SeedInvest Campaign - Discussions with Richard Garriott / Lord British

Greetings Avatars,

By now you are well aware of the SeedInvest campaign we have just launched. Press releases and Emails with more details are imminent, they were held up while a few more documents were filed.

Shroud of the Avatar is at a very exciting time in development. As you know, we are in the process of putting the finishing touches on the story, polishing the new user experience, and a host of other efforts to prepare the game for a commercial launch of Episode 1 - Forsaken Virtues later this year.

[There has been some confusion about the story being complete in July and the full game release "later in the year". We have cleaned up the confusing language on the SI site. But to be clear, the full game is NOT releasing in July, we are targeting the story complete in July and full release at a to be determined date, we expect later in the year.]

As part of that effort, we are transitioning from being exclusively a developer to also being a publisher. This means we need to begin focusing on marketing and user acquisition, as we scale up users and the service. These efforts of course require funds beyond just development.

This has led us to this moment where for the first time we get to offer you the chance to invest in Portalarium through the power of Equity Crowdfunding (aka Regulation CF). To learn more about how you or someone you know can be part of our future, please visit the SeedInvest web site at:
www.seedinvest.com/portalarium/series.b

Another important subject is to note that since this is an SEC registered event, there are new legal standards that must be followed, that have some complex impacts. For example, we cannot mix "marketing communications" such as this message here could be considered, and "offering communications", such as details of the offer like dates, amounts, valuations, etc. We can send out emails that are "offering communications", but they cannot include any "marketing communications".

I was already asked a series of questions from the press that included asking how a valuation was arrived at, to which the legal team at SeedInvest told me: "This is considered a deal term! Assuming the article will contain non-deal-terms (which I'm 99.9% sure will be the case), the reporter CANNOT talk about the company's valuation. Make sure to let him/her know and share the following guidelines: https://www.inc.com/ryan-feit/the-10-golden-rules-of-equity-crowdfunding-advertising.html"

Notice that even "the reporter cannot" report both "marketing material" and "offering communications". Many in the press do not yet understand these new regulations well either. And of course, in modern times, the definition of "who is press" feels a bit fluid to me as well.

These are the reasons we will be moderating our forums heavily on this subject. We will of course be happy to address any and all questions over time, but any that may be about the offering, will have to be addressed on the SeedInvest web site.

BTW - These new rules exist largely to protect YOU the potential investor. It seems to me that they will both keep companies from giving inside information to favored friends, as well as be sure no one is adding marketing "spin" to the offering beyond the carefully legally checked data on the SI site. We do plan to do more offering Q&A type activities with SeedInvest in the coming weeks!

I hope this clears any confusion about some of the fundamentals of this complex process. Our apologies for any existing confusion that it has caused.

We are very excited about the state of the project, the state of the company and bringing the best possible Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues to you!

- Richard Garriott / Lord British


*Disclaimer: Portalarium is offering securities under Regulation CF and Rule 506(c) of Regulation D through SI Securities, LLC ("SI Securities"). The Company has filed a Form C with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with its offering, a copy of which may be obtained here https://www.seedinvest.com/portalarium/series.b

 

Consider locking this thread for comments for the incoming onslaught of posts.

 

Fix the link before locking it!

 

Link fixed.

 

Guessing Portalarium staff can't comment on if they are SeedInvesting?

 

My intention is NOT to lock this thread.
Rather, I hope (within the rules outlined above) to discuss any questions people have.
Offering questions (often called tombstone information), I will have to moderate / purge from the thread.
But general questions, (non-tombstone), I will try to answer here!
- Richard / Lord British

 

Will these investment $$$ appear on the website?

I can say im excited about this and im considering participation.

 

Thanks for the announcement!

Recommend pictures on the seed invest page of the rewards since probably some people might be investing just for the rewards (or because it's fun to be an "owner" of some type). Ultimately it's hard to understand if there is any potential value of said stocks accepting the premise that the game is successful.

 

By next week, they should be tracking reservations on the SI site, and then I "think" we can duplicte that over on our site... I will check! Great question / suggestion!

 

Great idea! We will add the images if possible.

 

My question was mostly related to when we would expect distribution of the rewards. I figure I would wear the gold cloak if only in honor of Game of thrones which would generally mean I die a lot. (I'll avoid the whole sister and brother thing lol)

 

Does this extend beyond Shroud of the Avatar, meaning you will be looking for opportunities to publish other games as well?

 

second question: There has been a lot of post from people in Europe who want to invest but cant due to the way the site requires funds. My guess is this is pretty locked down via SCC rules but it seems like a big loss of investors.

 

I expect we will be able to send these just after the offering closes.

 

Yes, we are and have always planned to grow beyond a pure developer, into developer and publisher!

 

I was told that they CAN accept funds from overseas. I will explore this with them and report.

 

Underworld Ascendant would be my uneducated guess.

 

Thanks for this LB!

Can we get some info on the as-yet-un-talked-about features mentioned on that page, such as Conquering Towns or Assassinations that affect the game world?

That kind of stuff sounds awesome!

 

+1, not a seed item but new information!

 

@Lord British Thank you for the info, things are a little more clear on the direction you guys are wanting to take this now.