Underworld Ascendant Box Edition
- Thread starter TheMadGamer
- Start date
I received my items. I got a figurine, two boxed copies of the game, a color "book" about the game (about 10 pages), a CD of some game music, and a "making of" DVD. These items all come separately - no unifying box to store them in. I'm glad at least they made the effort to follow through with this.
I never received my boxed collectors edition of SotA and it's the likes of SotA that hurts all crowd funding because I'll never crowd fund again because of their shenanigans, I just lost all trust.
I never received my boxed collectors edition of SotA and it's the likes of SotA that hurts all crowd funding because I'll never crowd fund again because of their shenanigans, I just lost all trust.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Yeah it's that suck factor that I've heard so often that's kept me from trying it so far. Guess I've just not been that bored as of yet.
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Is that SotA charade still on? I'm glad that I dodged that bullet. Last time I looked at it, they were selling Garriot's blood in tubes and relocating from the office to home offices because it was a smart thing to do. And by the way that was way before this Covid 19 situation. 
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Carnifex
SasqWatch
I'm not sure if you can still buy the product, but I know I still get the lousy updates for Avatar because I was dumb enough to give them money. I am fairly certain that I will never play it, though. One of those rather harsh kick starter lessons I received, only been a few of those but this one stung, and how.
I agree... this is the kickstarter that ended crowdfunding for me for good. I actually installed SotA... played it about 3 hours and uninstalled... it's just really bad.
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No point blaming yourself too much. Richard Garriot was an industry legend and they really cashed with his name. I doubt many people expected them to fail this miserably.
I was tempted to buy some early bird package, but when I was reading more of their explanations and all the things they promised to do, it just felt too much for such budget.
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Zloth
I smell a... wumpus!?
Some people have been giving it good reviews on Steam lately...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/326160/Shroud_of_the_Avatar_Forsaken_Virtues/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/326160/Shroud_of_the_Avatar_Forsaken_Virtues/
Yeah I noticed that as well. Reviewers also state the game gets more enjoyable if you stick with it for a couple of days. I imagine there are a lot of backers who will give it negative reviews no matter how good it gets though - the bait and switch was unforgivable.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
These above-average reviews also seem to be giving at least some of the praise for the mmo aspects of the game. That was never what I was after, I was looking to recapture the joy of those early avatar games, the mmo lies came later. I have some mmo's that I enjoy playing (two as of this date), but I'm not looking for a third.
I don't see how Ultima series can have any link with MMO.
For me it's been enough to not bother, I mean the game, for the KS I don't remind if the MMO aspect was even mentioned.
But free and with the ability to play offline, weird, I can't imagine how a MMO can be played offline, at least if not those false MMO true single player games.
For me it's been enough to not bother, I mean the game, for the KS I don't remind if the MMO aspect was even mentioned.
But free and with the ability to play offline, weird, I can't imagine how a MMO can be played offline, at least if not those false MMO true single player games.
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Fnord
SasqWatch
The impression I got from the Shroud of the Avatar campaign was that they quite specifically were trying to cash in on nostalgia not for the Ultima series, but for Ultima Online. You can see that with many of the games promised features, which mirror those of Ultima Online.
Utlima Online was quite unique as far as MMOs go, and nothing has really come close to doing what they did. It was not so keen on putting you on an MMO treadmill where you chased the next incremental gear upgrade, but instead was more focused on interactions with other players, and it was pretty darn good at that part.
Ultima Online did by the way ship with a singleplayer client early on (which might have been a mistake, as people were able to use that to make the first free/pirate servers). The issue was that you were playing a game built around the community aspect... but without any community. And from what little I've played of Shroud of the Avatar the same will be true here if there's an SP mode. Sure, you "can" play the game solo, but it's not what the game was designed for and most of its features will make no sense in an SP environment. So all you're left with is some sub-par combat, boring quests and the ability to build a house that only you can see.
This impression is from your starting point when you became aware of the kickstarter. The very first pitches just prior to the launch of the kickstarter and just after the kickstarter is that Garriot wanted to make a single player game in the spirit of the Ultima games. This messaging quickly vanished I believe within the first week of the kickstarter and was replaced with messaging about single player+online mode and then after that is when the comparisons began popping about comparign SotA to UO.
I have no problem with anyone who likes the current state of SotA or that it might be a modern upgrade to UO. I just didn't like the bait n' switch they did. That was dishonest.