Shroud of the Avatar – Update of the Avatar #321 and #322
Greetings Friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Not much in the way of news for Shroud of the Avatar, however I will touch on the following:
- Portalarium Devs go “Nomadic”
- Release 63 Live
Portalarium Devs go “Nomadic”
Now while this has been reported already by multiple outlets, including MassivelyOP and MMORPG, it is important to still highlight it for those who haven’t heard about this. This month, the Portalarium Dev team announced that they have decided to work remotely as a team on the game and basically go “nomadic” as they now do not have a primary office location. Now while this caused many to make claims of various types as to if this is a good thing or a sign of something bad, I will say to check out Chris Spear’s blog post first on this. Now obviously take what Chris says with a grain of salt. Issues like rent increases, terrible temperature control, and other such issues is something I have dealt with myself as a business woman. I understand the frustration that this can create. However just how bad was it really? I have my doubts. Two interesting things to note is that Chris says they will get an office down the road cause they plan on hiring more ppl. He also states he had been moving stuff for 2 and a half months in prep for this.
For those who I were discouraging about working remotely, I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the benefits of this. My own father has done this at varying degrees from almost every day to sometimes just a day or two a week throughout his career as a computer programmer. Same can be said for some of my close friends of mine over the years. If you are able to focus and do your work efficiently, the benefit of no commute can save an employee a nice bit of money. Having a manager or boss who can determine if an employee is meeting standards while working remotely is important however. As a workaholic, just like my father, working remotely can actually mean more hours of work done than when in the office. For some businesses, the majority of their business is remote work, even when in the office, so this kind of setup can actually be a boon especially to families with young children as it saves alot on childcare.
So while I hold to my views that Portalarium is not in the best financial state, I can agree with them on the fact that this will save them some money.
Release 63 Live
Release 63was released on February 28, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, and logging in to check out the changes. Check out the Release 63 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new content.
Such new things in this release are:
- Envy Angel
- Pronged Weapons (Pitchforks & Tridents)
- Player Dungeon Encounters
- Pirate Wearables
- New Decorations (some are Pirate themed like piles of gold/treasure)
- Crown Shop Polish
- Prison Themed Player Dungeon Rooms
- R60 Livestream Items
- Darkstarr Recurring Rares
- More Bug Fixes
- and more!
Scottie Jones created some various pirate themed treasure decorations. Below is an image he posted on the forums on this. Enjoy!
If the office move was actually a pro-active cost cutting measure it was only borne out of the desperate financial situation they are in.
I think another cost cutting measure they took was that Starr left Portalarium as an official employee and is only a part time consultant. There has been a lot of evidence recently pointing to this.
his consulting job is something he has been doing on the side since before the resent “bringing up of it again”… in all honesty, it is something that didnt surprise me then and still doesn’t. I know many in the tech industry who have their primary job and a side gig(s) they do sometimes for pay and sometimes for charitable purposes. from what I know, too much is being made of what it actually is. Now additional info may be withheld from what I have been told by some, but if something changes that should cause the situation to change and it makes its way to me, I will happily include it in an upcoming post. <3
Even if it IS proactive, and not forced… what about the remaining physical goods that haven’t been shipped out? Apparently they are still needing to ship hundreds of backers’ game boxes, and THOUSANDS of signed copies of the book. Granted, I don’t know the number of books they need to ship, but they haven’t shipped a single one. Are they all coming out of Chris’ garage?
Honestly, part of me doesn’t want to know how many boxes they still need to ship.. Book wise it is way too many and I think fiscally they just don’t have the bandwidth or $ to do it.
Well, I’m still waiting on mine.
Chris was streaming last week and showed off all the boxes they have in stock that still need to be signed and sent out to people.
I have yet to see any proof that the books exist though. Is the book the backers are supposed to get different than the one you can buy on Amazon.com?
I’m not buying this as a “cost cutting measure” for a second. They’ve been on the rocks for a year, easily. Chris can try to spin this any way he wants, but there’s no two ways about it, the game, and the company are both failures. There have been nothing but bad decisions made for both at every turn, and it’s way beyond the point of no return. It’s over. To keep pretending otherwise is an insult to the intelligence of everyone involved, and just further illuminates the depth of professional dishonesty Portalarium engages in.
I had no opinions on Chris or Starr before all this, but I can say without a doubt that my opinion of Garriott has bottomed out, and will likely never recover. Whatever he’s done in the past can’t outweigh the simple fact that he can’t manage the honesty to come forward and say “Yeah, we screwed up.” He went straight from forced optimism to completely vanishing when it went down hill. There wasn’t even an attempt to make a course correction, even as criticism grew. It speaks of nothing but dishonesty and massive arrogance. And now he just slinks off and pretends none of it ever happened? I can’t even fathom the mindset it would take to do something like that. It’s inconceivable to me.
You always have had to take what Richard says with a grain of salt, even back before Origin was purchased by EA. So my opinion of him hasn’t been damaged too much. Though his reaction to being told “EA would have done SotA better” was absolutely priceless. I would have expected that kind of reaction from other members and former members of the SotA dev team instead. I don’t believe either that the “going nomdic” was strictly a cost saving choice.. But I also can’t discount the reality that it will do that for them, which obviously they need in their situation.
Holy moly where did someone say to him EA could do SotA better? Not that I disagree, I would just love to see/hear his reaction.
As I recall, that little quip moved RG to use the block feature against Golem.
What they need to do in their situation is be honest with, and show respect to the people they took money from. I may be feeling a little more surly lately than normal, but that doesn’t change that, for what they produced, they might as well have just lit the money on fire. I’ll give them that they managed something playable, but only by the barest minimum definition. The bigger issue is that they had plenty of opportunities to take criticism to heart and do better, but refused to do so. Now they’re in a release state, and none of it will ever be fixed. Even as they take what are obviously massive cost cutting measures, (and it’ll be really easy to hide layoffs without an office) Starr and Chris continue to feed us a line that all is well, while making excuses about A/C units and other nonsense. It’s infuriating.
Garriott may be a big dreamer, and guilty of making promises he can’t keep, but none of that can account for his inability or unwillingness to step up and admit the state of the game and company. When things went bad, (apparently mostly due to his absence) he skipped out. I’m not the type to declare someone “owes it to their fans” but he does owe it to people he took money from.
You don’t happen to have a link or something about the “EA would have done SotA better” thing do you? I haven’t heard of that til now, and I’m curious to see it for myself.
Let’s not forget that fun false flag campaign to take down that account of mine… honestly, I see no reason to use twitter anymore, now that the only ppl i did DM on there can contact me directly via discord, text message, or instagram…
You said that to him via Twitter, Golem? You are my new hero! Bless your heart!
One thing missed about them “Going Nomadic” is that it’s also going to make it even harder to hold them to any legal commitments they’ve made, because they’re no longer registered at a physical address in a lot of situations.
For instance, in my long, slow attempts to pin down and serve an arrest warrant for my insane stalker, I need to be able to prove where the data is held to do so, but without a physical address for the company itself, the law in both the US and UK states it’s not “held” anywhere. When Portalarium were still in the offices, the Austin PD were considering executing a search warrant, but budgetary constraints over-ruled the application the officer dealing with my case made. Now it would be much harder to do so, because you’d have to prove where the data servers for the forums actually were, and no force will touch it unless they can be certain it’s under their jurisdiction.
Likewise, they’re still claiming Arbitration coverage in the EULA they don’t have, but even if the EULA was valid, you are still required to send written confirmation of informal negotiation to a written address they’re no longer at; When I sent mine, I had it done via recorded delivery, so I could prove someone signed for it there. Now, there’s no way you can even start the process.
The problem is, Portalarium can just keep spinning the facts to the people whose interest starts and stops with being supporters of the game, because they don’t WANT to see how close to shuttering they are; but from a business, legal standpoint they truly are in the “firesale” part of the end game.
