The millionaire Steven Sharif is behind the new indie MMORPG “Ashes of Creation“. In response to fan inquiries, he explains the advantages of his MMORPG over traditional “industry MMORPGs” and dispels prejudices against himself. With a controversial “multi-level marketing system,” he claims to have made less than 2% of his fortune.
This is the situation:
- Ashes of Creation is funded through crowdfunding. Behind the new MMORPG is entrepreneur Steven Sharif, who invests his own money in the product and wants to build “his dream MMORPG”.
- Sharif now explains in a thread on reddit what the advantages of his MMORPG are and emphasizes the benefits of his studio’s business structure. There is no board of directors he has to account to.
- Moreover, Sharif states that it is not true that he made his money with “multi-level marketing” (pyramid scheme). Products in that sector only made up 2% of his fortune.
Sharif states why Ashes of Creation is great: In a reddit thread (via reddit), fans discuss the hype around Ashes of Creation. One says: He does not understand why there is so much fuss around the MMORPG. To him, it feels like “Star Citizen”: The cosmetic shop is already ready, but nothing else.
Moreover, the head of the game made his money with juice that supposedly cures cancer.
Sharif himself jumps into the thread and explains about Ashes of Creation:
I believe, from a player’s perspective, there are 2 main aspects that excite people about Ashes of Creation.
The first: What are we doing? Essentially, it’s about risk vs. reward. Not everyone is a winner; the world evolves around the player. There is no pay-to-win, no “quality-of-life” items, a massive open world, and a focus on social and community systems.
The second: Who are we? We are not determined by greedy “business leaders”. I fund the project, so there are no investors on board, no board of directors I am accountable to, and no publisher I need to please. We talk WITH our community (not to them), and we really listen to feedback and value and respect our players.
Of course, we will not make everyone happy. That is not the goal. Are we the next “WoW Killer?” Certainly not. That’s not our goal. Nor should it be.
Steven Sharif
Sold products from a multi-level marketing company at 18
Where does this pyramid scheme idea come from? In 2017, Steven Sharif gave an interview to the website MassivelyOp (via MassivelyOp), in which he said he was recruited by the multi-level marketing company XanGO when he was 18. They sold juices among other products.
Sharif stated in the interview: He started a website to sell the products, and the website was very successful. At 24, he then got involved with investments and real estate, which gained him a large part of his fortune.
However, many people were left with the impression that Sharif owed his fortune to this “juice” company. Especially since Sharif utilized a “recruitment” program in Ashes of Creation that bore similarities to a multi-level marketing system: Those who recruited others to the game were to receive a share of the expenses their “recruits” incurred in the game.
Sharif considers rumors about him as attempts to harm the project
This is what Sharif says now: Sharif claims that lies about him are being spread to harm the project. He did not make his fortune through multi-level marketing. He was an 18-year-old child when he created a website that sold many products: shampoo, toothpaste, vitamins, weight-loss products AND also a juice from XanGO. Sharif never recruited people for multi-level marketing, was never employed there, and certainly was not on the board. He also never claimed that it cured cancer and thus did not earn his fortune from it.
It makes him sad when such lies about him are repeated. The website and the income from it make up less than 2% of his fortune.
What’s behind it: This “multi-level marketing” thing came up in 2017 mainly because the “recruitment” program of Ashes of Creation seemed so controversial. Because YouTubers began to actively promote Ashes of Creation. At the time, the impression arose that YouTubers could cash out the money they earned through their “recruits”.
This had the flavor of such a “multi-level marketing” system. This has given the MMORPG Ashes of Creation an unprofessional tone from the beginning, against which Steven Sharif has been fighting since.
When criticism of the model arose in the English gaming press in 2017, Sharif harshly criticized the journalists. He felt unjustly accused. And explained that it was all a misunderstanding.
As for the remainder of Sharif’s statements, it should be critically noted: Having no “business bosses” is not only advantageous. Because ultimately, Sharif has no one above him to exert pressure to meet timelines or fulfill release dates.
The indie MMORPG Ashes of Creation has already been postponed several times, and fans currently expect that it will take several more years before it is truly playable. Much longer than originally planned. This is indeed a parallel to Star Citizen.
We have extensively discussed the problems of crowdfunding MMORPGs. Because they may sound great on paper, but repeatedly face the same issues:
