The problem is, nothing will ever be like UO. UO was the only game to play back then and everyone from pve players, to pvp, to crafters, to roleplayers, etc etc all logged into the same world. That's what made the world so great, the community so strong, and the game work. The entire MMORPG niche was carved with that game. There will not be a world like that again because all these different types of players have the option of picking a game that suits their playstyle, not creating their own role in a game in a world that they can do anything. Laziness, the large influx of ultra casual players, and people interested in being the super duper hero all the time prevent a world and community like Ultima Online had from forming in the modern world of MMORPGs. Our niche is tainted and won't ever recover.
Yes its everyone elses fault for not playing a game the way you think it should be played. All the people playing games that appeal to them infringes on your gameplay. Maybe you should tell everyone the world revolves around you and they will play the game you want, the way you want.
You sound like a bitter,grumpy,old man reminiscing about the good ole days of big bands and vinyl records. Change happens,adapt or die. There will never be another "first" love or game,or sexual partner. That doesnt mean everything that follows is somehow worse or that something in the future cant recaptures those emotions/feelings. It only means things that follow will be different.
I would agree and disagree with you, if you were talking anything other then a first title premiere mmorpg. The guy was just saying how when the game came out it was the premiere game players had no other choices and thus the game molded them into who they were and community. Now days there are to many weak and POS mmo's that it's hard for any new player to get the same feeling we once had by playing UO or EQ. New mmorpg today are to easy, they create your path to follow and ultimately are carebear in how things work.
I believe your right change happens but the fact this is a game that shouldn't be redone unless they keep the original mechanics and game play intact. Read my post above yours for further details what I mean.
The problem is, nothing will ever be like UO. UO was the only game to play back then and everyone from pve players, to pvp, to crafters, to roleplayers, etc etc all logged into the same world. That's what made the world so great, the community so strong, and the game work. The entire MMORPG niche was carved with that game. There will not be a world like that again because all these different types of players have the option of picking a game that suits their playstyle, not creating their own role in a game in a world that they can do anything. Laziness, the large influx of ultra casual players, and people interested in being the super duper hero all the time prevent a world and community like Ultima Online had from forming in the modern world of MMORPGs. Our niche is tainted and won't ever recover.
Yes its everyone elses fault for not playing a game the way you think it should be played. All the people playing games that appeal to them infringes on your gameplay. Maybe you should tell everyone the world revolves around you and they will play the game you want, the way you want.
You sound like a bitter,grumpy,old man reminiscing about the good ole days of big bands and vinyl records. Change happens,adapt or die. There will never be another "first" love or game,or sexual partner. That doesnt mean everything that follows is somehow worse or that something in the future cant recaptures those emotions/feelings. It only means things that follow will be different.
It sounds like YOU are the bitter grumpy one. The poster you quoted was just pointing out a dynamic that existed in the game that DOES NOT EXIST today.....which ultimately had an effect on the community as a whole.
No where in thier post did that say that everyone should be wedged in a sandbox game so that sandbox enthusiasts can have a large MMORPG. The fact of the matter was (in 1997) if you didn't like little aspects of the game play of Ultima Online, you either...
A) Went back to your console game
Went back to your pen & papper D&D
C) Sucked it up and adapted
For many, they went back to their Console or pen & papper game. For the rest that decided to "deal" with minor aspects of the game play, they typically ended up becoming better "Gamers" because of it. Not better people.....better gamers, as defined as someone who is capable of playing and manipulating their character and environment for their benefit. As a UO player for over 4 years....I can tell you the average player in the Ultima Online community was FAR more knowledgeable of their character and the game than you'll find in an average player in World of Warcraft.
The problem is, nothing will ever be like UO. UO was the only game to play back then and everyone from pve players, to pvp, to crafters, to roleplayers, etc etc all logged into the same world. That's what made the world so great, the community so strong, and the game work. The entire MMORPG niche was carved with that game. There will not be a world like that again because all these different types of players have the option of picking a game that suits their playstyle, not creating their own role in a game in a world that they can do anything. Laziness, the large influx of ultra casual players, and people interested in being the super duper hero all the time prevent a world and community like Ultima Online had from forming in the modern world of MMORPGs. Our niche is tainted and won't ever recover.
Yes its everyone elses fault for not playing a game the way you think it should be played. All the people playing games that appeal to them infringes on your gameplay. Maybe you should tell everyone the world revolves around you and they will play the game you want, the way you want.
