Lord British speaks on Ultima possibilities

[Hemisphere]

Recent interview with Richard Garriott: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/f...arriott-talks-games-after-space/?biz=1&page=2

Key quote:

BIZ: If Electronic Arts wanted you to return and author a single-player Ultima for the consoles, would you do that?

Garriott: Conceptually? Sure. The property Ultima is still very near and dear to my heart. I think that if, by hook or by crook, I had access to that property, either in solo-player or multiplayer, I would absolutely love to continue to play in the Ultima universe.

Three words for EA: Hire that man!

 

[Maplestone]

Note to self: keep an eye on those young characters popping up all over the place

 

[Goodoljoe]

Well I doubt if Garriot ever came back to play as a normal character hed make his identity public,he would be chased day and night by fanboys and haters.So maybe he comes back maybe he doesnt,either way,we would never know for sure.But for what im concerned,sure come back LB,and gank that fake king Casca.. ))

 

[Kratos Aurion]

With Garriot back in the game we'd probably see reverts all tehz wayz back to beta.

 

[Bazer]

would be fun if they made new shards that where reverted some.

 

[Ghost71]

OMG!? Could it be?


http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7960/richardoc7.jpg

 

[Nestorius]

He will take away our AOS items.

 

[Devil_Woman]

OMG!? Could it be?


http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7960/richardoc7.jpg

Nope, just a wannabe. The man would know how to properly spell his own name.

 

[Gheed]

Wow it would be interesting to see the response if he were to get in on the next expansion. Too late for SA but the pirate (crosses fingers) expansion would be a hit if the oceans were made availabe for something more entertaining AND the king returned to set things right in the land. Heck they could probably make a mint if his name were associated with it.

 

[Surgeries]

...and gank that fake king Casca.. ))

I imagined this line...in the song...

Funky Cold Medina.

Hmmmm...

 

[Ghost71]

Nope, just a wannabe. The man would know how to properly spell his own name.

Dang! And i got valentine cards etc with that name! Er i mean yeah dumb wannabe whoever he is!

 

[Coldren]

I love UO.. I really do.

But if they DO somehow manage to get Garriott back?

Ultima Online 2.

Please... I'm begging, and if I won the lottery, I'd pay.

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

He says similar things here

http://www.thezogcabal.com/townhall/UltimaOnlineTownHallLordBritishInterview.mp3

i can only imagine good things happening if he gets on the team. for however long. I mean lets be real, ultima is the most badass concept to ever be conjured in the human mind, and that ******* did it.

 

[Teeshy]

Man I'd love a new single player Ultima game =)

 

[Duskofdead]

Man I'd love a new single player Ultima game =)

There's no point.... no game could ever beat Ultima VII.

 

[Teeshy]

Ah, I tend to agree (that and Underworld 1 were the frist PC games I ever played on ym own PC, and I LOVED them) but if they made it in the same flavour, that would be cool =)

 

[Duskofdead]

Ah, I tend to agree (that and Underworld 1 were the frist PC games I ever played on ym own PC, and I LOVED them) but if they made it in the same flavour, that would be cool =)

Go read the fanboy rantings about Oblivion on the Bethesda forums.... lol.... most of the stuff they say is amazing and unique about Oblivion, either a) were from Morrowind (most of 'em never played the previous game in the series) or b) already done in Ultima VII.

In particular, people talk about the NPC day/night schedules, working jobs, going home, etc., as if it originated with Oblivion. Um, hello.... Ultima VII had it!

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I don't know why honestly, but I've developed this weird hostility to Garriott over the years.

-Galen's player

 

[Duskofdead]

I don't know why honestly, but I've developed this weird hostility to Garriott over the years.

-Galen's player

I find he winds up getting personally blamed for a lot that board rooms of suits end up taking out of his hands and deciding for themselves, and ticking off players. The guy has class, though.... he won't say why he left almost any company he left, and then gets blamed for being a bum, flake, etc. etc. In really any question between Garriot and EA, EA was the jerk. Hands down. We know that even as players.

 

[Stupid Miner]

There's no point.... no game could ever beat Ultima VII.

Not to be anti-ultima, but, yea, there are alot of games better than U7.

 

[Duskofdead]

Not to be anti-ultima, but, yea, there are alot of games better than U7.

Shoo shoo! Back to Halo with ye.

 

[4gregu]

Even UO at launch wasn’t what Garriott wanted it to be. It all took a wrong turn from his imagined "social experiment" point of view. I really doubt he would come and "save" UO. Seeing as it has traveled so far down a path that he didn’t want it to go.

It would be much easier (if he were so inclined) to make UO2, than it would be to try and "fix" UO from what it has become.

But with the economy what it is, and the fact that EA has made the choices they have in the past, I really doubt we will ever see another Online Ultima game, a console is much more likely.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Yes, he did create UO, and for that we shall always be glad. But he only planned for it to exist for 6 months. If everything had gone as he'd intended UO would be but a distant memory and none of us would be here. I think it highly unlikely that he will ever return. Both he and UO have moved on, and in totally different directions.

 

[Maplestone]

Both he and UO have moved on, and in totally different directions.

The waves of time never completely erase the footprints along the shores of Vesper, nor forever dull the gleam from the shields of Britain.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

It would be interesting to see him return to UOeven if all he does is play an "event moderator" himself as Lord British.

Any further game design I think would be his choice, although I'd bet he'd want something in his contract to the effect of "Keep Marketing the hell away from my game, I'll release it when it's ready".

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I find he winds up getting personally blamed for a lot that board rooms of suits end up taking out of his hands and deciding for themselves, and ticking off players. The guy has class, though.... he won't say why he left almost any company he left, and then gets blamed for being a bum, flake, etc. etc. In really any question between Garriot and EA, EA was the jerk. Hands down. We know that even as players.

I'm pretty sure my dislike of him was nothing that could be traced to a decision of EA Corporate that he took blame for....

But I'd feel more confidant if I could remember what it was, exactly, as opposed to just remembering what it wasn't.

*sighs*

Oh well.

-Galen's player

 

[timbeOFbaja]

Given what a flop Tabula Rasa was, I've started to doubt how much impact he really had on UO's development. Meanwhile Rich Vogel, last i read, was still out there creating story-based RPG games with an independent developer using a Ultima VII type engine and Raph Koster has gone on to be the elad developer on a game that was much more successful than TR.

 

[slavoie]

Why would anybody think that Richard Garriot does not play even now. Is he banned from starting his own personal account...

And even if he was, I'm sure he could find someone to start an account for him...

 

[Maplestone]

I tend to blindly assume that someone able to afford to take tourist trips to space would be unlikely to share any of the same hobbies I do.

(that and there must be a certain angst in visiting a world you created but no longer control ... I would find that hard)

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Man I'd love a new single player Ultima game =)

Isn't UO pretty much a single player game on most shards these days?

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Shoo shoo! Back to Halo with ye.

 

[kelmo]

Some shards much so more than others... *winks*

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Lord British will return...wait and see. And when he does, he will be PISSED that Casca succeeded him and not my sister Abigail!

Wait and see.

There will be a great big I TOLD YA SO from Morgana!!

 

[Ender]

Lord British wouldn't pick a random player to succeed him. <_<

And he won't be coming back, 99% chance.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

You are probably right.

 

[daisuke]

regardless if LB is hired onto EA again, i think ultima X should be unshelved. ultima IX only failed because it was released ahead of schedule with a poorly thought out control scheme. They could make a decent bit of cash with the property still as long as they let the playtesters have a few months with it

btw, even with the terrible controls and bugs i thought u9 was excellent and i still boot it up from time to time just to run around and see britannia in beautifully rendered 3d

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

D

btw, even with the terrible controls and bugs i thought u9 was excellent and i still boot it up from time to time just to run around and see britannia in beautifully rendered 3d

Walking around the cities is worth the price of admission.

Imagine a UO rendered like that, or better! And one that actually worked!

Crack.

Pure Crack.

 

[Ender]

Imagine a UO with Oblivion-level graphics, yet a much bigger world. Would be so awesome.

 

[Bara]

I love UO.. I really do.

