Ville Valo posted:

Star Citizen 2, Fantasy Boogaloo

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1791529601/ashes-of-creation-new-mmorpg-by-intrepid-studios

Edit: I'm hearing this is an actual, literal pyramid scheme. Neat.

dovetaile posted:

Where are you hearing this at? I mean no way it'll ever deliver or even have half of the features at launch.

DoctorTristan posted:

Does anyone want to read about exactly how over engineered that stupid nespresso juicer thing really is?

the door-locking mechanism alone has 15 different custom-made parts

monster on a stick posted:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/68n6rt/ashes_of_creation_a_sandbox_mmo_which_focuses_on/ courtesy of the Kickstarter Games thread

dovetaile posted:

Where are you hearing this at? I mean no way it'll ever deliver or even have half of the features at launch.

quote:

Ashes of Creation offers our players a unique opportunity to benefit from the game’s success. Refer and invite new players and receive 15% of their account purchases back in either in-game credits, reduced subscription or cash back.

quote:

This is a scam, a pyramid scheme! Yikes! Our referral program rewards you for bringing in customers of our product Ashes of Creation, similar to a simple affiliate program, like Amazon. Furthermore, it requires no investment on the part of the referrer to participate.

Kickstarter Campaign posted:

Ashes of Creation

Ashes of Creation is a new MMORPG that aims to bring the Massive back to Massively Multiplayer. It takes everything we love about the genre and brings it boldly into the future as a truly next generation title. We’ve all wanted a world that lives and breathes and reacts, where our decisions matter, where the world changes because of what we’ve done. Ashes of Creation is that game: The rebirth of the MMORPG.

Why Kickstarter?

We’ve got private backing that will allow us to produce a core viable product. Without you though, that’s what it will remain, minimally viable. What Kickstarter will allow us to do is expand our scope and give our team flexibility and room to breathe. To really give us the opportunity to create *exactly* what we want. Crowdfunding also allows us to connect directly with the players most invested in our success. We need your voices to help grow this community, and to keep us accountable to those who matter most, the players. Come help us bring MMOs into the future, and make the game I know all of us want to play. From the ashes, MMOs will rise again!

Kickstarter FAQ posted:

How can you build an MMO for $750k!?

This project is primarily self funded, and we’re dedicated to staying true to our vision and not being compromised. The core product can be delivered with our current capital and the crowdfunding goal. Going forward, we are dedicated to keeping our vision consistent with our philosophies and adding features whenever possible.

Unreal engine has helped greatly with this! Out of the box, UE4 is a graphically stunning engine, but most importantly UE4 provides us as the developers, the ability to modify the engine at the source code level. This has been a great help for us, since leveraging technology like this can save companies a lot of money in a big way.

We are beyond elated that you are reading this and share our vision! We believe the MMO genre can offer so much more, and be so much better to its players. We have a lot invested in the product, money, time, and a ton of effort with late nights. We have a ton of experience on our team with MMOs and we know how to tackle each hurdle.

What do the different alpha and beta phases mean?

We’ll be doing continual testing of our game until launch, alpha and beta are included in this plan. Alpha 1 will be our very first “closed” test, followed by Alpha 2, Beta 1 and Beta 2. They will take place in that order, but exact dates of each test aren’t available at this time. Alpha 2 will remain active in a persistent state till launch, then will become our Public Test Server. (If you have a key from our weekly drawings, those keys give access to our weekend NDA Alpha starting in Q4 2017)

Ashes of Creation Official Site FAQ posted:

Does the Unreal Engine work well with large scale users and MMOs?

Unreal Engine 4 is designed to create small, fully-functional projects right out of the box. Since an MMO is a literal culmination of every extreme in game design, one might, quite understandably, balk at the idea of using UE4 for such a project. Fortunately, UE4 is easily modified at a source code level to allow for custom or extensive divergences from the default, small project functionality. We have identified what we need to change – most notably, the network communication and level loading code – in order to get the gaming experience that is expected of a modern MMO

Steven_AoC posted:

Hey guys! I have read some of the posts about our referral program, as well as concern over my income from Multi-Level Marketing. I am personally one who strongly believes in transparency and want to be as involved in the community as possible! So I will give some input to this discussion. When I was 15 I started a Marketing business, trying to sell nutritional drinks using commercials on AM talk radio stations. This became very successful very quick, and when I turned 18 I decided to start working for a company called XanGo. I wasn't the "CEO" of XanGo as some people are saying, nor did I help create the company... I was just a normal sign up, and I created a website that, I used my marketing company to help promote and sell their juice and vitamins with.. By the time I was 20, I was selling a lot of the juice and vitamins, and rose to be one of the top sellers of the company. About 7 years ago I moved into investments and real estate, which is the source of a majority of my success. Many people consider the MLM industry to be a pyramid scheme, but there are actually good MLMs out there, that can provide people with good incomes. I was lucky to find a good one that had great products, and that allowed me at a young age to become successful enough to begin investing and buying real estate.

