I find myself wondering...

...if the devs ever find themselves wishing they had just presented a *single* pledge level at $45 providing pre-release access... and been done with it.

I find myself wondering if all the time Portalarium has wound up spending on tweaking all these different pledge levels and their associated rewards and also meeting and managing the (legitimately high) expectations of folks that pledge in the range of hundreds or thousands of dollars range is worth the amount of funding these higher levels have brought in.

I say this as some who pledged at the Dev+ level and *already* consider my $450 to have been *money well spent.* So I post this not in any way as a complaint; I pose these question in the context of what lessons will be learned that future crowdfunded projects might apply.

 

Serving rewards has been an issue for several Kickstarters. Some projects failed or came close to it because the costs of serving the rewards was more than they expected. As such, it is always a risk, but I think the extra money is worth it. It just means you have to plan properly.

I think the way they handled the reward structure was well done, and their only big risk is the physical rewards. Once they get to those we shall see, but it seems like they have a good idea how to fulfill. The digital and expectation stuff is easier to manage, budget-wise. Its just the stress and hostilities that can wreck your morale. However, I think they have done good manage than part as well.

In the end it is always easier to just not deal with the public at all, but those projects tend to not do to well.

 

I agree with the OP points.
Once you start to make the pledge levels unobtainable by a vast majority of players you will begin to lose the faith and goodwill of those people.
I started gaming in MMO's with UO were everyone paid the sub and started off equal no add on shops, of course over time you got in players that only saw the chance of making real money from the game and Origin/EA were not tough enough on the rule breakers letting the $ rule there decisions.
I had hoped that SotA would have been created in the principles of UO with a very tough line on gold farmers/asset sellers, but I fear what the vast array of rare rewards being handed out as become a magnet for some of the same players that abused UO rules.

 

Wagram... That is what you take away from that post?

Sorry, but I read it In a completely different light. Please.. if you have s point, create a thread and make it (ad nauseam). It is bad form to commandeer someone else's thread to decry the evils of pledge rewards.

 

The money side of gaming has changed; no longer are we gamers, in general, willing to pay a monthly sum for access to a game even if we expect that game to be around for years or decades with continual updates and content added. Obviously an initial box cost isn't going to cover the life of a persistent online game any longer. So, in comes cash shops and micro transactions and cosmetic sales and server transfers and pay-to-avoid-grind and gold sales and whatever else.

The above is the case even for games that have publishers willing to front large amounts of money to have a game developed. We don't know how much of a cash shop SotA is going to have when it's released but I personally am glad that the devs are crowdfunding to allow them the freedom to do what they want, not what some sales team says needs to be done, and that means that they have had to gather up the developing money from us. And that includes the very large, very reward-filled tiers.

I just hope that the game developer community doesn't look at the occasional swell of negativity from the backs of SotA and SC and think "who needs *THAT* hassle, I'd rather just work with EA's pile o' money and make what they tell me to".

 

Lol funny stuff.

 

I don't think they mean the cost of the box will bankrupt them, actually these are probably the least controversial. Rather than the digital rewards have split the community. I don't know whether I agree or not, probably not on the balance but I do have a huge problem with the add on store

 

I see no problem with selling things people buy...
When you're in the hotdog business, by all means, "sell hotdogs because that's what we're here for!"
~Time Lord~

 

It's not a perfect corollary. Virtual worlds found in video games are supposed to be reprieves from the burdens and challenges we face in the real world. In your example, it's like someone created an island where everything is free if you go out and get it yourself or trade for it, but you can only get your favorite kind of sausages from the local Shady Merchant if you pay cash for them. Except on this island, your favorite kind of sausages are also most people's favorite kinds of sausages, and those sausages are only sold in limited quantities. So if you can afford to do, you can buy lots of sausages, then use them as leverage in bartering.

But it really does suck if the reason you came to the island in the first place was because you want to escape the reality of being economically disadvantaged for a bit. Sure, there's lots of stuff you can get for free by going out and tussling with various monsters and devious archmages, but you'll only ever get your mitts on your favorite sausages if you deal with the Shady Merchant.

 

I, for one, prefer blood sausage. I like to use the blood of both my allies and enemies, so as to bring them closer. If everyone is cooked in the same pot, its like we're all on the same boat, except that we're dead and being cooked in a pot. Peace, love, and virtual cannibalism.

 

Running a successful crowdfunding campaign then implementing it is always going to be like herding cats. The more successful it is, the higher expectations and that carefully constructed pledge tiers that seemed perfect at the start isn't going to look very good once you've exceeded several stretch goals. And your original backers will always be at odds in one way or the other with your current batch of supporters.

The real question is , have the devs & the community retained the spirit in which the endeavour was started ? Sometimes when the growth is so rapid and the expectations high and deliverables so complex - the answer isn't quite clear. Specially when your backer base has reached 6 digits.

