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Ultima Online: The Making of a Classic Part 1

24

Comments

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by sandboxluv

    Persinally I hate the new sandbox games we have with %5 of the features UO had back in the 90's,  Whenever someone says MO or DF is like UO I just want to smack them in the face with a shovel. 





    Why does a 15 year old game have more features than wannabe sandboxes made in the last few years?



    Games like DF and MO are sandbox light fps deathmatches.

     

    Because games like DF and MO are extremely niche and meant for gamers that are mainly interested in the FFA PvP aspect.

  • shakermaker0shakermaker0 Member UncommonPosts: 194

    There was so much more to UO than the FFA/PVP bits, shame that's all its succesors have focused on. I guess that's why we have eve.

  • IndolIndol Member Posts: 189

    UO is hands down, without a doubt, bar-none, unequivocally the best game I have ever played or probably ever will play.

     

    I played from launch day in 97 til i think 2001 or 2002 and have rarely had as much fun outside of real life! The possibilities seemed, and in fact WERE in a lot of cases, virtually endless.

     

    Just some of the things you could do in UO: explore, dungeon crawl, fish, hunt, chop wood, mine ore, make maps, use maps to hunt down treasure, sail ships, buy, craft and own a myriad of different housing structures, tame animals and monsters, set up shops, band together to pk or anti-pk, snoop in other people's bags, steal from other people's bags, loot anything from bodies, role-play in a variety of ways with skills that actually supported them such as a Detective with Taste Identification and Forensics Evaluation, collect rare 'world items' like tarot cards that would only spawn every once in a great while, lay traps for other players, teleport a bunch of monsters to britain bank and laugh about it, set loose a bunch of summoned blade spirits and energy vortexes on unsuspecting citizens, wear a dress even if you're male (hilarious antics abound), craft anything from boots to warhammers to lockpicks to trapped chests to checkerboards to castles to cabinets to...you get the idea.... basically they gave you all the tools you could ever need to role-play your a** off. It was so much more free and imaginative than the mmo's of today! And yet at the same time it was so much simpler. A unique experience was to be had....

     

    I also played both EQ and AC when they came out and thoroughly enjoyed them as well in their own ways; they were all fairly unique to each other. Little did I know back then that the mmorpg genre would almost immediately stagnate, barely evolve to date and in fact consistently DEVOLVE into a much less open and rewarding experience over time. What a shame....

  • Laughing-manLaughing-man Member RarePosts: 3,654

    Originally posted by Ozmodan

    Trammel was one of the best things they added, it was the age of shadows that ruined the game where they bought into the customization of equipment from EQ.

    Great game, many fond memories of it.

    Not to be a butthurt fanboi but No.

    Trammel killed UO, started its death of its uniqueness.

    Trammel was UO's attempt to recapture subs from AC and DAoC

    It failed with good reason.  Lets not forget our past, Trammel was a horrible mistake.

  • wrekognizewrekognize Member UncommonPosts: 388

    I logged on Atlantic server the other day, and my goodness, it is packed!

     

    ..

  • Howitzer-DDHHowitzer-DDH Member Posts: 15

    Originally posted by Laughing-man

    Originally posted by Ozmodan

    Trammel was one of the best things they added, it was the age of shadows that ruined the game where they bought into the customization of equipment from EQ.

    Great game, many fond memories of it.

    Not to be a butthurt fanboi but No.

    Trammel killed UO, started its death of its uniqueness.

    Trammel was UO's attempt to recapture subs from AC and DAoC

    It failed with good reason.  Lets not forget our past, Trammel was a horrible mistake.


     

    Yep, Trammel was the start of the end of the real fun.  Too many wolves and not enough sheep in Felucca. 

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by Laughing-man

    Originally posted by Ozmodan

    Trammel was one of the best things they added, it was the age of shadows that ruined the game where they bought into the customization of equipment from EQ.

    Great game, many fond memories of it.

    Not to be a butthurt fanboi but No.

    Trammel killed UO, started its death of its uniqueness.

    Trammel was UO's attempt to recapture subs from AC and DAoC

    It failed with good reason.  Lets not forget our past, Trammel was a horrible mistake.

    The problem was that there were no separate PvE and PvP rulesets back in the day, it was all or nothing.

    And this was a problem because the majority of the players took issue with the fact that a fringe group of players was abusing the open mechanics and making the game unenjoyable for most other gamers.

    Trammel was, in my opinion, the best solution to the problem at the time. The shards had already been active for about two and a half years, with players firmly established on them, so creating separate server rulesets wouldn't have gone over well. Splitting the rulesets within each server was a compromise that was needed, because prior to the addition of the PvP-less facet, UO's subscriberbase was bleeding. And it actually did work by the way, because post Trammel, the subscriberbase doubled to hit it's peak. So despite how much you want to doom and gloom Trammel, it was actually better for the game and the majority of it's players in the long run.

    And even so, when a PvP only server was added to the game, a lot of the people who kept whining about Trammel were absent from it, despite getting what they asked for. But I guess that had more to do with the fact that most regular players also avoided the server too, so there weren't any easy pickings to be had for scrub PKers.

     

  • justincojustinco Member Posts: 12

    Originally posted by Ciccero

    ...

    The subscription downfall of UO was the changes to the notoriety system. the days of the dread lord were the hay days of UO. Once it was removed they removed the primary appealing aspect of why people play and PVP good guys VS bad guys,us VS them.


     

    I agree the Dread Lord days were the best. Many great memories from UO and playing the Dread Lord role wtih my friends/guildmates. It just wasn't the same when being a "Murderer", the loss of the Dread Lords vs. the Great Lords was a tragedy :(

    Played the UO beta on Pacific server as well as release on Pacific. Never forget staying up until 6 or 7am because I couldn't stop playing, and had to go to college or work 2 hours later lol.

  • Mari2kMari2k Member UncommonPosts: 367

    Originally posted by kishe

    Tens of thousands people still play this game like...14-15 years later because there simply isnt a game out there that can compete with it gameplay wise...the list of features and things to do in this game is massive!

     

    It's amazing how over ten years old game can still have systems superior to modern competition




     

     

    Is not that amazin, game development ist a job like others too. The only thing we have now better is grafics and more modern software development, the Idea behind the game is the core.

    Look at Picasso, his pictures are today still better then the ones from modern painters.

  • DaddyDarkDaddyDark Member Posts: 138

    Ah... oldie but goldie. This game stole my heart. For me it's the only one, where crafting really ment anything and was nearly equal with combat skills. I know people are saying it's the same in EVE, but EVE is too time-consuming for me and have no this old-good-RPG-pen&paper feeling I enjoyed playing Ultima. It offered housing! You can own a boat! Your horse can die! Oh sweet memories of taming the basilisks to use as a mount! My goodness... *crying* You would often lose all of your equipment just to replace it with the new one (not a big deal if you are rich - just go buy it from player crafters or shops they've set up) - expendable like it should be ...

    When would we get the up-to-date MMO which would combine those theme park convenience features with all those things there are to be offered by MMOs in addition to combat?!!?!? F-k the WoW with it's tirany of combat and raiding over everything else.

  • heartlessheartless Member UncommonPosts: 4,993

    I miss old UO. To this day it is the only MMO to offer almost complete freedom in how to play the it. Of course the game is completely ruined now but back then, it was glorious.

    The sheer amount of play styles UO catered to was stagering. One of my friends was a miner/blacksmith. That's all he did--mine and sell his items to other players. Every once in a while, he would ask me to escort him through a dungeon so he can mine there. I know another guy who would tame and sell mounts to players. People would hunt for burried treasure and it was actually more involved than just looking at a glowing circle on the map, you actually had to figure out where to go. Some people would be pirates and sail the ocean and attack other player ships. There were PKs, anti-PKs, RPers, grey-PKs, thieves. I really loved faction warfare, when it was introduced. People would take over major cities, defend them, raid other faction bases... It was a great time for MMO gaming.

    Now, games tell you what to do, where to go and how to do it. You almost have to get to max level before you can do anything. That "anything" being endgame instances, raids and instanced PvP or dailies.

    image

  • HricaHrica Member UncommonPosts: 1,129

    My first true love,

    Some times it seems that all games since UO have been "not so great"

    I really hate Origin sold out to EA, which killed UO 2 and pretty much every other game they touch, I really think they should stick with sports games...

    UO is the best game ever, one to tell your grand kids about

  • SulaSula Member Posts: 17

    Sometimes I wish UO hadn't been my first game, maybe then everything that came after it wouldn't feel like such a disappointment. In no game ever since have I just sat around at the local tavern (Spiritwood Tavern @ Europa), playing darts and watching the roleplayers do their thing. Or just wandered around admiring all the creative decorations people made from gold coins and colored cloths.

    I tried going back a few times but it's just not the same anymore...

  • XthosXthos Member UncommonPosts: 2,739

    I have gone back to UO many times, but I do not like the new skill system's set up, and I do prefer to play with the old 2D client, verse their 3dish client.

     

  • BadSpockBadSpock Member UncommonPosts: 7,979

    Trammel was the best thing to happen to UO.

    Siege Perilous still had the Trammel-free fun.

    The rest of the shards got to choose and when they added the 4 way Factions PvP everyone went back to Felucca on their own terms.

    Brilliant, brilliant game design.

    The PK cry babies QQ'd but the REAL PK's kept playing on Siege (hardcore server) and rocked out the Factions PvP.

    The PK cry babies moved on to games like Shadowbane so they could continue to gank and grief.

