Trials of Ascension, Shady Practices and the Big Crowdfunding Debate

[Kotori125]

After 15 years of on-an-off and switching engines and whatnot, what do they have to show? That after all this time, the only thing they contributed to the project was writing lore in a game that you create your own lore? The ability to get volunteers to make something that isn't just default engine assets? Or the ability to hype/manipulate others' desires? The ability to argue on the internet and double-down on such arguments, blindly and lying much of the way?

Because, they could have attempted to learn something and create the most barebones prototype themselves, but didn't. They could have had the game be something where their contributions could mean something, like an RPG with some overarching story that they could write, but didn't. Or listen to criticism in general without calling others a troll and banning them on forums, but didn't.

My personal take on all of this with paraphrased quotes and events:

Brax: I am a developer with multiple years of experience. I had an investor early on in the project wanting to provide full funding for the project, if I would make it into a WOW-clone. I declined, as I am such a good person fighting to good fight for a true MMORPG experience.
Also Brax, some 12-15 years later: I have no experience making games, let alone something like an MMO! What do you expect of me?!

I.E. the investor never existed, let alone WOW-clones were never even a term back then in 2004ish (right?). He just wanted to drum up support, like he was some messiah/martyr of MMORPGs. And for no one to question him on anything ever, preying on their own desires of such a game only he could create. Eventually, people did question this project's legitimacy, and support diminished.

And we know they will be back after some time, after a few years perhaps, and restart this whole debacle anew. And probably not learn much of anything from the past.

[Fallen Angel]

I’m sure the brainwashed idiots who threw money at these guys will find a way to justify their idiocy at following such an obvious fraud and failure of a “game”

[lawow74]

And so it's come to an end. Let this stand as a shining example of why thinking throwing money at a problem will solve everything is foolish at best and disastrous at worst. I don't think any of the backers here risked more than they were willing to lose (unlike poor souls who have been duped into giving away everything they have to support Doomsday prophets) but still it's sad to think their hope and optimism was squandered by liars and cheats who themselves were short-sighted and ignorant.

ToA will rank right up there with Greedmonger and other similar pie-eyed ambitions made possible by Kickstarter as proof that if you want to put your head in the clouds you better make sure your feet are still on the ground. Otherwise you're gonna fall, and hard. By the time they realized this and made an honest effort at it, they had alienated most of their supporters and been outshined by far better planned and executed projects.

[Taojnhy]

How many more schemes can they come up to accomplish this without putting their own money or work on it? Because that’s what it all boils down to, first they tried companies to finance them, then they tried 2 miserable kickstarters, then they milked their fan base through a “store”, and then they just asked people to work for them basically for free.

Their next scheme involves hiring James Proctor via a merger between Forged Chaos and MMO-Interactive. The new company will be called "MMO Chaos".

[Rackiera]

For anyone still watching this ever-smoldering fire, a friend of mine has continually informed me that ToA is being revived... again... by another team of developers with one game prototype under their belt. Their biggest accomplishment, so far, has been adding stats to their character creation screen.

They've also posted some very... beautiful animations of their dragon hatchling. *cough* Unfortunately since I'm still super new to this forum, I can't link them. If anyone wants to see them, i might be able to send it in a PM or add you through Steam or something. (Rackiera on Steam, blue dragon avatar)

As of right now, they're down to one active developer because the other developer seems to have had personal issues with the remaining one, heheh

[Rackiera]

Dang it, too little posts for PMs. Need 4 more. Here's what I was going to write to you, will update if I get more information:
Here -
cdn.discordapp. com/attachments/597869408832192522/610190784138051593/Hatchling_Roar_Test0001-0104.gif
cdn.discordapp. com/attachments/469943467376771072/609493599452921876/Hatchling_Walk_Test0001-0040.gif

Feel free to reupload them to actual websites to preserve it, but those are their... "stellar" new animations. I'm asking my friend for the name of the studio, but she's European and just went to bed. All I've got right now is "BP" and the main dev's name is "Parthuin", with an animator "MSilver", and a website designer "Pat".

