How many non lot owners won a lot?

Myself, Notbill and Keldon were all non lot owners before raffle.

Myself and notbill did about 50 tix - won 6 row and 1 village.
Keldon did 1 or 2 tix, won a village lol.

 

Yes, let's get back on topic. as I said, one confirmed

 

I prefer to say that "it smacks of it", because it does, yet doesn't come completely close to it. Given future profits, possibly and I'd say likely if they are held onto.

If held onto, then yep, they will have a greater real world $ value than they currently do. There are many things Portalarium can do at this point to motivated those big winners to use all those lots, getting them all into circulation. These lots could become sold for in game currency, which defeats any idea that the raffle somehow took any wealth out of the economy, to instead have only increased a single player's collection of that same wealth. The other way is through some "big plan" that could help a single POT or Guild realize a larger audience.

I think there's a Guild out there looking for like minded quest driven players as they are. Even if they sell some for in game gold "I don't think these are the types of players looking for a Las Vegas profit"... It is possible, but we will have to see through their actions and my bet is by their human nature to do well by whatever they decide to do. "No one will realize a real life rent check or golden egg from this one"... but the "smacking potential is there for $ if they aren't used".

I know many early backers who bought many accounts for later actual RL$ sale, betting on the future success of our SOTA.

I see the real evil in this system as being not having taken anything from the economy at all because many will be resold at profit over what was invested, even if the lots are discounted.

There's no reason to be upset yet...

~Time Lord~

Spoiler

But were these actually Cult members of "The Fellowship" and are only carrying out it's more deeply sinister plans ?'

Spoiler

"The world may never know!" ...
~Nystal~

 

I was thinking, this raffle basically works like every raffle ever, so why are some people feeling so dissatisfied?

There is never a guarantee to win in gambling (by definition). ANY raffle by definition allows that those who buy more tickets get an (at least perceived) higher chance to win.

HOWEVER, I will say that in IRL raffles, the money goes somewhere.. frequently for a charity. So there is motivation - hey I'll buy a ticket, and if I don't win, it's okay because at least I helped out such-and-such cause. Or, I want to donate to the cause, and I get a bonus chance to win.

Of course, given the purpose as gold-sink, it's not like the money can go in the loot table or something. Still, I wonder if there's a way to simulate that same feeling.

Simply put though, it's totally "fair", and the free raffles are more than generous of Portalarium. I mean, you could hop in on a $45 account and win a piece of property that sells for $400+ ... that's crazy awesome! And if someone who has a ton of land already wins, maybe they'll sell it. They're more likely to sell it for less than before, because it is "exrta" and also, if it's place anywhere then that's property you CANNOT get anymore. So even if you end up buying it, you're getting a deal that was previously unavailable to you. Just my $0.02

Keep up the good work, Portalarium. Congratulations to the winners and good luck to all the players in Round 2!!

 

With 150k you could have bought a place anywhere lot and had it for sure. Why didn't you?

 

Cause 95 % of the people who sell place anywhere deed , sell it for real money and not in game gold ?

 

In terms of raffle overall compared to selling the deeds via NPC vendor:

Economy: Does the amount of gold that was sinky winkied compare to the amount of gold that would have been sinky winkied if the lots were available via NPC vendor shop? My guesstimate is that those numbers would be close.

Favoring the powergamers: Does the ratio of deeds that ended up in the hands of powergamers versus the amount of deeds that ended up in the hands of the homeless, change from what it would have looked like if deeds were sold from a vendor? In this case, I would say the ratio is about the same.

Portalarium Greed: Does Port make more or less money via raffle than they would if lot deeds were available via NPC vendor? Well in both cases, Port makes less money either way as they're no longer the only source of lot deeds. So to harbor any negative feelings for Port wouldn't make any sense, and now there's way more deeds being sold for in game gold than ever before.

Fairness in distribution: Is the raffle a fair way of distributing these deeds, compared to if they were available via an NPC vendor? I guess some people took a gamble on ticket purchase amounts, and some people who didn't win anything likely put more gold into the raffle than it would have costed them to simply buy one of the deeds from a player now after the draw. Raffle at your own risk!

 

You could have sold 150k gold for $120 and bought the deed that way too. Both gold and dollars are fairly fluid currencies for the game at this point. Your 95% figure is way off, I've been buying and selling in the marketplace for about a month now and most will take both gold and cash if you pay a fair amount. This is because gold can immediately be sold for cash if cash is desired more. I'm getting the feeling you didn't actually spend 150k gold on the raffle.

 

Keep your feeling for yourself next time...
And if i want to farm gold , to sell it for real money , to buy in game stuff. I'm gonna find a secondary job irl... i'm not playing video game to farm real life money , i'm playing for having fun...

 

Soooo....... only 3 so far?

 

The strongest part if this Game is the Housing System and decoration System and owning a place.

But the strongest part of the Game is made the hardest for new Gamers to experience.

Kind of counterproductive don't you all think?

