1. Here you will find official announcements and updates. These announcements are also linked in the Official SotA Discord server.
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SeedInvest Campaign - Discussions with Richard Garriott / Lord British

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Lord British, Jun 2, 2017.

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  1. Hornpipe

    Hornpipe Avatar

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    Why do you ask ? Are you worrying about Shroud now while giving false figures ? We never told you, but we a have great secret cloning plan. But shhhhh... That's a secret ;)
     
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  2. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    I see irony and sarcasm are lost on you.
     
  3. Stephalan

    Stephalan Avatar

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    Nothing I said has any irony or sarcasm in it.
     
  4. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    :eek: "Warning, There's Going to Be Allot of Fireworks Around My House" :D
    This was such a right decision for our Portalarium to have made. Yet the real values of what they have offered in this, "for us as players", is really a true value even through it's perks alone. When we add up all those perk's current values, they equal if not exceed those values we see every day here within our Add-On Store's values. I added all that up the other night and it was as clear as day to me. With everything in only the perks, even if they were normal values as we see in our Add-On Store, their values came up just around $100 to $200 shy of the total cost of them through our current SeedInvest campaign "Yet they're not normal items". They are "exclusive items", exclusively rare items and some of which are replenishing items.

    This offer, "this truly great offer", is going to be continuing to be available until the end of Monday and I do think it's an offer that others need to truly think about finding a way to take advantage of until it closes.
    We still have a SeedInvest offer until the end of Monday and I do hope that others will well consider the gift our Portalarium has to offer us all before it expires!

    ~A New Britannia Public Service Announcement from Our Oracle~

    https://www.seedinvest.com/portalarium/series.b
    "Her Perkiness is Assured!"
    Through Our Portalarium's
    ~Worthiness, Trust & Unity~
    [​IMG]

    ~The Fellowship~
     
    Last edited: Aug 8, 2017
  5. Greyfox

    Greyfox Avatar

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    Nice work Portalarium with the successful SeedInvest.

    To the naysayers. We the Shroud of the Avatar community greatly appreciate the unprompted concern for OUR money. In life I have found money easy to come by but TIME you can never gain more.

    To demonstrate my appreciation for the unbridled naysayer concern regarding my money I wish to return the favor. Please stop spending so much of YOUR valuable TIME wasted on condemning OUR game and how WE choose to spend OUR money.

    Shroud of the Avatar is very far from a perfect game. No game is perfect. Of the games I have participated in Crowdfunding SOTA has been by far the most successful to date. Especially considering long term play-ability and current game status. Many of the problems, and some very significant, in SOTA can and mostly will be resolved with time.

    Again Congratulations COMMUNITY and PORTALARIUM. Naysayers, check out Chronicles of Elyria, and Star Citizen those two games really need your valuable input. Don't leave us though, would be a shame for you to miss the continued success of SOTA.
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
  6. 3devious

    3devious Avatar

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    I promise you that no one is getting my gold armor and bird, lol. I hope that I am kicking my own butt for not getting the stock though!
     
  7. Blake Blackstone

    Blake Blackstone Avatar

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    Grats to everyone that invested. It's my sincerist hope that your investment pays off for you.
     
  8. Hornpipe

    Hornpipe Avatar

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    Everyone must keep in mind that the whole community is behind this success, not only the investors. Without the support of everyone, there would not be any seedinvest campaign.

    And my first hope is that our investment pay off for everyone, with Shroud of the Avatar becoming a successful game in the future.
     
  9. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    Well said! You are correct. Everyone who backed this game should be proud of all of the successes of SotA.
     
  10. Berek

    Berek Portalarian Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Cleaned up, thanks Barugon. Thanks for the reports on the individual disrupting the thread.

    And THANK YOU COMMUNITY for helping us along this journey! We truly due appreciate it, as it's going to directly come back to making this game a success for all of us. We needed to attack this thing on all fronts... telethons, SeedInvest, and now Travian. All happening!
     
  11. krom

    krom Avatar

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    Uhm you get rares for being in the seedinvest? That does not sound right, but then, what do I know? *shrugs*
    RMT really got out of hand, this used to be a game, you know?... *sighs*

    Actually and honestly, I feel ashamed by now.

    Feel free to "clean" my post up...
    And have a nice weekend.
     
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  12. Jens_T

    Jens_T Avatar

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    If somebody wants to invest money for eye candy that might be considered a status symbol (or statement) I don't mind. A golden armor doesn't give you any advantage over gear bought in game for igg.
    You could even argue that such "investments" and the digital goods from the Telethons subsidize (I.e make possible) the game.
    I don't think free to play is long time sustainable without creating issues but that's a different discussion.
     
  13. Hornpipe

    Hornpipe Avatar

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    I think that there is no reason to delete your post. You are only giving your point of view without personal attack nor speculation.

    I was not fan of the RMT myself when it was mentioned some time after the kickstarter. But I had to resolve myself to understand that, as long as this game has to remain independant from big publishers, players will have to pay for it.

