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SV gets grilled by potential investors during the last stock option.
sandboxluv
Member Posts: 56
It was covered pretty well at MMO Fallout.
http://mmofallout.com/2012/02/13/star-vault-has-5-employees-says-henrik-at-web-hearing/
*Stock is at an all time low*
*SV has only 5 employess left out of 25 from the start*
*The reason new players do not stay is because the community needs to be more helpful*
*They have not reached a deal to move into China yet*
Give it a read.
Comments
Yeah.. sure is the community the one at fault. First it was vulcano, then epic, then wow, now this..
Wow, just... wow. I have told them since beta to write a fucking game manual. A nice manual with commands, skills, lores, etc. All the tips in one place. Crafting paths mapped out. Flagging. Housing.
Right now all the game information is split into 1,000 different forum threads. If they would have just spent some time on a real manual much of the frustration could be alleviated.
It is not the communities responsibility to hold the hands of new players. It is Starvaults responsibility to provide the necessary gameplay information in one accessible format.
Cheap bastards at SV could have spent a few hundred dollars on a writer, and saved a good chuck of customers far outweighing the cost.
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There are also some fundamental issues with the skill point system... you have to have more than one account to be fully self sufficient, and a lot of people don't like that. In beta there were 5 account slots, and that is really the way it should be. SV really fucked up on this one because when people realize they have to pay 30$ a month to enjoy playing the game, its a huge turn off. I personally would not enjoy playing the game with only one account, because your guild mates are not always on at the same time you need something.
Funny thing is, the community has been extremely active in hepling new players out, at least it used to be like that back when I played. Lots of player-written guides, video tutorials, an ambitious newbie guild (Talar Matar Academy), a wiki, maps, fansites about MO politics, etc etc.
Hell, come to think of it, ALL help that new players hace received have come from the community. Guess SV thought it was really hardcore and sandboxy to force people to make all this "player-made content" in order for the game to be playable at all.
Too bad a sandbox is about in-game tools and multiple playstyle options - not a lack of content and user-friendliness.
A portion of the community still is very helpfull to newbies but thats not the point here. Even though i was trying to be helpfull not to bring customers in SV but cause i ve lived the frustration under starting MO alone and i know how it feels and how easy is to give up i dont think is community's obligation to explain things like how to use the bloody crappy UI or how to change from normal mode to mouse mode or whatever. I laugh a lot though with the playerbase that doing it not cause its something build in theur character to be helpfull in general but because they obviously suffer from Stockholm syndrome and they thinking in a sequence like that: i m helping newbies > newbies deciding to stay around> newbies bying the game and starting to pay monthly sub> more money coming in SV's registers> Henrik invest the money in the game> MO gets better. I think that its a bit sad that after all this time people still believe that theres a single chance for the last two steps of the sequence to happen. I might be pessimist here by cant be any longer optimistic and i do consider that it would be very dum from my side and i will not hide the secret hope that burns deep inside and a very distant voice that can barely hear and sais smt that there might be a minimum possibility that i may be wrong. Even though i did stop investing in SV and MO and as many people i will not keep on supporting unless SV starts investing in its own game.
Wow way to misinterpret.
Here's the source information (beware of google transalation):
"Henry: It is mainly three areas we have identified and placed great emphasis on: The main part of the new players are "aids" and information to a new player who has not been sufficient. New players often feel lost and do not know where he should begin. Many have taken the step on to our forum and ask our players or developers, and will then get a plan on how he wants to play Mortal Online, as it is a free game that does not keep new players in the hand or tell what to do. We have noted very clearly that the persons receiving this information often comes into the game and become a long standing customer. Without anyone caring for this new player, there is great risk that he will not enter the game and stop playing it. We have a lot to try new customers every day as we now know what we need to improve to retain significantly more new players."
He never blames the community, he simply says that the new player help (new player chat and in game tutorials assuming) isn't sufficient enough as it is and that it's an area they are aware they need to improve on.
Saw this, this morning when the op first made his post. I figured others would of picked up on it. But it doesn't seem like anyone did.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aktietorget.se%2Fpressdocs%2Fstarvault%2Fhearings%2FHearing_StarVault_20120209.html
That's the link provided by the article posted by the op. In it there's a nice quote which explains all the "over the top" posts that's been going on lately.
"Henry: We are focused on achieving break-even in the company and we believe that we will soon be there. When it comes to marketing, we know now that the marketing of MO, in addition to the viral marketing that we carry, best done by a publisher who has experience in how to do this. I currently have a majority and has signed an in principle, all except this. I would welcome that we received a large number of owners who may be on our trip. (2012-02-09 10:20)"
Star Vault has openly asked for people to come over here and spam in the past. It's free advertising and they are loosing money. Go figure. It's far from tin foil hattery. A lot of small developers do it. They just aren't total douche bags spamming up the forum with over the top garbage. I'm not saying everyone is a shill but there has been a fair share of them popping up lately. The surge of scripted posts the other day? You know all the ones that got locked or deleted. Sv is a shady company and people can figure that out easy enough with out all the back and forth in this section or any other forums. Some look past it, while most don't. Hence the sinking ship being propped up by daddy's wallet.
(Edit just to clarify: Which is fine, it is his/ their money. Though without that money there is a good chance the game would of been long gone by now, given the condition of the game and how poorly the company is managed.)
Amana keeps asking what the heck is going on with all the stupid spam and there it says it print. "Viral marketing." It's pretty dam obvious to a lot of people that something is going on.
I am tired saying it again and again and not a single response by their side appart from some fanbois that jumping on me saying their usual crap that it is as it is for a reason and bla bla bla bla. It only proves they are hungry for money and they dont respect their playerbase at all. They allready know that more of 50% (a rough estimation and tbh i think its more like 60-75%) of the hardcore players have at least 2 accounts. If they had common sence they would at least could make it as a sevice and allow to the subscribers buy up to 3 more character slots for 10 euros each or whatever. I wouldnt mind paying a sum of money once and for all to get more char slots but paying each month 2 accounts it doesnt feel right and not cause 30 euros is that big of a deal but because it doesnt make sence to pay 2 subs for a game and especially not if the game its in MO's shape.
Its all those small things that puting them together in my mind make me feel bad for SV and thinking that they are just lamer opportunists that dont give a crap about the game, the community their own fame and bad image out in the gaming market.