For those who think that nobody cares about Ultima....

[Lady Storm]

FYI
I today alone helped not 1 but 4 returning players who quit at AoS.... they were lost as all hadies .... But I did ask why they came back to the game to get the idea it was not a fluke.
Their answer was the UO articles .... the more they read the more they got their couriosity back for the game. We do have a oppertunity here and I know Bonnie knows it too. Hehe she was shushing cal so you know who was running the show even then..... no ofence to Cal but it did look quite strange for the boss to be shut up. So lets get the prioritys strait and get off our duffs and tell the lady to work on our image! We need more to come back home to uo... I have given hints all over these threads to help her think of ways to draw them in... more players means bigger budget.... hint hint

 

[Uvtha]

If there are big long-term plans to grow UO and not just keep it going, or sustain it as Lady Storm said, then there won't be a need for much advertising, since the media will advertise UO for them.
.

But, I mean gaming sites will post news on like... any game that gets made. It's not that special. I do think however that "Ultima" is much more liable to get good press than UO. The Ultima series was legendary and pretty universally (with a few exceptions...) well liked and well reviewed. UO on the other hand has always had pretty rough reviews, and has offered up some tantalizing fails over the years, and one of the largest KR is probably what looms largest in the memories of non players out there.
There's no doubt that UO was an important game to the mmo genre, but it was never beloved or critically appreciated like the "Ultima" single player series by the gaming public at large.

I don't think it would be a waste to advertise UO. I just think they need to advertise to the right people, and in the right places. I don't see it happening, but...

 

[Uvtha]

more players means bigger budget.... hint hint

I... think they realize that.

 

[Zosimus]

I have given hints all over these threads to help her think of ways to draw them in... more players means bigger budget.... hint hint

Actually more players does not mean bigger budget. When they increased the subscrition they been down sizeing the UO team.

Hehe she was shushing cal so you know who was running the show even then..... no ofence to Cal but it did look quite strange for the boss to be shut up

I liked Cal. Why? Because you could see his excitement and passion for UO. Maybe he was a bit eager to spill the beans but the community has done that to itself. Hence the silence from them most times .Once a dev says soemthing that may not happen eventually hell breaks loose here on the forums. If the above quoted sentence is viewed as truth EA should of stepped in on that situation. Oh I saw it but to each his own when it comes what I think and they think.

 

[Raptor85]

I'd like to point out too if you look at all the articles and comments on those sites that talk favorably, they talk favorably about what ultima WAS, not the buggy grindfest that it currently is. 3d graphics are wonderful but we simply dont have the gameplay and content to back them up anymore, the important parts of the game have been simplified and the boring parts have been overcomplicated. I keep hearing people parrot that UO is still a sandbox game, and that it's loaded with fresh content...but I don't see that, and the subscriber numbers sure don't show that. I see a buggy new grind quest that's virtually identical to the last 5000 of them crop up every month or two, now with a slightly different recoloring/naming of an existing item as reward!, i see monsters dotting the landscape that EA couldn't even be assed to make new art for, like the ogre model that's being used for everything from ogres to "cave trolls" that looks like an ogre that has been sloppily dipped in green paint, and the only real difference between them is how hard they hit and how much hp they have.

And sandbox game? hardly, sure there's a little bit of customizability left but so many skills have added dependencies on other skills, or had damage caps tweaked based on your other skills that you can look at the skill set for 99% of people in game and put them into about 1 of 5 "classes"....it's no more "freeform" than picking skill specializations in most level based MMOs since so many of the skills are useless without 2-3 other skills with it. And yeah, don't give me the "nothing's stopping you from xxxxxx" answer, because that's BS, wanting to PLAY THE GAME stops me, i'm not going to make a warrior without tactics "because i can", i'd never see anyone because i'd have trouble fighting anything tougher than a orc. Same with the excuse that you don't "need" good armor and you can still wear simple crafted stuff if you want, because that's BS also, especially doing guild things you suit like that and you are USELESS DEAD WEIGHT to your guild, you're not contributing at all and you're actually hindering since the others will have to constantly be watching out for you. Blessed/insured items/facet rules, and all that other junk as well removed a lot of the sandbox aspect.

There are PLENTY of examples of MMOs that use nothing but 2d sprites that gain population like mad, and retain high populations for years and years....and many of them don't even have close to the level of detaiil of UOs graphics. So what do all these games have that makes a game with worse graphics more popular than UO? ...GAMEPLAY, CONTENT, and platform support! You're immersed in the game from the first second you step into the world, you're given tasks MORE INTERESTING than stuff like "ok...start grinding skill...gl!", and no i'm not just talking about quests and such, you see other games design dungeons and such for players of ALL SKILL LEVELS, and the rewards are actually worth getting to help build your character, as re-designed in uo if the monster can even be killed by a player with under 90 skill the reward is useless. UO needs new player content more than anything else, instead of turning each and every one of hte old dungeons into high level tamer/sampire camping grounds make a few new interesting dungeons intended for players under 50 skill, under 70 skill, and under 100 skill...because right now we simply can't retain new players, all but the most die-hard pixel crack addicts get BORED of uo within a day or two after they see how much grind it is and how little there is to do!

Content is king! UO lacks it....badly. 99% of the game is copy/paste of the same stuff over and over and over, pretty much any monster is a reskinned version of another, and due to how loot and such works there's very little reason to ever mess with the vast majority of them, as most older "high level" monsters are outclassed in loot by newer low level stuff, and the post-aos sheer randomness and huge number of junk items high level mobs drop makes looting a chore...the loot tables REALLY need to be cleaned up and loot match what's dropping it. If a monster is naked and using a sword...when i loot him i want to see a ton of gold and a magical sword based on the monster's toughness, a slight chance of a magical ring or bracer, and regs if it casted spells...and NOTHING ELSE, the huge pile of items monsters drop now just makes looting tedious and boring, the dwindling time i spend in UO compared to other games I feel more like I'm playing "Accountant online" than actually playing a game.

For the last of the 3 important parts in currently successful mmo's...PLATFORM SUPPORT! Even the lesser known mmo's pull in a LOT more players than uo because a LOT more people play on mac/linux/android/iOS/web now, and no that doesn't just mean "make it look crappy", most android phones these days are capable of graphics FAR better than what the EC currently looks like, with GLES2 and full shader support in their hardware. Hell, make a java client for UO that can be launched from either the website or desktop and you cover all major platforms, remove any need to do a full install, and you're basicly guaranteed to pull in a pretty good number of players who wouldn't have even considered the game before (not requiring an install is a HUGE draw)

 

[Woodsman]

I'd like to point out too if you look at all the articles and comments on those sites that talk favorably, they talk favorably about what ultima WAS, not the buggy grindfest that it currently is. 3d graphics are wonderful but we simply dont have the gameplay and content to back them up anymore,

We have more content and gameplay than just about any other MMORPG, especially since Star Wars Galaxies was closed. I see people claim that UO doesn't have much content or gameplay, but I think most of them have never played another MMORPG.

For the last of the 3 important parts in currently successful mmo's...PLATFORM SUPPORT! Even the lesser known mmo's pull in a LOT more players than uo because a LOT more people play on mac/linux/android/iOS/web now, and no that doesn't just mean "make it look crappy", most android phones these days are capable of graphics FAR better than what the EC currently looks like, with GLES2 and full shader support in their hardware. Hell, make a java client for UO that can be launched from either the website or desktop and you cover all major platforms, remove any need to do a full install, and you're basicly guaranteed to pull in a pretty good number of players who wouldn't have even considered the game before (not requiring an install is a HUGE draw)

EA won't even do multi-platform support for Star Wars: The Old Republic, a game that cost hundreds of millions. If they aren't going to go multi-platform for a game that has a budget of hundreds of millions and had well over 500+ people working on it, they are not going to put the resources into a game that has a budget of a few million and that has at most 20 or so developers.

EA won't even put the resources into supporting two clients, and you think they are capable of putting the resources into a multi-platform system?

 

[Zosimus]

UO has plenty of content but it's to much imo. Pixels have taken away the true core of what UO was suppose to be. There was nothing wrong about being simple and when true skill matter.

Forgive me but one poster (I forgot the name) said it best. Some of the remarks in these articles talk about the good ole' days or reflect upon them. They are 100% right. many ex players still talk aboyt how good it was back in the days. Replies in articles related to UO, in other MMO's I have played. I even have an article written by an ex UO player comparing UO to GW2 and calling it the UO of 2012 on our portal.

UO is still talked about more then some on these forums know. Many current running MMO's have pleanty of ex and current UO players playing them. LoTR has plenty of players that played UO. Lets name Rift, EQ, War,DaoC, GW1, GW2, WoW and I can keep on going.

Ultima Forever is not UO , BUT it still brings attention to UO.

 

[Zosimus]

Really advertsing isnt the issue of UO. EA and the dev team needs to "listen" to the UO community. Both current and ex players.

I went to one site and copied comments just off of two articles. Below are some of the responses from these UO articles out there. Some good and some bad but lets see if anybody can catch the main complaint from what I saw. I did remove the names of the posters.


XXXX writes:

You honestly dont look old enough to have played UO. At least not when it was in its prime.


7/02/12 10:37:48 AM

　

XXXX writes:

This brings back fond memories of my days roaming around in a band of black cloaked PKers, descending upon the unwary, and relieving them of their hard earned stuff. Great times.



7/02/12 11:06:33 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Oh to be back in the Ultima Online days, missed playing with my older brother when he introduced this game to me.. hell i missed making weapons and armor for everyone in a little house near a mountain..

Then when i got killed... everything changed, the hell with making armor and the hell with making swords... THIS MEANS WAR! *unarmed combat and lots of immunities to magic* youd be surprised at how effecient that was at times against players who tried to gank you while you were mining or just in town

anyone remember when Lord British was Slain and they had to reroll the servers?



7/02/12 12:33:51 PM

　

XXXXwrites:

Oh my God, I remember that! The dude got perma banned for abusing a 'hack', but I saw the pics and it looked like just a really clever placement of Firewall. Maybe he used a bug while placing the spell, I don't know.

My favorite thing to do during those early days was exactly what you said, prey on miners. Or get someone to attack me on a town border, then cross the guard line and call guards on them. Completely cheap and a total abuse of a poorly thought out mechanic... but I was 15, and it was hilarious every time.



7/02/12 1:34:15 PM

XXXX writes:

Pokket was right around 10 or 11 when Ultima Online was released. 13 or 14 by the time the game was ruined.

I always admire someone who started gaming at such an early age.



7/02/12 4:47:11 PM

XXXX writes:

Yup! I was 12 when I started playing with my uncle and dad. They still had "power hour" in the game and I'd go to Humility Shrine to train my disarm thief and lumberjack on the rotting corpses.

I got about a year or two in before they "ruined it". I bounced back and forth between the main servers and [mod edit] That server was a lot of fun. Not going to lie, I still liked UO even after Age of Shadows :s I played up to Kingdom Reborn.



7/02/12 5:45:46 PM

XXXX writes:

UO had some incredible features, but also had tow that completely ruined it for alot of us: FFA PVP and a terrible communtiy..........COmbine FFA PVP with a legion of ganking jerks and you have one terrible game regardless of what other features it offers......For many of us UO wasn't even playable until Trammell came along.

7/02/12 7:23:46 PM

XXXX writes:

I always get confused when reading things like that. Trammell actually defies what UO was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a world where when you walked out of town it wasn't safe. You had to be smart and use your brain. It wasn't supposed to be a carebear land where you can go wherever you want and nothing will hurt your poor innocent soul. It was a game of consequence, and if you didn't use your head, you would feel the wrath. Those who learned are those who thrived.

Then the developers heard the cries of the few who could not learn. They created your safe haven so you could run around and frolic in your invincible version of the world. It also destroyed every fun aspect the game had to offer.

You probably think I was some rampant pk'er. When in fact I was not. My clan and I would have amazing battles against the servers most notorious pks. Sometimes we would win, other times we wouldn't. It was amazing fun, but at least you got your way.



7/02/12 8:07:31 PM

XXXX writes:

Great story, Pokket. I always love UO firsts! The game was so unique that everyone's first few steps into Britannia were different - and some down right hilarious.

I started in 1997, the first day UO was released. I remember creating a character in Britannia and I had no idea STR=HP, so I had like 25hp or so as most everyone initially did from balancing their stats. I was on the outskirts of Britannia south of the stable, and I ran into a guy who looked like Robin of the Hood; green, feather brimmed hat, slacks, boots, white shirt, and sash(for some reason I thought sashes were cool looking). He asked if I had any clothes, which I responded "Nope", so he took me to the tailors and then crafted me a set of clothes just like his. I then learned you could "dye" clothing ... which to this day is still one of the better UO features not to mention MMO features in general. So we both dressed like Robin Hood and went north. As we took a few steps north we started noticing a ton of ghostly figures "oOOoooOOOOooo"ing and a lot of naked corpses. Next thing I know this guy was shooting rapid fire fireballs at us (which I later discovered to be a bug) and PKed both of us instantly - looting our helpless corpses of our newly fashioned clothes! The PK was named Baba MonKey who was one of the top PKs on the Atlantic shard the first few months/year UO was out.

It took me a few months but by the end of UO's first year, I was finally no longer a noob! I had befriended some PKs and had a little fun doing it until the Reputation patch. After the patch, UO became a far improved experience and from 1998-2002, it notched itself as not just my favorite MMO of all time, but my favorite game of all time.

Some of my best stories are during that time period ... but those are tales for another day over some beers (or mugs of ale!)



7/02/12 8:11:46 PM

　

XXXX writes:

I hated Trammel. I liked it much better when you could kill or be killed on a whim. When seeing someone pop on your scren in a dungeon mid-fight always made your heart skip and you wondered if they were going to help the monster, you or move along.

I loved how "wild-west" it felt in that there was no law other than group consensus. It was just good fun.



7/02/12 8:20:41 PM

XXXX writes:

Ahh yes the good old days!. was sorta fun but was nothing special. I remember playing utima 7 blackgate though and loved that game way back in the day. so when UO was found by me I went nuts.

I also remember dropping stuff and making blockades. I admit I was a freshman and was high allot at the time. UO lead to to in time SWG were old raph was making cool stuff. i had numerous conversations with him way back though.

Amazing pokket played UO!

anyways, good read.



7/03/12 12:50:14 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Ultima Online was my first MMO...

I started to play on the old times, when only Felucca was there, when you need to take care of when and where you are going, and recall runes are a must!!! And i remember the amazing and bloody fights.

When AoS came, and after stacking some artifacts, i joined a PK guild (if you was in Europa server, maybe you remember AI), and i was all the time on Felucca either, contributing to keep this wild side of the world the way it should be Old times that i like to remember, this game will be on my heart forever...

When WoW was released, most of my clan leaved to join the new Blizzard game, so i did it too, but i maintained my UO active for another year or so. I some times feel the need to reactivate it, and maybe i will some day.



7/03/12 3:19:30 AM

XXXX writes:

I miss good ole UO so bad. Wish it was 1998 again



5/23/12 9:35:22 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Sorry, I still think the Enhanced Client Graphics look ugly for the most part and need a real reworking. And the fighting on testcenter covetous looks as exciting as watching paint dry.

Comparing covetous fighting to diablo 3 fighting - You fight endless waves for points for getting items with ugly graphics and pay a monthly fee .....

I know UO has no budget, so don't expect any really updates

I enjoyed my 10 years of UO, but EA is not willing to keep the game updated properly and just seems content to milk it dry with adding an itemshop to the monthly fee.



5/23/12 9:36:55 AM

　

XXXX writes:

It was a good game before they over itemized it. For good pvp equipment has be be fairly close, when they added the "Age of Shadows" expansion, they ruined that. I had a great smith on Lake Superior that turned out great equipment for a reaonsable price which made it easy to replace for those wanting to pvp.



5/23/12 10:19:46 AM

　

XXXX writes:

uo was the bomb back in the days......now its just al watered down to make it more easy.....it aint the UO it used to be.



5/24/12 1:04:15 AM

　

XXXX writes:

UO died the day trammel was released. Killing and stealing from carebears will be forever missed. Felucca was the wild west of the MMO's, and then along came the carebear police and ruined the best pvp game of all time.

And Obii, duh, the graphics are 15 years old, you actually compared this to D3, LOLOLOLOL



5/24/12 7:14:57 AM

　

XXXXwrites:

UO was at it's best from 1998-2000 and then suffered a huge blow with UO:R in 2000/1 with the introduction of Trammel. However, it didn't necessarily kill the game - just made it a lot easier for non-PvP people to avoid PvP all together. There was still a huge population though and faction warfare still allowed for good PvP. Trammel mainly killed PKing.

I always considered AoS in 2003 the final blow. Game was declining population wise as people moved to new MMOs and AoS drastically changed how the game was played. Suddenly items had properities (itemization) and skills could now exceed 100 (with scrolls obtained through PvE) which was ridiculous.

But nothing was like playing that game from release until UO:R came out. A completely unique experience in online gaming that has never once been close to being replicated. Best PvP MMO and best Social MMO all at the same time.



5/24/12 7:38:07 AM

　

XXXX writes:
Originally posted by Kappadonna
UO was at it's best from 1998-2000 and then suffered a huge blow with UO:R in 2000/1 with the introduction of Trammel. However, it didn't necessarily kill the game -

Wrong
Originally posted by TomBaker_fan
UO died the day trammel was released. Killing and stealing from carebears will be forever missed. Felucca was the wild west of the MMO's, and then along came the carebear police and ruined the best pvp game of all time.
Right



5/24/12 11:18:16 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Wish they would come out with a official classic server, they have come close to doing it, but nothing yet.

I also prefer the 2d client, the 3d client seems blurry/jumpy.



5/25/12 3:38:34 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Lots of great memories of the orginal game when it first came out. Additional add on's kinda destroyed the orginal concept of the game.

Too bad it was never graphically updated.



5/25/12 3:41:04 AM

　

XXXX writes:

THey need to get off there butts an make a new freaking game >.< soooo many people would play a up to date version of a UO type game created by the UO staff. I disagree about the time frame of UO death it was all good Till Age of shadows then suckage began those us that lived in fel didn't really notice tram. There were still plenty off you to kill for me every day mwahaha



5/25/12 9:04:44 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Meridian Online was more of a cult game, it was not generally available to the public, no stores carried it, you only found out about it via word of mouth. Ultima was really the first MMO available to the masses.

Ralph Koster was really the genius behind this game. Considering he was the lead designer of two of the three best sandboxes in the genre, sad he is not involved in MMO's any more. The so called brilliant designers being hired by the current developer houses are a bunch of clueless clowns compared to him imo.



2/16/12 9:51:16 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Together with Asherons Call 1, UO is the best MMORPG ever made.



2/16/12 10:05:02 AM

　

XXXX writes:

Good read, Ultima Online will always be the best in my mind.



2/16/12 10:38:59 AM

XXXX writes:

Good read, Ultima Online will always be the best in my mind.



2/16/12 10:38:59 AM

XXXX writes:

UO was my first MMO. It was fun for its time, but I moved on to Asherons Call (One). AC1 was and still is a classic example of a fun game. But its graphics are LONG out dated, and I would not want to go back to its corpse runs and lost gear.



2/18/12 12:54:05 PM

XXXX writes:

I'm playing UO as we speak, I have tried over 100 different MMORPGs...

I always come back to UO, and always will, every other mmorpg is trash. (Vindictus is alright I guess...)

THEY ALL FAIL where UO Wins! I Love PKing, and I Love when ppl quit the game, cus that means...

IDOCS! (in danger of collapsing houses)

MORE LOOT FOR ME,, so u kow what, I dont care who quits, cus that just means I am richer ^.^

cheers ^.^

*rides off on a llama*

P.S. In por yelm is bad, UOGamers Hybrid is where its at



2/22/12 4:56:54 AM

XXXX writes:

I wonder why no one has tried to emulated this in modern graphics.

It's like, there's a template to work from, that's your design, copy it.

I strongly oppose plagiarism in games, especially MMOs, but i think i can make certain allowances in this case lol.

　

XXXX writes:

I worked on UO from 2000 - 2005 (HanseOSI).

UO did not reach 250,000 subscribers in 1999. It was in the summer of 2000 for the UO:R release. This was after Garriot left the company. Raph Koster was no longer present, either. Starr Long was working downstairs on UO2.

I came from a strong MUD background and a heavily influenced fantasy RPG experience (played all the Ultimas and some of them multiple times). The game was poorly coded and had tons of bugs. We spent an entire year stabilizing the game with repeated bug fixes to make it playable. Folks are nostalgic about it and it was a grand endevour, but little was ever told about how much effort was made to make it not crash. Often.

As well as how poorly thought the logic for game systems were that exploits were rampant and ruined gameplay for thousands of people. I know I plugged so many exploits in the game that it seemed that was all I did.

I do agree that EA has squandered the game and that it has taken them 15 years to put out a successful MMO, though.

3/14/12 12:50:45 AM

 

[Selurnoraa]

I think the focus right now should be on getting players back into the game regardless if they played 10 years ago or just 2 days ago. Once we have reacquired all our assets from the past we can focus on improving the game going forward.

One major thing is PvP. It needs to be overhauled.
- Factions need a purpose, guarding sigils needs to be of a huge importance so it actually happens.
- Faction fighting needs to be opened up to all trammel landmasses, Honestly as a newbie it can be pretty exciting watching the established PvPers just randomly encounter each other and start to battle it out. I know I was always in awe when I saw it happen and wished I was as good as them.
- a new lure to get people to do stuff other then powerscrolls (which I would be fine with them going to trammel, maybe it would even bring some people back)

 

[the 4th man]

I'm all for players, who play on, don't quit, and just plain ol, enjoy playing. Note, keyword, "play"

Now, somewheres up top, someone went off on a negative tangent about "old" or outdated,.....so what??

What does one simple minded negative filled opinion mean to me?? Not a whole hell of alot. Uo is what it is.....when it dies, so be it.

Oh and one last thing......I have a turntable, cassette player, a stack of scratchy 45's and LPs......did I mention a 70 challenger in the garage under a tarp?.......believe me, older IS better.

 

[Raptor85]

We have more content and gameplay than just about any other MMORPG

Not even close, though i could see this being your perspective if the only other mmo's you've played are the "bottom of the barrel" generic ones like WoW or Everquest. I play a few other mmo's as well and UO's world, monster types, things to do,etc is TINY compared to most of the others. A few of them you can even count on having at least 1-2 world events for the players PER DAY and major events weekly to bi-weekly, there is just CONSTANTLY new things to do in the other games, and these are mostly from tiny startups, no real dev budget, no large studio above them to pre-invest into the game. These three month story arcs we get in UO would have been a weekly event without any of the in-between grind in most other games, because frankly there's barely the content in them for a week's worth, the extra 8 weeks of putting out fires and collecting trash was an unnecessary grind added to the event, and to artificially make it seem like it lasted longer. This is where UO REALLY fails in comparison, other games get more new content and events in a single month than UO gets all year, and not in the form of just more items that'll be outdated in a week, new dungeons, monsters, special bosses, etc...

EA won't even put the resources into supporting two clients, and you think they are capable of putting the resources into a multi-platform system?

This is UO's problem, and this is killing the game they never should have attempted to run two simultanious clients, this is the THIRD time they've tried and every single time it's been a huge waste of resources, a split in the community....and for what? In the end you get a "new" client that STILL looks 15 years outdated. Instead they could spend ONE MONTH of dev time and clone the old client in java using nothing but existing assets....frankly the client software isn't all that complicated...if EA needs to see how to do this there's fanmade clones of UO's client that can connect to "other" shards that were made in a few months time easily by 1-2 people in their spare time after work.

 

[Woodsman]

Not even close, though i could see this being your perspective if the only other mmo's you've played are the "bottom of the barrel" generic ones like WoW or Everquest. I play a few other mmo's as well and UO's world, monster types, things to do,etc is TINY compared to most of the others. A few of them you can even count on having at least 1-2 world events for the players PER DAY and major events weekly to bi-weekly, there is just CONSTANTLY new things to do in the other games

I have played dozens of MMORPGs. If you measure a game by the size of its world, then EVE Online is the best MMORPG in the history of MMORPGs. If you measure it by quests/events, then World of Warcraft is the best MMORPG ever.

Look, if you have played other MMORPGs, then you know that no other MMORPG comes close to UO's housing and crafting systems, and those are two of the deepest parts of UO's gameplay, especially since Star Wars Galaxies is gone and ArcheAge won't be out in the US for a few more years. I'm not going to deny that UO needs a major new quest/event system, that was one of the things Cal wanted and that was sadly canceled.

If you are not finding the depth in UO that is very much present, then I don't know what to tell you.

This is UO's problem, and this is killing the game they never should have attempted to run two simultanious clients, this is the THIRD time they've tried and every single time it's been a huge waste of resources, a split in the community....and for what? In the end you get a "new" client that STILL looks 15 years outdated.

As much as I like to criticize the failure to get the attitude about clients right, you know what?

The problem is EA. The EC is based on the same engine that powers RIFT, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and a slew of other modern games. EA has the money to do a proper client and has the money to do the kinds of things that are needed for UO, more events, better quests, better graphics. EA has cut UO's budget and laid off UO developers when UO was profitable. A lot of UO team members have left over the past year, and we haven't exactly seen their replacements.

At the end of the day, even though you could not drag me back to the CC, the CC is not the problem, the EC is not the problem, the problem is EA.

EA had plenty of time and money to have done a complete overhaul of UO in time for the 15th anniversary. They've put millions into Ultima Forever over the past few years. It's EA's fault that they made the decision to reboot the Ultima series a few years ago, but not put the resources into fixing up UO at the same time so that by the time the 15th anniversary rolled around, they would have Ultima Online 2.0 and Ultima Forever.

In a perfect world, EA will see the interest in Ultima Forever, and maybe spend the money to get UO in shape.

 

[Vlaude]

The problem is EA.

If only I had a nickel for every time someone said this about a game.

 

[Raptor85]

I have played dozens of MMORPGs. If you measure a game by the size of its world, then EVE Online is the best MMORPG in the history of MMORPGs. If you measure it by quests/events, then World of Warcraft is the best MMORPG ever.

Not measuring by size alone, but size of the world IS a big factor in keeping things fresh, and not quests but definitely events, events are the CORE of what keeps a MMO interesting and UO's are just lackluster compared to others these days. But i'm talking a combination of EVERYTHING, the gameplay, tactics, world, monsters, etc...UO had a HUGE lead but EA sat on it, and most of the time they did change it, it was ripping OUT the features that made UO unique and making a poor copy of other games systems to replace them, what we have left is barely a hollow shell of what UO once was, it's like EA's given it a full makeover so many times instead of just improving what they have that it's a horrific mix of barely functional parts of 10 different games mixed together.

Look, if you have played other MMORPGs, then you know that no other MMORPG comes close to UO's housing and crafting systems, and those are two of the deepest parts of UO's gameplay

That's not gameplay, that's pixel crack, personally I don't care a while lot that i can't change the walls around entirely in any of the other mmos that have player housing or guild bases, i can still HAVE and OWN a house of my own to do whatever with in most other games and that's the important part. For crafting systems randomness of results is NOT depth, it's annoyance. Personally I find UO's post-aos crafting system to be an absolute nightmare compared to other games

 

[Nexus]

If only I had a nickel for every time someone said this about a game.

Then you'd probably have enough money to purchase the franchise away from EA.

 

[Zosimus]

Eh a nickel now days isn't worth that much unless it has silver in it and before 1935

I will say in defence of DaoC that their housing was way much better that UO in terms of being a house. But like Raptor says it is pixel crack.

Bonnie claims that they are going to work on bugs. Ok that is fine because that is way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way over due.

I still say lets go back to some of the days of fun. Order and Chaos was much better than the current faction system. Eliminate so much unused or outdated pixel crack and make vendoring and crafting more viable. I am talking like old doom arties that are tossed as junk now days as an example. Free up some code that is no good in todays UO.

 

[Selurnoraa]

How hard would it be to implement some form of battlegrounds? Just something that can link all the shards together and allow them to fight for some objectives. You could even tie it into factions somehow, could be potentially interesting!

That to me sounds like a good start to a factions booster pack.

 

[Vlaude]

I just watched Penny Arcade's 100th episode of Extra Credits (an awesome web series about games) and what do you know? They mention UO towards the end. It's a short mention but also a prominent one considering the subject matter.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Eh a nickel now days isn't worth that much unless it has silver in it and before 1935

Well, the only "silver" nickels were from 1942-1945 when they had a 35% silver alloy composition. Before that were 90% silver Half Dimes which were ended in 1873. The introduction of the Nickel Five Cent piece was in 1866. Just a little FYI from my RL profession

Oh edit to add: Also at today's current metal prices, a nickel actually has more than 5 cents worth of metallic value... however special legislation has made it illegal to smelt Cents and Nickels for their metal content.

