Suprised they dpn't go for an iOS/Android client...would go down a storm there.
Or IPad's I have to agree if they can somehow port this game to portable devices maybe we can finally see once and for all how much the sandbox genre is still viable to the masses, especially people who have never touched a MMO.
I still play Ultima Online for the RP community, there is still a very large RP community on Europa, you will find much of the roleplaying community throughout Cove and the Yew Crossroads as well as Vesper and Trinsic.. We still RP on this shard like it is 1997 and we do RP warring, it is very fun and exciting..
Unfortunently, freeshards are the way to go, many of them more populated than the average "normal" server and some are old school..
What's keeping EA from making an UO2 from the ground up?
Let me guess, they probably wouldn't have a clue how to even start the project. I mean they murdered this game over and over,every single patch after the other, look at the bag, they even put some slots to it now!!! WHy would they make an other wow clone and call it UO2? it make no sense, not for us and not even for them.
I sadly never got to play UO in the glory days. I heard more as once that the game gone to hell when EA took over and Lord Britain left. I tried a pirate server a year or two ago when the Mortal Online devs had posted a link to one of the old rule set UO servers. It was funny but as many others im spoiled with todays graphics and it also didn't help that i never got to play a real sandbox MMORPG like UO before aswell so i was pretty much clueless what to do or where to go.
I know sandbox games are all about freedom, but i wonder if a sandbox like that would work these days. When i look at the current sandbox games like Mortal Online (my biggest waste of money ever >.>) and that other game i forgot the name, its out for 2 years or so. Anyway that latest game is more a pvp slaughter house then anything else, it scares people off who aren't die hard PvPers and seeing that today's MMORPGer is used to have important gear rather then skills its a freightning, perhaps frustrating thought to lose your stuff when killed by others. Especially seeing how imature and unhonorable people are on PvP servers in WoW, AoC, etc.
I would love to see a sandbox MMORPG though where you are free to do what ever you like but have a little guidance with some NPC's to help you start the game and perhaps some save zones where you are newbie can flee too when some griever comes to kill you over and over again. Corpse camping, teabagging, etc. I know people love to shout these days that it makes you a carebear when you don;t like the thought of being ganked raped but what i heard about UO such behavior wasn't as present as in modern MMORPG's so with todays generation would it work?
Funny how the best MMO's (UO, DAoC, EQ, PS, AO and a few others) happen to be the oldies. Trouble with the newer MMORPG's is all the hand holding, appealing to console gamers and lack of a challenge. For me, anyway.
Wow... "Ultima Online is getting old." Talk about the understatement of the decade. Nostalgia is only effective if you don't
actually play the game, otherwise you start playing it again and realize how crappy it actually is compared to where we are in terms of mmo's.
Where we are in terms of mmos is not a good place. It may have aged but at it's core it is still far more of an expansive and interesting world with deeper mechanics and social interplay than most of the facerollingly easy, instanced, flashing light, cash shop affairs we see as the mainstay of the mmo market place nowadays.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
Seriously, though, this game is still god damn amazing for all of the mechanics they've screwed. I'm fine with the graphics, for the most part the 2D (not the 3D) art still holds up surprisingly well, and the variable manner in which items could be used on your paper doll still has yet to be matched by another MMO, as far as character customization goes. It's really hard for me to play current MMO's and not think back upon all of the things UO did right, and still does right, that this recent batch of MMO developing morons can't seem to grasp. Really? It's hard to understand that players want tons of character customization, skill customization, and world customization?
This thread just makes me sad, because it reminds me of all the shit (and I mean asbolute SHIT) we have to play
compared to the UO that came out in 1997. Sorry guys, but it's true.
I will never forget the memories from UO.... first mmo I played with my 2 brothers and all my RL friends. We have never all gotten together to play another MMO since. We have probably all played each MMO out there some for longer than others but never all together or at the same time. Awwww UO.... the good old days when weapons and armor didnt even have numbers. I personally like advancement and am looking forward to upcoming games but most MMOs I have played never gave me that story I still remember today. I remember some SWG stories a few stories from back in vanilla WoW and several from EQ but the memories of UO seem to be branded in my brain... Every detail fresh, probably just because it was the first MMO I ever played though.
