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

[Hobo Elf]

And the game still isn't funded. I wonder what British thinks of that.

 

[Infinitron]

I guess the Dragonlance fandom isn't what it used to be.

 

[Jaesun]

Based on the now (somewhat steady) 20K a day, it will be funded by Wednesday. However pledges could start dropping into the 10K or even 5K range during that time though.

 

[Kz3r0]

And the game still isn't funded. I wonder what British thinks of that.

He should be flattered, this is another Thorvalla, he probably will manage to raise a million and half only thanks to his name alone, considering how many other great names struggled he is getting it easy.
Obsidian and InXile confirmed how the true superstars of Kickstarter tho.

 

[IDtenT]

Obsidian and InXile confirmed how the true superstars of Kickstarter tho.

You missed Chris Roberts.

 

[mindx2]

And the game still isn't funded. I wonder what British thinks of that.

This. The missed opportunity here is just mind boggling. If only he would have gone either full UO2 or full single-player Ultima IV-Ultima VII plus his "Lord British" brand name he could have rivaled W2, P:E or T:ToN in terms of pledges/ money. Instead we get a half-hearted MMO with a single-player component slapped on, contradictory information, limited written info on the actual KS page, rumors/ leaks of investor millions (antithesis of KS), etc. With the ego he has shown in all those videos I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall to listen to the whining and/ or excuses as to why this "thing" has NOT been funded yet.

 

[Kz3r0]

Obsidian and InXile confirmed how the true superstars of Kickstarter tho.

You missed Chris Roberts.

Most of his money comes from private investors and pledges on his own website, Kickstarter was a sideshow here, actually star Citizen should be seen as the first AAA+ project funded through crowd-funding in my opinion.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0/posts/429763

Shroud of the Avatar - Selective-Multi-Player Means Multiple Ways to Play!

 

[Charles-cgr]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0/posts/429763

Shroud of the Avatar - Selective-Multi-Player Means Multiple Ways to Play!

Mutually crippling ways to play, sadly. Unless he's got something figured out that he isn't telling.

 

[FrancoTAU]

The main problem with the kickstarter is that it sounds like a recipe for failure by trying to be a jack of all trades. If they really think they could pull it off than they needed to be further along development to show in game how it works. I'm an Ultima fanboy and at the point where I think it will stink but would keep an open mind if people were loving it upon release.

 

[Saduj]

With the ego he has shown in all those videos I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall to listen to the whining and/ or excuses as to why this "thing" has NOT been funded yet.

He's made comments about how when he was making Ultima IV or UO, people didn't really understand what he was trying to do. And he made that comment about "people who think they only want to play single player" when talking about this game. Undoubtedly, he believes that the average rube can't comprehend what he's trying to do and not because he's doing a shit job of explaining it but because it is so revolutionary. And how can they know that this is what they want if they can't comprehend it? Once the game comes out and they can see it, they'll understand that it is what they have wanted all along and all they needed was good 'ole LB to bring it to them.....

And when that doesn't happen, he'll tell himself something else.

 

[Infinitron]

I recently learned that Portalarium has a grand total of...12 employees. With 12 employees and a barely-successful Kickstarter campaign they plan to build this behemoth of a game that will also have better graphics than what we see now AND a good story. Yeah.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

I recently learned that Portalarium has a grand total of...12 employees. With 12 employees and a barely-successful Kickstarter campaign they plan to build this behemoth of a game that will also have better graphics than what we see now AND a good story. Yeah.

Yeah, thats actually pretty normal for such a team. Especially when they are still in the kickstarter phase and presumably going to hire more people after.

P:E had less people working on the project during the kickstarter IIRC.

Ofc, not defending Garriot here.

 

[Infinitron]

I recently learned that Portalarium has a grand total of...12 employees. With 12 employees and a barely-successful Kickstarter campaign they plan to build this behemoth of a game that will also have better graphics than what we see now AND a good story. Yeah.

Yeah, thats actually pretty normal for such a team. Especially when they are still in the kickstarter phase and presumably going to hire more people after.

P:E had less people working on the project during the kickstarter IIRC.

Ofc, not defending Garriot here.