     

  • yorkforceyorkforce Member UncommonPosts: 160

    And I still cannot fathom as to why they dont release UO2, not only would its loyal fan base go head first into it, but all of us hundreds of thousands of players who used to play and love this game would also be overjoyed and handing over our cash.

    3D Ultima online, with the old skill and item systems. Instant money maker.

  • blythegablythega Member UncommonPosts: 174

    Great article Op. I have been playing UO since launch (Yes for 15 years) and it never gets old.

    There have been a lot of changes in that time, however, they have all helped to keep the game fresh fun and interesting.

    For all those people posting here who have played and are reminiscing I have news for you: UO is still here and you can play it right now.... so why not just jump back in and enjoy the fun you so fondly remember.

     

     

  • TimacekTimacek Member UncommonPosts: 182

    Originally posted by kerigar

    Reading this, you can really see how these guys had such a different take on MMO's compared to the Devs/Designers now.. "players could manipulate the world, how they could engage and feel like the experience was as life-like as possible."  To create a life like virtual world.....

    Nowadays its all about trying to find a proper theme and slap on the Lifeless/Static WoW Style mechanics, And try to railroad people as fast as they can to endgame because "my friends are all 50, or level 85 and i wanna play with them and thats where all the really fun content is!!!"

    I remember way back in 99, the first day  i started playing ultima online, I met up with my uncle and his friends (who actually introduced me to UO), they took me back to the log cabin they had setup ingame, Crafted some warrior armor a katana and a shield for me. Then we all headed out to hunt fire elementals at the fire dungeon... We all cooperated, looted, etc.. Once we got back to the cabin, we all tossed our loot into a bag on the floor sorted the junk split the gold and rolled for loot... We created those mechanics ourselve using the tools at hand in the game, a Cup of dice and a loot bag on the ground!

    You just dont see that level of cooperation/creativity allowed in games nowadays, Theres no social aspect to it, hanging out having fun DOING WHAT YOU WANT, its all about leveling climbing the gear ladder being MOAR L33T than that dude standing next to you...And all we can do is stand back and watch companies like blizzard suck the life out of MMO industry.. Its sad really, In all honesty even with all the MMOs out now, i still have sudden urges start playing uo again a 15 year old game!? Is the mmo industry really that stupied that they can clone WoW 100 times over because it had MASS APPEAL to the casual players? Yet a game that grandfathered them all cannot be cloned or remade properly once in 15 freaking years????

    // A bit  of a rant near the end but i think it warranted with the BS company's releasing nowadays...




     

    as the man said

    great article btw

  • ThemePorkThemePork Member Posts: 312

    Originally posted by yorkforce

    3D Ultima online, with the old skill and item systems. Instant money maker.

    Yeah the MMO genre REALLY needs to go back to its roots, back to open worlds, multiple progression paths, player driven content... The original vision!!!

    What better way to do it than by reduxing the grandfather of it all?

    Oh wait EA's in charge, never mind...

  • MustaphaMondMustaphaMond Member UncommonPosts: 341

    Originally posted by yorkforce

    And I still cannot fathom as to why they dont release UO2....

    The short answer = EA owns the rights to the game, Richard Garriott owns rights to Lord British (and a few of the other characters, if I remember correctly).... and never the twain shall meet again, I'm afraid.

  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099

    The moral of the story is that it takes a long, long time and a lot of intermediate successes to make your dreams happen.

  • Mordred1Mordred1 Member UncommonPosts: 84

    UO2! Now!

  • HolaHolaHolaHola Member Posts: 68



    Originally posted by spankybus

    I can't help but wonder if the 2D client could run on a tablet PC. It would be absolutely badass to be able to play this game. On iOS and Droid tablets and would probably flood the servers with a host of new and returning players.

    Maybe this game is dated by PC standards...but it's fun as hell and perfect for portable gaming now....especially since its point and click.

    So many good memories of this game.






     

    That would be cool, but really hard to do in such a complex game.

    I remember having mapped more then 50 key-combinations for my mage in PvP :D



    On another note, UO for me is the best game ever made. It had its flaws, all games do. However it was all about interaction within a world and communities!

    Isometric view is just better for these kind of games, noone gets that though.

    Playing: League of Legends!

  • BogeBoge Member Posts: 182

    Just looking at those screenshots, that game has really changed since I played way back in the beginning.

  • WorstluckWorstluck Member Posts: 1,269

    I went back and played the game maybe a year or so ago, was nice to still see people playing it. 

     

    It's just so frustrating to see this genre of games continue to take steps backwards.  MMO's should be worlds for us to make our own and of course to share with everyone else.  They should be massive online games, not fully instanced and on rails, being told what to do next.  The did so many things right with UO in mine and many gamers eyes, yet apparently all we want, according to big publishers, is linear, uninspiring gameplay that involves clicking something for a quest or killing 20 bad guys.  It's sad.  At least UO lives on somewhat.

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