Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms? SA's first MMO? Am confuse...

dislekcia

So this popped up in my FB feeds today: http://doak.co.za - Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms

It's being marketed as a locally produced game with local servers. Their FB page keeps saying it's a local game... Consider me skeptical: This looks very much like someone buying a fully built MMO/F2P system from Korea/China and setting up a local game server in the hopes of making them sweet sweet gaming megabucks. It's happened before (so there goes that whole "First local MMO" angle) and didn't work.

Am I being too old and crotchety? Is this actually something a team of locals with as yet undiscovered artistic (and socially regressive) talent produced in hiding? Is there an actual source for this somewhere out on the web?

What, essentially, gives?

pieter

I would like to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and say the website is still bare bones. However apart from "saying" it's a F2P MMO there's really no other information supplied about the game. Some animated gifs of character attacks on the main page, but that's it. No gameplay videos, screenshots (the links go to "Coming Soon") or description of the mechanics at all.

The pages where you can provide your personal information or buy "packages" are working perfectly. Although what you get for buying a "package" apart from not being disappointed isn't clear.

I've seen my share of scam websites, and this site has all the hallmarks of one. I'd love to be wrong though :)

Sash

I saw this and wasn't sure about it as well. anyway you probably checked their site out already but I am just going to leave this here... http://udea.co.za

dislekcia

So setting up a server or selling content you've bought under license is totally cool. I'm just hoping that we've got a secret band of epic modelers hiding out here in Gauteng somewhere that (after a brief catch-up with modern-day representation standards) will be a boon to the local industry :)

dislekcia

Ah. Did some image searching off 9999.co.za (a tutorial site for the game) and it seems to be a localisation of this Chinese MMO.

I'm honestly curious to see how it does.

I mean, I feel like their marketing material could be handled better - being open about the localisation is probably a good idea instead of putting the image out there of being a local dev team. But hey, if this works it'll be a completely different thing for the local gaming space. I wonder how many MMOs of this type SA can support.

Tuism

The Google-fu is strong with you guys :)

I honestly don't think SA can support even one of these MMOs. They're built to be bloody massive, and I just don't see the appeal of a "local server" being an actual thing. (MMOs are designed to handle pretty high ping, so it's not like a twitch-reaction requirement game with a local server. I don't game online all that much, and when I do I've not really had a terrible experience with Hearthstone or Assassin's Creed. So again, I don't see the hullabaloo about a local server.)

I play with the world. I don't play with my neighbours. If my neighbours just happen to be in the world too, cool.

dislekcia

@Tuism, you have to admit that it's a more rational business response to the yearly "The SA Games Market is worth X Billion Rands!" breathlessness. I have to assume that localising something like that MMO (unless they've had to translate everything to English) is cheaper than building an entirely new, unproven game.

Thelangfordian

Just read this advertorial this morning.

mybroadband.co.za/news/industrynews/147767-destiny-of-ancient-kingdoms-a-south-african-3d-online-pc-game.html

dislekcia

@Thelangfordian: That's an amazing piece of writing. I find it really interesting how it just keeps listing features without explaining why those features are worthwhile, but the cream of the entire thing has to be that opening paragraph:

Destiny of Ancient Kingdoms (DOAK) is a tremendous South African Local 3D online computer Game that thoroughly entertains its players.

That's poetry.

SIGSTART

Saw the advertorial appear on our site this morning too and wondered (hoped) to find discussion about it here.

Nice sleuthing! I got as far as udea.co.za before coming here. The link to the Chinese MMO seems to be dead now, unfortunately.

dislekcia

SIGSTART said:

Saw the advertorial appear on our site this morning too and wondered (hoped) to find discussion about it here.

Nice sleuthing! I got as far as udea.co.za before coming here. The link to the Chinese MMO seems to be dead now, unfortunately.

Ah, there's an archived version of the page up here. Long story short, it's a rebranding of an MMO called Oracle World.

9999.co.za seems to have stopped existing as a tutorial site for the game as well. This whole obfuscation angle bodes super interestingly. Bodes, I tell you.

Fengol

He boded and lo, something interesting did indeed occur...

VictoriousSmoke said:

they also have this amazing reward system that gives you cash for playing it and referring your friends

mattbenic

In case anyone is interested, this.. whatever it is/was is now up for sale. No, not as in you can buy the game, but the company. I'd really be interested in seeing their financials, but I doubt they'd believe me if I claimed to be a serious buyer :)

https://www.businessesforsale.co.za/southafrican/online-game-software-company-on-steam-international-market-for-sale.aspx

Tuism

How the heck did you come across something on "businessesforsale.com"? Doing Christmas shopping? :)

mattbenic

Yeah, that looked like a good stocking stuffer :P

I didn't find it, someone else did.

roguecode

This is the only 3D online game made in South Africa.

When selling your business, you probably shouldn't try do it with a flat out lie.

Kobusvdwalt9

Lel isn't genital jousting also a "3d online game" ?

TheFuntastic

For a cool R1.8 million:

No Premises required.
Needs dedicated server for game hosting.

I mean salaries are expensive. I'm glad the business doesn't need anyone to run it. Total bargain.