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Fully Funded in Twelve Hours, First Stretch Goal in Sight - Ashes of Creation - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Fully Funded in Twelve Hours, First Stretch Goal in Sight - Ashes of Creation - MMORPG.com
Ashes of Creation News - Intrepid Studios has struck a nerve with those who love MMORPGs. In less than twelve hours, the Ashes of Creation KickStarter was fully funded at its $750,000 initial goal. As of this writing, it has over four thousand backers who have pledged over $800,000 to the project. The first stretch goal, "Parlor Games", will unlock at one million dollars pledged.
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All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Quit asking all those pesky budget/feature questions @Slapshot1188, if you don't "believe" its all taken care of you're going to be labeled as a heretic, or worse a "hater."
Let the faithful pursue their hopes and dreams.
Grats to the "ASHES" team, looks like we may have a contender folks
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Going by their office space in the video and the current look of the game, they already have more than 1 millions dollars in capitals (it's also mentioned in the FAQ that they have capital beside crowdfunding, just not how much).
Now reading the stuff in the KS, this sound like a PVP gank-fest in the making, but it makes no reference to PvP at all outside destroying nodes (which can be player owned and how housing works). A game where you get your house destroyed by a bunch of asshole players calling themselves "warlords" every week isn't going to last long.
*sigh* Some developers haven't learned the lessons of Shadowbane.
I'm confused. For someone who is so close to the industry as you, why are you asking this question? Games have been using KS as a means of marketing over serious funding for a long time now. In fact, if you come to the table with nothing but hopes and dreams, you will fail. Shoot, Camelot Unchained just about failed because of a weak, tech-light pitch.
My mind is literally blown right now. Seriously.
On the disclosure aspect, you're right, it would be nice to have a company be open about the project, how much is done, financials, etc. However, the reality is that the vast majority of people have no fucking idea what it means anyway, so how is that helping inform anyone? In the end, people will simply turn to the first Internet troll who posts something convincing to THEM. It doesn't need to be the truth, it just has to make sense to them. So, no, posting financials doesn't help.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
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More like a round of cheaper marketing, attracting devs (they have a very small team) and having their fans get together and create an actual community going by what I'm reading on the official forums.
Their might also be a bit of "reassuring the private investor(s)" similar to Kingdom Comes KS too.
Especially after just last month, that City of Heroes remake KS was cancelled within the first 3 days. Seems the KS platform still has a lot of life left in it for the right products.
Glad to see more subscription based (non P2W) MMORPGs being made again... finally!
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
Ahhhhh, I missed that.
Ok, and I agree with you that there are people who legitimately need the money to make their game. HOWEVER, these people also come with a higher level of risk. There are plenty of opportunities to back projects which are essentially at ground zero, but none of them get funded.
I tend to disagree with you on your assessment of companies exploiting KS and other crowdfunding initiatives. The whole idea behind crowdfunding was to allow for innovation in the industry and help projects secure funding which would not have previously been made otherwise.
Would a publisher be willing to do Wasteland 4 now? Yup! Probably! However, I appreciate that inXile essentially said "Fuck you!" and I hope they continue using crowdfunding to make their games. There is no way that a publisher makes Wasteland 2. It doesn't happen. Fans made it, though, and they made Wasteland 3 too. Granted, I'm sure there are other private investors who actually put money into these projects once they're underway, but they still seemingly retain their autonomy, which is the most important thing.
So, yeah, KS is generally a marketing platform today, but it's not the industry who made it that way, it was the community. As time went on the expectations increased and, today, you can't run a successful campaign without being 50% of the way done or more. There is a veritable laundry list of high-profile developers who have failed in their KS campaigns due to a lack of things like gameplay. Expectations for content is higher than ever, and that's driven solely by the people backing these projects.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Its not that they haven't been made, its the fact that most done remain sub based. This isn't really because the sub set is dying but more so that many of these companies only have one thing under their belt instead of something else to draw from when subs aren't producing what companies want them to. FFXIV is a prime example of this. Before the re-release of the game, the project was pulling funds from other projects like FFXI and single player games to stay afloat until SE finally just say it either had to be redone or terminated. Blizzard is no exception.
There is a lot of sacrifice that goes into switching to f2p, such as CS is usually the first to get slashed and put on to an automated system to cut costs vs having a live team on stand by that is properly trained.
Also its important to note that the only real reason FFXIV is remotely competitive with WoW in terms of financials right now is because XIV has a regularly updated cash shop which has several items that are multi-time purchases and average the cost of a single subscription. The game's population is well under 1 million, and the numbers they tend to toss out in their trailers are just registered accounts, meaning people who have tried the trial or made an account even back in the first iteration of the game.
Unlike what many vocal people would have everyone believe, there is still a huge interest in some form of open pvp and interconnected virtual worlds. Not everyone likes to experience games in a bubble.
I wasn't super impressed by the KS trailer, felt like it sent mixed signals 'we already got all funding needed' 'we can only do this with you' but eh, and promising the game will be different and amazing is also eh, even with a on paper amazing design it might not actually work out in reality or there might be technical limitations that make it impossible (looking at you Eternal Crusade).
I hope it is though as it sounds like it will be the closest thing to my 'dream mmo' on paper I've seen so far along with looking fairly professional in presentation too at least one of the most in the kickstarter mmo realm.
Smells like a money grab regardless of "who they are" (EQ2 was awful, how long can you ride the coattails of the original?) Buyer beware.
Again- Fully finded means what? What was the budget? What does that budget include? What does it exclude?
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
But to do just that they would have to raise about 100 times what the initial KS goal was. Even then 75 million isnt going to deliver the bill of goods they have been peddling.
But they are showing that no matter what is REALISTIC as long as you have a good sales pitch youre going to have people falling all over themselves giving you money. Worry about the particulars once you get it...see Star Citizen and CoE for other examples of this.
They will more than likely raise more money that CoE did. That alone will make any crash more spectacular. I kind of hope it succeeds, like CoE, but its very unlikely. The problem is they have to over promise too much to make people interested. But these guys should start learning and changing the culture and under hype and over perform. Games might not get funded some easily but if they get funded and never get made what difference does it make (to the supporters). But it is never REALLY about MAKING the GAME, its, as I have said for years, a way to allow people who dont want to get real jobs a way to generate a living for a few years. And now that CR has taken that approach to a whole other level its surprising there arent more guys trying it.
Nanulak