Crowfall: You've got your SWG crafting in my Shadowbane

I haven’t read the Kickstarter page yet, or many details about the game, but if it is set up like a traditional griefer game, I agree. I like the ability for players to kill other players in games, but I want it to have serious consequences. I mean, I can kill someone in real life any time I get into my car but there are reasons I wouldn’t want to do so (aside from the obvious moral ones).

There is just now way in hell I would ever back an MMO on KS. There are enough devs having issues shipping a contained product, let alone something that is going to be a service. Without an ongoing revenue stream this is dead in the water and will be another case of funding having to come from elsewhere for the product to even come to realisation.

Yup. That’s my take. I’m generally wary of crowd-funding games anyway. MMO’s are an even sketchier proposition.

I won’t back this, but I love the way it looks and it sounds intriguing. I’m in once it’s available for the masses, I think, enough that I’ll follow this thread on and off at the least.

Yeah a Kickstarter MMO. You’d have to be either a close friend or family member out of your everlovin’ mind to offer investment. You’d also have better luck investing in Triggercut’s Buy The Brooklyn Bridge Kickstarter, frankly.

There’s no way that they can accomplish what they say they are going to if they only get the $800,000 they are asking for. Not without some other sort of funding.

I understand the MMO kickstarter concerns but this isn’t three unknown guys in their parents basement.

I’ve backed one other game (Shadowrun) and I’ll be backing this.

There is already more money going into the game: Crowfall MMO Kickstarter campaign begins | Eurogamer.net

Crowfall began as a project two years ago but has been in development at the hands of a team for a year. The team now numbers 17. The Kickstarter goal is $800,000 although more than that has already been invested, mainly by Coleman and Walton.

If the community can fund the rest of Crowfall, “That would be ideal,” said Coleman. Then the game would only be answerable to the community. But if that doesn’t work out, Coleman and Walton are confident they can raise money elsewhere.

“I don’t expect us to be anywhere near Star Citizen,” Coleman added, “but if we get anywhere near something similar to what Shroud of the Avatar has done, or Mark Jacobs has done with Camelot: Unchained, that would be fantastic.”
The devs are hoping to get the funds to finish it.

The upcoming interview transcript sounds like it will be a good starting point to learn about this project.

Wendelius

Well, of course $800k isn’t enough to make an MMO with the features they’re suggesting. Unfortunately, this lack of outside funding transparency is an issue with a lot of Kickstarters, and seems to be really prevalent in video game efforts.

In this case, it really doesn’t sound like they have that yet. They’ve chipped in some of their own money, but it’s just seed funds. They need actual big money investment - whether that’s some holding company, a bank, or Star Citizen type crowd-funding hype remains to be seen. The Kickstarter is likely enough to keep stuff running while they figure that out, but they’ve got a way to go yet.

I read that there is a safe zone for players, but the kicker is everything needed to craft and expand the safe zone can only be found in the PvP zones. I guess some players could craft and other players could bring them mats.

Also, the game will spawn dying worlds that are PvP zones. They are time-limited so it’s like a game that has a start and an end. It’s interesting but Shadowbane tried something like this and it wasn’t well received. The problem Shadowbane had was players started new characters in the world that was on a timer, and players didn’t like leveling and building a city only to see it all erased.

Interesting article here: Crowfall is an MMO that mixes Game of Thrones with Eve Online | Polygon

“Characters are permanent, and advance over the course of many campaigns,” explains Coleman. “This gives you the feeling of persistence that we’ve come to expect from MMOs. But the campaigns themselves aren’t permanent. They are persistent while the campaign is going on and between game sessions, but they don’t last forever.”

I like character progression. What I don’t like is falling behind the curve if I’m not willing to commit 20+ hours per week to these games. And while I also like PvP, sometimes I want relax and solo to advance my character.

Btw they previously stated that part of the reasoning for crowd funding is to prove to investors that there is a market for the game. They are well aware that they need more than 800k to make an MMO.

It’s already over $300k so it seems there certainly is interest.

I may chip in $30, albeit with full recognition of the risks. MMOs used to be the bee’s knees to me but the whole industry has been so godawful stale the past decade or so. I’m curious what they might be able to do, and that might be worth $30 to me.

I’ll wait and give them $50 after it launches. I’m skeptical. If you really need to be in PvP zones to get stuff done. that will drive away a number of players who are not successful at the PvP. No one wants to be someone else’s punching bag over and over again. Even DAoC had a strong PvE element, and when they added full-on, PvP anywhere servers those servers dwindled and mostly died.

They are approaching the Kickstarter right, though, giving early adopters a nice $20 discount on the final price.

Yeah, I plan to throw in $30 to see what they can do. For all the warts that Shadowbane had, I really enjoyed my experiences in it.

Good lord. The Clap Louder If You Want Tinkerbell To Live funding model?

Really?

If you took a couple of twenties out of your wallet and set them on fire, at least you’d get to enjoy the spectacle of watching them burn.

I wish more people could deal with the griefer issue long enough to see the benefits of a good risk/reward system.

To me griefing means spawn camping, kill stealing, body blocking, spamming, etc and those kinds of things happen in all MMO’s. The only difference is you can’t do anything about it except report them. I’m almost completely immune to that crap now anyway. Anytime someone tries to grief me it’s like I’m Bane explaining his comfort with darkness to Batman.

The problem with PvP is there are winners and losers and if you find yourself losing too often you get the heck out of Dodge. Even Shadowbane had a safe leveling island.

OTOH for people who complain about the game being too easy, there’s PvP.

The game may work very well for guilds with active players. It may not work all that well for players who primarily like to solo. I’d be interested in hearing the devs talk about how solo players will enjoy the game.

Yes, a kickstarted MMO is a recipe for disaster.