One Fan’s POT Governor Experience

For many years I have been both amazed and horrified by POTs. There were many players that were amazing governors and more that were not as amazing. I sometimes criticized the less successful POTs because of how they might impact some player experiences, especially new player experiences. I focused on new player experiences because I think I just wanted to see other players online more.


I don’t know why exactly, but last year I decided to buy a POT knowing everything we all know now about them. I guess I thought if I had a concept and followed through on it, that it would work. And with so many market POTs, any concept had to be something different to add value to the player experience and make it worthy of visiting. And I bought a Hamlet from another player and upgraded it to a Crossroads.


Firstly, let me say that the transfer and upgrade experience dealing directly with Catnip was nothing short of amazing. The folks that communicated with me were excited, enthusiastic and inspiring; all the right traits when starting the POT adventure!


As someone who probably enjoys the home making and crafting part of this game more than the other parts, starting a POT was like shooting up heroin. There is really little limit to your creative expression. It is true, you pick a template zone, but beyond that, you place all the items and lots. Let me tell you that nothing is more awesome to own in a POT than a boat load of row deeds and “empty row homes”. It just enables you to be able to put pretty much anything anywhere as row quotas do not impact POT quotas, they don’t take more space than you need, and actually they are cheap compared to other options.


My plan was to create a conversationalist POT that would interweave with other conversationalists in other POTs in a rich storyline filled with quests. It was a solid idea. And thanks to a lot of free time and some help from amazing people including @Winfield , @Time Lord, @Minerva and Fenrir actually started to take form.


Then life struct and a combination of life events and other interests left me dropping the ball. I guess I had decided that getting people to actually visit a POT was really difficult and that lowered it among my many life priorities. I have officially shuttered the town now because I came to realize that in the massive list of things that I value, I just don’t have the time to do it right, and I can’t feel good if I don’t legit put my soul into my work.


And with that, I think I finally realized what makes a great POT different from others. Those governors made the life choice to build and grow and regrow and rebuild to make sure the POT succeeds. In the world of avatars, POT governors are the superheroes.


However, I still own the POT, and it is the same as the POTs I disliked before. But I really want to convert the investment to something else. I wish I could convert it to deed(s) as I do very much enjoy building new lots. I hate that I have a POT with slabs on the overworld (I removed everything to discourage players from wasting their time in it). Converting it to something else improves the game experience for all players, stops reminding me of my mistakes, and provides an opportunity to make new dreams.


Finally, my advice to new prospective POT owners. Go for it! But like all the best things in life, you are going to have to work for it. If your intent is to have lots of space to create something for yourself to enjoy, you have made the right choice. If your intent is to entice players to participate in it, the price tag is by far the easy part.

 

This is not an unusual consept and was once invisioned for SOTA by Richard Garriott...
(how to breed whales $)

This would be a great feature given a proper amount for Catnip to make off the conversion.

If this were somehow possible and equitable for Catnip within their services, it could be quite a game changer. Imagine having a new large project you wish for, but have none of the funds to do so and not just for POTs:

Time Lord: Dear Catnip, please take these store items and exchange them into COTO.

Catnip: Dear illustrious Time Lord, ruler of the known universe, we will be happy to accomidate you and the percentage we take from the exchange will certainly go for making my apartment rent this month, Thanks!

Yet here is some problems and gains from such a transfer: there's no equity in virtual items for Catnip to resell old items, but... "if there is an actual monetary fee involved for that transition, then everyone gets what they need". Catnip gets real money income while the player gets the COTO worth of what they wished to be liquidated.

Comments:
While this would effect the secondary privet virtual item market, those markets are dead and dying anyway and could transition their common items into COTO in the same way and keep the business alive through actual "rare items", which I feel that market was good for it's entertainment value.

An automated system for this exchange could generate quite a profit for Catnip even withstanding it's softnening the privet COTO market.

SOTA is like painting a picture when it comes to virtual items, yet when the picture is done, or another desired, there's currently only one way to enjoy more SOTA, "buy more but you can't afford". This is where interest in SOTA sort of falls off loosing valued customers to play the game.

