Shroud of the Avatar - Release Day

If I'm going to wait for the single player version of this game, I figure I've still got months and/or years of waiting. I stopped playing Ultima Online over twenty years ago, and I've no intention of going backwards.

According to this estimate on reddit Ultima Online is running around 3800 players this month

https://mmo-population.com/r/ultimaonline

Want to hear something a bit off?

They hide any bundle in the addon store above $75 to people with free trials or who have not purchased the game yet. As soon as you purchase it the whole addon store becomes available.

https://imgur.com/a/OTIff

Originally Posted by scottmbruner
…Ignoring the weird negativity, and now coasts apart, we jumped in…and are having a blast. Emergent narratives like UO! Complex and amazing crafting system! A world which offers actual quest decisions which matter, customization I’ve never seen in a UO and maybe the best community in MMOs. I’m a believer, I guess, but YMMV. (Just got a text right now from my friend that he took the day off from work to play)…but I’d give it a chance.

Yes, I do understand lack of single player game. Woulda been nice.

There are clearly a lot of people with axes to grind doing their best to ensure the game doesn’t get off the ground. I haven’t seen this kind of group think since Diakatana. If you don’t get the reference it was a game back in 2000 where celebrity developer John Romero annoyed the gaming community with a slight. Being the whiney bitches they are the game was trashed continuously pre and post release ensuring failure. As is the case here I’m sure few actually tried it but trashed it nonetheless. I did and it was a damn fun game. So if you are one of the few giving it a fair shake good for you. But surely you realize this game is doomed.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
There are clearly a lot of people with axes to grind doing their best to ensure the game doesn’t get off the ground. I haven’t seen this kind of group think since Diakatana. If you don’t get the reference it was a game back in 2000 where celebrity developer John Romero annoyed the gaming community with a slight. Being the whiney bitches they are the game was trashed continuously pre and post release ensuring failure. As is the case here I’m sure few actually tried it but trashed it nonetheless. I did and it was a damn fun game. So if you are one of the few giving it a fair shake good for you. But surely you realize this game is doomed.

Um….I was a huge supporter before….you have to see what is here to really understand this. I just watched their launch thing…it was a weird dance party with everyone dancing around see the image above…..Darkstarr(a dev) was kissing all the girls…

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
But surely you realize this game is doomed.

This game was doomed from the start when they changed the focus after launching. I believe Rune or someone-else posted the different links to what was changed.

I'm talking about the single-player option.

I get all that but as someone not all wrapped up in the drama all I care about is what it is today. Sorry folks suffered but oh well. Most potential players don’t know a thing about its sad development history and don’t really care. They just want to know if it’s worth playing now.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
I get all that but as someone not all wrapped up in the drama all I care about is what it is today. Sorry folks suffered but oh well. Most potential players don’t know a thing about its sad development history and don’t really care. They just want to know if it’s worth playing now.

Not if you want a single player rpg….hell, not if you want a good storyline…or things in chests etc….

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
There are clearly a lot of people with axes to grind doing their best to ensure the game doesn’t get off the ground. I haven’t seen this kind of group think since Diakatana.

I didn't want to post on this game anymore, but just to give my perspecitive: Nobody wanted this to fail from the get-go. It was they who changed the game from a promised single-player experience to some shitty MMO item shop affair. That was not what people paid for and they have a right to be angry about it.

Not to mention all the fishy stuff Portalarium pulled inbetween. At least it was entertaining to read about the drama…

Originally Posted by rune_74
https://imgur.com/a/OTIff

Wtf? Looks like Second Life.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Wtf? Looks like Second Life.

Honestly I went because they said it was a launch party….I was literally standing there watching all these people doing this without saying anything…I think that the group of them all talk on discord or something outside the game….

I felt so out of place.

Originally Posted by Darkheart
Nobody wanted this to fail from the get-go. It was they who changed the game from a promised single-player experience to some shitty MMO item shop affair. That was not what people paid for and they have a right to be angry about it.

That about sums it up for me except that I'm actually not angry… for me it's much worse in that I just don't care.

I certainly never wanted this project to fail, but what they said during the starting drive didn't jibe with what the talks progressed into later. I'm not angry, but I do feel like I was lied to and would never give a cent to anyone involved in this endeavour ever again. Live and learn!

The single player campaign was always going to be an afterthought. A good decade plus of Garriot's comments after Ultima Online and his failed port of bringing Horizons to North America, the failure of Tabula Rasa, and the aborted attempt at Shroud for Facebook and no one on these boards should have been blind to it. I was not, and not once did I even consider supporting it before release (I am surprised at how spectacularly over their head they got). My only guess is people are trying to shame LB&Co. by continuing to hammer this.

The look and feel of an Ultima 9 Online is a good start for SoA, but the real failure is getting caught up making a game secondary to generating revenue. Heck, UO itself was supposed to funded entirely by box sales, the subscription was a last minute afterthought.