You sound like a bitter,grumpy,old man reminiscing about the good ole days of big bands and vinyl records. Change happens,adapt or die. There will never be another "first" love or game,or sexual partner. That doesnt mean everything that follows is somehow worse or that something in the future cant recaptures those emotions/feelings. It only means things that follow will be different.
It sounds like YOU are the bitter grumpy one. The poster you quoted was just pointing out a dynamic that existed in the game that DOES NOT EXIST today.....which ultimately had an effect on the community as a whole.
No where in thier post did that say that everyone should be wedged in a sandbox game so that sandbox enthusiasts can have a large MMORPG. The fact of the matter was (in 1997) if you didn't like little aspects of the game play of Ultima Online, you either...
A) Went back to your console game
Went back to your pen & papper D&D
C) Sucked it up and adapted
For many, they went back to their Console or pen & papper game. For the rest that decided to "deal" with minor aspects of the game play, they typically ended up becoming better "Gamers" because of it. Not better people.....better gamers, as defined as someone who is capable of playing and manipulating their character and environment for their benefit. As a UO player for over 4 years....I can tell you the average player in the Ultima Online community was FAR more knowledgeable of their character and the game than you'll find in an average player in World of Warcraft.
" Laziness, the large influx of ultra casual players, and people interested in being the super duper hero all the time prevent a world and community like Ultima Online had from forming in the modern world of MMORPGs. Our niche is tainted and won't ever recover. "
What dynamic? people having a choice? Is it somehow not possible to find a group of niche gamers that dont fall into this handy generalization of lazy,ultra casual,wanna be heros? Im sorry but just because games like wow and themepark games in general have achieved amazing numbers and success, it doesnt eliminate the demand for niche games like eq1 or uo. They will never equal the subs or success of the popular titles but there is still room for them.
Saying there can never be a community like uo and blaming it on the current gamers is ridiculous. No community will ever be exactly like a previous one but that doesnt mean there cant be similar ones that have the same feel and appeal.
If EA would upgrade the graphics of the current UO, they would probably do a lot better.
The Enhanced Client is horrible and to many gamers the Classic 2D client is bad too.
For those of us who love UO, we play anyway. Many for 10 years + and would hate to have to start over. I dont think a completely new game would be possible without losing the vast majority of the current player base.
UO was the only game to play back then and everyone from pve players, to pvp, to crafters, to roleplayers, etc etc all logged into the same world. That's what made the world so great, the community so strong, and the game work. The entire MMORPG niche was carved with that game. There will not be a world like that again because all these different types of players have the option of picking a game that suits their playstyle, not creating their own role in a game in a world that they can do anything.
UO is my favorite game of all time. I can truly say that it was some of the best memories of my entire life. And unfortunatly, I have been chasing the virtual dragon ever since. But what Groot says is true, its IMPOSSIBLE for the world in which we played to come back. As Groot said, every type of player was in one world where players were given freedom. Thats what made the game amazing.
You need to go outside and get some sun.
Haha, actually I do now.. I'm quite busy with life as I am older. But UO was some great memories.
First off... I played Ultima VII maybe 30 or 40 times completely through. I played Ultima VI maybe 10 times through. I breathed, ate, drank and slept Ultima. There was a time when I knew the story of every rock and tree of Britannia.
That said: Ultima Online has for me as much to do with Ultima, like Readers Digest with the Nobel Price for Literature. Ultima Online had only 2 things in common with THE Ultima: the names of some stuff like Lord British or the cities and the shape of the landmass. THAT IS IT. I am not saying UO was a bad MMO. But it wasn't Ultima. Not at all!
What made Ultima great was that it was the pinnacle of CRPGs, and for me it remains on that pinnacle un-topped. What made Ultima great was that it had all these features the very best RPGs of our days have, but ALL of it. It has great story, memorable characters, unexpected and fascinating plot twists, the famous ethical dilemmas, a vast open world to explore, thousands of items to use and ways to interact, real night and day schedules. Ultima had everything decades before these things became the "trademark" of Bioware and Bethesda RPGs, only that Ultima had ALL THESE in ONE. If we trunctuate these into two hallmarks, you can call it story and vast open detailled world. The things which these days make Bioware and Bethesda games great.
