You may recall that space tourist Richard Garriott, fresh from the total collapse of Avatar Shroud, threatened us all with another new NFT-filled MMO project back in April of this year. Any hope that this might have been a passing fancy or that those involved had come to their senses are now dashed, as the game in question now has a title and a website. Touting a game called iron and magicthe website does not detail any system, settings information, or release date plan, but it does Is having a store section marked as coming soon asking you to buy land in a world created by Lord British.
No, really, that’s what happens with a click of the scroll wheel. Until the store, which is coming soon and displays small, custom-made rotating terrain blocks that you can buy. This is not a joke; this is what the team actually exposed. The Official Twitter has more details on the actual systems, calling the game a web 3.0 sandbox and teasing things like biomes, cooking mini-games, party seekers, various shops, magic, and more, though it does not offer more detail than the list of concepts.
You can, of course, also click on the “team” section to see the names associated with the game. MMO fans will already know Garriott as well as Catnip Games figure Chris Spears, but Todd Porter and Shane Zhu are the two heads poster on the team page. Both come from DeHorizon, a company that has already received several funding from investors in an attempt to create a metaverse gaming platform. Garriott himself is listed as a “creative advisor”, but his name is clearly listed in many places as being one of the main selling points of this project.
A little reminder for those who forgot: Avatar Shroud is an MMORPG directed by Richard Garriott that was originally funded by a 2013 Kickstarter, bizarre crowdfunding stunts, frequent donation telethons, and big whaling packages that have earned us all more than a few raised eyebrows. The game was mired in controversy, layoffs, delays, design issues, and ultimately a small player base when it launched. From there, it becomes a farce worthy of Shakespeare. New CEO Chris Spears denied he was taking over even as Garriott himself resigned, Portalarium closed his office, and then he quietly folded and handed over. SOTA to a newly formed independent studio. Company officials weathered this storm by insulting the press, dodging questions, making legally required SEC filings, and even trying to dodge responsibility to SeedInvest’s investors as recently as this year.
We know this was all included in the first article we linked, but just in case you don’t feel like clicking again, this was your recap. While this project wasn’t clearly a way to sell you bespoke land NFTs (which, to be clear, the website makes it fully transparent, it is), it should be more than enough red flags to make you question that.