The MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria has always managed to attract attention in the past. Once again, the online role-playing game is making waves due to recent decisions made by the developers. Now, even the game’s subreddit has had to be closed.
What is Chronicles of Elyria? Chronicles of Elyria is a Kickstarter MMORPG that sparked great hopes but could not fulfill them.
At first, Elyria stood out with many excellent ideas, such as a character system where your hero should age.
However, some time after the successful Kickstarter campaign of Chronicles of Elyria, all employees of the studio were laid off. They were unable to find a publisher, and the developers ran out of money. Many players wanted their money back and even took legal action.
So far, the game has had several playable alpha tests, but players were not allowed to report anything about them. To participate in one of these tests, interested parties had to invest money beforehand.
What happened now? The developers of Chronicles of Elyria changed the non-disclosure agreements (“NDA”) for one of the alpha phases of the game. This change seemed to want to prohibit legal action against the developers.
Such clauses are indeed not uncommon in alpha NDAs (via massivelyop.com), but they could particularly limit the players who are already in an ongoing court case with the developers.
Following criticism from the community, the developer changed the NDA again and now emphasizes that the contract only applies to the alpha test and does not include any other services or projects of the developer.
At the same time, the developer presents a way to compensate dissatisfied players in a unique way: with a crypto exchange. If players have already purchased land, titles, or items in the game, they will now receive certificates for them.
These certificates can be bought, sold, and traded in various cryptocurrencies. The developer believes that this way, disappointed players can get rid of their items, and players who are still looking forward to the release have a chance to obtain those items again.
When Chronicles of Elyria is released, players can exchange their certificate with the developer and receive the promised items. This should eliminate any ambiguity about who owns what. The step is intended to appease the community.
Community reacts angrily
What do the backers say? The supporters of Chronicles of Elyria reacted negatively to the announcements. The mood in the community was not good beforehand. Many believe that the game will never come out anyway.
There is even an entire subreddit that solely deals with whether the game was ever planned or if it was all just a ruse to make a lot of money (via reddit.com).
CoE in the announcement 2016 
Screenshot from the alpha 2017
The reactions were so harsh that the official subreddit for the game is currently closed. In addition to countless hate comments, there were also concrete threats of violence and even death threats found there. The moderators felt compelled to completely shut down the subreddit.
However, this does not stop players from expressing their opinions. Some suspect a structural approach to silence the community. The user naturemage writes (via reddit.com): “Have you looked at the official forums? The only posts by players are from mid-2020. Everything afterward was only official announcements, completely without comments. […] They are shutting down every opportunity to talk about the game.”
The user SaeRain agrees and prompts readers to think: “They must have known how this looks and that it triggers terrible PR. It can only be about wanting to protect themselves legally.”
Not the first time problems with Chronicles of Elyria
What has happened so far? A brief recap of what has happened so far:
- The Kickstarter goal was set at $900,000 in early 2016, which is not nearly enough money to achieve the ambitious goals of the developers.
- The developer later stated that the money was only for a playable demo, and they wanted to find a publisher for further funding. However, this plan was not originally communicated.
- The release date was said to be December 2017. The Kickstarter thus stated that a huge MMORPG could be made in two years for $900,000.
- Relatively early on, it was stated that Chronicles of Elyria would be delayed. A roadmap promised the release for 2019, but the game did not come out then either.
- After the Kickstarter campaign, the game continued to be funded through crowdfunding. At this point, players still did not know that the studio was actually trying to win over a publisher. The developer allowed people to continue believing that the entire cost was covered.
- A total of $7.9 million was raised through crowdfunding, but no publisher could be found for the MMORPG.
- The developer then began selling land plots in the game, demanding up to $1,350 for them.
- Five days after the first alpha, the developers announced that they had run out of money and were looking for a publisher. The game was far from finished.
- All employees were laid off.
In the video above, the YouTuber TheLazyPeon explains the whole mess surrounding the game. If you want to know more details about all the problems of the title, you can watch this video.
What do you think of Chronicles of Elyria? Have you invested money in the game yourself? Let us know in the comments!
Before the game is supposed to be released, there will first be… a strategy game?