 

OUR SOTA Land Lot's Interaction Fail

We certainly need farming to become a more viable game play instead of keeping our houses and lots doomed to only being eye candy.
I have 4 lots and have no idea what could motivated any player to having one, other than as eye candy.
We need more reasons to have them, so we need more reasons to play with them.
Otherwise, they are sort of actually useless...
~Time Lord~

 

My heart stopped the day Starr cane out with the new policy on allowing people to sell gold for cash. At that point I realized that the company had gone off the deep end and turned this game into a circus. If they had offered up refunds, I would cut the line to be in front. I am still here because some of us are good people and we are stuck on this greed train together. As soon as the lottery was announced, it was obvious that people were going to make the most of it. And I expect many new players will get their deeds by paying real money from those lucky players. With this the entire ethical bar goes down the toilet. RIP the SotA we dreamed of. Now we just salvage what we can from its ashes. Everything is for sale, its official.

 

I've really enjoyed the home building/decorating so far... but that isn't enough for me in the long run. For me two things need to happen: Make homes very useful beyond what they currently are, and more importantly a huge push needs to be made in RPG content development ASAP. I want my home to be a refuge from the adventure, with things to "refuel" my character for adventure. Currently though, there is nowhere near enough adventure/story/rpg to keep me satisfied.

I'm not saying the sky is falling, but I truly hope the development focus shifts towards heavy RPG development soon. I need a game first, and a housing sim second.

edit: I should also mention my thought that all the rare and seasonal stuff being sold would/will be far more desirable if the demand for the base game increases... which again requires more than just the social aspect and home decorating.

 

I'm new so forgive me. As a new player I cannot progress and earn gold and eventually buy myself a house in game unless its at the mercy of another player or in the lottery, where my chances are lower compared to a rich player? Will a load of lots not just rot in a bank, thus not remove any gold from the game while player sill have no lot?

 

Its like you all neglected what i wrote before.
Stop exaggerating the * im new so i can never stand up to anyone or get anywhere * excuse.
I literally started with the wipe. Ive never spent a dime past my 45$ initially. It took 3 days of actual playing to get to the point of doing silver.
It took 2 weeks to get to the point where money was never an issue for what i wanted to do.
It took 1 week with a buddy or 2 to pool in about 50 POT tickets ( now lets do some math ladies and gentlemen! ) 50 x 5000 = 250k
So ignoring the fact i still managed to get all my armor masterworked and a my bow done , as well as gearing up buddies, we still blew 250k on raffle.

250k was the cost to buy a lot deed + the space for a row house in Xenos not 3 days before the raffle.

So in a nutshell.

If your willing to put the time in, just like ANYTHING ELSE the rewards and progression are there.
For those WITHOUT the time to devote to the game ( you all call it work, i actually enjoy playing? ) then you have the option of spending money.

*Someone said something along line of id just get another job *
Lol, then dont buy a house? A house or lot in this game is a full blown Luxary. Go use the bank, and the open crafting stations.

* The rich keep buying up all the property*
Really? Doubt it. You realize the sheer amount of taxes theyd have to pay for property they arnt using? ITs more like guilds/ groups are buying up more then individuals, to provide for their individual players. Example - guild of 50 gets 50 lots, is the equivlanent of 50 players getting 50 lots.

*The raffle didnt benifit the casual player*
It clearly did, as any casual player who put time in could get tickets, and some won some big things with having spent nothing but grinding time. ( Guildmate won a vilage with 1 ticket, and he stated that week )

Anyways, I think the raffles a solid idea. For any early pledgers thinking it lowers the value of the houses they got for kickstarting, gotta consider a few things.
1- Tax free- your saving 50-100k the first month in gold. Thats what? 60-70$ if i was to buy that gold bulk on marketplace right now. Your bought that stuff aiming for the 1-5 year idea youd be here that long. X what youd be paying in gold in taxes into a 3 year plan, and yea im jealous.
2- Wheres that gold going now ? Im spending what 30k or 50k a month to keep my property.. thats all extra money you can use to further your progression and upgrade the value of your own stuff.
3- You probly have the best spots filled up already.

So much complaining over this raffle and i cant wrap my head around it. More early players doing this alpha that have reasons to stick around the better aswell.

PS: Sorry to only quote you, i was being lazy, not targeting you specificly.

 

And i will also add, some of the *richer * people who put in raffle just for sake of spending money, are still selling these lots out for what the price was before. So they are hardly sitting there unavailible.

 

I used to believe that too. Go try to play this game without a house and see what it is like. More than half of all the content is stuff to put in houses, items to craft for houses and so on. You can play it without a house, but its a very marginal game at best without a house. Houses are the game.

 

I am ?
I also realize it takes a little bit of work to become a house owner. Luckily the raffle option swung the door wide open for possibilities.
Houses are the long term purchase goal. They SHOULD take some work to get too.

 

I agree with that. But people should be able to earn them in game. That is what they said was supposed to happen. The raffle does not qualify. I actually do not mind the raffle, but I think there should still be a way to buy the deed in the game as well at a much higher in game gold price.