But if they DO somehow manage to get Garriott back?

Ultima Online 2.

Please... I'm begging, and if I won the lottery, I'd pay.

Amen!

Garriott isn't as concerned with the past as.. well. yeah.

But, realistically, I would rather see him just forge his own path and come up with something new. Many of us remember the nightmare when EA fired his original staff and how things went downhill from there.

 

[Abigail LeFay]

We cannot forge ahead into the future unless we understand our past.


If Lord British does come back (and I think he will), I think it will be to embrace the past and move ahead into the future...something UO has not been able to do without him.

If he doesn't come back...then it would seem that we will fall under the boot of the Usurper.

And all will be lost.

Or will it?

 

[maujai]

Imagine a UO rendered like that, or better! And one that actually worked!

Crack.

Pure Crack.

If LB came back and made UO2 I think it would be safe to say tons of former players would flock back. It is time for a real 3d UO.

 

[maujai]

Amen!

Garriott isn't as concerned with the past as.. well. yeah.

But, realistically, I would rather see him just forge his own path and come up with something new. Many of us remember the nightmare when EA fired his original staff and how things went downhill from there.

Yeah, bring back Lord Blackthorn, (Starr Long), too.

 

[Duskofdead]

Imagine a UO with Oblivion-level graphics, yet a much bigger world. Would be so awesome.

Be careful what you wish for. I think you might underestimate what exactly "makes" UO. A lot of people mention free choice, and that's a valid point. But you have to temper it with the fact that it has such a variety of mostly older, more mature players at this point... who are there to have fun, and do things the way they want.

I think a modern-day 3d Oblivion esque, high quality version of UO would attract an appropriate crowd.... i.e. young, time unlimited powergamers. An influx of similar crowd really (in my opinion) hurt the game a lot in the year after T2A, and I would mark this time as when virutally all of my friends who had been (at that time) long-time players left, or became inactive. I eventually cancelled my account as well once I realized that for most of the year, all I had been doing was refreshing my house. It wasn't that the new crowd "broke the game" in any mechanics sense. It was that they were a different crowd. Everyone had a GM smith. Everyone had the same builds. Everyone did everything the same way. People would log on to do their power hour and log off. Less community. Less socialization. More grinding. More AFK standing. Less interest in something that wasn't a skill gain or drop. Just think, the crowd which basically entirely characterizes games like WOW or EQ.

That's the crowd you get with a state of the art, graphically beautiful modern MMO. At least for awhile, until they're on to the next big thing, or if the MMO flops. Even though UO is a virtual wasteland, population wise, from what I remember when I left... I'm a strong believer in quality over quantity. And I actually believe for the most part, UO has quality. I don't know that I would trade 10,000 more active players on my shard for a power gamer mindset taking over where every single person is a tamer mage and you have to be also or they won't take you to champs... that kind of thing is normal in other games.

 

[zorrah]

Very, very, very well put, Duskofdead. My first run in UO was exactly similar to your description of post-T2A (played from beta until probably 6-9 months after T2A came out). I am now closing in on the second year of my second return, and I must say that I *still* am uncomfortable with how very much item-based this game has become. It's frustrating and I try to overlook it, but I am well aware that if I choose to ignore things like Hit Chance Increase (oh, to go back to the days of Supremely Accurate Krysses of Vanquishing!), I am less likely to be "successful" in this game, and will never be able to participate in high end encounters as I would like to some day.

I must also say that the two times that I've returned have been for the same reasons:
1. The vast number of possibilities within the game. Being able to completely customize your character's life (house/attire/vocation/etc) is an amazing thing that is truly unmatched by any other MMORPG on the market, even to this day, imnsho. I absolutely love that I can build my own house, decorate it the way I want, and hire vendors to sell the things I make while I go out fishing for a couple of hours.

2. The sense of community. While the current population on shards is nothing less than pathetic compared to the UO that I remember and love, and while everyone that I played with for years in the past have now moved on to other things, the majority of the people that I've met during this return back to the game are the type of folks that drew me to this game in the first place.

