Happy New Year Fellow Avatars!

Welcome to our first edition of Update of the Avatar for 2014! We hope all of you enjoyed your holidays and brought in the New Year with a bang! We’ve got some cool stuff to help get your New Year off to a great start:

• SotA Makes the Forbes and MMORPG.com Top Games Lists of 2014
• More Spoony
• Benefactor Cloak
• Add-On Store Conversion
• Let’s Talk About Lots
• Darkstarr Salute
• Hammer of Prosperity
• Sigil Capes
• Changes to Chat

SotA Makes the Forbes and MMORPG.com Top Games Lists of 2014

MMORPG.COM Ranks SotA #2 Most Wanted MMO of 2014!

The staff at MMORPG.com are kicking off the New Year with their Top 10 List of The Most Wanted MMOs of 2014, and Shroud of the Avatar came in at #2!

“The spiritual successor to Ultima Online, driven by much of that game’s staff, and featuring both MMO play and completely offline adventuring. Need we really say more?”

Here’s their complete 2014 Top 10 List:

1. Wildstar Online
2. Shroud of the Avatar
3. EverQuest Next: Landmark
4. Elder Scrolls Online
5. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor
6. ArcheAge
7. Destiny
8. The Division
9. Elite Dangerous
10. The Repopulation

Forbes Includes SotA in their Best Video Game RPGs of 2014 and Beyond!

“When it comes to roleplaying video games, it often feels as though the golden days are behind us…But when you start looking at all the incredible games coming out in the next couple years, you begin to realize that there are in fact quite a few great-looking RPGs in the works…From the creator of the old Ultima games, Richard Garriott, Avatar is a crowdfunded RPG that promises to bring back some of what made those games great.”

Read more…

We Wish You the Happiest of Holidays!

From the entire Shroud of the Avatar Development Team

The Replenishing Snowball Box

And in the spirit of the season, we’ve added the Replenishing Snowball Box to the basic rewards of all pledge tiers as a holiday gift for our backers. This magical box of 50 snowballs regenerates annually during the holiday season.

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Welcome to this week’s Edition of Update of the Avatar! We have a lot of great information to share about our successful launch of Release 1, plus much more!

• Release 1 Results
• Britannia Burns – Part 3, the Spoony Roast
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 3
• Founder Duke Island Castle
• Founder Knight Home Renovations
• Founder’s Tunic
• Town and City Lots
• Oracle Statue Home Decoration
• Hoe of Prosperity
• The 6-Pack of Prosperity

Release 1 Postmortem!

Starr Long (Executive Producer) shared his perspective on the Release 1 results in a post on the public forums. Here’s an excerpt:

Greetings Avatars,

Release 1 lasted a short four days but it is having a very lasting impression on all of us. For us it was a chance to bring our loyal backers even closer to the product with hands on experience. For you it was a chance to see what you made happen through your generous pledges. At a more fundamental level Release 1 was a test of this new paradigm of crowd funded and crowd sourced development. That paradigm is about a much more transparent and tighter communication loop between the community and the developers. Nowhere is that more true than with an early test like Release 1. Yes of course it was a test of specific systems like patching, login, character customization, housing, and conversations. At a deeper level it was a test to see if we could give you something so very early in development and have you understand what to expect. We worked on that by being as clear as we could on what to expect, and what not to expect. It seemed to have worked as almost everyone who played understood what they were looking at. This understanding allowed all of you to give us really valuable and accurate feedback that we can act on…

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

It’s been a super exciting week as backers are finally able to log into Release 1 of the game and explore character creation, home decorating, and NPC conversations! Read more about it in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar, which includes:

• Release 1 Open to Play until December 14!
• Britannia Burns – Part 2, the Spoony Roast
• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 2
• Founder Starter Armor
• The Darkstarr Cloak
• Sickle of Prosperity
• Holiday Specials

Come Play Release 1 Now!

Release 1 successfully launched yesterday, December 12th, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and exploring the town of Owl’s Head! We need all our backer’s help with stress-testing the servers and testing the game systems, so please join us in playing Release 1.

In this version, you can create an avatar and equip them with different clothing, armor and weapons (scattered throughout town in chests). You can also select a house from the entire list of player houses, even the vast Lord of the Manor estate.There are chests of furniture and decorations all over Owl’s Head for you to pick up and outfit your newly established homes. You will also be able to try out the dialogue system by conversing with NPCs.

