KickStarter Shroud of the Avatar - Lord British's Not-Ultima Online 2

[Metro]

Uh... here's all the inside information you need: the game was a scam.

 

[taxalot]

That Titler guy keeps posting that he has some kind of inside information on Portalarium and he has shopped it around to various news sites (including Ultima Codex) but that none of them will publish it. Why doesn't he just publish it himself on reddit or in a forum?

I'm curious to know what Port was doing for the first few years of the project when they had millions of dollars, tons of good will from the fans and a solid staff of ~30 working on the game.

One thing you can't deny is that they documented the game well enough. Playable builds were released on a matter of months after the kickstarter and the game grew from there. Youtube videos document the whole process of making the game. You can see some of the early iterations of the game from there :



It hasn't changed much.

SOTA isn't a game with "cut content" or that eventually deviated : it fucked the backers who wanted a good single player from the very start. Someone with way too much time can see the entire process jsut from their youtube channel.

 

[MistressJ]

This "game" was an attempt to make an online trading post for RG's friends to sell digital real estate and goods to fans and other nerds (like myself). They didn't figure most of us are not interested in being serfs to 40 or 50 something dorks with more money than sense.

Instead of making anything resembling fun, they shat out airships and hats and cloaks that clip through your body and it all caught up to them. Starr is out, Richard never really cared and now Chris livestreams to beg the last pennies out of the 5 people who still have hope.

I'm glad I spent less than $200 on this shit. I do think the drama is priceless though.

 

[taxalot]

I backed it at the minimum pledge knowing well I would regret it. Funnily enough, back then my issue was supporting a game developer that wasted all his money to go to space, but whatever. I actually thought he could deliver on the initial premise : single player RPG in an open world with an Ultima like story. That's all there was to it. Absolutely no reason couldn't do it if he tried, even if it doesn't turn out to be a great game.

In the end, I got a crappy game and tons of involuntary fun out of it. From the very moment they showed the art style they were going for, and the ambitions of the game, it was obvious it was headed towards a disaster. He should have gone single player, overhead, turn based, low-poly 3D or even 2D. If he had just done that, sure he wouldn't have been able to sell virtual plot of lands....

... but he would have managed to fund Episode 2 to 5.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

This was the game that broke my hot Kickstarter backer streak. Knee-jerk backed at early bird level thanks to Garriott and his glossy hair and bedroom eyes and then pulled out after a couple of days when it was obvious it was going to be a disaster. To put this into context I also backed Star Citizen at about the same time, but this was the one that looked like the scam!

 

[FireKing]

More bullshit from these "Industry Veterans":

https://massivelyop.com/2019/05/01/...starter-reward-novel-fulfillment-sec-filings/

 

[Infinitron]

Lots of fun in the comments:

And Port has now deleted the big thread on their forums about the book (that the devs ignored for two months) and banned at least two people for bringing it up. Stay classy Port!

Just so people are made aware, Starr Long just deleted the entire post about the book, linked in the article. So if you get an Error when you click on it, it’s because he deleted the entire thread.

You seriously cannot make this stuff up! So much for honesty and transparency with this bunch!

Do we have reason to believe Long did that? Or could it have been a moderator? And had someone toward the end of the thread violated a rule? Trying to figure out exactly what happened. The thread had been going since March and was definitely still up when we published.

Yes, I was on the forums when it happened and he was the only developer online. I clicked on his name and it showed him viewing that specific thread. I clicked refresh on my browser and it was gone. He definitely deleted it. Also, if you click on his name and view his profile it shows that he is also a “Moderator”.

I’m baffled – they had to know about that thread before I emailed them for a statement.

Not sure which to believe. Once it was that the books wouldn’t fit in the boxes. Then it was that the publisher decided to layout the book the way they wanted to and not how the customer wanted to. The most recent via Chris Spears was that the book was held up due to not knowing who owns the rights to the book.

All the excuses can’t be true. First there wasn’t even a book made to fit in the boxes. Are they now just printing out the pages via the old HP and stapling them together?

Can’t make this stuff up.

For posterity’s sake, here is Starr’s ‘wouldn’t fit in the box’ comment. Note the June 29 date on that post.

