Final Wipe and Lot Selection

Count me in

 

I totally agree with this. For me, roleplaying in an online game is a lot like playing pick-up basketball. You go to a gym or a park and the other people you meet may be really really good or really really bad. If they're so bad that you just aren't having fun, you move to another court, or gym, or park. I think POTs are kind of the same way. I know for my POT I'm trying really hard to stay as close to the canon of the game as possible while still choosing my own path. I'm attempting to let that trickle down into the town so that other players can immerse themselves in what I hope is an extension of the official lore. Will there be players in my town that go out of their way to "not roleplaying" yeah of course there will. But just like someone walking on to the basketball court with a hockey stick, the other players that are good at roleplaying can just ignore them or deal with them as a simpleton or a mindless street urchin. The power of roleplaying trumps the power of ignorance.

 

I believe some other games like Project Gorgon and Naval Action wipe everything but xp/rank so that players continually test the game and don't get discouraged by starting over repeatedly. I think Gorgon is capped at 60/100 though and the highest skill levels are supposed to be difficult in progression. That way new players on launch don't feel like they can't ever catch up at a reasonable rate. Just wondering if that was an option here.

 

I think that's going to be a question that is asked a whole lot now as we move closer to the wipe. Shouldn't new players feel like they can catch up? I think that's a great question, and I believe the answer should be yes. I think having the wipe will give us a very wide base of opinions on this, something that's been lacking during R1 through R26.

 

Agreed. There's a vast difference between someone who's new to roleplaying vs someone who's actively being an idiot. The first can be welcomed and can learn the lore, the other not so much. I just don't want the Developers to go "Yup! EVERYTHING IS CANON! WOOOOOO!" in regards to player fanfic. It's one of the things I know myself and some others have been long concerned with when Portalarium was asking for player submissions for writing, books, etc to go into the game.

I'd freaking LOVE to submit the hell out of this idea. But I'm also leery and frankly uninterested in throwing mud at the wall hoping something may or may not fit into the lore structure, when there's not even a basic outline of a target to be aiming for. If you want people to be building onto an immersive storyline, then there needs to be some guidelines and boundaries to work with. Garbage in, garbage out otherwise.

 

Most excellent!
Was there a 10 minute timer between claims?
(This is what I get for not playing.)

 

Very well stated, and you are not alone.

 

Great stories! Thanks for sharing!

 

I'm surprised posts like this are allowed now, I "get it" just fine. Just because you are happy with the direction doesn't mean the rest of us need to hop on board or get out.

See the problem with this line of thinking is....this isn't what we bought into. I have fought for a long time now to make sure that the actual game lore is the one Port is making. I did this because although you may find fan fiction as outstanding stories, I do not. Now, I'm not saying that games like that don't exist or shouldn't, but for this one you can't go that route because that isn't what we were told was coming. I get there will be some developing storylines but I don't think they should be the central theme to the game, Port needs to strongly control that.

It seems that our two types of games have a hard time meshing. I can see why you like your version, I understand. Don't get me wrong that can be interesting but not what I thought/was told this game would be.

Oh, and for the record I don't think PoT's are the only reason it is delayed, but it is one of the big reasons like it or not.

Now, as an aside and not to anyone in particular.

People keep saying that you shouldn't repeat yourself or saying the same thing....well, I don't think I have any thread is exactly the same. I say some of the same things throughout as replies to people who counter what I said, but how else do you counter? I mean, is it only ok to say a thing more then once if you say it is awesome? Or you agree? People keep replying and doing the same thing but or in favour of the changes? I personally don't get up in arms when some use the same argument over and over, let them, discuss it and prove that it is not the case, don't smother people.

Everyone should be able to say what they need to.

 

Portalarium is controlling it. The main story line is in no way diverting into POTs or player created lore (although some players are contributing to the canon of the game by helping to create NPC dialogue).

What I meant by "being an extension of the official lore" was just that, an extension. You have the lore, it's static, and then you have the story of the players that is very dynamic and builds on that static lore. RG has talked about this some by saying that the influx of Avatars (and even Player Owned Towns) is noticed by the NPC's (or natives of New Britannia) and they don't like it. Which is why they talk about it and players will eventually learn that they are taking notice. I don't see anything wrong with that, it just means that the players influence where the DYNAMIC world ends up going.

