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Culture is important, I think this game has that.
fistorm
Member UncommonPosts: 868
I've played quite a few MMORPG games now, started back on EQOA for ps2, then FFXI, WoW, runescape, Lotro, Age of Conan, Elder Scrolls. What most the type of games I play all have in them was culture.
You could tell the EQOA captured the culture of ancient days. FFXI captured the culture of JP culture with a bit of ancient day culture on it. WoW captured to me a culture of Future mezmerize, Lotro captured the culture of ancient days mixed with many defined cultures from old west to tree hugger. Age of conan, had the primitave ancient day culture to it. ESO, not quite sure, but it has a mix of future mez and renaissance to it.
Most of all I enjoyed the cultures of Ancient days, Renaissance, and Primal the most. I think when you add these cultures together, you get a winning recipe for all RPG games, present and the future. When I see Shroud of Avatar I see a mix of these cutlures that I am really gravitated to. I think thats why SKYRIM, EQOA, Age of Conan and ESO and Lotro were my most favorite to date. I think SKYRIM and EQOA nailed the culture I wanted most up to date.
The reason SKYRIM and EQOA captured my culture so well was the fact that they had done the cultures I wanted so very well and had a great emphesis to give that culture to the player when they played that game. Both had Ancient dark chasms of exploratin in which you never knew what to expect inside the dungeons and what ancient treasures would be inside them.
ANCIENT CULTURE
When you would aproach a encampment or an area in a zone of EQOA or Skyrim, you would have great orchestra music like the soundtrack to Conan the Barbarian or Celtic style voices which gave you the real feel of ancient to them. Made the whole feeling of entering an ancient dungeon feel like it. Add some misty air or eerie feeling and mystery to the area and you could feel like your about to solve an ancient mystery or puzzle. I would spend hours in EQOA in a new camp trying to be an archeologist of sort to figure out what these clues were in the encampment that would lead to the spawning of a powerful mob in the game. Everything had mystery behind the raids and quests (Quests were based in ancient mystery and you had to figure out how to put that quest together, no one would tell you) which is probably the greatest feature I like about Shroud of the Avatar.
Quests were not everywhere, but deep seeded in mystery. The quests in EQOA days were a journey and adventure and they could last up to three days long, epics sometimes lasted weeks long and guilds would have to help you do them and figure them out. This kind of questing is what I love about Shroud of avatar.
When you come up to an area after exploring where theres mobs, you can almost tell the cult feelings that they give off, and if they have a purpose to that culture thats really rooted and can bring you into that ancient feeling, then the game has succeded to me.
RENAISSANCE CULTURE
This was something i liked so much in Lotro and ESO. But those two games did not kinda of go far enough with it (lotro went decent amount). The feeling of having the combat in game as a renaissance feeling to it. the bow, the sword, the shield, the flail and all other manners of midevil times. Its very exciting to feel like that gladiator without the ring around you, to feel like that conan the barbarian, or someone from midevil times, going through ancient lands and differant cultures, killing differant cults that have deep storylines behind them. I loved being a Renaissance fighter but not have a game thats completly Renaissance and missing Ancient Culture in it.
Where most games failed was that they threw cult worshipers around a chapel or something but failed to give the experience of giving purpose behind those cults and factions that gives you as a player the opportunity to discover and uncover the mysteries of them yourself, without being told. Takes me back to EQOA again where a mushroom guy would say jibberish and you had to translate it in real life to figure out the meaning, or a guy in blackwater that would appear and dissapear and was part of a dragon cult that you had to talk to in order to do the dragon quest. Most of it was you figuring out what the mysteries were behind the ancient cults you came accross and that was one thing that was lost over time in mmorpg games, something shroud promises to bring back.
PRIMAL CULTURE
Days of savage, a culture of complete lawlessness, something I would have to define as undead, forsaken, apperations, minotaurs, all forms of mythology creatures and primitive races on the planet in days of savage. This is a culture thats a must if you are going to have any type of RPG in my opinion. One great example of this would be the Gnolls in EQOA or the savage races of skyrim. Where games fall short on this aspect is they do not put order to them, with a command behind them, I think Lotro did this well with the Orcs. Lotro got it wrong that there was not many differant ruling god type classes of enemies, just Sauron.
During primal culture you would have Lots of gods and mythologies behind them shrouded in many relics and artifacts of the gods which would lead to the Ancient cultures.
Summary:
When you take Ancient cultures (days of gods) and marry them to Primal Cultures that are controled by cults of Ancient cultures, and use Reniassance warefare, you get the culture I most enjoy in a game. I think Shroud of Avatar captures some of this and I await to see more of the game to make a conclusion on the rest.
Conclusion:
After watching Lord British, I think he gets it, I think he comes from these types of days and he is strongly rooted in this type of culture. Thats why I think this game will succeed even if it falls a bit short on some of it, as long as he stays true to the cultures I love most and strives to shroud my eyes in an avatar that can see all these things from a mysterious and enjoyable feeling of being there in that reality of those three, allowing me to use my brains to solve mysterious puzzle across the gameworld like he says, I think this game will definately be me 100%
NOTE TO LORD BRITISH HIMSELF:
To see more on my dreams of what a future game of this kind of culture would look like I take you back years to my past when I wanted EQOA Next, and it turned out to be SKYRIM instead. things change over time and games you thought would make that killer breakthrough sequel can fall short and you may find yourself finding people like Lord british to fullfill those dreams you once held. So far my timeline for the game I want has gone from EQOA > SKYRIM > (hopefully Shroud of Avatar) which looks very promising.
So let me pass this onto Lord British to please continue my dream game, you already have half of it done.
If you dont know what EQOA was: 
Comments
Speak for yourself, John.
If the game doesn't have a decent background and lore, decent writing, etc, I am much less likely to spend any money on it. Pretty sure there's a range of opinions from yes to no, not a black and white decision.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Yep developers need to focus on the PAYERS and not on the opinions of non-paying players.
In a single player RPG, yes, the story may play a part. In an MMORPG, NO. You need to have a well crafted game, great UI, great combat mechanics, etc.
Look at UO. Was there any story or lore? Just the first intro video about the shards etc. The world was created, the crafting, combat, skill based system etc was in place for the players to use and develop their own stories and lore.
The community makes the Lore, not the other way around. Get a clue.