Investing in Portalarium?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Poor game design, Dec 11, 2016.

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  1. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    I periodically visit other game websites to check on how they're doing. Crowfall is one of those games, because it was also a Kickstarter, that I peak in on from time to time.

    Today I was shocked to see this...
    https://app.microventures.com/crowdfunding/artcraft-entertainment?target=blank

    It's an opportunity to literally INVEST in their company and buy shares of stock.

    It's an aggressive move, and it's something that smells like they need the money, but also smells like they're just using all means available to run their business. I don't have a problem with it, in fact I actually respect it.

    Years ago I asked the Shadowbane guys if they would consider selling stock in Wolfpack. I'm glad they never responded. :) But I'm also kind of interested in the whole thing despite the enormous risk. Afterall, I can just imagine what a few shares of Blizzard might have been worth before they got big.

    It will be interesting to see how this turns out, I believe the chance to invest is ending on January 16th? I won't be an investor but I wish them luck. I'm sure Portalarium will be watching this closely too. (as will many other game developers)

    I know if Portalarium offered something like this I'd be interested, even though I probably wouldn't have a huge amount to buy with. But I think it's all about timing. If the game was a hit, we had a generally positive vibe going on and people were clamoring for episode II, I could see this working. In the current climate I doubt it would get very far.

    The average person doesn't appreciate hard work and reality, they want videos and press releases (see Star Citizen), and that's not us.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2016
  2. MrBlight

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    Neat idea, though from a business stand point i have to look at it as a bit of a desperate move.
    They have raised *To date, Crowfall has received over $9.9 million in funding, including more than $3 million in prior crowdfunding campaigns from over 33,000 backers.i *
    I would think with that kind of money , they need to have enough going for them to either continue raising funds based on whats already in play, or enough for it to run off of sales.
    Opening up backers for actual shares... seems really Bold.. but also seems like they havnt done enough with that 9.9 to stand on their own, that they are now selling off the company in hopes to stay afloat?
    Maybe im wrong.
    I would be pretty concerned if Polar offered something like this, but i mean i could be wrong.
    pretty interesting tho
     
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  3. Toadster

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    If I remember right when I read a little about crow fall a while back a large chunk of the 9.9 raised came from the team founders and I don't believe that have even raised close to what they put in themselves yet. I could be wrong, been a while since I looked into.
     
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  4. Canterbury

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    A fool and his money are soon parted, as the old saying goes.

    I think anyone buying (any significant amount of) stock in something like Crowfall or any niche video game ought to have their head examined, honestly. It's not going to be a good investment.

    A small amount like $100 or $200 is fine; at that level it's more akin to just crowd-funding. Ironically, however, that only serves to highlight how this is more of a gimmick than anything else.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2016
  5. Nhili Dragon

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    I was sad to see Shadow Bane collapse, it was fun.
     
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  6. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Risk investment.
    If this word means nothing to you, don't buy into it.
    It is really as simple as that.
     
  7. Womby

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    Investing in any game - particularly an unfinished game - is a gamble. Never gamble what you can't afford to lose.
     
  8. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    I was about to say something down those lines but a KS isn't really an investment.
    The RoI you get at least isn't really ment to be financial. A KS is more like a really darn early pre order with the downside that it is so early that the product might never get delivered.
     
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  9. Krissa Lox

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    I always thought of crowdfunding as being more altruistic, as in you put your money in because you think the end result will be profitable to the world somehow in accordance to your values, while buying shares would be because you see something as capable of being tangibly profitable to yourself as an individual.

    By that division, I don't think I would buy shares in a project I would crowdfund or vice versa. I hope and expect Port will be profitable enough to be self-sustaining with good reward to its employees for their efforts, but I wouldn't have been contributing my own money to them if I thought it likely to be so immensely profitable to pay awesome shareholder rewards on top of that rather than having to stay lean.
     
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  10. Svahn

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    Wasteland 3 uses a combination of traditional and investment funding.
    Via the site https://www.fig.co/ where other games are also funding, instead of on Kickstarter.

    You don't invest in the company behind Wasteland 3 but rather in the project Wasteland 3, and if it is successful you get a return on your investment.
    Like a long term gamble of sorts.

    I think this way can be good as it can interest different types of backers.
    Not everyone wants a collectors box and lots of digital fluff, but would perhaps like some money back instead.
     
  11. Vallo Frostbane

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    If they would provide information about what is their business plan and what target audience they want and try to appeal to and how... I might consider it. But everything is so vague that this is no serious investment. I doubt Portalarium would provide all that information as well...
     
  12. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Though I don't like the word gamble i agree.
    It's an financial investment. We are all adults (at least if I believe our id cards, lol) and we have to evaluate if we are willing to take the risk connected to this kind of investment.
    This is indeed what some people here still believe they did with sota.
    I hope that this fixes the misunderstanding :rolleyes:
     
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  13. Andartianna

    Andartianna Avatar

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    For sure if you can't afford to just throw the money away on the high risk investment don't put the money in. I can tell you sometimes it works out but that isn't a high percent. I can tell you from personal experience that when games that you invest in do really well you can live off the money. But when they flop you loose all the investment. The flops almost never return the investment. Also make sure you really know who you are investing in. Some of the flash companies are total junk and are just trying to capture as much investor money and give it to themselves before they run.
     
  14. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

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    When PVP meets investing, unbelievable.

    As mentioned above, if you are considering one of the crowdinvesting "opportunities" get your head checked or at least show it to an investment advisor. Fig.co has their SEC fillings up, including the results from their auditor which where quite uncomplimentary, to put it kindly.

    Every crowdinvesting project I've seen has had one common fearure, when something goes wrong, the crowdinvestors suffer first, by design.
     
  15. UnseenDragon

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    I was always advised to not financially invest in something that I have an emotional attachment to. You can't let your heart lead your mind when it comes to such things.
     
  16. pinzasso

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    And make sure your advisor is a fiduciary.
     
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  17. MrBlight

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    I just used that line on the GF about christmas.
    Didnt go well.
     
  18. mass

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    This would help with the wife problem.

    Spend $10,000 on virtual castle in game = very angry wife
    Spend $10,000 on emerging software company stock = slightly less very angry wife
     
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  19. Net

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    I think that in a lot of ways "microventures" are better form of crowdfunding then buying digital assets, though there are some drawbacks as well. Those digital assets can get quite valuable if the game is succeful on the other hand, as the development goes, they cannot be easily replaced by something else. And they tend to distort the game balance quite often.

    I think it lookks better when the crowdfuning campaign is well thought of in advance. There is kickstarter, there is shop on the website... or there is option to buy shares in the company. When the business model changes in the middle of the process it does not look trustworthy. There may be good reasons for it, but I would be extremly concerned if Portalarium did something like that now.
     
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  20. Fizzlebang

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    As it stands, Crowfall is looking more and more like my cup of tea everyday personally. Came to SotA looking for PvP. Nearly left SotA because of how PvP is handled. All things considered, ACE (Crowfall dev team) is doing remarkably well with their product so far. They've raised nearly as much as SotA; only behind by ~600K.

    And the investing in the company bit, I think that was more of them taking things to new areas rather than they need the money. Obviously they'll accept more money, but they are one of the first companies to be allowing investors through indiegogo. They wanted to try something new, offer something for fans who also like to truly invest (for better or worse), and raise more capital all the while. Seems pretty damn ingenious to me.
     
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