Lord British once spoke of this same concept model yet for transfer to and from other games within "Portalarium" (game portal). It was intended (within this consept) that Portalaium would expand to include other games within the portal.

This is a very valid subject Tahru has brought up which needs some feedback.

The unwritten Laws of Sales states that: everyone and everything has it's price threshhold to make good business.

So, what's your threshold Catnip, what would make this financially viable ? @Catnip


~Time Lord~

 

100%. And I can say first hand that the aftermarket for deeds is basically a fire sale at deep discounts. I think this is because most players upgrade deeds instead of buying new ones (which is great). More importantly, new deeds in the game mean less lots empty and and hundreds of deco items likely required for each one. All of which smells of new COTOs for game funding.

That is exactly why I think they should offer to convert pots to deeds, including PA deeds (because quests are in NPC towns). As many owners will just re-deco new lots, fill out empty lots, and purchase new deco to fill out the lots to their tastes. It is a win-win-win for all parties.

Edit: I know you, @Time Lord , were suggesting a COTO conversion which is even better really. I just think there may be a stronger business argument for conversion to deeds. But definitely COTOs is better for both of us.

 

I admire you for all the thought and work you put into your project even if it stalled in the end. I would love to have a POT to play around with, set up lots and decorate them, and originally my hopes for the single-player game were that this would be possible. I think if you could do that in a single player game it would be a successful world-building game that Catnip could charge real money for. But turning a POT into a thriving hub inhabited and visited by many players is another thing entirely and it seems to be a full-time job with no guarantee of success. When my guild's POT Rift's End was first created, I snapped up a prime location for my village lot deed. I had a second row lot deed and asked if I could place that, too. The governor at the time refused, because he wanted to keep as many lots as possible available for other players. Those hordes of eager settlers never materialized. Years later I have 2 row lots and the original village lot in that town that I had the fun of decorating. In the early days I had loads of fun working with other guild members to decorate the town, so I look fondly back at that time. But the town never became a vibrant center of commerce or magnet for non-guild players.

 

@Time Lord Considering the level of investment it takes to deal in POTs, at least some of them should qualify to exchange for the PA water deeds which are in dire shortage in NPC towns with large numbers of unclaimed water lots. I guess I just hate to go into NPC towns where quest hubs with mostly empty water lots. I would definitely use my personal deeds to fill as many water lot deeds as possible even if the best I could do is most of them is a water pier with a vendor.

Well said

 

Oh I did not know about your POT adventures Tahru, now that does not sound right but we all know POT stands for (player owned town) in this case lol. Anyway as a co-owner of Wizards Rest I can't tell you how many enjoyable hours me and Baldrith (Lord Baldrith here) have had with the town. As a snowy biome plagued with loss of any or very little fish-able water and very un-even mounds of snow every where preventing the town to be properly developed (well in our opinion that is), this endeavor has been a joy to us over the years. Some years more so than others.

Partly what keeps us going with it all is the possibilities to create something that is unique, flexible, versatile, and special. The tools in this game have become many to do that at this time. Letting others know of it and get to appreciate our creations is another matter.

I still believe we have a way to go though with tools for creating in this game. Especially my one pet peave that we cannot sell bags of goods on our vendors. (grrrrr) I of course have ideas.

Anyway in my opinion one thing missing in this game is a POT and dungeon listing and even perhaps a rating system for all homes to get the attention they deserve. Everquest 2 did it to some degree and even added teleports to those dungeons that were well rated with quite a few descriptives.

Players can't imo get the word out in a sufficient manner of their creations. Word of mouth is one thing of course. Now we have the trade window and universe chat too of course and the window selector gives ability to see 'vendor listings in zone' so we don't have to go from one vendor to the next looking for a desired item if we don't care to. The tools to sufficiently express take some doing. Irritating to some that advertisements show up in their chat windows because our chat system works that way. Even if some players do take time to open up more windows and designate what is shown in them to avoid cluttering the main chat window(s) the system is flawed and messes up quite a bit imo to give us the ability to share with those interested in seeing those creations.