 

"OK, This is the actual store I do most of my shopping for name brand goods"

"It has premium foods and most are at the same price as in the USA, but a tad bit cheaper if made in Thailand"

I can count on it's quality and find products that are imported from all over the world, yet is there green ooze in these products, "Yes".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here below, is just outside the castle walls, where you can buy everything from local people.

There are no gimmicks here, what you see is what you get, but inside the sausage
"who knows what it is"... but it tastes good and has no green ooze in it.

These sausages below, my girl friend insists are some form of pork...
with no green ooze added... only rice for added flavor.

Do I really know what it is?... no, because "what you see is what you get"... and that's what cause me to come and buy it, because they have it. These in this picture are 1/3rd the cost of the premium product that can also be purchased here.
So, which one of these examples represents EA games? "The Tops Supermarket" Because it's a finished and well known line of products, but with corporate green ooze added.
Outside EA's castle walls however, is where our SotA is. It's a mom and pop family style business and if someone gets sick by eating there the that business fails for them. But 99% on the Thai people buy from outside the walls of institutionalized product lines. I have eaten here many times now and have never gotten sick from eating any of it.

We came to buy a game, we bought a game, we got a game, so I'm a very satisfied SotA Sausage Supporter who will be back for more. The fact that I can buy some outside product at cheaper prices, does not cause me to want that product more. I came here to buy SotA, so I bought SotA and if they offer me more SotA, "I'll buy that SotA too".

So, are ether of these food buying options I have here in Thailand "somehow shady because I bought what I got with real money?" I don't think I want to go hunt and kill the pig myself, so I do buy the food that is offered here. There is nothing shady about any company or person selling something you want. The only shadiness is in our own suspicions that we are out to get something we want, "how we want it"... The fact that we did buy it, has nothing to do with our demands after the fact that we bought it because that's what we came for.

The OP here asks the question of, would Portalaium have gained as great support for their product if they had offered us less reward... or as a charity with nothing in return...
Personally, I'm much more happy because Portalarium offered me a gift reward in virtual graphic form, which I do enjoy very much getting. SotA would have built houses anyway and once they are made, it is easy for them to mass copy them.

No one is a prisoner here in any way. So this is not a island without choice. No one forced any of us to somehow donate money to Portalarium...
Most of us came here to buy the sausage, because it is the only place that is selling SotA sausage... so it seems reasonable to me to buy the sausage I came for, because I don't expect to get SotA sausage anywhere else.

I worked long years to gain the ability to buy into SotA, if the premise is that I am somehow cheating someone else that has less real money than I do and that I should have to re-work those long years to gain such rewards, then I would say that this is a mind set that is thinking in the EA corporate way and has not encountered building a game for pure fun without regard to business model.

I will not be able to cause your happiness with your purchase, you must fill that need all by yourself...
I can only say that I am happy with Portalarium more than any other company, enough to have given them so much of the profits from my work. They give something to me I want, and I give more back to them which causes our relationship to grow in our trust.

"No one can make you happy, you must do that for yourself"
~Time Lord~
X

 

COMMUNITY UPDATE:

Keep your focus on what is happening now. Be mindful of the living force young padawans. LoL

They are working on Combat for the next couple of months. This is a vital game component. Pledge rewards are one thing, but right now they are currently working on one of the most fundamental but most serious components of the game.

If anybody is wondering if they are creating this game for real, yes they are.

 

Time is it, that we started speaking like this more, hmmm? Must be, it is.... yes....

 

Its just the 21st century trend, virtual goods have real money value. Nothing you can do about it because people will do with their money as they please. You can ban players for selling virtual goods, but how are you going to catch it?

 

I want those sausages, I don't care what's in them. Those will make me happy (or at least full)!

Do you think you can make them still be warm when they get here using FedEx, TL?

 

I take this sausages too, don't worry about hot or cold because of microwave

 

Uhm... that's not really where I was going... I was thinking more in terms of the overall complexity of management issues.

From the very start of the Kickstarter campaign, one of the main difference between pledge levels was the in-game goodies that came with them. If that really bothers someone, then perhaps this isn't the game for them... but why start complaining about that *now?* There will be plenty of fun that comes with a $45 purchase. Perhaps someone who paid $5,000 has a bigger in-house than I could ever get in-game. Maybe with a $10,000 purchase they get invited to Eyes-Wide-Shut style parties in Portalarium's basement dungeon. Good for them, and good for us all if the game gets built better and/or faster. I could care less that I can't or don't want to afford such things. If someone has a giant mansion I can't buy "in game," why should that detract from my fun? I presume my Dev+ package comes with some sort of lot or house or whatever, but I haven't really looked, because I don't really care. Housing is one of the aspects of SotA that I find least interesting.

If the fact that some people who pledged more $$$ get more stuff bothers someone *that* much, then maybe they should contribute to a different game? Why sign up and then start complaining?

 

I would like to nominate these two sentences for being the best sentences ever posted in the SotA forums.