SotA now doubling up on Telethons?

MightyUnclean

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

Kyleran

As they are actually selling items during these sessions the approach appears to be more akin to Home Shopping Network.

Would be interesting to know how many played contributed to the dollar totals.

Scot

Kyleran said:

As they are actually selling items during these sessions the approach appears to be more akin to Home Shopping Network.

Would be interesting to know how many played contributed to the dollar totals.

Do they have a couple of gamers talking about how useful the items are and how much they have always wanted one of those though? An in game avatar showing off the new "bracelet" or whatever maybe?

Kyleran

Scot said:

Kyleran said:

As they are actually selling items during these sessions the approach appears to be more akin to Home Shopping Network.

Would be interesting to know how many played contributed to the dollar totals.

Do they have a couple of gamers talking about how useful the items are and how much they have always wanted one of those though? An in game avatar showing off the new "bracelet" or whatever maybe?

I dunno,  but I see they have contests and prizes, maybe its also like those TV game shows....

"Tell the viewers what they've won Starr....."

"Sure thing Richard, well we've reached the 'Rainbow' funding tier, so coming soon players will be able to place rainbows everywhere,  over their town, homes, ponies, or even their avatar's if they like. Such fun I'm telling you Richey..."

LeFantome

Well, for the first begathon they got 40K. So they had to do an another one and that time, they got something like 35K.  
40K and then 35K , I would bet it's same people .

With their deadline with the collector edition  ( end of June ), they didn't had enough money with the first begathon..  I'll let you guess the reason of the other one.


They also deleted a post about doing a begathon, weekly.  Their whales was up for it but not everyone was.  Devs saw that and have deleted the post without explantions. ( of course..) 

Scot

Well its not gambling, when they get out a roulette wheel and see who's lucky number comes up, then I would complain.

kitarad

Disgraceful really disgraceful.

Scot

kitarad said:

Disgraceful really disgraceful.

And if every Indie MMO in development out there is not doing it they soon will. That's the thing you see, anything that works to get money, be it loot boxes, gambling, telethons gets copied throughout the whole industry. It is bad, but it is where we have been since cash shops first opened.

Aragon100

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

Games catering for the real life rich isnt a future i am looking forward too.

Kyleran

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

My guess is very few of the 1% is playing MMOs, least of all Pantheon. 

Think about it. They could to buy the studio, fire everyone, have them imprisoned or made to "disappear" and hire in a more capable team.  

At the very least one could have floated Richard a $50M loan.

Scorchien

Sooo , why does anyone have a problem with this...

  Its the American Way .. create product, sell product.. live the dream ..

  If they create something that people are willing to to pay for , why so jelly ..

      Afterall noone got made at the guy for selling

Rhoms

Scorchien said:

Sooo , why does anyone have a problem with this...

  Its the American Way .. create product, sell product.. live the dream ..

  If they create something that people are willing to to pay for , why so jelly ..

      Afterall noone got made at the guy for selling

I have a soft spot in my heart for pet rocks and plastic pink flamingos, but I prefer not to see them in my hobby. 

If you think about it, this is sort of like LARPing a crowdfunding campaign.  Really, there isn't much difference between the two.  Maybe I would feel better about the whole thing if it wasn't done for the purposes of supporting a mediocre-at-best product.  

Sure, these telethons might be the American Way but part of the American Way is consumers' ability  to vote with their dollar.  If customers refuse to support products and companies that engage in this behavior, that's capitalism too.

alyndale

Your lovin' don' pay no bills!

Aragon100

Kyleran said:

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

My guess is very few of the 1% is playing MMOs, least of all Pantheon. 

Think about it. They could to buy the studio, fire everyone, have them imprisoned or made to "disappear" and hire in a more capable team.  

At the very least one could have floated Richard a $50M loan.

Yeah you might be right but my point is that game developers deciding to listen more to players with better real life economy as in SotA is devastating for future gaming. SotA seem to fail in their mission of segregating players and that is very important for future gaming.

It should never be your real life economy that influence how game development proceed. It should be a majority decision from backers.

Arglebargle

Aragon100 said:

Kyleran said:

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

My guess is very few of the 1% is playing MMOs, least of all Pantheon. 

Think about it. They could to buy the studio, fire everyone, have them imprisoned or made to "disappear" and hire in a more capable team.  

At the very least one could have floated Richard a $50M loan.

Yeah you might be right but my point is that game developers deciding to listen more to players with better real life economy as in SotA is devastating for future gaming. SotA seem to fail in their mission of segregating players and that is very important for future gaming.

It should never be your real life economy that influence how game development proceed. It should be a majority decision from backers.

What's the Henry Ford quote  --  'If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would've said 'a faster horse'. '

Scot

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

Games catering for the real life rich isnt a future i am looking forward too.

That does not wash, I remember when those of us who favoured subscriptions were described as  rich elitists because we condemned F2P. If that is a big enough gap for players to see others as "rich" you don't have to be a whale do you?

Aragon100

Scot said:

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

Games catering for the real life rich isnt a future i am looking forward too.

That does not wash, I remember when those of us who favoured subscriptions were described as  rich elitists because we condemned F2P. If that is a big enough gap for players to see others as "rich" you don't have to be a whale do you?

