A serious question about our "Audience" and who I think we actually are.

@Chris posted this in the Thread about Crown Store - "We love all you guys and will continue to listen and act on all your design feedback BUT we need to not be slaves to your feedback when it comes to the business side of things. We have to make changes if we want to expand our audience."

I have a serious question about what this means? How does changing the store to a system like ESO allow for expansion?

Now I am going to make a statement, If you agree with it Quote it and agree;

Port, you need to understand who your player base is. A lot of us have backed from day one, why because we believe in the ideology from RG , and his care free attitude. The games are story lined, diverse, ingenuities, and expandable. Now here is what I feel MOST of your backers would want to have seen;

There is a Troll similar to Torc. He has him home on a land something akin to the mountain of Devils Peak. Now in order to kill him it will take a combination of players or one like Mac2 who can master it all. The Troll has HIGH HP and you have to beat him down to less than 1000, at that point you have to poison him with a strong poison (requires very high poisoning) with either a bow of a sword, an axe, or spear. One cannot apply poison with a hammer. Now this disorients him, sure it works all when healthier BUT. Now disoriented he can be tripped or knocked down with one of the skills that do it. Once he is down hitting him with a FB, Lightning bolt, Freezing blast, . . . . knocks him over the edge and he falls to his death. The reason he has to be below 1000 if he is healthier he just survives and climbs back up at full health. The fight (adventure) is not over, when he hits the ground the players have to get to the body and catch the Nomes who looted him. They have grabbed some of his loot and his Club. His club is the big prize and if you miss the Nome who has it is lost. This club can be modifies by a Miller with GM> milling into a handle, of a bow stave. This adds nice boosts to related skill tree. Now even better is if you take this hammer to the region of the Kobolds in Norguard it can be milled at a milling station in their city (Vertas Elves, Fire Mages in the Desert, . . . )by a miller specially train by them to add an even stronger and more specific ability to the Wooden piece. One can only be Apprenticed to the crafters in ONE region.

This is a Boss with a Story and Loot in his Den with an nice items to refine, it integrates a combination of warriors or allows for the master of all player to succeed. It incorporates AND regions crafting in an very divers and rewarding way. ((Quote this))

These are all things that the actual core of your player base wanted, hoped for and looks forward too. However they seen to be just thoughts and the game appears to be exactly designed like ALOT of the Free to play games out there that add pixel crack every month just to keep $ flowing in.

Richard Garriote said many time "I did not create the game to sell out", and the Free to play model is not what I am looking for" His ideas could be controversial and he did not care, where is that uncaring attitude now?

All of you sat there and said "Cotos are going to be introduced and they will be a valuable(powerful) items with a very controlled drop rate and we will watch them" Released 2 weeks later for unlimited #s

It was said that they game looks to be heading to a game where players compile huge amounts of exp then just stand over a guts ball and train a desired skill, your reply was, "this will not happen"

Soo Atos what is the type of Audience you are looking to reach into?

PvP could help but it is NOT the core of your supporters.

If you agree and like this please just Quote the area I mentioned to further push this idea, if you disagree please be constructive on your opposition with ideas to support your concerns.

TY

 

I would imagine they're looking to modernize the game play experience enough to make the game attractive to new people so it becomes profitable but not so much as to alienate the original fanbase, if possible. The problem I see is some of the original fanbase seem to want both worlds and, tbh, there's probably not enough of us old school peeps to carry the financial weight of the servers as well as pay for continued development. A necessary evil, in other words. Anyway, just my baseless opinion. I am not privy to anything important.

 

Just yesterday, I spent 5M xp while hitting dummy. Boring as hell, but netflix to the rescue. I raised various skills, e.g. earth skills, all offhand skills.. It would have taken ages to raise those in combat.
Now everything is locked again and I get more xp, while figuring out what the dummy has to take next time.

Its weird design side effect. Also, I remember that this xp system was done this way to prevent botting, thus its bit ironic, that you have to "bot" the skills in the end anyway ( with this I mean, that one just keeps spamming same buttons, focus on game screen, while other screen shows something interesting, netflix or youtube ).

Sorry, bit sidetrack.

I have no idea about target audience either. I'm certainly not it. I have stated this before and will continue, until something comes up:

There is nothing for me to buy in shop, except few potions. I would spend money, but not for houses nor decoration. Subscription is not sexy to me, cos I survive with few cotos a month ( and players sell them cheaper).

 

Allow me to slide in this silly chuckle I had this morning about this.



Sota: "READY FOR WAR!"
*crickets*

Sota: "Dance party?"
*cheers*

 

Dance Parties and Fish Head Masks... I'm ready to come back now.

 

You need to understand that the inventory of this forum, including YOU and ME, aren't that said playerbase. Don't confuse a handful of vocal people with "the player base".

That being said: this is a anti -pvp post in terrible disguise. This is bad and you should feel bad.

 

@Earl Atogrim von Draken I hate to derail the OP furthur, but what on earth made you say "this is a anti -pvp post in terrible disguise" ?

 

Euphemism.

 

I think this is one of those games that, when it stands the test of time, will become legend or at least help other game developers to increase their genre range. The depth at which this game entails is almost like a medieval magic/earthy version of eve online. (dont take that at face value). Understanding there is a maturity level here that has to do with old school gamers and helpful qualities, does not do lip service to the Other side of the coin in terms of ways to counter our own wanting.

Speaking for myself, I cannot assume that I am even inside of the niche yet I love this game and its community. I had a feeling of enjoyment helping create this game and everything within it. I feel as if I played a part of its creation. Being that some, if any, level of mine own influence changed some function or aspect in a positive manner makes me attached personally.

SO, as far as advertising.

It needs to be something that catches them first... Are we desirable?

 

I think what's ironic here is that its truly an episodic story-driven game with an "MMO-Like" sandbox feature. And its throwing everyone off. I mean that the trend of outspoken forum posts tend to all be about the psuedo-MMO attributes.

Another aspect which is dawning on me is that it behooves one to be actually a bit short-sighted rather than obsessing about long-term visions, which is also throwing people off. This is understandable though given the cutthroat trend of MMO experiences, particularly one related so closely to Ultima Online...

If anything, these realizations are a testament to the design team's long term vision. And they're the ones whom should have one, right? I'm saying as a player its actually more functional to shrink the thinking down to the real immediate phenomena.

Err.. but thats just me.

Edit: Yeah, but limited-time offers on the addon store make it a bit tricky, and sort of orient the thinking towards long term --- so its awfully messy.