Update of the Avatar #127 – 2015.05.28: Play R18 Now!, Open PvP in Vengeance, Avatars Radio Patreon, Over $8000 Raised for Water.org, and More!

Greetings Fellow Avatars!

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

• Play Release 18 Now!
• Player Owned Town #2: The Open PvP Town of Vengeance
• Avatars Radio Presents FireLotus Traditional Release (18) Party
• Support Avatars Radio on Patreon
• Rize Up Gaming plus SotA Backers Raise Over $8,000 for Water.org
• New Basements
• In-game Community Weekend Events
• 4 Days Until Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter Campaign
• Blade of the Avatar Pledge Reward and Add-Ons Expire May 31
• Receiving Pledge Rewards and Add-On Items
• Changes to Store Credit Conversions
• Steam Access Keys Available for All Backers
• How to Cancel Monthly Layaway Payment Plans
• Upcoming Events

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Play Release 18 Now!

Avatars Radio FireLotus Release 18 Party hosted by 4B on the island of Estercove. Check out more screenshots in the Release 18 Screenshot Gallery.

Release 18 successfully launched yesterday, May 28, with thousands of backers downloading, patching, logging in, and checking out the new changes! Lots of new content to explore, including:

• Vengeance: SotA’s first Open PvP Player Owned Town
• Dynamic Creature & Resource Spawning
• 16 Improved Scenes
• New Combat Deck Mechanic
• Overworld Camera Changes
• New Armor and Armor Variations
• Astronomy & Calendar
• New User Experience Revamp
• …and more!

Check out the Release 18 Instructions update for detailed information about all the new R18 content.

The Grand Tour Quest
Just as in our last several releases, we’ve included a Grand Tour Quest designed to guide you through all the new content. You will be able to get the Bycocket Hat by completing the Release 18 Grand Tour Quest. This reward can only be unlocked during Release 18 (did someone say rares?), so be sure to log in soon and talk to all the Tour Guides!

And if you need a little help with the R18 Grand Tour Quest, The Mad Hermit has graciously provided this how-to video:

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We need all your help with testing the new patches, putting more stress on our multiplayer servers, and testing the new game content, so please join us in playing Release 18!

If you have not backed the game yet, you will need to register and login at www.shroudoftheavatar.com, select the “Pledge or Send Gift!” button in the right side-bar, and purchase a pledge at the $45 Adventurer level or above. The basic Adventurer level pledge is also available on Steam Early Access.

Release 18 Player Instructions

Release 18 Known Issues

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R18 Patch Notes

Thanks to all our community members that jumped right into Release 18 and started reporting bugs. We’ve already fixed quite a few of them and pushed out several patches. Click here for the most up-to-date Patch Notes.

May 29, 2015

Build Number 271: 11:00 AM

Fixes:

• Fixed issue with plate boots showing up as red versus metallic
• Fixed Renton Graff’s dialog issues
• Fixed Marlene Graff’s dialog
• Fixed Jeanne’s dialog in Soltown.
• Fixed beard turning off with certain leather helms
• Edited glow color setting to make shadow side of planets not glow unnaturally. Also, turned up emission on lava seams on moon core
• Removed invisible wall and cleaned up decoration layers in Benefactor Lord home
• Set oracle faction to be FriendlyToAll to keep it from being killed by npcs
• Fixes to help with loading really full basements
• Fixed gaps in Augmented Chain chest piece
• Female guards now have their heads back
• Fixed shield with missing texture in Ferig’s Battle Camp
• Removed the coal mining nodes from Spectral Mines that didn’t actually give coal
• Added collision to windows in Benefactor Baron house
• Fixed eyes rolling back on female avatar when using /toast emote
• Fixed sparkles not showing up on ore nodes properly
• /zone is now interrupted by entering combat
• Kobold Archers no longer holding bow backwards
• Added more resources to Spectral Foothills and made sure they were all accesible
• Fixed place where you could climb out of  Spectral Foothills
• Fixed non-interactive braziers in Solace Bridge
• Pass through many maps to make sure all ore nodes are working properly (West Veiled Swamp,  East Perennial Trail, Necropolis Barrens, Southern & Northern Grunvald Barrens, Savrenoc Stronghold, Deep Savrenoc Timberlands, Savrenoc Timberlands)
• Combat Idle animations should no longer cause elongated neck on male avatars
• Satyr Archer holding bow backwards
• Reconnected the North Ravenswood scene on HiddenVale
• Fixed issue that was causing other players to appear stuck in various animation loops
• Fixed issue that may have been causing other players to be invisible
• The following items no longer need be taken to a specific NPC but can be sold for the same value at any merchant: Animal Hides, Ectoplasmic Residue, Silver Ore, and Mystic Graff Gems.
• Fixed damage numbers not showing up on resurrected Skeletons
• Can no longer exploit the Morgan/Myra quest for infinite gold/XP.
• Equipped wands and spyglasses should now animate properly in left hand
• /follow will now properly deactivate Vanish spell
• Fixed decoration layer issues in Founder Knight  home
• Fixed floating “For Sale” stones in Vengeance
• Fixed issue where jump windup animation would not play
• Secret door no longer rotated 90 degrees in Knight Benefactor Home
• Back door now working in Knight Benefactor Home

Known Issues:

• Planets will stop rotating randomly
• If your video drivers are out of date characters will appear as if they are covered in triangles.
• Some cities are experiencing performance spikes
• Some assets create flash bulb like sparks on screen
• The screen may go dark unexpectedly in some cases.  If this occurs, you can open the video options and turn off Tone Mapping as a temporary fix.
• Many pledge, add on, and stretch goal items have not yet been built and/or do not yet have tech support. These will not be complete until later this year
• The update to Unity 5 caused a host of general texture and lighting related issues, and not all of these have been resolved.
• Distant tree billboards may have a white outline that is especially noticeable at night, and some trees may shimmer with white at night.
• Skin tone will sometimes not match properly on different parts of the body
• Unity 5 engine bug: Terrain is not accepting shadow casting lights and terrain lighting shows up on grid vs. radius
• ALT key can no longer be bound. This was necessary to re-enable quick self cast with ALT
• Unity 5 Engine Bug: Objects in the foreground sort incorrectly against objects in the distance like trees and the horizon

[Complete Patch Notes…]

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If you are new to Shroud of the Avatar we highly recommend taking a few minutes to watch the excellent New Player’s Video Guide from community member The Mad Hermit:

Click here to check out all of The Mad Hermit’s amazing SotA how-to videos!

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Player Owned Town #2: The Open PvP Town of Vengeance

As soon as PvP was introduced in SotA Release 8, Duke Violation and the Order of Vengeance Guild hosted the very first PvP tournament in Shroud of the Avatar on July 24, 2014. Here’s a screeenshot and excerpt about those first tournaments from Update of the Avatar #84:

The Order of Vengeance Guild hosted multiple tournaments starting on Thursday, July 24th and continuing through the weekend. The tournaments were held on The Brave Coast player island. Vengeance members procured two boats, a light house, and a Knight’s Keep across the pond from Lord British’s castle. The fights occurred on the beach with spectators watching from the bow of the boat.

The Order of Vengeance (along with other PvP-friendly groups such as The Bear Tavern, BMC, etc.), have been instrumental in helping us evolve combat and PvP in SotA. Thus, when we introduced the ability for Player Owned Towns to be flagged as Open PvP in Release 18, we chose Vengeance as the first PoT to test that functionality. Additionally, it allowed us to test the Desert biome template that Abe Robertson adapted from Michael Hutchison’s original PaxLair forest biome template.

The player town of Vengeance is located at the northern end of the Grunvald Desert:

Vengeance is hosting many PvP events during Release 18. See the In-Game Community Events section below for all their events scheduled this weekend.

Below are a few screenshots of the desert town of Vengeance, but first, there’s this message and runic scroll that Duke Violation posted in the Release 18 Event forum: Player Town: Vengeance – Quests!