[Rackiera]

Considering that just re-hired Elyssia, and Brax still contributes to their server as a regular person and not a dev, I imagine they are just passing the torch. They said they sold the IP, but for an 'undisclosed amount'.
i.imgur.com/8eZOJwF.png
Hiring her hilarious goes right against their FAQ.
i.imgur.com/eQoRnPd.png

I never found out their actual company name if they even have one, but their previous game was 'Dragons of Ramrys'.
youtube.com/channel/UC8ykxfQCr-pTqRTly7UMJww

Hilariously, they were attacking the kickstarter game 'Day of Dragons' for using the Unity base Unka dragon model while their original game did too... and blew their own kickstarters out of the water.

I'm getting all of this information second hand, so I can update your questions, but I don't particularly want to spam my friend or get her banned for reporting to me who is reporting to this thread, haha.

[Kyanion]

I wonder how much they paid to acquire the "assets" of ToA: Exile anyways. 5 bucks?

[Kyanion]

My guess? Nothing, they just gave it away to one of their old time followers who is still trying to push the thing onward.

Because honest to god it doesn't even make sense anyone to pick that "IP" up.

I don't get it either, but then again I never understood the amounts of cash some people gave those morons in the first place.

[Disguise9]

I wonder if something could be done about that scam. It's been going on for far too long. Almost a decade wasn't it? I'll be shocked if they gather money again.

[Kyanion]

I wonder if something could be done about that scam. It's been going on for far too long. Almost a decade wasn't it? I'll be shocked if they gather money again.

What needs to be done? The game came out with a complete whimper on Steam, had next to no sales and no players. It was dead on arrival and it showed.

[Disguise9]

Understood. Just have to wait and see what happens this time around then.

[Kyanion]

Roflmao, dragons <3

Man, a project that was likely never going to get funded gets magical help and now I imagine the "devs" of this game are laughing all the way to the bank.

[Polybius]

There's so much wrong with it. Reminded me of this thread.

[Kyanion]

Man these asset flip Ks attempts are far more advanced than ToA was in its early days. And yet it is still just a total ripoff trying to scam people out of money.

[Rackiera]

One person who supported ToA to the bitter end in a Discord I'm in is also viciously supporting Day of Dragons to the bitter end and fighting the healthy skepticism people are bringing up. People really don't learn...

Anyway, back to ToA, the devs have a new blog post out if you're interested in that. The new team is calling themselves Dragonfire Entertainment.
trialsofascension.com/news/article/hello-toa-fans
Looking over some Discord screenshots, it sounds like they're looking to go full MMO instead of survival game, back to the roots, but it's really really vague.
i.imgur.com/YhBPKjm.png

[Kyanion]

Surprise, surprise.

Also, they still don't seem to understand what "MMO" actually stands for...

I'm also curious if any of the original trio of idiots at Forged Chaos have anything to do with this new version, like did they change their names or some shit again?

[Osoroshii]

I'm also curious if any of the original trio of idiots at Forged Chaos have anything to do with this new version, like did they change their names or some shit again?

If they think they can still wring some money out of gullible idiots then yes, that's exactly what they're doing.

"No, it's totally not us: we sold the rights, honestly. But still, you guys totally need to keep donating money to this project and us--I mean, the new developers."

[Kyanion]

If they think they can still wring some money out of gullible idiots then yes, that's exactly what they're doing.

"No, it's totally not us: we sold the rights, honestly. But still, you guys totally need to keep donating money to this project and us--I mean, the new developers."

Nothing shocks me with those bastards. I mean they were around for how long trying to scam money, came back many years later as Forged Chaos, lied to people to get more money to make a demo and so on.

[Flame6]

I actually am looking forward to that awful dragon game. Looks perfect for my 5 yr old. He loves any game that lets him run around and explore. He loved ark in god mode.