Subscriptions or not have been more of a funding model then a rich or not rich issue. Some developers dislike the RMT so much that they instead prefer subdcriptions.

Mark Jacobs (Dark Age of Camelot) is one of them. He is known for his strong position against "real money transfer", a.k.a. "gold selling"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Jacobs_(game_designer)

The issue is when developers decide to listen to the hi money pledgers instead of the majority of their community. Buying influence with your wallet is bad for future gaming.

MidPrincess

JFC, and I thought Kickstarter was bad enough.....

MightyUnclean

For what it's worth, I like to believe that the developers, especially Richard Garriott, probably never wanted things to turn out this way.  They got desperate.

Scot

Aragon100 said:

Scot said:

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

Games catering for the real life rich isnt a future i am looking forward too.

That does not wash, I remember when those of us who favoured subscriptions were described as  rich elitists because we condemned F2P. If that is a big enough gap for players to see others as "rich" you don't have to be a whale do you?

Subscriptions or not have been more of a funding model then a rich or not rich issue. Some developers dislike the RMT so much that they instead prefer subdcriptions.

Mark Jacobs (Dark Age of Camelot) is one of them. He is known for his strong position against "real money transfer", a.k.a. "gold selling"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Jacobs_(game_designer)

The issue is when developers decide to listen to the hi money pledgers instead of the majority of their community. Buying influence with your wallet is bad for future gaming.

There I agree, its just that in the past it is seemed anyone who did not want F2P was somehow elitist and swimming in money, your post gave me Deja vu. 

MadFrenchie

Arglebargle said:

Aragon100 said:

Kyleran said:

Aragon100 said:

MightyUnclean said:

OK, I may be wrong on this but, are the SotA developers now having two telethons per month?  One on June 4th, one on June 8th?

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

I find it absolutely fascinating that they are able to raise this kind of money on an ongoing basis by basically begging.  How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

The globe’s richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, according to a new report highlighting the growing gap between the super-rich and everyone else.

 https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/14/worlds-richest-wealth-credit-suisse

I guess these whales have very little limits when it comes to buying pixels. 

My guess is very few of the 1% is playing MMOs, least of all Pantheon. 

Think about it. They could to buy the studio, fire everyone, have them imprisoned or made to "disappear" and hire in a more capable team.  

At the very least one could have floated Richard a $50M loan.

Yeah you might be right but my point is that game developers deciding to listen more to players with better real life economy as in SotA is devastating for future gaming. SotA seem to fail in their mission of segregating players and that is very important for future gaming.

It should never be your real life economy that influence how game development proceed. It should be a majority decision from backers.

What's the Henry Ford quote  --  'If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would've said 'a faster horse'. '

Henry Ford's consumer base wasn't inundated with cars of all kinds already, or they likely would've had a far different response if Ford had tried to sell them a jalopy...  Then sell it to them over and over and over again.

Iselin

MightyUnclean said:

 How much money are their whales willing to spend?  Do they have no limits?

You still need to ask that in 2018? Gamers are pitched as if they're all gullible rubes because enough of them are that it makes no difference if some are repulsed by it. The money for nothing just keeps rolling in and it's a hell of a lot less work than money for something.

ceratop001

Do not spend money on these types of games. Corruption is upon you! I wonder if the Russians are infiltrating mmorpgs?

HobbitsWonTheWar

I was a kickstarter backer an quietly followed this over tha years. Wanted it to do well but even the double telethons haven't saved it. they announced today they've let major staff go, cuz the game is strugglin.

They say they promise episode 2 but they sayin they need to go back to stretch goals again. They did bad back when they first tried that too. None got funded. Looks like whole thing soon be over. Gonna fall into mount doom like gollum choking on the fingers of hobbits.

Can't link announcement because I new. Or make a post it seems. So stuck it here. Check official forums as they explain there. Don't want to see any people waste more money when it not gonna last long. Wish Id not spent my own money but I wanted to believe Lord British still has it in him. Seems not. Shame.

Vorthanion

This is the kind of thing that happens when developers pocket more of the money than they should have instead of investing it into the game as they originally promised.  Crowd funding is the devil and development companies are guzzling in the cash since they are not required by law to actually produce a product or pay back the "investors".  Free money for empty promises or at best lackluster results.


Gamers embraced Free to Play which led to Kickstarter which led to self-crowdfunding which has now led to asset auctions.  What a frakking mess.

Wellspring

HobbitsWonTheWar said:

I was a kickstarter backer an quietly followed this over tha years. Wanted it to do well but even the double telethons haven't saved it. they announced today they've let major staff go, cuz the game is strugglin.

They say they promise episode 2 but they sayin they need to go back to stretch goals again. They did bad back when they first tried that too. None got funded. Looks like whole thing soon be over. Gonna fall into mount doom like gollum choking on the fingers of hobbits.

Can't link announcement because I new. Or make a post it seems. So stuck it here. Check official forums as they explain there. Don't want to see any people waste more money when it not gonna last long. Wish Id not spent my own money but I wanted to believe Lord British still has it in him. Seems not. Shame.

Welcome to MMORPG.com. Thanks for the insight.

I believe this is the article you were unable to link:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/company-status.130650/