Original Post — Direct link
I've always loved the idea of Professional gaming, and its always been a pet peeve of mine that MMO's dont have a way to accompany the succes of competitive games.

Hereby have i deviced a way for the luxury's of competitive games to be enjoyed by us MMO lovers (without the need to stream)

Basically, how would it be if our mayor guild leaders, the ones accommodating thousands of players under them could actually make this "8 hours of accounting per day" into an actual, real benefit? if we had cities run by Mayors who could make a real life living out of managing their kingdoms?
Eve online already shows how amazing the basics of it would be, with playercontent generated by these massive player driven wars, economy's that need to be fueled. and a gameplay style that needs community to thrive.

Ofcourse... we cant ask an actual Game company to pay for this can we?

but there's the trick! we dont! we even let our gamecompany get some extra revenue themselves out of our system!
now where's the downside i hear you ask.. where does this "job platform" come from?

well.. i wont lie to you, especially after reading this far.
but for context, any of you guys familiar with how Starcraft 2 and LoL have a Skin system? pretty sure AoC already has a shop for those as well right? what if we expand on this a bit.

Small advertisement spaces in cities, maybe some Sponsored skins (Who wouldnt love some Gucci boots on their rogue?)
Potential "buffing items" that are "real life items", like a simple +1 to a stat is enough, or think instead of a "health potion" we got a Mountain dew! (we want all dem stats anyway) as long as its immersive. why not make it an advertisement/easter egg deal?

that paired with sponsorships around PvP tournaments that are streamed by these Guild Masters that are paid by how much advertisement money they can make. wich would make them want to throw more content and tournaments or wars around.

Overall, i know us all as gamers dont like the idea of Ads in our games. but if we can make them fun, and immersive. who would mind a coca cola add in our mayor trading hub? you're probably drinking some right now!

think of the upsides of this system for a second, we'd have an infinite amount of Player created content. for resources, for more space for ads so the guild can earn more real money. a good incentive for our hardcore players. who'd take the casual players under their wings and let them be "knights" or "adventurers" of the city. more people visiting means more ad revenue!
more community means more money, and in the end. all we give up is a few billboards worth of ads? we'd be able to have skins of designer brand inspired armors? sign me up.


for a quick recap as a bulletin board style.


Basic setup:

Game IP needs "Content"

Big corporations ingame provide the "structural" side of content, the game diverts assets from "PVP content creation" to PvE content (less need for PvP involvement since the player run kingdoms/citystates will do the wars for them)

Paid Players provide the Corporate structure and ingame "jobs" for the more casual playerbase to play their preferred style of gameplay

Game IP pays Big corporations a 'rank style paycheck' so people who need to spend time "making the game their job" can actually fully dedicate themselves to that job. and create the gameplay loops of 'Combat,Trade,Exploration,Resource management' (fully out of the pocket of this advertisement money, minus a little extra for the game to run itself. who knows, maybe it makes us able to play for a lower Sub fee?)


Ceo of the alliance's could potentially pay out their directors/upper echolons with parts of the sponsorships if the company doesnt want to keep track of their guilds and just pays out the leadership


Potentially create "job opportunities"
-Streaming content on the game (RP reality shows?)
-Streaming/Recording Player run content (tournaments/wars/politics)
-Actual governing bodies that will keep the peace since its their job (democratically chosen with the mayor system in place)
-Talkshows/Podcasts about RP "ingame-actors", interviews with PvP legends. Mayoral elections etc
-Managing the Advertisement side of things (most Ad agency's would probably be fine with running this kind of setup. its a minor adjustment from just doing streamers alone)




-notes

Leveling/progression system should be intricate to accompany the system?

sounds like 'making advertisement space' in a virtual space (asset idea: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/add-ons/anzu-programmatic-in-game-ad-monetization-that-respects-gamers-211181)

Seen Problems:
Capitalism being capitalism. it'll need some guidance.
is it profitable enough for the advertisers? do we count "people online and active in the city" as "views" on the ads? does it actually seem profitable for the advertisers?


TL;DR
What if we could make money playing our favorite game at the cost of well managed and immersive ads?
over 1 year ago - Vaknar - Direct link
Thankfully, between Steven's personal investments as well as the Kickstarter backers and those who purchase pre-order packages, we will have all the funding we need to make Ashes of Creation!