Game News Lord British Kickstarter coming up - "Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues"

[BigWeather]

FrancoTAU, I'm keeping faith too. At least until Friday when it will likely come crashing down. I'm happy to just have a week of Ultima being discussed heavily.

 

[Stabwound]

Who knows, maybe Fargo's Wasteland 2 resurrection set something off in his head and he wants to do something fans want and not something he wants.

But then again Fargo seemed to be very into the idea of Wasteland 2; it wasn't just a money-making project for him.

Fuck, I said I was going to stop thinking about this. Back to my Ultima 5 playthrough.

 

[BigWeather]

Another hopeful sign (I know, I'm really setting myself up for crushing disappointment) is that most of the interviews about Portalarium and Ultimate RPG were a) before Kickstarter made it obvious just how much love there is for reviving classics and b) during the height of the so-called social gaming revolution -- Zynga has since crashed to earth and many of those that had flocked to that new model (Brian Reynolds, Soren Johnson, etc.) are bailing big-time.

 

[Jaesun]

The difference is that Fargo thankfully has not contracted the horrible Molyneux disease.

 

[Junmarko]

Who knows, maybe Fargo's Wasteland 2 resurrection set something off in his head and he wants to do something fans want and not something he wants.

That's the best possible scenario. Having complete independence is usually where developers come out with the best games.

 

[WalmartJesus]

Garriot probably wants to go on another Outer Space trip and is too cheap to pay for it himself...

 

[General Maxson]

Lord British comments: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/03/is-richard-garriotts-new-game-a-pc-title-will-it-be-revealed-at-sxsw/

Greetings Adventurers!

Fear not! Any “Ultimate RPG” I would be attempting would be first and foremost a PC game (neither console, nor social media). It would be highly story driven as my original trilogy of trilogies. I would hope to also make it such that it can be played multiplayer as well as solo and offline.

– Richard “Lord British” Garriott

He's such a sperg.

Man, fuck multiplayer! Were Ultimas multiplayer? Do Ultima fans (that are going to fund this project, who else) want/need multiplayer? Hell no! I will very cautiously monitor this project, but I really don't have much hope for it. I don't want my hopes crushed. Just imagine, a new open world Ultima game, like Skyrim, but retard proof, and with real crpg elements...

 

[lophiaspis]

His project has been known for years: He wants to remake UO as a F2P for all platforms, with a focus on Facebook and mobile.

Now he needs Kickstarter money, the problem is that KS backers are PC gamers who hate Facebook and F2P and mobile.

The solution is to do like Roberts: bait and switch with sweet nothings about the good old days. That fucker got $8 million from suckers who think they're getting Wing Commander 6 and not a Pay2Win MMO.

I predict at least $4m unless cosmic rays have totally fried his brain.

The game might not even be that terrible.

 

[General Maxson]

His project has been known for years: He wants to remake UO as a F2P for all platforms, with a focus on Facebook and mobile.

Now he needs Kickstarter money, the problem is that KS backers are PC gamers who hate Facebook and F2P and mobile.

The solution is to do like Roberts: bait and switch with sweet nothings about the good old days. That fucker got $8 million from suckers who think they're getting Wing Commander 6 and not a Pay2Win MMO.

I predict at least $4m unless cosmic rays have totally fried his brain.

The game might not even be that terrible.

Is that really true, about that Roberts game? That he fucked his backers so?

 

[Infinitron]

His project has been known for years: He wants to remake UO as a F2P for all platforms, with a focus on Facebook and mobile.

Now he needs Kickstarter money, the problem is that KS backers are PC gamers who hate Facebook and F2P and mobile.

The solution is to do like Roberts: bait and switch with sweet nothings about the good old days. That fucker got $8 million from suckers who think they're getting Wing Commander 6 and not a Pay2Win MMO.

I predict at least $4m unless cosmic rays have totally fried his brain.

The game might not even be that terrible.

Is that really true, about that Roberts game? That he fucked his backers so?

Posts: 1

Blaine Care to explain?

