In Which I Tire of Waiting
A few months ago, I posted a short update regarding my yes-dammit-it-still-hasn’t-arrived-or-even-apparently-shipped Shroud of the Avatar box, with all of its attendant feelies:
Ostensibly, according to the last Update of the Avatar from 2018, some people on the list of Phase 2 recipients have begun to receive their boxes. Mid-January was specified as when the major portion of Phase 2 shipments would be sent out. Mid-January was specified those of us who are still awaiting our physical backer rewards are bidden to watch our email accounts for a message from Stamps.com confirming that something is being shipped to us.
To date, I’ve not received any such shipping notification, and obviously I haven’t received a boxed copy of Shroud of the Avatar. Part of me wonders whether I should just order one via Amazon; would it arrive before the copy I should have already received for backing Shroud of the Avatar on Kickstarter back in 2013?
All of the above remains true; Phase 2 shipments have gone out to many backers, many of whom I’ve heard from…but I have yet to receive even a notification as to the status of mine. And I continue to contemplate ordering a box from Amazon the next time I have to travel to the US for work, just to see if I get that one first. In fact, if I remember to do so, I will probably try and arrange for that; Amazon is ostensibly handling fulfillment of any such orders, and I’m a Prime member. It wouldn’t be difficult to have a box shipped to whichever hotel I end up staying at.
But, I digress.
My patience has worn thin, and so I’ve added a new widget to the site header, which is counting up the hours since I shelled out the additional international shipping fee, the one that was supposedly the barrier to my Shroud of the Avatar box shipping during Phase 1. I realize that Phase 2 didn’t begin until some months after the deadline for the international shipping fee, but that’s the date I’ve chosen.
And the counter will also serve as a canary; if you see it disappear, you’ll know that the package I’ve been awaiting — now, unfortunately, with steadily diminishing enthusiasm — since 2013 has finally arrived.
Considering they squandered all of the money developing a sad excuse for a game you’ll be lucky if you get an email back from them. There is no physical studio anymore and the few devs left work from home while they find new jobs.
You know it’s funny. I was banned from the game, yet I was among the first to get their box (I haven’t even opened the UPS box.) My conspiracy sensor is going wild! They sent out boxes to those who were spurned, as if to say “I told you so, here’s your fucking box.” People like you, they feel they can shit on.
Want my box? Knowing it came from a dedicated fan who spent thousands, instead of some second-hand anonymous box from Amazon! I think mine might even have the signed cloth map! (Can’t be sure, with all the lies.)
Thanks for the offer. I won’t take you up on it for now, but thanks even so.
mercster @ gmail . com …let me know.
Check your contacts page shortly after I post this WTFDragon. If the staff claims I’ve been given are genuine, which I’ll forward soon, they’ll explain where your goods are, and why very few of you will ever see them completed.
Or you could just make a purchase of more than $80 during one of Chris’s livestreams and he would have sent it out right away!
The mind boggles.
For that price, I could have 4 boxes sent to whatever hotel I next end up staying at when I have occasion to be stateside.
You have my email. 😉
So I do. Thanks.
What sickens me most, and why I frankly hate all those involved in SotA development now, is that they used their fans. Shamelessly. They realized that they had a fan community, and wrung the blood right out of us, then they kicked us aside.
Yes, that was a hard pill to swallow, that your childhood heroes were so mercenary and exemplified the very sins they once warned us against.
But even harder was the fact they turned many of the community against each other, by building the game from the ground up as a real money trading opportunity, and tying not just in game development to real world greed but ensuring it lured in the scammers and liars who made every attempt to even discuss your disappointment with the product into an attack on their real world income and thus something to be destroyed at all costs.
This is like a roadmap for the direction Underworld Ascendant is taking. I backed UA in the hundreds of dollars and I doubt I’ll ever get so much as a burned DVD with a hand written label. So sorry you’re sinking on the same ship WTF.
I considered backing UA at the time, actually purchased the Jabbering Bertha in Shroud because I was attracted to the idea of having the two linked; but Shroud was so obviously raising questions right from the start that I paused any future crowd-funding… and I’ve never touched one since. Perhaps it’s only software I should be wary of, but I’ve read so many tales of scams or just poor products coming out of the physical goods side too that it’s just not worth encouraging an industry which counts removing all the consumer protections and hard won lessons of business as it’s greatest asset.
UWA is like totally the opposite direction SotA has been taking actually. Ever since release (and before) SotA had been about dodging issues, pretending everything is right, doing nothing to fix or enhance the game and banning people who criticize Portalarium.
Ever since release UWA had been about owin up to the numerous issues, publically admitting it even in the ligt of lot of hate, not banning people about it (d’uh), and working their asses off fixing the game. The game is already a very different beast at this point that is was at release.
In other words : you’re much more likely to get your UWA box than SotA backers who didn’t.
Hello WfF Dragon! I haven’t talked to you in a few years – I should have chimed in earlier so my apologies for not writing sooner.
I received my box at the very end of August. The packing slip was dated August 14th and it was sent to me from France. I did NOT have to pay any additional freight charges beyond what was in the original Kickstarter campaign. I don’t know why I was lucky and you have been so cursed other than a bad roll of the dice. (WfF Dragon and I live in the same city.)
I am a little more optimistic about Underworld Ascendant. I think they are trying to fix the game first before shipping anything. They at least are also doing System Shock so they can’t afford to tick people off too much. But maybe I’m being too optimistic…
You know, for as long as we’ve lived in such proximity, we’ve never raised a pint together.
