"The pitch was on earning..."
I disagree. The words used are interpreted differently by folks with different perspectives.
Your statements reveal your own, and ignore others. That was not my interpretation at all, and my own actions in game reflect that. When I saw that people had sunk $T's into gameplay I was astounded. I had to do some reading before it dawned on me that people were treating the game as investment.
The astonishment is wearing off, but what is replacing that emotion is not particularly flattering. I was also a bit startled when I read @edicted recommended that the devs just end the game and pocket their earnings - because they don't have to keep the game going under any legal theory I am aware of - but given my present, new grasp of the situation regarding this game, I almost agree with him.
While it would probably compel them to abandon the accounts they developed the game under, it would certainly serve the community a great benefit, and help devs in the future to better deal with the pecuniary interests of the Steem community.
I was raised on an island in Alaska, and I am often surprised by how unrealistic many people not as innately familiar with the real world conceive things to be. It is informative not only regarding Steem, and this present kerfuffle, but very applicable to politics as well.
I am a bit comforted that when fantastic contortions of reality are overextended, actual reality will intrude and those capable of it will discover sound principles. The old saw 'Hard times makes hard men. Hard men make good times. Good times makes soft men. Soft men make hard times.', is very true.
Too true for some. Not true enough for others.
This was the game’s logo. That is all.
I don’t disagree with @edicted either. And those who “invested”, I wonder why on blockchain they would “invest” in something not backed by a smart contract (or at least an oracle).
Don’t read only my responses here because they are contextual. They may or may not reflect my actual position. Being contextual they may even be opposite to my own position, yet the ability to see, acknowledge, and respond to each side of the table is something which matters. In order to be able to design mechanics which please everyone it is important to also know what exactly causes the anger. One “investor” actually wants to be able bring back more resources when raiding. That’s nothing I can disagree with because as a minnow who ran a ROI maximization experiment, I can but agree that 12hours protection and max 30% resources raided... that is not a fair play field to those who spend on their army. Resource matter for them: both to replace lost soldiers and in this game to also bank due to the pitched “get paid” part.
Contrarily to your thinking, I understand all three sides: minnow, middle class spender, and whale. On Steem the whale right now wants a return, not the highest kill count. They want to... “get paid”.
To me it seems that you long think I belong to the “investor” camp. I’m sorry, there’s no investors in Steem... only token holders. I thought you actually may have recalled previous of my writing about open source, blockchain, and decentralization.
This game is an interesting experiment marrying two different worlds: the often ludicrous spend found in MMO IAP with an environment where a large part of the membership eventually does do math. I’m pretty sure there’s people who have pumped tens, some hundreds of STEEM in because “get paid” who would never have bought even a $5 IAP pack.
Only to regret later they didn’t understand that the game’s early days returns were always going to diluted. Diluted massively. Built on quicksand dilution.
Shutting it down, learning from it and returning in 2-3 months with a more mature launch would be an amazing thing to do. But it would destroy the launch because reputations will suffer from it. Yet, launching on Steem does bring out the oh so gullible Steemian and that’s something which is tempting to unlock for devs.
In the end... we do share many similar views because other than your opening sentence, again, I do not disagree with anything else you said in this comment.
It's been long enough - and I guzzle information greedily and without surcease - that my replies and comments here aren't informed by my recollections of interactions and reading of your posts in the past. Sorry, if that's the case.
Anyway, I do agree with what you are saying here (except that it's only possible to interpret the logo as some kind of promise of profitability). This is an interesting game, and I commend the devs for undertaking to make this necessarily delicate balance. With my alt I made a fast track to 100% ROI and above, just for the novelty of the opportunity. It's not something any other game has made possible, so I did it just to do it.
As battles commence, the fun for me will really begin.
I hope you enjoy the game, and that it lasts long enough for us to both enjoy for the long run.
I bought La Cocina for 2.405. Since I’ve only banked or leveled up. I’m rolling in the profits from that experiment and think I was running at 38% Daily ROI.
12 Hours shield and 25% protected plus 30% is awesome. I should have made more alts for it. :D
Especially since you can technically trigger the shield with your own alt (I recommended a lock out for 72hrs from attacking the same empire, as well as the more standard 8hrs protection).
Now I’m wondering how long until somebody sets up a script which listens to the chain for attacks and then autoqueues attacks 12 hours later.
Automation will harm this game much more than anything we’ve seen from farmers before. It can easily be prevented tho by encrypting the data integrated in custom_json (disclosure: I didn’t check if it is now).
As for gaming, I’ve given my share to this type of games in last two decades. On all possible player levels... no thanks, I’m not spending yet another [enter your preferred vehicle/property] on something just for kills. I think Gabe Leydon (Game of War, Mobile Strike, and his FB games before) is a genius but... no, thanks. I’ve left that world. All these games are math and they mostly rely on whales needing to invest in always new packs, in order to stay untouchable because they already invested that much in their empire. I can dedicate my time, and little crypto, I have to better things.
On Steem the whales can build larger armies, with or without selfvotes to make things “cheaper in Monopoly money”. The march cap is needed, together with a more reasonable 50% raiding, to keep the minnows vested and eventually discover how to play as a [cheap] trap. Otherwise the pyramid/ecosystem eventually collapses. There’s many things DW can integrate to extend the lifetime. Extend before they “reskin” the game, with slightly tweaked narrative and math, and launch it as another game.
In a year or two we will be looking from the sides and admire how all those games will be vying for users and spending on user acquisition. The recursive internet is a beautiful thing to observe. And each time it creates new entrepreneurs and millionaires.
I love it. I wouldn’t want it differently. I wouldn’t want to miss it either.
DW ROI? Was an early days experiment because I expected the dwindling returns, but thanks for making it evergreen DW! But I’m not that vested in returns. “Steem” is much more interested in it than I am, I prefer building.