Greetings and Good Morning Friends and Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• SotA at PAX South
• Banks in Release 14
• Changes to Store Credit Conversions
• First Glimpse of Novia Overworld
• SotA in Game Informer Magazine
• Shack News: CES Interview with Starr Long
• GDC Next – Crowd Sharing: Crowd Sourcing + Crowd Funding
• In-game Community Weekend Events
• Upcoming Events

SotA at PAX South

Richard Garriott, Starr Long, and Finn Staber are at PAX South, demonstrating the game and talking to the press. You can find them in the Texas Indie Game Lounge presented by Microsoft (booth 1343) at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Richard and Starr are there today only, but Finn will be demonstrating SotA all weekend, January 23 thru 25. PAX Attendees can sign up for free access to Release 14.

Additionally, Scott “Lum the Mad” Jennings will be on the panel “Confessions of a Troll: Human Nature Online” at 7:30 PM, Saturday, January 24th.

Banks in Release 14

For the first time, backers will start receiving their pledge rewards in-game when they log into Release 14, which launches next week. For all the previous Releases we would freely populate these reward items throughout the game for anyone to find. But those reward items will no longer be freely available starting with R14. Instead, you will be able to find your Add-On items and the rewards included in your pledge tier at banks located in various towns (there are some Add-On and Pledge reward items that have not been built yet so you may notice some of your items not showing up in your bank).

Here are a few interior shots of the new banks:

Changes to Store Credit Conversions

If you wish to convert any of your purchased Add-On items to Store Credit, you will need to do so before logging into Release 14, which launches next week at 10:30 am CST, January 29, 2015.

The instant you log into R14 all of your available Pledge reward items and available Add-On items will be flagged as “claimed” and deposited in your in-game bank. Once the Add-On items are “claimed” they cannot be converted to Store Credit until the next wipe (which is currently unpredictable). After you’ve logged into R14, the “Convert to Credits” button on your account page will be deactivated for all those items available in the game, so if you had any plans to sell back some of your Add-On items, make sure you do it before you log into R14!

We intend to change the claiming process in an upcoming Release so that items are not automatically claimed when logging in, but will require you to actively claim them in your bank before they can be used.

Once R14 launches, if you purchase any new Add-On items, or upgrade your Pledge tier, those new items and upgraded rewards will automatically appear in your in-game bank the next time you log into the game (providing those items are available in the game).

First Glimpse of Novia Overworld

Abe Robertson has has started work on Novia Overworld, which we hope to show in Release 15. Here’s a sample of his work-in-progress:

SotA in Game Informer Magazine

We were pretty excited about Game Informer magazine including a preview of Shroud of the Avatar in the February issue of their print magazine!

Physical magazines are becoming more rare with each passing year, and it always feels kind of special when you can see your game written about in an actual magazine you can hold in your hands. Especially one as prestigious as Game Informer. With over 8 million monthly subscribers, the popularity of the magazine has grown to become the 3rd largest consumer print publication in the United States and the largest digital publication in the world.

For those of you that may not have a subscription to Game Informer, here are a few excerpts from their preview:

With a focus on player housing, crafting, exploring the sandbox world, NPC interactions, and combat, Shroud of the Avatar takes a different approach to the now-standard, theme park MMORPG model….

One major difference in Shroud of the Avatar is that the housing system is not instanced and is part of the world itself…landowners in Shroud of the Avatar have their buildings front and center in player-occupied space. Customization options are impressive…The housing system goes even further, allowing guilds and players to become owners of entire towns.

Instead of pigeonholing players into archetypal classes, you’re free to dive into combat and magic schools, combining Chaos magic with ranged combat or Moon magic with heavy armor. Players can also specialize in crafting – a complex web of gathering, refining, and production that should keep even the most enthusiastic crafter bustling and busy.

In stark contrast to many other MMORPGs today, Shroud of the Avatar features a fully offline single-player mode that’s expected to have over 40 hours of content, including ethical dilemmas and player choices that have meaningful impact on the story. Multiplayer is also different than the norm, where players can opt to play solo, with friends, or with the greater community.

The project is still in Early Access alpha mode, but already we’re seeing a solid core gameplay loop become established, featuring freeform exploration and combat…

If you’re looking for a fresh MMO experience with an open-ended sandbox core, keep an eye on Shroud of the Avatar…

Shack News: CES Interview with Starr LongAt CES 2015, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues Executive Producer Starr Long was at the Plantronics booth discussing crowd development and the latest improvements to the Portalarium MMO RPG in this exclusive interview:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuE9rUudgm4?feature=oembed]

GDC Next – Crowd Sharing: Crowd Sourcing + Crowd Funding

Starr Long’s presentation on crowd sharing at GDC Next 2014 is now available for free viewing on the GDC Vault:

In-game Weekend Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. If you missed out on these player events during the previous Releases, we highly recommend you check some of them out this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar (http://avatarscircle.com/community-events/):

Saturday, January 24
9:00am CST – PaxLair Working Hours – Host Winfield (Valemark)
9:00am CST – New Britannia Theater Troupe Presents: A “Live” Double Feature (on stage of Port Phoenix, Kingsport)
11:00am CST – Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service (PaxLair, Valemark)
1:00pm CST – Beginner’s class – Making money with crafting! (Port Phoenix Fairgrounds, Kingsport, or “/zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre”)
3:00pm CST – Housewarming Party at the Kross house (PaxLair, Valemark)
8:00pm CST – R13 Grand Tour Quest by MGT (Owl’s Head Town Square)

Sunday, January 25
5:30am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (Owl’s Head entrance)
7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting (Valemark)
8:00pm CST – Fishing with Winfield (some lake or pond, “/zone Winfield”)

Upcoming Events2015.01.23 – SotA at PAX South
2015.01.29 – Release 14
2015.02.26 – Starr Long delivers Keynote at ICPHSO’s 2015 Annual Meeting and Training Symposium
2015.02.26 – Release 15
2015.03.13 – SotA at SXSW Interactive
2015.03.26 – Release 16
2015.04.03 – Duke & LotM VIP Design Roundtable w/Lord British and Portalarium Studio Tour (it was such a big hit last year that we are again inviting our guests to attend Portalarium’s Family Easter Celebration in Castleton (Richard’s lakefront property on beautiful Lake Austin)