 

[Blaine]

I'd like to get something out of the way first: There is absolutely no sycophancy in my admiration for CR. I care only about his apparent ability to envision a feature-complete game and to properly oversee its development from beginning to end. It's a talent of his which has been commented on by several other veteran developers, and is amply proven (in my opinion) by his track record working for Origin in the 1990s. If I'm CR's #1 fan on the Codex, it's only by way of comparison to other Codexians.

There are three distinct segments of the Star Citizen project: Squadron 42, the Star Citizen persistent universe (MMO), and non-persistent Star Citizen. Squadron 42 will be a full-length single-player campaign with a branching mission structure, just like the old Wing Commander games, except with the option for players to allow Dark Souls-esque "drop in" co-op. The persistent universe of Star Citizen is, indeed, essentially a space trading and combat sandbox MMO, though it won't be what most people think of when they think "MMO" these days. The non-persistent version of Star Citizen will be a copy of sorts of the persistent universe, and will function similarly to Minecraft: You'll be able to play offline if desired, you'll be able to connect to someone else's private server and play with others, you'll be able to create your own private server and invite others to join, and you'll be able to create and use any mods you wish.

The pay-to-win accusations stem from backers being able to pledge and receive ship hulls with lifetime insurance (the only benefit of lifetime insurance is the waiving of a very negligible fee [paid in in-game spacebux]), and also from the fact that there will be a cash shop of sorts allowing players to trade real-life money for game money (within a monthly limit). I am not at all concerned about the pledge ships, because pilot skill and the people (by which I mean real people) with whom you choose to play the game will be orders of magnitude more important than getting a free ship or two, or how much expensive crap someone puts on their ship—although note that you can't get expensive equipment by pledging, only basic hulls.

As far as the currency shop goes, I do have significant concerns about it, and I've expressed and discussed them at length here on the Codex, on Reddit, on 4chan, on NeoFAG, on the Roberts Space Industries forum, and even via email to the RSI staff. Ultimately, all I can conclude is that we'll just have to wait and see, and hope Chris doesn't fuck it up. Specifically, if the existence of the currency shop translates to those who don't use it needing to grind for excessive periods of time to obtain X ship, then my jimmies will be severely rustled. We don't know one way or the other yet, however. Some people seem to believe that any kind of microtransactions at all are automatically pay-to-win, regardless of how innocuous and harmless it turns out to be in practice. Fuck 'em.

Finally, note that pay-to-win concerns affect only the persistent universe version of Star Citizen. They do not in any way affect Squadron 42 or the private server version of Star Citizen (you can mod in a Death Star or give yourself six trillion credits if desired), a fact that certain disingenuous fuckheads love to ignore when embarking on a squealfest to complain about it.

 

[HobGoblin42]

I had so many discussions about that topic with people from the industry. At the end, I always came to this conclusion: microtransactions/ingame purchases are evil because they destroy the genuine innocent character of games. Imagine a chess match where one player decides to buy another Queen for $ 0.99 during the match o_O Unfortunately, with this opinion I am part of a very small minority in the game biz.

For my understanding, classic one time purchases of a game box/copy or subscriptions over time are absolutely sufficient to create a perfect game experience. As soon as I buy a game, I want to leave real payments behind to enjoy the game itself.

But who actually asks for microtransactions to maximize the profit per customer? Investors do, not game designers, not gamer, not even casual gamer.

 

[Sacred_Path]

I'm not sure he's aware that with another sucky game under his belt, his legend would be dead and buried.

That is if he even cares about his reputation and not just about de moneez.

 

[Mortmal]

Theres no need to apologize blaine, those who played wing commanders and origin systems games in the 90's fully understand your excitation toward those new games . Those games were able to make me switch from amiga to pc, so god knows i am excited too at the idea to play a true origin game again . Alas while it may still be possible from chris robert, his last game was freelancer wasnt it ? that was quite good, i cant say the same about richard garriot.

I fear too star citizen will have a strong pay to win element, theres no subscription fee, so how are they paying for the servers ? Undoubtly there will be cosmetic hulls and such too, all their site is awfully commerical a few $ for your citzen customized card, a few dollars for a ts-shirt and the list go on and on, i dont know yet how deep the game will be but i am 100% sure the cash shop will be on with lot of offers , day one .