I think the only reason people like Starr are hanging on so long is because they’ve invested so much of their lives into the idea of being a programmer involved in RPGs; and Spears’ case, because after his public meltdowns and the disaster of Shroud he’ll be lucky to even be allowed to go back to work on Barbie Adventures. But between them they’ve generated a genuine Cult of belief that somehow, somewhere something that will save them is just around the corner. They’ve been thinking like that since at least 2015, when it should have first been obvious they were alienating most of their previous backers. I doubt they’ll EVER accept what they’ve actually done with Shroud: terrifying as it is to think, it’s possible they could drag the process on for years with just 3 figure player numbers to avoid facing that.
But Portalarium, and Shroud as a going concern, are almost certainly dead now.
Since Portalarium is incorporated in Delaware they are required to have and maintain in Delaware, a registered agent, who must is designated to receive important papers related to the business, such as government documents and notices related to lawsuits.
Often this is to protect ppl who operate a business out of their home as to avoid having their family address out there for the world to see, in regards to their company. These at home companies typically have a PO box though or some other option in regards to a mailing address for daily purposes. However some choose to never have a mailing address or a physical address listed. Thus the need for a registered agent in case of lawsuits, tax paperwork, government notices, etc.
Another reason for the Registred Agent is so that companies can be incorporated in one state, but be doing business at a location in a different state. As is the case with Portalarium. All you have to do is a basic search on the State of Deleware’s website in the Department of State section. By law the agent is required to pass on any lawsuit, government notice, etc to the business.
Coming to this long after you posted, but…
“All you have to do is a basic search on the State of Deleware’s website in the Department of State section”
Yes, but this is why I specifically talked about the law on data; that’s not in Delaware. Legally it’s where ever the servers are, or the person committing the crime with it is. So, for instance, if I use UltimaCodex to make threats, the actual location of where that threat was made is where ever UltimaCodex’s hosting provider is based. If someone without access to the site wanted to report me, and they didn’t have a copy of the threats, they’d have to go to the local authorities of your host, not you or me.
The law hasn’t caught up with internet crime yet; it still thinks in terms of physical location. Which is why my Lawyer contacted the Austin authorities with our report; the harassment was done in part, and the identity were both held on Portalarium’s servers in their now abandoned office. In order to prove they knew about it, we had to show they “physically” were holding it, which meant it was broadcast from something they held.
Regarding the legal documents; whilst you might be able to send them to Delaware, the EULA still states the 30 days informal notification period is to go to their old address. Would I have looked up where else I could send them? Yes, but I had legal support who would have known. Will the average person? But more than that, when you signed the EULA, legally you consented to a course of action you now can’t complete. However you can bet any attempt to hold Portalarium to account will force you to explain why you didn’t obey the EULA you signed, as well as any other possibly bunkum that could be thrown at you. When I sent the informal notification, I had no expectation at all that they’d respect it. I was just eliminating any chance to say I’d not treated them fairly by their own EULA.
For the record, I believe our primary server is based in Provo, Utah.
Ahh good, as always I can rely upon “Jammaplaya” not being able to control his obsession, and we can use his self-revealing to illustrate the much larger points;
“For the record, I believe our primary server is based in Provo, Utah.”
Unlike Portalarium, I would expect the good people here to provide any IP address he’s posting under in order to help locate and serve the arrest warrant track; however he’s mostly had the sense to use proxies to try and hide that, so IP alone would be worthless. But let’s say you didn’t; then yes, legally I’d have to appeal to the company in Utah to try and get it, because they would be where the connection was made TO, and the evidence was actually held.
What Portalarium did, despite being informed multiple times that he was sending harassment THROUGH their forums directly, was ignore the endless reports it as long as it was directed solely against critics. When you WTFDragon got annoyed with rune_74, he had long been having his children threatened by the same lunatic. InsaneMembrane stated, and Themolock and Kazyn/WrathPhoenix confirmed they were receiving personal details about him and his children through the forums. I however seem to have been his longest lasting obsession, and like the others, he’s decided to try and threaten people around me as well…
Indeed he was even caught sockpuppeting multiple times to do that, and was openly being protected by someone at Portalarium. “Craftymethod”, “Starman2112”, “Noganoo” and “Jammaplaya” are all him. He purchased the “Sempiternal Dragon” account and when it was caught by other UDIC members, still wasn’t banned even after being renamed to “Toodles” and even something deliberately mocking BDF… There will be many, many more.