As you said @Tahru we are also a decorating game and creating game which is wonderful too even if sometimes limiting with deco and light limits and other factors. Sorry if I got off your point Tahru. I did try to contribute

 

I really wish that they had followed through with POT dungeons.

 

Hands down the POT creation feature is one of the best systems in game.

I've enjoyed building, then rebuilding, my town Caladruin off on an island in Mistrendur.

Regardless of whether anyone else participates, the ability to create one's own scene in an MMO is awesome.

For a 'next feature', I'd like to see a more robust, and easier to use, NPC assortment for player-run dungeon set up. After that, an easier NPC conversationalist set up would be cool.

The potential for more original 'player run dungeons' remains an undiscovered aspect of this game, though one that seems within reach. The systems are nearly there.

SOTA might find a next marketing frontier for itself in player-crafted dungeons if that system was just a bit more robust.

 

Have you tried to sell the town or the upgrade value to another pot owner? It's a great way to recoup some of what you spent and others have been doing that for years. It provides a similar outcome to what you are asking for, but it takes no work from the customer service or devs.

Looking at it from the business side, they want to generate money from any kind of work like this. They charge $50 just to switch a town ownership from one player to another, so I can't imagine they would be on board with this. Great suggestion though if I'm wrong.

 

~A Growing Unchecked Problem, Player's Derelict Assets~

When we narrow down what funds our fun and what's fun that does "directly fund", POTs and Lot Deco is King, yet our King of funding is not flexable, "it's a one way ticket" with no later value other than to our player markets to be drastic discounted. This direction of our devalued item capital flow is a host & parasite relation model which only supports the depleting zombie business effect.

Each and every one of the comments here are an example of this; it's an enjoyable thing to paint the picture of our imaginations into our POTs & Plots, yet it's not as Etch-A-Sketch as it should be when redesign becomes our continued play option with what things we've pre-purchased in our item deco set. Our game is designed to be a playhouse with toys to build from our imaginations, yet every encarnation in redesign is thereafter always limited to what you have within your deco inventory. SOTA-Deco unwritten law: "The inventory depicts what will come more than what is desired to come". If you can't make what you want with what you have, then we slam into a paywall where privet marketss rule, not our COTO-Shop and nothing to aide Catnip in any way. Our privet social banks of items in player markets are a reflection of this obstructive (non-sota-profit) paywall problem. Our player markets fill a need for an expanded play-set to accomplish our imagination's dreams, yet it's this same community playset as a collective that depletes our programing capital potential. Our privet markets fill the service that our game should be making money on and leave them the rares to trade as was always intended for those markets.

Good question... "How do we do it?"

Do it all through NPC or it would seem very difficult ...
I can't imagine them being onboard without it, because $50 is nothing when it comes to POT & Deco. So the small sum of $50 was Catnips price threshold for making that service available, if it were $100 for that same service they would still get orders to do it from us. $50 is a bargan basment price for such POT sales services. We all see the dead and dying POTs and all the empty lots, those beame permanent because there's no liquidation exchange. With such empty lot & pot blight continuing "unchecked and growing" their derelict negitive impact on our game and it's image grows as well, as there is no decay for such derelict items (empty pots & plots). Like a coin sorting machine, we should be able to place whatever is needing liquidation into an itemizer and get back an offer before confirming the deal (the Catnip deal). Even if it's 50% to 70% off the retail price to liquidate in this way, this competes with the privet markets to begin limiting what falls into those markets untill we once again have a pure rares privet market instead of them operating as "alternate privet COTO-Shops for cash".

I gota go smoke something for this point brb ... ok, that's better, now I'm back

As far as programing such a liquidation option, I would point no further than to our in-game NPCs, who should buy COTO-Shop things from me and pay me in "Hunting COTO", not COTO-Shop COTO (theres a difference in their stacking ability, the two different coto cannot be stacked together.

That's as much programing as it takes, just changing what NPCs can buy from us and the NPC ability to pay in coto.

NPC need to buy our coto-shop items in exchange for coto...
We could also do some sort of trade for a POT or Lot into coto through npc.

The Derelict will continue to grow sota blight

"untill something changes"...going derelict
Down with Derelict Assets
~Time Lord~