Hail Avatars,

I have found this stuck on the wall of my website! I wanted to share it with you… it seems to be important in some way! Take note: this will only be viable information in the player town of Vengeance!

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Avatars Radio Presents FireLotus Traditional Release (18) Party

Today at 2pm CST, Avatars Radio presented, with the help and gracious hosting of the 4B, the Traditional FireLotus Release Party! The party was held on the Island of Estercove (just off Kingsport). Hats off to 4B for their rather unique water deck they constructed with pavers (not necessarily how we intended pavers to function, but hey, it looks really cool!).

Hmm, methinks this reveler may have partied a bit too hard!

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Support Avatars Radio on Patreon

We want to give a special shoutout to Amber Raine, founder of Avatars Radio (AR), for the selfless labor of love she pours into keeping AR on the air, keeping it fresh, recruiting and coordinating a host of awesome DJs to entertain the entire SotA community, in and out of the game!

AR’s very first broadcasts were in December 2013, with random streaming for those hanging out in IRC. Their first actual air date as an official, legal, licensed and royalty paid station was January 31st, 2014, during SotA Release 1.  AR’s About Page describes their purpose thus:

This station was created with the love of our community and fellow citizens in Lord British – Richard Garriotts’ new world of Shroud of the Avatar. Our dream desire is to serve and share (simply by airing) communities work through the moon towers. We have an open welcoming of all submissions from our community.

Sharing the talents of the community as well as that of the Terrestrial in your events, parties, and celebrations. Avatars Radio also carries a news cast to keep you up to date on what is happening in your world!

Amber and her team go to great lengths to provide awesome programming for all of us, but it comes at a cost. As SotA continues to grow in popularity, bringing in more and more players, the number of Avatars Radio listeners also increases, and the music royalties they pay through stream licensing continues to increase. Amber and her team started a Patreon site to help offset the cost of keeping Avatars Radio on the air.

If you love listening to Avatar’s Radio, now’s your chance to help Amber and her team keep it on the air! For more information, check out the Avatars Radio Patreon site and all the cool rewards they offer their patrons.

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Rize Up Gaming plus SotA Backers Raise Over $8,000 for Water.org

Rize Up Gaming sponsored a marathon last weekend for Water.org, an organization that brings water to those who cannot get clean, safe water. They’ve already raised $2,225 at their site http://give.water.org/f/RizeUpGaming/, exceeding their goal of $1500.

Additionally, as part of Portalarium’s founding purpose to promote good will and make a positive difference in the world, we recently added our first “Make a Difference”  items to the Add-On Store. For each of these items you purchase, Portalarium will give 50% of its share of the purchase price. By purchasing these items, you are helping to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. These first items are dedicated to Water.org, a nonprofit organization that has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America by providing access to safe water and sanitation. Learn more here: water.org

Our backers continue to amaze us with their outpouring of support! Since introducing these items two weeks ago, backers have purchased over $14,000 of them, with over $6,000 of this going to Water.org! Between donations from our backers and donations at Rize Up Gaming’s site, over $8,000 has been raised for water.org!

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New Basements

For those of you that wish to expand the Stone basements that were included in your village, town, city, keep, or castle pledge rewards, we have added 5-story versions of those basements to the Add-On Store.

Village Stone 5-Story Basement

Town Stone 5-Story Basement

City Stone 5-Story Basement

Keep Stone 5-Story Basement

Castle Stone 5-Story Basement

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In-game Weekend Community Events

Our amazing community has another great lineup of in-game events planned for this weekend. Here is the latest schedule of player events from the Avatar’s Circle Community Events calendar and the Events of the Avatars community calendar:

Recurring Events

• NBNN Phrase That Pays Weekend R18 (Fri, May 29, 1pm CST – Mon, June 1, 12am CST)
  • NBNN is giving away $100 in store credit the weekend of May 28-30 to coincide with Release 18! There are 2 ways to win: during the live broadcasts or by registering for the general pool. (details)
• Novian Academy: Deans Working Hours (Fridays, 4:30pm CST)
  • New to the game? Have questions or comments? Dean Kazyn Phoenixfyre shall be in office to instruct any new students how to play or where to go in the game to get on your feet. (PaxLair, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre)
• PVP Event 30 Day Tournament
  • Order of Vengeance is proud to host the first month long tournament in Shroud of the Avatar  (details)
• R17-R18 Deco Contest – PUB CRAWL!
  • The theme for this contest is some kind of drinking establishment! Prizes to the top three winners!  (details)
• Daily Breakfast Club – 12am CST (London UK); 6am CST (Central US); 3pm CST (Sydney Australia)
  • Breakfast Clubs offer a time when people from around different time zones can gather. (Wody’s Pub, Paxlair)
• Shardfall Madness PVP – Everyone fights it out in a royal rumble (Fridays, 6pm CST; Verdantis Shardfall, Novia or  /zone harry underworld; details)
• Phoenix Republic Open Mic Night (Thursdays, 7pm CST)
  • Come hang out in Wody’s Bar. Have a story or a song, Maybe want to do some stand up? Every Thursday the audience will vote on the winner of the weekly prize (PaxLair, Wody’s Bar, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Jack Knyfe)
• Beach Party by BMC (Fridays at 9pm CST)
  • Come join the BMC for dancing and fun at the Beach (/zone River Beauchamp or Wind Silverrmoon)
• Challenge Dungeon Run (Fridays at 7pm CST)
  • This is a self-host event, meet at the Braemar Cemetery and organize into groups to take on the infamous Chillblain’s Compendium of Pain & Suffering!
• BMC Presents: “The Battle Arena” (Every Mon/Wed/Fri, 1pm CST)
  • In the central location of Owl’s Head lies an octagonal ring home to the quick and easy (*snirk*) ‘Battle Arena’. You can enter into a 1v1, Single-Elimination Tourney designed to provide gritty blood-sport for those of you that can’t get enough of it during the weekends! (details)

Saturday, May 30

• 9:00am CST PaxLair Working Hours
  • PaxLair town and community “working hours” are for anyone interested in PaxLair. (/zone Winfield)
• 11:00am CST Church of the Dark Star – Saturday Service
  • Join Lady Amber Raine, High Priestess of the Church of the Dark Star along with Kazyn Phoenixfyre of the Church of the Sun, as they bring another thought provoking service.(PaxLair,; details)
• 12:00pm CST- Welcome Quest R18
  • Welcome Quest showcases many of the Player-owned and Player-ran towns in New Britannia. Come for unique events in each town. We rotate towns between each Welcome Quest. To join in just “/zone Dara Brae” and you will be transported to the event. (details)
• 2:00pm CST All Towns Gathering – Ardoris
  • The All Player Towns Gathering is a time for many Player Owned and Run Towns to tell people about their towns and hear the latest news about town development and diplomacy. Everyone is invited to attend and is a perfect time to meet town leaders and learn what the towns are like. /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre
• 3:00pm CST MagicSweeper! (Topic: Geek Trivia!)
  • Come join our biweekly game of MagicSweeper – SotA’s premire game show! In this gameshow you can compete against avatars of all kinds with new trivia topics each game! Win gold, great items or even addon store prizes! /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre to attend
• 5:00pm CST By Royal Warrant: Vengeance Tournament!
  • Join Order of Vengeance as they host a player vs player tournament! This will be either a 1v1, 3v3, or FFA tournament. The winner always gets a prize! “/zone Violation” to join!
• 7:30pm CST Tari Silimsure Birthday Bash
  • It’s Tari’s birthday! So let’s all help one of the most helpful of our community and shower her with gifts as we celebrate Tari’s birthday. /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre
• 8:00pm CST Avatars Radio Presents – Return to the 80s Club with DJ Lum?
  • For One Week Only (possibly) – Lum Th’Mad takes up position in the Moon Tower and Rocks Avatars Radio like it was 1987!

