Shroud of the Avatar Is Now Fully Free-to-Play
You probably already knew as much from having read Golem Dragon’s weekly Shroud of the Avatar news round-up, but in case you missed it, here is the official press release from Portalarium regarding the game’s transition to a full free-to-play model:
AUSTIN, Texas, October 30, 2018 — Shroud of the Avatar™: Forsaken Virtues, the record-setting crowdfunded game from famed game designer Richard Garriott, is now available for anyone to play…no purchase necessary! The makers of Shroud of the Avatar, Portalarium™, expanded the free to play features last week and also turned on an overhauled new user experience, a highly anticipated update to the game which should be a welcome addition to all new players ready to venture in Garriott’s fantasy world of New Britannia.
“We are thrilled to open up Shroud to a larger audience of gamers,” said Creative Director Garriott. “We have removed almost all gameplay restrictions from our free players. Now those players can trade freely with other players, own land and play through the entire story! This means that you no longer need to make a purchase to have the Shroud of the Avatar experience!”
The new user experience is an important addition to Shroud. Executive Producer Starr Long explained, “We’ve separated our tutorials from the story-telling spaces in the starting areas. We now have a focused tutorial area in the Isle of Storms where we walk players through the game basics. These progress in a gated fashion so the players must finish learning a skill and utilizing it before they can travel to the next part of the tutorial. We’ve been working on this for several months and are excited to roll this out at the same time we are launching free to play.”
Also choosing one’s story path is now independent of a player’s starting decks. Players start with three decks: Blades, Ranged, and Magic. Once all the tutorials are completed, players will then journey through the lunar rift to one of the three starting areas. Those areas are now polished to be more focused and tighter in their direction. Plus with no more tutorial elements in those areas, those starting scenes are now entirely focused on story.
Shroud of the Avatar launched in March and since that time the Portalarium team launched a new website and has added a multitude of quality of life updates and major features to the game world including:
• Player made dungeons
• Seasonal enemies (Atavists of Purity, Aether Creatures tied to a comet, Pumpkin Head)
• Global banks (they were local before)
• Global chat
• Ability to bypass town sieges & control points
• Elimination of experience point decay on death
• Automatic open multiplayer in towns/overworld/starting areas to increase connectivity with players
• Looking for Group system
• Performance enhancements (frame rate and load times)
• Doubled XP gains across the board (crafting and adventuring)
• And much moreShroud of the Avatar is the largest crowdfunded video game to ship digital and physical products. The game raised more than $12.3 million when it launched in March. Portalarium has now shipped the boxed version of the game, including the beloved cloth maps and manual illustrated by Denis Loubet, to more than 8,000 backers. More backers are scheduled to receive their boxes in the coming weeks. A version of the box can be purchased via Amazon or directly from the Shroud of the Avatar store(this version is signed by Lord British).
As Richard Garriott noted in the reply to my inquiries (you can read that in Golem’s article), this isn’t an entirely new thing; Shroud has had a very limited free-to-play model for about six months now. The major shift here is the removal of restrictions on free players.
What’s interesting about this shift is that it would appear (for now) to be exclusive to Episode 1 of Shroud of the Avatar, which is what actually bears the title Forsaken Virtues. Episode 2, still in development, is still a paid product; early access thereto is currently available for $19 USD.
Why does the media keep falling for this shameless Humpty Dumpty logic from Portalarium?
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
I mean, they’ve already they announced it was fully free to play back in December 2017, nearly a year ago now.
https://www.mmorpg.com/shroud-of-the-avatar/news/updated-free-trial-to-become-a-permanent-fixture-starting-december-20th-1000046628
Just changing the limitations on the Free Trial, and finally giving up limiting it to accounts made through their own webpage so as to avoid the atrocious reviews it would get on Steam otherwise, hasn’t changed the basic facts… It’s been free to play for anyone who wanted to bother for nearly a year now.
Or that for months before December 2017, they were already running free trials 3 weeks out of 4 every month anyway.
I’m not sure “falling for this” is an entirely fair assessment. My aim here was simply to present the press release and the basic facts about a) what’s actually changed as a result of it, and b) whether this affects Episode 2 or not (which it does not).
