Robert Purchese writes : "When Ultima Online came out 17 years ago it blew my teenage mind. My medieval fantasy world was alive, inhabited by actual other people. I didn't care that I didn't have any idea what to do because it was so exciting! But Ultima Online was obtuse - making progress was an initiation, not a right. It was a reward in and of itself. And knowing that someone could come and kill you in a dungeon and loot everything you carried? Part of the magic."
From MassivelyOP: "The waters surrounding Shroud of the Avatar continue to get muddier after a letter to investors of the game from equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest was vaguely discussed by Catnip Games’ Chris Spears.
Readers will recall that in 2017, SOTA’s original company, the Richard Garriott-backed Portalarium, ran a nearly $800K equity crowdfunding investment round through SeedInvest. But Portalarium folded and transferred the game to Catnip in 2019 following a series of calamities, including layoffs, free-to-play, whaling, playerbase collapse, delayed rewards, Richard Garriott stepping down, the new CEO denying his role, and shuttered offices. As we have continued to cover ever since, Portalarium was legally bound to make reports to the SEC and SeedInvest but instead left its own non-accredited investors in the lurch. Last week, SeedInvest told backers Portalarium had failed to provide those required updates – the first time the platform had made any public statements about Portalarium’s delinquency at all."
Richard Garriott, better known as Lord British, has been working on his MMO Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues for some time. However, it's been announced that he has passed the game on to a new studio known as Catnip Games.
Ultima is probably the most influential series ever released, but Richard Garriott is nothing but a con man.
Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is an MMORPG that was released on PC back on 27 March 2018, and is still a relatively new title in regards to its competition. Designed to be a more classic and old-school MMORPG, Shroud of the Avatar decides to use many ideas from previous MMO’s that were popular and prominent in games of the genre back in the early 2000s. Whether that stacks up in 2018 remains to be seen, however.
UO was one of the very few games where a PvP fight got my heart pumping! I loved seeing murderers run for dear life when I strolled up with my group of PK hunters!