Kotaku article with Richard Garriott interview infos

This is an MMO though and requires much more. Plus those games are terrible.

 

And, let's do the math... If SotA were a single player, fire and forget title, and they needed the original $2M to produce it, at $45 a pledge, that's 44,444 backers.

...and that's just to get to break even.

The Kickstarter never would have funded, the game never would have been made, and Portalarium would have folded.

 

Of course.

 

Ouch, no offence but you really should leave the answering of the questions to the Devs. Haha. Word play ("availability isn't completion so the promise has been surpassed not just kept") was kinda what just caused the recent unhappiness with the community.

Shifting the blame to players (there's far more than 40 hours of content but it's just that you who don't like it) will also just cause more unhappiness between community members. We both know that content in the form of storyline and quests isn't fleshed out yet.

The devs sticking to the "Things change" narrative and clarifying why some things need to change how they will be changing is definitely less painful than word play. As painful as it is, at least they're taking (some) responsibility for the changes and letting us know where it's heading with the longer road map.

I must explictly say I'm not trying to sound harsh. Just felt your replies (I'm assuming intended to comfort) fell far from it's mark. If it's intended to be tongue in cheek, then ignore what I posted. Well done. Haha!

 

It wouldn't be the first time. LotRO sells access to quests in regions as add-ons. I expect access to Episode 2 content will be restricted if you don't buy that content. DLC is common for single-player games anymore.

The main quest and a good chunk of side quests will be available in the main game. I'd have no problem paying for additional content beyond that.

 

They still make all the money off of the base game. Over time, the company might release a DLC and charge for the new content, but the new sale pays for the new content rather than the base game. And still, CD Projekt RED has chosen over time to release 16 new content packs for free with no charge to the players.

And regardless of whether the game company makes MMOs or single-player games in the old school style, they have operating costs. Even if they're not paying for server, they're paying for renting the building, employees, etc. But part of the way single-player publishers will try to recoup it by selling more base copies of the game and creating new games and new content that also sell.

Obviously, if you're running a server for an MMO you also have to pay for the server. But most of the money that has gone into SotA has gone into the development costs.

 

It will be called Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5.

 

And what would prevent Portalarium from doing that?
Delivering a great SP game and adding new content by DLC and with addons from time to time.

Also Skyrim sold more than 30 million copies!

The Witcher 3 sold more than 25 million copies!

Seems to me that there is a very large player base that enjoys such games. But if Portalarium doesn't want those millions of players...

It is a MMORPG now. It wasn't during the Kickstarter campaign as this sentence proofs:
"Though Shroud of the Avatar won’t be a massively multiplayer online role playing game, it will be a multiplayer game."

SotA also wouldn't have been funded without the money of the SP fans. Go to the Kickstarter Website and read through the comments there when the campaign launched. There were MANY fans of the SP Ultimas who wanted to have such a game and pledged money for such a game.

 

Another dead game -> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/obsidian/project-eternity. Oops wait, it is already published and has a great success. They got more backers and more money by the way ....

 

Witcher III is not a fire and forget title.

It has DLC and it updated periodically. This requires ongoing costs, servers, development, etc. The point being you can no longer call a title "Done," turn your back on it, and walk away.

Thanks for proving my point.

 

I'm not attempting to shift the blame, nor am I here to comfort anyone. I'm just pointing out that claims that they are not following through with what they have promised are offbase, and the claims I quoted are entirely based on subjective viewpoint. Looked at objectively, these have been met. Possibly not as he wanted, but they are met. The places they havn't been met yet are the ones that need to be addressed.

And honestly, we've been able to play the game for four years now. If that doesn't count as "available", then I don't understand what definition you could possibly be using for that word.

 

I would flip that around by throwing in, battle field 15, Call of Duty 25, Tiger woods 13, John Madden 35, etc....

The point being is that the industry has trapped the vast majority of gamers on rails... the same game with small changed year after year. People dont even realize they are on rails any more. I like Call of Duty but I only pick one up ever 5 years now to try to get enough of a change going to be fun.