 

[Zosimus]

...



Well, the only "silver" nickels were from 1942-1945 when they had a 35% silver alloy composition. Before that were 90% silver Half Dimes which were ended in 1873. The introduction of the Nickel Five Cent piece was in 1866. Just a little FYI from my RL profession

Oh edit to add: Also at today's current metal prices, a nickel actually has more than 5 cents worth of metallic value... however special legislation has made it illegal to smelt Cents and Nickels for their metal content.

You can sell a dime from a dollar to 2 bucks depending on the price of silver and those are the ones from 46 to 64.

My bad on the typo I did mean 1945 om the nickels. I just wasnt sure what the date was when they started making them. There is something about the 1938 nickel and 39 nickel stuck in my head. Guess the days of elementary aschool when I collected coins is still stuck in my head for some odd reason lol.

 

[Nexus]

You can sell a dime from a dollar to 2 bucks depending on the price of silver and those are the ones from 46 to 64.

My bad on the typo I did mean 1945 om the nickels. I just wasnt sure what the date was when they started making them. There is something about the 1938 nickel and 39 nickel stuck in my head. Guess the days of elementary aschool when I collected coins is still stuck in my head for some odd reason lol.

You'd do better taking 3 cent pieces, worth way more than 2 bucks.

 

[startle]

Everybody just start using Twitter constructively....

Just sayin....

 

[BajaElladan]

This

Give subscribers FUN in Sosaria. Whether they spend 2 hours per week OR 12 hours per DAY in Sosaria, provide them FUN things to do. Make combat FUN. Make T-Hunting and fishing FUN. Make Taming and Crafting FUN. NOT grinds for recipes or runic tools or worthless BOD's or ingredients. Reduce or eliminate grinds and replace them with FUN. People PAY to have FUN, not to endlessly and mindlessly grind and or endlessly or mindlessly die especially in one hit deaths. Don't add a tamable pet for an event only and then turn their spawns OFF. Get OVER the "gold sink" crap and create FUN gold sinks or merely easy to use gold sinks to obtain stuff folks use to have FUN. If it isn't FUN, or at a minimum interesting, REMOVE it. Add FUN ... and they Will COME and STAY!

 

[BajaElladan]

Nobody wants to know what's going to happen with the new castle or with Dupre, and neither of those things will influence whether or not UO survives until 20 and neither of those things will influence whether somebody keeps subscribing.

Actually, I preferred the original Castle of Blackthorn, and I am sick and fed up with Devs killing off Lore Characters.

 

[BajaElladan]

[Bonnie claims that they are going to work on bugs. Ok that is fine because that is way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way way over due.]

The problem with "working on bugs," is every time there is a Publish or Patch, hundreds if not thousands of new bugs are created. They either need to hire coders with talent, or reverse engineer their own code with modern TOOLS and write more intelligent code going forward.

Regardless, I personally doubt UO will ever improve while owned by EA. Unless it is purchased away from EA by talented, creative and passionate Folks ... it will endure in its current lousy state of existence ... or end.

 

[Selurnoraa]

Actually, I preferred the original Castle of Blackthorn, and I am sick and fed up with Devs killing off Lore Characters.

lol, thats what evil lore characters are for. You kill them, if not them then who? ......

 

[Ludes]

Ultima Forever Interview, Kate Flack, iPad Glimpse : Ultima Forever @ UltimaCodex.com

Can one of you graphics wizards get us a better look at that screen?

 

[Woodsman]

MMORPG.com. About Ultima Forever, but huge shout-out to Ultima Online. Huge shout-out.


I cannot believe the UO team/management/whatever are not taking advantage of the hype around Ultima Forever to get out and sell UO. I just can't. EA is never going to spend the kind of money to get the publicity for UO that the Ultima franchise is currently getting for free.

 

[Viquire]

If there are big long-term plans to grow UO and not just keep it going, or sustain it as Lady Storm said, then there won't be a need for much advertising, since the media will advertise UO for them.

KR got a lot of attention, and in the wake of Ultima Forever, something big for UO would also get a lot of attention.

Hang ten!