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UPDATED: Free Trial to Possibly Become a Permanent Fixture Starting Dec 20th - Shroud of the Avatar
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Free Trial to Possibly Become a Permanent Fixture Starting December 20th - Shroud of the Avatar - MMORPG.com
UPDATE: The original article was based on early patch notes, not the final notes that will go up early next week. We'll keep you posted when those patch notes are available.
An early version of Release 49 for Shroud of the Avatar have been published with a brief mention of the free trial experience possibly becoming a permanent fixture for the game starting on December 20th. If it makes the final patch, free trial players will play on the Courage Path as developers consider starting off with a sword is simpler than starting with a bow. Free Trial players will be able to advance each skill to level 50.
Post edited by SBFord on
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Only one real way to find out.
I am going to give it a go and see.
Good deal. Enjoy
Dont take my word for it see from dev how many they got here in this link
https://www.reddit.com/r/SotA_Official/comments/6iek5l/im_richard_garriott_aka_lord_british_creator_of/
"We have been averaging around 500 concurrency with upticks in the evenings and weekends and also in the new release weeks. We expect to stay in that range until we actually start to promote the game and we near launch."
$12m Add On Sales/Begathons,
$600k Seed Invest
$7m of Series A investing in 2012 (At the time, stated to be for polishing Ultimate Collector (which closed in April 2013) and preparing for "Ultimate RPG" (which became Shroud))
An unknown amount of Richard Garriott's personal fortune.
And now its such a disaster it's had to go full Free To Play before they even dared claim the game was officially launched.
It is launched though; Servers have been persistent, and Real Money Trading going on since July 2016.
And just to let you know a few vital details about the community;
Many of them are Real Money Traders and will outright lie about the state of housing because they want to sell you the Deed you require to place a home. There is NO way to get one from an NPC in game, they are first purchased in the Add On Store only (or won via a lottery) and traded between players after that. And gold selling is also legal, so prices track current RMT values against the dollar, not the game.
And because they're so financially and emotionally invested in the game, some of them are literally unhinged to the point of committing actual criminal actions. In the last few weeks alone, I have had the pleasure of one individual writing insane screeds to himself obsessing about me on his imgur account, whilst sending me PMs claiming he is going to destroy me, and that he was behind the hacking of my email; posting bizarre rants declaring one of his own sockpuppets on the forums was actually me, whilst another vile individual who is well known as an RMT too joins in the personal abuse.
To do... what? Who the hell knows, but it's all been reported to my local Police, and I'm currently investigating how to contact the Austin, Texas PD to see if I can compel Portalarium to release the details to the account doing it, so I can serve legal papers with regards to what is now over a year of harassment.
Because Portalarium won't remove the individual from the community even when he's openly bragging about manipulating the moderation to try and harass critics of the game.
So it's a crap game with a crap community. And thus so, so not worth it even for free.
But try it for yourself and make up your own mind. Then see which reviews prove to be the more trustworthy.
Long story short. Don't waste your time on this one .
This game is not for everyone, for sure. It's not a true MMO as people expect and that comes from the unique approach as a MMO/RPG hybrid. Folks will rant about there add-on store or telethons, but the reality is anything in those stores can be made/attained in game and none of them are needed to play.
Try not to listen to folks whining about it, who no longer play (why they waste their time doing this is beyond me, life is too short to waste!). Come try it out and nmake up your own minds instead of being led by the noise of naysayers.Once past the starter zones, you can be whatever you want.
This is a game I take a 5 episode long term view on and I will critique it, when Officially released in a proper manner. More to the point, I play everyday, everyday I enjoy myself. I expect to be playing a long time.
The reality is that everything in the add-on store can only be obtained in the add-on store or from a RMT reseller. Even the COTO merchants in game that sell similar in appearance items, they aren't the same things. Anything purchased with COTO can be looted.
Sometimes, a series of items in the store will have a beaten up weathered looking drab boring piece put into the crafting system ... but don't expect it to be in game while those items are hot in the store. Craftable knockoff versions of anything in the store, if it's even put in game, comes way after it's entry to the add-on store.
