How to milk $hroud of the Avatar.

LeFantome

We will be having a special mini-telethon around Lord British’s birthday. Now the birthday excuse to milk the game once more. It's only a mini begothon tho.  This include a complete schedule of developer Deep Dives, answers to your gameplay questions, community activities, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more!
Really devs? Again?

ste2000

What did you expect?
Their Seedinvest doesn't look like it is going according to plans.
They raised just $131.000 in more than a week.

It's back to selling Lord British Blood and Hair I guess.

LeFantome

ste2000 said:

What did you expect?
Their Seedinvest doesn't look like it is going according to plans.
They raised just $131.000 in more than a week.

It's back to selling Lord British Blood and Hair I guess.

Good point on that one..

Rawyn

This is a real pathetic time for this game. I wonder how long a the couple people they got will keep givin money to these sleezes. If it weren't for knowing how toxic they and the community was you'd almost feel sorry for them. I got no sympathy for them though.

Rawyn

ROFL, and another begathon coming soon. So much desperation. I wonder how long the whales will keep propping this game up lol. Seedinvest not doing good gotta start those monthly begathon. This is the funniest trainwreck in gaming development to watch.

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=29385

blorpykins

really?

Kyleran

I do appreciate the clever use of the dollar sign, going forward I think the devs should just incorporate into their logo and freely embrace the RMT nature of the game.

$otA  also works pretty well.

CrazKanuk

Milk might be a strong term. There is a difference between milking a cow until it's dry versus a cow never producing milk in the first place. I'll let you place SotA on that scale where you see fit. I tend to lean more towards the cow never yielding any milk in the first place. So, yeah, it's pretty much produce milk or send it to the butcher. 

blorpykins

This, every month now... hooray they were given a shit ton of money to create something!!!  I'm sure backers paid for all the fancy costumes and decorations too :S  but who buys all the booze?

Octagon7711

They should really consider a revamp.  Start doing surveys and 'listen' to a cross section of their target audience.  Doesn't appear like they are pushing this thing to a large enough spectrum.  Even basic survival sandbox games appear to be doing much better, imo.

Rawyn

blorpykins said:

This, every month now... hooray they were given a shit ton of money to create something!!!  I'm sure backers paid for all the fancy costumes and decorations too :S  but who buys all the booze?

Those backers you see there buy it. Those are the people that hang with the devs for these telethons because they spend the most money. Some I recognize as those that have have given 10s of thousands of dollars to this game probably a few into 100k. If u give them tons of money u can come hang out and get drunk lol. What's real funny is your gif shows just about all there is to do in this game. Sit, dance, and just hang out wearing outfits and stuff lol.

Aron_Swordmaster

Kyleran said:

I do appreciate the clever use of the dollar sign, going forward I think the devs should just incorporate into their logo and freely embrace the RMT nature of the game.

$otA  also works pretty well.

I've started thinking of it as Shroud of the Amway-tar, in that it both the Devs and Community are massively dishonest about how much potential actually exists, and are just trying to sucker you in and make some money off you before the whole ponzi scheme implodes.

The Devs might be doing it out of misplaced belief, but In the case of the RMTs, they are openly and deliberately engaged in deception; it was the user Dark_Knight on Steam claiming outright an account had items on it that the actual seller went out of their way to state you wouldn't get that made me realise it wasn't accidental.  They KNOW it's a ponzi scheme. They're just trying to dump unsold inventory on you, take their cut and leave you to face the final disappointment.

postlarval

LeFantome said:

We will be having a special mini-telethon around Lord British’s birthday. Now the birthday excuse to milk the game once more. It's only a mini begothon tho.  This include a complete schedule of developer Deep Dives, answers to your gameplay questions, community activities, prize giveaways, sales on items, and more!
Really devs? Again?

Next they may have to start issuing apologies to those people their incompetent mods, Fire Lotus and Berek, unfairly banned to see if they can bring them back as a revenue source.  

I'd do it.

Spend $5 in the store and then tell them to fuck off.

This is one company I'd be happy to see fail.

blorpykins

Rawyn said:

blorpykins said:

This, every month now... hooray they were given a shit ton of money to create something!!!  I'm sure backers paid for all the fancy costumes and decorations too :S  but who buys all the booze?

Those backers you see there buy it. Those are the people that hang with the devs for these telethons because they spend the most money. Some I recognize as those that have have given 10s of thousands of dollars to this game probably a few into 100k. If u give them tons of money u can come hang out and get drunk lol. What's real funny is your gif shows just about all there is to do in this game. Sit, dance, and just hang out wearing outfits and stuff lol.

Being totally serious here, when they go completely broke and have to shutter their doors I hope, I really hope they're decent and mature enough to use whatever little cash is left to create a suicide hotline for all those old people that dumped their entire life savings into this scam.  Someone that gives 100k for a game will need real counseling when all these pixels are seized by the court.

urbanmech

"Richard Garriott" - you'd think this was a dead giveaway. STOP funding games for these people, the have enough money that if it was really a good product, they wouldn't need "funding" from players.

Vrika

Aron_Swordmaster said:

Kyleran said:

I do appreciate the clever use of the dollar sign, going forward I think the devs should just incorporate into their logo and freely embrace the RMT nature of the game.

$otA  also works pretty well.

I've started thinking of it as Shroud of the Amway-tar, in that it both the Devs and Community are massively dishonest about how much potential actually exists, and are just trying to sucker you in and make some money off you before the whole ponzi scheme implodes.

The Devs might be doing it out of misplaced belief, but In the case of the RMTs, they are openly and deliberately engaged in deception; it was the user Dark_Knight on Steam claiming outright an account had items on it that the actual seller went out of their way to state you wouldn't get that made me realise it wasn't accidental.  They KNOW it's a ponzi scheme. They're just trying to dump unsold inventory on you, take their cut and leave you to face the final disappointment.

That's not a ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme would mean Portalarium promising that Portalarium pays to owner of those virtual items/accounts in real $.

postlarval

blorpykins said:

Rawyn said:

blorpykins said:

This, every month now... hooray they were given a shit ton of money to create something!!!  I'm sure backers paid for all the fancy costumes and decorations too :S  but who buys all the booze?

Those backers you see there buy it. Those are the people that hang with the devs for these telethons because they spend the most money. Some I recognize as those that have have given 10s of thousands of dollars to this game probably a few into 100k. If u give them tons of money u can come hang out and get drunk lol. What's real funny is your gif shows just about all there is to do in this game. Sit, dance, and just hang out wearing outfits and stuff lol.

Being totally serious here, when they go completely broke and have to shutter their doors I hope, I really hope they're decent and mature enough to use whatever little cash is left to create a suicide hotline for all those old people that dumped their entire life savings into this scam.  Someone that gives 100k for a game will need real counseling when all these pixels are seized by the court.

Nah, those people are typical entitlement bitches. As long as they have someone to blame, they can justify their loss.

They'll pour all their hate into blaming those previously banned players, because it's their criticism of the game that made it fail, you know.

Try saying that last sentence without laughing.

Kyleran

postlarval said:

blorpykins said:

Rawyn said:

blorpykins said:

This, every month now... hooray they were given a shit ton of money to create something!!!  I'm sure backers paid for all the fancy costumes and decorations too :S  but who buys all the booze?

Those backers you see there buy it. Those are the people that hang with the devs for these telethons because they spend the most money. Some I recognize as those that have have given 10s of thousands of dollars to this game probably a few into 100k. If u give them tons of money u can come hang out and get drunk lol. What's real funny is your gif shows just about all there is to do in this game. Sit, dance, and just hang out wearing outfits and stuff lol.

Being totally serious here, when they go completely broke and have to shutter their doors I hope, I really hope they're decent and mature enough to use whatever little cash is left to create a suicide hotline for all those old people that dumped their entire life savings into this scam.  Someone that gives 100k for a game will need real counseling when all these pixels are seized by the court.

Nah, those people are typical entitlement bitches. As long as they have someone to blame, they can justify their loss.

They'll pour all their hate into blaming those previously banned players, because it's their criticism of the game that made it fail, you know.

Try saying that last sentence without laughing.

Wait, you mean all those posts bashing various games didn't cause their "failure?"

Better not tell the "overlords" or they'll stop paying us....er  I mean other folks.  

Aron_Swordmaster

Vrika said:

That's not a ponzi scheme. A ponzi scheme would mean Portalarium promising that Portalarium pays to owner of those virtual items/accounts in real $.

Except... they do. 

They REALLY do.

They've openly stated they're balancing the rarity of Lot deeds to ensure early backers can make a real profit from them.  They actually removed free tickets from the first Lottery within a day of announcing them, because RMTs complained they'd spent on tickets assuming they could corner the market further.

They've openly stated they tied the rarity of the Premium Currency to it's current exchange rate to the US dollar in the RMT market.

They've even got an official authorised trader in Markee Dragon, who goes to their offices in Austin and makes videos with Chris Spears  discussing how to continue rebalancing the economy to keep RMT efficient.

Shroud's entire "player to player economy" is based upon promising profits to traders in real dollars.

The problem is that depends upon Shroud having players to trade to... and like Amway and other Ponzi schemes, there's an absolutely obvious break point on the horizon because the numbers just aren't there. Most people will LOSE money on Shroud, especially as it needs central servers to track the items; when they close, you lose all the digital goods and the game itself.

