They've obviously put some amount of money into this already or how would they have a studio and a team there already working on stuff? They're not all there working for free...
It is an existing studio, they have a team in place and a launched product (presumably bringing in some money at least).
But I agree with you and others that there seems to be a lot of misconception about how kickstarter actually works.
I'm hoping that it will at least conitnue to chip away at the 2M goal and towards the end people who want to play but do not want to put anything in without seeing some real gameplay will bite the bullet and pledge to get it funded. Maybe Mark will do some interviews or exclusive reveals with some of the bigger gaming sites to generate a little more buzz.
They've obviously put some amount of money into this already or how would they have a studio and a team there already working on stuff? They're not all there working for free...
It is an existing studio, they have a team in place and a launched product (presumably bringing in some money at least).
But I agree with you and others that there seems to be a lot of misconception about how kickstarter actually works.
I'm hoping that it will at least conitnue to chip away at the 2M goal and towards the end people who want to play but do not want to put anything in without seeing some real gameplay will bite the bullet and pledge to get it funded. Maybe Mark will do some interviews or exclusive reveals with some of the bigger gaming sites to generate a little more buzz.
Mark seems quite open to doing interviews, as per his recent posts on this subject, so hopefully sites will take him up on it.
I suspect there will be a very large surge at the end, as a few things will happen:
1. There will be more information, so people will feel safer/more informed pledging. CSE has been good about doing daily updates that reveal art, design philosophies, etc. This is all good and helps build some trust. I suspect some updates near the end will be quite good, featuring actual class designs, maybe some abilities, etc.
2. There will be more rewards offered to make tiers more enticing. A common Kickstarter strategy is to offer bonuses in the last week, beef up tiers, etc. This is done for the same reason stores hold sales - to make something seem like a bargain. You open your Kickstarter campaign with each tier offering X, and get early adopters, then add Y to them, now people holding off see the tier is X + Y and pledges.
3. Existing backers will up their pledges as it will be their last chance for exclusives, and holdouts will pledge for much the same reason - last chance. There is little motivation to pledge now because there are still a full 25 days left to get the pledge in, unless you are worried your tier will run out. There are only a few tiers close to running out, and 3 of them are $5,000+, which most people are not going to spend so it does not matter.
An idea to create a buzz/interest? I posted it in the backers section but maybe I could post it here too so people can comment on the idea and maybe any other idea's they had to generate a larger number supporters. Just an idea!
Good Morning Fellow CU KS Backers,
I have been brain storming to come up with ways to encourage more people (just sheer numbers) to back the game even if it's at the 5$ level. So here is one way I was considering trying to do so. I do not know the legal ramifications of this idea, but maybe an attorney/ks person/MJ or dev team can help me understand if this is OK to do. Mind you I will NOT do this unless I am told .. sure go for it.
I was going to host a raffle. I have an extra three copies of the game, at this time, coming to me if this launches. I wanted to allow people to donate in increments of $5 dollars up to the $25 level to receive (1) chance per $5 increment for a shot at one of my extra copies at the game. Obviously, this would be limited as I only have three, but I won't have much use for them when the game launches so I wanted to maybe use them to help the cause.
All people would need to do was screenshot their pledge in their "manage your pledge screen" and send me an email with that JPG/Screenshot. At the end of the KS, I would post a youtube video of me drawing the name out of a hat and would give the people who won my 'digital access'.
I am sure if enough people contributed their extra (non needed) copies we could generate some interest and maybe get a lot more people in at lower levels. I don't want to detract from the $30 tier where people can buy the game outright but I wanted a way to create buzz/interest for lower end backers.
How does this sound? Would any people in at the $5-25 dollar levels be interested in this? I am just trying to think outside the box a little and drive this game further towards being funded.
PS - I hope this idea doesn't create to many headaches. Just trying to help!
All people would need to do was screenshot their pledge in their "manage your pledge screen" and send me an email with that JPG/Screenshot. At the end of the KS, I would post a youtube video of me drawing the name out of a hat and would give the people who won my 'digital access'.
It's easy to make a pledge, take a screenshot, then cancel the pledge. Otherwise I don't see why there would be a problem with your idea. The intention with the extra copies is that you would give them to somebody else (typically family or guild), so it shouldn't be a problem for CSE. (Disclaimer: I'm in no way a lawyer, but it's hard to imagine who would sue you over this even if there is a legal issue.)
All people would need to do was screenshot their pledge in their "manage your pledge screen" and send me an email with that JPG/Screenshot. At the end of the KS, I would post a youtube video of me drawing the name out of a hat and would give the people who won my 'digital access'.
It's easy to make a pledge, take a screenshot, then cancel the pledge. Otherwise I don't see why there would be a problem with your idea. The intention with the extra copies is that you would give them to somebody else (typically family or guild), so it shouldn't be a problem for CSE. (Disclaimer: I'm in no way a lawyer, but it's hard to imagine who would sue you over this even if there is a legal issue.)
I would wait until the KS was over and it showed (funded) next to their 5-25 dollar donations. I think this would alleviate the people retracting their bids. I also will have some faith in people -- I know it can be a stretch at times.
It was expected that it'd go slower after the first days, but if we can still share with our friends and talk about this to as many people as we can, I think we can still keep the hype all the way to 2M.
Originally posted by Eaderbreca It was expected that it'd go slower after the first days, but if we can still share with our friends and talk about this to as many people as we can, I think we can still keep the hype all the way to 2M.
I hope we keep the hype to 4-5M. I assume once we hear more 'concrete' ideas from the game more people will want to get involved. Right now we have a lot of ... vague information which works for some of us who 'believe'. Keep fighting the good fight ...
Is it possible that people already have invested considerable amounts on kickstarter on games likes Torment , Shroud of the Avatar , Wing commander etc and thus are bit burnt out at the moment.
Originally posted by ice-vortex The only reason I didn't bother backing it is that I don't have any interest in a p2p game.
Fair enough. It is kind of funny these days when a game announces its business model - they are damned if they do, damned if they don't.
If they say F2P, some say: "OMG, there are going to be spammers/idiots/farmers and it will have a P2W cash shop!!!"
If they say B2P, some say: "OMG, box price and then a cosmetic cash shop? Stupid, I am not buying it!"
If they say P2P, some say: "OMG, I am not paying every month, what a ripoff!"
There is no right or wrong opinion, either, I just find it all funny. For the record, I like subscription games; it attempts to keep things fair, its barrier of entry keeps some idiots out, and it ends up being fairly inexpensive. I spend more on a pizza than my subscription. But that's just me.
Originally posted by ice-vortex The only reason I didn't bother backing it is that I don't have any interest in a p2p game.
I think the higher end tiers offer lifetime subscription. Mark Jacobs also mentioned that the game will be well below the usual asking price of 15.00 per month. The tier I'm in is giving me an additional 7% discount and a few months free.
Originally posted by redcapp They may have been better off asking for less and then advertising stretch goals. 2 mill is quite steep, after all is said and done.
If the goal was 1m we'd be at 92% complete right now.
I healed Mistwraith and all I got was this stupid tee-shirt!
Originally posted by redcapp They may have been better off asking for less and then advertising stretch goals. 2 mill is quite steep, after all is said and done.
If the goal was 1m we'd be at 92% complete right now.
Well, you also want to be honest. Mark and his team set $2M as the minimum they need from Kickstarter to make this game work. If they set the goal at $1M and only got $1M, that would be using deception to get an amount that does not even let them develop the game in the manner they stated.
Better to be honest and fail than lie and get it funded, then ultimately not have enough funds, anyway.
Originally posted by redcapp They may have been better off asking for less and then advertising stretch goals. 2 mill is quite steep, after all is said and done.
If the goal was 1m we'd be at 92% complete right now.
Well, you also want to be honest. Mark and his team set $2M as the minimum they need from Kickstarter to make this game work. If they set the goal at $1M and only got $1M, that would be using deception to get an amount that does not even let them develop the game in the manner they stated.
Better to be honest and fail than lie and get it funded, then ultimately not have enough funds, anyway.
Very true. However, browsing some of the other most funded games on kickstarter at the moment, they seem to have gone about things differently. Regardless, it's a moot point now anyway. Really hope things start picking up.
Backer numbers is a big player now. A small number of people paying alot doesn't help to give confidence on subscriber numbers to keep the thing going once it starts. If it does get up, open beta is going to have to be dead set awesome to drag all the punters in.
We need $45k a day from here on out and we didn't even get those type of numbers over the first weekend ($35k, $42K) it was open. I want this game to fund just as bad as everyone else but unless they start releasing video/data that fires up an entirely new group of gamers I think CU is going to fall short. Daoc had 250k subs during its peak and we need some of those folks to learn about the game and fund it. We have less than 6k backers right now and I wonder how that compares to Daoc's current sub numbers? Long story short, unless something changes I do not believe CU is going to successfully fund. I hope I am wrong...
Originally posted by DaocShad We need $45k a day from here on out and we didn't even get those type of numbers over the first weekend ($35k, $42K) it was open. I want this game to fund just as bad as everyone else but unless they start releasing video/data that fires up an entirely new group of gamers I think CU is going to fall short. Daoc had 250k subs during its peak and we need some of those folks to learn about the game and fund it. We have less than 6k backers right now and I wonder how that compares to Daoc's current sub numbers? Long story short, unless something changes I do not believe CU is going to successfully fund. I hope I am wrong...
I'm fairly confident the closer we get to the deadline, if there's anything missing to reach the goal you'll have a bunch of crazy people increasing their pledges As for DAoC, 6K of active subs sounds about right. I keep bumping the topic on the forums and FB groups there. I'm fairly certain all of active DAoC is aware, but for those 250K previous subbers, they're probably far from reach and don't necessarily keep up with the gaming news anymore. Kids, family, what not. I am hoping word to mouth to all my friends so they can tell all their friends who can tell all their friends... will have somewhat of a good impact.
Actually, they're ahead of Garriot's project in funding at this point in it's stretch. That project pulled in a total JUST shy of two million (1.92) so it makes for a decent comparison. They hit the one million dollar mark on day eleven. CU will probably hit the one million mark on day eight or nine at it's current pace.
Originally posted by meddyck $970K... let's see it hit $1 mil today so we find out what the stretch goals are.
Was it actually stated somewhere that some stretch goals would be anounced at $1M? If so, cool! Still a long way from $2M, but something to shoot for, eh?
Anyway, I suspect it will hit $1M by the end of the 8th day, which is Wednesday, April 10, at 9:00 AM PDT, or about 29 hours from now. It may do so sooner, but I am certain it will be by then as that is about a $1K/hour pace, which I think is very achievable.
Originally posted by meddyck $970K... let's see it hit $1 mil today so we find out what the stretch goals are.
Was it actually stated somewhere that some stretch goals would be anounced at $1M? If so, cool! Still a long way from $2M, but something to shoot for, eh?
Ya MJ said that somewhere, I don't remember if it was an interview or a KS update though.
Comments
It is an existing studio, they have a team in place and a launched product (presumably bringing in some money at least).
But I agree with you and others that there seems to be a lot of misconception about how kickstarter actually works.
I'm hoping that it will at least conitnue to chip away at the 2M goal and towards the end people who want to play but do not want to put anything in without seeing some real gameplay will bite the bullet and pledge to get it funded. Maybe Mark will do some interviews or exclusive reveals with some of the bigger gaming sites to generate a little more buzz.
Mark seems quite open to doing interviews, as per his recent posts on this subject, so hopefully sites will take him up on it.
I suspect there will be a very large surge at the end, as a few things will happen:
1. There will be more information, so people will feel safer/more informed pledging. CSE has been good about doing daily updates that reveal art, design philosophies, etc. This is all good and helps build some trust. I suspect some updates near the end will be quite good, featuring actual class designs, maybe some abilities, etc.
2. There will be more rewards offered to make tiers more enticing. A common Kickstarter strategy is to offer bonuses in the last week, beef up tiers, etc. This is done for the same reason stores hold sales - to make something seem like a bargain. You open your Kickstarter campaign with each tier offering X, and get early adopters, then add Y to them, now people holding off see the tier is X + Y and pledges.
3. Existing backers will up their pledges as it will be their last chance for exclusives, and holdouts will pledge for much the same reason - last chance. There is little motivation to pledge now because there are still a full 25 days left to get the pledge in, unless you are worried your tier will run out. There are only a few tiers close to running out, and 3 of them are $5,000+, which most people are not going to spend so it does not matter.
An idea to create a buzz/interest? I posted it in the backers section but maybe I could post it here too so people can comment on the idea and maybe any other idea's they had to generate a larger number supporters. Just an idea!
Good Morning Fellow CU KS Backers,
I have been brain storming to come up with ways to encourage more people (just sheer numbers) to back the game even if it's at the 5$ level. So here is one way I was considering trying to do so. I do not know the legal ramifications of this idea, but maybe an attorney/ks person/MJ or dev team can help me understand if this is OK to do. Mind you I will NOT do this unless I am told .. sure go for it.
I was going to host a raffle. I have an extra three copies of the game, at this time, coming to me if this launches. I wanted to allow people to donate in increments of $5 dollars up to the $25 level to receive (1) chance per $5 increment for a shot at one of my extra copies at the game. Obviously, this would be limited as I only have three, but I won't have much use for them when the game launches so I wanted to maybe use them to help the cause.
All people would need to do was screenshot their pledge in their "manage your pledge screen" and send me an email with that JPG/Screenshot. At the end of the KS, I would post a youtube video of me drawing the name out of a hat and would give the people who won my 'digital access'.
I am sure if enough people contributed their extra (non needed) copies we could generate some interest and maybe get a lot more people in at lower levels. I don't want to detract from the $30 tier where people can buy the game outright but I wanted a way to create buzz/interest for lower end backers.
How does this sound? Would any people in at the $5-25 dollar levels be interested in this? I am just trying to think outside the box a little and drive this game further towards being funded.
PS - I hope this idea doesn't create to many headaches. Just trying to help!
That is my exact post from the backer's forums.
Vymm
It's easy to make a pledge, take a screenshot, then cancel the pledge. Otherwise I don't see why there would be a problem with your idea. The intention with the extra copies is that you would give them to somebody else (typically family or guild), so it shouldn't be a problem for CSE. (Disclaimer: I'm in no way a lawyer, but it's hard to imagine who would sue you over this even if there is a legal issue.)
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
I would wait until the KS was over and it showed (funded) next to their 5-25 dollar donations. I think this would alleviate the people retracting their bids. I also will have some faith in people -- I know it can be a stretch at times.
Vymm
(¯`v?¯) Sophie Breca (?.?¯`?.*?¯`*
`*.?.*? Streamer at MMORPG.com
(\__/)?.?.* DAoC PC Staff?)?.*?)
(="."=) (?.? twitter.com/SophieBreca (?.?
(")_(")youtube.com/user/sophiebreca
facebook.com/user/eaderbreca
I hope we keep the hype to 4-5M. I assume once we hear more 'concrete' ideas from the game more people will want to get involved. Right now we have a lot of ... vague information which works for some of us who 'believe'. Keep fighting the good fight ...
Vymm
Fair enough. It is kind of funny these days when a game announces its business model - they are damned if they do, damned if they don't.
If they say F2P, some say: "OMG, there are going to be spammers/idiots/farmers and it will have a P2W cash shop!!!"
If they say B2P, some say: "OMG, box price and then a cosmetic cash shop? Stupid, I am not buying it!"
If they say P2P, some say: "OMG, I am not paying every month, what a ripoff!"
There is no right or wrong opinion, either, I just find it all funny. For the record, I like subscription games; it attempts to keep things fair, its barrier of entry keeps some idiots out, and it ends up being fairly inexpensive. I spend more on a pizza than my subscription. But that's just me.
I think the higher end tiers offer lifetime subscription. Mark Jacobs also mentioned that the game will be well below the usual asking price of 15.00 per month. The tier I'm in is giving me an additional 7% discount and a few months free.
If the goal was 1m we'd be at 92% complete right now.
I healed Mistwraith and all I got was this stupid tee-shirt!
Well, you also want to be honest. Mark and his team set $2M as the minimum they need from Kickstarter to make this game work. If they set the goal at $1M and only got $1M, that would be using deception to get an amount that does not even let them develop the game in the manner they stated.
Better to be honest and fail than lie and get it funded, then ultimately not have enough funds, anyway.
Very true. However, browsing some of the other most funded games on kickstarter at the moment, they seem to have gone about things differently. Regardless, it's a moot point now anyway. Really hope things start picking up.
DAOC - Krullen - Hero/Tristan
Jesus was the ultimate cleric!
I'm fairly confident the closer we get to the deadline, if there's anything missing to reach the goal you'll have a bunch of crazy people increasing their pledges
As for DAoC, 6K of active subs sounds about right. I keep bumping the topic on the forums and FB groups there. I'm fairly certain all of active DAoC is aware, but for those 250K previous subbers, they're probably far from reach and don't necessarily keep up with the gaming news anymore. Kids, family, what not. I am hoping word to mouth to all my friends so they can tell all their friends who can tell all their friends... will have somewhat of a good impact.
(¯`v?¯) Sophie Breca (?.?¯`?.*?¯`*
`*.?.*? Streamer at MMORPG.com
(\__/)?.?.* DAoC PC Staff?)?.*?)
(="."=) (?.? twitter.com/SophieBreca (?.?
(")_(")youtube.com/user/sophiebreca
facebook.com/user/eaderbreca
www.thegrubs.com
Pfft. R5L9 noobie. Get back to me when you ding 7L3.
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer
Was it actually stated somewhere that some stretch goals would be anounced at $1M? If so, cool! Still a long way from $2M, but something to shoot for, eh?
Anyway, I suspect it will hit $1M by the end of the 8th day, which is Wednesday, April 10, at 9:00 AM PDT, or about 29 hours from now. It may do so sooner, but I am certain it will be by then as that is about a $1K/hour pace, which I think is very achievable.
Ya MJ said that somewhere, I don't remember if it was an interview or a KS update though.