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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Speaking about the PC Gamer article
Greetings, fellow wanderers.
I've lately stumbled upon <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/ashes-of-creation-kickstarter/" target="_blank">this not-so-flattering PC GAMES article</a>, and I was kinda surprised of not having found a single thread of this forum regarding it (please, tell me if I'm wrong).
The articles contains a number of subtle insinuation about the Intrepid team skills, the referral program legitimacy, and the overall trustworthiness of the whole project. There are no open accusations and no true flaws exposure; still, it's quite a reading, and I encourage everyone to go through it at least once.
<em>(I had to split the post in two due to a forum bug which prevent me to start a topic with too many words)</em>
I've lately stumbled upon <a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/ashes-of-creation-kickstarter/" target="_blank">this not-so-flattering PC GAMES article</a>, and I was kinda surprised of not having found a single thread of this forum regarding it (please, tell me if I'm wrong).
The articles contains a number of subtle insinuation about the Intrepid team skills, the referral program legitimacy, and the overall trustworthiness of the whole project. There are no open accusations and no true flaws exposure; still, it's quite a reading, and I encourage everyone to go through it at least once.
<em>(I had to split the post in two due to a forum bug which prevent me to start a topic with too many words)</em>
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Comments
The option to just ignore article like this, in my opinion, is not feasible. I've experienced other promising Kickstarter-driven projects being wrecked by media claims, started small but amplified without control because ignored for too long. It has been discussed somewhere in the forum already? I couldn't find any topic regarding this.
The article, of course, is not the only assumed topic held against AOC. For instance, I've found big criticism about the <a href="http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/464328/unreal-engine-is-a-massive-concern-for-me-and-i-think-many-are-overlooking-it" target="_blank">Unreal Engine 4</a>, depict as not able to manage a large number of players in a single area.
Please believe me, when I say that I don't want to magnify false problems, but to deal with them before they get a resonance they don't deserve. I'd just really like to hear your opinions about all the matter.
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to contribute.
"The author of this article had an obvious agenda when he spoke with us. It is quite a shame.
Regardless, his reporting of our referral rewards is false, and we have sent a letter to his editor-in-chief for a retraction.
I'm sorry our community is subject to this style of attack. Our hearts in the studios hurt when reading it."
I hope everyone who backed Ashes have similar concerns as what's outlined in the article and still chose to back anyway.
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Omg, if the hit piece part is true then.... yeah I've lost any credibility I had with PC Gamer. I remember that I used to read it often when I was younger.
And, that "hitpiece" had the impact of a limp noodle if that's what it was supposed to be.
I found it to be closer to fair and realistic than the unbridled hype-train Intrepid is pushing on us.
Intrepid does appear to be going out on a limb with what they are claiming to be able to develop. That isn't debatable. Appearances are tricky however. We do not have inside track knowledge and they may already have figured out, theoretically, how to deliver the coding that will make their game run the way that they say it will.
Face the facts that the MMO base(you, myself, all customers) has been disappointed too often by the whole "multi MMO genre Development Complex" including Huge Corporation funded projects and all the way down to Kickstarter funded projects. Failure to deliver as promised, when promised is THE NORM RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION. It will continue to be so as long as there is money to be made from failure as well as success.
Did the article have anything new or devastating to present? No. Did it have any Damning Revelations to reveal? No. Did it change my mind about having some faith in Intrepid to deliver a great product that I hope to play for years? No.
In short it was just another attempt to stir the pot by a freelance writer that needs to stir things up to sell articles. It's how they become and stay relevant so they can sell more articles. In fact this guy was somewhat less than grandstanding style accusatory and bullhead doom/failure predicting than most such are.
However, I completely agree with Brinslite's point: this kind of skepticism will be not able to change my mind at all. I have backed this project consciously, and I do think it can become reality. As mentioned before, I didn't want to cause pointless alarmism nor to blindly spread concerns: I intend to debate about how this project is perceived, and what the community may do to improve this. Even a maliciously written, inconclusive piece may be damaging if not promptly managed. I hope that this kind of claims could always be addressed by the developers in such a clear, direct manner.
