What happens when you build a Cash-Shop game for the Whales

Slapshot1188

Interesting chart showing the purchased virtual property/titles for the EU server:



This explains why they stated that during the reverse auction "NPCs" may claim settlements.  It's to create an artificial FOMO where there naturally would not be one.  Just look at those numbers.  In the Kingdoms of Arkadia and Nirath (2 of the 5 Kingdoms) only 1 in 4 counties even has a settlement claimed...   These people spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to rule as a "Count" and right now the mast majority will be ruling themselves and some NPCs...  Even the "top" Kingdoms have massive amounts of unclaimed settlements.   

So the whales have supported the game to the tune of $7.5M+  but they will eventually face the same issues that FFA PvP servers have.  The wolves need sheep.   

Who wants to play a PvP territory control game with looting where a core group has spent millions of dollars buying advantages before the game even starts?  

goldboyy45

Slapshot1188 said:

Interesting chart showing the purchased virtual property/titles for the EU server:



This explains why they stated that during the reverse auction "NPCs" may claim settlements.  It's to create an artificial FOMO where there naturally would not be one.  Just look at those numbers.  In the Kingdoms of Arkadia and Nirath (2 of the 5 Kingdoms) only 1 in 4 counties even has a settlement claimed...   These people spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to rule as a "Count" and right now the mast majority will be ruling themselves and some NPCs...  Even the "top" Kingdoms have massive amounts of unclaimed settlements.   

So the whales have supported the game to the tune of $7.5M+  but they will eventually face the same issues that FFA PvP servers have.  The wolves need sheep.   

Who wants to play a PvP territory control game with looting where a core group has spent millions of dollars buying advantages before the game even starts?  

This is an understatement to the criminal shit SbS has been pulling, originally i bought a count pledge during KS, eventually they after KS the count pledge price went up considerably, it was like 1000$....now during reverse auction people will can get it dirt cheap if they choose to, this is the garbage the studios is doing, think about that for a moment.

DafAtRandom

I can't wait to come back from work after a 10 hour shift just to log in a game where I get to toil away for a lord whose best quality is how much money they spent on the game, risking to lose my 2 potatoes that I spent so much time growing.

Having money doesn't guarantee sound leadership.  If the game was to release, in 2098, it would implode...really fast.

That does bring up a serious question I have.  With the time it takes to get the game released, what happens when one of the lords/kings/counts/whatever dies IRL before the game releases ? Do their next of kin inherit the title and get to sell it on Ebay ? Or do the pretend devs high five each other because that's another opportunity to make more money by re-selling it to the next mouth drooler standing in line ?

goldboyy45

DafAtRandom said:

I can't wait to come back from work after a 10 hour shift just to log in a game where I get to toil away for a lord whose best quality is how much money they spent on the game, risking to lose my 2 potatoes that I spent so much time growing.

Having money doesn't guarantee sound leadership.  If the game was to release, in 2098, it would implode...really fast.

That does bring up a serious question I have.  With the time it takes to get the game released, what happens when one of the lords/kings/counts/whatever dies IRL before the game releases ? Do their next of kin inherit the title and get to sell it on Ebay ? Or do the pretend devs high five each other because that's another opportunity to make more money by re-selling it to the next mouth drooler standing in line ?

No, i am pretty sure what happens is there will be a BPC king/duke, whoever the titleholder that passed away was,  that or using in game mechanics to obtain this title, am i  correct?

Wizardry

All of the top money earning games are CASH SHOP games,so there is a lot,like billions of whales out there,this is not something that only exists within COE ..lol.
All i can think of is that people when young growing up are brainwashed by their surroundings and have been fed a lot of cash shop gaming.So in their minds they THINK this is normal,let's do it.

The keyword is THINK,they don't stop and think is this a good idea,why the hell am i spending MORE money on games than they are worth,nope people don't do much thinking anymore.

Hatefull

Wizardry said:

All of the top money earning games are CASH SHOP games,so there is a lot,like billions of whales out there,this is not something that only exists within COE ..lol.
All i can think of is that people when young growing up are brainwashed by their surroundings and have been fed a lot of cash shop gaming.So in their minds they THINK this is normal,let's do it.

The keyword is THINK,they don't stop and think is this a good idea,why the hell am i spending MORE money on games than they are worth,nope people don't do much thinking anymore.

You are certainly proof of that.

On to the point, from the very fist, I knew this game was shady and it seems that every time another post is made about it I am proven correct.

I like the idea, but allowing power to be bought, in any capacity, is never a good thing.

