Did Aria completely abandon unique shards?

MightyUnclean

Has Legends of Aria completely abandoned the idea of highly customizable, private shards?  Or scaled the idea way back?

Tiller

I thought I read that someplace, not sure where though. Someone else might know more.

MightyUnclean

Nah, that can't be true.  That was the whole basis of the game that people funded.

MightyUnclean

Either way, they've got an interesting scheme going that may alienate both PvP and PvE players by the time they're done.  1) Introduce the official server as primarily PvP; 2) Switch to a primarily PvE rule set to grab those sweet, sweet Steam sales; 3) When it sells like shit on Steam, switch back to primarily PvP.  

Another crowdfunded MMO I wish I hadn't spent any money on, even if it was only like $35.

Utinni

The unique shard idea was the only reason I ever bought this game. They've worried more about pvp ruleset/pve ruleset more than the actual game features for the past year. 

MightyUnclean

Utinni said:

The unique shard idea was the only reason I ever bought this game. They've worried more about pvp ruleset/pve ruleset more than the actual game features for the past year. 

Utinni did they do away with the customizable, private shards?  Or is that still a thing?

Temp0

No, it currently has not been done away with but it either is not progressing or is progressing very slowly. They absolutely put it on the back-burner to focus on the main game and said that they will not open it up to the public (you can currently apply through a special process and may get selected to participate if you meet qualifications) until they do a significant overhaul of the systems involved which from an outsider perspective I have seen zero progress on.

I hope they refocus on this and get the tools out (and prepare tools to allow for community servers to keep running if the game fails to be profitable). This was my only interest in the game from shards - Aria.

MightyUnclean

Temp0 said:

No, it currently has not been done away with but it either is not progressing or is progressing very slowly. They absolutely put it on the back-burner to focus on the main game and said that they will not open it up to the public (you can currently apply through a special process and may get selected to participate if you meet qualifications) until they do a significant overhaul of the systems involved which from an outsider perspective I have seen zero progress on.

I hope they refocus on this and get the tools out (and prepare tools to allow for community servers to keep running if the game fails to be profitable). This was my only interest in the game from shards - Aria.

Yeah, I think this basically means one thing:  game is dead.

Tokken

MightyUnclean said:

Yeah, I think this basically means one thing:  game is dead.


Pretty much dead, yes!

Wenchesnmead

There still are community shards but here's the thing no one wants to talk about aside from how much of a piece of dog shit Aria is.

Monetization.

At some point they realized oh fuck, how do we monetize this.

Well lets sell a sub for certain features. Oops a community shard has those features for free.

Whether its extra player slots. Different clothing dyes etc. 

AT some point CS realized that it wont make a dime beyond the POS because of the commnuity shards.

Thats why despite legends of ultima being an amazing shard, you never see a mention of it by devs and never will.

They realize like many of their awful choices selling the game on the shards concept was a great idea until it go in the way of CS making longterm capital beyond the buy to play.

Thats why they went complete 180 and essentially abandoned the shards concept for Aria since the light bulb had turned on at some point and they realized what a hole they put themselves in.

Any other game would be highlighting how amazing LOU is. Any game would be foolish not to. But they dont because at any point they know they cant control what that team could do to undermine any monetization CS has planned on their main shardss. 

Which will be 1 shard soon as they are going to force everyone into 1 shard soon.

The other joke is of course the double bait and switch.

For those of you who dont know. After they changed the game to be PVE based which completely was a scam to everyone who wanted a UO open world pvp game. 

Now that the numbers of players have dropped to under 200 daily on steam and probably about 500 total worldwide including their client they are now reversing the decision and making it an open world PVP game again to try to sell more copies.

Its a joke. I would love to see one real editorial done on game like this and SOTA. Games that just bilk peoples money for love for a niche. Instead of always just reporting suck up pieces. 

Aria still has not sent out their physical gifts either and when a veteran posted they hadnt they erased the thread from the forums. 

Its awesome. Game is on full life support and the end will come soon.

Wenchesnmead

But I guess I should mention its "early access" so it makes everything okay 

SMH

MightyUnclean

I backed this game a long time ago, but I think I've been giving it a little too much credit as to ever making it to release status.  Want to see how much interest there really is in LoA?  Take a look at the (lack of) activity on the official forums.

https://forums.legendsofaria.com/categories/general-discussion

Game is dead, gonna forget my $50 or whatever it was and move on.

kitarad

You know it occurred to me that when game companies get together to discuss their plans they all just high five each other and nod and agree on every idea without checking if it is viable. Some of these poor ideas should have been ditched even before they ever pitched this game for funds. Wasn't there even one person who brought up the problem of making money and the sustenance of an online game that would need constant incoming cash to continue.

Xarko

I too really hoped we could get a new "NWN" with player run PWs and everything.. oh well.

MightyUnclean

kitarad said:

You know it occurred to me that when game companies get together to discuss their plans they all just high five each other and nod and agree on every idea without checking if it is viable. Some of these poor ideas should have been ditched even before they ever pitched this game for funds. Wasn't there even one person who brought up the problem of making money and the sustenance of an online game that would need constant incoming cash to continue.

That's why almost all the crowdfunded MMO's have failed or are well on their way to failure.  Bunch of visionaries with no one to tell them "no."

Scorchien

 Tried to warn yas about this game long ago ...

   But if you want a UO experience there is only one place to get it ....

     https://uo.com/

austinmaw

There killing there own game and don't seem to care.  They really need a PvE server for those who want that and a PvE/PvP server for risk vs. reward for those who want that.  They can be stubborn all they want and keep making changes, but in the end it will end up killing the game.  The next 6 to 12 months will tell that or it will start to shutdown.  

Kajidourden

Doesn't matter it'll be closed soon anyway.  

Tokken

Lack of leadership and indecisiveness is it's downfall.

bwwianakiev

Scorchien said:

 Tried to warn yas about this game long ago ...

   But if you want a UO experience there is only one place to get it ....

     https://uo.com/

UO isnt what UO used to be. Only way to get the true UO experience is private servers.

wkyfam

Wenchesnmead answered this question perfectly.  I think the writing was on the wall with the name change.  The Shards concept was this title's selling point, and what could have ultimately led to its success.  However, poor decision making has led to a rudderless ship flailing for funding.  I think the company could have sustained some form of capital post-release by giving us new assets including regions, artwork, items, character models, etc and simply sold them as packs.  In that regard, the game could have functioned like a tabletop RPG and given us new toys to populate our shards to tell our own stories.