[Note: This early release is single player online only. Release 1 access will end on Saturday, December 14 at 10:00 PM Central Time]

Hurry and join us in playing Shroud of the Avatar while Release 1 access is open! (click here for more complete instructions on downloading and playing Release 1)

The Spoony Interview/Roast: Britannia Burns – Part 2!

This week we’re featuring the next installment of the Spoony interview/roast of Lord British! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

British hates the little children.

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Here’s what we have for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Blade of the Avatar Novel: Chapter 1
• Gearing Up for Release 1 Next Week!
• Kariela’s Song by David “Iolo” Watson
• Founder’s Crystal Sword
• Skinning Knife of Prosperity
• Taming Reindeer Call

Blade of the Avatar Novel, Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! If you are an Early Founder, or you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the current installment of the novel on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).  If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

Here is a brief excerpt of Chapter 1 (illustration by Denis Loubet, renowned Ultima artist):

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

Welcome to this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar. Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday we’re publishing the update early this week. Lot’s of great stuff to share, including the first installment of the SotA novel by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, and some awesome Black Friday weekend promotions!

• First Installment of Blade of the Avatar Novel
• Combat Design
• The Immortality Fruit
• The Royal Elderberry
• The Pickaxe of Prosperity
• Black Friday Weekend Promotions
• Kickstarter: The Space Bards Present Their First Album, “Neon Milk”!
• Movember: Shroud of the Mustache

[Book Cover Art by Stephen Daniele and Tracy Hickman]

Blade of the Avatar Novel, Installment 1 – Prologue

The first installment of the serialized SotA novel, Blade of the Avatar (BotA), written by Tracy Hickman & Richard Garriott, is now available for download! Digital version of BotA is included as an Early Founder reward at all pledge levels $25 or higher, and is also available in the Add-On Store for everyone. Early Founders can download the first installment at the new Early Founder Rewards area in the community forums (accessible to Early Founders only; Early Founders are backers that pledged any amount by May 20, 2013). If you are a Kickstarter backer you’ll need to have your Kickstarter account linked to the SotA website (click here for instructions to link your Kickstarter account).

If you purchased BotA in the Add-On Store, then you will find a download link for the first installment on your personal SotA account page (log into SotA website and click on “Account” in the top-right corner).

This installment consists of the Prologue. Here is a brief excerpt (illustration by Denis Loubet, renowned Ultima artist):

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

This week’s edition of Update of the Avatar includes:

• Britannia Burns! The Long Awaited Spoony Interview/Roast!
• Benefactor Knight Village Home
• Founder Knight Home Improvements
• Story Sneak Peek #7 & Map Reveal
• Founder’s Cloak
• Lord British Cloak
• Axe of Prosperity
• Hearth of Britannia Lords of the Hearth Event
• Gifts of the Avatar!

Britannia Burns! The Long Awaited Spoony Interview/Roast!

You wanted it! You earned it in our Kickstarter Stretch Goals! You waited for it! Well, wait no longer! Presenting… Spoony meets Lord British, Part 1!

The unvirtuous force meets the inscrutable object!

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

We have another fun-filled edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Unity Scene Jam Grand Prize Winners
• Recruit-A-Friend Winners
• Story Sneak Peek #6 & Map Reveal
• Magic, Combat, and Crafting Skills Design
• Thanksgiving Specials: Taming Turkey Call & Cornucopia
• Windmill Village Home
• Village Mine Basements
• Movember: Shroud of the Mustache

Unity Scene Jam Grand Prize Winners!

[Chris Spears narrates a walk-thru of the Scene Jam Grand Prize Winner]

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

This week’s edition of Update of the Avatar is filled with more cool stuff:

• Unity Scene Jam IV Winners
• Story Sneak Peek & Map Reveal
• Early Access Release Schedule
• Founder Baron City Home

Unity Scene Jam IV Winners!

[Chris Spears narrates a walk-thru of the Scene Jam IV Winners]

Read more…

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

We have some great stuff for you in this week’s edition of Update of the Avatar:

• Six Month Progress Video
• Story Sneak Peeks
• Founder Adventurer Starter Shield
• Fishing Pole of Prosperity
• Our Final Unity Scene Jam (#4)
• Recruit-A-Friend Promotion

Six Month Progress Video!

[Lord British Narrates the Six Month Progress Video]

It’s been a little over three months since we released our 3 Month progress video, and we’re excited to share the progress we’ve made since then. We encourage you to set your playback quality to HD, switch to full-screen, and enjoy our six month progress video, narrated by Richard “Lord British” Garriott!

Read more…