IndustryGamers: Richard Garriott Would Like to Collaborate on More Ultima with EA

[Vlaude]

Richard Garriott Would Like to Collaborate on More Ultima with EA - IndustryGamers

Thought some of you might find this interesting.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Well we areeeee short a producer.........

 

[Larisa]

IndustryGamers asked Garriott if he could still collaborate with EA. "We would be open to that. In fact, we’ve had some discussions at what I’ll call very high levels, but the individuals who are currently shepherding the property don’t seem to be particularly interested in that




BRING LORD BRITISH BACK!!!!!!

 

[Woodsman]

IndustryGamers asked Garriott if he could still collaborate with EA. "We would be open to that. In fact, we’ve had some discussions at what I’ll call very high levels, but the individuals who are currently shepherding the property don’t seem to be particularly interested in that

If those individual(s) are who I think they are, let's hope to god their plans die quickly, after seeing what they did to Warhammer Online.

 

[Viquire]

Shepherding the property. Well, we got some changes along those lines recently. Hrrrmmmmm.

This is very exciting news!

I wish they could turn out some kind of other Ultima in support and create a little outside interest.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Take those people out and smack them around with a herring.

 

[HD2300]

Isnt Ultima4Ever the equivalent of the new Facebook FTP WAR?

It is amazing how in a short amount of time suddenly so many new features and content can be added, specifically this publish, as opposed to the usual trickle when developers arent working on other projects, like Ultima4Ever.

 

[Vlaude]

Here is the full article written by James Brightman for those who don't want to click a link:

Ultima is considered a seminal francise for the RPG genre, much in the way that Doom was for the shooter genre, and Ultima Online was one of the true pioneers in the MMO market. Today, there are still many RPG gamers who hold the Ultima franchise near and dear and would love nothing more than to see its creator Richard "Lord British" Garriott involved once again. Garriott told IndustryGamers that he'd like that too.


Ironically, we weren't even talking about Ultima initially, but Garriott decided to bring it up when we asked him how he felt about EA now using the Origin name (Origin Systems was the company he founded with his brother in 1983) for its digital distribution service. He said that EA using Origin is "pretty funny" and "more power to them." Then he brought up the Ultima series, which seemed like a sore point.


"I find the use of the word Ultima to be more interesting as they’ve tried to give that legs again. I hope that Ultima does survive forever, yet I also, of course, have my own very particular ideas for what Ultima can and should become over time and so we’ll see if they do things quite the way I would do them... since I’m not there at the moment," he commented.

IndustryGamers asked Garriott if he could still collaborate with EA. "We would be open to that. In fact, we’ve had some discussions at what I’ll call very high levels, but the individuals who are currently shepherding the property don’t seem to be particularly interested in that, so we’ll see," he replied. "Who knows? You never know what’s going to happen in the future... the doors always open if they were ever interested."


Garriott would not divulge his exact ideas for what Ultima could become, but considering he's the founder of social developer Portalarium and he's a big believer in the space (as is EA), we could certainly envision an interesting Ultima RPG for Facebook that EA could help publish and market. The Sims Social has been taking off, and core players seem interested, so perhaps EA would consider working with Portalarium on a new, social Ultima?

 

[Woodsman]

Isnt Ultima4Ever the equivalent of the new Facebook FTP WAR?

It would be the equivalent of the Facebook games Dragon Age Legends and Lords of Ultima.

The Warhammer arenas game is some kind of subset of the main Warhammer game, but it's an actual standalone game and doesn't run through Facebook like those others. I think it's their last gasp at trying to save Warhammer.

But you are actually talking about the person who was I thinking of - Paul Barnett. Unfortunately it sounded like he had some kind of contract between GW and EA that keeps him around as long as Warhammer is going and so he survived the Mythic purge, and he seems to be trying to worm his way into a different job. He's been shopping the Ultima4Ever thing around for a while to various executives if Ultima Aira is right. They let him put up a website for Ultima4Ever but that seems like all they are inclined to do.

My two favorite quotes about him from another forum:

Ohhhhhh I get it. So Barnett is pretty much like that guy at your job (I know everyone has one of these) who is the boss's nephew. He's dumb as a stump but he'll never get fired no matter how much he ****s up & he still makes more money than you. I hate those damn people....

Every now and then he releases a video of how he'll be ruining MMOs in the future and then disappears again, like the Osama of video games.

When I read that Cal was let go or left, my biggest fear is that Barnett would try and worm his way into the UO producer's position. That would get me to quit within a few days, after I emptied my houses into bankboxes and backpacks.

Oh god, I just thought about it, if you're right and Ultima4Ever was considered the equivalent of the Warhammer arena game, as in a game meant to draw people interested in the IP back to EA games, that means that Barnett will publicly trash the **** out of UO to sell Ultima4Ever, because that's exactly what he did to Warhammer Online when he was promoting the Warhammer arenas game.

 

[yars]

all hail the king baby

 

[Ender]

Short a producer... Garriot wants to do more Ultima...

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Garriott obviously deserves a lot of credit; he invented Ultima and also invented UO.

However, at the end of the day, I would question how well he actually understands MMOs and their nature.

Firstly, he at one time apparently thought that basically unrestricted PvP could be a good idea because player justice could constrain it. It bewilders me that anyone would ever think anything could happen other than what eventually did. Human nature is what it is. Such circumstances can only ever have one result.

