Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

Eggs is eggs

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
256
I read the comments section of Golem Dragon's article on the Codex and saw multiple people mention that Richard Garriott is not involved with development or management anymore and is just a figurehead of the game at this point. Devs and staff reportedly ignore any suggestions he makes. Makes sense that they removed his CEO title and he is just "Creative Director/Founder." It wouldn't surprise me if RG's parting of ways with Portalarium was one of the cost cutting measures the company took when they laid off half of the staff recently.
 
Last edited:

grimace

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
1,959
This is now a Chris Spears game featuring Starr Long's character Darkstarr.

Lord British may return for Episode 2 to role play in his castle.
 

Bumvelcrow

Somewhat interesting
Patron
Dumbfuck
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
1,867,060
Location
Over the hills and far away
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Strap Yourselves In
I've said it before and I'll say it again, but what the fuck happened to Garriott? Was the original turned into slurry and fed to Gargoyles and what we have is a badly programmed simulacrum? Is this the same guy who wrote the narrative to my childhood? It's just very sad - I can't even bring myself to be angry any more.
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
Patron
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
9,613
Location
Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Garriott went behind the times. That is all. He woke up to a world where everybody had already expanded on his ideas and simply couldn't outdo them in anyway.
 

Eggs is eggs

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
256
It reminds me of what happened to George Lucas. When they were young, hungry, talented and working with an amazing group of people, they created groundbreaking pieces of art. Then they got older, bought into their own hype, got surrounded by yes men and fans, stopped working with great talent and lost their magic.

Garriott always seems to neglect to mention all the talented people he worked with at Origin for the classic Ultimas. Not coincidentally, around the time EA bought Origin and the company expanded most of the original staff left and they stopped making good games.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
8,818
Location
Italy
It reminds me of what happened to George Lucas. When they were young, hungry, talented and working with an amazing group of people, they created groundbreaking pieces of art. Then they got older, bought into their own hype, got surrounded by yes men and fans, stopped working with great talent and lost their magic.
nope, not even close. if you heard what truly happened behind the curtains you knew every day was lucas "hey guys, what if [the most retarded crap you've ever heard]" and people around him "yes, sure, clever boy, but we'll do that later". once you got full control for lucas you got jar jar and midichlorian.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,860
It is clear to me that I, Richard Garriott, am an essential ingredient of at least the Ultimate ULTIMA, if not more broadly the Ultimate RPG. Perhaps one day, now that the people who pushed me out of EA more than a decade ago are long since gone, EA will recognize that together, we could rebuild that franchise in a way that they have failed to do in the intervening years. Richard Garriott is an essential ingredient in the Ultimate ULTIMA.


....(snip)


Lord British

a.k.a. Dr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux

He’s got a doctorate? Ultimate ULTIMA...
 

Eggs is eggs

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
256
According to wikipedia: Garriott received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Queen Mary University London in 2011.

It is generally frowned upon in the academic community for people with honorary doctorates to address themselves as Dr.
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
Patron
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
9,613
Location
Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Capture d’écran_2018-11-08_18-13-46.png
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
So.

Is it technically cheaper to play the game than it is to post on their forums.

Oh wow.

They lure you in with false promise of fun that pisses you off only to charge for the privilege of complaining about it.
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
Patron
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
9,613
Location
Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
https://massivelyop.com/2018/11/28/...-taken-over-european-publishing-from-travian/

Shroud of the Avatar studio Portalarium confirms it’s taken over European publishing from Travian

sota-shroud01-1-696x229.jpg


Back in October, we briefly covered the news that Travian Games, Shroud of the Avatar’sEuropean publisher since 2017, appeared to no longer be featuring Shroud of the Avatar on its website. Since then, multiple German games sites have raised the issue again, noting that Travian didn’t promote the game at Gamescom this year either and that Travian’s community managers for SOTA seem to have gone offline last month.

So what exactly is going on? We reached out to Portalarium for a statement, and we now have one direct from Starr Long, who confirmed that the partnership has ended and that Portalarium has taken back over publishing in the region.

