As well from the UO newsletter: Live events about to get more serious

If you’ve been following the Live Event series, you’ve probably helped fight off an invasion, discovered mysterious pieces of black rock, and discovered Inu the Crone’s secret. As we move closer to the launch of Kingdom Reborn, more serious events will begin to occur, and small occurrences will begin ripples that will eventually grow to tidal waves. The world is soon to change forever, and it will be the citizens of Britannia who bring about a new age. To keep up to date on the in-game events, check out www.uo.com every Friday evening.

I want to jump in here for a second and say that out of all of my years going back to 1997, this year, putting aside the news of Kingdom Reborn (which deserves its own commentary), has been one of the most interesting, enjoyable, and “fulfilling” years I’ve had in UO - I felt that things were different back around March, and that the devs had a much firmer hand on the tiller, so to speak, than in past years, and so far, my feeling was right - one of the dev team members mentioned that UO was at times in a “maintenance mode” (in years past), and from about March of this year, it didn’t feel like that at all.

Everybody on the dev team has clearly been doing a lot, but I want to, once again, single out Draconi - this has been one of the most coherent story arcs we’ve seen, and is by now the longest running (and we still have a long ways to go before finishing it :woop: ). All too often in the past, the story arcs felt like they were simply there to provide a background for the expansions - that somebody came up with the expansion, and then drew up a story arc to fit with that. Not so, this time around. It feels like Draconi has worked to try and incorporate both Ultima and Ultima Online history a lot more deeply into the story arc. Quite a few times in the past, we’d have a story arc that revolved around an expansion or an event, and then it would very abruptly, and you wanted more. Well, we are getting it.

There’s more to this, and I’ll explain in a few minutes.

Gamasutra is doing a great job of covering the conference so far. Some highlights of the first day:

Blizzard Entertainment VP of Game Design Rob Pardo’s Keynote:
(Speaking about tradeoffs that had to be made with World of Warcraft)

High-level gear was another area where compromises were necessary. “It was really cool in Ultima Online to make your own character or guild with your own colors and your own look,” Pardo said. “But there’s only so much art time that you have, and only so many artists. We chose instead to concentrate that coolness on making really cool prestige armor sets that came from specific places.We allowed raiders and more hardcore players to get that prestige and reward, so that you can recognize where someone has been. With customizable gear, everyone can look different. But you can’t have both.”

MMO Personalities ‘Rant’ On Industry
Remember Gordon “Tyrant” Walton (no :love: lost), UO:Ren, UO: Third Dawn

Gordon Walton is best left with the last word at this year’s Austin Game Conference MMO Rant session. He’ll want to have it, might as well give it to him.

“… You’re all a bunch of whiny little b—-es,” he said. “‘We’re all victims of the guys with the money!’ No. Guess who signs up to make the game. Guess who along the way decides to change things. … Guess who won’t stand up and lose their job rather than s—-t-start. I put myself in there. I’ve done that. I’ve made bad decisions … many more times than most people here in this room … I think the challenge here is, are we agents of our lives, or are we victims? We’re talking about, oh, it’s going to come from the top down. Well guess what, if nobody will work for those schmucks, it’ll come from the bottom up. … What are they going to do? They don’t know how to put it on a disc. …

“The other thing is, we’re not holding up our end. Somewhere along the way we caved and promised something we couldn’t deliver. So you can’t say it’s the other guy, it’s some other motherf—er. No, it’s not. Everybody in this thing is responsible for what happens. Every single person on the team had a opportunity to do better. And I’d like to see more people think about how they’re going to make it happen rather than sit up and rant and b—- about it.”

Richard “Dupre” Vogel (UO, UO: The Second Age):

Vogel praised Pardo for his emphasis on not being in a rush to release a game, but lamented the lack of innovation in the genre, at least outside of Asia. WoW’s success seems to have pushed many business-types to look for ways to copy or re-skin WoW, Vogel said, rather than focus on innovation, which could reach the mass market that no game, not even WoW, has reached. “Looking out at E3 this year, there is nothing innovative coming out in the next three years, and that’s pretty sad.”

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn got a mention at Gamasutra, Britannia Reborn With Ultima Online Revamp.

Following recent news that the existing Ultima Online team would begin working with Electronic Arts’ newly acquired studio Mythic (Dark Age of Camelot) in order to “forge Britannia’s future,” EA today announced a significant upgrade to its long running MMO.

Tentatively titled Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn, the upgrade is described by EA as “a complete make-over,” and will feature a new graphics engine, new user interface, and new content on top of nine years of existing content which will be further enhanced as well. In addition, Kingdom Reborn will add a new playable race, though no other specific information was released at this time.

I mention this, not because of the angle that UO is starting to get more positive press coverage (although there is that), but I would like to say that I don’t think the acquisition of Mythic had anything to do with UO: Kingdom Reborn. The screenshots - one shows a few months old, which when you look at the timeframe, there is not enough time for Mythic/EA to have whipped up a brand new client for UO. As we have stated in the past, we believed that the signs were pointing to a new client, even before the Mythic acquisition.

I think that what you are seeing instead, is a culmination of a new direction that EA is taking - a revamp of UO, the acquisition of Mythic, etc., and it just so happens that some things are close together date wise. Unfortunately, those who aren’t closely following UO may not see it that way - they see “new client, Mythic just acquired, hmmm, must be Mythic’s doing”.

CatHat’s thoughts about EA Mythic’s head honcho, Mark Jacobs, as posted in Stratics/UO Hall:
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Yesterday, a new Five on Friday was posted on UO.com. One of the things that caused all kinds of alarms and fireworks and light bulbs to go off in my head, was this question answered by Darkscribe:

3. Any plans to add content or spruce up existing content in the original lands (Britannia itself)?

Darkscribe: Yes. I will continue to drop hints until someone has to sweep them up. Follow the clues within the in-game story arc involving Inu. Soon, there will be puzzles to solve that will lead players to an amazing revelation. If players don’t reveal the secret, then they’ll hear about it from a press release a couple weeks later, but I’m betting on the players to find it first.

Think about what Darkscribe just said: If players don’t reveal the secret, then they’ll hear about it from a press release a couple weeks later,

PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE

I’ve commented in the past on some of the things I think UO needs to do and will do. One of them was a new client. Just about any major forum that has more than 10 UO players, somebody will mention a new client every now and then.

What’s worthy of a press release? This is, after all, an amazing revelation.
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Ultima Online’s new producer has introduced himself: UO.Com - “New Year, New Team, New Producer, New Ideas”. Among his comments, news about some of the new team members, Pub 40, mentions of plans going into the next few years (yes, you read that right). I like what he says, when he talks about their guiding motto is “More reasons to log in, more often.”

Have you ever wanted a job so bad that you’d literally beg for it, down on your knees, hands clasped in front of you, pleading in your eyes? Have you learned the true meaning of the phrase: “Be careful what you wish for?” I can honestly answer both questions with a hardy “yes-in-freakin’-deed.”

So here I am, the new producer of Ultima Online, after eight years of working for Electronic Arts in various ways, as a PR director, marketing director, E3 demo monkey, screenshot taker, the press tour guy, the ad copy guy, party thrower, ninja, press release scribe, Powerpoint giver, coffee runner, and once, voice actor. (I did a bad celebrity impersonation in the expansion pack for Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun.)
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