So yet another unannounced change.

Today, it was brought to the attention of the chat room, that Portalarium has decided to change their stance on the whole "we won't offer anything for real money, that you can't get with in game gold." Yet another change they have made without letting the community know.

They have decided, without ANY feed back from the community, that they would make the new Keep lot, a reward for duke level pledge, and the castle lot, part of the LotM pledge rewards, only available through those pledges, and not available in game, in any way shape or form, on top of the already fairly substantial rewards that are on offer to those tiers. Baron's, Duke's and LotM, each getting a unique plot, with Baron the only one having to share their plot type.

And for those who might not believe this, check the pledge description, and Darkstarr's reply here to a PM.

(note, image was edited to remove the name of the person in the conversation. Though the dev's will know who, however they did not want to been known in the community. The person involved agreed for this to be shared, and it was made aware to Darkstarr that it was going to be shared)

Up until now, all housing plots have been available in game, including the LotM castle plot. So, why this sudden change in direction, from everything will be obtainable in game, to "you have to pledge a ton of money" to get this super unique reward.

Nothing was mentioned about this in the mega post about the new pledge levels, and extra rewards made.

@Darkstarr @RichardGarriott @Dallas would one of you care to explain this? I know myself, as a prospective player town owner, was really looking forward to buying a keep if not a castle plot in game. But this sudden, unannounced change to restrict the access has obviously put a stop to that idea, and to me purchasing a player town. I'd like to know when this decision was made, to restrict this, and why it was never made public knowledge? I'm sure there is a few existing town owners who will be upset with this change.

And yes, for those of you with Dev+ access, I have become a bit of a dissident. But I'm sorry, I keep hearing how Portalarium is founded on core principles of transparency, trustworthiness and such, but then they make this hidden change that it seems they hope goes unnoticed by the community. To me, that is far from transparent or honest, but just seems like just another way to try and milk more money, out of the player base.

And just because Dallas takes pride in these, I want to say just which core principles I feel have been violated by this hidden change, and why.

This doesn't help to foster community, it helps to foster elitism, by providing those with a larger sum of money, a huge advantage over those who do not. And to explain this, these restricted lots will easily sell of thousands of dollars once the pledge levels are no longer available.

I'm sorry, but this does nothing to make me want to trust Portalarium, and their decision making process. It makes me think they are only after more money, and not about the community at all. And to me, it doesn't show any honesty or integrity either, Changing your stance on all housing types being available in game.

I'm sorry, there was no openness or transparency with this one. They made a change, and didn't say a word.

Not much validation done here, as it was never made public knowledge this change was made.

There was no sharing here, it was just done. No chance for anyone to give their opinion on this change at all.

Note, all of these are my personal opinion, and does not in any way account for the community as a whole. That will be up to them to provide their feedback on this matter.

Call me a dissident, a trouble maker or what have you. But this is far from open or transparent, and is not doing anything to re-assure the hopes of people who have shown concerns with the way changes are being made, seemingly on the fly, and with little to no community input. There was another such change that was made, that if your Dev+ you will more then likely know about.

 

When was that ever a thing? Most of the pledge rewards and items in the stretch-goal and add-on store will not be available for in-game gold.

 

Hmm although this is a little different than what they initially said I don't disagree with it at all. I don't think it makes any sense to allow the purchase of a castle or keep deed prior to well after Episode 1 is released as it would be a slap in the face to the people who did pledge $5,000 or more. This is just my opinion of course.

 

This was something most people - Infact if i could find the clip where Richard i believe says it, i would however that is a lot of work, it is what lead most to believe that is how things were going to be... keep in mind this was quickly followed by DLMB from the mouth of my Liege.

Also like to add.. i agree with Dukes+ having things taht can not be gotten in any other way then this pledge. We pledge high for the game and where it is going, this is great , fantastic, awesome. But some also pledge at this level for the items. Duke+ get rewards that "some" are unable to have access to.. "go visit portalarium".. "tour of this or that and the other".... well what of those stuck in other countries unable to get there? Suddenly these people lose half their pledge.. in giving them something that others can not get.. this is a fair exchange for losing their rewards that they can not due to boundaries receive.

I kind of would like to say thank you for doing it. I believe perhaps it should have been handled in a different way, and brought to the table in other manners.. But it is nice to see that those losing half their rewards.. are getting "soemthing"

 

I saw the chat starting yesterday and I will throw my two cents in that I think it's fine... I didn't think the duke or lotm needed the upgrades in the first place... after they happened one at a time I didn't think it would hurt to have them exclusive as they were afterthoughts and never promised as part of the original game or pledges. I didn't realise this could possibly have a negative effect and figured it would only be positive for fundraising... I've never thrown my weight at the whole lot thing but I did comment last night in a pm that they should make a choice either way and hopefully if they go for excluding them (which again, I still support either way) it could get them some extra fundraising for those wanting the larger lot. Oh yeah, and it also makes it a LOT less likely that dukes will downgrade to city ... meaning there will be more city lots for in-game gold purchase available in key locations.

Just seems like a win, win, and win to me... I must be really confused.

 

Okay, combine this with stretch goals and the already bloated store, I'm out. So sick of this exclusive cash shop business. I was a firm proponent of crowdsourcing but now I'm a complete opponent of it...

