Shroud of the Avatar - 'We Are Nomadic Now' as the Team Gives Up Its Office Space - MMORPG.com News

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Shroud of the Avatar - 'We Are Nomadic Now' as the Team Gives Up Its Office Space - MMORPG.com News

The Shroud of the Avatar livestream from last week started off with a bang as Starr Long kicked things off with "We are nomadic now" and told the viewers that Portalarium had decided to give up its office space in favor of teleworking. The move away from offices will free up resources and time, according to Long, due to increasing office rental costs and rising utilities as well as commute time / cost for developers.

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danwest58

Nope. Its because they cant afford their office space not because it would make things easier. This game is going to shut down in the next year. They failed on so many leveled and the P2W bullshit they tried is why this game will be shut down soon.

Cryomatrix

is the game completely unoriginal, buggy, and boring?

flizzer

How could this be a good thing?

mercster

aaaaaaahahahahahaha!

Tuor7

Sounds like the Fat Lady is warming up off-stage. Won't be long until she starts to sing, IMO.

Nilden

danwest58 said:

Nope. Its because they cant afford their office space not because it would make things easier. This game is going to shut down in the next year. They failed on so many leveled and the P2W bullshit they tried is why this game will be shut down soon.

While I agree with this since one of the major reasons I never got invested in this game is the P2W bullshit. I also think the only reason this game made it this far is by milking the whale pod keeping this ship afloat. There is no way they could have kept this going with general purchases in the $40 range for the game and a sub fee with a population of less than 100 on steam charts. the only way to keep this going was to squeeze thousands of times more out of the player population they had.

lahnmir

I am sure all that money saved will be used to make SotA episodes 2 and 3 the great games they deserve to be.....

The only thing I am hearing is a death rattle, it would be nice if they would communicate that if it is the case. I am afraid we will be hearing "all is fine"right up to the point that they close up shop all of a sudden.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

danwest58

Nilden said:

danwest58 said:

Nope. Its because they cant afford their office space not because it would make things easier. This game is going to shut down in the next year. They failed on so many leveled and the P2W bullshit they tried is why this game will be shut down soon.

While I agree with this since one of the major reasons I never got invested in this game is the P2W bullshit. I also think the only reason this game made it this far is by milking the whale pod keeping this ship afloat. There is no way they could have kept this going with general purchases in the $40 range for the game and a sub fee with a population of less than 100 on steam charts. the only way to keep this going was to squeeze thousands of times more out of the player population they had.

No they couldnt have kept the game going with a sub fee and a box cause with the low population.  The reason for the low population was the bs attitude of the developers on their forums catering too the P2W players.   Being told to screw off by a developer because I didnt like the combat system feeling like a card game is not the way to communicate.   Too often did the people who drank the kool aid not listen to any constructive feedback.  If this game really focused on the MMORPG aspect and not being a B2P game that allows you to play in an offline mode and 10 other things the game could have been better.   Problem is a lot of people seen the writing on the wall back in 2016 when we tried to play the game.   If the game had around 250K+ players paying a sub it could have been successful.  But you have to have a good game for that not a half baked game that less than 10K people like.   

Nilden

Lobotomist

Game will probably close in 6 months , if not before....

MadFrenchie

Torval said:

lahnmir said:

I am sure all that money saved will be used to make SotA episodes 2 and 3 the great games they deserve to be.....

The only thing I am hearing is a death rattle, it would be nice if they would communicate that if it is the case. I am afraid we will be hearing "all is fine"right up to the point that they close up shop all of a sudden.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Will it still work in single player mode once that happens? That's what I want to know. It's a big reason why I'm not buying into new GaaS games right now. There are some other big ones, but I hate the idea that they get to take away the game I purchased, or rather indefinitely leased from them. If I can't play a game offline or with servers shut down I'm not buying it anymore.

If they're going to do GaaS, do it like EA with Anthem and put the new releases in a sub.  Fraction of the cost, no pretense of ownership, nor entitlement to server support indefinitely from gamers if it's offered only as a sub.

At least that way, consumers have a realistic idea of what they're actually purchasing.

ChildoftheShadows

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

WhiteLantern

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

Thupli

I'm sure that finances matter, but I am surprises that more small game companies deal with the high overhead, especially in LA, san Fran, and Seattle.

Scot

WhiteLantern said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

We are not that bad, when gaming companies try to spin news like this we spell it out which is only fair. But as to the wider issues of SotA I can only hope they stay alive and kicking as there are only two indie MMOs which have actually launched so they are in a rather exclusive club.

ChildoftheShadows

Scot said:

WhiteLantern said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

We are not that bad, when gaming companies try to spin news like this we spell it out which is only fair. But as to the wider issues of SotA I can only hope they stay alive and kicking as there are only two indie MMOs which have actually launched so they are in a rather exclusive club.

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

MadFrenchie

ChildoftheShadows said:

Scot said:

WhiteLantern said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

We are not that bad, when gaming companies try to spin news like this we spell it out which is only fair. But as to the wider issues of SotA I can only hope they stay alive and kicking as there are only two indie MMOs which have actually launched so they are in a rather exclusive club.

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

He framed it like it was some smart business choice and not a move made out of budget pressures.  If it was such a great move, methinks someone at Port might've had the right bulb go off before now.

If you're going to spoon-feed folks obvious bullshit with some sprinkles on it to make it look good, you can't expect to get away without receiving some disgusted looks.

MaximusNova

i smell bull shit any one else?

ChildoftheShadows

MadFrenchie said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Scot said:

WhiteLantern said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

We are not that bad, when gaming companies try to spin news like this we spell it out which is only fair. But as to the wider issues of SotA I can only hope they stay alive and kicking as there are only two indie MMOs which have actually launched so they are in a rather exclusive club.

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

He framed it like it was some smart business choice and not a move made out of budget pressures.  If it was such a great move, methinks someone at Port might've had the right bulb go off before now.

If you're going to spoon-feed folks obvious bullshit with some sprinkles on it to make it look good, you can't expect to get away without receiving some disgusted looks.

That is a smart business choice lol. Truth is they didn’t have to say anything at all and probably would have been better off keeping it quiet. 

ChildoftheShadows

parrotpholk said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Scot said:

WhiteLantern said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

Anyone ever consider not going for blood with every news piece?

Wouldn't really be the mmorpg.com forum then, would it?

We are not that bad, when gaming companies try to spin news like this we spell it out which is only fair. But as to the wider issues of SotA I can only hope they stay alive and kicking as there are only two indie MMOs which have actually launched so they are in a rather exclusive club.

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

People will see through this which hopefully people will not be stupid enough to contribute to the cash shop only to see items be worthless when they go down in flames.

I hate seeing all these companies laying off and shutting down but they do bring it on themselves.  They just did not release a particularly compelling game.  It looks and plays like a bad Kings Quest game. 

That risk is taken when putting cash into any digital service. The people who actually enjoy the game absolutely should not stop paying if they want it to stick around.

i couldn’t get into it, not my style, but that doesn’t mean om Going to shit talk them either. 

Except that hat horse statue, that shit was hilariously. 

Arglebargle

Their office building was doubtless pretty expensive.  On a major junction off Mopac, their rent couldn't have been cheap....

MadFrenchie

ChildoftheShadows said:

MadFrenchie said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

He framed it like it was some smart business choice and not a move made out of budget pressures.  If it was such a great move, methinks someone at Port might've had the right bulb go off before now.

If you're going to spoon-feed folks obvious bullshit with some sprinkles on it to make it look good, you can't expect to get away without receiving some disgusted looks.

That is a smart business choice lol. Truth is they didn’t have to say anything at all and probably would have been better off keeping it quiet. 

It was merely a necessary one.  I don't think anyone can look at that project and think, "Yea, they're making smart business moves."  I think their business would be faring much better if they were.

ChildoftheShadows

MadFrenchie said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

MadFrenchie said:

ChildoftheShadows said:

To be fair he’s not lying even if it’s to cover paychecks. Paychecks do fall under “other things”. 

He framed it like it was some smart business choice and not a move made out of budget pressures.  If it was such a great move, methinks someone at Port might've had the right bulb go off before now.

If you're going to spoon-feed folks obvious bullshit with some sprinkles on it to make it look good, you can't expect to get away without receiving some disgusted looks.

That is a smart business choice lol. Truth is they didn’t have to say anything at all and probably would have been better off keeping it quiet. 

It was merely a necessary one.  I don't think anyone can look at that project and think, "Yea, they're making smart business moves."  I think their business would be faring much better if they were.

No matter how much you try to spin it it’s a good business choice.

Emeraq

I can now see the doors closing on this.... Wait, maybe not, sounds like they don't have any doors!

NomadMorlock

This is a very bad sign. The lack of an office for collaboration will take it's toll relatively quickly. I'm all for telecommuting for a portion of your workweek, depending on your roll in an organization. However, losing the opportunities for day to day quick meetings and such will always have a serious impact on internal communication.

It wouldn't be as concerning if they scaled back their office space but retained a central office for meetings and such once or twice a week for the majority of the staff.

Very bad indeed.