Shroud of the Avatar

File:ShroudOfTheAvatarLogo.png

Shroud of the Avatar (SotA) is a multiplayer online role-playing game being developed by Portalarium to be released on October 2014. It is created by Richard "Lord British" Garriott and Starr 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:

"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. 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.

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 Founders) to pledge that give bonus rewards from cloth maps to special housing in the game (see: Founder Pledge Rewards).

After the successful Kickstarter campaign, several options were given to pledge via the Shroud of the Avatar website to backers (also known as Benefactors) who couldn't pledge before the end of the campaign, with similar yet different rewards (see: Benefactor Pledge Rewards).

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.

Features

Selective Multiplayer Online

Main article: Selective Multiplayer Online

Shroud of the Avatar uses Selective Multiplayer Online system which allows one environment for all players and fills the players' instance favoring their friends over strangers (FPO).

System Requirements

Shroud of the Avatar can be launched on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

References

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