With less than 24 hours remaining, indie MMO 'Camelot Unchained' nears its Kickstarter goal.
Camelot Unchained is not another World of Warcraft clone, according to the MMO's creator Mark Jacobs.
You might recognize that name if you ever played Dark Age of Camelot, one of the very first MMORPGs ever made. Camelot Unchained is something of a spiritual successor.
Unlike most MMOs out there, it's entirely player-vs-player, or "realm vs. realm" though apparently that is a registered trademark of EA. Jacobs and his company, City State Entertainment are calling this system TriRealm.
"The game will feature RvR-based leveling tracks for all classes," the game's Kickstarter page tells us (emphasis in the original.) "No PROGRESSION VIA PvE (player vs. environment), loot drops or other such systems are currently planned. All leveling will come from engaging in the game’s RvR-based systems, whether by fighting other players, capturing objectives, and/or crafting objects to help in RvR. There will be NPCs but you cannot use them to level your character."
For a certain niche of MMO players, this will be enormously appealing, and that's what Jacobs is betting on.
Camelot Unchained isn't trying to clone WoW or its business model: rather, it's trying to reach a certain segment of MMO players who will find this niche more satisfying than any mainstream MMO. It's a good strategy, and I'm pretty sure this sort of "niche" model is going to be the way of the future.
After all, there's only so much room in this market for successful, multi-million dollar MMORPGs. At a certain point, lower-budget projects with more specific audiences in mind will need to fill in the gaps. I think this will lead to more innovation and ultimately more successful MMOs (not to mention happier customers) than the Try To Be Everything To Everybody approach we see so often today.
Jacobs is looking to raise $2 million for the project, a sum he has said he will match with his own treasure if the Kickstarter is successful.
With less than 24 hours to go, Camelot Unchained is clocking in at $1,866,212 as of this writing. With over $100,000 to go, this will be a real nail-biter.
Then again, if history tells us anything it's that many projects this close to the finish line do cross it in the last hours of a campaign. It's far from guaranteed, of course, but that's been my observation.
You can go read more about the game and check out the myriad backer reward tiers over at its Kickstarter page.
