What are your thoughts on this game overall? Will it give EGS a run for their money, or will it be a massive flop? Personally, I'm torn. The single shard universe is interesting and cool. The scale of the planets and seamless transition from planet to space is simply amazing. The building tools look very intuitive and flexible. On the other hand, what they are trying to accomplish may limit the potential overall, forcing them to make some real sacrifices in features. I do hope it lives up to the hype, because right now, it looks pretty amazing. What are your thoughts on it?
you do realize duel universe is another No Mans Lie, its not going to be the way you think, i have a dev friend in Blizzard that whatched some videos of head duel universe dev explaining the game while showing game play, he told me that the whole thing dosent make sense how its set up, how its running on that engine, but hey he could be wrong this game was going to be my one two game of the year when it comes out in 2020 so, but i wont give my hopes up for kickstarter games since 80% of the time they fail
Istill don't know what to think of Dual Universe. On one hand what they accomplished and what they envision is amazing. But some things really make me think they are not really knowing what they will get into. Seeing one of the team member talking on the offical forums about "trying to discurage griefing" doesn't make me think they actually know what griefing is and how much their system will not prevent or hinder griefing at all. Griefing has no use to it besides p!ssing people off, and there is no way to "decentivize" this behavior. The only way to prevent a few griefers driving hundreds out of their game is to not make griefplay possible or at least give enough space where griefing isn't possible. By the way.... one thing why griefing is dangerous for Novaquark is their outdated monetization system aka subscription based. If 2 griefer drive 2 dozens out of the game it will hit their bottom line pretty hard. The building looks amazing and the scale is simply breathtaking. So i am pretty interested to see how it looks when players actually get their hands on it. But i am still sceptical about a few things. Mostly a certain type of community that is attracted by the game trying to make it into another game with better grafics. LUA scripting might be a problem on life (right now and early alpha only certain people play the game) and maybe even the tab-targeting system with the hit-or-miss- mechanic isn't actually my cup of tea. I guess we will have to sit and wait. In term of Empyrion: i don't think it will hit them. Simply because Empyrion is a buy-2-play title and not relying on any subscribers to be successful.
The thing about it not taking away from Empyrion is technically true, but the one thing I worry about with Empyrion is that they've set themselves up for an income cap, using a pay to play model. I'm skeptical of the subscription model myself, at least for games that are subscription only, with no f2p option. But Empyrion has basically made it so they will only be able to make a certain amount of money, unless they change the model upon actual release of the game, which I don't think they will do. I don't really see how this is a viable long-term plan for a game, as it basically ensures a lifespan where they at some point just don't have the money to run the game anymore, and abandon it. Obviously that time is nowhere soon, but it is troubling to me.
Well, first off there will be a sort of free to play model in DU, but that requires one person to buy an item for real money which others can than trade for ingame currency. Which is another point to the "i am sceptical" side. They said everything done there will need to be done by players and there are no quests and no NPCs. So i wonder where should all the money come from? If that is their model it is pretty capped too. So i wonder how the economy will work out with no NPCs to sell and buy stuff from. But yes, p2p has its origins in a time where it was the only way to fund a MMO that has a persistened world and is available 24/7 to a huge crowed (meaning actually need a dedicated game server). But that time is over. The only one left is WoW pretty much, even EVE has a free to play access (something that would never happen according to a few hardcore fanbois). It is just not flexible for peoples busy life. Back then it worked when it was the only option, but now people actually like a more flexible system. But you are aware that this is the way games (that are not MMOs) work for decades now? :-D I mean there are and have been soooo many retail titles that gat developed and recieved a few fixes and than they moved on with part 2 of that series (or an addon for the game, aka DLC). Key is: there are always people playing those old games that even though the developers moved on the game is still alive. The actual goal of an early access title is to get a few people funding the development and help making it, but the most buyers are expected to buy the finished titel. So even though Empyrion is still in development, the cash won't stop flowing in.... more or less. Unless they make a real stupid move as of "taking the money and run", but i don't see that case happen here. Simply because they are really passionated about the game.
The problem with your statement regarding how fames games have been run, is that EGS has a pseudo MMO aspect to it. It has players playing online with each other. So will they do away with that eventually, or is there some way they can keep it going without cash flow?
Not quiet correct. Empyrion (as well as ARK) is mostly played.... in single player. By a good margine. After that you have people play cooperatively either on local hosted or rented servers. The so called "lifeblood" MP experience is not actually that big as some people would like it to look. Don't get me wrong, i love playing with freinds and against others, but that just is the way it goes. So i say they will do fine, and with upcoming and future features there will be a steady income. Just think: for (currently) less than 2 months of subscription for DU you get a game that you can play to eternity while in DU you can.... play for two month (when that comes out, testers play for free til release). That is another problem: the people funding the game and playing in early alpha, alpha and beta will at some point have to start over when the game is released. How many will keep playing? How many will play and have a lifetime sub with their gold/platin/unoptanium/whatever packs? Money making is starting when the game is finished but only if people playing and paying for that. Empyrion can be gifted, bought for later play throughs, or just for the collection. Eleon is NOT dependened on people playing the game.
