A queston of judgment (re: reliquaries)

@agra
It (what I said) really doesn't cross that line anymore than ANYTHING else in this game does. Please understand that the line you're talking about can be "crossed" by extremists without our help or without Richard Garriott's blood. So no line crossed here brother.

 

.... for 5.000$
I will sell my 2 Duke Accounts and buy them.
That would be a better deal for my plans.
But i am very sure and confident that you can not buy them for 5.000$

 

You should bid on them and find out! See if the reserve is just $5,001.

 

This post doesn't cross the line, but we won't have a religious debate in the forums here, so we're good for the moment...

 

I hope they do sell - for a ton of money! But if they don't sell at auction - if it was pledge dollars that had these pieces crafted, I hope they're sold or raffled off to backers.

 

It has nothing to do with being squeamish for me as I'm not squeamish at all. It is more the fact that they thought to do this AND make it the headline item of a $5,000+ bundle. I think I would view it a little differently if it was more of a "ha ha we're doing this and you can buy them for $100", but as I mentioned in my original post there is a touch of arrogance that someone would attribute such a high value to artwork made of their own blood. Yes, I understand there are digital items being included in the package, but the packages are built around the reliquaries themselves. And if someone just wants a few of those digital items (which I admit look pretty cool)... too bad, you can only get them through the package.

 

I hope Darkstarr can donate a in-game reliquary to the Church. I'm sure @Amber Raine wouldn't mind.

 

Well, it's a bit like the high pledges. Even if you just want the fireplace from the Lord Marshall pledge, you have to buy the whole thing to get it. I agree that there should be less emphasis on the real-life reliquary.. because the package of digital items is the value. The reliquary is more of a publicity stunt tied into the "theme" since the digital items are all blood themed... BUT the digital items are no joke. It's a CASTLE DEED. Plus all that other cool swaggity swag.

 

I think Starr said during the hangout that the items were intentionally not tagged as exclusive, and that means we'll likely see them in the add-on store.
They don't like making snowflakes.

 

On this note I fail to see what there is to debate. This whole thing is more a question of personal taste than anything else. It's blood.. so what? I've got a small wound on my thumb at the moment that's bled. I wouldn't turn it into art and have no love for the macabre but again.. so what?

It's kinda weird and unusual and I wouldn't go for it personally. I'd find wanting in-game blood décor just for kicks a little more disturbing but that is neither here there.

 

Wow, this is so absolutely unimportant and it baffles me how anyone would get up-in-arms over it.

 

They did say the digital items in themselves justify the price.. in which case there's very little emphasis on assigning value to the reliquaries themselves. I don't see a point in taking offense here. Certainly not over that. I won't say it was a great idea but I also don't want to build mountains of mole hills.

 

Would you say that public opinion of the game is unimportant? Because this is only digging the hole deeper.

 

It is unusual. But is it more unusual than paying 12k+ for a game? I don't think so.

I'm not surprised by the general public's reaction, Sargon. It's easy to snark at unusual things. It's easy to say "that's not normal" which is all anyone is really doing in these comment sections if you break it down to the lowest common denominator.

I'll leave you with this to consider. If we make a good game, does it matter? I haven't seen "good games" not be played and loved by public. So at the end of the day, we'll either have a good game that people play and love or we'll have a bad game that people don't play and hate. But this promotional stunt doesn't make the game good and it doesn't make the game bad, it only provides part of the narrative to what we do as a community and as a development team. If the game is good it will be "that game where that guy sold his own blood" or if the game is bad it will be "that game where the guy sold his own blood". There's no problem that a good game won't solve, and that is exactly the way it was before the reliquaries, and how it will be after.

Also, I too hope some of this stuff makes it into the game for people that can't afford it (like me).

 

At this stage of development? Probably not as much as you might think. People who want to think negatively about the game or Richard are going to find any old excuse.. and barring that they'll make them up. This might not 'help' but when the game is officially released then it will stand or fall based on its own merits.. not people's personal opinion of Richard Garriott.

 

Nevermind what I think.
I will just leave this good old saying here: there isn't something like 'Bad' Publicity.

 

To me whom solely observes, this basically shows the divide between how people view things here VS. the others view. Whom is the larger group? Time will soon tell.

 

From my perspective, I think RG likes to push boundaries to elicit emotion from others (good or bad) and observe the results.

 

I feel this was done in very poor taste. I suffer from chronic anemia and seeing someone callously auctioning off their blood for a huge sum just personally seems desperate and in poor taste. We need more people donating blood than doing things like this.

The second problem I have is on the prices affixed to many things in the add on store; these auctions add to that problem. I know you guys need to make money, but after already large pledges how much money do you really think we can keep giving? Please make some interesting things more affordable and you will sell more. I am personally worried about your solvency as a company if you need to go to these lengths.

You should have had a live blood donation drive and then put the digital items up for auction. That would have given you a more positive spin and assisted many needy people.

 

Having worked at the Red Cross with blood for the last 12 years and also having won RG's hair lock reliquary (which was cool, impromptu, and given away), I'm with the OP that this would have best been avoided.

Many people are squeamish around blood and see blood as "sick" and "gross" even though I now see it as nothing more than product. On Wednesday I gave a tour to 40 HS students and many of them were even covering their noses in the lab because they thought they could smell it (they could not...) and I've seem people I've interviewed for jobs turn pale at the sight of the blood for the first time (they didn't get the job...). If this seems weird to you... that's fine - just replace RG's blood with RG's ear wax and you'll understand their feeling.

I love RG but anything that Portalarium could do to bring negative publicity right now should be avoided at all costs... this having been one, IMO. Positive publicity is where efforts should be focused.