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Ultima Online: The Making of a Classic Part 1

13

Comments

  • AntariousAntarious Member UncommonPosts: 2,834

    Originally posted by yorkforce

    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.

     

     

    Once upon a time Lord British had an article about making a sequel.   I don't remember all the details but for an MMO he thought it was a bad idea.   At the time I agreed with him...

     

    Currently there really isn't a well funded game similar to UO.   So making a UO2 now with a modern engine and gameplay close to the original... would be a smart market move in my opinion.   Just to keep the expectation a small (but profit making) core of very rabid/loyal gamers.

     

    The only real downfall would be the debate about launching a new game with something like Trammel in place so you could attract the PvE players... and the "no care bear" crowd.   I've always liked the idea of seeing an MMO made with a "wasteland" area... which had incentives to enter but the dangers as well (getting ganked in other words).   Risk versus reward...

     

     

  • FerrarkFerrark Member CommonPosts: 3

    Only a new UO can save the MMO`s world

  • BartDaCatBartDaCat Member UncommonPosts: 813

    My first exposure to graphic based computer games were the Ultima games on my friend's Commodore 64.  Between the Ultima series and Bard's Tale, I was hooked.

    Years later, out on my own, with a slim budget and a new job, it took everything I had to save up for a PC so I could partake of the Ultima Online goodness.

    I remember the excitement I felt when I started exploring all of my favorite places fully realized into an online game, and experiencing for the first time a sense of online community.

    I was on the Pacific server, and the folks I ran into were friendly and outgoing.  People gave me access to their houses and castles, and overall I just felt like I belonged.

    I try to recapture this feeling in games today, but it seems I haven't found the right one yet.  Long gone are the days when I'd drag a small herd of tamed beasts into the town square to sell as mounts, or travel by boat on a non-linear path across an ocean, or stop by a friend's castle to borrow their dye vats to color my new armor.

    As I read through the feedback to some of these articles based on UO, it seems to me that I wouldn't find that same feeling of community that used to thrive there.  I can only hope that we all find another game that offers so much,

  • maplestonemaplestone Member UncommonPosts: 3,099

    Originally posted by Ferrark

    Only a new UO can save the MMO`s world

    How can you make a new one when people can't even agree on what the old one actually was.

    Memories of UO are a sort of inkblot personality test for MMO gamers - everyone remembers it differently and has a different opinion of what the essential part of it was that made it UO.

  • zellmerzellmer Member UncommonPosts: 442

    I liked the game, and played it for a decent ammount of time, but deep down I was much more impressed with Everquest and after EQ I really could care less about Ulitma Online.

    It's still nostalgic to me, but not enough to like buy it again/pay a subscription in this day and age.

     

  • CembryeCembrye Member UncommonPosts: 65

    No one has attempted to create a virtual world the way UO did.  I join in sadness at how unlikely we will ever see its kind  again.

    Modern MMORPGS are all about shoving you down the path THEY want, all the while dragging a block of cheese ahead for you to chase.  Everyone knows this but stands helpless because giant companies control the market and they care about one thing - maximum profit at minimum risk.

    One McMORPG after another.  At least with hamburgers, while you have McDonalds, you can also choose to buy a higher quality burger at a higher price.  In the MMORPG world, its a race to the bottom to see who can sling the most repackaged hash.

     

  • ThaneSolusThaneSolus Member Posts: 32

    Good article. We need more games like UO, but in this corporate era, no chance from big companies.

  • OberanMiMOberanMiM Member Posts: 236

    Originally posted by Ferrark

    Only a new UO can save the MMO`s world




     

     

    Since EA canceled a UO Sequel twice (UO2 & UOX ). does that mean EA has doomed the MMO world two times over?

    Admittedly i loved the entire Ultima Series & Ultima Online (Chesapeake shard ftw). I was one of the first 2x GM Mages (100 magery/scribe with like 90ish magic resist). I had a bowyer/lumberjack who was also a gm swordsman/tactician and master mage with which i made most of my ingame gold with during the bow craze early on)..

    I do every so and then think of that game. Then i remind myself of what the Origin name means to EA now and die a bit inside.

  • NightCloakNightCloak Member UncommonPosts: 452

    Originally posted by Mari2k



    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.




     

    Give anyone a paintbrush and some LSD and they produce Picasso's work. What is good in art is pure subjectivity. Games themselves are art too. Which is why opinions can vary so much.

