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Will we ever see a successful MMORPG developed via Indie and/or Crowd Funding?
GeezerGamer
Member EpicPosts: 8,857
While it's clearly obvious that it's possible that a game can be developed like this, how many believe it's actually going to happen and how many believe it won't?
We have Star Citizen now coming under fire and some are actually saying the project is over. And while I'm not ready to make that statement, I have to wonder how this could affect crowd funded projects in the future.
There is Pantheon, which promises to bring an older format back to the genre. One which I would love to see come to fruition. However this project is also being initiated by someone who, while he may have the creative genius to design such a game, he also has a spotted history with regard to running the business side of things.
Then there is The Re-population. The game that some are hailing as the spiritual successor to SWG. But in recent threads, there have been back and forth discussions about how good this game is really going to be. Not to mention my personal concern following Arche Age and given such a small development team, can they successfully release a free to play MMORPG while keeping the hacks and cheats to a minimum?
All three of these games are marketed to offer me everything I would seem to want in an online game. Yet will we actually see them?
And, what happens to Pantheon if CIG folds? Will the public perception towards crowd funding turn into something like scam-funding? What happens to the next guy who has an idea? Is he pretty much screwed or will people "forgive and forget"?
We have Star Citizen now coming under fire and some are actually saying the project is over. And while I'm not ready to make that statement, I have to wonder how this could affect crowd funded projects in the future.
There is Pantheon, which promises to bring an older format back to the genre. One which I would love to see come to fruition. However this project is also being initiated by someone who, while he may have the creative genius to design such a game, he also has a spotted history with regard to running the business side of things.
Then there is The Re-population. The game that some are hailing as the spiritual successor to SWG. But in recent threads, there have been back and forth discussions about how good this game is really going to be. Not to mention my personal concern following Arche Age and given such a small development team, can they successfully release a free to play MMORPG while keeping the hacks and cheats to a minimum?
All three of these games are marketed to offer me everything I would seem to want in an online game. Yet will we actually see them?
And, what happens to Pantheon if CIG folds? Will the public perception towards crowd funding turn into something like scam-funding? What happens to the next guy who has an idea? Is he pretty much screwed or will people "forgive and forget"?
Comments
Owner/CEO of Soulbound Studios
ChroniclesOfElyria.com
Not knocking you specifically, JW, but every crowdsourcing dev says that. I mean, really, if they didn't actually think that, they wouldn't be doing their project, right?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
In total I'll have put up $0.5 Million USD of my own money.... mine and nobody else's.... before we ever ask for crowd funding. And I'm not rich. That's not pocket change... it's everything I own.
I'm doing it because I'm 100% confident in my team's ability to develop on what we're promising. And I'm doing it because I'd never ask the community to fund development of a game I wasn't 110% dedicated to.
So when I say "stay tuned for CoE," I'm not saying it to sound arrogant, or to hype. I'm saying I've put everything I am, and everything I have into the success of the game, and I'm committed to making it successful... or it will cost me a lot more than it costs you.
Owner/CEO of Soulbound Studios
ChroniclesOfElyria.com
There have already been successful indie MMOs earlier, Eve Online is a good example and so is Meridian 59. Hard work, good ideas and talent are actually more important than money (even if you still need some money of course).
The thing with indie games (which probably goes for crowdfunded games as well) is that they mostly fails but you get a few brilliant games, like Minecraft that just have such great ideas and talented devs they becomes huge. Sooner or later we will get at least another MMO like that but it could take time, or one of the games (or even several) might become huge.
What is Influence?
Influence Points (Influence or IP) is our pre-launch currency, used to track the most influential community members.
There will be many different ways to earn Influence. For now, the best way is byrecruiting other players!
Influence provides benefits such as early access, special rewards, and currency to purchase in-game property, titles, and items. Specific examples include:
It is in my opinion where things started to go downhill for CIG. But that's a whole different thread
Now, what you see here is list of possible items people can use IP to buy for in-game use before/at release. Now do understand them having it doesnt mean they get to keep it. If i used my IP for a legendary item another player still has free reign to kill me and take the item for themselves. The same goes for surnames, titles, land, and buildings! This game allows almost complete freedom and with that kingdoms can topple, items can break, and your character will pass away. The devs heavily emphasize that this is a low fantasy game with combat that will be heavily skill based. Meaning no OP/P2W items and territory.