Sunday, May 31

• 6:30am CST – Explore Novia with royalsexy (PaxLair Moon Tower, /zone royalsexy)
• 10:00am CST – Phoenix Republic Town Hall/Working Hours
  • A Gathering of members of the Phoenix Republic to cover important topic areas of the month. (PaxLair, /zone Kazyn Phoenixfyre or Jack Knyfe)
• 2:00pm CST – 4B Maze Event – 1st Anniversay (PaxLair, central lot by Moon Tower)
  • No not 4B celebrates the anniversary, the maze itself does. R6 was the birth of the first maze in New Britannia.
• 3:00pm CST Gustball
  • Two teams are pitted against each other by using Gust to a “gustball” (aka avatar) around the field and into your opponent’s goal. (City of Vengeance, /zone The Ball; details)
• 5:00pm CST – BMC Grid Iron Feast and Registration (details)
• 6:00pm CST – BMC First Blood at Grid-Iron (details)
  • The BMC is proud to present the nastiest, the foulest, the most feared arena in all of New Britannia! The Grid-Iron is equipped with a pit-style arena, locker rooms, a VIP round-table, betting & vendor booths, and all the blood-sport you can handle.
• 7:00pm CST – PaxLair Meeting (PaxLair, /zone Winfield)
  • Come see what PaxLair is up to in Novia and other town areas! Many people also attend from towns and guilds for a bit of a weekly wrap-up and what’s happening. Good discussions!
• 8:00pm CST – Fishing with Winfield (some lake or pond, /zone Winfield)
  • Come sit with Winfield on a log or rock to hear some fish tales or tell your own. Chat about anything from the moons to the earth worms. Spend a relaxing day in nature near a stream or lake — bring insect repellent or a sword.

Be sure and check out the Release 18 Events thread in the SotA forums for additional events that may not be included here.

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4 Days Until Bard’s Tale IV Kickstarter Campaign

As we mentioned last week, our long-time friend and colleague, Brian Fargo, and his team over at inXile recently announced they are reviving one of our favorite RPG series, The Bard’s Tale! Here’s the announcement from a recent update:

We’re very excited about our upcoming Kickstarter for The Bard’s Tale IV, which we recently announced will kick off on June 2nd! Follow our countdown on our official The Bard’s Tale IV site or sign up to get notified when we launch. We have also provided an early viewing of the Kickstarter tiers we plan to make available, you can join the discussion on our official forums.

We’re excited about the recent revival of the dungeon crawler genre that Bard’s Tale IV is helping to drive. As described by inXile, it is a single-player, party-based cRPG with dynamic phase based combat, challenging puzzles and riddles, and a game heavily invested in music, set to gorgeous Gaelic songs.

Pretty cool stuff, right? If you’re as excited as we are to see one of the most amazing RPG series live again, then head over to inXile’s Bard’s Tale IV site and sign up to be notified of their Kickstarter launch!

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Blade of the Avatar Pledge Reward and Add-Ons Expire May 31

In preparation for an upcoming publishing agreement with a major book publisher, the Blade of the Avatar novel, both digital and printed versions, are expiring on May 31, 2015. After that date, BotA will be removed from the Add-On Store and from the Pledge Rewards. All backers with pledges containing the BotA reward that pledged prior to the expiration date, or that purchased it from the Add-On Store, will still receive that reward when it comes available.

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Receiving Pledge Rewards and Add-On Items

Go to any bank to claim your Add-On items and Pledge rewards. There is a banker NPC in every map where there is player housing because when you switch houses or unclaim a lot, all the decorations will go to your bank. In most locations the Town Crier is now also a banker.

Banks are local only. You can see your items in other bank locations (they appear in location tabs), but you can only access the items in the bank you are currently at. Pledge rewards are an exception to this and can be accessed from any location.

