Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Comments
You must have issues if you think the reason they disabled starting zone PvP was because of Asmongold.
Seek therapy.
About the need for safe zones, the need to ban PKing up to level 5—all these things testers suggested almost from the beginning of the pre-alpha. And the answer was something like, "There will be guards to protect you." But as soon as one streamer started dying a couple of times, a GM came to help.
The sincere bloodthirstiness of those who killed Asmongold was to show the developers that they live in their fantasies.
Unfortunately, this is the reality of this studio, and we have nothing left but to accept it. Priority will always be given to top media personalities, then US servers, then guilds associated with employees, then friends and big donors, then everyone else. But there's nothing we can do about that; such is life. On the other hand, we can use this to our advantage.
For example, if we figure out how to exploit Asmongold, we can quickly get a fix for this system. If he dies a couple of hundred times up to level 10, maybe they'll start thinking about penalties for newbies, etc.
In general, instead of discussing injustice and equality, which only exist in fairy tales, let's think about how we can use this to our advantage.
Like you basicly hurting the game for what killing a level 1 who cant do shit :P
I would say that's sniping. After all, you didn't need to look for him. You just had to come to the spawn point.
they should make a streamer server tbh and let the streamers guilds duke it out on the one server
next weekend cant be killed unles su turn it on so he wont be in the starting zone that time he get too 5 then get stream sniped killed or just follow the ball and wait till he level 5
However, even though steven is in the wrong for not having the feature in, this does not mean asmon is not also at fault. He knew the game was open world pvp. He started the game as the most popular streamer to ever play the game, all alone. With no intent to even research the start, or get people to talk to about the alpha or anything. He says he knew this would happen. yet did nothing to protect against it.
So both steven and asmon are at fault, but mostly Steven for not making sure the game was ready for the public.
I've gotten closely acquainted with the corruption system. And it won't stop griefing. It's designed to kill open-world PvP, but it doesn't hinder griefing at all.
I disagree about the ban. The players were acting within the framework of the game mechanics. They didn't use any vulnerabilities, developer oversights (since the developers were warned in advance that this would happen), or break any rules. Except for the rules that Steven made up during the incident.
So, if I were in the place of those banned, I would go to court to get my money back and receive compensation.
This is also a very dangerous incident of developer arbitrariness. Essentially, it means that if the developer doesn't like you, you can get banned just like that. This is a bad approach.
So it turns out that if you just kill a player who has a lot of followers, you get banned. Imagine that a guild war starts with Asmongold's guild and you just get banned for it.
To clarify, griefing is bad. But here, the game itself just lends itself to it.
attacking a player is fine. The problem is that the devs said no. and the players ignored it. Regardless of if you think this is over reach or not, the players should have stopped. This is why they got banned. This is Intrepid's testing grounds, and lets say they summon everyone to an area and tell them not to stand in a circle nearby. If those players start jumping into that circle disrupting the test, and get told repeatedly to get out of the circle, do you still think those players are acting in any sort of good faith? They are just using the game mechanic to walk and jump right? Or are they going out of there way to disrupt?
To be clear, the game is not released yet. This is a test. if they did this on a live server there would be no defense. but to act like these players are just playing the game normally is just not reality.
I remember on the first stress tests, a guy was banned from testing because he didn't relay a message in Discord that some ability couldn't be used.
It's a bad approach.
i mean. get banned then? You act like you have the right to ignore moderators of the server. You don't. They make the rules and enforce them. Especially steven. Just because you do not agree with what they tell you to do does not magically mean they have no power to ban you.
I have no problem with people doing this. However acting like moderators cannot order you around or ban you when you ignore their wishes is just flat stupid. Unless they were asking for something completely unreasonable you should listen to them if you dont want punishments.
Right now steven has made the distinction that doing what was done to asmon was harassment and they were banned as a result of ignoring the messages to stop. If he just started silently banning everyone that attacked asmon then you would be right, but he told them to stop, they ignored it, and found out what happens when you dont listen to a game moderator.
Understandably, we are indeed trying to live in a civilized world. I hope so because when people start persecuting someone, it rarely leads to anything good. In such a world, even if a person has power, they should follow the rules. What happened—"Hey, don't pick on this guy because I like him and I'm a moderator"—is not following the rules. It's a personal whim. It seems that it's not forbidden to disagree with whims.
Is this how you see it, or am I mistaken?
I'll even tell you another story. Instances of harassment are not uncommon in this game. It's just that when you're not Asmongold, whose opinion matters to Steven, it's acceptable.
As for the GMs and CMs, they are also very biased. For example, in the EU, it was necessary to kill a player at respawn more than 200 times. And from the GM's point of view, that's normal; if something similar had happened to Asmongold, a GM would have immediately come to help with the situation.
So yes, I think Steven's actions towards these players were not justified. Although I can't say I like how the banned players behaved. But they didn't break any rules. And the warning "Stop hitting the bald guy" can hardly be called a prohibition.
