have done was create a set of tools with no bonuses but indestructable. Some "Obsidian Tools", so to speak. Sell these on the Crown Shop as singles or packs.

    I'd be happy to have had these; when I need to make an important item, I'd switch from indestructable to my True Bronze/Heavy Iron tools. But for skilling up, or gathering in normal scenes, no bonus is necessary.
     
  5. macnlos

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    Did you seriously just blame the ad agency?
     
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  6. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

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    That'd defeat the longstanding goal of removing as much gold as possible through the crafting system. Remember, back in the day, when they were going to do the "fixed amount of gold" in the system they wanted for OU, but right this time.
     
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  7. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    Having more prosperity tools does this anyway, with additional issues of having some of the best available bonuses. The gold sink for crafting has always been the fuel cost, the tool cost is minimal at best.
     
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  8. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    (First off let me say that I'm a Portalarium Stock Holder who still has all confidence in the company and if they issued more stock, I'd buy more of their stock.)
    Beyond that :rolleyes: "this" :oops:

    You may know more than I do... what do you know? :D All I've heard is that no one saw the adds and that the targeting was wrong. Ad Agencies can be like that. I was once close to that industry and saw many Ad Agencies totally blow it when it came to delivery. One of the more notorious Ad Agency Scams which many engaged in (through my experiences with many of them), is to take the money and then spread it across media which provided a kickback or a family/cartel of false or misleading media. In our investigative unit they we called it "the brother-inlaw scam". The clients can't get the money back and can't press charges, because the money was spent advertising... "but just not anywhere where anyone would have ever seen it" o_O Ad Agencies can be the slickest criminals on the planet if they're engaged in such practices. "I'm not saying that's what happened in this case", but I'm also not saying that it wasn't, because so little actual information about that deal is actually known outside of those involved... and I wasn't involved, I'm just a player of our game.
    So...
    ?

    :rolleyes: From what I have heard, and through what I witnessed (which was never having seen any advertisements made), "yes", I blame the Ad Agency. Some are good at what they do, some are just "not" and that Ad Agency didn't deliver what was expected from them.

    @macnlos , do you know anything different?
    I certainly can't blame the game if the advertisements were never seen by anyone, unless you're suggesting that either the game isn't any good, or that somehow Portalarium intentionally shot themselves in the foot by giving money away to an Ad Agency they knew to be fraudulent.

    We have a good game in SOTA. It ranks high in many categories in comparison to other similar RPG-MMOs of it's same settling. There's no ethics in gaming journalism, so I can't quote any YouTube Review as actual news. They're blown in the wind when it comes to which side they're bread is best buttered and change their positions based on currents of future hypes.

    Portalarium and SOTA are survivors of an unfortunate Ad Campaign which through the agency themselves, was targeted to totally miss all targets within any audience who would be interested in playing an indy-kickstarter-croud funded-RPG-MMO.
    The game will and is surviving because it's a good game made by a great gaming company who can take a punch in the gut from a ruthlessly exploiting ad industry who will most likely be working for gaming competitors who's products are not indy crowd funded, if the Ad Agency was any good at whatever they ever did before for any other gaming company.

    SOTA will survive on it's merits, despite "hit piece gaming journalism" or any failed ad campaign. Portalarium will see SOTA through to Episode 5 without any doubt, because that's what they've said to us all, in a very confident "matter of fact" manner, unless they are picked up with a sweet deal by a larger gaming company, because there's always an "Oracle deal" ;)~Time Lord~
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2019
  9. redfish

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    Often times I think that the devs are missing those targets themselves, so personally I can't say where to draw the line on decisions made by Portalarium vs. by the ad agency. It was an awful ad campaign, though.
     
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  10. Time Lord

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    I have to agree with that. It's no "one thing" that truly sinks anything in SOTA. It's sort of like a collection of leaks which only holds a certain amount of players, but never satisfies all players in any single thing... for the exception of housing, I think that's really their strongest competitive gaming asset. SOTA is sort of like an "Off Broadway Play", which could never attract Broadway audiences enough to be a blockbuster.
    Not every game can be a Broadway play, yet still can be allot of fun :D
    https://www.pocketsandwich.com/
    ~TL~
     
  11. evillego6

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    Where are you getting that an ad agency failed to deliver? Travian, at least according to Richard, did the marketing, as is typical in publisher and developer relationships. At the launch party he praised the marketing plan as 'spot on' and was very supportive. It appears, at least from those public comments, that both Richard and Travian believed the plan to be a potentially successfully one.
     
  12. macnlos

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    If I contract someone to do something, like advertisement, then one of the first things I ask is a detailed plan on what the campaign will be. The second thing I ask is how and where in that process will I be able to see and review the progress and results. < = = = Didn’t sound like this happened. If it was such a massive failure then someone at Port dropped the ball.
     
