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Game News Lord British Kickstarter coming up - "Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues"

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Kickstarter; Portalarium; Richard Garriott; Shrouds of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues; Ultimate RPG

As reported by the Ultima Codex, Richard "Lord British" Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, recently launched a website titled "Lord British Presents", with a countdown that ends on Friday. What could this mean?

Let's look at the facts. We know that Garriott has been talking about making a game he humbly calls "The Ultimate RPG" since late 2011. We also know that Garriott's studio, Portalarium (developer of fine titles such as Port Casino Blackjack and Port Casino Poker) was recently hit with layoffs. Portalarium's main partner, the almighty Zynga, hasn't been doing too well either.

I guess you can guess what's coming. Some technically proficient users found this image on a cloud hosting service used by the Lord British Presents website, confirming that this is indeed going to be a Kickstarter game, with the allusive name of Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.

But wait, isn't Richard Garriott incredibly rich? Some say that he spent most of his fortune on his quixotic trip to outer space in 2008. Others retort that he immediately earned that fortune back in a successful lawsuit against his former employer, NCsoft, who ignominiously fired him after the dismal failure of his MMO Tabula Rasa, while he was in Earth's orbit. Whatever the case, the fact is that Lord British Wants Your Money.

What for, you ask? We know that Portalarium's Ultimate Collector garage sale simulator social game was meant to be the "backbone" of the Ultimate RPG. And I think it's clear what sort of game a company like Zynga would get behind. Kenneth Kully of the Ultima Codex says:

It will almost certainly be a social game, unless Portalarium have heavily overhauled their business model.​

It will be “fair handshake”-based free-to-play, as Garriott has stated in several interviews.​

It’ll likely be multiplayer to some extent, possibly with PvP.​

And it may or may not also target mobile. Garriott is a fan of mobile, which is actually quite versatile and makes an excellent gaming platform. But that’s rather more speculative than the rest of the above.​

So, what it'll it be? A Torment vs Ultima oldschool RPG deathmatch? If what Kenneth says is true, it'll probably be more of a curbstomp. But please feel free to surprise us, Mr. Garriott.

UPDATE: In a new post on his blog, Kenneth not-so-subtly hints that the game will not be what he thought it was going to be in his initial appraisal:

It’s the calling out of Linux — playing off the Mac/PC reference — that catches my attention the most. Could that be a subtle hint concerning the game engine that the Ultimate RPG will make use of? Will the Ultimate RPG eschew the social and mobile frontier and be revealed as a decidedly “first era” game: a standalone, single-player RPG, albeit one that might support some sort of optional multiplayer component?​

And furthermore, will the game be revealed at SXSW next Friday, in the special announcement Richard Garriott will be making in conjunction with a Descendants of Erdrick performance?​
 

Jaesun

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Still my best guess is he will steal borrow Chris Roberts idea of Star Citizen for this game. Of which I still don't understand how the fuck all that works in that game.

If it's just an MMO... ugh. Fucking forget it.
 

Hobz

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How can one kickstart a F2P game ? They are basically asking idiots to pre-buy a game others will be able to play for free.

I understand that kickstarter is more about supporting projects than getting a good bargain but boy, InXile is already being accused of money grabbing... this is gonna generate so much butthurt...
 

felipepepe

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You're now posting same news twice, for MAXIMUM brofist farming?
Give up, you'll never catch up to the King of NewsSpam.
I'll unleash my forbidden marketing powers of reality framing and win anyway; I'm the "non-staff member with more brofists on the Codex". :obviously:

Menckenstein is the second and you the third, evdk. Be proud of it, for we beated the system.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
So, I've received word from certain sources (more than one) that this Kickstarter may end up being surprising...but probably not surprising enough.
 

evdk

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Codex 2012 Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Could you actually tell us something a bit more concrete or would this reveal your sources leaving them to be discovered and forced to play Tabula Rasa?
 

tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
So, I've received word from certain sources (more than one) that this Kickstarter may end up being surprising...but probably not surprising enough.
Wild mass guessing time?

EA has licensed the rights to make a game with the Ultima name to him to try to reap some PR.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
So, I've received word from certain sources (more than one) that this Kickstarter may end up being surprising...but probably not surprising enough.
Wild mass guessing time?

EA has licensed the rights to make a game with the Ultima name to him to try to reap some PR.

I'm pretty sure it's nothing like that. It's something to do with what type of game this is going to be.
 

Spectacle

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If it's an old-school open-world but quest centered game like the Ultimas, I'll be all over it, I'll forgive Garriot for all his mistakes since he sold Origin to EA.

I'm not expecting that though, it will probably be something dumb.
 
Self-Ejected

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So, I've received word from certain sources (more than one) that this Kickstarter may end up being surprising...but probably not surprising enough.
Wild mass guessing time?

EA has licensed the rights to make a game with the Ultima name to him to try to reap some PR.

I'm pretty sure it's nothing like that. It's something to do with what type of game this is going to be.
2D backgrounds
Turn-based combat

Codex retards go crazy at the mere sight of buzzwords
 

Stabwound

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I'm guessing it'll be another shit sculpture ala Ultima 4EVAR. Some kind of lame pseudo-RPG with online play and microtransactions. And Lord British instead of Lady British.

All signs point to this being his "Ultimate RPG" he's been talking about, in which he keeps bringing up Ultima Online. This interview is from August 2012 (http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/08/20/how-lord-british-is-returning-to-rpgs) and talks about it. It sounds like it's well in development at that point and I don't see what else this reveal could be, unless he's doing multiple games in this series.

So, yeah. I'm guessing a crappier version of Ultima Online.
 

FeelTheRads

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So, I've received word from certain sources (more than one) that this Kickstarter may end up being surprising...but probably not surprising enough.

Couple that with Fargo's "next week is gonna be awsum", I can only conclude: Torment: The Avatars of Numenera.
 

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