14 DAY TRIAL // The team led by Richard Garriott currently working on the new Shroud of the Avatar experience says that it has created an entirely innovative server model for the MMO that might make it more stable in the long term.
Speaking to GamersNexus, the developer says that the world will be shared by all gamers, with no shards, and that the game will actively use each computer to ensure it remains playable even if servers fail.
Shroud of the Avatar will allow gamers to play alone if they wish to or to select only a small group of players that will follow them around.
Garriott says that no moment of unscheduled downtime has been registered so far during the testing phase.
Of course, that might change when a big number of players begin exploring the world of Shroud of the Avatar and when some of them start testing the limits of the MMO.
The development team is currently aiming to launch an alpha testing stage before the end of summer, presumably to see how their new ideas work, and to have an open beta running by fall.
Before 2015 is done, a 1.0 version of Shroud of the Avatar should also be available.