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Sunday Comics: Dead Island Another press release has arrived from Auran regarding the newly established “Fury League”. Yes, the same Fury League we covered four days ago, where Fury players can share in a $25,000 prize pool by competing in various ladders.
If you were wondering how the $25,000 is to be divided, don’t worry, I was curious too. According to lead designer Cameron McNeil, players in the top bracket can earn $250 a week, while those at the arse-end can collect $8 per week. There are ten brackets all up.
Auran CEO Tony Hilliam says the Fury League is to be “more like a sport than a traditional computer game.” To me, it sounds like the developer is, in an indirect way, bribing people to play. Cash for victory is a good incentive, but shouldn’t gamers want to play because it’s fun? If it’s an extreme measure to bolster the player base, fair enough, but is the model sustainable? Where’s the cash coming from?
Not that any of this will matter if the ladders can’t get off the ground. I noticed this clause in the release:
A minimum of 2,000 players completing at least 10 games each prior to the commencement of the first Ladder period is required to justify the prize pool. Insufficient entries will result in either postponement or cancellation of the Ladders.
Is Fury currently running with less than 2,000 players? Not the most encouraging numbers.
All the info after the jump.
I’m not sure I completely understand what the Fury League is, but it sounds like Auran has changed its struggling Fury from an action-based fantasy MMO, into an action-based fantasy MMO where you can make money.
Okay, there’s more to it than the cash-for-gaming aspect. Instead of earning abilities, new players will receive all 400+ on offer and 10,000 worth of Fury gold to deck themselves out. Sounds a bit like the tournament servers Blizzard recently introduced to World of Warcraft, but I could be mistaken.
According to the press release, Auran believes it’s finally found the right balance of elements for its game, with CEO Tony Hilliam stating that “there are two things [our core community]really want – a game where skill is rewarded not time played and the chance to win cool prizes”. $25,000 in prizes is a hunky number, but it’s a far cry from the arse-kicking $1 million worth Auran offered during the game’s beta.
You can’t blame Auran for putting continued effort into making the game respectable. It’s just hard to see how those efforts will be rewarded after the game’s bumpy reception and the subsequent downsizing of the studio.
Full release after the jump.
