Ashes of Creation Lifts Verbal NDA, Visual NDA Still Applies | MMORPG.com

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Ashes of Creation Lifts Verbal NDA, Visual NDA Still Applies | MMORPG.com

It seems Intrepid Studios, the team behind Ashes of Creation, has lifted the verbal NDA tied to their alpha. However, the visual NDA still applies. Here are the details.

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Slapshot1188

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Wizardry

Well this only proves what i already knew anyhow and that is developers have been misusing or abusing the NDA laws.
NDA was not intended to hide your product from consumers it was intended to hide trade secrets or theft,copying if you want to word it simpler.
Laws in gaming need to change and a LOT of new ones added.

The very simple obvious reason is "pre orders".
Devs don't want people to see the product they are pre ordering?How is that ever fair towards the consumer?

Hatefull

Wizardry said:

Well this only proves what i already knew anyhow and that is developers have been misusing or abusing the NDA laws.
NDA was not intended to hide your product from consumers it was intended to hide trade secrets or theft,copying if you want to word it simpler.
Laws in gaming need to change and a LOT of new ones added.

The very simple obvious reason is "pre orders".
Devs don't want people to see the product they are pre ordering?How is that ever fair towards the consumer?

NDA's are not laws, they are contracts enforceable by certain laws which vary widely from region to region. Also, once the subject of the NDA becomes public knowledge, the NDA is no longer able to be reliably enforced. Meaning a judge would have a hard time finding a person in violation of an NDA (or breach of contact) once part or all of the information has been made public knowledge. Not sure where you went to law school however assertion that is has been "misused" is also not even in the realm of slightly factual.

In this case, even though they have said the visual NDA is still in effect, I doubt very much any legal entity would prosecute since the verbal NDA has been lifted. Sure, the dev could still ban you, but all of this is pointing towards a Dev team that may not have a good grasp on the business side of things.

foppotee

This is the first I've heard of a lifting of a verbal NDA but still not the visual NDA. Seems strange to me but I'll concede I'm mostly ignorant to NDA intricacies. From my ignorant perspective though something like this just seems convoluted & doesn't inspire confidence, but perhaps Intrepid have their reasons. I just wonder if they're good or bad reasons?

slowz2secret

They are so scared of people share how garbage this game is

Kyleran

foppotee said:

This is the first I've heard of a lifting of a verbal NDA but still not the visual NDA. Seems strange to me but I'll concede I'm mostly ignorant to NDA intricacies. From my ignorant perspective though something like this just seems convoluted & doesn't inspire confidence, but perhaps Intrepid have their reasons. I just wonder if they're good or bad reasons?

When in doubt assume the latter.

DrunkWolf

so now people can tell you how bad the game is, but they cant show you.

Kyleran

I think the real motive is reserving the visual experience for the stream team to promote...err, I mean share.

alkarionlog

DrunkWolf said:

so now people can tell you how bad the game is, but they cant show you.

so the images are so bad they are afraid people make memes out of it?

BrotherMaynard

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Pretty standard thing to have. It's usually covered in the very first sections of NDAs - you know, those that define what the NDA actually covers. Images, art, audio, text - that sort of thing...

If you're trying to make a story out of such a non-issue, might I suggest taking a short break from AoC? Judging by your recent posts regarding AoC, I don't think you're taking it well. 

Nilden

Verbal NDA? Visual NDA?



I thought Ashes of Creation looked pretty good but WTF are they doing with stupid stuff like this and the recruit a friend scheme, the battle royal, etc

Some really iffy eyebrow raising stuff over there.

tremmor

The ShArif has spoken. This "game" is a scam.

Haki88

scammy scam

RexKushman

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Yeah, act as though you don't know the difference and that they aren't both used frequently. 

alkarionlog

RexKushman said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Yeah, act as though you don't know the difference and that they aren't both used frequently. 

in a non payment testers over the internet yes it not frequently used, though people disregard the nda anyway, they just don't post over the internet in open channels

IceAge

Verbal NDA, Visual NDA...what next?

I think SC is having a new "competitor".

