Who are the devs?

[UODevTracker]

Original Thread

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[Cal_Mythic]

Mark, Billy Teng, Phoenix, Mesanna, Grimm Omen, Wilki, and Supreem are the ones I can think of.

What's really funny is we call him Billy Teng too.
We never call him just Billy.

"What's the difference between Billy Teng and Chuck Norris?"
"Billy Teng is not afraid of Chuck ..."

Thanks Joy-Elf for the sweet new sig ...

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Classy sig.

Gracias .. and yeah it should say Uriah ... but it's my first gift from a player and it's sheer sweetness ... so I'm accepting it.

To answer the question, though .. YES! There are people left on the team. Yes we have a stable of develeopers who you actually know ... and love ... others who contribute behind the scenes as well.

Also, we are actually adding a couple of people to the team in the next month or so ...

AND AND ...

Well for the rest of the stuff you'll just have to wait and see.
I'm not throwing promises by any means, but I'm excited about what we have planned for you guys ... and so is the team


And please stop making me get my post count up ... Air is watching ...
- c

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Much like their subscription numbers, I'm sure it looks better if we think they have a bigger team rather than simply a skeleton crew. In other words, good luck getting a full list from them.

Yeah sorry, Canary ... I don't give out my Powerpoint slides to just anyone
Also, I really enjoy my job and my team so sharing that information at best would be unwise.

I hear what you guys are saying ... and I understand your concern. But for now please know the team is solid, and actually growing and we're paying attention to what you guy are asking about.

Now if you'll excuse me I have dinner waiting ... I had a New Year's resolution and no fast food for three months ...

Ummm no it's not going well ... I really want a Quarter pounder with cheese and a strawberry milkshake (small).

- c

 

[Cal_Mythic]

I've been wondering:

Some great people have been leaving the UO Team recently. Obviously, they are being replaced by new people, so it probably isn't just EA laying off personell to reduce cost. I have no idea what the reason behind that policy is.

On the one hand, people who have been with the UO Team for years, know the game like no other and have a lot of experience and knowledge, are leaving (volontarily?).

On the other hand, fresh blood brings new ideas. While a lot of new game features have been fantastic, I still fail to see a really strategic decision about the future of UO. I mean, instead of adding more and more features, solving some of the very old issues might be more rewarding for both the players and the subscription numbers.

It probably is under NDA, but I will ask anyway: What is the strategy about the future of UO? Is there a strategy other than just keeping the game in its status quo?

(P.S.: With "strategy", I don't meen fixing hacking and cheating. That's a matter of course.)

Great question ... I'll try to be thorough.

The focus this year is "The Live Game". We are trying to drive more roleplaying with the fiction, and with the update to factions, we'd like the system not only to be about PvP but give others who don't care to PvP a reason for participating.

What we find is that during an "Expansion" year the live game doesn't get as much attention while we're prepping goodness. So we'd like to let the playerbase know we're paying attention, and supporting what IS not just adding more stuff.

Many of the changes and direction will be addressed through fiction. We have folks dedicated to the Factions SYSTEMS specifically, and Shade and I (along with an additional game designer in the studio) are hashing out the main story arc. It's going to be dastardly. I tried my hand last year at writing a little bit, and it was met well ... I won't be doing much, but I'll get to be more creative.

I was an English major at USAFA ... but I guess not even Word 2007 can account for all my gaffs <-- Edit ... I spelled gaffes incorrectly but leaving it!!

<reads back to make certain he doesn't leave anything out>

As far as players who are actually playing the game ... Yes, we actually have several folks on the team who are more than committed to understanding the game and play it. Within the team, and also through the EMs we have several checks in place to make sure we stay in touch not only with UO ... but core Ultima. In addition, the team plays together weekly on Baja. Finally, Mesanna is the Divine Angel ON all shards so she'll snap at us if we get too out of hand.

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement. Yeah last week was rough, and I can't promise to always be around ... but if the team gets as warm a reception as you've given me, I'm sure you'll see more of us.

If not ... I'll nerf everything and start from scratch ... *

* - (Disclaimer: The previous sentence was sarcasm.)

 

[Cal_Mythic]

Cal,

UO's content has always been great. Right now the number issue as far as the long term future of UO is the graphics. Many players may be okay with the 2d Jurassic graphics but many old players like myself are not. And I would think new players (new customers) which are vital to any continued successful business the 2d Graphics aren't up to par. This issue needs to be addressed..the sooner the better. I personally don't care for the role-playing and 'event's. I'd much rather have you guys working on making the game look better and then later on down the line start doing events. The game is sorely lacking from a visual standpoint and despite the negative press UOKR received the EC was a big step backwards.

I would like to see some progress made in this area as far as a UO High Resolution option. I've seen an interview of yours where you mentioned that this one something being looked at. Get on it man...get the ball rolling.

Surely you've seen the polished up graphics Saphreena has done. Something along these lines need to be done to UO to ensure the future of the game. Get Saphreena or someone like her on your payroll and get working on improving these graphics. Upload a few high resolution graphics as often as possible and over time we'll have a beautiful looking game.

Who do you think I am Obama? Baby steps, man ... how about we get what we're planning done first? Then move on to the next thing.

But for the record ... yeah, Saph and I were in dialog for a while, but time and circumstances happened and she got pulled on to something else.
Edit: (meaning I dragged my feet and lost the opportunity to work with Saph). Believe me, though, I know this is a topic near and dear to everyone's heart. But yeah, I've seen her works and it's awesome.

Maybe one day *looks off wistfully* ...

There are LOTS of Divine things we'd like to do but I can't let my eyes get ahead of my stomach for all the things I get from the UO buffet

 

[Cal_Mythic]

All right Cal, now you have me worried.

Come on. An English Major AND a zoomie?

*Sigh*

Haha ... I KNOW. I am an English major with a Bachelor of Science, with a heavy engineering core. Which means I work constantly in two hemispheres of my brain.

I was also an acquisitions officer who bought missiles who became a Java Developer for a computer aid design company (and a small bit of DBA in there too -- this allows me to talk to Derek and Billy ...)

In my spare time I learned some C++, a bit of Perl, and played with XNA and C# ...

And no I cannot cook!

 

[Cal_Mythic]

I think you're about 95% there to realizing all this on your own though!

*passes out*

Yeah, I know ... I'll be very careful when I roll out percentages from now on that's for sure!