The claims I’ve been given from former staff is that they had seen what he was doing, were particularly disgusted by his Imgur blog, and the comics sent through Port’s forums, but any attempt to report it upwards went nowhere. Suspicion is that it was Chris Spears protecting him, because he loves to think of himself as counter-trolling what he calls “trolls”. Rumours were Berek might have wanted to act, but was being over-ruled. NDA means Berek or anyone else is unlikely to publicly say for now, except with journalistic anonymity.
It’s only when “Jamma” started selectively leaking his correspondence with Chris Spears to the “Starman2112” account, where both of them continued to obsess about me, that they finally bothered removing at least some of his accounts. I have long believed he’s so damaged he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that he’s blown up Shroud in order to get to me and others; I made a point of quite deliberately stating to Portalarium he was doing so in the private messages he copied me into where he demanded they ban me otherwise he’d harass me until I went insane, to further eliminate any chance of saying that I was the one trying to harm the project out of malice.
The reason Portalarium didn’t dare turn up at the American Arbitration Association is because they knew I would have archived that thread, that I could then point out I’d reminded them they already had the police reports and my lawyers details and not to join in with harassment… but they still did.
By burning their own EULA, which most of you won’t even read let alone be aware of, and not being allowed into a scheme they were never in in the first place, they manage to avoid an actual legal judgement against them, and more importantly, aren’t required to hand over the details of who “Jammaplaya” really is or give me a US legal judgement stating they held evidence which proved it, and which would have been enough to unlock the search warrant the Austin Texas PD applied for to go get it.
So much for the virtue of Justice, eh?
Once more, I’ve sent you my email address; if you want to run this story you can have all my evidence as well as my lawyers contact details etc. And Portalarium are still welcome to come and try and prosecute me in a UK court for defamation… they’ll find it even harder now I have the AAA documents too though.
Meanwhile even now our insane chum doesn’t have the sense to just walk away, even though I’ve used him for years to illustrate how toxic and hatefilled the Shroud community and Portalarium have been. They burnt the AAA accreditation to avoid getting caught with their hands in the jamma-jar just a bit longer, but thanks to AdamZax posting addresses for him to gloat about sending the police too, 3 days before Tyler Bariss got someone killed by SWATing people online, and thanks to coming back a year later and openly threatening to kill them all (even though he THINKS he was discrediting the claims, a threat is still a threat in law even if you cannot carry it out. Idiot.) I’ve been able to merrily link to you, Portalarium and SWAT threats every time the topic came up ALL ACROSS THE INTERNET.
Such as when Barrett got 20 years in prison for doing it. Those sending the addresses around to encourage each other are now being prosecuted by the US Justice Deparment. And I’ll be able to post my experience and link back to “jamma” and Portalarium yet again when they are sent to jail too.
And finally, Jamma/Toodler/Mr Obsessive…? I worked out that account which turned back up on Raw obsessing about myself and rune and yourself in third person yet again was you years ago, didn’t I? But I just stopped calling it out after showing how you’d given it away, because you had to keep doubling down on the criticism in order to try and look legit, and that was STILL serving my purpose.
There was NO WAY to be both a toxic obsessed hate filled monster AND prove me wrong, because as long as Portalarium allowed you to act like that towards critics, I WAS RIGHT.
Bingo.
I remember Noganoo. Though I think he had some 0s in the handle, if memory serves. Had some amusing run-ins with that cat.
As I think Golem may have pointed out, there’s not enough in the way of independent corroboration that we can unearth to make running your story a possibility. That being said, you’re free to continue posting in the comments here so long as you don’t cross into the realm of the legally actionable (e.g. defamation, libel, etc.).