The referral program, is a system I designed for two purposes;

1. It is a way to promote organic growth, growth that capitlizes on the social nature of our gaming community. Many companies in the gaming industry must spend millions to promote their game on websites, emailing campaigns, facebook, banner ads, magazines, commercials etc... All of that money goes to media.. Media that doesn't care about the game, just wants to reach a bottom line for revenue (in my opinion). Meanwhile this money that is being spent, could have been used on developing the game! So I wanted to find a way, to break that mold. By focusing on the social bonds of our community.
   
2. Since I wanted to focus on using the community itself to drive growth for our game, it only seemed fair to share with the community in that growth. So I created a rewards system, that would allow for players to do 3 things; Play for free, Get unique virtual goods, and be rewarded with real cash. This stems from my desire to be inclusive in this development. If not for the referral program, this money would be going to corporations instead, and I just dont see why they should take something that the community is responsible for anyways!

Just to be clear.

Our referral system works the opposite of a pyramid. If you refer someone who spends $15 to play our game, you are rewarded with $2.25.

If they refer someone who spends $15 to play our game, they now only spend $12.75, which means you are now only rewarded with $1.91

This actually acts the opposite of a pyramid. And is not Multi-Level Marketing, because by definition it is only a single level.

Hope this clears this up for many of you, I am happy to chat more about any questions you have

Most importantly please remember, Ashes of Creation is a complete passion of mine, it is something I wake up and go to sleep thinking about non stop... My time as a gamer for 25 years is leading the designs in the game... Features I know resonate with so many others, and the team I have brought together can get it done, and done right.

<3

Ashes of Creation: The Team posted:

Jeffrey Bard – Lead Game Designer

I’m the resident bard, a jack-of-all trades who wears a bunch of hats (even that one, sitting on your head, right now). I write lore and fix our internet when it needs fixing, troubleshoot the untroubleshootable, and make sure that our game actually runs when it doesn’t want to. But primarily, I’m working on making Ashes of Creation. I’ve been doing most of the scripting to get our core systems up and running, as well as carefully curating our lore and storylines. Game design is something I’ve been doing in one way or another since I was six, when I ran my first Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I’m all grown up now though, having worked on some amazing projects with some amazing people. That trend continues with Ashes of Creation and this group we have here at Intrepid Studios – the talent is off the charts, and I’m already amazed at everything we’ve built so far. I cannot wait to share this project with the world.

Jason Crawford – Technical Director

As Technical Director and principal engineer at Intrepid Studios, I am charged with overseeing the studio’s software development pipeline and the technical design of Ashes of Creation. With over 15 years in the entertainment software industry, I bring vast experience and leadership working in publishing, game design, quality assurance, software engineering, and e-commerce across a multitude of successful indie and major AAA game titles. I am passionate about role-playing games in general and am a regular player of MMOs, single-player JRPGs, and numerous variants of pen-and-paper RPGs. I also enjoy listening to and composing music, working on and customizing my car, building LEGO sets, collecting comic books and manga, and watching vintage and modern Japanese animation.

tooterfish posted:

"Fortunately, UE4 is easily modified at a source code level" -- the ideas guys who have to date employed exactly 0 (that's zero, with a z) engineers!

Mirificus posted:

When I was 15 I started a Marketing business, trying to sell nutritional drinks

Many people consider the MLM industry to be a pyramid scheme, but there are actually good MLMs out there

tooterfish posted:

"Fortunately, UE4 is easily modified at a source code level" -- the ideas guys who have to date employed exactly 0 (that's zero, with a z) engineers!

quote:

Just to be clear.

Our referral system works the opposite of a pyramid. If you refer someone who spends $15 to play our game, you are rewarded with $2.25.

If they refer someone who spends $15 to play our game, they now only spend $12.75, which means you are now only rewarded with $1.91

This actually acts the opposite of a pyramid. And is not Multi-Level Marketing, because by definition it is only a single level.

Hope this clears this up for many of you, I am happy to chat more about any questions you have

Prop Wash posted:

I... what?

SpacePig posted:

The less actual, literal cash your referrals spend on the game, even after any discounts that may come from their own referral discounts, the less you make. So I guess it's not exactly like a pyramid in that in only fully incentivizes having one layer of referrals, and he further up you are, the worse off you'll be, for the most part.