    I think that Developpers really try to limit costs. And when they do that, they are even criticized because they use a free asset from the unity store !

    Many people think that $12 millions is huge. Yes, in my bank account, it would be. I could live my whole live without working if I had less than half this sum.

    But for a multiplayer game, that's nothing. Most of the successful multiplayer RPG costed tens of millions dollars and some even costed more than one hundred million.

    The perks are a motivation for investments and pledges. They are the reason why there is a game here, actualy. And, except for housing and crafting, they don't give any advantage in the game.
     
  14. Mirjhaf Uth'Mathar

    Mirjhaf Uth'Mathar Avatar

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    Exactly
     
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  15. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    I'm extremely proud of SOTA, and I feel like everyone that backed this game contributed a small but meaningful part towards that success.

    What is often lost or ignored about SOTA's success is that it's building and ongoing. Unlike traditional published games, SOTA is not using the same development cycle nor does it have the same development goals. If we had a large publisher, we might have been in development for years without even mentioning it to the public. We may have only used temporary workers to QA and test the game, before opening up testing to a small segment of beta users that were required to sign an NDA. Then and only then would we push out a wider beta and eventually a traditional launch. We would've made our money back in the first two weeks after launch as the hardcore folks that "try everything" make up the bulk of video game sales in this country. (there are entire franchises devoted to getting these people's money, I know this from past work in the industry).

    From this point on, we may have milked out as many subscriptions or "premium services" as we could. Our development team a mere skeleton of what we used during alpha and beta stages, would now only be used to keep things running at an operational level. This is why you rarely see new features in MMO's or any game for that matter after launch. That is unless it's a DLC or Expansion. Because the business model does not allow for large teams of developers to remain on staff to continuously make new stuff - that only cuts into profits.

    Eventually the "masses" of people joining the game in the early weeks after traditional launch will thin out. As new games are developed and launch many people will jump to the unknown and "try it out" leaving the remaining population in a game unlikely to evolve until the next DLC or Expansion. This is normal, this is what players expect, this is why SOTA is very different.

    Sure, we have a very liberal policy on RMT. Yes, we have limited (non-instanced) and expensive (originating from pledges and add-on store purchases) housing. Of course it's true that the majority of players that backed this game spent more than the base $40. But those things also helped make this game possible in the first place. The fact that we did not have a traditional publisher required us (and continues to require us) to secure more money using untraditional means, like:

    The Original Kickstater
    Add-on Store Purchases and Pledges
    Various Telethons
    Partnerships (Black Sun, Travian, and hopefully more to come)
    Investment Opportunities (Seedinvest)

    All of these things would normally be handled by a traditional publisher, and in turn the game would be very different than what we see today. In some ways it might be considered better! (depending on your point of view) Where traditional publishers really shine is figuring out what worked best before and copying that in an effort to secure the most profit they can in the shortest amount of time that they can. The results of that business model can be seen heavily influencing the MMO genre for the last 20 years. Where traditional publishers often fail is in responding to player feedback, making large changes based on that feedback (that require time, resources, and money) and continuous improvement.

    That is where SOTA, in my opinion, positions itself a distinct alternative to other games that have been developed and managed under the watchful eye of a publisher. Each month this game improves, and each month this game adjusts to player feedback, for the goal of Shroud of the Avatar is not to make the most money in the shortest amount of time possible, but instead to make the best game for the longest time possible.

    For some people, they may never reach that goal. But for me, they continue to do that each month.

    Here's to many more months ahead!
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
  16. Tahru

    Tahru Avatar

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    Ironically, it is many of the features I personally don't care for like RMT and the Neverdie stuff that pushed me over the fence to invest. The team here is fearless and I believe their willingness to cross taboos and try new things may lead to a huge success, or a fiery demise. Only time will tell.
     
  17. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    Well :p After re-reading the posts I made while going on a bender at the local pub :confused: o_O I'm not sure if I could "tell" anything at all :p :eek: But I know it seems like they were written in English :confused:
    :eek: OMG! I'm a poster-child example for the need of the edit button :(:D We're so close to $600K that I believe we may actually make over that amount whenever the final tally comes in :)~TL~
     
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  18. Drocis the Devious

    Drocis the Devious Avatar

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    It would be nice if we could go further than Crowfall. They obtained $615,983 from their offering.

    We're at $578,420 at the moment. So just, $37,563 to go, with over 3 days remaining. :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
  19. 3devious

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    Hey! It's not a competition (except that it is now.) I am going to blame you for any competitiveness my fellow avatars may be feeling. BAD BDF! No smugness (unless we manage to surpass Crowfall of course.)
     
  20. Mac G

    Mac G Avatar

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    Well, I just threw in a thousand bucks. I have been sitting here watching the little blue box that says "processing" for about 10 minutes. Did it take that long for anyone else?
     
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