massively.com said:Jacobs: 'I don't want F2P/B2P items in Camelot Unchained'
by Jef Reahardon Mar 26th 2013 7:00PMFantasy, Business models, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Crowdfunding0
Mark Jacobs is a busy man these days, but thankfully he's not too busy to take a few moments to answer our questions about Camelot Unchained.
After yesterday's two-pronged Kickstarter tiers announcement, we wanted to clarify a few things including whether or not CU's crowdfunding drive will accommodate entry-level price points as well as the status of the game itself. Jacobs also pulls no punches about his desire to keep XP boosts and other F2P/B2P items out of the game. "I just don't want to see those types of items in our game," he tells us, "even if we could make some additional money by including them."
Head past the break for all that and more.
Massively: How fluid are your Kickstarter tiers at this point? Does the community response to the various gaming press reveals firm up your plans at all in this regard, and can we expect to see a definitive list maybe on the game's official site in the near future?
Mark Jacobs: The tiers are still pretty fluid. I've already gotten some good feedback from people here on Massively, and I'm making some additional adjustments today. Over the next 48 hours, I intend to lock them down and am aiming to post a definitive list on our site on Wednesday.
Are you concerned that Kickstarter or crowdfunding in general takes some of the focus away from actual game design and places it on monetization?
No, not really. If we were trying to do this post-funding, it would be more of a concern, but at this point, it is really just us being aggressive in thanking our backers. My hope is that if/when developers deliver on their games, other studios will then be able to use crowdfunding to make games they wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
Crowdfunding positives have been well-documented in recent months thanks to some of the successful projects and high-profile developers using the model. Can you talk about any downsides to the model from a content producer's standpoint?
Well, I think the biggest downside for us is that if we fund, we'll have 20K+ backers to make happy instead of one publisher. Another problem will be keeping the lines of communication open and the information flowing freely between our team and all those backers. There is, of course, the risk that comes along with disappointing all those people instead of one publisher.
In the bigger picture, the biggest downside is that if any of these high-profile crowdfunded games tank badly, it may have a chilling effect on the whole process.
There's a little bit of an undercurrent of resentment towards Kickstarter from both indie devs and certain player groups who feel like big-name devs are appropriating the platform when they don't really need to. How would you respond to that or allay those sorts of fears?
It's a valid concern, but from what I've seen to date, lots of small games have had or are having successful Kickstarters, and more than a few big-name developers' projects haven't funded. Then there are initiatives like Brian Fargo's Kicking It Forward where successful developers commit to using a share of their profits to help other projects. I also think that if it had not been for the success of the high-profile efforts of the Ouya folks, Obsidian, Brian, etc., fewer people would have been checking out Kickstarter at all. Honestly, I wish it would have been around when we started Mythic; it would have made our lives so much easier.
How is Camelot Unchained's actual development proceeding apart from the funding aspects? Or is it proceeding at this point? Do you have any sort of rough estimate for when we might see some early screens or footage?
Right now, we are focused on getting the funding for CU while doing a lot of concept art and early modeling on some of the realms. Andrew has also been working on a side-project that ties into the game, and that we hope to show during the Kickstarter. It's not a demo but it's pretty cool.
Are there higher level tiers as in other Kickstarter projects? Trips to the studio, naming structures, instant death-spells for the other realms?
LOL of course! It wouldn't be a game-based Kickstarter without some crazy tiers. For our craziest,the ever-popular 10K, we have the usual visit the studio to hang out with us, but then I added something really special "...you get to say the magical words "DEKCUS AOT" and then throw your choice of tasty fruit pies at Mark Jacobs during your visit (recorded for posterity of course and posted on YouTube). As to instant-death spells, sorry, not in this Kickstarter.
Anything at the other end for people what want to show their support but are on tight budgets?
Absolutely! We haven't shown them among our examples, but we will have tiers that come with a digital copy of the game starting at $25 dollars and increasing from there. We definitely do not want to limit backing CU to those that choose to put down $100 or more.
One of our Massively readers asked if you would allow people to upgrade their tiers after the Kickstarter closes? You seemed to think that it was a good idea but is this even possible?
It's a great idea that frankly, we hadn't really considered because of logistical issues. Unfortunately, while people can choose to change their tiers during the process, there is no way to do so after the close via Kickstarter. It's something we will look into, but I can't promise we'll be set up to do it, especially as it would mean some people could potentially upgrade to a closed tier.
Another reader asked about the possible inclusion of B2P/F2P items such as the use of XP boosts, limited time powerful items and other such goodies. Do you see these as being items that the players will be able to buy through their Founder's Points?
While those types have indeed been a staple of both B2P and F2P games, I don't want such items in Camelot Unchained. While their duration might be limited, a sword that gives a new player an in-game advantage over another in combat is a non-starter for me. In terms of XP boosts, while nobody is really hurt if you level a little faster, I just don't want to see those types of items in our game, even if we could make some additional money by including them.
Thanks for your time!
When readers want the scoop on a launch or a patch (or even a brewing fiasco), Massively goes right to the source to interview the developers themselves. Be they John Smedley or Chris Roberts or anyone in between, we ask the devs the hard questions. Of course, whether they tell us the truth or not is up to them!
- More coverage: Official site
Tags: camelot, camelot-unchained, city-state, city-state-entertainment, cse, exclusive, interview, mark-jacobs, mark-jacobs-interview, pvp, rvr
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http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/26/jacobs-i-dont-want-f2p-b2p-items-in-camelot-unchained/
camelotunchained.com said:
Camelot Unchained News
Foundational Principle #13 – Chaos Goes Boing!
It’s time for another Andrew post! One of the things I remember about the earliest days of MMORPGs was that any time you got a bunch of UO or EQ players together in a room, the conversation would inevitably take a turn towards, “Oh really? Well let me tell you about this crazy thing that happened to MY character…”Every player’s character had their own story, and that’s something we’ve largely lost in the most recent crop of MMOs. Don’t get me wrong; the last MMO I spent much time playing had a great storyline. It had a meaningful plot. It had villains and heroes. It had moving characters with their own histories and lives, and I cared about them. But that story wasn’t really my story. It was the story the designers were telling me, and they were telling the same story to every character of my class/race/tribe/whatever. I loved their story, but once I got to the end of it I drifted away from the game the same way you’d put a book or movie back on the shelf after finishing it.When I talk to other people who’ve played that same game, the conversation is more like, “Hey, you should go back and try this other class; it’s got some cool things in it.” There’s not much more to say, other than maybe, “Hey, remember that thing that we all saw? That was pretty cool. Yeah…cool.”If there’s one overarching goal that I hope we achieve with this game, guiding all the other principles we’ve talked about, it’s to move very firmly back to a place where every character has their own story. For me that’s the appeal of RvR and a player-driven economy — your interactions with other players aren’t going to be the same as everyone else’s. It’s the motivation for the way we’re designing our crafting system — we want players to be able to craft items that we didn’t exactly and precisely plan out in advance, that aren’t exactly what someone else would make. It’s one of the motivations for player housing — given a chance to make your own home, you won’t express yourself the way anyone else would.
That’s the high concept stuff. But there’s another side to this philosophy that happens at a smaller level, in your minute-to-minute interactions with the world. Mark’s talked about randomness in his Foundational Principle #8, and that’s a big part of this, but you can only take that randomness so far before you risk giving players the feeling that they were beaten by invisible dice rather than their opponent. You never want someone to feel like, because of blind luck, they’re playing a harder game than someone else. And that’s where other systems have to take over — systems that are chaotic, but still completely deterministic. Systems that interact with each other in interesting ways to produce results you couldn’t have predicted, even though they’re following strict, consistent, and predictable and rules. It’s Conway’s Game of Life. It’s the aggregate intelligence of a colony of mindless ants. It’s getting saved from a giant by a really angry mudcrab.
And that brings us to physics. As soon as you make physics part of your gameplay, you open up the possibility for things to happen beyond just the simplistic model of pen-and-paper combat.That castle wall didn’t just “become destroyed”. The chunk you took out landed someplace, and maybe on someone. That fireball didn’t just “miss”. It had a location in the world, and if it didn’t hit what the target then it had to go someplace else. If someone else jumps in the way they’re going to get a nasty surprise — or heroically save their friend! And either way, it’s a story. It’s something that happened to you that didn’t happen to someone else. It’s the stuff YouTube videos are made of.
Over a decade ago I had the good fortune to work on one of the Myth series of games. Those games absolutely nailed what I’m talking about here. I can’t take credit for the way they did, because I didn’t come in until the sequel to the sequel, but I can say I learned a lot from it. Here’s just one randomly selected video of a multiplayer game. The important part (and there are parts like this in almost any video of the series) is from 2:49 to 3:20, when one of the players accidentally takes out a good chunk of his own troops. Everyone laughs. The guy who did it isn’t exactly happy, but he doesn’t feel cheated either. It wasn’t something the game did to him, and it wasn’t random. It was the chaotic yet completely predictable consequence of his actions. And moreover, the “Error of Tiny’s Ways” has created a tiny story. It’s something that can be retold over a beer. It’s fun and meaningful to those particular players in a way that no voice-acted cutscene can be.
Physics aren’t an end in themselves. We’re going to try to hit the right balance. As just one obvious example, you won’t be able to use physics to crush or blow up your own side. (Because of griefers and traitors, that’s why!) But by allowing that element of chaos into the world, we allow every player’s experience to be different. It’s less control for us as developers, but we’re not afraid to embrace that.
-Andrew
Yeap, pay for nothing
If you had £30million and you gave £10million to a millionaire.......
some people have more money than sense, you would obviously be one of them