Thing is, they aren't really in the "Kickstarter phase" in the same way that PE was. The game was already in development (although I assume its design has been radically changed in the past several months)

 

[4too]

" ' A Rose By Any Other Name … ' "

This and the Sim City debacle …

'Social' for the recent Sim City had the moral equivalency of DRM.

LB say single player, social player, MMO play-ah … with time t, this thing swing in five dimensions?

I must have missed this until now, social in this 'Shroud Of The Avatar' genus species haze, fog of war / misdirection, … social equals DRM?

Out of view, of the 4th wall of this drama, maybe stage left, lurks the 5th Dimension, DRM!?!




4too

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Stabwound]

I recently learned that Portalarium has a grand total of...12 employees. With 12 employees and a barely-successful Kickstarter campaign they plan to build this behemoth of a game that will also have better graphics than what we see now AND a good story. Yeah.

12 employees that seemingly only have experience with social games and the majority of which seem to be programmers and the like. The few I've seen seem to be buddies of Garriott's from his NCSoft days. The best thing is that the guy who posted the "developer diary" has design credits on only one other game: Ultimate Collector. Yeah, this is going to go well.

I'm sure they're getting way less money from this than they expected. I mentioned it before, but I remember on one of the streams Garriott said he expected to hit the goal on Monday. Boo hoo.

And fuck, Tracy Hickman. I'm not sure they could have come up with a less exciting fantasy author to bring aboard. I have a soft spot for the early Dragonlance novels he co-wrote, but holy shit. The guy comes across like he has the personality of a sack of potatos and I'm not sure he's even played a CRPG before, let alone designed one. He sounds like he has no clue what he's talking about in the video. And his inclusion did virtually nothing in terms of pledges to the campaign.

 

[4too]

End-lessness Justifies The Means




IF LB has reverse engineered MMO's and creates a group think that it IS single player, he has DRM, data mining, and micro transactions, out of casual sight.

A continuum of micro transactions, an infinite number of transactions … like being in debt to the company store, never get to the pay off!

Even faith based physics implies no free 2nd law of thermodynamics, got to keep feeding in the quarters … perpetual motion, no, perpetual payments, for the win!

An infinite number of transactions, … , and an impossible to reach end point, ...

Pardon my bare foot philosophy, but ain't this one of ZENO'S Paradoxes?

Economics, psychology, physics, philosophy, in the right minds this could be a multi discipline Nobel Prize!



4too

 

[Stabwound]

Well to be fair, Garriott said there is no endgame and didn't intend for there to be one. You finish the storyline and you're done. I guess that doesn't mean much when they already have plans 5+ years into the future for releasing DLC expansions and microtransactions. Let me guess, increasingly more deadly evil lords keep rising up after the previous one is killed and only you (and millions of other Avatars) can defeat it. And if you want to play a non-standard class, that will be $10 please.

 

[Metro]

So it's basically WoW without the raids: endless daily quests.

Re: 12 employees. Jesus, Runic had like 30-40 and it took a titanic effort for them to birth Torchlight 2 even with already having the engine and a lot of the assets/design from its predecessor. Oh yeah, this will be terrible.

 

[Kirtai]

So it's basically WoW without the raids: endless daily quests.

*shiver*

 

[evdk]

Well to be fair, Garriott said there is no endgame and didn't intend for there to be one. You finish the storyline and you're done. I guess that doesn't mean much when they already have plans 5+ years into the future for releasing DLC expansions and microtransactions. Let me guess, increasingly more deadly evil lords keep rising up after the previous one is killed and only you (and millions of other Avatars) can defeat it. And if you want to play a non-standard class, that will be $10 please.

For maximum funny points they should use the classic U4 chargen and then just charge you an amount depending on the class the gypsy chose for you.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

The dude is rich enough to fund his own space travel vacation.

Why does he need a kickstarter?

 

[Zetor]

So it's basically WoW without the raids: endless daily quests.

*shiver*

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a noob grinding on a daily quest -- forever."

 

[FrancoTAU]

I don't really begrudge this project because of the DRM aspects. I mean, it is a MMO so you have to connect to their servers. I begrudge it because it sounds like a shitty larping simulator with a token campaign for you to mess around before you get back to decorating your digital house.