There wasn’t really a need to opine; others have done that elsewhere. But it was worthwhile to post the press release, for others to dissect and discuss as they will.
The game going “Fully Free To Play” isn’t a basic fact though: by any normal industry definition of the term, the F2P model has always had accounts which have limitations that you then pay to remove. Buying your way back up to full functionality, as it were. This is what Shroud has been full time since December 2017.
What we have here now is actually embracing the Mobile, Microtransactions model instead, where there is no full account functionality to purchase, rather it’s all pure Add On Sales driving revenue. But the term has a hugely negative public perception, especially with regards to games on PC and funded via Kickstarter, which is why Portalarium aren’t using it in their Humpty Dumpty way.
We all know Press releases aren’t written for your readers, but to serve the company’s choice of egg related actitivities; but the media should primarily be concerned with informing their readers of the actual facts. You serve them, not the eggmen. What they’ve done is announce the final shift to the Mobile Microtransactions model. That’s the facts.
The “Opinion” is about the “why”; and on that, of course it’s not about Episode 2. You’re never going to see Episode 2. The game won’t last that long. which is “why” they’ve removed any restrictions on trading and house ownership (not purchasing). If they don’t get some more customers soon, it’s all over.
Have you noticed Markee Dragon isn’t even stocking gold currently? The serious RMTs are all dumping inventory and not picking more up. People weren’t going to buy a Shroud account just so they had the option to then go and spend hundreds more with Markee to get a home… the game just wasn’t worth it. This is a last ditch attempt to see if people will stick around if the cost of taking part is reduced to absolutely nothing, like it is on Mobile.
I’ll bet it won’t be. I’ve said all along, I expect it to be gone before 2019. Two more months may be cutting it a bit fine, but the vast swathes of negativity where ever Shroud is mentioned seem to indicate there’s hardly anyone who doesn’t know what it is by now. The only uncertainty for me is how much misguided optimism exists within the few whales and those prepared to offer credit to keep it going far beyond when it should have stopped. The balance sheet when it finally tears is going to look horrendous.
And that’s opinion again. A fact is they seem to have only picked up 100 or so new players on Steam… We’ll know more with more data.
A few thoughts.
That’s one model, but not the only one that we see used in the MMO space. As you yourself note:
And Shroud wouldn’t be the only game in the MMO space to go with that sort of model, even if it’s less commonly used overall. Given Portalarium’s roots in the social/mobile space, I can also see why they’d lean toward that sort of monetization model. And as a model, it can work…though as you and I both know, it’s not as simple as just putting the model in place.
That may be, but so what? I don’t mind sharing the press release, trusting that the readership here is savvy enough to pick it apart as they will. The Codex readers tend to be clever sorts.
Nope; I don’t pay the slightest attention to him. Nor do I have a kind word to offer about him or his line of business, so I will say no more.
Wait, are we talking about Star Citizen?
I kid, somewhat. And it’s not that I don’t take your points…some of them, at least. I’m a bit more sanguine about Shroud than some, but my confidence in the game’s long-term prospects has certainly waned in recent months (to say nothing of my diminished enthusiasm in the wake of the shipping issue).
But in the end, I got a press release, and I shared that. People can draw what they want from it…and, as I say, the Codex audience tends to be a savvy lot.
“And Shroud wouldn’t be the only game in the MMO space to go with that sort of model, even if it’s less commonly used overall. Given Portalarium’s roots in the social/mobile space, I can also see why they’d lean toward that sort of monetization model. And as a model, it can work…though as you and I both know, it’s not as simple as just putting the model in place.”
And yet we were promised it would NEVER go that route, right here in fact;
https://ultimacodex.com/interviews/interview-with-richard-garriott/
“The part that is not good for players, but has been good for the companies that made a lot of these games, is how to squeeze money out of ‘free-to-play’. And that’s the part we are avoiding like the plague. It is actually a good monetization strategy to take a ‘free-to-play’ game and fill it with tons of microtransactions, and then tons of ways to leverage you, to try to convince you to either start making microtransactions, or spam all of your friends to hopefully find one of them to make microtransactions. And while that’s proven to be a very successful business model, I don’t think it makes for very good games. And since we’re trying to create a ‘gamer’s game’, we’re going to avoid that monetization strategy.”
