Shroud of The Avatar and What I Think of Richard Garriott.

So.

Shroud of the Avatar is an upcoming MMORPG from... well, here's the direct text from the website.

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a new type of third person fantasy RPG that combines a single player narrative with a sandbox MMO. It is being created by a team that includes:Richard “Lord British” Garriott the creator of the Ultima series, Starr Long the original Director of Ultima Online, and Tracy Hickman the author of the beloved Dragonlance Novels and Dungeons & Dragons modules.

The one name that stands out to me here is "Richard "Lord British" Garriott", which as we all remember this name from the failed Tabula Rasa many years ago. He may have created a flourishing community with Ultima, but times are a changing and I don't think he's kept up at all.

I had a go at the "demo" version of the game, which restricts you from choosing a talent tree path to one path, the lamely named "Path of Love", as well as the fact that the game restricts you in a lot of ways from enjoying the actual game. See here:

Free Trial Test Gameplay Differences:

• Free Trial Test Current Time Period: July 3 – 26, 2017
• The term (Visitor) is appended to their character name
• Cannot give items to other players via Trade
• Cannot purchase nor sell items via Player Vendors nor Public Vendors
• No ownership of property nor use of lot signs
• Cannot interact with public chests.
• Cannot move/interact with items on a plot even if they are given permissions.
• Cannot flag as Open PVP
• Cannot gain nor create ransom items when you kill or are killed in PVP (in Open PVP zones)
• Character data may be deleted after Free Trial Test is over if not upgraded to a paid account
• Items purchased in the Add On Store cannot be accessed after the Free Trial Test Period is over unless you purchase Game Access
• Cannot play in Offline Mode
• Can only start on the Path of Love

Okay, it's a trial, there's gonna be some restrictions. I was okay with this and just wanted to experience a new MMORPG world to see how it was. I played through up to the first little "camping town" or whatever it is, and explored the different NPCs as well as crafting and the like. However, I found out there was fishing in the game, and I wanted to catch some fish. So, as a player who wants to do that is want to do, I immediately opened up my skills window (K), and went to the Crafting tab, and found "Fishing", and put the "action" to do it on my bar. 

But one thing was wrong. It wouldn't let me. The text on my skill bar said that that could not be placed there. I tried placing it on the water to see if it would do anything. Nothing. I could drag it around, but nothing was happening. So I googled the problem, as anyone with a problem with a game should do because 99% of the time it's been encountered before by someone else. Unfortunately I only found posts from, I think '16 or '15 that had instructions that were not applicable anymore, because I tried them.

So I tried googling for the game forums, and found them. And I was logged into them as well, which was great, 'cause usually you have to create a separate... well, I'm getting off track. I pushed the "New Topic" button, and GUESS WHAT GREETED ME THERE?

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Basically, if you can't read the text (I know it's going off the post and idgaf, sue me), it says:

Thank you for your interest in Shroud of the Avatar! Although our public forums may be read by everyone, posting privileges require a $5 minimum game related purchase. You can either make a store purchase on the main page, or buying the game on Steam will gain you access to the forums after you link your Steam account (see account page). If you pledged through Kickstarter you will need to link your Kickstarter account for forum posting privileges. 

Needless to say, I was outraged and appalled. Who asks for money to post on a public forum to ask questions about their game to see if maybe I did indeed want to spend money on buying a package? But, that's gone with seeing this. If they want to bar my way into learning more about their game so maybe I'd want to toss money at them, then that's on them. And I urge everyone else to do the same until they revoke this.

Unfortunately I had a lot of fun playing what I did at any rate which was like 20 minutes of gameplay before work, and 30 minutes of trying to figure out how the hell to fish, so. They already dun' fucked up.

0/10 won't ever play and hope it crashes and burns like Tabula Rasa.