Shroud of the Avatar - Just a World for Digital Goods

[Myrthos]

Clicqist's Joanne Mueller has written a piece about Shroud of the Avatar, which states that the game is nothing more than a world to store digital goods in and that Portalarium are milking their backers and players for more money.

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is currently available as an “Early Pre-Access” Alpha build on Steam. For a title that promised to be the first of five I think it’s a little disappointing that they haven’t managed to advance to a complete version of the first game yet. How many years will it be before the story finds a conclusion at this rate? Despite the lack of polish, the game retails for $44.99 and is updated frequently, though many promised features are still noticeably lacking.

This seems to own in large part to Portalarium Inc.’s focus on the MMO aspects of the game over the solo experience that role playing fans were so passionate about when they backed Shroud of the Avatar.

Portalarium has stated that they needed to fully build the infrastructure for the multiplayer mode first, then go back and layer the single-player narrative on top of that. This may very well be true, I’m no game developer, but some of the things they’ve allotted time and resources to working on don’t seem necessary, except as a means of squeezing more funds out of their player-base.

Thanks Couch.

More information.

 

[Myrthos]

I've given up on this game already quite some time ago. I wanted the single player experience, but nothing of what is there now, shows that a single player is coming and if it does, is worth while to play it.

 

[Silver]

I've given up on this game already quite some time ago. I wanted the single player experience, but nothing of what is there now, shows that a single player is coming and if it does, is worth while to play it.

Understandable you have reservations but from what I have read on the Digital Antiquarian it is normal for Garriott to focus on the technology first with the game part being the last thing he works on. He did this for the first 5 Ultima's anyway and he seems to still have this workflow. However whether that is acceptable when your game is for sale on early access is another question entirely.

 

[Pongo]

A $700 in-game digital airship…? Blimey.
Yeah I've lost faith in this one as well. I accept Silver's point that it may come good in the end, I guess we'll see.

 

[Morrandir]

I've given up on this game already quite some time ago.

It's not that I've given up, but my expectations for a decent single-player experience have been decreased to almost zero.
So if the miracle should happen and we'll get one, I'll be happily surprised.

 

[Ripper]

One of the most depressing examples of all that's wrong with the games industry.

 

[rune_74]

Well....I have not only given up but have been banned from saying anything about the "direction" of the game anymore. If you get any traction with questioning these moves they will ban you. I'm still waiting for the formal "review" where they decide if I'm actually banned, which really means nothing as it will never be coming. I posted the exact message they sent me on their steam forums and they banned me on there as well.

I don't really care anymore but it's nice to see articles coming out now....wait until july when it goes live heh.

 

[Bedwyr]

I really need to unsubscribe their emails.

 

[TheMadGamer]

I lost interest sometime in 2014. By then my spidery-senses were already raised by all the buy-this buy-that rhetoric coming out practically weekly.

 

[Terry]

I too KS'ed this for the single player aspect, but like others here have mostly written it off as a MMO. I have messed around with it a bit on line but in sigle player mode only. My bigest frustration is trying to find NPC quest line locations in the forest of player housing. The first time in a new location I wander around through masses of player houses to find the few NPC's that you can actually interact with. They just released a ofline start up yesterday so I might give it a try to see how they deal with the huge number of player houses that should not be there.
But I to must say that I too feel that they have spent way too long on the MMO item milking for my taste. Though if in the end it means better funding for the final game it might be for the best, it's not like I lack for games to play now any way.

 

[Morrandir]

wait until july when it goes live heh.

Didn't they say that for this kind of game (whatever that is) there will perhaps never be an actual release?
I think they fear the moment of saying they're finished for now and try to postpone it for how long they can.

For sure Richard Garriot lost a lot of trust and reputation with this project. For him crowdfunding is kind of burned now.

 

[Terry]

July is suposed to be like the FINAL wipe before release so political speek wise it will release any time after that, which may be months or years later. There just wil not be any more server wipes of the world.

 

[Bedwyr]

Though if in the end it means better funding for the final game it might be for the best, it's not like I lack for games to play now any way.

And that is why it's irrelevant. We have an embarrassment of good games including the vaunted world simulation features of memory (not always in the same package, but still...). Even if we got ok single-player gameplay at this point it would be mediocre. This game is a waste of time and will sit forgotten in my steam library.

 

[Bedwyr]

And... done. As of their last update Shroud is out of my life.

 

[Majnun]

Wait, July?

Of this year?

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

Cool! (cough) Glad I didn't back this on kickstarter!

Good luck to everyone who still has hopes for this. I want to, because there's enough framework there to make a decent game...but it ain't gonna happen.

 

[rjshae]

I lost interest sometime in 2014. By then my spidery-senses were already raised by all the buy-this buy-that rhetoric coming out practically weekly.

Pretty much this. It was clear early on this was a Digital Marketing Channel wearing the "shroud" of an MMORPG. I'm doubly glad now that I didn't contribute.

 

[KaosWarMonk]

I never really got into Ultima (I tried a few times) so I've never thought the sun shined out if Garriott's backside. Smacked too much cash grab a la Chris Roberts space game. I actually think over zealous crowd funding ends up diluting the final product with too much feature creep.

Maybe I'm wrong and it'll end up good. If so that's when I'll consider ponying up some cash.


KWM

 

[Viger]

If you buy a in game house (with real money) you have to pay taxes for it (with real money)? Seriously?

 

[Vindicator]

As a longtime Richard Garriott fan and Ultima fanatic, I can't wait to get my hands on that boxed collector's edition of Shroud of the Avatar!! … So I can sell it on eBay.

 

[Saxon1974]

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.