There plan with the influence is to help start the lore of the game. At first they will allow players who have been active in the community as well as early in it get access and establish themselves with the IP (which makes sense when you hear the full game overview) and then let more and more players in to have them get immersed in the game. If they let everyone in at once there would be utter chaos. As people trickle in they will get settled and everyone will find their place in the game to do what they want. The devs want to have this game be a story created by players over years of playing. Heros will arise, new places will be discovered, towns and guilds will be born, villans and legendary creatures will come forth. There is so much to this game even that I could literally write you pages on pages of information from all thats been discussed and mentioned.
But as for a business model they will have people pay by soul reincarnation. Each reincarnation will cost $20-40 USD but one life in the game can last anywhere from 10-14 months though maybe less depending on fame and number of previous deaths but either way thats still a lot cheaper than most subscriptions and it lasts until the character dies not because of a missed payment.
If i confused you I apologize xD Im an engineer. My writing skills arent that great...
Will Pantheon have a healer class ?
But, yes. If you don't feel that you have money you can't throw away in the slight hope it might possibly help an acceptable game eventually release supporting a kickstarter just isn't something you should do. Far too many people tend to confuse "kickstarter" with "pre-order", not the same thing and you need to assume that you probably will lose the money with little or no gains.
It will however be worth to support some kickstarter projects, the problem is to figure out which actually will lead to something good and which that will fail. Certain projects are doomed from the start and easy to spot but others are harder.
I don't see anything stopping them as of this time.
Games we will have, but will it fit the criteria of what we want? Hard to say. I certainly hope so, even if on a small scale (population wise) as long as the devs' vision aren't marred or deviated by the path of least resistance.
https://chroniclesofelyria.com/
As for ongoing financial success, that's a hazier question as it's unclear what level of quality and fun these games will offer. It's safe to assume that each game will be fun to its particular niche, but most of these titles don't seem to offer gameplay appealing to the core RPG audience so it's a little unknown whether they'll be widely adopted or not (or at least: widely adopted enough to be profitable.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
If you take a radically different approach, then sometimes innovation and the application of new best practices can be worth more than $10M USD.
So I don't seem overly biased, look at Minecraft.
Owner/CEO of Soulbound Studios
ChroniclesOfElyria.com
We will see a few KS/CF games launch that will go on to have a stable playerbase and keep their company viable. Sure, they may not be the next big thing (I think those days are over for a while at least) but they will have enough players to keep the games up and running with content/improvements coming in.
But again, this all depends on the developers and their ability to keep track of the scope of the project. They don't need to push the releases out for every little great idea that popped into their head while tying their shoe one Sunday morning. There is plenty of time after launch to add new features.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
I just realized Crowd funding is essentially a form of gambling. You are gambling money in hopes of an enjoyable game, and all the possible hours of fun that could provide. So I think crowd funding will always be viable, or there wouldn't be any casinos. It's also like the stock market though, where peoples confidence affects activity. So we will probably see a decline in support after any big negative story like Star Citizen.
And I don't see any difference in the games being produced by these smaller companies and the big studios.
They both offer something good but it's rare they actually deliver. Sure the big studios will do everything bigger, but they also should have the resources to make better games, but they don’t really.
Very important detail in measuring success is low "maintenance cost" i.e. success expectation of games with $10M or lower budgets. For example, Mark Jacobs defined CU's success as "30-50K subs and 80+ on Metacritic would be great." (note the "great", not minimum or enough or such). The actual numbers (even the post-retention ones) will likely be much higher, I'm giving the quote just to illustrate the lower limit of "success".
Can you have a small scale MMORPG? Maybe. However, it won't be comprehensive, it will be lacking in areas and I can full expect it to be released in a bare bones type of fashion with hopeful updates in the future (Hopeful).
Most of the AAA company's have already done their versions of an MMORPG and they have all been terrible examples of what not to do with 100 million + dollars at your disposal. This is a prime example of why people have generally lost faith that a MMORPG worth anything will every be released in the next decade.
I asked Ryan Dancey (Pathfinder Online) something similar recently, in reply he wrote a textwall basically avoiding to answer and claiming that "more than 4 millions were invested so far" and that "at least 2-3 millions more will be invested". Two months later he left the company, and two weeks after that the game was basically shut down (if one can shut down the game that never launched and was years away from finished state).
Needless to say, all these millions were contradictory to both what followed and to the shoestring budget state the game was in. I hope that I won't get something as dodgy as what he wrote in reply to questions above!?