I absolutely agree with Richard Garriott, what happened?

Not gonna go that far without proof but it certainly fits the established pattern. And long time vets who are not raw sympathizers... unfortunately some well known forum personalities are.... should know better. Time will tell.

 

Oh it was fairly obvious.

 

The 6-year old video that was the centerpiece of the OP's argument was posted elsewhere on Thursday.
Yes... It's possible that a brand new player, who created their account Yesterday who's sixth post included that selfsame 6-year old video and an accusation of a broken promise, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th posts were stirring the pot in a different clear example of a troll post, is perfectly legitimate. Additionally the posts in Thursday's thread on the other forum echo the OP's position of a broken promise based on the same false premise.
However, I believe at a minimum the preponderance of the evidence suggest otherwise, and a skilled prosecutor could likely fairly easily nudge that up to beyond a reasonable doubt.
What level of proof do you require?

I agree.

 

What is PTW?

How do you know what Portalarium's game revenue is per month?

 

Pay To Win.

Another of the dog-whistles used to incite hatred toward the project.

 

@Rufus D`Asperdi ah Thanks! i'm used to P2W.. first time seeing PTW

i still don't understand how @Lord Trady of Blix can claim that Portalarium is making "close to 100,000 a month"

how does anyone get this kind of information?

 

My assumption is that his estimate is based on the totals per-release as shown on the Release Stretch Goal ticker displayed on the main page of the site.

 

I prefer it as well.

 

The problem with old subscription-only models is that they don't let players spend more if they want. And this limits subscription model revenue to the head count of players x the monthly subscription fee. The so-called free-to-play model is liberating because it lets players spend what they want. And do you know what the secret is? Many -willingly - spend more than they ever would have with a subscription only model. And it was their choice.
So I dont see what the big problem is with SOTA doing this. Complaints about monetization that allows more player freedom never made much sense to me. If you dont want to spend the cash, dont spend the cash. The game is still highly playable without doing that. I dont see any game, including this one, giving a truly big advantage to anyone for this type of funding model. My two cents.

 

Hey, everyone, calm down. Troll or not, it was Garriot who said that..
His original vision was somewhat against this kind of micro payment free to play systems, you can't dispute that.
Something changed and here we are.

I'm still playing.

 

Sad that statements here really only are seen and responded to by those who support Port whole heartedly. It does nothing to actually bring change or enlightenment to players OR developers on what is actually going on. What is said here mean less and less, look at Duke Heads, POTs, Lots, Bugs (persistent ones),. . . . . Outside the here it is ALL NOT sunny.

 

On topic, there’s nothing you can currently purchase at the store that is immediately pay to win.

 

The vast majority, on the other hand, pay Nothing.

When I worked in the industry, and Free to Play was for the most part limited to the types of games that Richard was talking about in the Video that the OP referenced, a good, successful title converted 1 in 100 of the installed player base to pay Anything at all. You had a Hit if you doubled that to 2%, and if you could reach 5% (1 in 20) you had a phenomenon.

So, even for a Runaway Hit title of Grand Proportions, the game was being paid for by 1 in 20 of the players... the other 19 never spent a dime.

The only way this model is tenable is if you have a large installed user base.

This isn't true... many titles have or had both a subscription and in in-game cash shop.

 

No, it doesn't... SOTA does NOT have the same model he was referencing in the video.

And by "leverage" what he's referring to is rapidly increasing the difficulty of Advancing in the game Without buying currency or items from the cash shop to the point where you can effectively NOT advance unless you pay... Or, being able to advance without money by getting your Friends to install and play the game... for a time... but then they become part of the installed user base and subjected to the same pressure tactics that the original player was.

Shroud of the Avatar simply does NOT do this... Anyone who draws an equivalence between the simple existence of an in-game case shop, and the type of monetization scheme about which he was Actually talking is guilty of a logical fallacy.

They simply are Not Equivalent. And, if Portalarium were guilty of the tactics Richard was referencing in the recording, and the transcription of it above, I would be gone in a heartbeat, as I DESPISE that model nearly as much as I despise non-consensual PvP.

 

Except the random buff. P2w is not defined, that you get instant overlord supreme commander status, its the tiny things. Now, two otherwise equal opponents are not equal, if other is willing to put money in. Its tiny edge, but never the less, an edge.

 

Besides the temporary buffs that you can currently get (which should not even be there), can you provide me any examples of items that you can purchase on the store currently that immediately allows me to have an advantage over other players?

Purchasing an Ornate Post-Monted Mailbox (always wanted one of those) on the store won’t allow me to immediately start soloing UT.....

 

petition for it to be equipable as a bludgeon?

 

No I can't, nor have I ever claimed otherwise.

 

this *is* a Pay 2 Win game -- not in the traditional sense of making your avatar more powerful, but in the sense that you can *instantly* buy everything and anything in the game that would otherwise require a powerful avatar time and energy to obtain.

what is the point of this game?

you level up your avatar to become powerful to obtain in-game wealth, items and possessions and collecting stuffs.

well, a willing and paying customer who is new to this game can instantly obtain all said stuffs by buying gold. buying cotos. buying deeds. buying houses. buying resources. etc. etc.

theoretically, someone new to the game can pay his/her way to obtain everything (and more) in 1 day, that would take years for a free to play player to obtain.

when a game has every object of value up for sale, and you can pay to obtain the means to procure said items, it IS a Pay 2 Win game. Period. Who are you kidding?

avatar progression becomes utterly meaningless and irrelevant.

 

Another Valid interpretation of "win", what is even worse is some of the items Paid for in the very early state where . . . . .