I suppose the second issue is the fact that backer contribution is now ranked. Didn't put in a few thousand? You're now insignificant and have next to no say compared to others.

 

never owning a castle in new britannia unless you spend literally THOUSANDS of real world dollars is a win-win? i'm confused now.

 

These types of lots were never meant to be in the game originally. Also one of the original kick starter goals was to have pvp capture castles and keeps which are still slated to be in the game.

I've been wondering about this for awhile, since my guild was making a decision on a central guild HQ lot in our city, at least I know. Doesn't really make much of a difference to me if they sold them or not.

 

They have castles the size of UO keeps available on village lots... the "Lord of the Manor" castle as an exclusive where you get a piece of land large enough to eat up entire guilds worth of real estate because you spent over ten thousand dollars to help get a game made... being exclusive to the people who actually spent the money and not somehow devalued by being made available other ways... yes... win-win. They get money, the land doesn't get filled with huge castles everywhere that cannot be claimed because no one will be able to afford the taxes if they scale correctly... and the LotM doesn't take a city lot from a non-"THOUSANDS of real world dollars" backer.

I think I've made my point very clear so this will likely be the last thing I say on the matter. Hopefully everyone who reads this can be objective in understanding the logistics behind creating these huge lots and how making them precisely for their backers is the most efficient way of doing it (in my opinion).

Cheers and see everyone in R8

 

tbh, I couldn't care less about the "in game gold" path. It makes the economy really weird if the best things trade for gold.

There are many, better ways to earn things such as getting a castle through PvP or getting elected mayor or winning a pie eating contest.

I think the best things in the game should be constantly "fought" over and be held by the current king of the hill. I don't like people getting something, holding it forever, and not being hungry for something else. It just takes stuff out of the game. The pledges are bad enough. Adding more routes to this just makes it worse.

 

I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone thinks this. Putting aside for the moment that this is a crowd funded game in development. Absolutely nothing we are getting through pledges provides a direct, long term advantage. It's just.. stuff. Big, fat, hairy deal. Sure. it's convenient. Some of us get a house we actually had to pay cash for. Non-backers won't have to pay a literal dime for theirs. It'll just take longer to get is all.

How exactly is anyone going to be "screwed"? Is someone screwed because they only have 10 hours to play a week compared so someone with no life who can play for 40?

So a handful of people were able to pledge high enough to get a castle with money they probably worked pretty hard for (and we have no reason to think they didn't). Good for them I say. They were willing to take the risk with their hard earned money. They deserve the castle I say.

So I can't have one because I'm poor. That makes me a little sad but so what? I will have earned what I do have and I'm going to have fun with it. Whether it's by pledge or in-game. I won't be spending all my time shut away in my house thinking what a cool place I have or bemoaning the fact that someone else has more stuff than I do and neither will most players who come into the game post launch.

 

Not sure I agree with win win? ?

What about groups of people pooling their resources to buy a title? That is no longer possible unless they do it with real cash?

This was a deep reiteration of how you don't need to spend up front world real money and would have things, like title deeds, available for in game money.

Multiple times by Richard for sure.

In the long run does it ultimately matter? Of course not, in terms of "game play", plus I am sure it would be an audacious amount of coin.

HOWEVER, I am disturbed, greatly, every single time these things happen in sidebar conversations.

I just hope this is simply another "don't lawyer me bro", out of the mainstream, comment.

 

your point may be "clear", but it's also flawed.

A castle should be so expensive it will take AGES for anyone to be able to afford it, which negates any issues about "castles being everywhere", and if any higher backers feel that someone earning a castle, the hard way over many many months or even years, takes away from their prestige or whatever, that's pretty lame.

EDIT: In my opinion, anyway.

 

I personally think that this time this one is a bad decision. (Even if I never planed to own a castle). I mean, that affect to the SG about the castles and PvP, right? If not I'm ok.

 

Hate to break you bubble, however $5,000.00 is a lot of money and also a substantial risk in investing in a game that could flop. Furthermore, there is no return for investment other then virtual goods and in some event the day comes these servers go down that reward vanishes. So you know what its nice their keeping these exclusive for those willing to risk enough money to develop a game on faith and this money which is hard earned for most people, is being kept out of the add-on store or in-game. My personal opinion though, was that I didn't care either way if they were or not, and yes I'm a Duke but the only thing this changes for me is the Town layout of Lots I'll be using now.

 

^^^ THIS!

 

I'm confused. I had always been under the assumption that the LotM quad-city Castle lot -- and now the Duke's double-city Keep lot -- have always been off-limits except via pledging at that tier. Also, I thought there was already going to be the guild-specific Castles & Keeps structures that will be obtainable in-game as part of the $2M stretch goal? Yes, confusing indeed.

 

I just wish they decided to do that with city lots too. I'd love to have a unique lot. (of course this would probably ruin my chance of getting a city level wizard tower though)

I'm not really surprised they made the lot unique to duke and LOTM pledges. The alternative would have been for them to limit the size increase that players could expand their current housing to. If you think about it, the world will be limited in space. You can't expect all village lots to be expandable to castle lots, that just isn't going to work. My guess is that one of the main reasons for their decision was based on this reality.

 

Proportion. I'm willing to drop extreme amounts of what I can afford, and that now is starting to mean nothing. Why am I being ranked against other people's real life status?

This is all metagaming. There is no in-game merit whatsoever with this cash shop business.