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Old Ultima Games and UO
AlBQuirky
Member EpicPosts: 7,432
I have always wondered if Ultima Online (UO) was vaery close to the single player (SP) games it was based off of.
With the heat of The Elder Scrolls: Online (TES:O) discussions, I found myself thinking about this again. (Please don't make this a TES:O thread.)
I never did play the series (though I have got them all from GOG) and look forward to seeing what all the hub-bub is about 
I never played UO, either.
Lore-wise, I am sure it went hand in hand with the series. I was more curious about the concept and implementation of the MMORPG. How similar was UO to the Ultima series?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Comments
Great question, I'm curious as well, whether I did miss something out or not.
As I wrote on the Shroud thread as well, I loved the series (except maybe Ascension), and I never liked UO. If I wouldn't affraid of the fanboi attack spam (lol) I'd even say it was a spit on the face of the series's spirit. But of course I don't say that - a spirit doesn't have a face anyway
If you plan to play through all of them, I'd suggest a nice, open mindset though... I tried to replay them again a few years ago, and even as a fan I must say Akalabeth and 1-3 were pretty tough to play (what can I say, we're spoiled with 3D and 1920x1200 and Physx
), but from 4 and upwards they're fine, both in looks and in gameplay. And the story is cool even on the first three.
Yea, got an e-mail from GOG this morning with the following Ultima games at $2.39 each...
Ultima 1+2+3
Ultima 4+5+6
Ultima 7 Complete Edition
Ultima 8 Gold Edition
Ultima 9: Ascension
Ultima Underworld 1+2
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
No.
The original Ultima games, particularly starting with U4 is very heavy in story and plot, and that is lacking in UO. Gameplay in old Ultima games never requires you to mine mindlessly for hours. i finished U3-U6, played U7. All are very good, SP, story heavy games. U6 has one of hte best story twist i have encountered.
I never played through any of the series. I was on about dig > mist > quake etc. and when I discovered ultima online, tibia, and later the early runescape, was playing those. but rs kept advancing and I phased the others out.
I think it's odd that people talk about games like UO in the past tense when it is still available to play.
Also, Clan of the grey wolf has a great series on retro games callled 16-Bit Gems. And, in episode #30 which is about the history (in summation) of rpg's and their rise to popularity they discuss the UO series (starts at about 6:00 in).
Looking forward to U6!
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
UO is a completely different game from how it originally began. Initially, the primary focus in the game was on exploration, skilling up, and PvP. Now the games focus has shifted to more of an item hunt similar to games roughly like Diablo. Sure you can still skill up, pvp, and explore but the motivations for those activities have changed dramatically.
Thanks for the video link! That was an interesting watch
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I guess the reason I am curious is that in my own experiences, SP RPGs are seldom recreated well into MMORPGs. There are good reasons for that, for sure! 2 very different beasts here
Then I see threads about "What RPG do you want to see as an MMORPG?" and just shake my head. In my experience, the quickest way to ruin a SP RPG is to make it an MMO, especially today where they are all about combat and end game, not the journey.
DDO was my first slap in the face. I was longing for a D&D experience since all my old D&D buddies had moved away. I was hoping DDO would be a good way to recapture that D&D magic. I should never have gone in thinking that way
After participating in the beta, DDO left a terrible taste in my mouth and while it may be a great game, I will never go back to it.
I see TES:O going through the same pains and was curious about how old UO measured up to the SP series.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Awesome video, never heard of that channel, thx
I always was more like a story-focused dude so jRPG's weren't my cup of tea - laughed so hard on the video at 17:10, " in essence turned this (rolls the dices and counts) into this (push one button, win)" epic scene.
I might be mistaken, but my understanding was the UO actually started with the engine used for Ultima VI (but evolved considerably over development), so there were roots right down to the codebase in the mechanics and UI.
Much of the freedom to treat other players as you wish was based on the freedom people had in the ultima games to go off-script and wander around the world terrorizing it in any way you wanted.
I only vaguely remember the original ultima games - I had really bad luck with them. I was more into the Might and Magic series in the early iterations. My U7 save game file got corrupted about 2/3 of the way through the game and U8 was a dead box for me (I never even got it to install properly).
Do play it. It was an amazing game. I bought the collector's edition when i was in college (it was 87 or 88 i think).
The graphics is very dated now .. but it was amazing then. I still have the U6 cloth map hanged on the wall opposite to me (and i am looking at it right now).
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR