Soulbound Studios should have kept their mouths shut until they were much, much farther along in the development of CoE. Now the expectations are too high for them to attain and the game will be another Pathfinder Online.
You are of course entitled to your opinion. However there's three things to keep in mind, all of which make your opinion wrong - for us.
1. Several indy projects have had good ideas in the recent past, but failed to succeed in fundraising because they didn't take the proper time to build interest in the game - to really let people know what they were working on. We let people know early so we'd have the opportunity to build up an interested player base of 10's of thousands of players before beginning our crowdfunding. This gives us the highest chance of success. Does it guarantee we'll succeed in our crowdfunding? No. But it's much harder to get crowdfunding when there's no crowd.
2. While we could have waited until we were further along to make an announcement, such as where we are now, we would have been taking far more risk investing more money without first taking the temperature of the community. And we couldn't have waited for more months than we are now, as we'd simply have ran out of money before making any kind of announcement.
3. We love community. I in particular was a top-rated moderator on GameDev.net for years before they reset the reputation system. I love talking to people about games, and my games in specific. This is great, because it motivated us to want to bring the community into the development process early. Community members regularly provide feedback on screenshots, animations, videos, etc... and we do the best we can to incorporate that feedback so we can make the best game possible. So far, aside from you and a vocal minority, we're getting a lot of positive feedback for how interactive we are. That tells me we made the right choice. We get to talk to the community, and the community tells us they like it that way.
So given all that, while I respect you believe we should have "kept [our] mouths shut until [we] were much, much further along," the route we've chosen, we believe, is the best route at ensuring the game's success. And at the end of the day, that's what everyone wants - us, and the players.
Just please tell us the truth and make it where us gamers can trust you. Yes because of SC and Chris Roberts a lot of trust has gone out the door because of him. You guys are now #1 on my radar and hope you make the game you are talking about and give us gamers something to play again that is fun and demanding. :-D
Damn, Soulbound studios has just stumped everyone, nice.
No they didn't.
Jeromy is a salesman. He sold you an idea. Now how much money are you willing to cough up on the kickstarter to become king? 100$? 500$? 1000$? Maybe even 5000$?
Damn, Soulbound studios has just stumped everyone, nice.
No they didn't.
Jeromy is a salesman. He sold you an idea. Now how much money are you willing to cough up on the kickstarter to become king? 100$? 500$? 1000$? Maybe even 5000$?
Jeromy isn't a salesman. He's not even a businessman. He's just a programmer and game designer. Having ideas that people are willing to support doesn't make you a salesman.
Well, if you want those ideas to become something that makes you money... it kind of does mean you're a salesman. You have to sell to the people who will fund your idea becoming a game, and eventually, you'll have to sell to the people who will play your idea as a game. If you're the one here trying to convince people your project is worth buying into...it doesn't matter what you do within the company. Here, you're a salesman.
You aren't doing this as some sort of academic or artistic non-profit venture...this is a professional gig I'm guessing and you're trying to get our money.
What other games are aiming at sandbox open-world pvp with full looting / permadeath? Serious question - I would like to check them out as well. Crowfall is the only other mmo that even marginally holds my interest besides CoE.
BDO is nothing to write home about, Camelot Unchained looks like a high-fantasy Planetside 2, Gloria victis looks desynced and clunky, and Revival has this weird pay-money-for-in-game-real-estate i'm not that into.
I don't think the push towards sandbox mmos comes from greed. As far as i can tell, the developers i hear talking about the games they are making like Crowfall and CoE were players of games like UO that want to return to that era. For better or worse, I believe them when they say they want a sandbox mmo like that again out of intrinsic interest.
I wasn't making any claims about whether the games would be good or not, just the general sameness of the design decisions. In fact, I think I mentioned that most were likely to be crappy and fail (even if they weren't all cannibalizing the same niche audience).
I didn't say it was because of greed. I said it was out of a super slow over-reaction to the previous big budget theme parks. it's highly predictable simple-minded thinking...much the same as all the developers who thought they knew the "secret formula" to make their big budget WoW clone successful. Turned out none of them did. This new secret formula isn't likely to work either, because again, it's execution and quality that matter in the end. Being innovative can be good, but what most are doing isn't even innovation.
If it was out of intrinsic interest, where did all these developers go for like 20 years? Why are they just trying to return to the UO model now? I'm betting it's because 10 years ago most of them totally zealously believed in the exact opposite design philosophy when they thought that would work to make a successful game.
You hit on most of the me-too projects - CoE, Gloria Victus, BDO, Camelot Unchained, Trials of Ascension, Revival, R2 Online. That's a lot of games (there are probably more) all vying for the same small niche. They aren't all exactly the same, obviously...but they are all thinking the same way in terms of trying to be "different" by simply doing the opposite.
