Greetings!

[suilebhain]

Ahh, I see that it is. $40. Not bad if there is a lot to do in Single mode. How is it so far?

[Regolyth]

Nov 1, 2017 11:48:46 GMT -5 suilebhain said:

I've been interested in SotA. Is it in some release form yet or only available to those who Kickstarted it?

You can play SotA now. It's one of those games that you play while it's being developed. You just need to pay your crowd funding level and have at it. I thought they were going to go to some kind of subscription fee eventually, but they have yet to do so (and I haven't heard when actual "release" is). That said, it's pretty fun at this time; there's plenty of content to explore and the game is really well put together. I'd recommend it if you liked UO or EQ.

[Morreion]

Rego pretty much answered the SotA questions.

I'm just worried that it will eventually dwindle away because it's been in development for years and there's no real 'release' to crowdfunded games anymore. I think many people just move on to the next bright and shiny thing.

[Regolyth]

For the last week I've been curious as to when the actual release date is, so I decided to look today. I appears that it's sometime this year. Lord British only has a month and a half left. I don't think they're going to make it.

When will Shroud of the Avatar be available?

Shroud of the Avatar is currently available for Early Access Testing for all Adventurer level pledges and above, and all Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues game access pass holders and above. The estimated launch date is 2017. Please note, however, that all dates are estimates and subject to change due to the complexities of development.

[Morreion]

Having been involved in Shroud for a while now, I can tell you that release was supposed to happen in 2016 as well

I've always hated big publishers that release easy appeal-to-everyone MMOs far too early. I had hopes for crowdfunding. But now it looks like crowdfunding means taking years to release games that most people have long since stopped being interested in.

With Shroud, I get the feeling that they are preaching to their relatively small player-tester base that have been around a while. Just don't expect any significant influx of new players in the future.

I really miss the excitement of MMO release days that happened in the past, after a month of open beta. What we get now is 'technical release' years after a small dedicated 'alpha testing playerbase' has been milked of crowdfunding money. And nobody gives a crap.

[Regolyth]

Nov 17, 2017 13:41:59 GMT -5 Morreion said:

I really miss the excitement of MMO release days that happened in the past, after a month of open beta. What we get now is 'technical release' years after a small dedicated 'alpha testing playerbase' has been milked of crowdfunding money. And nobody gives a crap.

I remember running a Diablo II fansite back before it was released. We ran that site, scooping up nuggets of information wherever we could, for two and half years (a year and a half after Blizzard's initial supposed release date). Blizzard was notorious for not releasing a game until they "felt it was complete." Different than the "milking" of today's alpha/beta testers. It was a fun, arduous, time.

Fun Fact: It was during my beta testing of the D2 expansion that I came up with the name Regolyth. He was my druid.

[Morreion]

I hear you Rego! I was a volunteer news correspondent for IGN for Vanguard back in 2007. I'd look at all the fansites and roundup any hot topics and good forum threads. Ahh, the fun days, when you were actually excited about a game before release.

Now, it's years of no-NDA player testing before some nebulous 'release' that is absolutely unexciting.

'The game is unfinished.'

'Of course it is, it's in pre-alpha!'

'Game will not release this year, look for Q3 next year.'

'That game? It's so 4-years-ago. Here's some other newer games in development!'

[Regolyth]

Nov 17, 2017 17:02:08 GMT -5 Morreion said:

'The game is unfinished.'

'Of course it is, it's in pre-alpha!'

'Game will not release this year, look for Q3 next year.'

'That game? It's so 4-years-ago. Here's some other newer games in development!'

Sounds about right. LOL