Current Size of UO Developer Team?

[Eric Ravenwind]

How many people do we have working on Ultima Online right now?

Also wondering about the next expansion or booster?

 

[DJAd]

How many people do we have working on Ultima Online right now?

Not many. I'd guess under 10.

 

[Tina Small]

My guess at who is still on what would be considered the "dev team" for UO in the United States:

Jeff "Gryphon" Skalski, Senior Producer
Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong, Producer
Yvette "Mrs Troublemaker" Aarons, Engineer
Stephen "Bleak" Brown, Engineer
Greg "Kyronix" Havlusch, Designer
Jim "Onifrk" Crawley, Artist
Michael "Misk" Armstrong, Test Lead

There might also be a summer intern or two and maybe another one to three individuals in Japan who work directly with the U.S. dev team on projects and/or community relations issues.

It's anyone's guess as to how many GMs still support UO. The list on UOGuide, which may not have been updated since Nimuaq stopped playing last November, shows 14 GMs who are presumably English-speaking and 4 who are part of the Japanese team. (http://www.uoguide.com/Developer)

Last time I tried to figure out who the current EMs are, about 2 1/2 months ago, below is the list I came up with. There have probably been a few changes since then. I believe most of the EMs are contractors who are only allowed to work 20 hours per month.

Arirang – Hanarin
Asuka – Misaki
Atlantic – Bennu
Baja – Crysania
Balhae – ?? (EM Munkey seems to have vanished.)
Catskills – Barnaby and Claudius (?? The EM site doesn’t mention Claudius, although he is mentioned in Stratics posts.)
Chesapeake – Dramnar and Drosselmeyer (The EM site doesn’t mention Dramnar and still has Dudley listed, but Dramnar is mentioned on Stratics.)
Drachenfels – Borbarad
Europa – None
Great Lakes – Elizabella and Malachi
Hokuto – Riccia
Izumo – None (The Yamato EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Izumo.)
Lake Austin – Augustus
Lake Superior – Autolycus and Aname
Legends – Mayu
Mizuho – None (The Sakura EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Mizuho.)
Mugen - None (The Hokuto EM(s) sometimes take care of “mandatory” events on Mugen.)
Napa Valley – None?
Oceania – Balthazar
Origin – None (EM Sangria moved to Pacific in April.)
Pacific – Sangria
Sakura – Nekomata
Siege Perilous – Troubadour
Sonoma – Eira (?)
Wakoku - None (The Yamato EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Wakoku.)
Yamato – Asiantam

 

[FrejaSP]

I don't care how many they are, more important is the result of their work and what we had seen the last years had been great, balanced and in the right direction.

 

[Tazar]

In addition to Tina's list there is also a team in Japan and also "Flex" employees that work on various different games depending on the schedule at the time.

 

[Tina Small]

Also wondering about the next expansion or booster?

I think we need to count ourselves lucky that we still have a designer and some engineers, Eric. Kyronix, Bleak and Mesanna have either posted here or mentioned at a gaming conference in the last two or three weeks some stuff that is in the works for UO, but it's nothing along the lines of an expansion or booster. By comparison, Warhammer Online, which is another Mythic MMO that is coming up on its 5th anniversary in the next month or so, had its last patch about 8 months ago; (maybe) has one person left to work on it; as of June, no longer offers 6-month game codes or automatic subscription renewals; has no producer, since the last producer (Carrie Gouskous) moved over to Ultima Forever and didn't even bother to say goodbye to Warhammer players. Jeff Skalski seems to be marginally in charge of Warhammer, but people haven't been able to get him to give out much information about WHO's future either. His most recent Twitter communication (August 23rd) to someone asking for an update on WHO's status was: "Team is working on some news in the coming weeks."

