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Shroud of the Avatar - Invading Europe - MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Shroud of the Avatar - Invading Europe - MMORPG.com
Shroud of the Avatar developer Portalarium signed a publishing deal with European publisher Travian Games. Red Thomas stops by the offices in Austin, TX to find out what impact the deal has on the game.
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"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It's been persistent since July 2016 and they can't keep 500 people playing so that should tell yah.
500? If it has 200 I’ll be amazed.
~~ postlarval ~~
Port finally came out and said they were having major issues with Windows and Unity compatibility. Anyone following Unity knows there have been issues there since Win10 was released, and finally the devs are acknowledging it. Unity and how Port uses client machines to control AI and scene host, this game will always be loading screen with mad hitching and hacking.
I don’t think the problem lies with Unity.
~~ postlarval ~~
The devs do anything and everything they can to stifle and block constructive criticism. Just go on the official forums and pitch an idea or criticize a part of the game that you think needs work. See how long it takes for the community to attack you and drive you away or you get your thread deleted because you made someone sad.
The writer of this article is a backer of the game and friend of the development team as well. So take most of what he says with a grain of salt and instead do some research on your own to form an opinion.
The developers and white knights will tell you that once the game releases it will get thousands of new players regardless of the fact that the game went persistent just over a year ago and that is when most gamers like to get in on a game since there are no more wipes. Granted the game will get more traffic at story complete (not sure if that will coincide with full release) but those player numbers will quickly fall off once they realize the game lacks substance and a reason to keep playing.
Yeah me too, I believe you're prob closer to the real number. Chris said during that seedinvest they had a more than 500 concurrently. I'm sure he is counting all the alt accounts that log in to get their oracle gold every day too. The game is a ghost town everytime I've tried to log in to play it. Mostly just log in to show other people I know how bad it sucks so they won't waste their money on it. It's boring as hell too. Nothing to do but grind grind grind the same few boring mobs over and over. Over 4 years now and combat sucks, exploration sucks, tiny scenes suck, crafting sucks, gathering sucks, animations suck, loot sucks, load times suck, UI sucks, fishing sucks, agriculture sucks, gosh could go on and on forever really on what sucks in this game. Meanwhile Red Thomas gives us another glorious puff piece. Dude must be heavily invested in this game or something. Hell, even the free trials they have been having all this year isn't bringing in people. That should tell them something.
Yeah, the problem as always been their crappy coding and how the don't know what they're doing. Copying and pasting cheap Unity assets is what they do best.
Christ almighty, after finally starting to see a bit of reason with regards to the missing black hole in their finances regarding the physical rewards they haven't even designed yet, and the international postage people were compelled to already add and that Portalarium have already spent, THIS is what you return to coverage with?
I've quoted the above just for the most utterly ridiculous part; because it's based entirely upon your subjective opinion of something you think you haven't seen, regarding something few people have any reason to discuss on the main forums. But really the whole article is just a staggering train wreck of horrendous self-delusion; There's no polite way to express this; I honest to god found my jaw dropping further and further as it wore on at the unbelievable and almost literal idiocy of it.
Of course Portalarium are now beginning to ramp up the desperate media spinning to try and sell the game after a "launch" they dare not admit they've long since actually had; The only justifiable perspective on this ridiculous pile of cult like nonsense is that they've given you the nudge to push the game again; I'd sooner believe it was basic payola than the idea that of your own free will, and unbribed you decided to write this ridiculous nonsense.
But let's just deal with the simple, objective facts... ones I found it literally unbelievable any sane person could dare try to flannel other people over, let alone themselves.
1.) The game was originally a Kickstarter to AVOID having publishers. Remember that? DO YOU? It was even in the god damn pitch:
Now apparently desperately scrabbling for Publishers is a sign of success; really? REALLY? And not for instance the reality is they need the short term cash injections of publishing just to stagger towards the finish line, and then palm off the advertising budget they can't afford to someone else?
2.) What possible universe do you exist in where the Internet is only available in America? How can you possibly claim no one in Europe has heard of the game? Do you honestly have no idea what an Ugly American perspective it is to state that? Do you really have no idea how popular Ultima was historically in Europe?
I tell you straight as one of the former EMs for the Europa Shard in Ultima Online, the players not only knew all about Shroud, but at the time I tried to positively interest them myself during the informal Meet and Greets. Richard Garriot himself came to an event in game to act as a cross over; I was in his honour guard in the Throne Room. Do you think only US players attended? But even then, even in the magical Robes, it was a hard sell for Shroud to my playerbase.
The reason there's an appearance of a US based, Libertarian leaning, Real Money Traders and Ren Faire retirees audience now is because they're the only people left. THE PRICING AND DEVELOPMENT HAS DRIVEN EVERYONE ELSE AWAY. Including all the Europeans who were there from the Kickstarter.
I'm one of them too. I don't recall ever posting when I was still a supporter about how European I was, because it's irrelevant. But if you couldn't tell... The sheer delusion at just assuming what you want to believe is staggering.
3.) Their finances are NOT in a good shape.
Honestly, how dare you try and claim otherwise?
I had this debate with you about their funding when the SeedInvest came around; They only ran that as they were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And even that only just squeaked in over the minimum they asked for. They thought they'd get 2m. They also claimed that 5m in profit was their minimal prediction even though their own Risks section with independent analysis (which they then deleted, although the coverage of it is still visible online) stated they weren't expected to even make a profit.
At the time, you at least had the decency to admit you were uncomfortable with pushing private individuals into being actual Investors.
And then the now monthly Begathons afterwards have ALWAYS been below the minimum they stated they expected ($110k) as standard revenue ever since... because it's the same tiny cadre of people desperately ruining themselves to keep the project afloat. One person on the forums actually admitted to selling their car and phone to help the SeedInvest avoid failing.
Again, how dare you ignore this just to spin a product NOW, when you must know it is in trouble and having a catastrophic effect in people?
And worse, for the first time in the entire project, Shroud has started posting NEGATIVE totals on the campaign statistics. We've tried to work out where, and the best guess is Credit Card charge backs which means someone is pulling 4 figure sums from Portalarium; SeedInvest cancellations? Using the game a money laundering service and banks cancelling the transfers? We're not sure. But you can see the figures for yourself. Total Funding has started going backwards on particular days for some reason.
I could go on, but the sheer wilful ignorance is genuinely upsetting me. I thought you were smarter than this. I thought the whole point of Ultima 7 was a warning AGAINST cult like thinking? Portalarium and posters such as yourself are spitting on decades of fond memories and all you can do is claim "Oh well maybe Europeans haven't heard about us yet, that's why player numbers are so bad"...? If you have the slightest respect for anything Ultima or RG/Origin Systems ever meant, you'd be doing what ever you can to actually listen to the people begging you to stop going down this self destructive course. We KNOW what we think; We HATE what you've done to the game and the lies you tell yourselves about it.
Stop it. Just... just stop it.