Shroud of the Avatar - Just a World for Digital Goods

Saxon1974 said:

Not surprised. I didn't back this as o could smell rat early into the KS pitch. I have no idea what garriot is doing, he doesn't need the money.

Click to expand...

Same here, I remember when it was first announced I called my brother all excited. That excitement last all of a day until I started to think about what was being said in the kickstart page.

So glad I didn't back this and at first I really wanted to...

Majnun said:

Wait, July?

Of this year?

And there's supposed to be a single player game at that point?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. July is just when they do the last "wipe" of the MMO world. Game will still be in Early Access after July. There is no planned release date still and no signs that any is imminent, despite it already being 1.5 years late compared to original estimate from the Kickstarter.

The game is already in early access...they are just manipulating the results to make it look like they have taken a step in that direction.

Backers were promised a detailed, interactive world with a fully immersive single player off-line experience,

Click to expand...

I stopped reading after that. This modified Facebook game was always MP first and they made no bones about that. I am surprised at how many people still think the SP aspect was supposed to the focus.

That said, it still looks like crap. I always suspected (w/out evidence) at least $1m of that was LB's own money as a way to make to drum up more interest.

I was extremly sceptical of this game when I first heard about it. It all sounded like a money scheme with the player housing and what not.

This might have worked 15 years ago, but now the market is much more competetive and there are loads of great games to play. They take too much time to get out of early access, lose momentum and then the game will slowly die.

I was a tad bit too young for the Ultima craze, but whatever I heard from Garriott since then, makes him look like a highly dubious person to me.

Lucky Day said:

I stopped reading after that. This modified Facebook game was always MP first and they made no bones about that.

Click to expand...

Not really, I just went back and re-read the original Kickstarter campaign and it still sounds more like SP-first to me, with multiplayer tacked on. There was even an item in the Kickstarter FAQ: "Though Shroud of the Avatar won’t be a massively multiplayer online role playing game, it will be a multiplayer game." Nowadays they even call it an MMO/MMORPG on the front page of the game's website. So clearly they have changed their minds (probably after seeing how much money they can make selling virtual goods for a game that's not even out yet), either that or there was an intentional bait-and-switch. But back to the original Kickstarter description, I guess the way everything is pretty vaguely laid out, a person could take a lot of it to mean whatever they personally were hoping for it to be. For example, the summary description for the Kickstarter campaign was "Lord British returns to his fantasy RPG roots with Shroud of the Avatar, hearkening back to his innovative early work. " So…"innovative early work"? Personally, I just assumed that meant Ultima 1-7. But to other people, it must have meant Ultima Online.

I have to admit that my first Ultima game was Ultima Online. It was also the first (and last) MMO I ever played. I swore off MMOs at that point as they are too much of a time sink.

I was still interested when I saw that "Shroud of the Avatar" pledge, as I had fond memories of the world of Ultima. I think that focus on stuff like player housing was what turned me off. I could see the same problems as in the original Ultima Online. You buy a deed (not a house) and have to find a suitable place to actually build that house. In the original game, those places did not exist. All that player housing on every square inch of free space made the game look a bit funny, too. It clashed with the idea of the world lore, where you had cities and villages. It had a bit of the look and feel of a suburb, even if the house may look like a castle tower.

I see the same suburban look and feel in the screenshots of "Shroud", including the point you have lots of mismatched buildings next to each other. That completely destroys the fantasy feel for me. The MMO part was the main reason why I did not back this, and it seems there are lots of other reasons why this was the right decision.

Bedwyr said:

I really need to unsubscribe their emails.

Click to expand...

If you find out how to do that, let me know.

DogInARocket said:

If you find out how to do that, let me know.

Click to expand...

Just block their address. Just like I have blocked everything LB has said and done since the Ultima days.

…and yet, that age-old yearning persists in me for a true successor of Ultima 7. Any promising candidates out there? Anyone on Kickstarter offering to develop it? Anything?

*sigh*

Moorkh said:

…and yet, that age-old yearning persists in me for a true successor of Ultima 7. Any promising candidates out there? Anyone on Kickstarter offering to develop it? Anything?

*sigh*

Click to expand...

Good luck, I don't think that day will ever come.

Moorkh said:

…and yet, that age-old yearning persists in me for a true successor of Ultima 7. Any promising candidates out there? Anyone on Kickstarter offering to develop it? Anything?

*sigh*

Click to expand...

Gothic
Gothic 2 Night of the Raven
Divine Divinity
Divinity: Original Sin
Arx Fatalis

The only game for which I pledged on Kickstarter and subsequently rescinded said pledge based on subsequent campaign updates. And, boy, am I glad I did

Moorkh said:

…and yet, that age-old yearning persists in me for a true successor of Ultima 7. Any promising candidates out there? Anyone on Kickstarter offering to develop it? Anything?

*sigh*

Click to expand...

Well, there is hope Stay tuned.

You know, there are always people saying how KS is like buying stock. I don't subscribe to that logic, but I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed in your best interest to view it like an investment. That is, never spend more than you can easily afford to lose.

I backed Shroud for $10 or whatever the minimum tier was and I have zero concern about the direction of this project. If anything playable comes out of this that I can waste a few hours on I'll have my money's worth.

Sacred_Path said:

You know, there are always people saying how KS is like buying stock. I don't subscribe to that logic, but I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed in your best interest to view it like an investment. That is, never spend more than you can easily afford to lose.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

I backed Shroud for $10 or whatever the minimum tier was and I have zero concern about the direction of this project. If anything playable comes out of this that I can waste a few hours on I'll have my money's worth.

Click to expand...

I had a lot of concerns and didn't back it.

The one good thing is I made a lot more money selling what I had then I paid...

They have quieted most of the single player fans now, it's kind of funny reading what their forums as the wolves descend on any who ask about that now.