This is their info according to the Delaware Division of Corporations (https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/Ecorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx):
File Number: 5173839 Incorporation Date / Formation Date: 6/21/2012
(mm/dd/yyyy)
Entity Name: PORTALARIUM, INC.
Entity Kind: Corporation Entity Type: General
Residency: Domestic State: DELAWARE
THE CORPORATION TRUST COMPANY
Address: CORPORATION TRUST CENTER 1209 ORANGE ST
City: WILMINGTON County: New Castle
State: DE Postal Code: 19801
Phone: 302-658-7581
“As I think Golem may have pointed out, there’s not enough in the way of independent corroboration that we can unearth to make running your story a possibility. That being said, you’re free to continue posting in the comments here so long as you don’t cross into the realm of the legally actionable (e.g. defamation, libel, etc.).”
Arrrghghg!!… You don’t have the corroboration because if I give you the links, your spam filter eats it: but if you email me on the contact I’ve given you, you can have all the paperwork I’m sitting on, and my legal representatives contact details to cross check them with him. Then you’ll have the story.
I’m not posting them publicly because as should now be apparent, Jamma/Nog etc continues to stalk me across the internet, and I need to make sure I have an absolute cast iron case that he can’t have got the details from anything I publicly post. I have a strong enough case to have multiple police reports that you will see, but I need to ensure he can’t compromise them for the eventual prosecution.
And also because I wasn’t the only person who signed the Texas police report. Jamma here knows that name too, but once more I need to make sure he can’t claim he got it in any way publicly from me.
Hence YOU need to contact ME, and then I can work the story with you.
There will be a text source dump coming very shortly.
Thank you for another wonderful monthly hate-on in the comments for SotA.
It’s not hate. It’s just loud disappointment.
Are you sure Titler only has loud disappointment?
In any event, I know a good ol’ fashioned hate-on when I see it.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hate-on
Here’s a fun set of facts for you Shroud Sociopath watchers; after being quiet for a while, my obsessed stalker went berserk against my email and tried to find associated accounts again this month. Got into an old Twitch account I’d set up for a Shroud stream with a variant of the password someone at Portalarium gave him it seems too. Over at ShroudUnlimited (where I leave comments he can’t delete or even reply too, he he he) I asked him a little while back what had set him off again?
Today, I noticed these posts. And the date. And surprise surprise…
https://imgur.com/hxJUD0l
Bingo: I guess it was commenting here that did it. There’s more above that too of course, but he’s so obsessed I couldn’t even fit all this month on a single printed screen.
So well done, you’ve worked out nothing changed and I’m STILL warning people of how corrupt Portalarium are, and how genuinely screwed up and criminal Shroud’s remaining community can be. It’s what, now 3 years later and I’m STILL being stalked and obsessed about?
Meanwhile I’m also still on Reddit, you just don’t know which accounts, and I’m still on any board I ever wanted to be; and Shroud is dead, Dead, DEAD as I said it would be. The sad thing is, I don’t think the obsession about me is even about Shroud any more, my criminal chum pathetically tried to lure me over to UOOutlands recently, which he’s apparently playing instead now. So 3 years of absolute hate, trying to make me afraid for people who’s only sin was loving me… and what was the point? Was I supposed to say “Oh, Portalarium protects someone who openly admitted to them he felt compelled to harass me until I went insane; so clearly Shroud must be awesome and I must be insane”…?
*shakes head sadly*
CHA-CHING!
While we’re on the disappointment factor. They could at least update the darn in-game map. We’re at release 63 and its still got the same crappy map system. *sigh*
A better map system will be available through the Crown store. It’ll be $50 for the standard version, $150 for the enhanced color version, or $1000 for the “Lords” version which includes basic quest tracking.
But no, seriously, I wouldn’t hold my breath for any improvements of any kind to be made. To anything. Ever. Adding clothing models, like in the last several releases is cheap and easy, Actually adding game mechanics is way out of their range.