Codex Review RPG Codex Review: Shroud of the Avatar

[Zep Zepo]

If all that's true... Sad.

Glad I was banned from the Kick Starter and saw them for the shysters they are early.

Garriott and company have always been a bunch of butt hurt faggots. It's no surprise, really.

Zep--

 

[Hobo Elf]

Once again the drama is far more entertaining than the game itself (sorry it's at the expense of your misfortune BritishAccentsGetTheGirls). The sad thing is that it doesn't even surprise me anymore when this ends up being the case.

 

[lightbane]

Why do MMORPGs attract so many psychos? This reaches, or surpasses EVE levels of insanity.

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

BritishAccentsGetTheGirls You may want to consider using archive.is for pertinent websites rather than rely on the Wayback Machine.

Thanks for that suggestion; Wayback tends to be a bit funky at times... it's not something I ever really thought about until I made the mistake of backing this, and I'm learning as I go along. A tonne of my evidence is in wildly different forms, and the pile just keeps getting even bigger every week, sigh...

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

If all that's true... Sad.

Glad I was banned from the Kick Starter and saw them for the shysters they are early.

Garriott and company have always been a bunch of butt hurt faggots. It's no surprise, really.

Zep--

I was a supportive backer until 2015, when they were running out of money yet again, and decided to screw over backers if they couldn't upgrade on demand... Wiser people than I spotted it far earlier. The SOTASucks blog had video evidence that they hadn't even planned the kickstarter properly, and were just using it to get out of bankruptcy back in May 2014. This is the "lies" that I supposedly tell; Linking to their own damn videos. But they do an extremely good job of keeping that information off the forums, whilst the greedy cultists attempt to destroy anyone who pricks holes in the cult bubble.

Why were you banned from the Kickstarter, by the way? Wear it like a badge of honour however; eventually they'll ban everyone but Chris Spears, Richard Garriott and Starr Long, who will be selling $30,000 golden castles to each other...

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

Why do MMORPGs attract so many psychos? This reaches, or surpasses EVE levels of insanity.

People with no real lives who seek to control, and find worth in virtual ones, and greed driven Ayn Rand fanatics attracted to the confluence of technology and profiteering; I'm sure similar toxicity as to what I suffered happens in EvE too where it's virtually encouraged. But Shroud was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Ultima. It even opens with the exact same questions that set your character in Ultima IV. However because what they were deliberately building was a F2P MMO with Premium currency (and yes, crypto-currency coming later, if the game survives that long) meant that any one decent got driven out a long, long time ago in the name of the almighty Dollar.

Have fun watching them rage about my comments on the official forums. Assuming they get to read them, it wouldn't surprise me to see all links pulled there so no one can see just how solid my case is. They've been telling themselves destroying "Titler" is just because I was revolted by the betrayal of Shroud for years. Even though some of my artwork is in the Heraldry (the cows) and I worked on Ultima Online myself (EM Gotan on Europa)....

 

[Rune_74]

Can Legit say all that thebritishaccent says is true.

I'm one of the guys who he threatened....more he threatened my kids and said he got the info from Portalarium.

Told them this and they said they didn't give any info out, but also they don't care that he did it outside their forums.

The amount of things this team did to posters who did not "get in line" is really bad....they went to lengths to make shit up or change rules to ban anyone who didn't step in line with the large backers.

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

Can Legit say all that thebritishaccent says is true.

I'm one of the guys who he threatened....more he threatened my kids and said he got the info from Portalarium.

Told them this and they said they didn't give any info out, but also they don't care that he did it outside their forums.

The amount of things this team did to posters who did not "get in line" is really bad....they went to lengths to make shit up or change rules to ban anyone who didn't step in line with the large backers.

When I reported it too, Berek's excuse was "he's just throwing stuff out there." Berek was sacked in the recent wave of layoffs though, and I've heard rumours (which I can't prove, so I won't source them) that he was disgusted by the content reported in to him, but was given orders to stand down on it. We'll see; Hopefully with all the appalling treatment of loyal staff recently, some of them will leak to people with much more reach and impact.

But yes, I not only saw the past suggestions that harm would come to the rune's children, but also when he recently tried the "I'm not saying I'll do this, but this might happen" trick to suggest they could be killed and buried in a box in the desert.

 

[Infinitron]

Reddit thread about this new harassment scandal: https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudofth...r_accuses_portalarium_of_being_an_accomplice/

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I for one, am glad the Codex exists so that we all get the chance to explore these rabbit holes of the internet.

Please, tell us more about how players of this shitty game are ruining people's lives.

 

[Alfgart]

According to Steam, Jaesun hasn't play SotA since May 29th. He did rack up over 1000 hours before that, though.

He probably uses the standalone launcher now, it's faster than patching through Steam.
If you check the official forums, you can see Jaesun upvoting every fanboy and dev comment there is. He is part of that retarded community/cult now.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I hate to be that guy, but this is a generic late 90s/early2000s MMO drama. I don't know what people expected from a late 90s/early2000s MMO developer. Shit like this would happen on regular basis in all of these games until more professional and user-oriented devs like Blizzard swooped along.

 

[janior]

meh

 

[Zerth]

It honest to god is the most toxic, cult-like, criminally corrupt and hypocritical community I've ever been part of. It makes me sick to think childhood heroes have sunk this low. The sociopaths, and the Real Money Traders, at least never aspired to better. But Ultima was supposed to teach a virtuous life. So ... fuck them now.

It's been a short while since I started playing Ultima games and following up Richard Garriott recent news. I find kind of hard to believe this is the same guy that made those classics. And for the community..well.. personality cults always tend to draw in all kind of deranged misfits and encourages hostility to criticism. Regardless, I appreciate you took the time to post and sorry you had to deal with this crap.

It's really sad that this has to be the state of decline of such beautiful and groundbreaking franchise.

Personally, If I backup an Ultima crowdfunding under the promise of classics comeback with Multiplayer features. I would have kinda expected a huge puzzle of a world, following leads and hints as you talk to NPCs or do quests, even go as far as to make virtues more dynamic: a character starting under certain virtue will have access to exclusive relevant knowledge and questlines, this content would also become readily available to anybody else, as long as you get connected as companion into their world. imo A way of translating the search of enlightenment into coop gameplay. Or just anything that will make a key element of Ultima metaverse relevant instead of glorified cameos.

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

BritishAccentsGetTheGirls You may want to consider using archive.is for pertinent websites rather than rely on the Wayback Machine.

I notice you've put up a thread on Reddit now. One thing you need to understand is that Raw and everything else has only ever been a tool for getting vital information out about Shroud to innocent people who might suffer if they make the mistake of getting involved with it. That doesn't mean all the people on the critical side are likeable, or hell could even tie their own shoelaces. Just tools to get the information out there.

So here's the background information on AdamZax, and his desperate flailing attempts to justify his own hatred; he and his brother are thousands of dollars invested into Shroud, and came into criticizing the game very, very late. They're also proud of their own claimed disabilities, calling each other "window lickers" et all. And they're both of the mindset that nothing online is real. That any kind of trolling is fine because it's just words. His brother even once tried to claim that Xbox chat was reality, and that inability to deal with the kind of trash talk there proved you couldn't deal with reality.

rThe idea that not everyone is that disconnected and hollow, and that despite endless hints I'm protecting a third party who the rape threats are being directed towards, has never sunk into either of them. They completely lack empathy, and assume everything's as bollocks as they act online. They just keep on looking for excuses to justify their ever evolving excuses for hatred. You'll notice in the reply to your post, AdamZax says "We will see if anything comes of his police reports, we've certainly been hearing about them for awhile now".... for months though he denied they were even real. Because he didn't want them to be real. He's the person I'm pointing out ran away from his claims in the link above. And instead of apologising like a man now he knows that they are, he doubles down on being a prick and is still trying to throw shade even now. Reddit User Comment Search is your friend though; Plug "AdamZax" as the user and "Titler" into the search query and knock yourselves out.

Where does it come from? At first it was some weird need to lash out at me because I mentioned Portalarium's funding model was based upon exploiting vulnerable and poor people; that the industry knows damn well gambling mechanisms in particular target those least able to cope with it. Because deep down I suspect they both knew they'd fallen prey to it as well. But as reality slowly set in about how the game was actually developing, and they moved over to critical, the pathetic need to justify personal hate shifted.

It really took off when he was trying to claim that I'd said his brother was behind the "craftymethod" identity, because of his own basic illiteracy, and then refused to accept my pointing out the word "thread" has multiple meanings in English and I'd been saying for months I knew who it really belonged too (my stalker again). Even though you could search my own comment history and see that out of 7 times I'd mentioned his brother, 6 times were specifically saying he wasn't my stalker. And then he took to sending me pathetic PMs where he literally had to edit out entire clauses in my own posts, to try and make it look like I was saying the opposite of what I did, and then saying it proved that I didn't know what my own opinion was.

Tell me, when you know someone has had to go to the police about attempts to harm their mental health, do you think a moral, decent person joins in with that? Do you? He does, and then tries to ask why anyone might have a problem with that.

So I'd get PMd images such as this one, where by cutting out the line where I acknowledge items can be traded more than once, he tried to argue to me that my own argument was that no trade ever happens with out RMT. Obviously it does, but the idea of initial bias was beyond him. Or this one where he tried to argue that by selectively quoting the line that says RMT is Essential, it meant I couldn't believe you could get a home by any other method, even though the previous line listed grinding specifically. And then he'd rant on obviously I didn't know what I was saying because I didn't agree with him.

What a cock, eh? Over time, he just got less and less rational or even decent with regards to me. Which is why when the threads went up which were very obviously an attempt to talk about SWATing, he was so happy to engage in them with relish.

Notice that in comments my stalker specifically does the "I'm not saying I'll do this, but I've thought about it" claim and talks directly about sending the SWAT police around to someone. Now someone that unhinged, to be talking like that over Christmas? Someone you know has threatened people's children? Someone that, even if you don't want to admit it, you are vaguely aware "Titler" isn't lying about someone getting into his email...

Does a moral person encourage someone like that? Even if you hate me personally, knowing the threats are being directed at an innocent third party when sent my way...? Do you do it?

You know the answer to that. I know it. Anyone healthily sane knows it. AdamZax doesn't. You certainly don't post an address that no one can have any proof is even yours. 3 days later, an innocent man would be fatally shot and killed because disconnected retards like Zax think it's funny to throw addresses around online as part of internet "beefs". Some of us aspire to higher standards. But here he is trying to turn it around and claiming pointing out he'd done, it is trying to swat him. How am I, if posting your address is innocent, you idiot? Unless there genuinely are sociopaths out there who'd use it maliciously, eh? When he wants to upset me, they don't exist. But when he wants to try and upset me... suddenly they do!

I don't think encouraging sociopaths to escalate against anyone is right. Oh and RES only shows you've edited it, not what the prior edits were. I do actually know what the address he posted was. I didn't link to where he repeats it, which is why I checked RES couldn't recover it, because I'm not a moral cripple.

But before he tries to lie some more; the thread where I got banned from Raw is here. See if you can find where the rule stated, editing an initial post is listed. Especially when I did it to correct the error about the date, and then said "because I've spent all morning archiving my old account I was too tired to spot I'd got the date wrong". And when they did run the telethon, they ran it again 4 days later because they'd not got enough money. So the turn around was actually even faster than I'd incorrectly stated, for the next one.

The actual reality? The moderator is a self confessed sufferer of autism, and as you can see from my links over at ShroudUnlimited, I'd PMd him multiple times about sockpuppets I had cast iron proof was my stalker, again and again and again, and he just got extremely frustrated with me because again, it's easier to double down on being a cock than admit you were wrong or in his case, can't read human behaviour. There's an example of that in my SU thread, "Travelling Light", where I screenshot the actual PM I sent of abuse.

It makes it all the more hilarious that because I dropped a deliberate hint I would think it stupid to give the moderator role to AdamZax... they gave the moderator role to AdamZax! He now has to clean that crap up every day, and I chuckle knowing he has too every day too. Still can't bring himself to show any humanity though, even as he gets it in the neck too!

Shroud of the Avatar's community, folks. Wonderful people, eh? On BOTH sides.