[NOTE: there are some Add-On and Pledge reward items that have not been built yet so you may notice some of your items not showing up in your bank. If you delete your character, all equipped and inventory items, including pledge reward items, will be deleted and cannot be recovered until the next wipe]

Player Bank Upgrades

Your bank inventory size can easily be upgraded with in-game gold, with the price in gold increasing the larger your bank gets. For those that need/want really big banks faster, we’ve added a Bank Upgrade to the Add-On Store. Currently, each Bank Upgrade adds 10 more slots to your bank inventory, but that number is subject to change based on game balancing needs.

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Changes to Store Credit Conversions

If you wish to convert any of your purchased Add-On items to Store Credit, you will need to do so before logging into Shroud of the Avatar.

The instant you log into the game all of your available Pledge reward items and available Add-On items will be flagged as “claimed” and deposited in your in-game bank. Once the Add-On items are “claimed” they cannot be converted to Store Credit until the next wipe (which is currently unpredictable). After you’ve logged into SotA, the “Convert to Credits” button on your account page will be deactivated for all those items available in the game, so if you had any plans to sell back some of your Add-On items, make sure you do it before you log into the game!

We intend to change the claiming process in an upcoming Release so that items are not automatically claimed when logging in, but will require you to actively claim them in your bank before they can be used.

If you purchase any new Add-On items, or upgrade your Pledge tier, those new items and upgraded rewards will automatically appear in your in-game bank the next time you log into the game (providing those items are available in the game).

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Steam Access Keys Available for All SotA Backers

SotA successfully launched on Steam Early Access on November 24, and we’ve made Steam Access Keys available to all our backers as part of their basic pledge rewards! Once you’ve redeemed your Steam Access Key you’ll have the option of playing SotA either with the Steam client or the regular game client (or both).

Click here for instructions to redeem your Steam access key and installing the Steam SotA client…

If you play SotA on Steam you can collect the SotA Trading Cards! Collect a full set of SotA trading cards to earn SotA badges, profile backgrounds, and emoticons that help you customize your profile and show off your Shroud of the Avatar gameplay. Check out Steam’s trading card FAQ for more information.

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Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Our goal is to make Shroud of the Avatar the best game we can for you, our backers, and the best way we can do that is by growing our community of backers through the power of word-of-mouth marketing. That’s where we could use your help! With essentially no marketing budget, we rely on things like press coverage and friend-to-friend networking on platforms such as Facebook and Steam. Here’s how you can help us with your word-of-mouth efforts:

If You Like SotA then Like Us On Facebook

Facebook can be a powerful word-of-mouth marketing tool at very little cost, but only if we can reach a large enough network of Facebook users. You can help us to reach a larger Facebook audience simply by going to the Shroud of the Avatar Facebook page and clicking on the “Like” button. If every one of our 50k+ backers gave us a “Like” the marketing reach of our Facebook posts would be incredible!

If You Like SotA then Write Us a Positive Steam Review

One of the most important word-of-mouth tools on the massive Steam platform is their user reviews. Many Steam users rely on a game’s Steam reviews to help them decide if they want to play a game or not. If you feel positive about SotA, or feel positive about what SotA may become, even if you have concerns and issues, then please jump over to our Steam Store Page and give us a positive review (and feel free to include your concerns and issues in that review as well)!

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How to Cancel Monthly Layaway Payment Plans and What In-Game Rewards to Expect

Remember that Pledge payment plans are not canceled automatically after reaching the desired pledge. You must manually cancel your monthly payment plan, which can be done at anytime on your SotA Account page. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause, but it is a result of how recurring billing functions with PayPal, Amazon, and Stripe (our credit card service).

If you are on a monthly payment plan, the rewards you receive in-game may not reflect the final pledge tier you are making payments toward, but will reflect the rewards for the current pledge tier that your cumulative monthly payments have reached (your current pledge tier is shown on your Account page on the SotA website).

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This Week In the News

May 26 – MMORPG: Shroud of the Avatar Column: Release 18 – Return to Immersion

May 29 – Catching Up With Shroud of the Avatar’s Starr Long

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Upcoming Events

2015.06.16 – SotA at E3
2015.06.25 – Release 19
2015.07.25 – SotA at Classic Game Fest 2015