The MMO Day of Dragons convinced with some cool ideas on Kickstarter and raised a lot of money. Now it has been released in Early Access on Steam and is facing a lot of criticism.
What kind of MMO is this? Day of Dragons is a survival MMO where you play as a dragon and must find food and water to survive.
You are supposed to explore a huge, open game world and also encounter other players in the form of dragons. Your dragon, in turn, is expected to develop from an egg to an ancient dragon and can also lay eggs itself.
The concept sounds exciting on paper and thus garnered attention. Due to the name and the promotion by the YouTuber Anthomnia, Day of Dragons raised 500,000 dollars, although only 12,000 dollars were aimed for as a goal.
What is the problem with Day of Dragons? The game was released a few days ago in Early Access on Steam. It is available for purchase for €16.79. Some players are testing the MMO, but they were disappointed and wrote corresponding reviews.
This drew attention back to some videos and information surrounding the game, in which Day of Dragons was heavily criticized. In the eyes of many, the main person responsible for the game, Jao, has lied multiple times and knows very little about the subject.
The game uses ready-made assets and no custom code
The information we will use below comes from a YouTube video from IGP, from the website DayOfScam, and from the reviews on Steam. Some information dates back to October and November. We from the editorial team have not played the MMO.
What is Day of Dragons accused of? In its current version on Steam, the MMO mainly uses ready-made assets that were assembled like in a construction kit.
The area, the dragons, and other content were licensed, but not developed in-house. For the most part, the assets were not even created for Day of Dragons itself but come from general sources.
In October, the game was in a similar state. At that time, it reportedly contained only 4 lines of its own code, which did not even have a function:
What the current state regarding the code is remains unknown. However, in this video from BigfryTV, which tested Day of Dragons on Steam, the MMO does not fare well.
The used assets would not be a big problem in principle if Jao, the developer, had not claimed beforehand that he had been working on the game for 2 years and that much was already finished. At other times, Jao is said to have lied as well.
What are Jao’s accusations? The main person responsible for the game is only known under the nickname Jao. Neither his name, address, nor social media profiles are known. He is only active on Discord.
However, there have been continuous lies:
- He allegedly said that the dragon assets were created exclusively for the game. Later, however, he stated that the dragons are ready-made assets, which only serve as placeholders. When the custom dragons will arrive is unclear.
- There is a similar statement regarding the map, which was reportedly already finished but later turned out to be a ready-made asset:
He is also accused of not mastering any programming languages and having sought advice from the community. The basis for this is only the same avatar image.
What is the problem with the monetization? In addition to the accusations regarding the assets and criticism of Jao himself, there is also criticism regarding the monetization.
Anyone who buys Day of Dragons on Steam receives an exclusive dragon. Anyone who supported the game as a backer before must pay an additional €9.99 for this dragon, regardless of how much money was invested in advance.
Additionally, Jao is already working on merchandise for Day of Dragons, although the game currently has hardly any assets of its own. Further DLC content such as new dragons is also already in the works without being able to present a finished game version.
In a conversation, he also states that the $500,000 will not last forever, even though he originally only wanted $12,000 for the project.
Day of Dragons – a huge scam?
What does Jao himself say about the allegations? In a video from Anthomnia, the YouTuber who popularized Day of Dragons, Jao criticizes the statements of IGP, the YouTuber who criticized him earlier. IGP originally claimed that the assets were stolen, which Jao denies. Everything was supposedly already licensed at that time.
In this process, Jao accuses the YouTuber of defamation and accuses him of malice, deception, and lying. IGP, in turn, has asked in his video not to pursue Jao or other mentioned individuals in a witch hunt.
Could the MMO be a scam? The accusations against the game sound harsh and very clear at first glance. However, as the YouTuber TheGamingBeaver summarizes, it is quite possible that Day of Dragons started as a small hobby project and got out of hand due to the $500,000.
Many contents sound good on paper but are hard to implement. Instead of admitting this, the developer decided to revise old statements and pursue other paths.
Even the YouTuber Anthomnia does not consider Day of Dragons to be a scam. In his eyes, new employees, recent developments, and Jao’s own reactions speak against that.
What do you think about the case? Do such actions lower your trust in new projects, or do you continue to support games through Kickstarter or other platforms? Do you have any experience with Day of Dragons yourself?