To be honest, this started when gamming went mainstream. People who were around when Ultima, Bards Tale, Black box D&D (Pools of Radiance) and such truly miss those days. Like everything, when it went mainstream it was wrecked by mega corporations out for profits alone.

This is exactly why SOTA is so unique, taking us back to the old school games of complexity, ingenuity and pure entrepreneurialship.... not bank rolled by some billion dollar company that has wrecked the gaming industry. This DEV team *MAKES US FEEL LIKE THE GAME IS FOR US*!!!!!

THIS is why there are so many hardened supporters of this game and they way they have done it.


I'll say it again, I am sure at this point that the billion dollar companies have their social engineers working full time in their marketing department to kill games like this which directly assault their market.

AKA: SOTA is like Uber to the established Taxi companies (and their lobby with millions and million of dollars) and they are gonna go to war over it with a lot of money... and I think they have already.

 

All in all when Early Access ends and the reviews pour in then we will see who was right and who was wrong. I may be wrong, absolutely and maybe SotA will be praised by the press and the players. But right now I cannot see it and we are on the home stretch. But maybe this is just me because I am disgruntled that SotA hasn't become the "story-driven solo-player experience akin to Ultima 4-7 with the option to play online". We will see.

 

Server? For what? And I clearly did not prove your point. Anyway - I'm not interested in personally bickering and endless repetitions. So I leave you alone with you opinions which I do not share.

 

Yes, as long as the company chooses to continue to support the game.

But when Origin had offices, they had to pay rent, pay to keep employees after the game was released, pay for marketing. So, even in the case of a "fire-and-forget" title, like the Ultima games, there were still operating costs they had to pay for. All companies have operating costs -- its not a new thing. But they would sell more copies of the game and create more games that sold well.

A DLC is basically like a new game. In the old days, this was "expansion content." Like Forge of Virtue was for Ultima VII, or the Silver Seed was for Serpent Isle. It costs money, and part of the sale pays for the development cost of the DLC. But if they weren't creating new DLCs, they'd be creating new games. If Bethesda or CD Projekt Red felt like it, they could probably decide not to do DLC development and just work on new games, and recoup their operating costs over the long run by selling new games. For different reasons, they've decided its worth creating DLCs. But its not really a new model that's totally different than the old days.

 

It would be wonderful if they had quests we could purchase. Honestly, that would make BETTER quests that people always seem to be saying they want. I think it is totally reasonable to have $50.00 quests for sale that give a large amount of content. Or small content quests for like $10.00

Want to quest? Okay. Buy them. Each quests and you can decide which ones you want or not.

 

The most popular online game in Thailand, Heroes of Newerth, (free to play);



15 out of every 20 internet café computers here in Thailand will be playing this game.
Using/paying the internet in the café, because a good internet connection here runs $75.00 USD a month.
SOTA currently costs around $20-24.00 USD through Steam. (internet connection not included).
HON has no offline game component, this is the #1 feature that the Thai people I've spoken to enjoyed about SOTA.
That savings I mentioned earlier;

That savings was what the gamers I took for a night out on the town having some drinks, most talked about.
Offline is a very important component of our SOTA and I'd like to see some unique progress made within it.
~Time Lord~

 

I guess saying that chapter 1 will be available in 2014 in the context of a game would mean that the completed game, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues will be available.

I get that it can be argued that "available" means you have access to. But in the context of promising a game, it shouldn't be too hard to "understand" what most people (assumption on my part) would have expected that they are referring to a complete game.

We could have pedantic discussion over the use of the word "available" but I hope you see my point about word play not really doing favours.

 

I talked about this on another thread. But Steam lies. These numbers are essentially fake news.

 

Absolutely. And many have chided Port over not having a clear and consistent voice. FireLotus and Berek have a task to wrangle the community, but they really need to get a marketing/PR person to make it clear what are concrete goals and what is smoke. Crunch vs. fluff, if you want.