Indeed, there were many tools that both Steven and Asmongold themselves could have used. Asmongold could have streamed with a huge delay and not announced the event to the whole world, Steven could have allowed him and his guild to play on a private server, they could have warned players in advance and disabled PvP. There's a lot that could have been done.
And to be honest, it was a deliberate provocation by Asmongold, and it succeeded and led to the banning of players—which, in my opinion, is quite toxic.
So I think that as developers gain experience, they will understand that publishers and developers are not the same as players and guilds. Various codes of honor and other community rules are adhered to by players voluntarily, and it's the players who enforce these rules, not the publisher swinging the ban hammer at their whim.
And there are several reasons for this. The main one is the abuse and exploitation by players of such approaches.
I don't like this guy. We'll just take and the whole guild will complain about him to get him banned, while deliberately provoking him to break the code of honor.
But it takes time. So I wouldn't say I'm too worried about this situation at the moment because it's more important now to make this craft at least remotely resemble an MMORPG game.
The bans were justified and given fair warning. An example had to be made. RIP$150 alpha key hope the epeen was worth it...
Asmond knew this would happen but still logged in/Steven knew Asmond was logging in but did not have planned starter zone protections in place (Neither of them seemed to have discussed intentions) Either Steven is was woefully naive and forgot his MMO veteran glasses or perhaps Asmond wanted to push some of Stevens buttons on the sly...
shyt happens...Safe zones should have been implemented sooner/massive oversight
By level 5 Asmond will be surrounded by bodyguards and steam roll content. Anyone named "KOAsmondbald" will likely be be on notice with a ban hammer hovering over them...Nobody who spent time grinding hours to lvl 10 or more is going to risk it until the last day before server wipe when things will go mental anyway...
Corruption is so overturned now not even PK'rs want to PVP.
Let me post something for you I will do it in bright red ink so you can read it clearly
As the CMs said, it's a gameplay moment. And here it's harassment only because the guy was bald with too many followers.
P.S. Steven knew that Asmongold would enter and knew exactly when he would enter. Steven talked about it in an interview.
If you're referring to 'The situation with Pirate Software in Ashes of Creation,' let’s get the facts straight. The individual in question used their stream to locate their target, attacked them, and then expected no consequences. Whether the person is a streamer or not is irrelevant. If you make a reckless decision to attack someone on stream to gain attention, then try to claim it was retaliation for them attacking one of your members, that's on you.
The reality is that this game has large guilds and such encounters are bound to happen, streamer or not. If this was a legitimate grievance, it could have been addressed through proper communication. Every guild in this realm, including mine, has open lines of communication. All GMs and officers are in the same Discord server, and any issues can be brought up and resolved there. Most of PvP disputes in this realm have been settled by simply talking.
I watched the video of this incident after someone brought it up here and tried to frame it as 'streamer privilege.' From what I saw, this situation was entirely avoidable. The attacking guild made no attempt to communicate before attacking—they could have sent a message, but they chose not to. Instead, they went for the clout of being on a livestream, and now they’re facing the consequences of their own poor decisions.
For the record, I’ve had run-ins with the same guild over farming areas. This had nothing to do with streamer privilege and everything to do with someone making a bad choice and trying to deflect blame. Own up to it and move on.
Dont make playing video games your jobs then
these people paying massive money to test a game are not children and just because you dont like what im saying doesnt make wasted money any less wasted.
Anyone who names their character 'KOAsmon' probably paid for the alpha key with their mom's credit card...
Ahh... delicious tears.
Um, I haven't even heard of that. I mean, players complained when they were killed non-stop at respawns and it was considered normal.
You do realize that safe zone and low level protection was already designed to be in game (based upon earlier feedback) and was just not yet implemented? Steven mentioned this a couple times.
I don't understand the over-the-top hostility toward streamers (although it did became a bit more clear as you continued with your list 🤣) . While I will intentionally avoid servers big streamers are on, I do not have any envy or resentment toward them and can see the benefit they provide in helping promote a game, player numbers, and future content development.
The question is not about the situation with Asmon, the question is that for the developers to at least understand something and start doing something, even give it priority, one bald streamer is needed.
And that's what's sad.
At 37:13 they talk about this.
ANY toolbag spawn camping newbies should not only get banned but punch it the dangly bits every time they kill someone in a starter area.
At least it livened up the discourse, though?
The specifics of Phase I really trended towards 'going back to the beginning of feedback on MMOs', which tbh is super boring for people who play a lot of them seriously.
I understand that the feedback equivalent of the "New Player Experience" (by this, I mean 'getting used to thinking about systems and giving feedback) is also something that many of the incoming testers need to go through, but by that metric, the Asmon situation is like 'reaching level 15 and fighting your first mini-boss'.
I still can't believe Steven literally, in world chat, referred to him as 'the bald one'. That's a tier of reaction that borders on scripted, even considering Steven's personality.
Ah well, assuming they were real people and not part of a performance, those that were banned have been sacrificed to the Others for the glory of AoC. The amount and type of free publicity of this sequence of events is probably a great thing for Intrepid, given their market niche.