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Ashes of Creation - 19,576 Backers Later... - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Ashes of Creation - 19,576 Backers Later... - MMORPG.com
Ashes of Creation ran a wildly successful Kickstarter Campaign, we tasked our grizzled crowd funded MMORPG veteran Timothy Eisen with a post campaign write up that covers victory, some soul searching and some words of experience.
Comments
"As the wayward children forgotten long ago by the studios and publishers we built we come with optimism and hope for our MMORPG future."
I backed Ashes, bigly. For this very reason. They are making a game that I want to play. Hopefully, this is how it turns out.
But I completely get the turn off for a project that doesn't have much actual existence. I've backed numerous Early Access titles (my Steam library, sigh) that have been abandoned or develop so slowly I'll be ashes myself before they are ever launched. I'm no longer that adventurous and EA devs have only their own ilk to blame for jading the community.
To better days lads and lassies
You missed nothing of the kind.
Remember, this KS campaign was said to be for additional features only, the core game was said to be already funded.
imo, 3mio is actually seed money to tide the development process within 1-2yrs, but looking at the current trend, most ambitious kickstart tend to get side track and lose their focus...., delays will obviously eat into the bottom line etc..
This KS was for some additional features and to "give" the community an "opportunity" to be part of the magic. (and maybe make some cash from the referral program.)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I fully expect to more of and some evolution in referral programs going forward.
Remember, one area of greatest innovation in gaming continues to be monetization, or to put it as Tim did, give MMO players another new hill to climb.
We can only hope the same level of innovation makes it into the actual games when/if they get delivered
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I think this is a pretty good example of what expectations currently are for these campaigns. I would argue that over the course of the KS campaign then actually showed a LOT of gameplay compared to many crowdfunded games. This leads back to the Early Access vs Crowdfunding debate. Has the introduction of Early Access impacted the expectations of Kickstarter and the like? I'd say it certainly has. Is it for the better? Well, I'd say for the consumer it's better. For the developer, it forces them to accept more risk. Risk, and money, that they may not be able to afford, but c'est la vie!
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Personally, there are two things that convinced me to pull out. Firstly, there's no producer role listed on their 'The Team' page. They've hired more programmers and designers, but who's taking responsibility for making sure production schedules are met and feature creep doesn't burn cash, or that there's enough time for decent QA? The lack of seriousness about production or project management gave me enough concern to start with.
The second part is to do with the lore and the setting, and the leadership team delivering this. No offence to the group delivering it, but I see a distinct lack of diversity. I've played through countless other high fantasy MMOs and, while they've been mechanically interesting, they've been narratively similar. Considering that I mainly play MMORPGs for the lore, this is a detractor.
I hope it works out - the world needs more great MMOs, but I'll be joining Tim on the bench for this one.
Currently playing: WildStar, Guild Wars 2, EVE Online, Vain Glory.
What I no longer do is follow their development until beta or later, mainly because I do not have the capacity to keep up with so many different games and I am already following one, CU. So basically, I fund and forget until there is a playable version I can test out and offer my suggestions.
Nanulak
Whether they can get $25 million from those investors or not remains to be seen.
same thing for me I've backed enough rpgs on kickstarter to know the presentation for this on kickstarter was just horrible. the reality is he just had the business sense to leverage youtubers and twitch streamers to do most of the work for them better than most kickstarters I have seen. don't even get me started on the pathetic updates during the campaign and his excessive use of buzzwords that he knows most mmo gamers want to hear.
I hope the backers actually get what they want on this one,way too questionable for my tastes tho.
Any succesful (as in, the game got completed mostly as advertised and was good) "high profile" kickstarter campaign that mostly relied on having a " industry established figurehead" ?
Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, even Elite: Dangerous..all done by studios already established way before Kickstarter was a thing., and who relied on that history and experience, instead of a "figurehead".
I'd guess there are a few who meet this crtiera, but i can't remember any, and couldn't find any right now either.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
Let's see if you can answer the question of kickstarter games that was made by someone with no previous experience in making games that was mostly as advertised and had a positive reception.
No, they showed a lot of footage but they didn't show any real gameplay. There are games with 30 seconds of footage on kickstarter that showed and explained more gameplay than Ashes of Creation ever did in their hours of vistas, prerendered movies, Q&As and placeholder content.
And you know this because..? From the PRE-Alpha footage or because... mmmh, let me guess: Haters are gonna hate no matter what.
Ashes of Creation: https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Archangelus/
I'll take that bet.
What you guys who like action combat fail to realise is there are a lot of players out there who prefer tab targeting. A lot. In fact judging by the top 5 mmo's out there I'd say there are more tab target players than twitch players.
If AoC had gone full twitch spammy reticule aiming action combat, it would have failed. It would have aliened it's intended audience. People in forums like this one make the constant mistake that the popular view here translates into the real world. It doesn't. Just because most players on game forums prefer action combat doesn't mean that is the most popular combat system. We know this becuase an overwhelming number of player never post on game forums.
Two things that really set their campaign apart (in the end, I didn't back until about 5 days left) were:
1. Unlike a lot of other KS MMOs, they showed far more (in streams, not so much on KS itself) than just some napkin ideas put out be an industry has been (err... veteran). Yes, a lot of what they showed was rough, and some of it little more than 'vision trailers', but there was enough detail to get a good sense of what they are aiming for (which btw, also unlike a lot of other KS MMOs, includes a coherent and logical overall game design).
2. Controversial referral program aside, there was no sign of pay for advantage (let alone pay to win); even the mounts and houses you could get are simply skins, so you still need to earn your mount and house in game before you can use them.
Do I have my doubts? Absolutely, especially about the amount of quality PvE content they can possibly create, which is only compounded by the dynamic nature of the node system... but then it is an MMO, so if it at least starts with a strong base, adding a few extra dungeons / world bosses / etc. post launch shouldn't be too much to ask.
And in the end, for me personally, it's $100, not the end of the world if all I've done is burnt it.
2. I agree. This is so far the least P2W offering in recent times. The worst would be a 1-2 day headstart but even for that they have promised some "fresh" servers on launch day.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
About the best one I can think of would be Hairbrained Schemes (Shadowrun games, and the upcoming Battletech), formed by Jordan Wiseman (famous, but more for creating table-top games), and even then, they had developed two mobile games before going to KS with Shadowrun: Returns.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey