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

[Tytus]

Lord British feeling the effects of the real estate bubble: http://ultimacodex.com/2013/03/britannia-manor-ii-is-still-for-sale/

Some of you may recall that Richard Garriott put Britannia Manor II up for sale back in 2011. Well…it’s still for sale, and the price has dropped by $600,000 to a modest and respectable $3.5 million.

Now we know, why he couldn't finance the game by himself.... He was going to sell the house to pay for the Shroud of Avatar but bad, greedy men didn't want to buy it. Garriot is still a champion of good gaming. Right, guys? Right? Right?

 

[Stabwound]

He may have some incline left in him, but the decline/insanity has slowly eaten away at his mind. All that's left now is the husk of a man, hobbling around in a zombie-like state with his iPad, playing Angry Birds and exclaiming to himself, "Ho, Lord British and his flock of Angry Birds have bested thee once again, swine!"

 

[Nithrakis]

This video interview between Markee Dragon and Richard explains things a bit more with regards to solo vs. multiplayer and other aspects of the game.

 

[DwarvenFood]

They pre-authorize the funds at the TIME of the pledge.

You mean "at the end of the campaign." It certainly does not do anything at the moment when you click the pledge button.

It *seems* to go though a check through the Amazon site? Granted I don't know whit how that works.

Maybe I should try to pledge $100,000 to Gariott's KS... and it would go through? (I personally do not have $100,000 on hand at the moment). Man that would be a LOT of hot guys and beer....

MAximum pledge is $10,000.

 

[Catawampus]

I'm still trying to comprehend the idiocy of anyone who would give a multimillionaire $10,000 for the privilege of taking a guided tour of his $3.5M castle.

 

[evdk]

I'm still trying to comprehend the idiocy of anyone who would give a multimillionaire $10,000 for the privilege of taking a guided tour of his $3.5M castle.

Especially as you can probably get the tour for free, if you pretend to be interested in purchasing the mansion.

 

[Nithrakis]

Both Torment and PE Kickstarters have a "meet the team" type reward at the $10K pledge level. This is just Garriott's version of that.

 

[evdk]

Both Torment and PE Kickstarters have a "meet the team" type reward at the $10K pledge level. This is just Garriott's version of that.

Well, it might make the work a bit easier for a Lithuanian professional...

 

[Kitako]

I'm not going to waste 55min of my wasted life watching a Lord British interview. Any TLDV version?

 

[Delterius]

I'm not going to waste 55min of my wasted life watching a Lord British interview. Any TLDV version?

About half way through he starts dissing Ultima IX and speaking about how his greatest inspiration for SotAvatar is going to be the second trilogy + Ultima 7. Also, apparently he starting to re-think the social aspects, something about minimizing them. But I didn't get it all since I didn't watch it from the beginning so you probably shouldn't do that. Tell us about your experience later.

 

[Jaesun]

A bit too late to rethink those social aspects.

 

[Delterius]

Oh no, now I'm re-watching it and the whole thing is turning into the hardcore ultima everyone wanted. Just check out the whole interview. Every single minute of it.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Jaesun]

Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott
Tracy Hickman, New York Times Best-selling author of Dragonlance and Deathgate series, joins the Shroud of the... http://fb.me/FuA5MPsS

EDIT:
Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott
Exciting news! @trhickman joins the Shroud of the Avatar team as Lead Story Designer! #LBSotA

 

[Infinitron]

Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott
Tracy Hickman, New York Times Best-selling author of Dragonlance and Deathgate series, joins the Shroud of the... http://fb.me/FuA5MPsS

Hah, shades of R.A. Salvatore and Kingdoms of Amalur. Azrael the cat will have a few things to say about that, I bet.

 

[Excidium]

Kender confirmed in Shrouds of the Avatar?

 

[Infinitron]

He looks tired.

 

[Melan]

Richard Garriott ‏@RichardGarriott
Tracy Hickman, New York Times Best-selling author of Dragonlance and Deathgate series, joins the Shroud of the... http://fb.me/FuA5MPsS

Horrible hack writer joins dubious Kickstarter project. This will end well.

 

[Jaesun]

To bad the writer is crippled by it being a MMO.

 

[Charles-cgr]

Gameplay hasn't changed that much in 30 years

 

[Delterius]

Gameplay hasn't changed that much in 30 years

That's an echo of Garriot. Part of the project's marketing paints a picture of how MMOs have stagnated and, of course, how Lord British is coming to revolutionize everything at the same time.

 

[Charles-cgr]

Yeah but 30 years? We're not talking MMOs anymore but 1983!

 

[Excidium]

Dude, LB is going to reinvent video games, everything you knew so far is a lie.

 

[Delterius]

Yes, that's weird in a infinite number of ways. So weird and contradictory, in fact, that I'd chalk that out to a oversight from LB. After all, Garriot's all big about how he himself innovated through the original Ultima series.

Either that or he's stuck in the Twilight Zone. In a world where Ultima never went online. MMOs are both the future (whatever flaws of UOnline aside, connecting Larpers across the Globe has been LBs mission since ever) and the past (because of how World of Warcraft defined the MMO experience the past years, denying the sandbox UOnline was and whatever Shroud of the Avatar intends to be).

 

[Stabwound]

I actually loved the Dragonlance novels when I was a kid, but they're still just D&D novels.

But this guy, wow, I don't even know what to say. RPGs haven't change since Akalabeth apparently and it's time to change that! The future is here!! Microtransactions and online LARPing and seeing your Facebook friend "Killa Marty" run by with Juggalo makeup on his Avatar.

This is bizarrely confusing.