 

[Eggs is eggs]

If you look at steam charts, their fundraising numbers and their situation with their office and staff, it's clear the game is in a death spiral. The only question is how long will the few remaining whales continue to support the game because Portalarium has no shame in taking in every single dollar they can before they eventually run out of money and turn off the servers. And when it does end, I doubt there will be any admittance of mistakes, probably for both pride and legal reasons.

 

[Infinitron]

lol http://ultimacodex.com/2019/05/portalarium-please-send-me-my-shroud-of-the-avatar-box/

Portalarium, Please Send Me My Shroud of the Avatar Box
BY WTF DRAGON · MAY 1, 2019

Because I grow tired of waiting — as the counter in the site header attests, I hope — for my Shroud of the Avatar box (the due reward for backing the game on Kickstarter some six years ago now), I’d like to take this opportunity to formally issue a challenge to whomever remains at Portalarium to handle such mundane tasks as shipping. Which may well be Chris Spears himself, though I’d at least like to think that the technical director of the game isn’t also working the mail room (such as it is).

In just over two weeks, I’ll be in the United States for a short work project. Thanks to the miracle of Amazon Prime, I can order a boxed copy of Shroud of the Avatar the day before I fly out, and have it waiting for me by the time I return to my hotel after my first day of work…which happens to be May 15th.

So, to whomever at Portalarium may be concerned with such things, please send me my physical backer rewards in time that they arrive by about May 13th. It’s now a race between you and Amazon.

 

[Metro]

If you look at steam charts, their fundraising numbers and their situation with their office and staff, it's clear the game is in a death spiral.

Was clear from day one.

 

[Aildrik]

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/ultima-ix-ascension-review/1900-2531654/
https://techcrunch.com/2008/04/09/t...velopers-confirm-downsizing-of-austin-studio/
https://www.mmorpg.com/shroud-of-th...the-team-gives-up-its-office-space-1000051687

I will always give Garriott credit for his early achievements. The Ultima games (I played 3-9) were (mostly) amazing for their time (with the exception of IX where it started to go largely downhill). Ultima Online was amazing as well. It seems maybe the guy just lost his passion for gaming after UO, at least that is what it feels like. That is certainly what it *looks* like when you consider his track record of carnage after UO.

 

[grimace]

Title Name and Address

DIRECTOR BRAD HARRISON

CHIEF EXEC CHRIS SPEARS

DIRECTOR ED TALBOT

DIRECTOR HULL YOUNGBLOOD

DIRECTOR RICHARD GARRIOTT DE CAYEUX

DIRECTOR STARR LONG



https://mycpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/coaSearchBtn

(search for Portalarium and select the active Delaware entity to bring this up - Details/Public Information Report)​

CEO of Portalarium as of May something 2019 has been updated.

 

[Atrachasis]

we have decided to eliminate any titles and positions with the word Officer

CHIEF EXEC CHRIS SPEARS
​

​

They absolutely live up to their words, note that Spears is designated here as "Chief Exec" and not "Chief Executive Officer".

Delivered as promised, none would expect anything less from Portalarium.

 

[taxalot]

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ers-on-telephone-poles.155352/&port_evt=login

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

 

[thesheeep]

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...ers-on-telephone-poles.155352/&port_evt=login

That entire forum is a strange mix between despair, madness and hilarious memes, isn't it?

 

[FireKing]

With another one of their devs leaving, Rick "Chaox" Holtrop, who the fuck even works on this dumpster fire anymore outside of shitlord Chris Spears?

 

[taxalot]

With another one of their devs leaving, Rick "Chaox" Holtrop, who the fuck even works on this dumpster fire anymore outside of shitlord Chris Spears?

They're moving into the right direction.

They recently realized that most people quit the game in the first area, the Isle of Storms, which serve as character creation. Portalarium's conclusion was that the first area did not meet their standards of quality.

So, they just removed the first area.

The game now starts in the second area.

 

[Blaine]

I predicted all of this six years ago within the first few pages of the thread.

While the game has many issues, its biggest by far was the crowdfunding cash grab, because that ensured loads of people wouldn't even try the game at all. As I've said before/elsewhere, earning one's own persistent, non-instanced base/house/land/hideout/territory that occupies limited, finite public space within the game world is the holy grail of the sandbox MMORPG experience. Selling off the best ones to rich guys for cash years in advance doomed the game; indeed, on the MMORPG.com forums and other online spaces dedicated to discussing MMOs, hundreds and perhaps thousands of posters expressed exactly that sentiment long before the game went public.