 

[BritishAccentsGetTheGirls]

"That any kind of trolling is fine because it's just words. His brother even once tried to claim that Xbox chat was reality, and that inability to deal with the kind of trash talk there proved you couldn't deal with reality."

Whilst I was typing this, I see he went and proved it a second time by ranting about League of Legends this time.

The idea that maybe, just maybe some of us have actual real lives, and real women in them seems to be completely beyond them. I tried once to lead them down the path of "Go ahead and tell a woman in your life that you're going to let that evil Titler (as you see it) have their contact details, and see how it goes", but I just got more flannel about "xbox lol lol u mad".

So here's a relevant song by Jello Biafra instead.

 

[Morkar Left]

In SOTA's world, there are good and bad elves. The bad elves are the historical faction but when the evil cult called the Obsidian was defeated, most of it decided to forsake the evil ways and become good guys. Now, that doesn't prevent racist humans from wanting to kill them all.

Early on in the game, you discover a town that has been brutally destroyed by elves, or so it seems at first because you quickly start suspecting that this might be what conspiracy theorists like to call a false flag. You encounter an elf camp (the good elf kind), whose members are being attacked killed by racist vigilantes led by a "Phineas Drumplemouth".

Phineas Drumplemouth comes from a rich family. Phineas has political ambitions and promote "alternative facts". Phineas is an elitist who says it's important that the dumb masses follow him. Phineas is a bit racist. Phineas Drumplemouth. Subtle.

But that's not all.

The elves ask you to infiltrate Phineas' camp and to find evidence to report to the army that they are bad guys. Well, Mr Elf, those guys have been attacking and killing you have they not ? But Elf Leader wants something in writing. Whatever.. Now, along the way, you are attacked by Phineas's goons because they "are bored" and "want to kill". I'm not making this shit up. Once you meet him, Phineas asks you to kill 10 elves.

You can, of course, report back to Elf Leader who is quite troubled at hearing that. Even though that's what's been happening for days/weeks already. Whatever, you forge 10 elves scalps and try to get more information. Eventually, Phineas trusts you enough to give you a pamphlet that says that all elves should die, which is the proof the elf leader requires to make the quest go further.

Yes, after having supposedly kill 10 elves, you are about to pierce the greatest secret ; Phineas hates elves and wants to kill them. Which he has been established doing from the start. At no point this quest ever makes any fucking sense. You know Phineas kills elves. Elves know Phineas kill elves. Elves then know you have been asked to kill 10 elvesn and deliver fake scalps. But the pamphlet finally convinces them thatPhineas is evil ?

What the hell ?

And yes. The entire game is written like that. Everything is a blur.Everything "sort of" makes sense unless you try to understand it, or think about details. Nothing actually works at all and you are surrounded with amateurish nonsense at all times.

Doesn't sound too bad or incongruent. Wasn't the whole point to get some actual proof this Phineas guy can't deny? Therefore you need something written. He's a person with influence (he belongs to the rulership afterall). But I don't know if the panphlet is signed or handwritten by himself ofc.

 

[taxalot]

Generic MMO dramas do not involve the game company being an accomplice to harrasment by providing intel on the victims and/or covering the guy who did using company held info.

This is the real issue here, if true.

 

[Cadmus]

Can't wait for the DU to go testifying about rape threads on his forum, lololol.

 

[taxalot]

http://shroudunlimited.boards.net/board/1/shroud-avatar

 

[V_K]

Well, it's not like Garriot didn't have the markings of cult leader right from the beginning - inserting his alter ego in the game as the world ruler and head religious figure, using the game to promote a self-designed morality system, vehemently suing everyone making remotely similar games... I guess current developments are just par for the course.

 

[Sacred82]

using the game to promote a self-designed morality system, vehemently suing everyone making remotely similar games

at least he was drawing on commonly accepted "virtues". The purple haired snowflakes of today would like to usher in a dystopia of their own design using brainwashed vidya.

 

[funkadelik]

Can't kill, loot, and dismember other players.

Shit/10

Go fuck yourself, Lord British.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

I want to enlarge and frame the pic of Roberts and Garriot and hang them in my bathroom.

 

[Sacred82]

-shitpostan-

how are honesty, compassion, valour et.al. not commonly accepted virtues?