I think there are also some NPC's that recognize some words like "Pax Lair" which I think is fantastic. Here you have a community that comes from UO and has lasted a long time and is now contributing a great deal to the online mode of SOTA and it seems like the least we can do is recognize that 1. They exist, and 2. We appreciate them. I don't see anything wrong with that either - especially since they're adding to the game for a lot of people, and not subtracting from it with outlandish player created fiction that cuts against the grain of the main story line.

So here's where we agree, Rune. I too think Portalarium should continue to control this. But I don't think that means they should lock it down and segregate it to the point no player actions no matter how meaningful or cool would ever be recognized as official canon. I think that's what you're saying, right? Well I disagree, and I hope one day Rats Nest can aspire to that level of acceptance and notoriety by the community. I have a lot of work to do to make that happen, but I'm hopeful that Portalarium will someday make room for the people of Rats Nest to be acknowledged in that way.

Oh, I almost forgot. Richard did say that he would put the lyrics to the song I wrote into the game as a book. So I guess in some ways we've taken our first steps!

 

This idea that the kickstarter should MATCH EXACTLY the final product is comical. You obviously don't work in or understand game development, product development or R&D of any kind.

PoT's came along after the initial selling of the concept obviously. But PoT's complement the original scope of the project, not distract from it. In product development tons of new bits of ideas and feedback are taken into consideration and adjustments are made.

Bottom line is PoT's are one of the most unique features Sota has going for it. Please show me another MMORPG that has the kind of community "ownership" that Sota has, which PoT's are a central part of.

 

My biggest complaint with how this new schedule will work with the "final wipe" as a soft launch, but by still keeping the game in Early Access stage, it continues to linger in the no-man's land of software development. It's not finished, so it can't be fully reviewed. It's not "released", so we continue to have a work in progress. Their stated goal is not yet to market towards new players and customers, so I guess it falls into a niche style game? I'm okay with that personally, but will it continue to be cost effective and profitable for the company itself to support?

It's also a question if/when it does "launch" out of Early Access, how high of a hurdle would new players have trying to come into the game? As I said, it's hard to determine if this is too early yet.

Edit: I'd also point out, that this does not remove or defeat the issue with negative player reviews on Steam under the Early Access tag, which was one of the large concerns people have brought up to date.

 

Anyone can write a book now can't they?

I'm glad you got noticed by LB though, kind of neat.

I'm well aware my ability to be anything in this game has pretty much come to a close.

I wasn't asking for exactly.

PoT's compliment the game for some, you are not wrong there, but for others they don't add what they do for you.

This wasn't sold as a MMORPG, so I can't comment on your statement.

You really don't know what I understand or don't, and it isn't relative to the conversation. Please, if you want to discuss the items I say then try not to make it personal. I feel I understand things just fine btw.

 

I've said plenty of times in other threads that I wasn't around during kickstarter and frankly I've never played a Lord British game although i'm quite familiar with UO.

By far the most PR this game is getting is from the MMORPG community. I haven't seen hardly any from traditional gaming news sources. So there are plenty of people like me who look at Sota as an MMORPG and thus appreciate PoT's,

So I imagine we are looking at this game from different view points.

 

I'm going off what was sold to me in the kickstarter....everything that came after you would consider a change. I don't care what sites review or say it is, I care where we are here. I care that I was told multiple times by the devs that it isn't an MMO....I understand that it is a MMO now.

It changed.

 

I don't understand this. What did you want to be and what stops you from being that?

 

But shouldn't other gaming media be aware of SotA, too? As a single player RPG, too. I think it is strange that everyone views this game as an MMORPG when it wasn't even called MMORPG in the Kickstarter campaign...

 

I'm not look on favorably by the dev's, mods, or the majority of the community, I get it and understand why. That doesn't make what I say any less meaningful.

I accept that consequence.

 

I don't think you should assume anything about the devs, or the mods, or even the majority of the community.

You and I disagree on a lot of things but I think you would definitely beat me in a forum popularity contest. So what's that tell you about your perception?

It still doesn't answer my question though. I don't see what that has to do with what I originally quoted below. You seemed to be talking about "the game" and not the forums.

The only thing that can stop you from being what you want in the game, is you.

 

I find that really really interesting, like i said coming from someone whos' newish to Sota. I listen to a lot of podcasts such as MMORPG.com and MassivlyOP who have given Sota a lot of coverage as an MMORPG. I dont have any reason to doubt that it wasn't sold as an MMORPG, but I suppose the devs realized "well it would take a certain amount of more investment to take it to the next level of MMORPG, which opens up a huge player base".

Just speaking of for myself, and this is not a reflection of the game or community just my personal tastes. I would never play Sota if it was single player.