Mendel

The data above backs my suspicion that this game is in serious trouble -- the idea is fundamentally flawed.  They can find people to pay to be kings, dukes and other landed and noble titles, but how is SBS going to find the serfs, peasants and other low born people necessary to populate a kingdom.  Sure, there may be 4,000 people (each with 5-8 alts) at the high end of society, but that isn't going to meet their stated goals of 100,000 per server; somebody has got to want to play all those peasants.  (Wanting to play also equals wanting *to pay* to play).

There isn't much appeal to log into a game only to be lorded about by some wallet warrior who spent way too much of their mother's money on a personal ego trip.  In many cases, it would have been simply easier to hire a prostitute.

goboygo

Wizardry said:

All of the top money earning games are CASH SHOP games,so there is a lot,like billions of whales out there,this is not something that only exists within COE ..lol.
All i can think of is that people when young growing up are brainwashed by their surroundings and have been fed a lot of cash shop gaming.So in their minds they THINK this is normal,let's do it.

The keyword is THINK,they don't stop and think is this a good idea,why the hell am i spending MORE money on games than they are worth,nope people don't do much thinking anymore.

You are correct, and I was going to say, the title of this post describes just about every game coming out of the East and a good chunk of western games.  So "what happens" is you end up with what we have in today's MMO and other gaming segments.

All hail Classic wow.

Kyleran

For the eventual and inevitable end result,  see how well SotA is turning out.

Iselin

Who would have thought that people wouldn't flock to be sheep in a game of wolves and sheep? Oh wait...every sane gamer did

This game has always had a lot of ridiculous promises and ideas but the idea of 100,000 players / server has always been #1.

It's common sense that when you give your whales all manner of advantage you'll end up with nothing but whales playing your game. Just ask SotA.

Azaron_Nightblade

Slapshot1188 said:

Interesting chart showing the purchased virtual property/titles for the EU server:



This explains why they stated that during the reverse auction "NPCs" may claim settlements.  It's to create an artificial FOMO where there naturally would not be one.  Just look at those numbers.  In the Kingdoms of Arkadia and Nirath (2 of the 5 Kingdoms) only 1 in 4 counties even has a settlement claimed...   These people spent hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to rule as a "Count" and right now the mast majority will be ruling themselves and some NPCs...  Even the "top" Kingdoms have massive amounts of unclaimed settlements.   

So the whales have supported the game to the tune of $7.5M+  but they will eventually face the same issues that FFA PvP servers have.  The wolves need sheep.   

Who wants to play a PvP territory control game with looting where a core group has spent millions of dollars buying advantages before the game even starts?  

LOL, they'll be playing Kingdom Simulator on spreadsheets, you mean.
Unless you're actually convinced this will one day turn into a playable game.
So... money well spent eh?

Torrsk

This is really a problem with game companies in general. It's all focused around the point that a bigger map = a better game. I have been playing ghost recon breakpoint over the last week and while the game is fun. The map size is just stupid. It's the same crap over and over. Even doing the main missions, they basically send you to the same few points over and over. So after running around doing missions and fucking around, over the past week. I have discovered around 5% of the map. 

Even as a single player game, it's size doesn't help it. If anything, it just points out how easily boring it can be. Each area is basically the same. I would have taken a tiny map, but everything is way more interesting. Hand crafted areas. 

CoE is doing the same thing really. While each biome is going to be different, each biome being so huge. It's going to cause way more problems. They have stated many people won't even leave their starting county and the few that do, won't leave their starting duchy. 

The question is then, why make a map that huge? It sounds way more fun, from my view, if the whole map was 1 or 2 kingdoms. They naturally couldn't have sold so many titles, which would have cut way down on their funding. Though maybe they would have sold more, people would need to defend themselves way more. The problem with the community, it's so super top heavy. 

The community may not see the game as pay to win. But every new promotion and knowing the EP store is going to have hundreds if not thousands of items to buy. As people have said here, who wants to play against whales? Whales that very much will take your shit and you can't do much of anything to stop them. Something no one has really dared to ask.

Nilden

I'm sorry there is zero game so far.

This is ALL cash shop.

People are paying 10,000 to be kings in a game that doesn't even exist.

"game" lol in big air quotes

You really don't even need the word game in the title. It's just a cash shop built on faith that a game will come...

From the team that not only thought a MUD was a good idea but couldn't even make one.

PAY2KING!

So sad that this is gaming.

Mendel

Iselin said:

Who would have thought that people wouldn't flock to be sheep in a game of wolves and sheep? Oh wait...every sane gamer did

This game has always had a lot of ridiculous promises and ideas but the idea of 100,000 players / server has always been #1.

