Why do people play Shroud of the Avatar

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Lyndoman, Jul 6, 2017.

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  1. Lyndoman

    Lyndoman Avatar

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    Spend a bit of time on the forums and some time on Reddit and other places where opinions are used as content and you might think that SOTA is the worst game ever and about to keel over.

    The data suggests otherwise.

    We know that SOTA is earning revenue at a pace which enables development of the game to continue.

    We know that with each update the game gets more content, more balance and is better - yes their are bugs caused by each update, but that is perfectly normal whilst a game is being developed. An update is like throwing a huge rock into a still mill pond, the ripples go out and cause things to break.

    Updates get fixed and promptly.

    But there is something else.

    The game has a consistent amount of players and from my own POV, this seems to be increasing. Every day I log on I check the amount of "friends" who are also on and it is steadily growing. I do add more "friends" each day of course, but the number active on the game, never goes down, always goes up.

    Gold is getting cheaper
    I have observed over a 6 month period that more gold is being sold on the forum - you can easily do data analysis on this, c'mon it's fun. I put this down to more people playing the game, mining, crafting, selling, that supply has outpaced demand. Causing the price to fall.
    You could argue that this is because less people are willing to pay more for their gold. But people are still buying gold, $20 buys you 100k gold.
    Again you can do a bit of analysis on this and note how much gold is sold per week by observing when items are declared sold. This of course is not definitive as we have to trust the poster, but it's the only data available.

    H0w much is SOTA worth
    I have no idea, this question was asked in my guild chat yesterday and I suggested "something is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it". I pointed out that this is not just a trite saying but a law of economics, https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Economics , which was first said by Publilius Syrus, over 2,000 years ago.
    SOTA has some serious assets and a serious player fanbase and any figure would be wild conjecture especially if future earnings are taken into account.

    An interesting angle to take is to look at the size of the market in real money trades, the amount of in game gold being earned by players daily, and the amount of lot taxes being paid by player to SOTA. This is the tasty data.

    The thriving economy indicates that people are playing Shroud of the Avatar, not only that but the numbers appear to be increasing.

    This indication suggest that the economy of SOTA is sound and is increasing in value. This is one reason why people continue to play the game, not only is it fun but it gives people the chance to become rich in a virtual economy that has a real life value too. I don't think it's about greed, but more about keeping score. Perversely it may appear that real money is gamifying a game, when usually it's the other way around.

    This is certainly worth more investigation.

    But why do people play Shroud of the Avatar?
    What do you think?
     
  2. E n v y

    E n v y Avatar

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    My honest answer is that I've put too much time and money into it not to play it and I have an underlying feeling of hope in terms that it will get better.

    If I was a standard player (i.e. Spent $40 on the game) I probably wouldn't play it.
     
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  3. Fionwyn Wyldemane

    Fionwyn Wyldemane Avatar

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    Actually, the worst game ever was Daikatana *shudders*. :)

    Kidding aside, I love your post! Why do people play Shroud of the Avatar? I know why I play - because I'm having fun.
     
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  4. Hornpipe

    Hornpipe Avatar

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    I play Shroud of the Avatar because I have fun with this game.

    It does not impose much limits to me (no hard cap, housing & decoration system, a lot of places to explore and much more to come), but it confronts me with the consequences of my bad choices (death decay, ongoing virtue system, specialization vs training every skill, etc).

    Of course, everything is not good (quests, crafting and much more things needs improvments) but every release makes this game better.
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2017
  5. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    I like the crafting.
    I like to farm and sell stuff and use the gold to buy shiny things.
    It works pretty well so far.
     
  6. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    Because I am having a lot of fun creating quests, adventuring to new (and old ) places, creating my own adventures, grouping with friends and strangers. So much to do and see.
     
  7. Burzmali

    Burzmali Avatar

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    I'm not is hardcore as some of the folks around here, but I can give a basic rundown of why I've played over the years:
    • First I played to bug test, that stopped once it was clear that the devs didn't consider combat that is on par with RPGs from the late 80s to be a significant concern.
    • Then I played to see if I could achieve anything impressive in the game, that stopped when it was clear that all I could achieve would be insignificant compared to what folks with either 15 hours a day or 15k to spend had already achieved.
    • Next I played to explore the world, which lasted until I explored most of the unique content taking all of a few weeks.
    • Finally I took a crack at the story, which took about a week to clear ranging from decent (courage), to functional (love), to cringe-worthy (truth)
    At this point I've been debating exploring more of the player side of the game, but the game lacks the tools to allow me to track my progress in any meaningful way and after a few hours I just gave up as the annoyance of having to swap applications to take notes was too high.
     
