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Portalarium has announced that over two million dollars has been raised for the development of Shroud of the Avatar via Kickstarter backing. The funding campaign ended on Sunday, April 7th after crossing the two million dollar mark.
Fans who were unable to make a pledge on Kickstarter, still have an opportunity to get behind the project. The store at www.ShroudoftheAvatar.com continues to provide several ways to back the project. “The Kickstarter backers will forever have certain perks that will remain exclusive to that part of our campaign,” said Garriott. “People who visit the game store now will see many Kickstarter-like tiers to back the project. But we will continue to add new items to the game that will be available for purchase by both our Kickstarter backers and new backers. The exciting part is that a lot of what we will be adding going forward will be based on feedback from our fans; items and features that they are already telling us they want to see in the game.”
Find out more about Shroud of the Avatar.
Comments
Shroud of the Avater bullets from the Kickstarter page:
§ Shroud of the Avatar is infused with rich storylines, deeply integrated into game play, developed by Best Selling Author Tracy Hickman and RPG legend Richard Garriott.
§ Players will adventure in an interactive world where their choices have consequences, ethical paradoxes give them pause, and they play a vital part in weaving their own story into the immersive world and lore surrounding them.
§ Shroud of the Avatar is a Selective Multiplayer game, allowing players to choose how they want to play! Whether in Single-Player Offline mode or any of three online modes, the main quest line will provide greater than 40 hours of focused, story driven content.
§ Shroud of the Avatar can be played as an offline DRM free solo experience or online, where our servers will enable player to player transactions, group finding, patching, streaming of dynamic content, and exploit prevention.
§ Built using the Unity Game Engine, Shroud of the Avatar will support Win/Mac/Linux for official launch.
§ Players can specialize in a wide range of combat and non-combat skills, provided by a robust, classless skill system, and full-featured crafting and housing mechanics. Play the way you want to play, molding your character into the hero, anti-hero, or artisan you want to be!
§ Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtue is the first of a 5 game series of full-length, stand-alone games (each using the same game system), referred to as Episodes 1 thru 5. Estimated availability of Episode 1, Forsaken Virtues, is October 2014, with Episodes 2 thru 5 estimated for subsequent yearly releases.
§ Shroud of the Avatar is a “buy-to-play” game that, once purchased, does not require a subscription to play!
I’ve highlighted what I believe are the main reasons (in addition to being Ultima related) that people gave to this game despite the developer being a millionaire. He clearly states the play modes for the game. He straight up announced that the game will be “Buy to Play”. He even has an estimated game delivery date. Ladies and gents, this is how you fund a kickstarter in the millions. The guy clearly knows what he is doing.
The $2 million doesn’t even include people like me who always wait for a finished product. I will buy the game if he delivers on the stated promises.
I would have donated but the one thing he left unclear is actually my biggest issue...how much is he going to neglect the PC for mobile gaming which he is pushing real hard.
I will not give money to anyone that is going to try to phaze out PC gaming for mobile when it can be done in a way to fully support both without trashing the game.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
FAQ
Why PC?
"Some people think that PC is an outdated platform, but to that I say not true! I have always been a PC developer, and there is something magical about sitting close to a large screen, seeing your world come to life. And the flexibility of using a keyboard and mouse is unmatched; though if you prefer to play with a gamepad on a PC, you can do that too!
For game development, the PC allows developers tremendous innovation and gives players the most choices as far as how they play. Although a great RPG can exist in many forms (even paper tape!), I firmly believe that the PC is the best platform for Shroud of the Avatar."
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you elaborate a bit more?
Congrats to them, I didn't donate, as I thought it was more for Ultima series fans, and less for people that liked the game play of the mmo UO (I am not saying the pvp, just overall everything else). So it wasn't up my alley, but I am glad he got funded, maybe if this works and is a hit, he will do something that is more to my tastes...Which I would almost 100% donate to (and I havent donated to anything yet).
I am sort of a Garriot fanboy I guess you could say, I absolutely love the story behind this guy, he really paved the way for a lot of what we have in games today.
That being said, I don't have high hopes for this game. I love the "idea" of everything about this game, I don't see it doing well in todays market, however. I think he is trying to please too many people with some of the ideas, and it's just not going to work IMO. Take for instance, GW2. It may have been a downer for some, but the thought of a buy to play MMO, was great, no sub, no need to really invest in the cash shop. I still log in time to time with new updates to check it out, and will for years. The game is bought, and cash shop will not damage my gameplay at all.
Now, take SOTA, buy to play, but, you can play it offline, connect with social networks, and while he says it won't be pay to win, you can almost guarantee it will be. Maybe not in the sense that, oh I will be more powerful than everyone via cash shop, but, limited housing lots available, which can probably be bought with real money, is going to turn off even the most humble of crafter/non combat players. He said it himself, the best way to deal with 3rd party gold sellers, is to sell it yourself. That alone, will stop me from buying it.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
You do realise this is a PC game?
Of coruse as a developer he would have to retarded to ignore the gigantic mboile market that is available but it does not mean he will stop maknig games for PCs.
wow...you did see the part where I said "how much is he going to neglect the PC" right?
I listened to/read a bunch of his interviews about the game because I still believe he can make great games and he spoke at length about mobile gaming and in the later interviews during the kickstarter talked about how he games on mobile devices more than on the PC now and he is going to make the game so you can play much of it on mobile devices...hence my concern. To make an MMO work on mobile, some of the deeper PC aspects have to be toned down.
No keyboard/mouse = vastly different combat is going to be required for example.
Thats what I meant in my post, he did not fully explain WHAT can be done via mobile and how and I did say that was my real concern...most of his new ideas sounded OUTSTANDING and I do believe that even if the game is not a success, it can change the way MMOs are made just with his client/server ideas.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
I think you want something that has not been answered yet in the development process.
RG is a PC Gamer, SotA will be a PC game made for PC Gamers and not console(ie...Defiance) or Mobile (ie...Ultima forever)
This will NOT answer the specifics about what will be limited in order to make the mobile version work, but we don't even know if it will be a PORT to mobile or something akin to WoW's Mobile Armory where you get Statistics, Inventory control, Character Mgt, and Guild options.
We don't know and as far as I've gathered(and I've watched all the Hangouts @ 4 hours a piece) they don't know either.
He mentioned in his FAQ -
Why PC?
"Some people think that PC is an outdated platform, but to that I say not true! I have always been a PC developer, and there is something magical about sitting close to a large screen, seeing your world come to life. And the flexibility of using a keyboard and mouse is unmatched; though if you prefer to play with a gamepad on a PC, you can do that too!
For game development, the PC allows developers tremendous innovation and gives players the most choices as far as how they play. Although a great RPG can exist in many forms (even paper tape!), I firmly believe that the PC is the best platform for Shroud of the Avatar."
If nothing else - get on the Chat at the Sota website and simply ask when a Red Name is logged in. They are very forthcoming on information.Or Log into Google + and send a message to Gina Dionne - https://plus.google.com/u/0/112632091133851576437 < that should be her Google+ Link.
Hope that helps.
Tamorand
Total time played: 9125 Days, 21 Hours, 29 Minutes, 27 Seconds
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