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Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

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Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#111

Post by [deleted] »

bobsy wrote: post #84
adventured wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how poorly something like Minecraft would sell today. Minecraft was amazing when it was released with a 256 color palette in 1993, but nobody would go for that today. People want graphics, not great gameplay... No, they want great gameplay first, and great graphics second. That has always been true and will always be true.

What is wrong with the Minecraft? The game has a blocky style to it. The artistic direction of the game suits it perfectly. The issue I have is that this game appears to have no graphical style or artistic direction. It looks like an incredibly generic low poly-count 3d game. Sure these are only prototypes but surely you wouldn't get this far into development with models completely unrelated to the finished product?

[deleted]

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#112

Post by Kurtz79 »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #94
Kurtz79 wrote: post #5

I remember fondly Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld 2. Incredible titles, way ahead of their time. Ultima 7 has probably more sophisticated interaction mechanics than 99% of the games today.

Name? Job?

Bye.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#113

Post by warfangle »

glurgh wrote: post #70
wodow wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vote yes to permanent death [1] in MMOs! Richard Bartle: "[without permanent death] Newbies (and not-so-newbies) feel they can never catch up. The people in front will always be in front, and there's no way to overtake them. The horizon advances at the speed you approach it." [2] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_death [2] Designing Virtual Worlds, 2003

Really, permanent death? PvP corpse looting? These are profoundly user-hating mechanics and their removal is likely among the factors that made WoW successful. There are other ways to allow newbies to catch up and to incentivize or disincentivize players that don't rely on 'ruining your month of gameplay'.

They wouldn't work in a carnival-lite atmosphere like WoW, because so much of your self-worth in said game is how much ph4t lewtz you have and whether or not you're at the level cap.

PvP corpse looting works exceptionally well in Eve Online. You don't really have permanent death, there, though.

And if a month of your gameplay gets ruined by getting instacane blapped in Eve, you're doing it wrong. Never undock with what you can't afford to replace.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#114

Post by warfangle »

Draiken wrote: post #97
warfangle wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I played back before the trammel/felucca split. (I was a beta player -- people who play MMO betas these days are spoiled compared to how UO beta was; I still have the install CD that we had to pay s/h for! Ah, 1996.) I still think the split was a bad idea. I think of Eve now the way I thought of UO back then: if you can't afford to lose it, don't leave town with it.

Being an EVE player and lover, I still think this would be even more awesome with the good old knights and mages... If this gets to that, it'll be a very worthy game to play :)

Hopefully it won't be plagued with ITEC moongoo fiascos ;)

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#115

Post by spqr »

Erwin wrote: post #40

I'm not sure what to feel when someone who spent (reportedly) $30MM for a space trip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight asks me for $1MM But I guess the more power to semi-independent studios we can give through Kickstarter the better. I like the $10 "guilt pledge": "If you ever pirated an Ultima game or used an exploit to grief other players in Ultima Online, here’s your chance to repent! For…

I pirated Ultima IV, but in fairness it was on a Commodore 64 in 1985 and I was 13 years old. I assume the statute of limitations has run out, but if not will I still be tried as a minor?

I guess I can flip the guy at least $10 for the best RPG I ever played in my life.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#116

Post by papsosouid »

adventured wrote: post #108
papsosouid wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the millions of dollars he made owning origin while they produced hit games. >none of which he should have to risk on a venture that fans are willing to pay for. I am amazed at the amount of anti-entrepreneur sentiment here on HN of all places. How do people seriously suggest that an entrepreneur should not have to invest anything in their own venture?

You've got it exactly backwards. Your sentiment is anti-entrepreneur, as you're trying to dictate who is or who isn't an entrepreneur by an artificial and entirely subjective $$$ funding basis. There's no set definition of funding requirements to be considered an entrepreneur. Not have to invest anything? Try putting a price on his reputation and time.

>as you're trying to dictate who is or who isn't an entrepreneur by an artificial and entirely subjective $$$ funding basis.

No I am not. I am saying it is unfortunate that what was a way for small independent projects who could not get funding through normal channels is being taken over by rich people using it as a platform to avoid having to take any risk.

>Try putting a price on his reputation and time.

The last time he made a game that didn't suck was what, 1992? If the garbage he slapped his name on since then hasn't ruined his reputation what risk does this carry? And he isn't investing his time, he is the name put on the project, he isn't actually sitting down and writing the code.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#117

Post by glurgh »

wodow wrote: post #82
glurgh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, permanent death? PvP corpse looting? These are profoundly user-hating mechanics and their removal is likely among the factors that made WoW successful. There are other ways to allow newbies to catch up and to incentivize or disincentivize players that don't rely on 'ruining your month of gameplay'.

Yes, really - but it is a matter of taste as tsumnia says in the sibling comment In Monopoly, I can go bankrupt. In Nethack, I can (and often do) die. In Super Mario Bros 1, I can lose all of my lives. In football, I can get knocked out of the Champions League (by a red card). In all of these cases, the fact that I can "lose" creates meaning - I care more about the outcome and I appreciate my achievements more. And o…

I think the difference is that Monopoly, Nethack and Mario are intended to be played short term. Of course you can lose terribly in Monopoly and Nethack elevates dying to part of the gameplay.

The stakes are a little different in a long-term, persistent world MMO. The Mario you died with is, for the most part, the same Mario you started with. This is not the case in an MMO. Punishing you, irrevocably, for dying in that situation is a dreadful, fun-destroying design choice.

Even in platformers, it's probably telling that one of the most successful recent ones is Jon Blow's Braid where you not only don't die but you get to reverse time.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#118

Post by spqr »

Richard, you have an aging fan base. The people who played your original Ultima games are adults with careers, wives and families.

For that reason, you're focusing on the wrong type of game. Stop working on an MMO. We don't have time for it - we have lives. Do the best single player campaign game you can come up with and it will probably be far more successful than the MMOs you've worked on lately.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#119

Post by outworlder »

saraid216 wrote: post #110
Shivetya wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Permadeath sounds cool, is great for many to boast about around the virtual water cooler, but in the end suffers from the simple fact, things go wrong and people cheat. You can self replicate perma death for yourself in any game you play but I know most people would not, they would rather be water cooler hard cores. Having recently played XCOM which has a perma death for your troopers I lost my taste real quick becau…

> I really don't want to be in another MMO like Eve, where areas of the game are off limits or worse, certain groups go on nerd rages and just grief people who are no threat/not even interesting but convenient. Dude, if no one likes you, that isn't their fault.

Besides, there are no "off-limits areas". You can venture that if you want to risk it. I know, because I enjoyed doing just that.

There's nothing like invading a big alliance space, get chased by multiple pilots, and by some skilled (and lucky!) piloting managing to escape alive. All the while knowing that one screwup would cost the whole ship.

Re: Lord British launches “Shroud of the Avatar” on Kickstarter

#120

Post by NoPiece »

sp332 wrote: post #85
NoPiece wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say it is contrary to the stated purpose of Kickstarter. Can you link or quote something to back that up? All I've ever seen them say is that it is a platform to fund creative projects. This is a creative project. For game developers, even millionaire game developers, Kickstarter offers some level of freedom from real big bilion dollar game publishing corporations. So even if Richard Gariott has a lot of money, m…

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store

First, I don't see anything on that page that would disqualify this project.

Second, why is this project a staff pick by Kickstarter if it somehow violates the spirit of their rules?

http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games?ref=hom...

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