Crowfall: This Highly Anticipated MMO Beat Its Kickstarter Goal by $966,205

Rtipper — Sat, 03 Jun 2017 02:18:26 +0000

Kickstarting Development With a Whole New Spin

In a gaming community heavily saturated with numerous successful and problem-ridden MMO’s, hearing that a new one is on the horizon is almost white noise. With both pay to play and the freemium models both holding weight, one new contender into the fray is Crowfall, developed by ArtCraft.

Originally announced in January of 2015, the game soon opened its doors to the masses by looking for development funding via Kickstarter. Since then, the game has changed and grown tremendously and is a moment by moment, real-time look at how player support and shake a game to its very core.

Crowfall is taking what players know and love about the traditional MMO and spinning it with an RTS flare that keeps player’s characters progressing, but the world constantly changing.

Finding Support from Player Funding

Crowfall - Game Overview

Since closing the Kickstarter campaign in March of 2015, the team at ArtCraft saw their $800k goal surpassed beyond their wildest expectations. Totaling out at $1,766,205, the developers immediately knew that interest in their described “Throne War Simulator” of an MMO was present and that players were eager to see the game bloom.

Since that time, numerous alpha tests have taken place, founder support packs have been created for purchase and funding has been open ever since. Currently on the game’s website, the top of the page shows a number of those who have donated as well as the total funding for the game and when the next test phase will take place. As it stands now, ArtCraft has seen its total funding over $12 million and counting. With more funding coming to the game, the more the developers can use those funds to further develop and improve it -all at the cause of player contribution. It’s a surprisingly successful way to sustain Crowfall’s creation and give players an exact view as to where their donations are going.

With success stories like Crowfall, it will not be a surprise to see more development-heavy games like it fallow in its footsteps with Kickstarter and player contributions.

An early version of Crowfall’s character creator before a change was recently made to open up multiple architypes to multiple races -all thanks to player funding.

With More Funding, Comes More Development

As seen in the video below, development for Crowfall is at an all time high. With constant player alpha tests and more funding coming in every day, the team at ArtCraft is able to continue to do more with the game because more people donate to it.

One of these major and recent changes, as discussed in the video below, changed the entire system for character options. Originally, specific archetypes were locked to a specific race. Now, thanks to player funding, the team has implemented a brand new system that allows these archetypes to be played by one of the many races found in the game. This opens up tons of new player options for exactly how they want to adventure in the world of Crowfall.

Another, yet also substantial cause from the total amount of funding, is a graphical update for the game that will keep its now familiar looks while improving on it in every way.

While Crowfall is still a ways away, it’s this player to developer growth of a game that will help it succeed in the future because supporters will know exactly what they are getting into before it even launches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wFLBnTA9s (Race / Class Update)

Is World of Warcraft Still The King of MMOrpgs?

mike25490 — Sat, 15 Oct 2016 17:42:31 +0000

World of Warcraft has been around for over a decade, but does it still have the strength to remain the king of MMOrpgs?

When it comes to MMORPGs, and games that have had a huge impact on the industry; you cannot ignore World of Warcraft. For over a decade WoW has been an innovation and front-runner in the way MMORPGs are played, developed and constructed.

The game, developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has had millions of active subscribers of the years, and many competitive games trying to topple them over.

Let’s take a look at the aspects that have made WoW so great over the years, and if the game still has what it takes to remain the undisputed king of MMORPGs.

World of Warcraft (2004)

When World of Warcraft was released in 2004 to the public, it was competing against games like Final Fantasy XI and Lineage 2 etc. These games were extremely time-consuming and required a lot of grinding and teamwork just to level up. Blizzard took a new approach to the MMO scene, one that would see their popularity grow rapidly. They made the reward systems and leveling achievable to all. An interesting quest system meant less constant grinding, and players would not lose hours of experience when you die. They made the game more fun to play for everyone.

Blizzard Entertainment World of Warcraft cinematic trailer.

The game also allowed those with older laptops and PC's to purchase, download and play the game, no longer did you need to have beast specs nor grind mobs incessantly.

Blizzard's Popularity

In the gaming industry, Blizzard has been around for decades. Their high quality games have helped them rise to become one of the most formidable PC game companies.

When people first heard that Blizzard had a new project underway (WoW), the hype quickly shot up. It’s easy to make a popular game if you’re already popular.

Never-ending storylines and updates

To compete and keep their fan based happy and interested, World of Warcraft has a extremely in-depth lore. The lore of World of Warcraft is a very fascinating one, with hundreds if not thousands of stories in it.

Blizzard Entertainment is also constantly tweaking and updating the gameplay, graphics, adding new quests and in-game features. They have a lot to live up to, a huge fan base requires a huge amount of effort to be put in to keep them interested.

WoWs latest release and update - Legion!

Number 1 reason

We can’t mention why World of Warcraft is a king in the MMORPG world without mentioning its gameplay aspects.

World of Warcraft as an MMORPG has one of the smoothest and accurately tuned gameplay I have ever experienced. There is nothing quite like engaging in battle in the WoW combat system and getting involved in your character's moves.

Other MMORPGs have tried to replicate the standard of gameplay, like Star Wars The Old Republic, but have not had the success the way WoW has. This isn’t to say the game is bad, but they cannot replicate the detail and attention WoW has with its combat system.

Gameplay against a raid boss

Verdict

So, you ask me, is WoW still the king of MMORPGs the way it was in the past?

I have heard so many times that “this game” or “that game” will be the downfall to WoW, but nothing has yet prevailed, and I’m now convinced nothing will.

Blizzard has a tremendous team of developers working on this game, and it is hard to see them failing at the hands of the competition. If WoW does fall in the future, I think it will be because Blizzard decides to pull the plug.

There are a lot of very good MMORPGs that I would recommend to a lot of you, but to answer your question in regards to WoW. It is and still will remain the king of MMORPGs.

Related articles you may be interested in:

Is World of Warcraft on the decline?

11 Addons you should be using for WoW Legion

WoW Hero Class: DH vs DK

Story behind WoW Legion

Main Image caption:

World of Warcraft new expansion - Legion, with Illidan Stormrage.