Introduction:
If you're a long-time MMO player, you're probably a bit bored of the industry being dominated by the same five franchises year after year, and you're eagerly awaiting the next big thing: a shiny new MMO that will come along and revolutionize the genre.
Description of the Scam:
Unfortunately, developers know this, and they know they can make a lot of money by promising you something they cannot in any way deliver and then running away with your money. This is exactly what is going to happen with the Kickstarter MMO Dream World. This game is a scam.
Initial Impressions:
It's one of the most blatant scam MMOs I've ever seen. The only way it could be more of a scam was if it told me it was also a Nigerian prince and I needed to buy it with Target gift cards.
Acknowledgment of Viewers' Desires:
So in this blog, I'm going to go through every single aspect of this absolute con and explain why this won't work. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. I'm Josh "Drive" Hayes. Today, we're going to take a look at a con, a scam, an MMO game that's taking advantage of people's growing desire, people's desperation in many cases, to see a new MMO emerge, and people being willingness to throw large amounts of money at just the promise of this happening, without proof.
Comparison to Other Failed Concepts:
While researching this, it reminded me: do you remember that Simpsons episode where Homer designs a car that's meant to appeal to absolutely everyone, so he takes a little bit of this aesthetic, a little bit of that aesthetic, and he says, "Here's what everyone would want in one thing; therefore, it should appeal to everyone." But in reality, because there's no graphical or aesthetic cohesion to what he makes, absolutely no one wants it.
Examination of Kickstarter Success:
And to make matters worse, when you watch this video, especially if you're watching during the premiere, the Kickstarter is one hour away from being funded. This is going to go ahead. The con men have won.
Request for Support:
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Overview of Dream World's Claims:
Dream World, an MMO project on Kickstarter described as the last game you'll ever play. I'm sure that tagline was meant to sound impressive and inspirational, but honestly, it comes across as quite threatening.
Funding Status:
The project has raised forty-seven thousand dollars across six hundred and fifty-one backers, which is way over its budget of seven thousand two hundred and seventy-nine dollars, and so it will be funded. Genuinely, congratulations on raising forty-seven thousand dollars; that is not an insignificant amount of money to absolutely anyone, unless, of course, we're talking about MMORPG design, in which case, it is a drop in a vast ocean.
Analysis of Development Costs:
You see, one of the cheapest MMOs that I could research was Puzzle Pirates, which was made for just under a million dollars. An average-sized MMO can go for between thirty and fifty million dollars, and AAA titles like Elder Scrolls Online or Final Fantasy XIV, they're in the realms of the hundreds of millions to produce, maintain, enhance, to advertise. The fact that you claim that you'll be able to make an MMORPG on tens of thousands of dollars is ludicrous. There is no way this amount of money is going to make a good MMO.
Critique of Dream World's Features:
Dream World is described as an infinite open-world MMO in which players can craft and create objects and buildings, which will all exist on a single, persistent, shared overworld hosting millions of players at the same time, with thousands of biomes and a complex PvE and pet-taming system.
Challenges with Infinite Worlds:
"Infinite open world" sounds good but does not always mean good. Having a procedurally generated endless world with nothing to do in it isn't fun. A handcrafted, smaller, but densely packed and fleshed-out world is often, in an MMO sense, much more enjoyable than endless randomization.
Technological Limitations:
No MMO in existence hosts millions of players together in a single shared world. This technology exists only in theory, not in practice. This is a straight-up lie. You will not be able to have one million consecutive players on one shared overworld in the same place or the same city at the same time.
Questionable Graphic Design:
My issue with this is a lack of consistency. The Candyland looks so out of place. There's a lack of graphical cohesion already. Even the animals standing in a group together in one shot, you've got a relatively realistic dog standing next to a mythical unicorn, and a seal spinning in the water. This situation reeks of someone who just bought a load of unrelated asset packs slapped them together, and called it a day without bothering to check if the styles blend.
Concerns About Funding and Credibility:
Below this, there's a link to a website called Y Combinator. Y Combinator is a venture capital company. They help startup companies by providing small amounts of funding in exchange for stock. I cannot find any other information about a company called Dream World or a game called Dream World on their website.
Conclusion:
This is not the only Dream World on the internet. There is a game, a mobile game called Dream World, but the company name doesn't match and the type of game is completely different. So I can only assume this is a reference to this game. If you're doing a project and you have a bit of funding and you want to gain credibility, you would link to your investors. Your investors would want to be linked to if they've given you money, especially if they're a big name like Y Combinator.
This is an appeal to authority without actually having any authority. I just don't see why this is here. It seems entirely irrelevant to the project. If you've got nothing to hide, you don't hide anything. I'm not saying these people are hiding anything, but if you've got nothing to hide, why not put this here?
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