     

    I agree that Trammel wasnt fun. But I also never played the PvP server. But thats because the PvP server wasnt close to the same as Pre-Trammel PvP. Sure, I got PKed quite a few times. I've even PKed or gone Red Hunting. But once Trammel came about, you lost a huge sense of danger and excitement to the game. Dungeon crawls lost its random element or some great dangers or opportunities. I couldnt stand the changes coming from AOS.

    It was just greatness to be able to kill someone being a douche and accept the penalty and work it off. Open PvP with harsh penalties is far better than no PvP or totally open PvP.

     

  • Huma69Huma69 Member Posts: 1

    UO really was the greatest MMO of all time. Rest In Peace Ultima Online (classic version), you will never be forgotten.

  • DameonkDameonk Member UncommonPosts: 1,914

    Originally posted by NightCloak

    I agree that Trammel wasnt fun. But I also never played the PvP server. But thats because the PvP server wasnt close to the same as Pre-Trammel PvP. Sure, I got PKed quite a few times. I've even PKed or gone Red Hunting. But once Trammel came about, you lost a huge sense of danger and excitement to the game. Dungeon crawls lost its random element or some great dangers or opportunities. I couldnt stand the changes coming from AOS.

    I completely agree with you.   I played UO from beta until about a year after the release of Trammel and during that time I don't recall PKing anyone in the game.  I was as lawful good as you could get.  Yet, even for a player like me, Trammel was a horrible idea.

    For a game like UO that relied almost 100% on it's community for the content of the game segregating half that community was not a good idea, in my opinion.

    During the time before Trammel I was an avid anti-PKer.  My guild held daily raids on PK towns and did our best to protect new players from getting ganked at places like the graveyeard outside Britain.  We wouldn't do these things necessarily because we liked PvP but more so because we enjoyed feeling like we were making a difference in the world.  It had a purpose, a reason to engage the enemy, a goal.

    After Trammel, what was the point?  There was no danger any more.  Sure, we could go to Feluccia to PvP... but, why?  Just for the sake of PvPing?  We didn't do it "just because".  We did it because we were keeping the world safe, and for that reason, it was fun.

    So time went on and we all played in Trammel.  I mean, given the choice between living in a gated, policed, million dollar + home community a slum where you could be murdered at any minute, which would you choose?

    But then things started to change.  The game we loved before Trammel started to feel stale, and boring.  The danger was gone.  The sense of excitement and the adrenaline rush we got when a red name popped up on the side of the screen.  It was gone.  So we went to Feluccia just to PvP, but there was no rush.  No danger.  You knew where you were going there for and what to expect.  It was over for me at that point.

    My ICQ list had over 200 names in it from people that met playing UO.  3 months after I left I messaged everyone single of them to see if anyone wanted my castle.  1 person still played.

    Over the years I've read about the changes they've made to the game.  It's really sad to see such a great original game idea get completely butchered.  It's like taking an Aston Martin and switching out the engine with a crappy 4-cylinder and then trying for years to figure out why no one is driving it by changing everything about the car but what was broke.

    "There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."

  • DanielVEDanielVE Member Posts: 46

    Devs should stop trying to clone WOW and clone UO....

  • darlantandarlantan Member UncommonPosts: 2

    I also miss UO... I started playing on Catskill server a few month after it came online and i had fun for the 3 years i could play...

    I played alone, with friend and total stranger... Tried be a Dread Lord for a while but i was more like a target pratice for the other player so i confessed my crime and returned to the good side... I miss being chased by PK but not while mining... 

    I wish that a new and improved (graphic wise) UO could be created... 

     

     

     

     

  • EndDreamEndDream Member Posts: 1,152

    UO will always be my favorite game ever. My favorite expansion (and when I started) was T2A. I started a few months before stealth was patched in the game. Even when UOR was released it was still incredible. After that it went down hill. 

    IDK... there just is nothing like it. 

    Remember Old School Ultima Online

  • SignusMSignusM Member Posts: 2,225

    Reading this makes me depressed. The genre has fallen so very very far. From simulating worlds to... cut scenes, solo instances and voice overs.

  • HoneyBluntsHoneyBlunts Member Posts: 14

    I play a uo emulator from time to time. The ruleset is pre t2a and has a pretty active community. Check out IPY if you ever wish to try it out again without the AoS crap. http://inporylem.com/

  • IAmMMOIAmMMO Member UncommonPosts: 1,462

    loved UO, I even put up with Tram, but when AOS came that's when I turned off the lights and closed the door.  Old UO is not dead, just need to look and its there alive and well with a healthy community.