That’s all that needs to be said. They lied to us. And even now, their press releases attempt to spin to hide just how close they are to closure. It’s not about readers being smart… it’s about people we once looked up too being deceptive and manipulative. And I personally would never be part of that, even if accidentally, through repeating the words of others that I knew to be false.
On the other hand, as a result of my posting the press releases here, others are able to compare what’s being said therein to what has been said before, and to note contradictions where they exist.
Like I said: savvy readership.
Yeah, but 100 players per day is a 50% increase. That’s huge!
Shroud is a joke. It’s a dead game. It’s been a dead game for a long-long time. You’re right on most of the points you make. I’d be interested to see your youtube videos if you provided the link and enjoy reading your comments because of the indignant truth behind the game. With that said, I think WTF’s presentation of the press release was fine. “Free to play” has a terrible connotation to most gamers, especially single player and older gamers.
Truth be told, a lot of people just don’t have much invested monetarily or personally into Shroud. I keep up with it vaguely, here and there, and I played 20 hours of it or so. Beyond that, I just have a morbid curiosity of what will happen to this game. They should’ve done something more unique, like provided a top down view with a real living breathing world, like Rimworld. Man, I love Rimworld, it actually gives me more of an Ultima-feel than Shroud or the other “Ultima-like” games that have come out. Could you imagine if they made a game with graphics slightly better than Rimworld, U7esque even, with a highly interactive gameworld. I think that would’ve been a lot cheaper to do and you could just sell the game. You wouldn’t need to be beholden to a player-base in order to make sure the game was still play-able or relevant. Instead they went all in on the online aspects of the game.
Welp, never seen a mid-eval MMO before! Oh, great! The spin to make this game unique is the gameworld is super big, empty, and tedious gameworld with unfinished NPC dialogue that’s dull as a fucking stone! Oh wait! There’s more? I can play this huge empty world single player too? You mean, I can remove the one entertaining part, the players, from the game? I can’t believe people aren’t flocking to this masterpiece!
I should have the video detailing how Portalarium actively worked with someone they know has spent 2 years stalking and harassing me, and then refused to turn up to Arbitration either tomorrow, or the day after; but my last Shroud video, and the channel with prior reviews on, is here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYBN9quMezI
That video was the background too, and the ultimate trigger for taking them to court, but if you want to see some criticisms of the actual game, go back and watch the 3 part reviews. They’re out of date with regards to in game content, but the shoddy financials are still there, the performance last I checked was much, much worse, and there’s still quite a few amateur level bugs still there I’m told…
A top down view would have rendered the game even more niché killed it faster than anything Portalarium has done. I’m glad they didn’t do it.
Can’t speak for everyone, but I know that for me, having the option to lock the camera into a top-down view akin to that of (say) Original Sin or Diablo 3 would make for a better overall play experience.
But it may be that I’m just an oddball.
Video listing the evidence Portalarium were actively communicating with someone who admitted he was harassing people, and then refusing to acknowledge the summons to Arbitration Court is now up;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfzXS-H5SzM&t
Near as I can tell, Portalarium hoped to burn the EULA and hope I couldn’t get the story out anywhere important, to order to keep on gouging people for just a little bit longer whilst avoiding having a harder legal judgement against them. It opens up other court paths now the EULA is no longer valid, but those will take even more time and potentially thousands of dollars to pursue.
There has of course been a campaign of both deliberate obfuscation from the person behind it across his multiple sockpuppets, and just the expected self-defeating, poorly educated response from the wider gaming community who resort to bullying, and sad justifications for their past ignorance and bullying because they’re angry with people who point out the gaming industry, even their childhood heroes, are actually quite corrupt and toxic…
But it worries me not a jot.
In my free time I’m working on the second part, detailing the problems with prosecuting harassment through the poor state of the Law, dealing with an underfunded and largely industry captured media and yes, the ridiculous kind of gaming community that even when they’re all now locked into pre-moderation or being mistreated themselves (there’s a post on that on the front page of the Steam forums right now in fact) are still more concerned with sulking that someone doesn’t respect them after they’ve spent years trash talking the people trying to help them out in the first place.
I can attest to one player being protected by the company, who had a very toxic internet profile.