  13. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    I know he praised the new videos that were created as part of the plan, but... it doesn't seem that very many people saw those videos in ads. If I hadn't been subscribed to their YouTube channel, I know I wouldn't have seen them.
     
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  14. evillego6

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    I'm not suggesting Travian isnt largely responsible, but some comments seem to suggest there is a belief that some outside advertising agency just didn't produce, for whatever reason. Travian had a financial interest in trying their best at marketing the game in a way they believed would produce success. It seems Richard liked their plan. Maybe they were all wrong and it was a bad plan, maybe Travian executed the plan poorly, maybe the initial results were poor and Travian decided they were throwing away money by marketing the game too early (as Chris and Starr have already said they were not ready for launch). Travian wasn't an MMO publisher, so it wouldn't be entirely shocking to find that they didn't effectively advertise. Portalarium entered that partnership by choice and was apparently convinced of the marketing plan. Even after it failed, in June or July, Richard stated in interviews they were looking to expand their partnership with Travian.
     
  15. evillego6

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    Travian paid Portalarium, not vice versa. They paid Portalarium for publishing rights and would receive a percentage of profit from European sales. As part of that agreement, Travian would have numerous duties, which included marketing the game, localization, and community management among others.

    @Time Lord : Sorry, I edited to elaborate which answered your reply below.
     
  16. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    Ahh! Nice to hear that!
    @evillego6
    Or maybe not so nice to hear. I do hope they sent some of their staff to advertising school, because whatever there is, isn't working (?) or maybe it is (?)
    I'm not seeing an up-side for Portalarium. Maybe it's the language translations (?)

    What I know is what I've had to search for and (as stated before) and you may know as well, "there's no ethics in gaming journalism", so I only see the propaganda without the facts.

    While I have confidence we're coming out of this slump, I'm seeing a vastly smaller amount of people on our forums and within my very large in-game friends list. "Yet I have been gone for a year".
    ~TL~
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2019
  17. Forum Name

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    While the discussion of who screwed up the advertising at launch, Port or Travian, is a interesting what if, I wouldn’t be so sure to think a marketing mistake is what is holding the game back to a small audience. That is an, optimistic, thought that marketing is one of top reasons, I reckon.
     
  18. Jens_T

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    Short summary of events from my understanding of Port's SEC filings:
    • Portalarium sold regional publishing rights to Black Sun (Russia, Eastern Europe) and Travian (Europe + X (Rest of world except North America + Black Sun if I recall right). They received up-front payments and a second installment
    • Travian also had full time staff working on SotA - at least one full time Community Manager but they were looking for project management staff and probably had some
    • Travian created several Game videos and a new website. They hosted SotA at the GamesCon and paid for the Go Live party in Austin. If I recall right some of the official in game events were managed by the Portalarium community manager.
    • Travian was the first publisher that sent out questionnaires to understand what the registered players were thinking
    • Portalarium didn't handle the transfer of players to Black Sun well - does anybody recall the IP Filtering and lack of customer service several players were complaining here? Not talking about arbitrage from different pricing
    • Transfer to Travian wasn't handled professional - do you recall the discussions about conflicting EULA, new registration, different pricing and what not. In the end nothing of that really mattered and we could keep our accounts.
    • There were Facebook campaigns and some PR. I do not know who paid or managed them.
    The fact that SotA doesn't seem to be able to hold players is IMHO not related to Travian paying a lot of money to fund the game and then "not do proper marketing". The reason is more likely to find in the game itself and potentially in the business model.
     
  19. Burzmali

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    Be fair, if SOTA wasn't the most aggressively mediocre MMORPG on the market they might have had something to work with. What's the marketing angle?
    • Love that early Elder Scrolls style combat? Tired of fighting monsters that react when you hit them? Try SotA!
    • Enjoy RNG crafting that rivals the early Star Ocean titles? Want your experience calibrated to a player with 3 alts that multi boxes 20 hours a day? Try SotA!
    • Enjoy questing on par with Ultimas 1-3? Get a thrill from racing through quests as fast as possible for that sweet XP reward? Try SotA!
    • Enjoy creepy dudes trying to involve you in fetish roleplay? Want the S & M dungeon to be the most fleshed out part of the game? Try SotA!
    Advertisers can only work with what they are given, if they have SotA in 2003, maybe they could have spun a decent campaign, but in 2018, that was a bit if an ask.
     
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  20. Time Lord

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    In Search of SOTA...

    Housing and land ownership are some of SOTA's top qualities, yet even those have been trashed through the gaming journalist critics stating that, "the land has been all bought up", which is totally untrue. That same false narrative still persists in gaming journalist's echo chambers and unchallenged through lack of any effective SOTA advertising.

    We need another round of pledges until all our E-2 land "has been all bought up as well", which is something strange to say while so many of our towns and cities still remain empty.
    We need new pledges.

    Thanks @evillego6 !
    ~TL~
     
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