They promised the ability to craft an exclusive weapon, tool and wearable and they were given money for that. If they let everyone craft it, then it is not exclusive by definition.
If the item looks unique, then itâs exclusive, by definition. Iâm saying the item shouldnât be âfunctionallyâ unique.
When you say exclusive to people that bought the pack, do you mean non-tradeable?
Thereâs a lot of work to go into the game to make that happen, I think. Youâd need to make it destroy itself if it was dropped, non-selectable in any shared storage by backers below wayfarer level and also anyone else that wasnât a backer and probably quite a few others edge-cases as well.
Iâm sorry that you feel like youâve been sidelined. I donât feel that way myself, but I bought in at a much lower package, so I canât compare my experience to yours.
I do dread to think what would happen if the game ever went on sale again though, as those people would get all those things for even less money 
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And can we be realistic for a second? Whatever money they got from early backers is probably a drop in the bucket compared to the total cost of developing the game so far.
I think we are being realistic. A drop in the bucket or not (By my estimate it is almost $1million USD), the early backers provided the testers and feedback to get the game to the point it can be released. I disagree that by allowing the early backers the ability to craft something exclusive, the game is doomed. I also disagree that if it is something that combines functions that might take two tools for others to make, that the game is doomed. Since the tools can be traded, everyone can get one if they want one badly enough.
They are allowing people that buy the Pre-release package on steam the ability to craft something that is not available for early backers to craft (golden glove I think). Should they not do this either?
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Games can get negative reviews because of functional, exclusive content. Itâs a powderkeg waiting to go off, and it affects sales.
This wouldnât be an issue if the exclusive tool, weapon, and cosmetic were, just, simply, cosmetic. Make a totem that glows, but donât give the totem special abilities unless you want to risk extra negative reviews on Steam.
If this game dips into âMixedâ reviews on Steam at launch, itâs going to severely hurt the sales of the game.
To be clear, the appearance of an item usually doesnât bother people as an exclusive backer feature, but if that item DOES something, say, like is the only item in the game that lets you jump a certain distance, or breaks blocks in a certain way that no other item can, or gives some kind of advantage other items donât, that runs the risk of negative steam reviews, which hurt sales, which hurts content development of the game.
Donât forget youâre going to get people who buy the game for 40$ just to leave a negative review saying it costs too much. This game seems like itâs already far too close to tipping into YELLOW MIXED ratings and that can kill a game.
If the game doesnât do anything that can lead to negative reviews there wouldnât be a game in the first place. It is quite impossible to develop with an approach where you fear every feature you add might be perceived as negative.
Also - some of the most successful games of this time have models which lock exclusive non-cosmetic content behind payment such as genre defining, top selling Path of Exile and Warframe.
Even if you are a market analysis specialist trying to make this kind of assumptions is almost as accurate as predicting the weather with a bucket.
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What exclusive backer reward did Path of Exile give to people that is functionally unique?
Iâm literally looking at some of the 2,500$+ backer rewards and Iâm not seeing anything functionally unique.
Path of Exile notably monetizes exclusive content with its stash tabs.
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Everyone can buy stash tabs, correct? Therefore⌠itâs accessible to everyone technically.
Can everyone craft an Exclusive Tool that does things no other tool in the game can do? No.
Thereâs a difference.
If the âExclusive Toolâ were simply cosmetic, then there would be far less risk of starting Steam flame wars and negative reviews about P2W content.
I disagree strongly that $40 is too much money for the game. Ark $59.99 plus additional DLC and Conan Exiles $39.99. Both have been successful. This a MMO without a subscription fee.
But the topic is should the founder totem glow when held by a founder. so maybe the discussion should get back to that.
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My point is, if people here are already arguing about whether or not something is âexclusiveâ enough, and demanding there should be MORE EXCLUSIVE FEATURES, how do you think Steam buyers are going to react?
By all means, add a glow, add whatever cosmetic bonuses you want to founderâs items, but donât give the item a function that has no non-founders alternative.
Thatâs all.
edit Both Ark and Conan Exiles have been on sale for less than 20$⌠Multiple times.
Everyone can buy stash tabs and everyone can buy Boundless backer packs - there is no difference. It is only as exclusive as your wallet is deep.
Boundless Founder Packs cannot be bought soon. Stashes can ALWAYS be bought, correct?
Sure, and theyâve already stated that they are being replaced with new backer packs - the very first of which will release the moment these are discontinued and which offers similar (but cosmetically different) exclusive items.
exactly⌠not to mention that steam takes 15 > 25% of all sales + charges $100 > 500? to launch on steam? + The advertising slots it has on steam every so often? (Unless that is counted in the upfront costs)
Not to mention the work computers to dev/code on + the coding software/dev-tools + gfx packages + paying the staff + renting/buying the servers (which we are essentially using for free *meaning the rental is currently factored into the price one pays for the game itself) and a whole load of other things
I appreciate that but I donât fully feel sidelined. Overall it is how the devs move forward over the coming weeks. I think an expectation was set that each tier would have their own exclusive things and that someone who bought in at a low level wouldnât get the same things as those at higher levels. If that takes time to create and isnât available for release then that is ok and that should be communicated. But just making a few simple items and giving it to everyone isnât really right.
Many people have supported this game with hard earned funds, tons of passion, competent feedback and design ideas, etc. They shouldnât be forgotten about or made to just feel like âthanks, but now we have all these new people in game on release so you can go sit in the back and make wayâŚâ
Additionally there are plenty of other things coming down the pipe that could ruin the backer levels. I would be fine if this was 4-5 years after game release that there is a sale or something that diminishes that backer money, but that shouldnât be happening immediately as we have a release.
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Woah, huge sidetrack 
:
On the original post, it sounds cool, but Iâd rather they spend the time making more functional content. It would definitely be cool if they add cosmetic glows later on (like near the end of their current roadmap) to the exchange that you can add to a cosmetic tab of your characters like PoE has. That way it affects any tool your character is using. But I donât really want to see them do it just to give a single item a glow unless they are using it to help test a new system and only if it doesnât slow down other contents release.
Just my 2c.
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My 2c?
I can see no problem.
Everything proposed in game seems sensible and fair enough.
For years the backer perks have been known to people. Suddenly when they start materialising they are unfair?
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Common practice when talking about tiers across software and games is to say:
tier 1 - you get this stuff for tier 1
tier 2 - you get everything from tier 1 plus these other things.
So when you communicate on a web page:
tier 1 - you get this stuff for tier 1
tier 2 - you get this stuff for tier 2
Common sense and perception based on other examples across the software landscape can easily infer that each tier has âdifferentâ components and things are not shared across tiers unless mentioned.
Additionally, no where visible in the forums until very recently was an exchange and outside âmoneyâ beyond just a game purchase was it discussed using things like cubits. So anyone putting money into the game above and beyond initial cost can easily infer that they will continue to have those additional perks and not have them at risk because of some new âexchangeâ solution.
So I think people having concerns and raising points about this IS valid and the boundless developers should consider perception of what backer status meant and how they communicated it versus perception of normal game release options.
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