Shroud of the Avatar - Telethon of the Avatar

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Ultimacodex brings word of a telethon to raise more funds for Shroud of the Avatar.

telethon-of-the-avatar.png


Rustic Dragon had something…massive…planned for later this month. All the anticipation, all the teasing, has been build-up for this:

That’s right…Rustic intends to hold a 24-hour marathon fundraising drive for Shroud of the Avatar, and aims to raise $1,000,000 more for Richard Garriott’s upcoming project.

Now, it goes without saying that what Rustic Dragon is doing is in no way officially affiliated with Portalarium or development on Shroud of the Avatar. However, Rustic Dragon would like to see that project’s coffers enriched, and is putting on this event to stoke more interest in Shroud of the Avatar…and to encourage people to pledge (or pledge more) to its development. He won’t be collecting pledges at his site; pledges should be made to Portalarium at the Shroud of the Avatar website.

For more details, check out the FAQ page that Rustic Dragon has set up. And get ready for August 24th; it’s going to be a big day!
More information.
 
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I find it odd that they keep trying for more cash. I have backed this project moderately, but sometimes I meet people that are crazy fans that just throw money (I picture screaming Beiber fans when this happens).
 
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I find it odd that they keep trying for more cash. I have backed this project moderately, but sometimes I meet people that are crazy fans that just throw money (I picture screaming Beiber fans when this happens).

This is fans trying for more money for them, not them.
 
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This is a bit silly... How much money do these guys think RG needs anyway? The guy is worth 8 digits. If the game is so important to him, he's got things covered.
 
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Remnds of the Robert Woodhead interview the other Codex had recently when he said they hoped they would get groupies. They did but they ended up getting the wrong kind.*

*male nerds still obsessed with their game and request interviews 30 years later.
 
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I'd back it, if it was a real Ultima game, not some weird mix-up MMO kind of thing.
 
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I'd back it, if it was a real Ultima game, not some weird mix-up MMO kind of thing.

Same here, im a huge fan of the series and uo. My uo guild is still alive and playing uo forever. But I cant imagine this to be a good game. It seems a very confusing mess of a game and looks boring. Rg is good at telling stories of the Avatar in single player games. Even in Ultima Online he was just the face of the game and nkt the designer. He needs to get back to his old school single player ultima games, its a good enough series to rival Skyrim in sales if he had kept making sequals and didnt sell it to EA. He would be worth 100s of mil now instead of 10s.
 
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He needs to get back to his old school single player ultima games, its a good enough series to rival Skyrim in sales if he had kept making sequals and didnt sell it to EA.
If the series had kept going and had been managed properly (ie: not sold to EA, for starters), there's no reason it shouldn't have way more sales than Skyrim today. I'd say it was the ultimate "open world" RPG back in the day and, unlike anything Bethesda's ever made, actually had good storylines too. They had already gone in the direction of first-person view for Ultima 9, too. (A negative, in my opinion, but it must be a positive for the people who like Bethesda's games)
 
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I'd back it, if it was a real Ultima game, not some weird mix-up MMO kind of thing.

I backed it at $150 for the CE and I have my :fingerscrossed:… but I would have no problem increasing it to $500 for a real single-player Ultima game.

Shroud of the Avatar raised $2M… not bad… but I wonder if Richard Garriott realizes that he kneecapped his own Kickstarter with the whole MMO-SP hybrid thing. Does anyone here doubt that he could've had the most successful Kickstarter game of all time if he simply presented a few high-res screenshots of an U7-style single-player game with Stones playing in the background?
 
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If the series had kept going and had been managed properly (ie: not sold to EA, for starters), there's no reason it shouldn't have way more sales than Skyrim today. I'd say it was the ultimate "open world" RPG back in the day and, unlike anything Bethesda's ever made, actually had good storylines too. They had already gone in the direction of first-person view for Ultima 9, too. (A negative, in my opinion, but it must be a positive for the people who like Bethesda's games)

Not only was ultima 6 my first ultima game. But it was a real good open world game. But it was greater for its strong story and characters. Each npc was interesting and the choices you make was meaningful and the game didnt feed you free keywords during dialogues. You had to figure out the clues and right words to type to the npc to advance the story.

I can only imagine a 2013 Ultima 15 with 3d graphics and epic storylines and moral choices that a true Avatar must make in Sosaria that lost great world that we will never walk again.
 
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I backed it at $150 for the CE and I have my :fingerscrossed:… but I would have no problem increasing it to $500 for a real single-player Ultima game.