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  8. Leelu

    Leelu Avatar

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    I play because I adore my in game lot and house and really as long as I have housing in a game I am good. Why I played UO for ever so long was simply for my house and being a shop keeper. I like the day to day interaction of running a shop. You get to know so many interesting people from all walks of life.

    I don't sweat fighting, no good at it and never will be. I only fight enough to gather and get by anyways . The places the pvpers have don't bother me one whit if I never go there. Has to be something available for everybody. Always the way any game that is in business to make a profit goes. But I do hope they have open safe days for all pve players just so we can look around from time to time.

    Be glad when my bulletin board is available to all to leave messages. Bring on the chat fests and the orders.:):)
     
  9. TheBalance

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    A more accurate picture of the currently-active players of this game has never previously been posted on these forums before.
     
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  10. Merlota

    Merlota Avatar

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    I would dispute this. They wouldn't have aired all their inner details publicly on seedinvest if there was not a need to do so.

    it is almost like the game is in development and things keep changing. Thats fine but doing development on a live server was (IMO) not a good idea. Little mistakes with big consequences leave ripples that cannot be erased. Experiments that may or may not work cannot be tested without impacting permanent players.
    I log on and walk around the POT I'm in. Nearly every lot is claimed but the most of the houses are empty, undecorated. This is not unusual. There are many people that bought the game at a high level and are either in wait and see mode or have given up completely. After spending >$500 and not getting a game worth playing these people are not going to give glowing reviews of the game.
    Don't be fast to count this as a positive. You linked economics, if there were more people playing and needing gold the price would be going up instead of down. The price will drop when more of those playing have reached gold saturation and sell off the execess than poor players are buying. The price is dropping due to lack of demand.
    SOTA/portalarium has almost no assets, that is spelled out clearly in the seedinvest. The market for the IP of an incomplete game is minimal as the liquidation of 38 studios showed. There is a small group of serious players, a larger group of players hoping the game will improve and an unknown number that have moved on. Right now that upper limit for all groups combined is ~60,000 accounts.
    Here is where we start guessing but can we set a limit of 6000 active unique players at this point in time? I see that as a very conservative number. Portalarium needs ~200k month to keep going (from their relased numbers) which works out to ~$30 per active player per month. That is not reasonable and needs to get up to 20,000 players at $10 a month to keep going as they are. That is what is needed to survive as a niche game.
    Simply, I don't think many people actually play. There are some the play seriously hard, to the point of a job when you consider they sell the gains, but running around I don't think the numbers are there.
     
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  11. Sorthious

    Sorthious Avatar

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    Why do I play SOTA? Because I can!

    ...And it's a lot of fun!
     
  12. Gregg247

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    My favorite parts of SotA:
    1. The real estate and housing aspects
    2. crafting and selling
    3. community/great guild

    Weakest parts of SotA:
    1. stories
    2. combat animations
     
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  13. Waxillium

    Waxillium Avatar

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    Our guild is tight and we genuinely enjoy each other. Can't imagine SotA without my fellow Travelers from around the globe.

    My archer is near "feature complete". Hope to hit Advent level 100 eventually and probably only go higher by accident. I love shooting arrows. May pick up the polearm as a hobby one day since spears are just large arrows.

    I dig designing our town and adapting it as things change.

    My personal lot drives me nuts and I constantly rearrange it.

    Currently working on Kvow's ability to craft, masterwork and enchant his own light armor and bows.

    I only play this game and would consider not gaming if SotA ended. I have so many things I love doing irl. I use SotA to exercise my creative nature for the time being.

    I really love monthly releases. Wish Port had two more years of it before they had to advertise.
     
  14. Aiyarree

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    Because there is simple nothing on the market to compare.

    Every other bigger... online... multi... player... whatever... comes from a big publisher.
    They are only interested in big numbers of kids. Sota needs some thinking to like it.
    Not the quick n dirty thing. Perhaps this is also one reason for the bad reviews.
    It do not fit in todays worshiped "One-Klick-Wonders".

    Ok. This is my opinion. Perhaps i am just a bit stupid. But i find it quiet complex and
    you have to think a lot more about what you are doing than in most other games.
    Perhaps i am also a bit slow... but for a game in development i think this might be fine.
    At least i am not one of the runners that are out of air by now. I have fun.

    And last but not least it runs on Linux.
    For several reasons windows is a no go for me.
    Well... perhaps this combination makes sense... ;-)
     
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  15. oplek

    oplek Avatar

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    My interest in the game waxes and wanes. I took a couple-month hiatus from the game at one point (then again, I can say the same about other games).

