We are number 1

[Cupid]

Was actually afraid we would not be mentioned

7 Ancient MMORPGs That People Are Still Playing

 

[Donzer]

nice!

Although this : "Thanks to its Steam release and a healthy update, Kingdom Reborn, the title has managed to stay relevant despite its age."
UO isnt on steam, correct? And the kingdom reborn was never finalized - and was scrapped for the EC... ?

 

[Nexus]

nice!

Although this : "Thanks to its Steam release and a healthy update, Kingdom Reborn, the title has managed to stay relevant despite its age."
UO isnt on steam, correct? And the kingdom reborn was never finalized - and was scrapped for the EC... ?

Correct. UO Received a Steam Greenlight but was never actually released on Steam.

 

[Donzer]

Correct. UO Received a Steam Greenlight but was never actually released on Steam.

Its a bit unfortunate that this is mentioned in a post like this then - if people suddenly go looking for UO on steam, and then think it has closed down when they dont find it there.
Would be nice to be on steam though - but wont bring this up again, there has been dozen of posts about it, and probably nothing to do with broadsword, but more an EA problem that it hasnt been allowed yet.

 

[Thrakkar]

Asheron's Call 1 & 2 Servers have been turned off as per 31st January.
So that's one down and six to go

Would be nice to be on steam though

That might change with the release of endless journey. Emphasis on "might" though...

 

[Lord Frodo]

What is even funnier is that WOW is listed as #4

 

[Lord Frodo]

It is great that we get a nod but they really are behind the times "a healthy update, Kingdom Reborn" released in 2007

 

[Drakelord]

What is even funnier is that WOW is listed as #4

Someone let me mess with a WOW account for 3 months, I hated the game

 

[Nexus]

Asheron's Call 1 & 2 Servers have been turned off as per 31st January.
So that's one down and six to go



That might change with the release of endless journey. Emphasis on "might" though...

Doubt it will change, EA has been pretty adamant about not having their IPs on Steam since they want to drive as much traffic to Origin as possible. Even though Origin is inferior in almost every way...

 

[Thrakkar]

Doubt it will change, EA has been pretty adamant about not having their IPs on Steam since they want to drive as much traffic to Origin as possible. Even though Origin is inferior in almost every way...

Please don't remind me I think, Mass Effect 3 & Dead Space 3 were one of their first Origin-exclusive games. Since I played parts 1 & 2 of both IPs, they forced me to play on Origin, because I didn't want to miss out on part 3. Origin was even worse in the early days. Horrible...

Anyways, back to UO. I know, that the changes are less than slim. But just wondering why they went to Steam Greenlight in the first place. Was this without EA's permission?

 

[Nexus]

Please don't remind me I think, Mass Effect 3 & Dead Space 3 were one of their first Origin-exclusive games. Since I played parts 1 & 2 of both IPs, they forced me to play on Origin, because I didn't want to miss out on part 3. Origin was even worse in the early days. Horrible...

Anyways, back to UO. I know, that the changes are less than slim. But just wondering why they went to Steam Greenlight in the first place. Was this without EA's permission?

It was around the same time that EA decided against letting more IPs on Steam. Might be that the Greenlight campaign started, but EA's decision was made so nothing could go forward.

 

[Zalan]

The Oldest MMO that is still played today is The Realm Online. The game was launched in 1996. The game is ran by Norseman Games.

Tibia is another MMO that was launched in January of 1997. The game is still played today.

I'd say UO is the most recognizable game, but not the oldest.

 

[Thrakkar]

It was around the same time that EA decided against letting more IPs on Steam. Might be that the Greenlight campaign started, but EA's decision was made so nothing could go forward.

They really made this decision that late?
Origin was release June 2011. The first Origin-exclusive games were release 2012. And UO went to Greenlight during April 2014.
I would have guessed that they made that decision around 2011-2012, so UO went to steam years later.
Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find anything on the net about that...

 

[Poo]

The Oldest MMO that is still played today is The Realm Online. The game was launched in 1996. The game is ran by Norseman Games.

Tibia is another MMO that was launched in January of 1997. The game is still played today.

I'd say UO is the most recognizable game, but not the oldest.

thats not what Guinness Book of World Records says.

 

[Spiritless]

Correct. UO Received a Steam Greenlight but was never actually released on Steam.

And now Greenlight is being discontinued.

 

[Zalan]

Wiki says 96. This article says march of 1995 The Realm Online (Game) - Giant Bomb

 

[Lord Frodo]

And now Greenlight is being discontinued.

It will be interesting to see how this works out. The failed experiment in consumers picking the games that get onto Steam that Greenlight is cannot be replaced soon enough

I thought everybody said it was EA/BS/UO that asked UO to be Greenlite, that says it is the Steam/Greenlight customers by voting on what goes on Steam.

