In this eighteen minute video titled, “Ultimate RPG: Lord British Asks Us About Offline Play – Publisher Vs. Player Ep. 2” long-time Ultima Online player, Markee Dragon, reaches out to his audience to initiate a dialogue of what offline mode could mean for Richard Garriott and Portalarium’s upcoming game, currently called Ultimate RPG. What follows is not a full transcript, but does contain much of the content from the video for the hearing impaired or for those who prefer to read at their own pace.
Markee Dragon:
Hello, everybody. I’m Markee Dragon, also known as Marcus Eikenberry in real-life, and tonight is the second show in the series of Publisher Versus Player.
Ultimate RPG — if you haven’t heard, you can go to Facebook right now and you can go into facebook.com/UltimateRPG and you will find the fan page there, and become a fan, like it, and FOLLOW IT!
My roots began in Ultima Online. And Ultima Online was the first massive multiplayer game that I played and it was also the first mainstream massive multiplayer game that was ever released. I played several of the previous Ultimas, and I had been so looking forward to Lord British walking the streets of Britannia again.
There’s a bit of history behind that. How he owned Origin Systems, and then he sold the company, all the licenses, all the rights to Ultima Online to Electronic Arts. And then a whole bunch of time passed, other things happened, and he has not regained the IP to that.
He is looking to produce another “Ultima-esque” game, but at the same time, it will have the feel of the Ultimas, but it won’t be the Ultimas.
He has two questions that he’s posted to the public. They’re actually both posted on his Facebook page, at the Ultimate RPG page right now. They are two questions we’re going over tonight, and then we’ve got a third. The third will be one I am throwing in; one that I am very passionate about. And I want to make sure that we all get our two cents’ worth in on it.
So, the first question here is about offline play. Now, what does that mean?
Markee Dragon:
Hello, everybody. I’m Markee Dragon, also known as Marcus Eikenberry in real-life, and tonight is the second show in the series of Publisher Versus Player.
Ultimate RPG — if you haven’t heard, you can go to Facebook right now and you can go into facebook.com/UltimateRPG and you will find the fan page there, and become a fan, like it, and FOLLOW IT!
My roots began in Ultima Online. And Ultima Online was the first massive multiplayer game that I played and it was also the first mainstream massive multiplayer game that was ever released. I played several of the previous Ultimas, and I had been so looking forward to Lord British walking the streets of Britannia again.
There’s a bit of history behind that. How he owned Origin Systems, and then he sold the company, all the licenses, all the rights to Ultima Online to Electronic Arts. And then a whole bunch of time passed, other things happened, and he has not regained the IP to that.
He is looking to produce another “Ultima-esque” game, but at the same time, it will have the feel of the Ultimas, but it won’t be the Ultimas.
He has two questions that he’s posted to the public. They’re actually both posted on his Facebook page, at the Ultimate RPG page right now. They are two questions we’re going over tonight, and then we’ve got a third. The third will be one I am throwing in; one that I am very passionate about. And I want to make sure that we all get our two cents’ worth in on it.
So, the first question here is about offline play. Now, what does that mean?
From Richard “Lord British” Garriott de Cayeux’s “LB Canonized Truth”:
2) Offline Play – I play most of my own hours of gaming on mobile devices as well as PC’s now. Most of the time, I am online. But when I am traveling, I am often not able to be online. I am not very interested in simple character management thin play versions of mobile and offline play. I want to play the real game! How about some “proving quests” that would be available when you were offline. Sort of some solo player adventures that would be downloaded when you were online, to play when offline? Any other offline play ideas?
Markee Dragon:2) Offline Play – I play most of my own hours of gaming on mobile devices as well as PC’s now. Most of the time, I am online. But when I am traveling, I am often not able to be online. I am not very interested in simple character management thin play versions of mobile and offline play. I want to play the real game! How about some “proving quests” that would be available when you were offline. Sort of some solo player adventures that would be downloaded when you were online, to play when offline? Any other offline play ideas?
This is a very interesting question because the fact is: has there ever been an online MMO that has had offline content other than a character creator? So, basically, what is it you can do?
Zergbong:
offline = open to hackers?
Markee Dragon:
I know Diablo in the past has had that issue.
Battlevortex:
Never Winter Nights?
Markee Dragon:
I never played that, but that was both on and offline. How did that work out, BV, for whether or not the client was being hacked? Or maybe it didn’t matter?