We should fix that.
I might be mistaken but it seems to be that all people that were screwed on the shipping fees were people who updated their pledge or got their pledged updated AFTER the KS campain, like basically as if doing that somehow reset somewhere the fact you had already paid for shipping.
Totally screwed up either way
This remains my suspicion as to what happened.
There was a bug on the site that caused this. It was reported to them many, many times. Envy (iirc) made a post about it on the forums well before launch warning them that if it wasn’t addressed it could cause major issues.
“like basically as if doing that somehow reset somewhere the fact you had already paid for shipping.”
Yes, that happened to me. If I remember correctly it was going up to the Royal Founder Ancestor level that did it; when I purchased the upgrade it was $15 short and I was still classed as the pledge below Ancestor, so I had to contact Support and ask what was happening. They claimed that it hadn’t counted shipping, although we were supposed to get it from the Kickstarter. Looking back with hindsight I think they just used it as an excuse to double dip on that, just as they have with the multiple releases of the game’s novel.
Ah, here’s the thread from 2016. You’ll notice Envy even asked for an update a few months after. https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/shipping-address.51328/
That’s more to do with shipping addresses, but it would seem reasonable to assume that a similar bug impacted the shipping fees.
Apologies, I misunderstood the particulars of your situation.
I am completely understanding of the situation they find themselves in. However, situations like yours are inexcusable. The bare minimum for any company should be to provide customer service and support in a timely fashion to it’s existing customer base. If a company is incapable of doing that as a priority, even if that inability is due to financial reasons, that company does not deserve to be in operation. Existing customer support should never take a back seat to a release schedule of new content.
I don’t doubt you’ll soon receive your physical goods, if for no other reason than to remove the counter for public relations purposes. Unfortunately for the other couple hundred waiting, they’ll have to tune in to Chris’s stream and present themselves as ‘anxious’ (hids words, not mine) in order for their orders to be fulfilled, which apparently trumps emailing their support.
Sometimes, operating a company means making tough decisions. It might mean informing staff that, unfortunately, there’s all-hands-on deck mandatory overtime this Saturday to ship out unfilfilled orders. Hell, Starr once insisted he spent an entire weekend away from his family manually crafting in game gear for a giveaway. Why is it so difficult now to put in those hours to meet obligations to customers?
If you cannot operate the game with proper customer support levels, you shouldn’t be operating a game. It doesn’t matter how good the game is or how much people like it.
See, now…this:
…is just galling. It almost sounds like Chris wants annoyed backers to supplicate him, thereafter to bestow upon them the benevolence of his making the effort to get to the post office.
That’s probably not how it actually is (I hope!), but it’s the image that comes to mind when described as it is here. And even if that isn’t how it is, it’s still galling that getting on Chris’ case during a livestream is now the most reliable way of having one’s support case heard at Portalarium.
Uh-oh, WTF is getting passive aggressive… 😉
This is Portalarium probably, “Hey, you know, I have an idea. You know that guy who runs the biggest and most popular Ultima fan site on the internet for the past 10 years or so? Yeah him! Lets just neglect sending him the boxed copy of the game he purchased for months on end. Yeah, it’s no big deal. Not like he’ll complain about it and make us look bad.”
Unbelievable… the plot just keeps getting thicker on this one. Where’s my popcorn?
Is it all that passive-aggressive? Emails to Portalarium go unanswered, and while I could probably email Richard directly, I don’t know if he has a lot of control – or any control – over the sending out of boxes.
This is pretty visible, and its purpose is well-enough explained. It’s the best means I have of calling Portalarium out.
So hopefully it’s not too passive. Or aggressive. It comes mainly from a place of frustration and impatience, and a hope that putting up a visible sign spurs some action.
Sadly, I think Richard has almost zero input or ability to get anything done as it relates to Shroud anymore. He’s no longer the CEO and the only thing he seems to do now as “Creative Director” is to “creatively” come up with ways to convince players to spend more money during their weekly begathons. That’s even if he is even on them. I am sorry that you have had so much trouble with this WtF Dragon, it’s a real shame. I actually received my box fairly soon after they were shipped. It sits in my closet unopened as a reminder of what a debacle Shroud was and still is.
That’s my read of his involvement, as well.
“and while I could probably email Richard directly, I don’t know if he has a lot of control – or any control – over the sending out of boxes. ”
I tried to contact him via his personal webpage back in mid 2017 when the harassment was ramping up, and he didn’t respond there either. If what I’ve sent you is a genuine developer leak, he’s not been engaged for quite some time.
The last time I saw him having any interest in the game was when he was using it to try and help launch a virtual currency, the NeverDie tokens, presumably to help his holdings of said coin during the Initial Coin Offering. My memory is that Portalarium insisted no backer money was used to purchase their share of the ICO, but rather Garriot’s own personal funds. But NeverDie’ve dropped the Portalarium partnership too, so I expect that fell through as well as there aren’t enough individual backers prepared to spend money outside of Shroud.
Oh, he and I have corresponded back and forth on a few occasions; I’ve interviewed him twice, invited him to do a teleconference with my Cub Scouts, and there have been a few other email threads between us. I have his direct address and I’m not afraid to use it.
But with respect to this matter, I just have a doubt that he has much say or sway over what boxes get shipped out, and when.
I’d say it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and not like it’s undeserved.
It’s a hilariously bad look for them. Should be fun to see how long it takes for them to get you your game.