I am in the USA. I thought about attempting to get a refund, sadly its past the time to get a refund from my bank and I doubt they are going to refund me from intrepid... I need to make a lot of noise to get into that category and I am just not that type. If they offer refunds I will though, there is no doubt about it.
There have been a couple gems in kickstarter but the vast majority of games have been near complete failures, and those that have not been were released cheaper than the lowest kickstarter pledge. Star Citizen still holds out some hope but it falls in as the leader in the delayed category. Some of the worst offenders... I was lucky not to be part of. My biggest kickstarter pledge was Ashes of Creation, and I thought I could make it up with referrals as they paid 10% but... well... I was at $920 in commissions just before they launched the new web site and now... well now they say none of my referrals bought anything, even though I have a couple friends that bought several packages after the kickstarter. Now I sit at $0. I also went from having 120+ referrals to 21.
I have been burned by several games, not as badly as others but a burn is a burn. The worst offenders had the greatest potentials. I also found that "so and so from way back in the day that made awesome game XXXXXX" have all been massive failures. They haven't made games in years and it shows. Programming is different now.
Kickstarter will be one of the great cautionary tails. There will be some winners but for the most part its never a good idea to buy something that may or may not be made or be made how they said it would be. Fractured looked to be a no brainer win, who would have thought Unity would go ballistic and cancel their engine on online gaming? Of course it was resolved but for how long? What was learned in this interaction? Meh.
@Althalus I backed that one on the lowest early bird tier on Kickstarter to get a single spark. For some reason I was thinking that the project looked cool but seemed strange, some of what they were saying just seemed out of place. I think what they will end up with should be interesting but ultimately not all that fun. I am putting Ashes of Creation in that same basket. We will just have to wait and see I guess. I also Backed Crow Fall. That game isn't half bad, haven't played the most recent builds but gave it a shot a couple months ago. Nothing exciting but not a bad start. Late... as normal in Kickstarters.
The main problem with them now is the fact that they JUST hired a public relations person. They have seriously upset their core supporters, their Battle Royale' game is in poor form and of course full of bugs and issues. They of course say that they are using this to get the mechanics and balance ironed out.... but I do not want a twitch based button mash game that was balanced with a BR game. MMORPGs should be more about group tactics than every person going keyboard ballistic, no one wants to get cramps in a raid.
Now I do not mind being a bit more involved with attacks and having a skill based system for combat. The problem lies in how they intend on getting what they learn into the game we backed. I just do not see it helping at this point. If you did try the game you would understand. It neither fits the BR game or a MMORPG. I guess with refinement they could get it to work out in one way or the other but the half and half is bad for both.
They have a long way to go to repair the damage they have done to the community. They say that the forums are down due to "issues" but we all know it is because they do not want people talking about what is going on and scaring off potential spenders. For a game that supposedly was funded before it was put on kickstarter they sure do look greedy as hell right now. I fear that the community that grew with the game has become fractured and will likely chew itself up shortly after the forums are given back to the community.... either that or they will moderate the hell out of them banning or silencing all but the white knights.
Reddit is currently the only place to voice an opinion, discord is a crapbag... imagine that... and now even reddit is being moderated by AOC so I expect that they will start to clean up those posts as well.
The world has not ended for Ashes of Creation but it is in serious doubt, and for me... I do not trust the developers, I do not believe they will make the game they pitched. We shall see. It could be disastrous communication mistakes... or full on deception, time will tell.
@telmiwhy That is the name they gave it. Apocalypse is what they are marketing separate of the MMORPG. Currently that is the BR game and next a castle siege game. All of them separate games to buy if you are not already a backer and progress there is rewarded with items to use in the MMORPG. Lame.
I backed those guys quite a while ago. I had some high hopes for them... but damn. They have been messing up... they dumped the core audience for a Battle Royal'e game, monetized it and called it a beta to test a pre-alpha. ????? WTF? Okay.... and now they are going to make a castle siege game and monetize that for good measure. Man I just heard a toilet flush and watched my pledge disappear. I guess I am on a kicstarter loosing streak.
It is looking less and less like this will have anything to do with Fractured. Looks more like in fighting and posturing with another developer. It should all be over soon.
In this strange world where resistance to the flow is more attractive than moving with and keeping safe your neighbor I see moves like this as simply fitting in with the norm. Not enough drama? Not getting enough attention? Step on toes and kick the knees of friends and devoted fans, people will talk about it for months and you will rise to the top of the attention stream. Apologize and bask in forgiveness and further attention..... OR...... I also see this as a way for Unity to extort money from extended games with unlimited online potential, games such as Fractured may end up paying more for the ability to use Unity as an online gaming platform. Now that the game is primarily developed with and using the engine it would be difficult and possibly too expensive for a small developer to change engines mid development, this level of extortion is getting less rare as well. Star Citizen is also battling with Crytek, they saw the writing on the wall before the issues and bailed to Lumberyard, Crytek was left holding a bag of sand and a glass of their own tears..... all because of engine developer greed. It looks like Unity learned from Crytek and took a more sinister path.
Either way... this is a big crap sandwich and everyone from developers to players are going to end up taking a bite.
Lets hope for the best.
Titans Quest Torches and such did fire damage and caused large areas of dry ground to burn. I loved that. It was cool to set fire to the grasslands to create traps and then toss out electrical spells when they got into the water to run away from the fire. The other game that is doing it is Wolcen, that game should be getting wrapped up soon. I haven't played it in several months but it was looking pretty good. None of them are MMORPGs but done very much in the same style of Fractured. I do hope that things like this are the norm in this game though.
I think you should be able to make your character stand in a AH while you are offline and sell your goods. With this option you get 100% of the revenue but you have to pay the auction house a flat daily fee for stall rent. You could also hire a npc to sell your wares but they would take a % of each sale as well as having to pay for a stall rental.
... you do have to fear sticks and stones! Words though.... not so much.
Now that AOC has decided to make their game a battle grounds game I hope more of their players looking for a a more traditional RPG come this way. I would post on their forums but the developer decided to take the forums down and force the players to use discord. I refuse to use discord so I gave that game the middle finger, they also took away about 100 referrals (just shy of $1k to me at their promised 10%) claiming that in the transition they were "lost". Shady stuff, pretty upset about it, haven't been playing much in games for the past week, just a little Star Citizen to make some videos and calm me down. Anyway... just had to vent. I feel better.
Cheers!
Always wondered what the cap level would be, I guess we are already at the cap.
I wish I could see the future but if the game launches when I am in a lull it can get some serious action. If however I am playing other games it will get its time, around an hour or so, enough to get some stuff done and build progress. I am sure if it is as good as it should be it might even clear out other games time. I will no doubt play the heck out of it, I tend to obsess over one game until I find another.
I think its under NDA, that would mean they would be unable to do what you are asking without getting in trouble.
Awesome! Glad to see the wheels turning on this project! Hope the testing is fruitful so it can open up and let more hungry gamers in!