InQWis

Beezerbeez

InQWis,

You still out there?  Heard some rumors over on stratics.  Any comment on that stuff?

The Beez

InQWis

Yo.

What topics?

-InQWis

Beezerbeez

Oh, just some guy named Palador saying the "C" word.  He knows some inside information about the destiny of UXO, blah blah, all that jazz.  If you could rate the present health of the game on a scale of 1-10, 1-would you? and 2-what would it be?  10 being best of course! 

 

Thanks for being so darned cool, InQWis

The Beez

InQWis

Lol.

No.  UXO is not cancelled.

-InQWis

Beezerbeez

Thanks InQWis!!  Now I need to find that person and punch him in the stomach.  Just kidding.

The Beez

Maximane

Hello InQWis. Do you have any interesting tidbits you wish to share about UX:O? Many of us are old-time fans of the original Ultima Online and are quite interested in what you can say.

--------------------
Alex "Maximane" De Line
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
[email protected]

InQWis

For one, we consider UO to be our sister product.  There's a healthy dev team working on the live team, an expansion pack and the future of the franchise.

UO and UXO, as stated in the past, are very different products.  UO is about being in a virtual world.  UXO is about accessable experiences.

-InQWis

ConerVallore

---

Originally posted by InQWis
For one, we consider UO to be our sister product. There's a healthy dev team working on the live team, an expansion pack and the future of the franchise.
UO and UXO, as stated in the past, are very different products. UO is about being in a virtual world. UXO is about accessable experiences.
-InQWis

---

Hey there InQWis!

I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you mean by accessable experiences? I think I get where you are going but I was just wondering if you could talk a little more about it?

Thanks

----------------
www.TheTeutonicOrder.com
www.UXOFightNight.com

InQWis

One of the things I'm talking about is the barrier of entry per individual play session.  Every moment spent in the game contributes to your progress.

If it takes you 5 hours to achieve a goal, we want the player to be able to digest that total amount of time to achievement in nice small digestable chunks of time.  We don't want a situation where it may take you a long amount of time - measured in hours - to make 15 minutes worth of progress towards that total mark of achievement.

-InQWis

Laerix

I wonder if this is what the Turbine devs had in mind with AC2.  That game is accessible, but the mass of MMORPG players are not 2-5 hour a week gamers - they play that much daily - and AC2's initial failure was due in large part to the fact that the game was all but "beaten" in the first two weeks after launch   (that and it had no where near the level of content it should have, both problems have been rectified now and it's a good game, but the damage has been done)

ConerVallore

But had AC2 had the content it has now at release would it have been a hit?

I do agree this sounds alot like the ideas behind AC2, though from the way it looks, UXO has huge amount of content plus more levels and depth than AC2 had. I do worry about this still, I hope there will be a balance for both groups. Right now there is a huge number of 2-6 hour a day players but the market is made of 30min to an hour at most a day players. So it make since that mmos would try and cater to this group.

----------------
www.TheTeutonicOrder.com
www.UXOFightNight.com

Beezerbeez

Hopefully VERY soon InQWis can start getting us some details about all of this.  Most of us have a ton of questions for him.  I don't think he knows exactly what is in store yet.

The Beez

Laerix

Coner,

 

Yes, I think it would have been a hit.  It's somewhat successful (from a player's perspective) now and, from what I hear, growing, albeit slowly.  However, the people I know who play and like it (it decimated our AC allegiance for that it shall not be forgiven  ) are all 2+ hours a day folks, hardly the "casual gamer" demographic I think they were hoping to attract.

 

Anyway, here's to hoping the UXO devs find the right balance to attract the casual gamer and reward the grognards.

InQWis

Something that I think it's important for people to think about is the definition of "casual" gamer.

Do you define it as a person that only plays a certain amount of time a day?  Someone that does not play other MMORPG's?

Would it surprise you to find out that the playtime of an average player of webgames is over 10 hours a week?

I think we have to be careful to define what we mean by casual, simple and hardcore.  It's too easy to throw these terms around without any context.

-InQWis

ConerVallore

That’s a really good point!

And at the same time if you take a casual gamer and give him/her a really fun mmo will they play longer than normal? or would this remove them from the casual gamer list?

Just as an idea, I had my brother play City of Heroes with me, he’s a very casual player in my eyes (1 hour tops when he plays a game and only plays every so often). After starting it up he ended up playing 3-4 hours a day with me because it was a lot of fun for players who aren’t good with mmos and want more action.

I think casual means some one who is looking for quick entertainment. Like a 30 min tv show. If you flipped on your xbox and played a round of buffy you don’t have 2 hour long mission, you finish a map in like 10 min or less (most of the time). However the full game story might be 10 hours long, but you cut it up into 10-20 min pieces so a player can jump in and out when they have time.

This is something that would be very hard to balance in an MMO since you have a large community of players who do spend 2-6 hours or more a day. I would have loved to have been in the meeting room when the dev team was going over this

----------------
www.TheTeutonicOrder.com
www.UXOFightNight.com