Slapshot1188

As expected the initial feedback is in.  The combat is bad.  The desync and rubber banding is bad.  The defining feature aka  node system is primitive.

On the plus side the graphics look good in 4K

Nothing that can’t be fixed given enough time and resources, but how much of each?

Kyleran

RexKushman said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Yeah, act as though you don't know the difference and that they aren't both used frequently. 

Can you link an article which sites a specific example of a game company doing this? I looked but can't find any previous occasions of this actually occuring.

Nanfoodle

foppotee said:

This is the first I've heard of a lifting of a verbal NDA but still not the visual NDA. Seems strange to me but I'll concede I'm mostly ignorant to NDA intricacies. From my ignorant perspective though something like this just seems convoluted & doesn't inspire confidence, but perhaps Intrepid have their reasons. I just wonder if they're good or bad reasons?

Other games, Pantheon being one. Will have events you cant film but you can talk all you want about your experience. Put in the right hands, like a fan with a following. This can lead to some nice free marketing. Wonder how this will turn out for Ashes. 

Kyleran

Nanfoodle said:

foppotee said:

This is the first I've heard of a lifting of a verbal NDA but still not the visual NDA. Seems strange to me but I'll concede I'm mostly ignorant to NDA intricacies. From my ignorant perspective though something like this just seems convoluted & doesn't inspire confidence, but perhaps Intrepid have their reasons. I just wonder if they're good or bad reasons?

Other games, Pantheon being one. Will have events you cant film but you can talk all you want about your experience. Put in the right hands, like a fan with a following. This can lead to some nice free marketing. Wonder how this will turn out for Ashes. 

For their select streamers only, and they never used terms like visual vs verbal NDA that I've ever seen and are mostly for marketing effect.

Outside of that select group the other testers can't even tell people they are one.

RexKushman

Kyleran said:

RexKushman said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Yeah, act as though you don't know the difference and that they aren't both used frequently. 

Can you link an article which sites a specific example of a game company doing this? I looked but can't find any previous occasions of this actually occuring.

I doubt there is an article explaining the practice as it is so widely used and accepted.   Anytime you see a preview/review of a game using dev supplied gameplay in the background it's exactly this. It's fairly standard, Cyberpunk is one of the more recent titles to do it before release. I'm not saying its a good practice, just that this is most definitely not something that the blowhard from AOC created.  

Edit... Also see the post above me for other examples.

Prescience

The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.

YashaX

Slapshot1188 said:

As expected the initial feedback is in.  The combat is bad.  The desync and rubber banding is bad.  The defining feature aka  node system is primitive.

On the plus side the graphics look good in 4K

Nothing that can’t be fixed given enough time and resources, but how much of each?

Ahh that's too bad, not particularly unexpected though. The node system sounds a bit worrying though, I would have expected that to be basically the foundation of the whole game, around which all other game systems rotated. 

Nilden

BrotherMaynard said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Verbal NDA?
Visual NDA?

Of course from the guy who came up with things like Alpha Test 1 Preview Pre-Test 1...


Lets be honest here. There is no apparent plan at all. He is making shit up day by day as he manages from one crisis to another. This is obviously an attempt to change the conversation from his ill-received Discord post and subsequent apology.

Pretty standard thing to have. It's usually covered in the very first sections of NDAs - you know, those that define what the NDA actually covers. Images, art, audio, text - that sort of thing...

If you're trying to make a story out of such a non-issue, might I suggest taking a short break from AoC? Judging by your recent posts regarding AoC, I don't think you're taking it well. 

Could you link a single article for any other game that refers to verbal NDAs and visual NDAs on this site? 

You know since it's so standard.

Gormogon

Cynically speaking, it's easier for your fans to jump on "haters" and "trolls" that write bad things about the game compared to showing video that proves those things are true.

That said, videos and images are often centerpieces for planned marketing campaigns, so I can understand wanting to control them. If I'm the developer planning on doing a "combat system reveal" video, then I want to control what's being shown and pump it up on social media, not have a tester scoop me on it. I think that's fair.