Kickstarter

[Parrr]

If Virtrium did make a Kickstarter, I would support it for sure. It would be an easy oppurtunity for the developpers to get some working cash.
However, as others have pointed out, there is a need for reward categories. While I am sure the developpers are able to keep their word on what they promise to backers, I would not want to see reward tiers such as "Get a free overpowered weapon forever." or something like that. Some tiers I would agree with would be subscription time, titles, a bit of in-game money, or maybe a special dragon color. Nothing that would affect gameplay too much.
If the devs promise physical rewards, such as a figurine, there is the risk of suing by Kickstarter if they fail to produce enough or don't get them shipped accordingly.

Something I would love to see is a new engine. I often fantasize about how great Istaria would be if it had a more... modern engine. I recently came back to Istaria after succumbing to the great memories I have experienced on it, but I was slightly dissapointed to see the same old engine. The graphics are outdated. There are a lot of glitches. Stuff is chunky and hard to use. There are annoying bugs. However, the gameplay and community(now lacking, sadly) are amazing, and keep dragging me back.

If Istaria could be remade into a new engine while still keeping a vanilla aspect(I would hate to see it turn into a game like WoW.), I'm sure that a lot of people, including I, would be very happy. We would get a lot of attention, and we would receive a flood of new and old players. The ancients in New Trismus would get off their bottoms that have been seated for five years, and would fly around to see the new world.
However, this would be a LOT of work for the developpers. It would be a couple years at least.

Also, this is slightly off-topic, but does anyone remember Runescape? Remember how good and amazing it was to play back before 2007? If yes, try playing it now and see how long you can last before closing it in dissapointment. The new game updates around 2008 made the game way too bloated. I don't want something similar to happen to Istaria.


Sadly, I think this post wishful thinking. Stuff like this never happens.

[Dracillion]

If Virtrium did make a Kickstarter, I would support it for sure. It would be an easy oppurtunity for the developpers to get some working cash.
However, as others have pointed out, there is a need for reward categories. While I am sure the developpers are able to keep their word on what they promise to backers, I would not want to see reward tiers such as "Get a free overpowered weapon forever." or something like that. Some tiers I would agree with would be subscription time, titles, a bit of in-game money, or maybe a special dragon color. Nothing that would affect gameplay too much.
If the devs promise physical rewards, such as a figurine, there is the risk of suing by Kickstarter if they fail to produce enough or don't get them shipped accordingly.

Something I would love to see is a new engine. I often fantasize about how great Istaria would be if it had a more... modern engine. I recently came back to Istaria after succumbing to the great memories I have experienced on it, but I was slightly dissapointed to see the same old engine. The graphics are outdated. There are a lot of glitches. Stuff is chunky and hard to use. There are annoying bugs. However, the gameplay and community(now lacking, sadly) are amazing, and keep dragging me back.

If Istaria could be remade into a new engine while still keeping a vanilla aspect(I would hate to see it turn into a game like WoW.), I'm sure that a lot of people, including I, would be very happy. We would get a lot of attention, and we would receive a flood of new and old players. The ancients in New Trismus would get off their bottoms that have been seated for five years, and would fly around to see the new world.
However, this would be a LOT of work for the developpers. It would be a couple years at least.

Also, this is slightly off-topic, but does anyone remember Runescape? Remember how good and amazing it was to play back before 2007? If yes, try playing it now and see how long you can last before closing it in dissapointment. The new game updates around 2008 made the game way too bloated. I don't want something similar to happen to Istaria.


Sadly, I think this post wishful thinking. Stuff like this never happens.

Especially with engine rehauls. You may as well make a new game.

[Kryodrache]

Not necessarily a bad thing. Making a new game, anyway. It happens, now and again, like GW1 to GW2, and there were massive advancements (as well as backwards movement, which will always happen no matter what) in gameplay and experience. When it started off, the devs there had something wonderful. It was a powerful start to the game... until they started wrecking their own story.

I can agree with the Istaria rahs about launching a Kickstarter at just the right time. It takes a lot of time, thought, energy and stress to go into something like this. Media itself is working at a great risk. Will the payoff match or exceed the cost? Istaria had a similar issue to GW2 when it launched, in that there was a huge hubbub, and then died down quickly. I had stumbled upon some of the older content they had meant to get in the game, but never did. And it was amazing to see what they didnt have the time or money to add, which they likely could have done as expansions if they had the money for it.

Remaking the game, or even just doing a Kickstarter, is an idea I immediately leaped for at reading this... but, you gotta look where you leap, so you know where you're landing. If you go for it, devs... you'll definitely have support. But you'll also have huge expectations. Doable, most definitely. But, brainstorms are a good thing.

[Akrion]

Especially with engine rehauls. You may as well make a new game.

Not necessarily. Game engines are essentially a cumulation of engines (e.g. the sound engine, graphics engine, physics engine). What Istaria could really do with is replacing Alchemy.

[Parrr]

Not necessarily. Game engines are essentially a cumulation of engines (e.g. the sound engine, graphics engine, physics engine). What Istaria could really do with is replacing Alchemy.

And this puts another issue into light- how would this new engine please all the players? I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with it's changes, no matter what they are.

[Akrion]

And this puts another issue into light- how would this new engine please all the players? I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with it's changes, no matter what they are.

Well, if done properly, people still complaining would essentially be complaining that the game runs better. :P

[Dracillion]

An investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a game developer to simply redo the engine just to make an existing game better? We're talking within a reasonable amount of time, not a decade. In addition to all of this, you've downtime of current content development, bug fixing and overall support. Next you've marketing or some advertisement to promote the game and sell the new old product.

Sign off on it and let me know.

[Akrion]

An investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a game developer to simply redo the engine just to make an existing game better? We're talking within a reasonable amount of time, not a decade. In addition to all of this, you've downtime of current content development, bug fixing and overall support. Next you've marketing or some advertisement to promote the game and sell the new old product.

Sign off on it and let me know.

I've no idea what you're going on about, but whatever it is, you seem passive aggressive about it. There would be no "redoing" the engine, there would be making the game interface with a new one.