Shroud of the Avatar raised $2M… not bad… but I wonder if Richard Garriott realizes that he kneecapped his own Kickstarter with the whole MMO-SP hybrid thing. Does anyone here doubt that he could've had the most successful Kickstarter game of all time if he simply presented a few high-res screenshots of an U7-style single-player game with Stones playing in the background?


Yes, exactly.... I guess he was thinking how can I get money from both the UO:eek:nline fanst and the old single player Ultima fans.. not realising how many of them are the same.

I think he should have gone either MMO, or single-player, to try to do both is probably a mistake, and it probably didn't earn him money as he thought it would... but rather costed him money.

On the other hand he has been to space.... so he probably doesn't have that many dreams left :D Or maybe he is aiming for Mars ? like the avatar...
 
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Same here, im a huge fan of the series and uo. My uo guild is still alive and playing uo forever. But I cant imagine this to be a good game. It seems a very confusing mess of a game and looks boring. Rg is good at telling stories of the Avatar in single player games. Even in Ultima Online he was just the face of the game and nkt the designer. He needs to get back to his old school single player ultima games, its a good enough series to rival Skyrim in sales if he had kept making sequals and didnt sell it to EA. He would be worth 100s of mil now instead of 10s.

I'm not sure you understand who designed the ultima games etc...RG wasn't just in charge of stories he designed the games. He was instrumental in the design of UO and not just the "face" as you like to say.
 
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I'm not sure you understand who designed the ultima games etc…RG wasn't just in charge of stories he designed the games. He was instrumental in the design of UO and not just the "face" as you like to say.
This is debatable like all publishers VS developers. I was a counselor in UO until a certain Cathy Reab decided to spoil our fun. EA called the shots, EA had their own design team, counselors/volunteers occasionally tested new areas and provided feedback (directly to EA, not origin), EAsigned the cheques, Origin was a nameplate only.
I can say that Richard was part of the design and instrumental in the beginning of the story, but for the most part he was a face after initial release.

Also, if you got Shroud of the Avatar newest update, they are outright asking for more money. They want to double their donations, double their backers etc etc. And you can become a duke by getting your friends to donate!

I'm not against the idea of the game, I am a backer. I just think if he has a vision, then fund it himself and let the post-released game haul in the funds, rather than using risk free pre-sales.
 
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This is debatable like all publishers VS developers. I was a counselor in UO until a certain Cathy Reab decided to spoil our fun. EA called the shots, EA had their own design team, counselors/volunteers occasionally tested new areas and provided feedback (directly to EA, not origin), EAsigned the cheques, Origin was a nameplate only.
I can say that Richard was part of the design and instrumental in the beginning of the story, but for the most part he was a face after initial release.

Also, if you got Shroud of the Avatar newest update, they are outright asking for more money. They want to double their donations, double their backers etc etc. And you can become a duke by getting your friends to donate!

I'm not against the idea of the game, I am a backer. I just think if he has a vision, then fund it himself and let the post-released game haul in the funds, rather than using risk free pre-sales.

You do know he left EA and that's why he wasn't involved. Many say after he left it was horrible.
 
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I'm not sure you understand who designed the ultima games etc…RG wasn't just in charge of stories he designed the games. He was instrumental in the design of UO and not just the "face" as you like to say.

Sorry rune, I guess I misunderstood what you were meaning here. He was involved until 2000 with EA for UO until he decided to leave. It was almost 3 years that he was keeping appearances of designing more UO content, but in reality it didn't happen.

On a completely unrelated side note, I wonder how well UO2 or UO:X would have done.
 
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I'm not sure you understand who designed the ultima games etc…RG wasn't just in charge of stories he designed the games. He was instrumental in the design of UO and not just the "face" as you like to say.

RG designed all of the single player Ultima Games. I was only referring to him being mainly the face of Ultima Online. An MMO Doesn't really need a strong epic storyline, its mostly about multi-player Mechanics, The Design of UO was mostly Ralph Koster who was Design Lead for Ultima Online in the late 90s.

RG was a bad MMO designer, see failed " Tabula Rasa " which was another big mess.
He needs to come down from Space where ever he is right now and go create some deep rich single player RPGs.
 
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Sorry rune, I guess I misunderstood what you were meaning here. He was involved until 2000 with EA for UO until he decided to leave. It was almost 3 years that he was keeping appearances of designing more UO content, but in reality it didn't happen.

On a completely unrelated side note, I wonder how well UO2 or UO:X would have done.

It woulda been horrible ebcause it was controled by EA.
 
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please Richard i love you, go back to single player games. Skyrim doesnt have multiplayer and you can bet it will sell 20 million copies eventually. And a true Avatar epic story game made by you will be 10x better than Skyrims storyline, i miss the Avatar.
 
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