Yeah that is interesting. Here is the Webinar broadcast from yesterday. Silence until the 7 minute mark, then it starts.
EDIT: An interesting point of info in the Q/A section of the seed invest page is shares are currently priced at $1.231 .
He already sold his house. This might be the end of Portalarium.
He put up his 60+ acres outside of Austin for $45 million in April. Not sure if that sold yet or not, or if he plans to sink any of that money back into Portalarium and/or Shroud of the Avatar.
At this point, I think even Garriot sees that this is a sinking ship.
I just got an email announcing the last 7 days, and it has a different goal attached to it:
Our SeedInvest campaign is quickly coming to an end! On August 7 the round will only close as long as we reach $500,000. You can invest to join Portalarium and help the company cross over to also becoming a publisher.
Website says $2 million needed, but perhaps I missed somethingâŚcurrently at $388K if the website is to be believed.
Iâm not that knowledgeable about equity crowdfunding, but perhaps the amount needed to close the round is different than the total round size?
I am sure that is probably it. But you would think that would be posted somewhere from the beginning.
and they are now at $570K, so they have met that minimum.
I wonder how much money they need to make the actual game remotely fun to play.
Itâs sad because they seem to be really cranking out the content. But hoo boy was it not at all fun when I tried it last (admittedly that was like 6 months ago).
Yes, theyâre creating tons of content but the core gameplay is frickinâ awful.
I just gave iteration 44 a shot, and I have to say that, sadly (because I wish the game well), the âfeelâ of the movement and combat (at least with my archery-oriented toon) is still terribly clunky. Nobodyâs going to be interested in playing something these days (with super-responsive MMOs like WoW, GW2, ESO and Neverwinter around, not to mention the kind of ultra-slick avatar control you get in multiplayer games like Warframe or Overwatch) if just walking around feels goofy, and combat is a chore to undergo.
I just had a go on the Vanguard private server the other day, and even Vanguard is slicker and more pleasurable to control oneâs avatar than this, and thatâs saying something.
And this has nothing to do with the mechanics, or whether the combat is âactionâ oriented or âtab targetingâ or âpoint and click.â ANY of these styles and mechanics can be made to feel responsive and pleasurable - or a shitty morass you have to wade through.
But it makes me wonder: shouldnât this have been one of the first things they tried to get right with the game? At least with one or two combat styles at first (given that what weâre talking about is that mysterious synergy between mechanical responsiveness, animations and sound fx)?
The vanguard private server? There was a brief moment that I, despite my rather ethical and morally correct standing was tempted - that is one game I REALLY miss!
Oh, and yes - unfortunately, the game suck badly.
You would think. I donât know anyone who has suffered through the gameplay/controls to even see all the content theyâve added.
Iâm sure getting the feel right is really hard, but it seems like theyâve never even tried/iterated on it?
When I played a lot a year ago, I got quite used to the pacing and controls and was used to it. I didnât even hate it that I recall, but it was much slower paced in your character movement with slower positioning and tactics as far as controlling your movement. The skill/ability system, however, kept me busy with all the ability stacking you could do and trying to maintain temporary buffs and de-buffs? to win battles. In some cases, your performance in battle really could make a difference on whether you succeeded or not.
The main reason I quit was they had just done a huge nerf to dropped coin and loot and it made it so that it was near impossible to acquire any actual wealth to go shopping for neat weapons, armor or housing stuff after paying for your normal equipment maintenance upkeep. It also made the chance for someone like me to own a house to be absolutely impossible through fighting and that was what finally made me give up.
A month ago, Portalarium announced that Shroud of the Avatar will be leaving Early Access on March 27, 2018. According to the gameâs website, the project raised over $12 million! I had no idea it was that popular.
Thatâs cool. I keep trying to give this a proper go (I backed the kickstarter and am a known Garriott fanboi) but various aspects of clunkiness and not-enough-time have pushed against it. I should try again soon.