Also, point of fact. Attained in game does not equal earned in game. Nothing is earned in game. Either you buy it from the add-on store or obtain it from a reseller (for gold or paypal cash). Nothing can be earned in game - you can't earn property deeds, you can't even win one unless you pump millions of gold into the lottery - it's worse that loot crates.
Still play? If so why? If not why wasting your time with this?
You can earn a lot by saving gold and buying it in game from lots of folks. No real $$ needed, every other game I've played always required in game gold to buy some type of housing. And having housing doesn't stop you from playing the story quest lines and seeing how you fair. That's the point of the game. Everything else is sandbox. How does not having a lot restrict you from doing that.
Final statement from me on this, been debated to death. Enjoy whatever game you play.
So to repeat the truth again, something this vile on the inside community struggles to grasp;
Being able to trade for something in game is not the same as it being "attained" in game. Go to the Shroud Marketplace and see how many sales are asking for Dollars, and won't take in game gold. Because although selling the Gold is legal, they don't want to get stuck with another asset in a dying game that they may not be able to sell.
Think you're going to get one of the $30,000 Golden Castles for in game gold...? No chance. Or even the $11,000 standard castle? The house boats at $600? Player Owned Town which started at $750 and went up to thousands again?
And they cannot be "Made". Most things can't. These ghastly parasites know this, but they need you to come into game so they have a chance of selling you the things you're locked out from, things they picked up for real money. So, so many things they'll try and make a profit from you on...
Oh, and just so you know again, the "Pretend to be saintly, claim everything can be gained in game, then rip people off" is a telltale tactic of the RMT who joined in with the harassment on Reddit recently. And had spent months lying about being involved in trading, until we spotted which was his real profile on the forums. This person even went as far as logging in to MassivelyOP under his real name, then tried to report me for quoting a post with it in for "doxxing" him, and has since used this as the basis of attempting to smear me anywhere he can. Doxxing him would be linking to where he scammed donations for a product he never made, and took charitable giving for thousands of dollars... I'm not exagerating when I say this is the worst, most morally reprehensible community I've ever had the misfortune to accidentally be part of.
And all because Lord British forgot what lessons his earlier games taught; and instead of giving blood to beggars as an act of Sacrifice, now we're expected to buy his actual blood for $14,000 because rapacious slumlords need your money to keep their Galts Gulch nightmare alive.
That is a flat out lie.
- Salvaging a store item gives you a reusable pattern. Crafted items do not.
- Store gear is not lootable in PvP. Crafted items are.
- Store items don't lose max durability. Crafted items do.
Shall I go on?
Portalarium groupies are getting pretty desperate. Lying to prospective players to entice them to play with last 50 people still willing to log into this embarrassment of an MMO.
~~ postlarval ~~
So you earned the gold in game, then bought the deed from a player. What's the big deal? Isn't that earning it in game? You didn't spend any money.
Check out Morgoth's vendor, he's always got deeds on there for in game gold. It's going to take you a little while to EARN the gold IN GAME, but you can do it.
When you don't want the truth, you will make up your own truth.
You're wrong on everything.
The only way to get everything with gold is by playing the single player mode. End of story. Don't even try to argue. Items from the store are paid to win, simple as that. The devs are ready to sell their mom or to exploit a death... to sell crappy stuff. The average of players? Close to 200. MAX. Why?
Nobody is hype about this game. Why? Nobody is streaming this game. Why? They need the store to make their game, without the store there is ZERO finance, why?
Nobody wants to invest in this company who used smoke and mirrors to make a Kickstarter project who fooled most of the backers by changing the terms of the game, more than once.
As I said, I don't think you know the full story of this... bbeeeeppppp.
No, this is not the same as earning something in game. Earning something in game would be a consequence of choice. There are no NPCs in game that sell deeds. There are some NPC merchants that sell lottery tickets - it's like a loot box lottery though, millions of gold put in and no win. The system games players to use the economy, an economy that's controlled and follows trends established solely by RMT traders. Portalarium may not sell gold coins in their store directly, but they do allow their Official Partners (Trusted Traders) to buy and sell gold coins for cash. There is no earning, there is only shopping and only at the prices dictated by RMT resellers and Official Portalarium Partners.