A friend asked me what I thought about this Kickstarter backed game that is being developed by San Diego based Intrepid Studios (a company created by a whale in ArcheAge who happened to be successful in an MLM; Mangosteen – Sharif and many of his family members became multi millionaires by becoming involved early on selling what was very expensive fruit juice – I know because a colleague tried to sell me on joining this when it first began by giving me a bottle of the stuff that sold at $26; once I did my research, I realized it was a huge markup of something that should have been no more than $5. It amounted to ripping off buyers via a pyramid scheme while making it sound it was like the second coming of some miraculous fruit). He (and his family) parlayed that money into successful real estate investments.
Both of those previously mentioned aspects give me pause because folks who are successful with MLM pyramid schemes like this have a way with words to where they can sell ice to an eskimo (and that is the exact feeling I get whenever I hear Sharif speaking). And I also have pause when someone who was a huge whale in ArcheAge (supporting/perpetuating Trion’s poor cash grabbing decisions) is now designing their own game where they know full well the psychology of the gaming whale.
Additionally, when I see Kickstarter/Early Access, I pretty much turn the other way. I have patience to wait until there are more concrete designs and systems in place. Last Epoch (when I first brought it up) and Wolcen (when I purchased it on sale once more systems were in place) were rare exceptions but I also haven’t really delved into detail my actual ongoing thoughts since they are subject to changes. Discussing Bless Online was different because it was only hiding under the Early Access label.
As for AoC, I did see a lot of the early cinematic trailers as well as gameplay from PAX and know that despite the aggressive schedule they are pursuing, that it has a long way to go. There are much better funded studios that take years to fully flesh out combat systems once everything is in place where it has to mesh with the other design concepts.
Their use of purchasable UE assets for those early demos weren’t an issue since I just saw that as a starting point to have something to show. But it also doesn’t do much to differentiate the world environment or the actual aesthetics the company might be going for. Similarly, the scripted combat sequences and visuals also didn’t grab me. The combat actually came across as too slow for my own liking. Simply put, most everything led me to have this feeling of indifference about this title (it pretty much seems to get most of its hype from backers who tend to congregate on a few MMO sites).
The conceptual designs sound interesting but coding all of that is obviously non-trivial. The same goes for class skills and balancing/tuning it with all of those designs. The games first actual playable content was at PAX West in September 2017 and there were mixed reactions to the class metas and their combat. I know they have since progressed a bit more in their development and the studio attended a few other industry shows to promote the game, but it is still something I am not interested in and probably won’t be.