Zaphod42 posted:

That just makes it a less effective pyramid scheme.

Or to sorta quote Rick and Morty, that just sounds like a pyramid scheme with extra steps!

Zaphod42 posted:

That just makes it a less effective pyramid scheme.

Or to sorta quote Rick and Morty, that just sounds like a pyramid scheme with extra steps!

gschmidl posted:

Ashes of Creation posted:

Great things come from small beginnings. In games, it often starts with vision. From years of being involved in the MMO genre, playing games such as Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy 14 (among many others) there always seemed to be something lacking. Sometimes PvP was masterfully incorporated into the game, others had dungeons so fun you forgot what PvP even stood for, while a few had great new ideas that were like a breath of fresh air. The problem always seemed to come with the trade you made in order to enjoy a certain aspect. Our vision is to tie all of these elements together, to make a complete game that specializes not in one category, but rather aims for the ultimate goal of perfection. We know: that’s a tall order.

So we wanted to take a step back, to check ourselves before we wrecked ourselves; to really dive into what makes MMOs so addictive, and why we kept coming back to them. The primary question is: What makes an MMO fun, at its core? Well, it’s got to be the thing that makes an MMO an MMO, right? What separates an MMO from all the fantastic Mass Effects and Dragon Ages and Witchers? It’s the MASSIVENESS. It’s the community and the forums and the competition and the people who you’d never meet in real life. It’s that Massively Multiplayer promise. It’s the people that make an MMO what it is. Not a hotbar or a raid boss or a fetch quest. Those are mechanics, those aren’t the genre.

And there was our answer, and there was our game. We decided to focus on mechanics that bring the idea of community to the forefront. To get people to interact with each other meaningfully – not just to conquer a raid boss, or to get some coin from a faceless auction house, but to maybe save a city. A city that all the local residents had a stake in. A city that the players had spent weeks or months developing; the defense of that city, the attack on that city! Or building a world together as a community choosing our own fate with our friends. We believe that’s going to be a story far more memorable and far more meaningful to players than just about anything we can come up with.

So that’s our design philosophy in a nutshell. Give players reasons to interact, and make those interactions meaningful. And make both of those things feel cool and appropriately epic.

In enters our new MMO in development, Ashes of Creation. As you’ve probably guessed by now, we’re creating an MMO based on our core principles as designers; we believe in choice, organic events, player narratives and massive communities. All of these come together in what we call our “Reactive World.” Players will shape the world we create through dynamic quests, castle sieges, our Node system, an economy that goes well beyond the auction house, and player housing (among many other systems). We’ll set up the initial state, you decide where it goes from there.

We are merely the music makers; you will be the dreamer of dreams.

Ashes of Creation begins with us and ends with you, but there are many steps in between. We’ve incorporated some investors, but primarily my own funding has begun the process and we’re well on our way. The team is dedicated, experienced and enthusiastic about what we will be delivering to you, the player. We’re focused on giving you the version of the game we know you’ll love, and to do so we want to keep this as investor-lite as possible (publishing or otherwise). With this in mind, we plan on starting a Kickstarter in the near future. We believe the crowdfunding platform to be perfect for making a game for the player you actually want to attract. Perhaps most importantly, is that it allows you to be involved with our process. Through both financial and creative transparency you’ll be able to have input with design through the developer’s forums, so you see what we’re working on and what’s on our mind.

You’ll see in the coming weeks exactly what we’ve done and what systems are in place. We’ll be regularly posting dev journals, releasing videos, showing off artwork and genuinely keeping a dialogue with the community. That dialogue is very important to us, we want our community to be constantly (and properly) informed. Make sure to register on the forums and become a part of our world!

The story only begins here, we’re excited to provide the pen and see what you write.

Mirificus posted:

Ashes of Creation - A New Beginning

Paladinus posted:

What's the deal with those kickstarted MMO games?

Collateral Damage posted:

There was an MMO a bunch of years back where you started out at a riverbank in ancient Egypt and had to build a civilisation from there.

Predictably it turned into a game about who could build the biggest virtual penis.

Mirificus posted:

quote:

Variety of unique fair trade ties with hidden pockets, fabrics woven by women free from trafficking, packaging made by Tibetan refugees

quote:

Your mobile phone cover makes even coffee!

Paladinus posted:

Is this a joke?

gschmidl posted:

Whichever "this" you mean, the answer is no.

Paladinus posted:

I meant the coffee case thing. It's beyond ridiculous. I refuse to believe it's not a project by some Italian comedians.

Autechresaint posted:

"Sr. International Customer Service Liaison" all the way down...

That is quite the work experience to give me confidence that this man knows how to design a mmo.