Shroud Of The Avatar Forsaken Virtues is the forthcoming selective Multiplayer game from Lord British (AKA Richard Garriott), creator and designer of the legendary Ultima series of games. Shroud Of The Avatar is not a sequel to the Ultima games, quite possibly due to the fact that Electronic Arts and not Lord British own the trademark to Ultima.
Shroud Of The Avatar is a new form of MMO, where you can take the multi out of the equation if you wish, as the FAQ explains :
Shroud of the Avatar is a new form of multiplayer online role playing game we are calling a Selective Multiplayer Game. This will allow players to choose how they want to play. Play options will include solo offline, solo online, friends only online, or open multiplayer online. For players who play in the default open multiplayer, Shroud of the Avatar will feel very much like a traditional MMO. However, Shroud of the Avatar also includes a full solo player story crafted by Richard Garriott and Tracy Hickman, best known for his best selling Dragon Lance series of books.
Player housing in MMO’s is a growing area and Shroud Of The Avatar is going to offer plenty of options in this area. There will be a variety of sized lots avaialble, rows, villages, cities, towns, keeps and castles. So how do you get these lots, again we turn to the FAQ :
There are three ways to purchase a Lot Deed. Backers at Citizen level and above receive Lot Deed with their pledge. Players can also purchase a Lot Deed in the game through earned in game currency. Finally players can purchase Village size Lot Deeds from the Add-On store.
We can see from the add-on store that land can be somewhat costly, $1050 for a City Lot being the higher end of the spectrum. There’s also a monthly tax that has to be paid with inworld game currency. However players can buy and sell lots to each other.
Ah virtual land sales, whose really going to want to do that? Enter Lady Anshe.
AnsheX virtual goods exchange will buy those pledges from people. Those pledges are of course valuable as they can help to pay for land. They also advertise the metropolis of Liberty a place where you can buy a lot and own it, not rent according to the blurb :
Liberty is a sparkling metropolis based first and before all else on the right of each of its citizens to own his or her land. Not rent or lease or borrow, but own. This lifetime right is bestowed by the legendary Lady Anshe herself and her company on each inlander or outlander, human or elf, man or woman, royalty or commoner who proves himself worthy once with a contribution to the city through lot purchase.
I’m not quite sure how this works without a rental fee as there is talk of that inworld currency tax for lots. I assume that this inworld tax is paid to Lord British rather than Anshe. Although the FAQ does state that towns can rent out land, it’s not a real money situation by the looks of it, whereas sales of lots are a real money situation.
AnsheX is currently advertising lots for sale, or more to the point :
You are buying the right to claim a lot in one of our Shroud of the Avatar settlement zones once the game is released. To be able to do so you will also need a game account and a lot deed that you will have to acquire directly from Portalarium Studios.
The game is advertised as buy to play. Then you have buy a lot deed and then you need to buy the right to claim a lot with Anshe. This could get expensive. However it’s an interesting development to see Anshe’s empire expanding to a new experience. Whether it’s a success or not only time will tell. I’m not sure at this time that player housing will be that attractive a proposition but who knows, this is a project aimed at boldly treading a new path in the virtual world/MMO RPG experience.
The thing Anshe needs to be careful about is advertising to Elves, she would be better off offering a home to Orcs, the Orcs still need some loving!