The community of the selective multiplayer RPG Shroud of the Avatar is simply lovable, because emotions tend to run high there. This has now prompted Ultima creator “Richard Lord British” Garriott to speak out about the criticism.
The trigger was actually the announcement of the Final Wipe, which takes place at the end of July and essentially marks the start of the online part of the game. The game itself is still not finished – especially the story and offline part, which the developers will only start to address from now on. This stirred up some emotions. And as is often the case with such things, one thing led to another, and there was criticism of some game elements.
Only Fedex quests?
Among those are the quests. Some of the first quests are already integrated into the game, allowing players to test them and get a taste of the game’s story. However, this is a rather bitter taste. Because all quests are solely about delivering letters or items from one NPC to another or killing a certain number of enemies. After Richard Garriott and bestselling author Tracy Hickman have always talked so grandly about the story and quests, this is a harsh disappointment for many.
Additionally, most towns feel empty. The streets lack details, barely any NPCs are wandering around, and many buildings are yawningly empty. The towns also lack personality; they feel like hubs where players meet and build their houses. For a game that aims to offer an exciting single-player part, this is clearly not enough. Furthermore, people are currently upset about the dialogue system, which takes place in the regular chat and presents unformatted text like in a chat log. Many wish for a truly atmospheric, organized dialogue window that is separate from the rest of the chat and presents the text in a readable way.
The boss himself speaks up
Now, of course, Shroud of the Avatar is still in pre-alpha. This means a lot is still being worked on. The fact that the Final Wipe is approaching and little has been done on the single-player part and the story makes emotions run high. The developers have also noticed this, which is why Richard Garriott addressed this criticism in the forum on Thursday.
On the one hand, the creator of the Ultima series announced that there will be a live chat on Friday evening at 9 PM, where he will discuss these issues. Furthermore, the team is well aware of these issues. They know that they currently only have Fedex quests in the game and that the towns currently appear lifeless and empty. In addition, they are aware that there are some problems between the multiplayer features and the single-player features that do not always go hand in hand.
They will also be thinking about this. In general, he agrees with the criticisms fans have raised so far and assures that they will address these issues. Many fans are still skeptical but now have renewed hope that Shroud of the Avatar will indeed become a good game that can also convince in terms of story and single player.