It's one thing for all the land to be occupied because you started playing the game years after its release, but quite another for it to be taken years BEFORE the game's release.

 

[Infinitron]

lul http://ultimacodex.com/2019/07/in-which-i-am-gifted-a-shroud-of-the-avatar-box/

In Which I Am Gifted a Shroud of the Avatar Box

While I’ve already thanked him in person, I’d like to take this opportunity to offer a very public note of thanks to Dark Wraith Dragon, for sending me a boxed copy of Shroud of the Avatar.

As you may recall from my previous articles about my ongoing wait for the physical rewards I should — by now — have received for backing Shroud of the Avatar on Kickstarter back in 2013, I had resolved to purchase a physical copy of the game off of Amazonthe next time I had occasion to visit the United States. At the time I resolved to do so, I would have been able to get it in a mere couple of days by signing up for an Amazon Prime trial, and usually my trips south of the Canadian border last for about a week…and it would have been no big deal to have the box shipped to the hotel I was staying at.

Well, I was in the United States a couple of weeks ago, on a family trip to San Diego (mainly Legoland, but also Disneyland and some other places). However, when I looked at Shroud of the Avatar on Amazon again in anticipation of snagging a copy, I noticed that it was no longer Prime-eligible. So I didn’t bother ordering it. And unfortunately, despite Amazon’s claim that they could ship to Canada, none of the addresses I could provide as a destination were among the places in my country which the box could be shipped to. (Let’s not dwell overmuch on why that’s bizarre.)

Enter Dark Wraith Dragon, who bought a physical copy off of Amazon, and then sent it to me in the mail…an act of generosity that I’m frankly floored by. And which will be, for the time being, memorialized in another header widget. So, again, thank you, Dark Wraith. I’m quite happy to have the box in hand (and yes, I’ll be opening this one up and doing an unboxing post in the future):











‘Tis thy move, Portalarium.

Oh, and: Because Dark Wraith Dragon is just that kind of guy, he has made a series of high quality, frankly awesome Ultima Dragons logos that everyone is free to use. Worth checking out, I’d say!

 

[Makabb]

Didn't read whole thread....... has the game reached Ultima Online quality levels yet?......

 

[taxalot]

Didn't read whole thread....... has the game reached Ultima Online quality levels yet?......

The game has basically stopped evolving. They have deviated from monthly patches to quaterly patches. Last patches added merely items taken from the Unity store for house decorations and monetization. Episode 2 is being promised to start appearing "in the next update"' since almost last year.

The game is running right now on a strange mix of Catch-22 and sunken cost fallacy. People support the game because if it crashes, then they will have supported it for nothing. On the other hand, developpers are still advertising monetization on a game that's spiraling to its death because the INSTANT they admit trouble, the game abruptly dies and everyone stops pouring money.

And yet, you know it's going to happen. I log in once in a while to forums following what's up with the game. It's very quick to do because as I said above, the answer is : nothing. Everybody is watching and waiting for the inevitable moment of death, and for the drama that will happen when the hardcore deniers will scream at realizing all their spent money is about to vanish into thin air.

I'm tempted to make another article about SOTA when this happens, maybe not on this forum because the main subject could be about how this game has basically targeted weak individuals, still traumatized from the death of their favorite series and almost death of the Ultima community, to scam them out of their money by providing them with only two things : hope and lies. People keep talking about Star Citizen because of its massive, but SOTA is effectively a mini, sped up version of the incoming crash and burn of Star Citizen. The game is shit, but its background story is as fascinating as it is horrifying.

 

[thesheeep]

Didn't read whole thread....... has the game reached Ultima Online quality levels yet?......

~Get your popcorn ready guys, this one's going to deliver some sweet drama.~

 

[FireKing]

The game is shit, but its background story is as fascinating as it is horrifying.

The game is complete shit, with the best part being the drama associated with it and the dev's continued fucking incompetence.

I hope you do write another article, focusing on the predatory way these assclowns targeted weak minded snowflakes, getting them to dump thousands of dollars into a piece of vaporware.

 

[luj1]

No Infinitron, this is NOT a scam! fucking idiot