Editing Shroud of the Avatar (section)

=Development History=
'''Shroud of the Avatar''' ''(SotA)'' was developed by [[Portalarium]]. It is created by Richard "[[Lord British]]" Garriott and Starr "[[Darkstarr]]" Long. It was first announced as a project by Richard Garriott on November 9, 2011. The title of the game as well as the crowd funding was announced on March 8, 2013. 

== Ultimate RPG ==
Richard Garriott announced the start of the Ultimate RPG and his vision of ''"Ultimate" Role Playing Game'' on his Facebook page on November 9, 2011:<ref name="Facebook_RG" />

::''"Today, with my new company [[Portalarium]], and with the talents and skills of many who made Ultima an Ultimate RPG, we set forth to forge a "New Britannia," a new world from scratch, internally self-consistent, deep and refined. We have lofty goals as an Ultimate RPG. An Ultimate RPG does not fear going where others fear or have failed."''


::''"[H]ere is what I feel is safe to say: Lord British's Ultimate Role Playing Game, which may be called "Akalabeth" or may be called "New Britannia" or may be called "a name I cannot yet say as it describes the setting I am considering and think I should keep secret at least until I know if it's likely true," will be an Ultimate RPG. You will have customized Avatar homesteads and real roles to play in a deep, beautifully realized highly interactive virtual world. It will have virtues and the hero's journey reflected back to the player. It will have the best of synchronous and asynchronous features in use. Fiction will support your arrival from earth into this new world. I even hope to make maps, coins and other trinkets available to players of the game.(...)"''


::''"[C]ome play with us in the brave new world. Help us grow it. Teach us about what you have learned in your years of playing. Invite in your new friends who are new to gaming. They will be a new spirit and provide new ideas about what to do. They will likely not tolerate bad instructions, bad interface or huge upfront fees, which is a good thing! We will teach and learn from them as well."''


Ultimate RPG fan page was launched on Facebook on December 6, 2011, inviting fans to sign up for beta.<ref name="Facebook_URPG" /> On that page, a teaser message is posted on February 28, 2013:

::''Exciting stuff coming soon! Stay tuned...''


A week long countdown was set up on ''lordbritishpresents.com'' on the first day of March 2013, revealing information and puzzle map pieces every other day until finally the Kickstarter campaign was announced on March 8, 2013, revealing the name of the game as ''Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues''.<ref name="Kickstarter" />

== Crowd Funding ==
Kickstarter campaign for ''Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues'' was launched on March 8, 2013 and ended on April 8, 2013, during which time $1,919,275 was raised within 30 days from 22,322 backers. Several tiers are set up for early backers (also known as [[Founder]]s) to pledge that give bonus rewards from cloth maps to special housing in the game (see: [[Founder Pledge Rewards]]).

After the successful Kickstarter campaign, similar pledge options were given to backers (also known as [[Benefactor]]s) via the Shroud of the Avatar website who couldn't pledge before the end of the campaign (see: [[Benefactor Pledge Rewards]]).

== Releases ==
The first pre-alpha release (Release 1 or simply R1) of ''Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues'' was made available on December 12, 2013 at 10:30 CT and lasted until December 16, 2013. This first release focused on initial systems like installing the game, patching, registration and character creation as well as some of the in-game systems like house claiming, house decoration and NPC interactions. Only the ''Single Player Online'' mode was available on R1.

The second pre-alpha release, R2, was made available on January 23, 2014 and while it was supposed to end on January 25, 2014, it was extended until January 27, 2014. This second release was also ''Single Player Online''-only. R2 introduced the initial [[Crafting]] system.

'''Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues''' is the first of a five Episode series.
== The Team ==
{{main|Developers}}
Notable members of the team include Richard "[[Lord British]]" Garriott, Starr "[[DarkStarr]]" Long, and [[Tracy Hickman]].

On March 13, 2013, [[Tracy Hickman]], New York Times Best-selling author of Dragonlance series, announced that he joined the Shroud of the Avatar team (as Lead Story Designer) on his YouTube channel.<ref name="Youtube_Tracy_Hickman" />

On July 5, 2013, Starr "[[DarkStarr]]" Long announced that he joined the Shroud of the Avatar team as the Executive Producer. He stated ''"We were on a frontier with [[Ultima Online]] and we are again with Shroud of the Avatar."'' <ref name="polygonStarrLong" />