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Release the Kraken - Shroud of the Avatar Columns
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Release the Kraken - Shroud of the Avatar Columns
Shroud of the Avatar developer Portalarium is charging hard at their release date, and Red Thomas made a run to Austin and sat down with the team to get caught up. Backers will still see the normal development pace right up to go-time, so Red explains some of what they should see over the next couple months.
Comments
What I have not figured out is how this is P2W, can gold help you level, get PvP boosts, etc? I understand lots of gold means you have good equipment, is that where the P2W lies?
To be honest I am still fascinated how much negativity this game cause. Take simple forum RMT trade section. Everyone appaled by this. Really? So black RMT sites should earn a buck instead of clean trade on home forums? And yes, people buy and sell gold in online games. It is not like Garriot set up vendor with GoLdZ there. Simple transactions between players.
And that is trend for SotA. I am founder, but I never played much leaving it for a time when game will become stable (I think it is on or about now, so I am going there on release or a bit earlier). But some of those who play episodically demonstrate toxic behavior and preach about so many woes of SotA and insufferable R.G. And I would have believed them, I might - but problems is the very same people who acuse SotA and R.G. behave like complete ass to everyone else. So I'd rather see for myself what happens there than listen to people who trash this game.
Just wait for the release. You'll see. All the hardcore players quit , long time ago. This is not the game they backed for. But as I said, just wait for the release and you will understand why the reviews are bad...
Unless the changed something from about 6 months ago, the only thing I found worth buying in the eshop was $5 purchase to upgrade bank slots. Everything else was useless cosmetics. There was a currency I got somehow that I could buy more of for some pots that boost some stuff, but they didn't do anything worth wasting money on. I couldn't even be bothered to spend the currency the game gave me on any of them.
And I do buy good stuff worth buying for games. My wife and I have got into a lot of fights from me going a little crazy on DDO when they have the XP gem boxes.
I have zero interest in buying houses or housing lots - or shit for fake houses or cosmetic items that change my characters appearance. If you are into houses and shit then the eshop is probably a money pit for you.
My biggest criticism of the game is they have whole cities that are just player houses and shops. People probably paid good money for that shit and I know I will never visit one in a million years. I find it hard to believe I am in the minority on this, so it just seems like very poor development having people pay real money for a town, house, and shop all the sane people who play the game will never even consider visiting. Its like ESO with no real AH. That retarded system caters to people even more awful than the actual gold sellers the system is supposed to protect against. I have no idea what people have against real, functional auction houses for sane people.
The economy is manipulated by the devs as well to promote RMT and trade.
Made money off Richard Garriotts mothers death.
This is just the tip of the iceberg on the issues with this game and developer.
I can see how the economy is P2W, but I can't see how that makes levelling or PvP a P2W concern? The other poster who replied mentioned boosting pots, I assume that is a physical item you drink? You used the term POTs and then the word plots, this is not the same thing is it? You don't get a boost for owning a plot of land?
As you can see if you ignore games in their early development you can be quite clueless about what's going on.
I liked the idea of player run cities, but I must say I was never a big housing fan, but some people will P2F - Pay to Furnish I guess!
You need a plot deed to place a house deed. Houses can be bought in game off NPC vendors. Plot deeds cannot be bought off NPC vendors, only in the cash shop or off a player. there are upkeep free vendors and plot deeds that forego the upkeep costs that are total P2W items.
POTs (Player owned Towns) majority of these are ghost towns because no one is playing.
Owning a house lets you forego many gold sinks and time investments in the game. Like I said if you are able to pay through the nose for a upkeep free vendor or plot, then you don't need to pay upkeep and thus save money. There are items that save you lots of time, like the cash shop home vault that lets you take items out of the bank without having to do any traveling. Not sure if this is still available.
Portalarium manipulates the market and thus the economy is totally company driven instead of player driven. Players can set prices but Portalarium makes changes behind the scenes that dictates the drops of items and therefore something might be common one day and suddenly be harder to get, driving the prices up.
The knights will come in and try to argue that all this is wrong. Yet when given links with proof, they suddenly vanish.
People that talk bad about the game have been harassed and threatened. It's been said we are paid off by the big MMOs because they are afraid of the success SotA will have when it releases. The moderator at the official forums has said that he wishes he could moderate all places where people talk bad about the game and the issue plaguing it. Talk about censorship.
The game has been persistent for over a year now. The majority of players that are interested have tried the game and left. Many of those that started at persistence have had such a headstart that it will be impossible to ever catch up to them. Mainly not because of time but because mechanics have changed in the game since that time that it's not possible. Many used exploits and botting to gain unfair advantages and were never punished because they were major players in keeping this game afloat. Try and PvP with any of these players even 2 years from now with constant playing and you'll never have a chance. They can solo all the content in the game.
People will flag PvP to get the exp buff, and complain when people steal from them or kill them. All items in the game have a real world cost, they get sour because they lost money when they themselves flagged for PvP. No one made them and they know full well the game mechanics and what PvP means. These are the whales of the game. Portalarium listens to them and have changed the mechanics several times to make things easier for them. Port has come out and said that if you don't give them money, they are not interested in you.
There are videos out there with the devs giving talks on how they work as a business and it's disgusting to listen to. There is a vid that the devs made when they were brainstorming the game. They didn't even have a plan. They just threw a Kickstarter up to make money because the company was in danger of going under. A Kickstarter that a game was pitched that is vastly different then the game we now have.
Look up the failed mobile game they had called Ultimate Collector and notice the similarities to SotA. Garriott was so into the idea of this crap game that he figured he could still use the premise and in doing so attract the fans he already had from the Ultima games if he said the game would be like those past Ultima games.
One of the devs has a published book on how to attract whales and take advantage of them. Dallas Snell is a dev on the game and he is a psychologist that helps Portalarium best use the game to milk whales.
The game is a cash grab that only exists to milk people of their money. Garriot even profited off the death of his dead mother.
It seems on the low P2W scale though, compared to the cash shops we already have. But it they have set up big spenders so they have the golds reserves ready for when the cash shop becomes more P2W (and they all do, without exception).
We used to have designers and developers publishing books on game design, now they write about big spenders.
I will keep an open mind, but as always I never play before proper launch anyway and its upcoming "launch" is only a beta I think.
It is worth noting that we have been the target of an organized campaign for the last several years by a group of individuals who post on every website, review, social media, etc. that mentions or features the game. This group spreads misinformation, takes information out of context, presents incomplete information, etc. in an effort to damage the game and sway opinion against the project. So please use caution when viewing “facts” from certain sources.