I guess people really were waiting to see what all the goodies would be. Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection shot up to the top 5 on Amazon today (it’s hovering around #3 as we speak). Keep in mind that a week ago it was hovering in the #300-400 range, with it being in the Top Five and Top Ten in Japan fairly consistently. This isn’t simply in PC games, it’s all video games, and includes the actual gaming hardware (consoles, etc).

Right now, it’s #1 in Japan on Amazon.jp’s Top Ten list.

Just to give you a perspective, the top 11 at Amazon (USA):
1)Xbox 360 Console Includes 20GB Hard Drive
2)Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe DVD

3)Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection

4)Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (PS2)
5)Nintendo DS Lite Onyx Black
6)The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack
7)Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team
8)Okami (PS2)
9)Final Fantasy XII
10)Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team
11) New Super Mario Bros.

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.”

The Austin Game Conference started up today, and lasts through friday:

Austin Game Conference (AGC) - now in its 4th year - is the definitive conference for online and networked game development, including massively multiplayer online games, casual games, online PC and console games.

Quite a few people (including some big names) associated with Ultima Online in the past will be there and will be speaking. Among those in attendance (and what they are going to be speaking about/discussing):

- Raph “Designer Dragon” Koster, the former Lead Designer on UO and UO: The Second Age (although according to his website, he appears to be sick and may not be there the whole time).
“The Age of the Dinosaurs”:This lecture will examine business trends in the game development industry, the pressures that are changing the current publisher-developer model and the brave new world that faces us all after the fruition of current trends.
“The Future of Virtual Worlds”: The virtual worlds are changing drastically, atomizing through user-created content, providing end-users with business opportunities and meshing with an increasingly interoperable World Wide Web.

- Richard “Dupre” Vogel: Producer/Director of UO: The Second Age.
“Beta Community Roundtable”: The Beta period of an online game is the most crucial time in development. It is the first time the public will play the game. Opinions are being formed and viral marketing can be the biggest asset if there’s good buzz or a disaster if feedback is negative.
“”New” Challenges Facing MMOG Development”: An MMOG related discussion about the “new” challenges facing development, such as pursuing a broader audience, bridging platforms and incorporating mechanics from other genres.
“MMOG Rant”: Though our medium is becoming more significant yearly, we still have a long way to go to fully realize it’s potential. The panelists are going to unleash their inner anguish on an issue they believe is holding back our industry. (Also Jessica Mulligan and Mark Jacobs).

- Jonathan “Calandryll” Hanna - Former Online Community Relations, Content Designer
“Building Communities from Alpha to Launch”: Roles and best practices of community relations during development and testing of an MMOG. Once an MMOG has reached a developmental stage where any kind of external testing is to begin (alpha, friends and family, closed beta, etc.), new sets of challenges arise outside of the developmental process.

Mark Jacobs - EA Mythic General Manager: “MMOG Rant” Though our medium is becoming more significant yearly, we still have a long way to go to fully realize it’s potential. The panelists are going to unleash their inner anguish on an issue they believe is holding back our industry. Our goal will be to challenge ourselves and the audience to look beyond the current industry results. (Also Jessica Mulligan who is associated with UO somehow, Richard Vogel are speaking during this one).

- David Swofford - Media Relations for Ultima Online
“Emerging Public Relations Strategies for MMO Games” - Public relations strategies are changing in the game industry as more MMOG titles come to market. To break out from the noise, public relations professionals need to develop and implement innovative new strategies and programs that go beyond the traditional preview/review gaming cycle.

Also: Eugene Evans - EA Mythic VP of Marketing - Speaking about “Where is Asia Going?”

Note: Carly “LadyMOI” Staehlin will not be attending.

A major gaming site, FiringSquad, has an interview with EA Mythic’s Mark Jacobs about Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn. Not to long ago, major gaming sites/publications showing an interest in UO was fairly rare. It seems things are picking up. It sounds like UO is falling under EA Mythic umbrella, with the UO dev team remaining in place (and staying where they are at and not moving to Mythic’s current studios).

Quote:

FiringSquad:Finally, why do a revamp of UO at all when the team could work on a full sequel to the game which might have better graphical features and more content than the original?
(more…)

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”.

A couple of websites have picked up the story of EA removing 15 trillion in gold pieces from UO, along with banning 180 accounts. This might help spread the word - some players who might have given the fraud problems as one of their reasons for leaving UO in the past may return. It also alleviates (if only for a few days), those clamoring about EA not doing anything about the exploiters. A couple of the sites mention the eBay connection.

Gamespot News: The world of Ultima Online just got a little poorer. Electronic Arts has announced the permanent removal of roughly 15 trillion gold from the game’s economy and the termination of more than 180 user accounts in connection with the funds, which it referred to as “dirty money”….A quick survey of eBay found Ultima Online gold sellers typically asking for between $3 and $4 per million gold pieces, with the few auctions that actually had bids on them running closer to $1 per million gold pieces. Even at the low end of that range, the real-world value of the deleted gold would be about $15 million, and possibly closer to the $60 million some online sellers would ask for it.
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