“I can confirm that we are no longer working directly with Travian,” he told us. “While we greatly appreciate the partnership and work done for Shroud of the Avatar by Travian, we decided it was in the best interest of the product and community to directly sell and support Shroud of the Avatar in the areas which Travian had been managing going forward.”

SOTA suffered a round of layoffs this summer and Richard Garriott shed his CEO title while staying attached to the game as creative director, though Garriott has maintained that the game is performing well and patches have continued rolling out on a monthly basis.

MMO players will also recall that rival MMO Crowfall also partnered with Travian Games to publish the game in Europe, Brazil, the Middle East, and North Africa, though ArtCraft has said it aims to have a single universe for all players.

Uh oh.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

grimace

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
1,959
Curious about the Russian publisher Black Sun.

The Russian website:
https://sota-game.com/shop


Partnership with Black Sun Game Publishing
May 10, 2017

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?p=72007

Press Release AUSTIN, Texas, May 10, 2017:

Portalarium®, an Austin-based game developer, today announced the completion of a deal with Black Sun Game Publishing in Moscow, to publish and operate Shroud of the Avatar™: Forsaken Virtues in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Baltic States. Shroud of the Avatar is the spiritual successor to the hugely successful Ultima series of fantasy role-playing games created by legendary game designer Richard Garriott. The game is one of the largest crowd funded games ever, with more than $11.3 million raised since early 2013.

Shroud combines a single-player narrative story with a sandbox massively multiplayer online (MMO) experience. The production team includes Executive Producer Starr Long, who along with Garriott helped produce the groundbreaking Ultima Online MMO and New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman, who wrote the popular Dragonlance fantasy novels.

“We are extremely pleased to announce this deal with Black Sun Game Publishing,” said Portalarium CEO Richard Garriott. “We have a large and growing fan base in Russia and the surrounding countries. The Black Sun team is experienced and enthusiastic. They know their regional gaming community well and are ideally suited to bring Shroud of the Avatar to a very eager fan base.”

“It is a great honor for us to work with Richard Garriott, a legend of the games industry, and his team,” exclaimed Black Sun CEO Alex Yarovit. “There are many fans of his games, especially the Ultima series in Russia, the CIS, and the Baltic States. Shroud of the Avatar takes a lot of Richard’s hallmark RPG design principals and brings them up to date in a modern MMO and single player experience. We are looking forward to working further with Lord British and providing his newest creation to all Russian-speaking players. New Britannia beckons!”

Shroud of the Avatar’s crowdfunded campaign began in 2013. It remains in early access but it continues to generate monthly content updates to its backers. The game has now reached 41 straight months of continuous play without a single server crash. Currently with more than $11.3 million in crowd funding, Shroud is the second highest fully crowd funded game ever.

About Portalarium

Portalarium headquarters is in Austin, Texas. The company was co-founded by legendary game developer Richard Garriott, who created Ultima, one of the longest running and most successful fantasy role playing game series ever. The company is currently developing its next game, the crowd funded Shroud of the Avatar. In addition to backers with financial contributions, the SotA community may also participate with art, sound, music and even design participation in the main game. This a game created for the community and with the community.

About Black Sun Game Publishing

blacksun.png


Black Sun Game Publishing (BSGP) is a Russian video game publisher that was established in 2014. The company develops and publishes only high-quality and interesting projects in Russia, the CIS countries, and China. BSGP’s top priority is to work with games that are unique to the industry and that can be called works of art on PCs and mobile platforms. BSGP also plans to tap into the console market.

Company website: http://bs-gp.com/

Russian game website: http://sota-game.com/

Press release can also be found on Gamasutra.
 

Junmarko

† Cristo è Re †
Patron
Joined
Jun 20, 2011
Messages
3,480
Location
Schläfertempel
If he values his mental health, he should stay clear of everything SOTA. I hear he has bigger issues to deal with.
Could help him relieve stress through the choas, an obscure distraction to pick apart.

Actually nah. Wouldn't wish it on a blind man.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom