A statement from Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott has stirred the community of the upcoming (MMO)RPG Shroud of the Avatar. Only about half of the players are said to be interested in playing online.
The designer’s statement, “About half of all players (of Shroud of the Avatar) are only interested in the story and not in the online mode,” was made during an interview with examiner.com at the E3 gaming convention. Many fans in the official forum could hardly believe it.
The spiritual successor to Ultima Online consists of a player base, half of which prefers to play the game offline to follow the story? Many are now wondering not only why this is the case but also what they can expect from Shroud of the Avatar when such a focus is placed on a single-player component.
No MMO-RPG
The surprise over Richard Garriott’s statement likely comes from the fact that the community has grown significantly since the Kickstarter campaign with many new members who believe that SotA is some kind of Ultima Online 2. However, if you look at the Kickstarter campaign website, it describes that their main goal is to tell a story that is even more exciting than those of the Ultima games 4 to 7 and that they want to create a virtual world that offers even greater interaction than that of Ultima 7.
Furthermore, they aim to design deep multiplayer features that go beyond combat like Ultima Online and that will be offered in a “Selective Multiplayer Mode.” In this statement, not once is the word MMORPG mentioned. To be precise, this word can only be found in the FAQ on the Kickstarter page. There it states: “Will this game be an MMO?” The answer is: “Although Shroud of the Avatar is not a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, it is a multiplayer game.”
What is SotA?
During the Kickstarter campaign, several videos were also posted in which Richard Garriott discusses the game with former colleagues. In these videos, the designer repeatedly explains that SotA is a story-driven single-player game that offers the option to play in various online modes. These are expected to range from a co-op mode for a few friends to an MMO-like mode where many other players are in the zones and can also engage in PvP with each other.
In one of these earlier videos, Garriott even explains that the fans consist of two camps: One half would want a single-player RPG like Ultima 7, while the other wants an MMORPG like Ultima Online. So it was clear from the very beginning what SotA would be and what it would not be.
However, this seems to have been overlooked over time, and because the pre-alpha versions focus on the MMO aspects, as these lay the foundation for the systems in the game, a false impression was likely created – especially among fans who were not with the project during the Kickstarter campaign and joined later. They are now surprised to learn that the single-player part of Shroud of the Avatar plays a very important role and that about half of all players are only onboard for that reason.
Interested in SotA? We have extensively introduced the game in a two-part article series: Shroud of the Avatar – More than just an MMORPG..
