Just Give it Away

I love this game and have two accounts, each with the Season 2 add-ons and subscriptions. I have played all the MMOs out there, past and present. SotA is my favorite, hands-down. I am an Ultimaniac going back to Ultima 7. For whatever reason, SotA doesn't seem to have taken off like a rocket. I am honestly shocked by that. I don't know why not. Maybe it is a lack of advertising or maybe it is just that younger gamers are looking for something more like Fortnite.

I have no idea what the true state of the game is. There are pretty much three states to any MMO. Either you are growing which allows you to invest more money in the game with massive changes and new updates. Or you are dying, with sparse updates that mostly address bugs. Or you are somewhere in the middle, with just enough money to pay the bills and make periodic updates.

My feeling is that SotA is in the middle. I don't feel like it will shut down any time soon, and they are definitely updating it. A lot of the updates seem to be either small things or new areas. These are things for existing players and won't necessarily draw in new players. The best we can hope for is that the game doesn't shut down any time soon.

With the proper funding, I think SotA could become a top 3 MMO. Some polish like cutscenes, more character creation variation, maybe new species for character creation, more story content, etc. I am sure we all have a list of small and large things. There are a lot of companies that would be able to invest a lot resources in the game and it wouldn't affect their bottom line much. Catnip is doing what they can with the resources they have and they are doing a very commendable job.

If it ever gets to the stage that the game just isn't worth it for Catnip any more, what about selling the game to a larger developer for a $1? I originally thought EA would be a good choice. Say what you want, but they helped to give us Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. They have the Ultima library and have supported UO over the decades. I would think they would at least take a stab at growing SotA and turning it into a 3D UO. They would have to find the right developer.

Or you could sell it to Microsoft/Bethesda, or any number of publishers or developers. I would think there would be a lot of companies out there that would love to be handed a game to see if they can make something out of it. Big companies could afford to gamble $5 to $10 million on advertising and further development.

 

You mean younger gameRs in your first paragraph, right?

 

Thank you. I updated the post.

 

If you delve deep into the forums you'll find a vast collection of reasons why didn't SotA take off like a rocket.
If you watch some YouTube reviews you'll understand why players will quit in their first couple of hours too.

These issues weren't tackled as hard as they needed to be (at least in my opinion) and the early game feels like half baked to regular / casual players like me.

The mainstream audience, unlike Ultima hardcore fans, won't generally stick to the game for too long.

 

Although I wouldn't want to see SotA go the route of other MMOs where they are all mindless action, I do agree it needs work. That is my point. I think it needs more polish than Catnip can reasonably do. Let's say the player base is either steady or is slowly shrinking. Catnip can either target existing players in the hopes they can slow down the exodus, or they can gamble on attracting new players at the risk of expediting the migration of existing players. Catnip doesn't have the resources to take a gamble, but larger developers do. I think a larger developer could add tons of content, more features, and find a way to keep the soul of SotA alive, while mainstreaming it. They could also absorb a misstep or two without folding. As long as Catnip is making money, there is no reason to give it away. But if the day ever comes that it is time to turn off the servers because they couldn't find any buyers, I hope they really do consider either selling to a large developer for $1 or releasing the source code and most of the assets. Only sell it to a developer who can invest in. Don't sell it to someone who is going to lock it away, never to be seen again.

 

Transferring an online asset is always beneficial; take Twitter for example.

 

The question is a little bit moot, as Portalarium did try to sell off the game. There were no takers.

 

Yes, there was. Portnip... Catalarium...

 

There were no takers at whatever price they were asking. They were probably trying to recoup all their money. For $1? I think they would find plenty of takers. What medium to large size developer wouldn't take a free property and try to make something out of it? Either that or just release the source code and assets. After all, it was all created with community money.

I would think the community would concentrate on the single player aspect and turn it into something more resembling Ultima X. I like the story of trying to resurrect the Avatar after his "death" from merging with the Guardian. The original story for Ultima Online was that the Avatar created UO in his mind. The Avatar was counting on each player to follow the path of virtue, there by giving him strength to overcome the psyche of the Guardian. Players could also choose the path of chaos and the Guardian would win. You could strip out the multiplayer aspect of that and have it be a straight "choose your side" RPG. If the Avatar wins, the player goes back to his humble life, but everyone in New Britannia finds happiness. If the Guardian wins, the player ends up as the powerful evil ruler over all. SotA is missing so much of the moral choices and their repercussions that you saw in other Ultimas. The community can take what is there and just flesh it out a good bit more.

(To form a contract you have to have an offer, an acceptance and consideration. Which means that in order for it to be legally binding, one side gets something and in return gives something to the other party. In this case, Catnip would turn over all assets to the game and the purchaser would be handing over $1.)

 

~NO~

A rush to a finish is not what I'm looking for, nore do I think other developers would match the talents of our developer's imagination in unique gaming.

You may hear me gripe at them from time to time, but the direction of where we're going is determined by our community with developer oversight holding the final say.

Our game is not only crowd funded, but has allot of all of our player's talents and imagination built into it's development enjoyment. It's likely not to be completed before I reach my mortal end, but that's just a part of it's unique flavor.

If you or Mark Zuckerberg wish to donate the funding for additional programers, maybe you should buy that many COTO or buy my seed/invest stock in the company which arguably still has attachment to the ownership of our game, but a more measured and worthy held stock is within the COTO sales which have driven our game's production.

Each of our players that have ever purchased COTO or Pledge, or invested their Bug Hunting Talents or accepted suggestions to our game, they each have equal value to the value of our game's worth.

I (and everyone willing or not) invested in all of our current and past programer's continued education "in sota". In a way, "the team is our intelectual property".

So ...


I alone hold $20-30K worth of sota and I'm just one of the small big fish around here and I say "No" but thank you for the far less than adequate offer.

~In Catnip I Trust, as well as our extended team working in and for other games.


If you're Warren Spector, maybe, but I'd have to see your resume...

You would have to already be a part of the team to be considered at all, in the same way Chris became our Daddy, then you can buy it for $1

It's a matter of trust~~Time Lord~