Battlevortex:
Most people made private shards.
Markee Dragon:
What is offline content that I would really enjoy playing? I’ve seen character creators. I have seen inventory management and auction management. Now, the auction stuff, a lot of times, did have an internet connection, but were able to do it on mobile devices.
Burnlikeice:
why not have the option to use your online character in an offline mode, but offline progress doesn’t carry to online?
Markee Dragon:
“I am not very interested in simple character management thin play versions of mobile and offline play. I want to play the real game!” ~ Richard Garriott
You know, that is interesting. The problem is, who wants to do that? Do I want to actually have my character doing things in the game where I don’t get that progress added to my character overall?I suppose that maybe there could be offline quests that could give you badges or items that don’t actually give you a competitive advantage in the game, but maybe make you look dressed better? I don’t know; I actually don’t like the idea, I just have to say. It’s not something that I feel like I would participate in. Other than maybe some sort of stats?
Basically, if I had something offline that I could work at readjusting those, just to see how that would affect my gameplay. So that I could see how it’d affect my swordplay, or using my axe, or being a lumberjack.
And really, when you think about it, in games nowadays: if I’m a lumberjack, and I really know how to swing an axe, I would think that would add something to knowing how to swing an axe in battle.
What I’m getting back to, is that I want to be able adjust my skills offline just to see what kind of effects I could have; to tweak my character, so that I know what goals to work towards in my online play. And I think that might be a good use of offline that wouldn’t interfere with gameplay, but you would have to have some sort of sync up that would happen while you do have an internet connection.
Do you have any thoughts beyond what I’m saying here? Because it’s not just my input into the game, it’s yours as well.
Akuma2k9:
How about offline has more of a diffrent story? You progress your offline character and when it comes to online its more about playing with the community, events,pvp,etc
Jnexkk:
I just want to be able to dye my shoes and cloak bright green.
Markee Dragon:
You know, actually, that is not a bad idea. I know you’re just joking here, or at least that it appears that way. But when you think about it, that is something that wouldn’t affect gameplay. But I could still be a clothing designer. In Ultima Online, there was the tailor. And the tailor was able to make all kinds of combinations of clothing, and then dye them different colors. So what if you could do clothing design offline? That could be it’s own little game in itself, when you think about it. I think that would be a lot of fun.
“You could do some functions offline, maybe queue things up to happen for when you get online.” I agree, Battlevortex, I think that’s a good idea.
Steof:
It should be everything you do in offline mode. 10% of what you gain is transfered to online mode. and weapons/items has a very very low drop chance in offline mode.
Mcfspark:
An offline based community, the solorers, and they would be solo based games, and co-op or multiplayer have that team based.
Microwizard1:
would bring more women into the game
Markee Dragon:
I’m sure you’re talking about the tailoring. There was a lot of — oh, gosh. Gosh, I wish that I had some screenshots of this: do you guys remember when the first person made a fish tank in Ultima Online. Do you guys remember that? That was amazing! They did all kinds of different colored stacks of cloth and everything, and they put a whole bunch of stuff together, and they went and caught fish, and they put ’em in their tank, and it was amazing! So there’d be designs like that that could be applied.
So, pattern-making. Now, this pattern-making could be applied not only to clothing, but it could be put together for use for house decoration. And we’re going to talk about this one in a future episode; we’re going to talk about player housing, because that is one of the commitments that Richard Garriott or Lord British has made about the game.
The gist of this is, is that there actually is a whole lot of stuff, and I really like you guys’s ideas. We could take that even further: so we’re talking about the battleaxe stuff, and the lumberjack. Well, what about the armorer?
In armoring, sometimes there’s a lot of scrollwork in it in it’s designs and everything. I have another video I shot at my friend’s place where I have a flail. This flail is about five-hundred years old, and the ball on it is about three pounds. And it has an engraved lion-head on several sides of it, and a whole bunch of nice artwork on it. Now, if there could be something like that, where I could design these things offline and then apply them in the game, I think that that would really work out well. And that could go for all kinds of weapons; that could go for armor. It could even go for housing tiles and everything.
Anyway, I think we have a lot of suggestions, here. For those of you who want to get your word in, go ahead and reply when this is up as a YouTube video. Give us your best ideas.
I’m going to send this directly to Garriott and his staff, and they will take a look at it.
Thank you, everyone!
You can access the next episode directly from the dragon’s mouth or see it here, on Stratics.
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