Founders, Benefactors, and doing the right thing

I don't care about referral credit. What's the actual benefit of this change? People get more stuff in-game if they know a Founder who's a friend? Big whoop.

Can I link my fiancee's account even though I apparently did something wrong by gifting her a pledge before gifting was enabled?

 

My only question is, "Will this change serve to reach more new players than otherwise?"

If yes, it is a good development.

 

Do you mean getting the $25 referral credit? Sadly nope, I referred a bunch of people during kickstarter and also got nothing other than the satisfaction of getting the game funding support, and letting them get in on founders pledges (which now isn't a big deal)

 

The benefit is that, before this change, there were a few people exploiting it to get founder level status pledges (because really you've always been able to gift founder pledges). Now that Portalarium has sanctioned it, while some controversy has arisen, they have managed to heavily undercut the black-market founder pledge sales (which is a great thing), and they've made some additional funding off of it as a bonus (it costs $40/upgrade). They wouldn't have changed KS deals if a serious problem such as a Founder's Black Market had not developed, and it wouldn't be fair to assume that they were acting maliciously. Still, it doesn't do much good for their image.

To answer your last question Tekkamansoul, you cannot link her account, but you also did nothing wrong. Portalarium is trying to pioneer here, and its only natural that mistakes like this will occur where they find their hands tied.

 

Here is a little perspective on this issue, we had about 23,000 backers, we now have about 27,000 backers. So we had about 4,000 people who backed after kickstarter who didn't get founder rewards. Now, what this opens up is anyone who pledges in the first year has the option of being upgraded to a founder. Pre-order sales are usually 10% of game sales, and most pre-orders don't happen till within a month of game-launch. So we are seeing a minority of a minority of people that this will help. Even then, I'm sure many benefactors wont upgrade to founder.


Will this get new people to back the game based on the fact they can get Founder status? Unknown, I think so though.

Will some people not pledge because they allowed this to happen and facilitate it to make it more fair? Unknown. I would doubt someone wouldn't pledge because of this, but people have different views on things so very much unknown.

 

That sounds soooo much like what RG said about UO in the beginning.... No lesson learned I guess. I am a founder and I will not be participating in this either. I do NOT agree with the spirit of these transactions and I do not appreciate being diminished in order to make cash. I feel sort of... sad about this.

 

I backed on the first day of KS, and I didn't have enough cash to buy a house or lot. I still don't. That means that my Founder status means nothing compared to someone who gets a boost. Not all Founders have housing....

 

Can't they just make a third party? Convert original founders to something like "Original Founders" and give them somethings that are neat and exclusive. I'd be happy with that.

 

I indeed have never before pledged, not even have spent much money on Collector's Editions or things like that. And probably never will do it again because of this experience.

Personally, I doubt that this helped the game. Some people say there are not so many new Founders so there is not so much disadvantage for uns Early Founders. But have they ever considered how important word-of-mouth influence is and that negative customer feedbacks cause much more damage than positive ones will ever produce?

 

It's not an arbitrary cut off date. It was posted on Kick Starter for quite a while. You didn't make it, now you feel you should get rewards for spending fat cash, instead of following the rules. Isn't that Pay to Win?

 

considering thats what 'Founder" status was supposed to be and they have taken that away, even if they did make a new status, why would we have any reason to think it would stay exclusive?

Regardless, I dont mind having a few more founders, it's the 3rd party transactions that I have a problem with. I think they should just give all benefactors the option to pay Portalarium directly to upgrade on the account page, none of this begging a 'gift' from someone, and no more referral credits for already existing players.

 

pay-to-win
Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying.

 

Other than the loss of minor ego fodder, I'm still not seeing how this is a bad thing. What am I missing?

 

not a thing sir.

 

This is what I'm concerned about too. I fear that Portalarium may have irrevocably damaged their name. Since RG and company have been following this thread so closely, I may as well spout what I think can be done about it.

1. Close Founder Upgrades entirely, but allow all that have occurred up to this point to remain.
2. Post a nice thread in the forums explaining the original crisis of the founders black market and why they took the route of action they did.
3. Listen and respond to the community feedback in the thread, and express honest intentions to preserve the deals sold in the KS.
4. South Park/Channel 4 News reference.
5. Profit.

On a side note, its probably best for the integrity of this thread to avoid talking about P2W.

 

Spam not thy Kingdom: Consistently strong-arming others into the same discussion, or repeatedly posting the same ideas/opinions in multiple threads/forums may also be considered spamming and should be avoided.

 

It's an issue of standing by one's promise. I feel sorry for you if that doesn't have a meaning for you.

 

LOL! Then why is this even an issue? They are only holding up there promise to allow founders purchase/gift founder pledges....

 

This is a twisted incarnation of keeping that promise. For good or for bad, who knows. Will still be a great game and I still cannot wait

 

See quoted promises here:
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ointed-by-founder-mass-production.7116/page-2