 

[Slayvite]

And not one mention about Istaria (Horizons) that was released in December 2003 and still going today with a graphics engine upgrade underway.
http://www.istaria.com/

 

[THP]

nice!

Although this : "Thanks to its Steam release and a healthy update, Kingdom Reborn, the title has managed to stay relevant despite its age."
UO isnt on steam, correct? And the kingdom reborn was never finalized - and was scrapped for the EC... ?

erm kingdom reborn was a add on and was released heres a hard copy image of the box

 

[ShriNayne]

And not one mention about Istaria (Horizons) that was released in December 2003 and still going today with a graphics engine upgrade underway.
Istaria is the BEST crafting MMORPG and has playable Dragons!

I played that!! Character creation was amazing for it's time, it was the bugs that stopped me from playing and also terrible lag in player towns.

 

[Donzer]

erm kingdom reborn was a add on and was released heres a hard copy image of the box

oh my bad - I thought kingdom reborn was that client that they started developing and then later scrapped for the EC

 

[Slayvite]

I played that!! Character creation was amazing for it's time, it was the bugs that stopped me from playing and also terrible lag in player towns.

You should look at it again, a huge number of bugs have finally been fixed and you can even run thru Tazoon now with zero lag. It's still my goto game when all else bores me

 

[Slayvite]

oh my bad - I thought kingdom reborn was that client that they started developing and then later scrapped for the EC

It was a client upgrade that never made it to public live shards.
Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn - Wikipedia


well I suppose it did but it was **** and bugged to high hell so nobody used it and everyone stuck to the CC.
EC was it's replacement which unfortunately had even worse graphics......shame they couldn't have moulded the 2 together. The interface of EC with the graphics of KR.

 

[Nexus]

I thought everybody said it was EA/BS/UO that asked UO to be Greenlite, that says it is the Steam/Greenlight customers by voting on what goes on Steam.

Steam user do vote for what gets a Greenlight, bur Broadsword actually started the campagin

Greenlight UO on Steam – Ultima Online

Steam Greenlight :: Ultima Online

 

[ShriNayne]

You should look at it again, a huge number of bugs have finally been fixed and you can even run thru Tazoon now with zero lag. It's still my goto game when all else bores me

Thanks for that!
The Kingdom Reborn client always looked a bit vague to me and somehow lacking the clean sharp lines of the Classic client. It's the main reason I avoided the enhanced client for so long, I thought it would look like KR!

 

[Basara]

One note about Kingdom Reborn:

It was definitely NOT ready for release.

The devs were having issues with it, and it still should have been in internal Alpha, if not pre-alpha.

BUT, they were forced into releasing it into a way-too-short public Beta, then official release by EA.

The reason?

EA Japan was the only one releasing it as a boxed set; more accurately, the client was meant to be a "freebie" with the actual purchase being a music CD of UO (and maybe other EA) music. They had committed themselves WAY too soon to a physical release, including securing reserved shelf space in certain Japanese chains. They were NOT going to lose face by having to cancel the commitment, or substitution of a different product on the shelf (since there was a PR/advertising campaign). The stuff was to ship at the end of 2Q 2007 (if I remember the year correctly), and be on sale the first week of July. PERIOD. No alternatives possible. The US programmers were thereby thrown under the bus.

The Devs had to keep trying to fix a client that SHOULD have spent another 6-12 months in internal development, all while doing new content. It was effectively 2 steps forward, 3 steps back, as the errors fixed could not keep up with the new errors being introduced from the new content. All the while, the conversion of players to the new client never materialized because of the issues (EA's plan was that they'd get 90% of the people playing KR, then kill the CC). Finally, at some point, some of the devs decided to start the KR project over from scratch, as it was easier than fixing the ever-crumbling KR client. That eventually got official approval, and became the EC introduced by the SA expansion.

 

[hungry4knowhow]

Always like hearing the back/inside story to things. Thanks for that post Basara!

 

[Armageddon]

oh my bad - I thought kingdom reborn was that client that they started developing and then later scrapped for the EC

The EC client is basically KR but rebuilt and renamed. They renamed it because KR had such bad reviews when it was released as it was so buggy and wasn't finished. Once they finally fixed it up a bit and rebuilt a lot of the client they dumped the name Kingdom Reborn and called it the Stygian Abyss client. It was eventually renamed again to the Enhanced Client. It's also colloquially known as the Speed Hack client because PvPers who can't compete in real UO (2D/CC) will often use it as a crutch due to the movement speed difference and the way chars bounce around obstacles.