What you say may be true, but to me, the multiplayer aspect is a major draw, as it is to many others. Basically, if Eleon drops the multiplayer aspect, anyone wanting a massive multiplayer experience is left with basically one choice - go try DU. Yes it is definitely more expensive in theory, but with the DAC system, maybe not, since you will supposedly be able to buy subscriptions using in game currency. People are adamant that this will be a viable option for those who don't want to pay a subscription. I'm definitely skeptical of that claim, but if it is a viable option, it could be perfectly feasible to have a massive multiplayer experience in a game with a more flexible building system, better graphics, and a player driven economy. To me, that is hard to say no to, if they can pull it off. So you're right that based on the business model, EGS will live on for whoever wants to play it, but in terms of who actually does play it in the long term, I think it will end up being a lot less than play it now, which is sad considering how much potential the game has.
As i said: i like the MP aspect as well. Doesn't change the fact that the SP people are many many many many more. Won't happen, as the multiplayer part is also important to the team as it obviously seems. It is not like the devs of Planet nomads ;-) It all will burn down how well the system will be accepted. It seems that it works in EVE for years. WoW did do the same thing but it slows down. That has many reasons. As for WoW token in europe, they started out at 20k gold. Blizz said the price is tied to supply and demand, so the price is automatically chosen by the system. After a while it reached 200k+, a value some vocal fans of the game said they won't pay the gold. Additional information: unlike EVE the token can only be sold once and then only be used for subscription and newly for services, and it can't be stolen. So if somebody has 2 years bought with gold they are set for a long time and don't need any additional tokens. Anyways, Blizz doesn't care if somebody wants to buy the token for gold or not, because the token someone payed real money for gets sold for gold no matter what, either a player buys it or the system removes it and gives the seller the gold. Because first and foremost not the ingame economy is important, or that people can't play without paying money is important for Blizzard, it's the paying customer twho payed real money for a certain cause => selling it for ingame gold. Just a short foray how such systems work. Getting back to DU: The system ONLY works if enough people are willing to buy DAC for real money in addition to their normal subscription. This is how such systems work. For every person who wants to pay gametime with ingame currency, someone else has to pay twice. So if nobody wants to pay additional real money to sell it for ingame currency.... you get the idea. So if Novaquark is not throwing out DACs in small numbers (and paying players temporarly out of their pocket which i guess CCP in EVE probably did) it can probably end up in a situation where there are times when no DAC is currently available, and the less people playing the game the sooner and more often this situation will occur. Why i think CCP did that? Well... publicity. It actually doesn't cost them any money because producing thopse tokens doesn't cost anything. It is just a little less earned, and a small price to keep the overall reputaion of an successful game. Nobody asks why CCP never made anything else than EVE (plus Dust 514 which was related to EVE before it died off)? IF the game was really that successful there would have been more things to be seen. By the way.... the game had what? 700K active accounts (since it is free to play they don't say subcribers anymore) is accoring to the EvE specialist that recommend to have at least 3 alt accounts, better 10... some have even 15+, the 700k active accounts is probably in reality around +-100k at best. So the allmighty EvE isn't really as big as people sometimes want it to look like. I hope that clears it up, the system with subscription with an token system in which you can buy gametime with ingame currency. While you can be sure that (if they do it right) you'll always get your ingame currency for the real money you paid, there is no guarantee that you can keep playing via paying ingame currency.... only IF Novaquark is supplying the market when in needs of DACs "out of there own pocket". Before a couple of years i would have been all for a subscription based model. Now i wouldn't recommend to base your busyness upon such a system. Me persoanlly i don't have a subscription running. Its not a money problem, i am just not willing to pay a monthly fee in advance if i don't know how much i really would make use of it. So when a subscription is needed i would be willing to pay a fee for actual gametime: meaning i pay for 240 hours and get to play 240 hours no matter if it is in one or 6 month. Just pay and every hour you are not playing is wasted is not worth my money.
YOu sound like that game is out for years now... XD Oh sorry for the confusion, it is out for years but its still in development, so it is not even finished yet. Lets talk about dying off in 5 to 6 years ;-) The game has not even reached all of its potential customers yet. But it need polish to do so, some in smoother gameplay and mechanics and a some in original models and good eyecatcher. Tips on marketing they can get for free from me as long as they don't want me to plan a global marketing and sales strategy. XD XD XD
