Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121 
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 16:42:08 GMT
Ah, I came across this old locked thread. www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/horse-models.5815/"I really enjoyed playing in the first alpha thus far. I explored every area. I thought the stag's looked terrific. However, the white horse concerned me." Translated: the white horse sucked but I'm framing my statement the way people like Ravicus, and the forum moderators, want. "Are the horse models still being worked on I assume?" Bahahaha - even now, 19 months later, that stretch goal has been buried deep and forgotten. They milked those poor suckers for $16,620 in non-refundable pledges for an item that already existed in the game. How creative is that at getting money for something they don't have to deliver? "The legs and everything seemed way off and didn't even bend with natural movement. I am just really looking forward to riding around on a gallant steed!" "Looking forward" - poor guy. It's like a widow waiting for her sailor to return from sea. "I'm an original UO player." So what? SotA is not UO! (standard canned answer to anything they don't want to put in this game but make money from) And all the rest of the replies like, I hope they will have it in E2, etc. In reading that thread, I wondered, where the hell did wagram go? He was one of my favorite posters. I think he sold his account though. |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 24, 2015 16:46:12 GMT
“These prices are insane, and are most likely the number one reason no one is paying for them. Don’t forget, they are all completely seperate. Real stretch goals, like the ones applied during kickstarter, are inclusive. Add more money to the project, and it gets included in the stretch goal consideration for all stretch goals… but not here. If I decided to add ten thousand dollars for a mount, I would still be no closer to flexible lot placement.
I have no doubt Port is fully aware of this, which is why I believe they don’t actually want any of the goals to be met. (Too much work on their end. But at least they can say they offered it!)”
– Bubonic
|
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 16:54:44 GMT
Ya, Tarsilion and I were part of those discussions on the stretch goals, calling them out on how unethical they were, in so many words. A lot of our posts got deleted. No surprise there.
|
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 24, 2015 17:06:52 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by argyle on Jul 24, 2015 17:18:33 GMT
This is off topic, but I went over to Smack's campaign tracker to check out the stretch goal funding data and holy shit. Something happened in February that really cut into Shroud's incoming pledges. They dropped more than 50%, but they maintained around the same level for 3 months. June's numbers are super inflated because of the $5 pledge thing (if you look at the 2 or 3 days around that, something like 500 pledges came in just then. But look at July thus far. 173 total pledges. They haven't been that low since October of 2013. It is 10% of the new pledges they were bringing in back in January/February. Sorry to derail, it just caught my eye and it seemed somewhat funding related. The stretch goal totals on Smack's spreadsheet show how unresponsive the broad playerbase was. Despite many on the forums asking for shit like elves and mounts and the insane rate they will dump money into the game, none of the stretch goals came close to being funded. |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 24, 2015 17:24:27 GMT
I believe if you look back that is about the time that Steam came into play. From what they have told us that I was actually paying attention to, they are unable to release Steam sales information to use due to agreements with Steam.
Anything that comes in via Steam would then be missing. Perhaps, they are able to hide other donations in Steam in some way to mask it. If they could, would, and why, I don't know.
|
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 17:31:15 GMT
This is off topic, but I went over to Smack's campaign tracker to check out the stretch goal funding data and holy shit. Something happened in February that really cut into Shroud's incoming pledges. They dropped more than 50%, but they maintained around the same level for 3 months. June's numbers are super inflated because of the $5 pledge thing (if you look at the 2 or 3 days around that, something like 500 pledges came in just then. But look at July thus far. 173 total pledges. They haven't been that low since October of 2013. It is 10% of the new pledges they were bringing in back in January/February. Sorry to derail, it just caught my eye and it seemed somewhat funding related. The stretch goal totals on Smack's spreadsheet show how unresponsive the broad playerbase was. Despite many on the forums asking for shit like elves and mounts and the insane rate they will dump money into the game, none of the stretch goals came close to being funded. They never had any intention of the stretch goals completing, at least not in our lifetime. As for the pledges, there are a lot of people bailing right now that aren't in the Marketplace. (My account was never listed in the Marketplace) They are trying to hide how many people are selling their accounts. When I get my $45 account, it will show as a pledge/sale but in reality, I have to have it because I'm linked with Steam. I think this is happening to a lot of people. So the actual sales of new & interested buyers is probably even less than smack's tracker is capable of reporting. And....ermergerd! Off topic! You bad person! hehe |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 24, 2015 17:36:29 GMT
|
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 17:44:30 GMT
I see a lot of Tarsilion's and my posts in that. We knew they wouldn't want to close a Megapost thread, so their only recourse would be to delete content. I don't know if our posts are still there, but good you captured it. |
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 17:50:14 GMT
lmao I never saw that blog post. I always loved Captain Jack's posts. I think I irritated him though. |
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121
|
Post by Caliya on Jul 24, 2015 17:51:15 GMT
And I should add, I think Gracekain got banned, or maybe just started using other accounts. I've sometimes thought Duchess was Gracekain. They always posted so similarly.
|
|
|
|
Post by argyle on Jul 24, 2015 19:15:13 GMT
I believe if you look back that is about the time that Steam came into play. From what they have told us that I was actually paying attention to, they are unable to release Steam sales information to use due to agreements with Steam. Anything that comes in via Steam would then be missing. Perhaps, they are able to hide other donations in Steam in some way to mask it. If they could, would, and why, I don't know. I definitely read that, but here's why I think it's bullshit. The game went live on Steam Nov. 24. If you look at Smack's daily tracker, their new pledges skyrocket as soon as the game is on Steam. In fact, for the first 4 months on Steam, they were pulling in 3x as many pledges as the previous months. So we are to believe that for some reason completely independent of Steam, and now in competition with Steam sales, they were suddenly pulling in 3x as many people via the website alone? The other reason I think it's bullshit is this. They've been positive throughout. You can't make returns or get refunds. Now, since steam's refund policy went into effect in June they've been negative several times. In fact, I believe they were just yesterday. There is one way I know of to go negative on your daily pledge total and that is to give a refund. It's odd these negatives begin to appear only after Steam's new refund policy. Steam also does things weekly on Thursdays. Weekend sales, etc. Take a look at the Thursday totals for the last two months (June is skewed up at points because of the $5 forum pledge). It is almost like clockwork as if Steam sends refunds back to the company every 7 days (which I imagine they would because I doubt the individual transactions plus/minus are going directly to the company for each transaction). Also, for some reason, when the game goes on sale on Steam, there is a spike in their pledge numbers on the same day. So, that means their saying that those sales dont count and what's happening is completely independent of the new Steam discounted price and people are instead are heading to the website on those same days. |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 25, 2015 3:07:13 GMT
I noticed someone post that elsewhere also, the negatives. It seems obvious, but I have no idea other than a refund how it would happen. Yet according to Ports they don't give them  |
|
|
|
Post by dewderonomy on Jul 25, 2015 3:15:36 GMT
Maybe chargebacks?
|
|