So yeah, in comparison to Warhammer fans, we're "lucky" that Mythic still allows UO to have what little team it still has left to support it. However, without growing the size of the team, I really wouldn't expect them to be able to ever again pull off another expansion or booster. Maybe another package of over-priced doodads to buy in the Origin store, but nothing along the lines of a real expansion or booster. I think UO at this point is just being used to keep some revenue coming in for Mythic, providing a place to test concepts for mobile games Mythic has in the works, and because of its longevity. About the only possibility I see for UO to ever pick up more players in the future is if Mythic is somehow secretly working on the concept of putting out a new client for UO that you can play on mobile devices/tablets, using contract artists to come up with more "pixel crack" decorative items that you can buy through an in-game store, and perhaps switching from a subscription model to free-to-play with some kind of retention plan for the very oldest vet players to allow them to hang onto their houses without having to pay extra. Who knows, though, if they're working on anything like that. Jeff put out a very odd letter about a year ago ( http://www.uo.com/article/Letter-Franchise-Producer ) that's never had any kind of follow-up or clarification, so maybe the "UO2" stuff he hinted at has fizzled. Or maybe it's closer to fruition than we realize.

 

[Promathia]

Here is a little bit updated list as far as the EM's go. (changes to Tina's list are bolded)

Arirang – Hanarin
Asuka – Misaki
Atlantic – Bennu & Taweret
Baja – Crysania
Balhae – ??
Catskills – Barnaby and Claudius
Chesapeake – Dramnar and Drosselmeyer
Drachenfels – Borbarad
Europa – Borbarad has been doing events for Europa lately as well
Formosa - Takako
Great Lakes – Elizabella and Malachi
Hokuto – Riccia
Izumo – None (The Yamato EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Izumo.)
Lake Austin – Augustus
Lake Superior – Autolycus and Aname
Legends – None
Mizuho – None (The Sakura EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Mizuho.)
Mugen - None (The Hokuto EM(s) sometimes take care of “mandatory” events on Mugen.)
Napa Valley – Vereor
Oceania – Balthazar
Origin – Chaotica
Pacific – Sangria & Orix
Sakura – Nekomata
Siege Perilous – Troubadour
Sonoma – Eira
Wakoku - None (The Yamato EM(s) usually take care of “mandatory” events on Wakoku.)
Yamato – Asiantam

 

[Warpig Inc]

Don't forget the Hampster they allow to dance on a keyboard during its breaks. The true calprit for all that goes wrong with UO.

 

[Uvtha]

Also wondering about the next expansion or booster?

Unless you mean like house tile packs... those days are over.

 

[MalagAste]

Don't forget the Hampster they allow to dance on a keyboard during its breaks. The true calprit for all that goes wrong with UO.

No it died remember that's why we got the nifty container.

 

[Toguro]

How many people do we have working on Ultima Online right now?

Also wondering about the next expansion or booster?

considering there hasn't been an expansion in over 5 years Im going to guess <= 10
(no the High Seas booster is NOT an expansion)

 

[Thrakkar]

Also wondering about the next expansion or booster?

I would be already happy, if they would annouce or preview the new publish...

 

[FrejaSP]

considering there hasn't been an expansion in over 5 years Im going to guess <= 10
(no the High Seas booster is NOT an expansion)

I consider no expansion a good thing. We sure not need more land, more skills or new dungeons. Only thing we need is small updates to what we already have and boosters, theme packs and bugs fix is all we need.
Many of the expansions we got over the years did a lot damage to UO, a few almost killed UO. The last years from SA and to now have been like bandages for UO and we do start getting back to life. Normal shards may need a fix to their economy and that may hurt for some but if done right and the economy get healthy like on Siege, it may be what is needed to get new players again.

 

[Silentfury]

Regardless of the size of the Dev Team, they do a hell of a lot with what they have to work with. Would they like more people, of course. But that's life under EA.
But one thing is for certain...of all the times I have met and talked at length with the Dev Team Members, you will never find a more Dedicated Group of People.
They love what they do, and love the Game they work on.
And I think it shows !

 

[Ron Silverbeard]

Invasions, i need.....

 

[Victim of Siege]

Invasions, i need.....

*invades Ron's Fridge*