LeFantome

urbanmech said:

"Richard Garriott" - you'd think this was a dead giveaway. STOP funding games for these people, the have enough money that if it was really a good product, they wouldn't need "funding" from players.

Yes,  agreed.

Not sure if this will happen though..

CrazKanuk

Sometimes I wonder what would cause more outrage, something like this or the company simply folding without trying to stay afloat whatsoever. Like if they folded like a year and a half ago or 2 years ago, what would that conversation look like? 

Rawyn

Didn't catch this first glance but it says this will be a monthly occurrence, Ahahahahaha, wooo this is just funny. Begathon monthly cause no one wants to play this piece of crap game but those got so much money in it...Ahahahahahah! What an embarrassing end, they deserve it ROFL.

So, starting with Release 44, we are going to experiment with extended Postmortems that are also Mini-Telethons. This will increase the frequency of our telethons to monthly but also keep them short (4 hours). 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=29385

Certhas

People started to see this is going to be a huge scam by Richard Garriott. He had a great chance to revive UO soul, but he decided to deceive the people who believes him. 

rune_74

CrazKanuk said:

Sometimes I wonder what would cause more outrage, something like this or the company simply folding without trying to stay afloat whatsoever. Like if they folded like a year and a half ago or 2 years ago, what would that conversation look like? 

Sure, but this is a byproduct of them changing the direction of the game after taking kickstarter money.  If they did what they were going to do then perhaps they would not have run out of money.

CrazKanuk

rune_74 said:

CrazKanuk said:

Sometimes I wonder what would cause more outrage, something like this or the company simply folding without trying to stay afloat whatsoever. Like if they folded like a year and a half ago or 2 years ago, what would that conversation look like? 

Sure, but this is a byproduct of them changing the direction of the game after taking kickstarter money.  If they did what they were going to do then perhaps they would not have run out of money.

Meh.......when you say "Kickstarter money" are you meaning the $2 million originally collected? Like $2 million to create this?

-Shroud of the Avatar is infused with rich storylines, deeply integrated into game play, developed by Best Selling Author Tracy Hickman and RPG legend Richard Garriott.

-Players will adventure in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them.

-Shroud of the Avatar is a Selective Multiplayer game, allowing players to choose how they want to play! Whether in Single-Player Offline mode or any of three online modes, the main quest line will provide greater than 40 hours of focused, story driven content.

-Shroud of the Avatar can be played as an offline DRM free solo experience or online, where our servers will enable player to player transactions, group finding, patching, streaming of dynamic content, and exploit prevention.

-Built using the Unity Game Engine, Shroud of the Avatar will support Win/Mac/Linux for official launch.

-Players can specialize in a wide range of combat and non-combat skills, provided by a robust, classless skill system, and full-featured crafting and housing mechanics. Play the way you want to play, molding your character into the hero, anti-hero, or artisan you want to be!

-Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtue is the first of a 5 game series of full-length, stand-alone games (each using the same game system), referred to as Episodes 1 through 5. Estimated availability of Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues, is October 2014, with Episodes 2 through 5 estimated for subsequent yearly releases.

-Shroud of the Avatar is a “buy-to-play” game that, once purchased, does not require a subscription to play! 


Your question is exactly what I'm talking about. If they took the $2 million, and a year later said "Fuck! Sorry guys! We just couldn't make what we originally envisioned with the $2 million." What would the forum conversation be like after that? 

There has been a change in direction, but my interest is in whether people actually want to see the game made by any means necessary, or if they'd prefer that they just said "Fuck it!" Effectively the change in direction isn't a means of further increasing the tens of millions of dollars they've made already, the change in direction is specifically intended to generate money in an attempt to keep the development effort for some game to be made, to deliver something to people who had high hopes for it. I don't think it's news that the game has underperformed in just about every aspect, including 3rd party funding. We got the gory financials with the last round of seed funding. So that's the basis of my question. There seems to be a lot of talk about greed, but I'm genuinely interested in knowing why people believe this is greed driven in this case, considering we know that they're basically treading water (or more likely flailing in the water) at the moment. 

blorpykins

Don't forget about the initial $7M they got from investors before they ever did a KS.  Where they are right now is the result of having used up more than $18M in funding and they have no one (not even their investors) pushing hard to get them money for a commercial launch.

So, they're seeing the writing on the wall as is seen by today's announcement that telethons will be monthly.  Their SeedInvest campaign status is probably scaring the hell out of them because as much as they want to not worry about delivering on KS promises, Dev+ promises, they have to deliver physical rewards.  There's already been a legal precedent set for delivering Kickstarter promised physical items.