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Geplaatst: 21 jul 2015 om 13:05
Gewijzigd: 12 mrt 2022 om 17:29

One of the most shockingly dishonest Kickstarters ever has resulted in one of the most expensive Free to Play games yet seen, whose "Launch" attempt failed to expand it's tiny but excessively toxic community, who 6 YEARS LATER are still stalking and harassing critics on Reddit, whilst soon the whole horrendous project will rightfully keel over dead.

UPDATE: Portalarium have been dissolved, sold all the intellectual property to one of their Devs, Chris Spears under the guise of "Catnipgames"; any final hopes of a"Lord British" game have now eternally left the building, along with the Garriott himself and the rest of the developers. All SeedInvest shares have been closed at $0, although Spears lies directly and claims the SeedInvest is still open. (See comments below.)

Said developer actively supported the stalking and harassment of critics; when taken to Arbitration Court over their malicious actions, Portalarium didn't even dare turn up to defend what they'd done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfzXS-H5SzM&t

Since the 4th September 2018 then, despite being ordered to remove any reference to the scheme from their EULA, and knowing I had the legal paperwork, Portalarium have tried to pretend this never happened and haven't updated their EULA to show how unprotected the backers really are. They are liars to the last.

Meanwhile MassivelyOP themselves are fully aware I have the Arbitration Court documents, but were censoring any attempt to warn backers of this. At least that is until the now-owner of Shroud turned up and abused the staff for daring to be critical; and that hilariously happened because one of the most disgusting RMTs tried to manipulate the coverage again... Start here for the context;

https://old.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar_raw/comments/dn0zbe/the_schadenfruede_for_vlad_is_delicious/

Then go to the MOP article and remember that the developer having a temper tantrum in comments, and having to have it spelt out IN DETAIL just how much previously MOP had sucked up to Portalarium, is the same one who is now entirely responsible for running and developing the game.

Now look carefully at the "Hours Played" on the postive reviews. It's easy enough to do; every time the game dips back into Mostly Negative on Steam a few of them will turn up again; The vast majority are either long term backers, with thousands of hours, running Real Money businesses who keep updating their reviews to look new and recent...

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/steam-reviews-needs-some-love.138035/page-2#post-1

... or are under 2 hours played, on accounts with no games, sockpuppets of same RMTS trying to make the game look popular.

But ACTUAL player numbers? Well, why not check Steam Charts and see for yourself?

https://steamcharts.com/app/326160

Here is what you need to know about the game itself;

* The Kickstarter was just an attempt to avoid bankruptcy for Portalarium, but they never had any intention of building the Buy To Own, no microtransactions, plot driven game described there; instead they've created a Real Money Trading MMO, where prices can go up to $30,000 for Golden Castles.

* It is not an "Indy" game now; they've taken somewhere north of $30m in total funding, but good luck tracing that as Portalarium have self-imploded to hide their records.

* The game was to all intents and purposes already launched in July 2016 when they stopped wiping the server, allowed the placing of property, and encouraged RMT to begin.

* There is a Premium Currency and Monthly Subscriptions service too.

* Everything is legal to sell via their forums, including XP farming.

* You CANNOT own property without the Real Money only Lot Deed to place it. There are RMTs who hold those deeds who will attempt to deceive you and say "anything can be bought in game for gold." This is only true for the occasional RMT who can quickly sell the gold itself, although most are now dumping stock in a panic to get out before the game implodes. As it dies, they're taking Cash Only.

* The same goes for the Player Owned Towns. There's no way to get them in game. They were limited time offer, Add On Store only, going from $750 to $6000.

* When those sold out, Portalarium switched to "Player Dungeons" and sold even more deco for that in the Store. Right now, functionality of said "Dungeons" is laughable to say the least. But by god you can sure spend real money on them...

* Because the sheer scale of cash gouging was putting people off, Portalarium openly admitted they were moving it all in game to hide it from new players;

"With that change we feel that having all of the store items visible on the website at all times is an inaccurate representation of what the game offers players and incorrectly infers that everything must be purchased to play."

Don't be fooled; it's not "everything", but it IS hundreds, and hundreds of items going up to THOUSANDS of dollars that form the only real content in game.

* The game launched with single player just a clone of the MMO, minus the online people's housing. The vast majority of NPC cities aren't even finished, and it's not planned to look at it again until later in the year. The game will likely be dead long before then.

* They were also quietly dropped by their European partner, Travian, after they discovered the claimed income from players was an absolute lie

* Also be aware that because the game is built almost entirely around RMT, the sheer amount of items in people's homes cripples performance. Even on a Solid State Drive it's rough, but a Hard Drive can be almost unplayable.

* AND THIS IS THE BIG ONE:

You need to know that the community is unbelievably toxic. Because many of them are using Shroud as a real life business, they will stop at nothing to deceive future backers (and thus try and make sales to them) and will outright stalk and harass critics because you're getting in the way of their money making.

It's hard to express how disgusting the behaviour is; The main RMT above posted under his real name at MassivelyOP and then tried to forge replying to that as "doxxing" him, in order to try and ban any critical commentators. The same RMT organises review bombing any coverage of Shroud to hide how disliked it is. They've openly organised using proxies to stuff polls in favour of Shroud. It's the most dishonest, despicable behaviour I've ever seen online.

Before that, they've even started organising to try and manipulate where Shroud appears on the Google rankings;

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-of-shroud-of-the-avatar.113281/

Meanwhile, the sociopath who threatened to kill my family is openly bragging on Portalarium's forums that no one can touch him as he harasses people, because he knows Portalarium are actively supporting him...

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar_raw/comments/866byc/so_my_experiences_trying_to_get_berek_to_deal/

Click the images in the above thread to see how blatant it is.

And this is just a QUICK recap of SOME of the issues with Shroud! The game is riddled with terrible decisions. Just one week before "Launch", they completely overhauled Skills design to introduce Specialisation... after 4 years of selling people on unlimited power, and they're still scrabbling around desperately trying to work out what core features of the game are supposed to be!

But always, ALWAYS in the background will be more grasping for more money, and horrendous toxic community behaviour if ever dare wonder where the game you backed at Kickstarter went.

Stay far, far away from Shroud of the Avatar.

Don't believe me? Fine, but go for the Free Trial FIRST.

What ever you do, don't waste your money on this. I, no doubt like the vast majority of missing backers, regret ever spending mine on this moral, and miserable disaster that urinates all over the legacy of Ultima.
Was deze recensie nuttig? Ja Nee Grappig Prijs
76 opmerkingen
Cíphęr廾awK 16 dec 2022 om 23:06 
Damn this is a good review and excellent breakdown. :steamthumbsup:
Titler 20 jun 2018 om 14:38 
Update: Today they let many of the major staff go. Dishonest to the end, they claim it's to become leaner to develop the outstanding Episodes... because after being unable to fully honor the first with far more staff, completing more full episodes with less makes absolute sense! Well, it does to the few remaining cultists who blindly believe, anyway.

In reality, the game will be dead before the year is out. Don't waste your money on this.
Titler 9 mrt 2018 om 19:23 
Sometimes way back fails to load: It's an archive of the MassivelyOP thread in case Chris Spears tries to delete the evidence of his lies. So far it's still visible on the original thread however.

http://massivelyop.com/2018/03/06/shroud-of-the-avatar-claims-higher-concurrency-heading-into-launch/

Because I cannot reply due to MassivelyOP pre-moderating comments as they believe he is the real developer, I've left a response on Reddit to deny the claims publicly. You can read it here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar_raw/comments/8330bc/chris_spears_is_a_liar_and_actively_engaged_in/

You can see the links to the evidence which proves he's literally lying in order to slander the owner of the blog there too.

Mumshroom 9 mrt 2018 om 13:09 
Also I send my sympathies to you
Mumshroom 9 mrt 2018 om 13:05 
Quick question, what is the archive link for, I'm not finding what you're describing.
Titler 9 mrt 2018 om 12:41 
Let me make this quite clear; Someone claiming to be Chris Spears, one of the developers, accused myself personally and others of supposedly threatening his children;

https://web.archive.org/web/20180309011851/http://massivelyop.com/2018/03/06/shroud-of-the-avatar-claims-higher-concurrency-heading-into-launch/

In reality, Spears is word for word reporting what the person he names, InsaneMembrane, reported to THEM about threats made to HIS children.

He has been told to prove he has any evidence the victims of the Shroud community has ever done to anyone else what happens to them, and Spears refuses to do so. Because it doesn't exist.

In my own case, my stalker has escalated to sending threats to rape and kill my family on CHRISTMAS DAY, and Portalarium know I've got a crime report active, but instead chose to claim I would do something I have had to go to the Police about in my own life.

There are not enough words to express how sick this is. Keep far, far away from Shroud.
Titler 13 nov 2017 om 17:07 
Meanwhile,

"We strongly believe in promoting well-being in each and every member of the community, and their extended network of family, friends, and associates. We are partnering with Meretz, a free and unique way to transform your physical activity into virtual fitness currency. They are hooking in Shroud of the Avatar to their app so we can get you in-game rewards for using it!"

Who could disagree with fitness! And...

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar_raw/comments/7bgm79/now_you_too_can_bounce_your_phone_for_more/

... oh. It's a start up that employes at the very least former employees of Origin Systems. One of the staff worked on Ultima 7. So no harm in selling them access to your Shroud Whales, eh?
Titler 13 nov 2017 om 17:02 
BrightLocker is currently running a tie in for Shroud

"EXCLUSIVE Golden House Bundle for popular MMO Shroud of the Avatar, including game access, the house itself, a deed for the related land. It’s a must have for fans of this fantastic MMO. Check Updates section for more details."

Fantastic! Popular! And I'm sure BrightLocker is a wonderful opportunity to invest in too... Let's have a look and...

https://www.reddit.com/r/shroudoftheavatar_raw/comments/7cqmdq/psa_portalarium_has_teamed_up_with_brightlocker/

Oh. It's a company that Starr Long, one of the Developers on Shroud is also employed by.
Titler 11 okt 2017 om 11:46 
Also moral of the story, proof read my own posts :P I see a typo, and the first link doesn't load for you? Wayback archives are a little slow, but it does load for me eventually.

You won't see it on Reddit as that sockpuppet got instantly banned; he's been harassing people for more than a year, and as soon as it's obviously him, they remove him... REDDIT thinks he's out of line!

Where as at Shroud, he not only was setting up sockpuppets the day the forums went live, he runs multiples at once that Berek the Community Mod knows all about, but leaves him alone because he puts supporting the game before actual standards of decency.

Same sociopath was recently calling for Portalarium to issue a Cease and Desist against MassivelyOP.com for a negative review. Totally uncensored. Say you dislike the game, or cross the wrong Whale, and banned.

Pop on over to the Shroud RAW Reddit for more evidence and archives of this shoddy behaviour...
Mumshroom 11 okt 2017 om 11:00 
Moral of the story: Don't mess with Titler. Also first link is a bust, sorry.