Kickstarter certainly isn't as hot as it used to be a few years ago. Failed projects and delayed deadlines prompted perspective backers to be much more selective in their investment, but at times there are still games that manage to achieve substantial success with crowdfunding.

Intrepid Studios' MMORPG Ashes of Creation is one of those projects, and it just passed $3,000,000 on Kickstarter, with a current total of $3,001,655 pledged by 17,679 backers, achieved just eighteen hours before the end of the campaign.

This is exactly four times as much as the original goal, that was a much more modest $750,000.

Thanks to the new amount, the last stretch goal offered by the development team has been unlocked, in the form of a stock market described as follows:

"Stock Exchange – This is a very in-depth system that relates to how Nodes, Player Guilds and Social Organizations perform in the world.  This will allow players to invest those communities through the form of a stock exchange that will measure certain metrics to determine success or failure around the world. If a guild fails in a raid, shareholders in that guild may see a drop in it’s value.  Or if a node advances in activities and trade routes leading to it, the shareholders may see a spike in their dividends.  Social organizations such as the Thieves Guild may see community quest points achieved throughout the world and different chapters being built in nodes across the realm, resulting in a higher valuation.”

At the moment of this writing we don't know whether Intrepid Studios will add a further stretch goal for the final push, or not.

Ashes of Creation is defined as a an open-world, non-faction based, no P2W, high-fantasy MMORPG, and will feature an interesting ever-changing and evolving world that seem to intend bring back some of the most interesting ideas of the canceled EverQuest Next project. Elements like seasons, dynamic economy and player-driven stories are also on the menu.

If you want to see more of Ashes of Creation, you can check out more mage gameplay and a starting area, the monster coins system mentioned above, the freeholds housing system, and a 30 minute video from yesterday, showing a quest, a dungeon, the winter season and more.