The controls for the game are very important. It gives a feel for being in control of your environment.
When I first started playing UO, I thought the macro system was complicated and as I learned how to create different macros, I found the game more pleasing.
Like, mining, clicking on the pick axe, then clicking on the ground but then adding a macro, last object, last target and then you had automation.
In some cases, it meant your life, a heal self macro or a spell being cast on the last target who had run off your screen and then back in.
We all need this control. The next step would probably add more automation from where we are now and at current, we are basically scripting small code, when we create macros in the enhanced.
You could put this control into Oblivion, into 2D, into just about anything but it's being built for UO, not what we see as far as graphics but the mechanics of controlling things.
One of the things I think about is, how can you take UO as it is now, the
2D and not have to add any more artwork to it but be able to advance the game with a full 3D view. I don't know if that's going to be possible without changing what the 2D is now, which would be the Enhanced Graphics.
You would picture them freezing the 2D Client and even the Enhanced Client to get that full 3D world, eventually.
What those games don't have and what games will never have is, they'll never be UO. When we log in, there are certain things that we expect, like the City of Britian or whatever city you're from and even if they change, completely, it's that basic concept, I think that will keep us playing and returning.
It's not just the owning the house or riding a horse, it's the world we do it on. Once you've finished the mechanics of a game and you've gone through it, I think there's still going to be things that you expect, like Smithing, PvP, Brit Castle.