Wow... "Ultima Online is getting old." Talk about the understatement of the decade. Nostalgia is only effective if you don't
actually play the game, otherwise you start playing it again and realize how crappy it actually is compared to where we are in terms of mmo's.
Faidian, sorry but not true. I can still go back to UO and still enjoy it greatly and create new stories that I don't forget. It's not that the nostalgic feeling is gone or anything. Maybe MAYBE if anything, possibly EQ only because it was such an insane grind and we are all adults with responsibilities now. Well, some of us are...
Disclaimer: This is not a troll post and is not here to promote any negative energy. Although this may be a criticism, it is not meant to offend anyone. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, please remove it immediately before it is subject to consideration for a warning. Thank you.
I love UO and would totaly go back but these days I don't have the time to play it. With newer games coming out and such I think UO would need a big update, one that I cared about deeply to force me to go back... something with PvE factions, multi-races and a series of new towns. I kinda always liked the idea of mixing the races of EQ with the sandbox of UO. Make it so that some races can go almost everywhere and other's are stuck in thier homelands untill they prove themselves.
What made UO fun for me back in the day? It was the people that played. My memory is not so bad, when the game released it sucked ass. Anyone remember hitting dummies for an hour so you could kill a chicken? Remember trying to find animals to kill for a little skill gain- you were lucky if you ran into one every 30 minutes, Standing in front of the Ork forts with 50 other people waiting for a spawn? lol the mobs of people waiting for Ettin spawns and it really sucked trying to get a dungeon kill with the mobs of people inside the mainland dungeons.
Man the characters I would meet in that game, I would literaly ROFL
The game mechanics were cool, The game itself was very bland and slow paced. It was the people that played, that made it a fun and interesting place to be, and that will never be revived or duplicated. We were a bunch of DnD nerds who dreamed for years of having a game like that and we made the most of it.
The vast majority of people today dont have the patience for a game like that anymore.
What a F@&, idk UO was/is a great game and its ashamed UO2 and UO odyssey both got cancelled by wankers but from listening to Gayriots interviews and projects lately im less than impressed especially about the Facebooks MMo that is apparently going to be called "Lord British's Brittania" much of an ego?
But heres to hoping games like Gnostaria, Arche age deliver where UO fans are craving cause 97 was a long long time ago, and trying to market UO now or even 7 years ago imo is a fail project.
UO remains to this day an experience that no one has been able to emulate or recreate. And still remains my favorite MMORPG.
Played it for 5 years of my life, and have had the most fun from any other mmorpg to date (with the very close runner up being SWG- Pre-NGE, then again many of us considered it as UO2).
Other than that all others have had a couple of fun elements here and there, but nothing as pognant nothing as deep nothing that gave the same level of a sense of community as UO had.
My guild having formed in UO, still remains together to this day, and over the years in our RL or Virtual gatherings we still talk about our fond memories. Our adventures together, our involvement in the Role Play Community and Contributions to our Shard (Atlantic), our strugles vs some of the most notorious PK's and PK guilds out there. Our alliances with many others, such as The Syndicate (LLTS headed by Dragons), Yew Militia, The Kindred (Dalriada, TK), Moongow, Trinsic Council, Britain Council, Rivendell, Lost order of Akalabeth (LOA), HBM, HOA ... and many others, our defeats and tribulations but also our victories.
Exploring the world, being able to shape it (Through Housing etc) taking it to the next level of City Building of community building, organising Gatherings and Events, exchanging these with like minded Communities creating a grander Level of Community spirit made up of many smaller communities and being a contributor of that. That is the experience of living an adventure. All of it player Driven, most of it spontaneous. People were creating History as they went.
No MMORPG has been able to do this, today it is all scripted, it is all just a road to follow, you play someone else's story or simply are taken for a ride. But none of it feels as your own because the player has absolutelly no part in making any of it.
That is what made UO, that was the genius of Richard Garriot, and made the experience of Britannia great and I am not surprised it is enduring to today a single bit.
Most MMORPG's I have played since, lack vision, became too mechanical much less organic and lifeless in comparison. Today MMORPG's are more like paying to play Donkey Kong online amongst other people playing it at the same time rather than playing in a shared world allong with many other people. ok we can team up together and get the Princess, and be rewarded for it, but beyond that, there is, in comparison, nothing more. And UO has so much more beyond the basic "Enter Dungeon and Save the Princess gameplay".
Thanks for this article, cheers!
- Duke Suraknar - Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
I miss the older UO, I am subbed right now, but I am about to cancel it. I do not like the new skill/combo systems and such. IF they would make a classic server, I would probably stay.
I wish they would make a UO2, even if it was 2D, I play on the classic client, I do not like their version of 3d, it looks funky to me, and seems blury.
I played UO at launch.. What a mess! It was still fun though, but my friends and I were so overwhelmed.
The world seemed so huge (and lagged) there were so many people (and lag), such total freedom of things to do (and yes, did I mention lag?)
But even lagged it was fun, especially in the wilderness. One of my first memories was being attacked by a caster and running away. Came back and stole his regents.. He begged and begged for them to be returned.. Served him right I thought attacking someone who barely knew how to play (knew how to steal tho lol)
The highlight for me was a fellow guild member going out and killing an NPC with the same name as my character, then delivering her head in a bag to me during a PC wedding ceremony. LOL
Name ONE game where you can do that now? That is true sandbox.
With so many MMO players clammoring for another UO-like "sandbox" MMO, it astounds me that EA has let the opportunity slide for so long to enhance UO into something grand, updated, and well-supported.
I would love to see UO get a much needed yet LOVING makeover. Strong emphasis should be placed on evaluating what long-time players felt was great about the game, and some systems that could prove unruly with a thriving poplation (player housing, resource gathering) should be re-evaluated to better suit an influx of new players, should UO ever be giving the update that it's due.
Comments
Wow... "Ultima Online is getting old." Talk about the understatement of the decade. Nostalgia is only effective if you don't
actually play the game, otherwise you start playing it again and realize how crappy it actually is compared to where we are in terms of mmo's.
Or IPad's I have to agree if they can somehow port this game to portable devices maybe we can finally see once and for all how much the sandbox genre is still viable to the masses, especially people who have never touched a MMO.
I still play Ultima Online for the RP community, there is still a very large RP community on Europa, you will find much of the roleplaying community throughout Cove and the Yew Crossroads as well as Vesper and Trinsic.. We still RP on this shard like it is 1997 and we do RP warring, it is very fun and exciting..
Unfortunently, freeshards are the way to go, many of them more populated than the average "normal" server and some are old school..
man, i miss uo.
Let me guess, they probably wouldn't have a clue how to even start the project. I mean they murdered this game over and over,every single patch after the other, look at the bag, they even put some slots to it now!!! WHy would they make an other wow clone and call it UO2? it make no sense, not for us and not even for them.
I sadly never got to play UO in the glory days. I heard more as once that the game gone to hell when EA took over and Lord Britain left. I tried a pirate server a year or two ago when the Mortal Online devs had posted a link to one of the old rule set UO servers. It was funny but as many others im spoiled with todays graphics and it also didn't help that i never got to play a real sandbox MMORPG like UO before aswell so i was pretty much clueless what to do or where to go.
I know sandbox games are all about freedom, but i wonder if a sandbox like that would work these days. When i look at the current sandbox games like Mortal Online (my biggest waste of money ever >.>) and that other game i forgot the name, its out for 2 years or so. Anyway that latest game is more a pvp slaughter house then anything else, it scares people off who aren't die hard PvPers and seeing that today's MMORPGer is used to have important gear rather then skills its a freightning, perhaps frustrating thought to lose your stuff when killed by others. Especially seeing how imature and unhonorable people are on PvP servers in WoW, AoC, etc.
I would love to see a sandbox MMORPG though where you are free to do what ever you like but have a little guidance with some NPC's to help you start the game and perhaps some save zones where you are newbie can flee too when some griever comes to kill you over and over again. Corpse camping, teabagging, etc. I know people love to shout these days that it makes you a carebear when you don;t like the thought of being ganked raped but what i heard about UO such behavior wasn't as present as in modern MMORPG's so with todays generation would it work?
UO is just "getting" old? It was the first, so yeah stating the obvious there. I played in 1998.
Ah, Magincia...fun times.
Funny how the best MMO's (UO, DAoC, EQ, PS, AO and a few others) happen to be the oldies. Trouble with the newer MMORPG's is all the hand holding, appealing to console gamers and lack of a challenge. For me, anyway.
Where we are in terms of mmos is not a good place. It may have aged but at it's core it is still far more of an expansive and interesting world with deeper mechanics and social interplay than most of the facerollingly easy, instanced, flashing light, cash shop affairs we see as the mainstay of the mmo market place nowadays.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I played UO for several years.
It took me a year of normal play to GM magery. Finally i said F it and 8x8 the last .8 .
Animal Taming (shudder) yeah that took forever as did provocation and magic resist.
Loved the game. Played on Lake Superior - Had a hoot hanging out with K@S guildmates in the Moonglow Cotton Patch every night during power Hour.
I went back with a trial a couple of years ago and it made me a bit sad. Place was a ghost town (Even Brit) I wish they would make a sequel.
I will never forget the memories from UO.... first mmo I played with my 2 brothers and all my RL friends. We have never all gotten together to play another MMO since. We have probably all played each MMO out there some for longer than others but never all together or at the same time. Awwww UO.... the good old days when weapons and armor didnt even have numbers. I personally like advancement and am looking forward to upcoming games but most MMOs I have played never gave me that story I still remember today. I remember some SWG stories a few stories from back in vanilla WoW and several from EQ but the memories of UO seem to be branded in my brain... Every detail fresh, probably just because it was the first MMO I ever played though.
Faidian, sorry but not true. I can still go back to UO and still enjoy it greatly and create new stories that I don't forget. It's not that the nostalgic feeling is gone or anything. Maybe MAYBE if anything, possibly EQ only because it was such an insane grind and we are all adults with responsibilities now. Well, some of us are...
Disclaimer: This is not a troll post and is not here to promote any negative energy. Although this may be a criticism, it is not meant to offend anyone. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, please remove it immediately before it is subject to consideration for a warning. Thank you.
I love UO and would totaly go back but these days I don't have the time to play it. With newer games coming out and such I think UO would need a big update, one that I cared about deeply to force me to go back... something with PvE factions, multi-races and a series of new towns. I kinda always liked the idea of mixing the races of EQ with the sandbox of UO. Make it so that some races can go almost everywhere and other's are stuck in thier homelands untill they prove themselves.
What made UO fun for me back in the day? It was the people that played. My memory is not so bad, when the game released it sucked ass. Anyone remember hitting dummies for an hour so you could kill a chicken? Remember trying to find animals to kill for a little skill gain- you were lucky if you ran into one every 30 minutes, Standing in front of the Ork forts with 50 other people waiting for a spawn? lol the mobs of people waiting for Ettin spawns and it really sucked trying to get a dungeon kill with the mobs of people inside the mainland dungeons.
Man the characters I would meet in that game, I would literaly ROFL
The game mechanics were cool, The game itself was very bland and slow paced. It was the people that played, that made it a fun and interesting place to be, and that will never be revived or duplicated. We were a bunch of DnD nerds who dreamed for years of having a game like that and we made the most of it.
The vast majority of people today dont have the patience for a game like that anymore.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
UO is getting old ***
and is still better than 99% of all the kiddy hand holding theampark mmorpg's out there
UO is getting old?
Really?
That's why we need UO2..........well we needed UO2 5 years ago, so Bill is 5 years late on acknowledging the weakness of this game.
What a F@&, idk UO was/is a great game and its ashamed UO2 and UO odyssey both got cancelled by wankers but from listening to Gayriots interviews and projects lately im less than impressed especially about the Facebooks MMo that is apparently going to be called "Lord British's Brittania" much of an ego?
But heres to hoping games like Gnostaria, Arche age deliver where UO fans are craving cause 97 was a long long time ago, and trying to market UO now or even 7 years ago imo is a fail project.
UO remains to this day an experience that no one has been able to emulate or recreate. And still remains my favorite MMORPG.
Played it for 5 years of my life, and have had the most fun from any other mmorpg to date (with the very close runner up being SWG- Pre-NGE, then again many of us considered it as UO2).
Other than that all others have had a couple of fun elements here and there, but nothing as pognant nothing as deep nothing that gave the same level of a sense of community as UO had.
My guild having formed in UO, still remains together to this day, and over the years in our RL or Virtual gatherings we still talk about our fond memories. Our adventures together, our involvement in the Role Play Community and Contributions to our Shard (Atlantic), our strugles vs some of the most notorious PK's and PK guilds out there. Our alliances with many others, such as The Syndicate (LLTS headed by Dragons), Yew Militia, The Kindred (Dalriada, TK), Moongow, Trinsic Council, Britain Council, Rivendell, Lost order of Akalabeth (LOA), HBM, HOA ... and many others, our defeats and tribulations but also our victories.
Exploring the world, being able to shape it (Through Housing etc) taking it to the next level of City Building of community building, organising Gatherings and Events, exchanging these with like minded Communities creating a grander Level of Community spirit made up of many smaller communities and being a contributor of that. That is the experience of living an adventure. All of it player Driven, most of it spontaneous. People were creating History as they went.
No MMORPG has been able to do this, today it is all scripted, it is all just a road to follow, you play someone else's story or simply are taken for a ride. But none of it feels as your own because the player has absolutelly no part in making any of it.
That is what made UO, that was the genius of Richard Garriot, and made the experience of Britannia great and I am not surprised it is enduring to today a single bit.
Most MMORPG's I have played since, lack vision, became too mechanical much less organic and lifeless in comparison. Today MMORPG's are more like paying to play Donkey Kong online amongst other people playing it at the same time rather than playing in a shared world allong with many other people. ok we can team up together and get the Princess, and be rewarded for it, but beyond that, there is, in comparison, nothing more. And UO has so much more beyond the basic "Enter Dungeon and Save the Princess gameplay".
Thanks for this article, cheers!
Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
I miss the older UO, I am subbed right now, but I am about to cancel it. I do not like the new skill/combo systems and such. IF they would make a classic server, I would probably stay.
I wish they would make a UO2, even if it was 2D, I play on the classic client, I do not like their version of 3d, it looks funky to me, and seems blury.
The world seemed so huge (and lagged) there were so many people (and lag), such total freedom of things to do (and yes, did I mention lag?)
But even lagged it was fun, especially in the wilderness. One of my first memories was being attacked by a caster and running away. Came back and stole his regents.. He begged and begged for them to be returned.. Served him right I thought attacking someone who barely knew how to play (knew how to steal tho lol)
Good write up, I approve
I miss the crafting system, housing and general sense of danger when exploring back in those good 'ol days!
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
The highlight for me was a fellow guild member going out and killing an NPC with the same name as my character, then delivering her head in a bag to me during a PC wedding ceremony. LOL
Name ONE game where you can do that now? That is true sandbox.
I hate what it became. Ultima Online was magical, but with Age of Shadows the downfall began.
With so many MMO players clammoring for another UO-like "sandbox" MMO, it astounds me that EA has let the opportunity slide for so long to enhance UO into something grand, updated, and well-supported.
I would love to see UO get a much needed yet LOVING makeover. Strong emphasis should be placed on evaluating what long-time players felt was great about the game, and some systems that could prove unruly with a thriving poplation (player housing, resource gathering) should be re-evaluated to better suit an influx of new players, should UO ever be giving the update that it's due.