It's common sense that when you give your whales all manner of advantage you'll end up with nothing but whales playing your game. Just ask SotA.

They only fault I can find with your analysis is that SBS seemed to target the Whales from the very start.  I'm not sure there has ever been a plan on how to attract the rest of that 100,000 per server.  (With a stated 4 planned servers, that is 400,000 players).  I don't know where they planned to pull those kind of numbers from and very much doubt that this project ever looked at any kind of realistic numbers beyond the white whales (white knights + whales), at least not in a practical way.

Other than that, I pretty much agree.

NorseGod

>What happens when you build a Cash-Shop game for the Whales

You become rich.

/thread

lol

OrangeBoy

it's just funny if you think about it, caspian used to walk on egg shells early during the kickstarter knowing the whales could sour the game up, but now, he's become a slumlord that won't even wash off the black mold growing in the AC.

I think the attitude change is hilarious, LOL

Amathe

Slapshot1188 said:

Who wants to play a PvP territory control game with looting where a core group has spent millions of dollars buying advantages before the game even starts?  

Sheep? 

Slapshot1188

OrangeBoy said:

it's just funny if you think about it, caspian used to walk on egg shells early during the kickstarter knowing the whales could sour the game up, but now, he's become a slumlord that won't even wash off the black mold growing in the AC.

I think the attitude change is hilarious, LOL

He said something along the lines of: If the conversation is about whether or not the game is Pay to Win we have already lost.

Now it’s like he puts in all these obvious Pay for Advantage items, plus lootboxe like mechanics (soul packs, cash shop RNG rewards, Buy a random Adventure...) and nobody cares. 

Same people were the ones shouting about how it was good that he couldn’t find a publisher because they would want cash shop items and lootboxes.

Crazy stuff...

TEKK3N

Kyleran said:

For the eventual and inevitable end result,  see how well SotA is turning out.

I was thinking the same.

I backed the game at the beginning, but when they started selling property and houses I bailed out.

And the reason was that I knew no one would play SOTA apart from the whales, which is exactly how it turned out to be.

Let me reiterate the concept: no one wants to play a game with people who throw their wealth in your face.
I can barely accept that IRL, I don’t want that in a game too.

AnOldFart

TEKK3N said:

Kyleran said:

For the eventual and inevitable end result,  see how well SotA is turning out.

I was thinking the same.

I backed the game at the beginning, but when they started selling property and houses I bailed out.

And the reason was that I knew no one would play SOTA apart from the whales, which is exactly how it turned out to be.

Let me reiterate the concept: no one wants to play a game with people who throw their wealth in your face.
I can barely accept that IRL, I don’t want that in a game too.

This is true, I've found a group of players who are all about the community (I. E. Spending our ep for the better of everyone).
But for every one of those in my community I've met ten who are all out for themselves in order to Lord it over others. 

I really hope people like the goons come to the game and destroy entire communities in order to allow those who don't p2w to have a a chance. 

Slapshot1188

AnOldFart said:

TEKK3N said:

Kyleran said:

For the eventual and inevitable end result,  see how well SotA is turning out.

I was thinking the same.

I backed the game at the beginning, but when they started selling property and houses I bailed out.

And the reason was that I knew no one would play SOTA apart from the whales, which is exactly how it turned out to be.

Let me reiterate the concept: no one wants to play a game with people who throw their wealth in your face.
I can barely accept that IRL, I don’t want that in a game too.

This is true, I've found a group of players who are all about the community (I. E. Spending our ep for the better of everyone).
But for every one of those in my community I've met ten who are all out for themselves in order to Lord it over others. 

I really hope people like the goons come to the game and destroy entire communities in order to allow those who don't p2w to have a a chance. 

Goons will only come when they make the game F2P for the serfs/peasants.  They aren't putting money into this thing.  

Utinni

I just don't play games when I don't agree with their business model. No need to force yourself to invest in a game that will make you miserable/complain online.

Kyleran

Utinni said:

I just don't play games when I don't agree with their business model. No need to force yourself to invest in a game that will make you miserable/complain online.

Welp, as I don't have any money invested in this game I'm not miserable, in fact I rather enjoy the ambience and good company.

  

Utinni

Kyleran said:

Utinni said:

I just don't play games when I don't agree with their business model. No need to force yourself to invest in a game that will make you miserable/complain online.

Welp, as I don't have any money invested in this game I'm not miserable, in fact I rather enjoy the ambience and good company.

  

You're a few steps ahead of a lot of folks on this forum!

AnOldFart

I have money invested...
Money I'm unhappy with but not devastated about. 
I wrote it off when I paid it (sorry donated it) 

bcbully

More people to kill for me