Secondly, he's stated that he thinks people play MMOs to feel like heroes, and that it's an issue that, in an environment where everyone is a hero, everyone is by definition average. From the context, he basically appears to think that MMOs are just like single player games that are played cooperatively.

This misses the point to an alarming degree. When you wander around Great Lakes, or I suspect any particularly populated shards, whom you run into aren't the heroes....They are just characters out doing their things, earning a living. Not everyone plays these games to be a hero.

That is the potential of MMOs, I would argue. The potential to play in a fantasy environment and not be the Big Hero.

And finally.....Lord British the character? He fulfilled his purpose and his time has long passed. He invented the ideals we lived by, he guided us for a time. But now is a time for mortals and our ways. (That's one of the reasons I liked the character of Dawn so much. She was "one of us." I couldn't see her running off to the Ethereal Void on some misguided mission to guard an artifact, and leaving her people behind. But, alas, the team was persuaded by others on that point.)

-Galen's player

 

[Woodsman]

Secondly, he's stated that he thinks people play MMOs to feel like heroes, and that it's an issue that, in an environment where everyone is a hero, everyone is by definition average. From the context, he basically appears to think that MMOs are just like single player games that are played cooperatively.

This misses the point to an alarming degree. When you wander around Great Lakes, or I suspect any particularly populated shards, whom you run into aren't the heroes....They are just characters out doing their things, earning a living. Not everyone plays these games to be a hero.

While I don't think anybody expected PvP early on in UO to be what it was, he changed his attitude at some point:

Official Soulrift Website

That was a very important lesson for me, when I saw that. It really taught me that people were already playing Ultima Online for reasons that I had never in my wildest imagination have thought that people would desire, much less pull off an entire existing around fishing. But because we were devoted to "everything works" and you really could fish and you really could sell that fish in the market and you really could go into the pub and not only, of course, buy drinks but there was also a board game, you could sit down and play - I can't remember if it was chess or backgammon or whatever - but there was this little board game you could play in the pub. So everything he described, we really did do that simulation. They were modest simulations, but they worked, they worked well, and because people were using it we then focused on it. We began to make the fishing simulation much more sophisticated. We made the buying and selling of trade goods, including fish, much more sophisticated. So by doubling-down and supporting that emergent behaviour that players had within the economy of the game we really richened it and broadened it very quickly.

Lest we forget, UO2 was not going to be a full-on open PVP world, and he talked quite a bit discussions that were had both at the lower levels and at his level.

He's also talked a lot about the social and farming aspects of games like Farmville and how the social web games tapped into the huge market of people who like to tinker with those kinds of systems.

 

[Barry Manilow]

Richard Garriott Would Like to Collaborate on More Ultima with EA - IndustryGamers

Thought some of you might find this interesting.

Calvin out and the creater of all of UO coming in. I do like Richard Garriott's passion for his baby.

 

[Vrog Groggor]

I would LOVE to see Lord British have creative reigns again. There is not a single doubt in my mind that he'd churn out some fantastic changes.

Sadly... EA would never go for it

 

[Neutron Bomb]

Holy crap....bring on THE KING!

Maybe that's why they were so hush hush about Calvin leaving until he was gone. Maybe Garriot gave a strong inquiry and the Gods above have granted him passage to lead the reigns again...Sosaria could only hope.

 

[Woodsman]

Garriott would rather do a UO2 before he would ever take the reigns of the existing UO.

He's spent 30 years trying to move forward with the latest hardware and technology - he pushed to use new engines in each successive Ultima game (excluding the spinoffs) and wanted to move on to a UO2 shortly after UO launched, using what they learned from UO to make UO2 a better game.

It would go against everything he's done over the last 30 years to take over UO.

He's working on a Lord British game in his "third phase of gaming" or whatever he's calling it, and my guess is that he wants to use some Ultima aspects to help it out.

 

[PitrGri]

And finally.....Lord British the character? He fulfilled his purpose and his time has long passed. He invented the ideals we lived by...

-Galen's player

Past tense there... I believe you have nailed why UO died... duping, greed, money making, cheating, scripting and bullying... once virtue died out, so did UO.
(facebook will bump it again, soon)

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Past tense there... I believe you have nailed why UO died... duping, greed, money making, cheating, scripting and bullying... once virtue died out, so did UO.
(facebook will bump it again, soon)

I would not think the past tense is entirely warranted.

Plenty of characters still live by the Virtues or strive to. (And striving is really all there can be.....Lord British's affair with a married scullery maid in one of the single-player games is alone proof enough of that.)

And plenty of players don't cheat.

Plenty of players aren't particularly greedy either....I play a greedy character, Galen is the UO equivalent of one of those guys who's been so poor in his life that he holds onto every penny no matter how many pennies he's got, but does that make me a greedy player? Maybe so, maybe not. But plenty of players, or characters, aren't especially greedy.

A lot of the greediest most cheating-est players I am aware of were certainly so during the earlier days if they played or doubtlessly would have been if they had.

And so forth.

-Galen's player

 

[Barok]

Hasn't everything that Garriott touched since he left UO flopped?

Tabula Rasa anyone?

I certainly don't want him back on UO, EA is doing a good enough job killing it as it is.

 

[Neutron Bomb]

Didn't he have a hand in Lineage I and II? I may be mistaken. They had millions of subs....in Asia.

 

[Prime.]

Didn't he have a hand in Lineage I and II? I may be mistaken. They had millions of subs....in Asia.

That's a millions subs we don't have... Anywhere.