While I would love to experience a "beautiful" UO, I think that your description of the current gaming scene is absolutely correct. I miss the hustle and bustle of busy banks, but I do not miss the dumb kids (er, I guess I was a kid when I started playing this game.. now 30, augh!), even if they mostly just made me laugh.

As an aside, I was on vacation recently and was showing UO to a friend of mine who is an avid gamer. I was showing him, with great disgust, how awful UO's version of 3d looks. I then loaded 2d up to show him how much more crisp and beautiful it actually is in comparison to the muddy, fuzzy, wannabe 3d that KR is. He then looked at me in disgust. "You really think THAT looks good?" he asked. I guess fond memories can do much to cloud a person's judgement.

 

[Goodoljoe]

I wonder if a post to criticise UO has ever existed without mentioning tamer mages

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Key quote:Three words for EA: Hire that man!

Bah, he's a sell out and should never be allowed to touch UO again...la

 

[Duskofdead]

People who are graphics... well, I won't use the impolite word. Obsessed with graphics and need a game to have good graphics, or else they are miserable and complain... honestly, MMO's aren't for them. MMO's are always at least slightly behind the times because of the extra strain of trying to accomodate so many players in sync with the servers, latency, etc. WOW on the day it was released, you still could have gone out and bought top of the line action games with better graphics. But, they're usually good enough near release that they'll attract a lot of the superficial crowd that has no interest in depth... gameplay... customization... options, etc. It's just a flashy pretty action game they're trying to "win." And if that means doing everything the exact same way everyone else is, that's fine with them.

Kind of a side-rant.

That's why graphics are not everything... ESPECIALLY when it comes to RPG's of any stripe. Look at all the people who rant and rave about loving Oblivion. A flat half of them never tried Morrowind and don't want to. (Even though it had cutting edge graphics for its time, five years earlier, and doesn't look terribly bad, even today.) And I bet if you got a top 10 list out of most of the people who love Oblivion.... most of the rest of their favorite games would be like... Halo.... GTA.... you'd be hard pressed to find a serious RPG in the list. That's what you get when you try too hard to have the best of every world... a first person action mode, beautiful graphics, exciting fast-paced action... wrapped up in a so-called "RPG", you get action gamers who could care less that this is UO (or whatever..) and not San Andreas.

 

[Duskofdead]

I wonder if a post to criticise UO has ever existed without mentioning tamer mages

Yes, many. Tamer Mages weren't even a top 5 issue when I left UO. I don't know that they were even top 10 or top 20 out of issues people were discussing about the game back in '01 and '02. So now that I'm back I can only assume it's the GD and the tameables that have been added since which really furthered imbalances.

 

[Duskofdead]

Bah, he's a sell out and should never be allowed to touch UO again...la

Um? Ultima was basically his whole brainchild? And this whole EXTREMELY late thing of trying to throw in the virtues... is finally, after 11 years, moving UO marginally back towards Garriot's original view... not just of Ultima overall but of UO specifically.

So who's the poser and sellout really? EA are just a bunch of greedy suits like any other game company who have treated UO like a hated stepchild who's too handy on the farm to throw out or beat to death. Don't really care about what's best for the game... care about what keeps more money coming in. That's why you have 50,000 new kinds of deco items and no fixes for issues which have existed for 11 years.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

The only reason I would like to see a UO rendered completely in 1st or 3rd person true 3D is for the immersion.

I would never, ever, want to see UO turned into a WoW or EQ clone. It's already gone too far in that direction in my opinion. But there are still elements of UO that remain in tact...like having the ability to customize your character. There are no levels. There is no top. There is only what you want to do.

Many days, I log into to UO, and just visit places I have not seen. I have been playing this game for over 11 years now (since the Beta) and believe it or not, there are still new things and places to see. It's not always about fighting monsters, or PvP, or crafting, or collecting things...sometimes its just about being in the world we all have spent so many years getting attached to. I am a shop-a-holic, guilty, I love shopping...but not because I really want to own all that crap...mostly because I like to see whats out there. I meet many people while out shopping. To me, its a fun part of the game.

You don't get that kind of experience out of what I like to call A+B=C games like WoW.

Well, spiel over...back on the original topic