     

  • mindrotcorpmindrotcorp Member Posts: 10

    Great article. ?m around here like 4 years, my english is very bad soo im not talking that much  , but i have to post somethink on this thread coz UO was realy a dream game for me and those who love real pvp&rp . Thanks for the memories .

  • LanoLano Member Posts: 1

    Its the king of sandbox games, and will never really vanish from the history of mmo's ..can be played here: www.tnl-shard.com in a whole new fun way.

  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726

    Trammel in my mind enhanced the game as it encouraged a lot of new people to play the game.  I rarely did anything in Trammel, and the excitement never changed as I continued to live and play in Felucca for the most part.   

  • SignusMSignusM Member Posts: 2,225

    Originally posted by Ozmodan

    Trammel in my mind enhanced the game as it encouraged a lot of new people to play the game.  I rarely did anything in Trammel, and the excitement never changed as I continued to live and play in Felucca for the most part.   

    It split the community. Part of what made UO amazing was that it had people of all different play styles living in the same world. It was really a simulated fantasy world. Trammel made it so that Felucca was just a zone full of PvPers. No RPers, no crafters, no PvEers.... the game suffered.

  • L0stL0st Member Posts: 77

    I was just a little lad when I first got UO for my birthday and got the internet.  I never played a MMO before and so I was inthralled by this new and mysterious world I had been thrown into. I met so many cool people over the years I played. I own several houses, and knew many people, and shared many memories with my guild. 

     

    I remember when they first made the Test Shard and you could make your a 7x GM character. I would make a dexer and there would always be a huge PvP battle between reds and blues at the Brit graveyard, but there was also a few months where there would be a big battle of red and blue at the guard zone of  the city of Trinsic. So many fun times.... 

     

    No game to this day has given me that feeling that classic UO did and I most likely will never get it again. It's like a first kiss. You'll never have another like it and it won't feel as special as your first time(Hopefully....).  Too all of us who got to experience that feeling. I salute you. To those of you who never got to experience this game like we did.. I feel bad for you. :(

     

    RIP UO..

  • CujoSWAoACujoSWAoA Member UncommonPosts: 1,781

    RIP?

    I was under the impression the game was still open...

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by SignusM

    Originally posted by Ozmodan

    Trammel in my mind enhanced the game as it encouraged a lot of new people to play the game.  I rarely did anything in Trammel, and the excitement never changed as I continued to live and play in Felucca for the most part.   

    It split the community. Part of what made UO amazing was that it had people of all different play styles living in the same world. It was really a simulated fantasy world. Trammel made it so that Felucca was just a zone full of PvPers. No RPers, no crafters, no PvEers.... the game suffered.

    The game didn't suffer; Felucca and PvP suffered. The rest of the game did exceptionally well as a result of Trammel. If you look at the subscriber numbers, the game's population increased significantly after Trammel was released, and with good reason.

    I get the whole 'simulated fantasy world' where players of all different playstyles played together. Believe me I really do. But the only way it worked was by forcing players to play together in ways where it was not always enjoyable for all involved. And unfortunately for the PvP crowd, they were the minority in UO.

    A game set up similarly to pre-tram UO would never work today. People do not like being forced into situations they don't like. Specifically, PvErs generally don't want to play a game where they're treated like cattle for the PvP players to slaughter. The only reason why it worked for UO was because there was little to no other option in MMOs for gamers at the time, so the non-PvP players put up with it. Which is also why Trammel was added in 2000, because the developers saw the growing competition in MMOs that offered PvP-less alternatives, and the frustration of the majority of the playerbase with regards to FFA PvP was a recipe for a mass exodus of the game by PvErs, which were always the majority of players in UO.

  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914

       UO was such a great experinece , i played from day up till a couple ayears ago and , honestly nothing has ever come close to those first couple years in UO ..

     

      One thing i wannna add that i think has been overlooked a bit or forgotten the main reason for Trammel was Real Estate , not pvp ... The cry for land was deafining on the forums there was none left on many servers , This situation presented Origin with the option to mirror the world but also make it non pvp ....To also try to appeal to a pve crowd that was clamoring over EQ ..

     

      They tried to kill two birds wtih one stone .. but the original idea was to add more land by mirroring..

     

     And honestly the PKin wasnt nearly as bad as some will ahve people believe , i played on Atlantic which was and is i belive still the most populated server and thwere was a great balance of reds and blues .. was really great times..

     

                                                     Keep Safe Friends .. The Glorious Lord Scorch ..Atlantic:)

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