How Many People Have You Told About Us? And How Many Reacted Skeptically?

Last night, one of our 7 guilds in SWTOR held its weekly Guild 'ceremonies' - and not 1 but 2 of our community members happened to discuss AoC, with yours truly.

I openly suggested AoC and following this project - and do you know why?

Because they expressed that they were bored with SWTOR - of which? For those un-aware? Is just a WoW clone with a Star Wars skin. The first ally didn't even believe me that such a project/goal as AoC could exist. His reaction? It was along the lines of "A passion MMO project? That can't happen - because no one would ever fund it!"

The other was a guildie that I hadn't seen in a few years. Our connection? Orion Sol - the founder of the JEDl community order of guilds from 2004. He has *rarely* lead our community; Yours truly is personally responsible for having hosted 3 of our largest community event-series, since 2008. I suggested AoC to this ally, and he hadn't formerly heard of us.

The fact is, something bonds all of us - be it the actual Force, or even the pretenses and mediums that express the belief in such mediums. In mentioning this project to the latter ally? He immediately looked us up, having been previously un-aware of AoC and it's stated goals.

I was just wondering - for the sake of personal morale in the face of those who *can't* believe that such a project as AoC exists: What resistance have you faced, in your present MMO? Are people reluctant to believe that something that lacks AAA Corporate support even *can* exist?

How have you discussed us with your guildies and community members? How do they typically perceive us, as an MMO-to-be? Do you meet resistance?

Just wondering what experiences we all share, in attempting to spread the news of AoC and it's concepts.

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Noaani

I've told a lot of people about the game over the past few years.

Almost all of them became somewhat interested in the game after looking in to it more (I never ask people to take my word for it, but suggest they look in to it themselves).

Almost all of them had the exact same reaction to Stevens statement of an intent to block combat trackers in a game that has stated to want to have top end competitive raiding - a statement that I made a point of passing on to Steven.

That statement can be summed up in two words; Fuck off.

To the people I play MMO's with, Ashes is currently in the same situation to them as New World was to PvP players when AGS made the changes to PvP in that game. It is essentially a lost cause of an MMO, annd is not out of place in discussions along side Bless.

So yeah, the people I talk about this game with can absolutely believe it. The notion of a passion project that gets the things the key person cares about right and literally everything else totally wrong completely makes sense, and is 100% believable.

Okeydoke

"Yeah but that's so far away" or "Never coming out" are the responses I get when I talk about it to most of my friends. My fps friends be like "that sounds so dope brooo" followed by a kinda glazed over demeanor.

The game sounds so unrealistically good and is so far away that a lot of people just aren't interested in talking about it.

Ironhope

Like two or three friends while randomly talking with them on Discord and other chats.

Their answers were ''I'll check it out''.

Azherae

With most people I get the 'get back to me when it's good' response.

People I know normally played FFXI, Monster Hunter, and Minecraft.

Ashes offers nothing new to these people. In almost all cases other than maybe combat it's a downgrade from those game in terms of potential gameplay even if combined. Combat ain't looking great either for many of those people anymore (I'm not included, I like the combat, I just don't think it will be challenging), but that's why I get that reaction. Very 'wait and see'.

It really underscores how poor the industry is, that I see Ashes doing all this extremely basic stuff and people being so hype for it. This is no fault of the people being hype, obviously. Even the people who did end up backing it, at least half had that same reaction. I won't even send out the recent livestream to people because I know I'll just get the 'yeah this is just art and stuff I/other friend can do in Blender'.

Other than that, the reaction to the thing you explicitly said has been mixed. Because most people see, quite rightly, that whether or not the game will be enjoyable to them will depend on Steven. Put simply, there must be some reason, however potentially stupid, that we don't actually see these types of projects. Steven could easily just be 'a dreamer who hasn't hit the wall yet', but is being spurred on by the fact that people are so starved and in many cases practically abused, that they see what Ashes is offering as a great experience based only on what they've seen so far.

So the concept of a 'passion funded MMO' doesn't mean anything to them, there are many. One even referred to it as 'a salesman dreamer who knows how to present their dreams'.

It's hard to describe the specific skepticism because much of it is colored by the way people view my assessments, so take all I said with a grain of salt. I started by 'being hype' and 'telling people all the cool things it could do', and they in turn asked me 'how good is it?' because that's what I do, and when you answer 'it might be as good as that half-alive game you still play' or 'it's like Minecraft but with a decent MMO attached maybe', the response you get isn't 'disbelief in the fact that such a thing exists', it's more like 'yeah that sounds alright, lemme know when it gets good'.

Nerror

Most in my community are generally positive, some hyped, for the game. But given the release being so far out in the future, most also just sorta move on with their current game and don't actively follow it yet. I almost wish I could do the same

Makes the wait easier. I haven't seen anything negative, just some healthy skepticism and "let's wait and see". Some are incarnate PvE players, and the game probably won't be for them.

Conrad

Shitting on SWTOR 🤣

Vhaeyne

I tell people I will be playing Ashes and why when it comes up. I don't try to really "sell" Ashes to people.

As an example: I know that not very many people in my FFXIV FC would want to play Ashes. Ashes really is a different game than what they want. Everyone knows that no matter what is going on in FFXIV, Ashes takes priority, and they are cool with that.

I can tell them that Ashes will have deep crafting, housing, and even mount breeding until I am blue in the face. They all love FFXIV because it is a very forgiving game. Many of them come from FFXI and say that while it is nostalgic, they would never play such a hardcore game again.

They also love the FF franchise and don't see themselves playing other MMORPGs. With many of my WOW friends, it's quite the same with WOW.

My closer friends who do hop from MMORPG to MMORPG are more skeptical, but willing to try it. People I know from L2, eve, darkfall and mortal are excited to try Ashes.

It all depends on what the person likes from MMORPGS. I knew a friend of mine from Aion would like Ashes based on her play style. I showed her videos and she was immediately on board.

It really reinforces in my mind that Ashes will not be everyone's cup of tea. The people who do drink it will really like it, though.

maouw

I've shared highlights from the streams, sometimes the reactions are "oh that's kinda cool" but the major source of doubt I've seen is around combat.

The other thing is - people who've played BDO tend to assume the caravan system in Ashes is going to be like BDO's caravan system - so they have this attitude of "oh, been there done that."

CroakerRPG

I often tell people about the Node system, how it very clearly works correctly, and how that will set this game apart from it's competition by miles.

Dreadnought

I've told everyone that's in about 8 different discord servers, roughly 20k people I think?

Tyranthraxus

Conrad wrote: »

Shitting on SWTOR 🤣

I was a Day One of pre-launch, 13DEC2011 type of player. For 2 whole days? I got to tab between SWTOR and the final bit of live-production SWG.

It feels like I'm qualified to crap all over SWTOR, if I'd like. It's been dumbed down consistently to appeal to the most-casual of player-types.

Bro North wrote: »

I often tell people about the Node system, how it very clearly works correctly, and how that will set this game apart from it's competition by miles.

It feels like this is the biggest selling point, for differentiating the game from others, before it. Other games have been left to scratch their heads about how to tie in consequence - but AoC's notions really do seem like the biggest for "world-level"-type consequences.

If there was a single video I'd encourage people to watch upon first researching AoC, it's certainly the Nodes 2 video!

Conrad

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

Conrad wrote: »

Shitting on SWTOR 🤣

I was a Day One of pre-launch, 13DEC2011 type of player. For 2 whole days? I got to tab between SWTOR and the final bit of live-production SWG.

It feels like I'm qualified to crap all over SWTOR, if I'd like. It's been dumbed down consistently to appeal to the most-casual of player-types.
[/i]

Well sure, problem is that the game is more focused on story than full on gameplay, tho a massive revamp is coming very soon either way. I would agree you have the "right" to shit on it if it was the same game it was back then. Its significantly better and has actual target audience, because JUST star wars fans is not enough of an "audience". And hell, thanks to that it's a great game that has been alive for what... 10 years now

daveywavey

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

How Many People Have You Told About Us? And How Many Reacted Skeptically?

I've told quite a lot of people, and mostly, they're a little unsure. Maybe not sceptical as such, but possibly. There seem to be a few different groups with their own ideas about it all. I mean, most of them are like: "Why is he called Tyranthraxus? Is he a Tyrannosaurus or Anthrax?" And, I try to suggest that maybe you're both, or neither, but they're still unsure.

Wyborn

I posted links in my wow guild discord hoping to get as many dwarves there as possible.

Enigmatic Sage

The people I told about didn't care once I told them it would not be released for a few years let alone even have a release date announced. Rather focus on things they currently can enjoy before jumping on a long ass hype train adventure.

McMackMuck

I mentioned to Discord mates from another game that I quit nearly two years ago - no interest. It seems they would rather hemorrhage money into a p2w 24/7 PvP power-creep-over-time game. It's always difficult to drag people from one game to another unless they are disgruntled with the game.

I mentioned to uni mates that I've previously had LAN weekends with, covering a range of fantasy RPG over 15 years. The most positive response was "ooh, that looks like a time sink", which seems like it has mildly negative connotations. Priorities, responsibilities and interests change over time. I'm still working on those friends, but it needs to be a subtle marketing campaign so that they think they made the decision!

McMackMuck

@daveywavey Extremely funny. Reminds me of a scene from Red Dwarf.

[Rimmer addresses the crew before leaving for the Holoship]
Rimmer : Look, I'm not much good at big speeches, and I know I haven't always been an easy guy to get on with. And I know that, given the choice, I probably wouldn't have chosen you as friends. But, I just want to say... that over the years I have come to regard you as... people... I met.

daveywavey

Hahaha, Red Dwarf is brilliant. So well written

McMackMuck

Danger mouse was pretty funny too. They packed so much into the 5 minute episodes knowing that, when originally screened in the 80's/90's, your brain would spend the next 10 minutes post-processing during the news (or John Craven's newsround, I can't remember). I watched a DVD of them back to back more recently; after 3-4 episodes my brain was fried and screaming "Arrrgh! No more!". They work well in small doses.

Percimes

"Ace Rimmer ! What a guy !"

The few friends I talked a bit about the game balked when it comes to the open pvp part. Then there is the time investment for a mmo and most can't dedicate enough time to be worth it. In a few years when their kids are teens and rather avoid their parents, maybe hehe.

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