Micro transaction is one of the worst thing happening to gaming, we all laughed at horse armor dlc , now they are in every games.

 

[Junmarko]

I love how people choose forget that Garriott basically pioneered an entire genre of PC gaming. Ultimas 1-7 were groundbreaking at the times they were released. Not to mention the Underworld spin-offs.
He screws up 2 games in that series afterwards, and that's all people choose to remember. Ridiculous.
I can understand if it were the King of Bullshit, Peter Molyneux - but it's Lord fucking British!

Yes you can bring up Tabula Rasa, the MMO. But that game failed because everyone was focused on the peak of WoW's uprising. Then Ultimate Collector, which at this point serves as evidence that Garriott was tinkering with the prospect of social media gaming - and if he could make it work. I take it he learnt his lesson, judging by his response on Ultima Codex.

 

[Stabwound]

I compare it to music bands that fell from grace or just fell off the map and then come back with an album 20 years later. This happens a lot in the metal world. A good example would be Celtic Frost: they started out amazing (Ultima 1-7), then at one point completely changed to follow trends (Tabula Rasa, facebook social games) and then many years later surprised the hell out of everyone with a comeback album that was arguably just as good as the originals.

Then we have other bands that follow similar paths and then attempt a comeback album that is complete and total dog shit or tries to mimic their classic material but just comes across like sad old out-of-touch men trying to regain former glory.

It would be amazing if LB pulled an amazing comeback, and yes of course he made some of the best games ever during his career, but let's face it: it's been 20 years since his last really good game, Ultima 7. He's likely lost touch completely by now, and he doesn't exactly strike me as someone that plays classic CRPGs anymore.

 

[Moribund]

On Star Citizen - But everything he's done since the first WC has been a huge decline. There's not one thign about him that says he's a good designer, the only reason WC 1 was good was it was simple but any complexity he adds is just further retardation, and the more story they added the harder it got to play WC series. Didn't even bother with privateer.

On this game - Too little, too late. And honestly the amount of race mixing I'm going to tolerate into my single player PC master race gaming is simply zero. None, nothing. No iOS, no f2p no MMO and no multiplayer of any kind. Back then Garriot had to keep things simple, but as soon as he could he pioneered the decline with rtwp, longer and longer cutscenes etc. and I can't even imagine what utter shit he'd make for a modern game.

 

[Infinitron]

Umm there's never actually been a RTwP Ultima. There was real time without pause, but not RTwP.

Nor did they ever have long cutscenes.

But then I'm pretty sure you're trolling by attacking WC2. Alts gonna alt.

 

[Jaesun]

Exult has RTwP.

 

[Moribund]

I'm pretty sure you're a complete fucking idiot, so I don't really care what you think, though the anal attentive correction about lack of pause is noted almost as bad as if I called it isometric. The comment about cutscenes is just idiotic, shows what a newfag you are. WC 2 comment...like I said whatever, you are an idiot.

God I hate fucking idiots like you and jaesun, if you really think I am a troll just shut your fucking mouth instead of engaging me, cunt. I never asked your opinion.

 

[Jaesun]

Poor Drog.

 

[Excidium]

Not to mention the Underworld spin-offs

People need to stop crediting him for that.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm pretty sure you're a complete fucking idiot, so I don't really care what you think, though the anal attentive correction about lack of pause is noted almost as bad as if I called it isometric.

But it's actually an important distinction. Because when Ultima went real-time, it also took full party control away from you. It never attempted to combine both full party control AND real time. That's the primary characteristic of RTwP systems which people tend to complain about.

 

[SophosTheWise]

He posted another tweet half an hour ago.

Curious about what waits beyond? Collect the pieces and be illuminated. http://www.lordbritishpresents.com/ #LordBritishPresents pic.twitter.com/lk8UIXJLER

Lo and behold Codexians. A quest awaits! Inb4 iOS Ultimate Puzzle Game

 

[Luzur]

no way im gonna play an "Ultima" game that sends invites to everyone over my Facebook.