    It largely depends on my ability to set my own goals. A couple weeks ago my project was crafting a piano. Last night I was stumbling around the Path of Truth. Before that I was apparently seeing how many times I could die to the Phoenix in a party. What I find fun isn't going to be very consistent, overall.

    I'm fickle, I guess is what I'm saying.
     
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  16. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    I am a virtual Feudal Lord, and derive immense satisfaction in being able to provide other Avatars with a place to live, work, and play.
     
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  17. 3devious

    3devious Avatar

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    1. I spent a lot of money for an MMORPG. I'm not going to play another until I sell my pledges and/or feel I've gotten my money's worth in the online game industry.
    2. Richard Lord British is a friend of a good friend of mine.
    3. I like the community. A lot.
    4. I like my guild even more.
    Those articles make very good points.
    I do enjoy the madness of these forums more than the game sometimes.
     
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  18. Adam Crow

    Adam Crow Avatar

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    I enjoy so many different parts of this game, it's hard to figure out where to start.

    I guess the crafting system is the first that comes to mind. I just love how punishing it is! I really mean it too, I'm not being sarcastic. To make a truly perfect piece of equipment in this game, you have to get so ridiculously lucky it's crazy. In fact you'd have to be crazy to even try to add a 4th or 5th enchant/MW on something, but I love that its possible. That means we will never have a ton of "the best" items in the game, they will always be extremely rare. And that means my character will never be maxed out when it comes to gear, so I will always have something I want to try and create.

    Next I would say the customization that is available to Lot owners and Pot owners is incredible. I like the decorating options we have, and you know they will only get better as the game moves along. Some of the things people have already built with the limited tools we have is amazing.

    The possibilities for RP in this game seem endless to me. I just started getting involved in that aspect of the game, and I'm very excited to see what the future holds for Kahli and all the other RP groups.

    But mostly I play because of the community. I love the maturity level of most of the people that play. It's definitely a nice change from some of the games I've played in the past. I've made some great friends and look forward to making many more.
     
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  19. skeggy Media

    skeggy Media Avatar

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    what other game gives you the chance to be a land owning trader that is a mage an archer a warrior a priest a rogue a hero to be virtuous or unvirtuous all at the same time or just one of them at different times with just one charter. shroud of the avatar gives us the ability to mould our gameplay and not to be stuck to a given mould. that is why I enjoy playing the game.
     
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  20. Stundorn

    Stundorn Avatar

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    great thread! great community... great Lord British... Great Britannia :p, Vikings - skål!!! Samurais - onegaishimasu!!!
    great grafix, great environment, great housing - bad shop :eek: - great Combatsystem... YES! great Lore, great Deathdecay :D

    he... they!!! made it again and created a world what is not perfect to me, i barely can imagine what would be perfect, but the most important is, i like to be there and i am able to immerse, to fantasise about my alter Ego the Avatar.
    I create a basic of a role and develop it over time as well as from a gamemechanics view and also from a roleplaying view.
    Shroud of he Avatar is a game where i can do this very well and this is a personal and unvaluable thing, there is no explanation why i want to do this in Shroud and not in any other game where i can do this - maybe its because SotA provides a lot of possibilities to express oneself, but also to feel you need to figure this out and how to deal with the mobs, how to manage your decks, where to find this or that and to know where to go and when and who to talk with. I hope and i am sure that if they can develop further we will see some amazing and challenging things and very important a lot of variance and things to do in the game. I allways think its not yet time to develop this as there are other, basic things to do. But there are already things i really like. Agriculture is already cool, The Moondials and Celestial Mechanics - hope there are more to come. Encounters - you may think they are annoying now, but imagine there are many scripted scenes possible and a lot of variation and functionaltity will maybe be implemented for them.
    I like the Atmosphere, i think the virtue thing and the Lore is much more interesting than a lot of other Settings. I am not that huge Steampunk Fan, but it doesnt bother me, because it fits into the world somehow.
    I like finding breakable walls, i like solving things like we have in sequanna now...

    Why i am playing - thats a lot of factors... why did i spend more money than i ever spended? good Marketing? maybe, but i didnt know much more than the name about the game before August 2016.
    I read more critics and dislikes than people loving it, but as often i like games that are more unpopular and a friend reccomended it to me. He wrote ists not for everyone, but for me it would sure be neccessary to give it a try he said.
    So i tried and i am still here and i think i will stay some time longer - sorry.

    I never played a game for 1000 hours... so SotA is already a personal record :)
     
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  21. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Because it's fun?
     
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