Sooner or later, I'd also love to hear from Intrepid studios about those technical issues that may cause distrust. For instance, those critics about the <a href="http://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/464328/unreal-engine-is-a-massive-concern-for-me-and-i-think-many-are-overlooking-it" target="_blank">Unreal Engine 4</a>, depict as not able to manage a large number of players in a single area and in general as a not suitable engine for MMOs. Has this issue been already discussed too?
Even if it's clear that this post too is written with nasty intent (I've seen a couple of posts from the same author, openly against AOC even without an understandable reason), I'd like to hear what Intrepid plans are about the Unreal engine. I've read that there are proofs that this engine may successfully be used to create a functional MMOs, through cooperation between game developers and Unreal team: needless to say that an official insight about the matter would be deeply appreciated.
It seems that the Unreal Engine has the ability for it's users to get inside the code and modify what they need to so that they can make it usable for larger participant MMO applications. I wouldn't mind knowing more about this and also hearing or reading confirmation from outside Intrepid but I have some trust that they would not start the project unless they had knowledge that it could be so modified. Just wouldn't make any sense in any other way.
Things like massive groups of individual avatars in proximity has always been a real challenge, let alone large groups in combat. Can't wait to see if they can pull it off and in a way that the average good gaming machine can deal with! :)
So this game gonne be great for what i know so far.
What I hope many understand is that the game if/when it does release, it could still be a long time before all the balance issues are worked out and systems work as planned. Heck MMOs that have been released for years change still change things regularly and they have millions of players.
What I am saying is I hope the community has patience after the game is release and provides constructive feedback. And for gods sake be nice to new players when they arrive. Help them out, thats how the game will grow.
What I hope many understand is that the game if/when it does release, it could still be a long time before all the balance issues are worked out and systems work as planned. Heck MMOs that have been released for years change still change things regularly and they have millions of players.
What I am saying is I hope the community has patience after the game is release and provides constructive feedback. And for gods sake be nice to new players when they arrive. Help them out, thats how the game will grow.
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+1
+1
What I am saying is I hope the community has patience after the game is release and provides constructive feedback. And for gods sake be nice to new players when they arrive. Help them out, thats how the game will grow.</blockquote>
Hell yeah, totally in agreement.
What I hope many understand is that the game if/when it does release, it could still be a long time before all the balance issues are worked out and systems work as planned. Heck MMOs that have been released for years change still change things regularly and they have millions of players.
What I am saying is I hope the community has patience after the game is release and provides constructive feedback. And for gods sake be nice to new players when they arrive. Help them out, thats how the game will grow.
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Hell yeah, totally in agreement!
Does not change a hypothetical argument into evidence.
Thats just selling snake oil.
It is no better than what they accuse steven of doing.
1. You say UE4 cant be used for an MMO when everyone knows UE4 cant be used for an MMO 'out of the box' and none has argued otherwise. Which is exactly why access to 100% of the source code was important.
2. You say it will fail because of the base UE4 code, when you have zero idea what Percentage of UE4 code will be used and what will be swapped out. Unless you are trying to argue that MMOs cant actually be made regardless of any code.
3. So you have zero idea of what code will be used, zero idea of their MMO technical capability (which could be considerably greater than your own) and yet your obviously faultless talent enables and you to know it will fail. I must say I am impressed with your crystal ball, your free access to intrepid studio basecode and your intimate familiarity with their staffs capabilities.
In other words, when you have a technical product to criticise, then by all means fire away. At the moment all you are doing is criticising a self created faery tale about what might or might not be the case for a game that is in PRE-ALPHA. Your technical input is worthless at this moment because it is 100% based on assumption. In other words, a baseless smear campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mK_DlUoigg&feature=em-comments
+1
</blockquote>
Thanks :)
This artical is just pointing this out with an anti hype agenda. Most journalists write with the aim of getting a reaction. Just writing what everyone else has writen is not going to achieve that.
Anyway having more than one perspective on a project with objective points of view can be very useful.
So in closing what has this article achieved? From what I can see it has made an already close and supportive community closer and more supportive. Sent a good few pc gamer readers who may not have heard of this game over to scope out what all the fuss is about. May have detured a few on the fencers, who we all hope will come back nearer the end of development and wish they had had some faith and got their shinys. lol.
I have been burnt before and decided to back this one anyway, fingers crossed it all goes well.
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Steven posts frequently on https://www.reddit.com/r/AshesofCreation/
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He posts frequently on https://www.reddit.com/r/AshesofCreation/