If CoE makes it to release, and isn't just objectively terrible in terms of gameplay/graphics/etc., I think what we'll find is that it garners a small and dedicated following right up until one of those other games comes out. Will it be enough players to keep their lights on? *shrug*
I think thats fair; the game isn't meant for everyone and if you know right off the bat you probably won't like it, thats better to know now than later.
I don't believe any other game quite captures what most of the CoE community hopes CoE will be, so I don't believe most of them will leave when other games start coming out, but at that point we likely can agree to disagree.
You're not a businessman , yet owned/co-owned 2 businesses?
You're not a salesman, yet you have sold an idea to how many people?
Mind-bending isn't it? It's amazing what you can achieve without training, when you've got vision and passion.
No it's misleading to say "I'm not a businessman" yet own(ed) 2 businesses. You really going to continue to say you're not a salesman? University of Missouri-Rolla
All games start as an idea, they don't just spring up out of thin air as a finished product . For that matter all or most business ideas start as a proposal that usually needs to be pitched to someone to get the funding. This isn't any different.
You sound as though you instinctively want CoE to fail just so you can say, "See, I told ya!".
It's fine if you guys don't like the ideas presented by Soulbound, it's your choice. There are alot of people that do and they will back CoE until given a reason that they shouldn't. For now we will just wait until a larger part of the gaming community learns what we already believe.
You're not a businessman , yet owned/co-owned 2 businesses?
You're not a salesman, yet you have sold an idea to how many people?
Mind-bending isn't it? It's amazing what you can achieve without training, when you've got vision and passion.
No it's misleading to say "I'm not a businessman" yet own(ed) 2 businesses. You really going to continue to say you're not a salesman? University of Missouri-Rolla
B.Sc., Psychology
1998 – 2002
Appears you got the training
What has that got to do with anything?
Sign up for Chronicles of Elyria here don't forget to use my friend code - B4ACB3
All games start as an idea, they don't just spring up out of thin air as a finished product . For that matter all or most business ideas start as a proposal that usually needs to be pitched to someone to get the funding. This isn't any different.
You're not a businessman , yet owned/co-owned 2 businesses?
You're not a salesman, yet you have sold an idea to how many people?
Mind-bending isn't it? It's amazing what you can achieve without training, when you've got vision and passion.
No it's misleading to say "I'm not a businessman" yet own(ed) 2 businesses. You really going to continue to say you're not a salesman? University of Missouri-Rolla
B.Sc., Psychology
1998 – 2002
Appears you got the training
What has that got to do with anything?
I don't know Zultra ask Jeromy he's the one that brought it up.
Damn, Soulbound studios has just stumped everyone, nice.
No they didn't.
Jeromy is a salesman. He sold you an idea. Now how much money are you willing to cough up on the kickstarter to become king? 100$? 500$? 1000$? Maybe even 5000$?
Jeromy isn't a salesman. He's not even a businessman. He's just a programmer and game designer. Having ideas that people are willing to support doesn't make you a salesman.
They had better find a salesman and businessman then, both are very necessary to thrive and prosper in todays market.
Heck, maybe even more important then having people who can create a good game.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
Star Citizen – The Extinction Level Event
4/13/15 > ELE has been updated look for 16-04-13.
http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/
Enjoy and know the truth always comes to light!
Jeromy is a salesman. He sold you an idea. Now how much money are you willing to cough up on the kickstarter to become king? 100$? 500$? 1000$? Maybe even 5000$?
Owner/CEO of Soulbound Studios
ChroniclesOfElyria.com
You aren't doing this as some sort of academic or artistic non-profit venture...this is a professional gig I'm guessing and you're trying to get our money.
You're not a salesman, yet you have sold an idea to how many people?
I don't believe any other game quite captures what most of the CoE community hopes CoE will be, so I don't believe most of them will leave when other games start coming out, but at that point we likely can agree to disagree.
Owner/CEO of Soulbound Studios
ChroniclesOfElyria.com
You really going to continue to say you're not a salesman?
University of Missouri-Rolla
B.Sc., Psychology
Appears you got the training
I'll take that as a no. Thank You.
All games start as an idea, they don't just spring up out of thin air as a finished product . For that matter all or most business ideas start as a proposal that usually needs to be pitched to someone to get the funding. This isn't any different.
@Fozzik
You sound as though you instinctively want CoE to fail just so you can say, "See, I told ya!".
It's fine if you guys don't like the ideas presented by Soulbound, it's your choice. There are alot of people that do and they will back CoE until given a reason that they shouldn't. For now we will just wait until a larger part of the gaming community learns what we already believe.
Enjoy whatever it is you're playing.
Peace, Out!
Join the revolutionary MMO!
Heck, maybe even more important then having people who can create a good game.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Your best example of that is how the guy keeps responding on this thread after the kind of comments it has generated, heh.