The legendary breakthrough to whom we owe ALL our great RPGs of today was Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar, when Richard Garriot changed the concept of what was supposed to be a computer game. It was the first of it's kind where you didn't just kill everything that moved, where it wasn't about some great evil or world at stake, but about YOU the player and his moral course.
Ultima ONLINE had almost nothing to do with it. Not that I minded people enjoying UO. But for me as ultimate Ultima fanboy, it was more a waste of time to focus on making UO instead of on making more single player games.
I CAN imagine a Ultima MMO, but only in the same sense as Bioware's SWTOR: as heavily story driven, with memorable companions and all these elements that made the SINGLE PLAYER games great. That would be the only worthy follower of the name Ultima. That, or a new single player series.
Anything else is nothing but a sacrilege. I am no kidding about anything Ultima.
"Remove your shoes, wanderer, for you tread on Holy Ground!"
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Keep it. Otherwise you're going to dissapoint every poster above this one.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire: Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
I currently play UO as a Alt game. It used to be my main game many years ago. Here is some great info that might help. Now this isn't a fact, but. My friend is friends with a family member of a DEV of UO and she leaked some info to him which he leaked to me that, soon, they plan on destroying the city of Luna, like the did with Magincia, and trying to being the life of the game back to the Old World. With that being said and most likely true. That probably means there is no plans for a UO2. I think they are going to continue on with the works of UO as long as there is a deticated player base. NOW.. I don't understand why Mythic(EA) wouldn't take the incredible concepts of what UO has and can offer and make it modern. Seeing ( in my opionian) It would actually become VERY successful. But, for whatever reason. They are happy with what they have now and will continue to milk it as long as there are people supporting it.
I CAN imagine a Ultima MMO, but only in the same sense as Bioware's SWTOR: as heavily story driven, with memorable companions and all these elements that made the SINGLE PLAYER games great. That would be the only worthy follower of the name Ultima. That, or a new single player series.
Anything else is nothing but a sacrilege. I am no kidding about anything Ultima.
"Remove your shoes, wanderer, for you tread on Holy Ground!"
Or they could make another single player Ultima game. I think Richard said himself he wants to see the X on an Ultima game one day. MMORPGs should be about the players.
Future doesn't look so bright for Ultima though. Both EA an Richard are dragging the name and characters through the dirt with EA's Strategy MMO and Richards "social game" titled "Lord British's New Britannia"
As much as I loved the game, i'm kinda hoping they don't make a new one.
If they did and by some miracle they didn't fuck up the core mechanics and stayed true to the original, then you can guarantee the current breed of mmo player would bitch until it turned to crap.
Well either that or the only reasion it (uo2) wouldh't have 12 million customers is because they didn't make it like some other game... Its a 50/50 propisition as to which would be the reason for the "turned to crap".
Ultima Online to me was the best MMO I ever played. Could it have been better? yes, obviously.
Yet at the same time I just imagine a new UO with updated graphics etc but the same core mechanics. In MMO's today you have people spamming general chat asking for the answers.. because they can't even be bothered to notice the huge glowing symbols over the npc's heads. Can you really imagine that market trying to navigate UO?
Or Archery/melee combat when they didn't have hotbars full of icons to bash.
The complete non existence of the "holy trinity"... that would really throw people for a loop. Seriously "back in the day" of UO you never once saw someone spamming for a tank, dps or healer...
Which is why I doubt it will ever happen, simply because I'd play it. So if they ever do make UO2 it won't be anything like what I would want.
Even if they made another I wouldn't expect it to "flood" with subscribers.. Most of the casuals (that viewed the genre as a "fad") that WoW brought into the genre are slowly but surely moving back onto consoles and their other hobbies..
The flooding of the market and failure rate of the genre has forced it to stagnate and this will be good for growth in the future as the competition fades away as well as the "clutter" paving the way for games like this to actually reach their audience.
Depending on when they release this game, it has a chance to be one of the titles that helps to rebuild the genre as it reverts back to the "nerd, geek and misfit" niche again..
Mortal Online & DarkFall Online both launched with buggy graphics, animations, and about half the features promised. It took Aventurine years and years fo work and rework because they had to completely redesign their own custom 3D engine half way through because the technology they used when they started became out of date. Star Vault ended up building their game around an old antiquated 3D engine that Lineage 2 made popular back in 2004.
Need to correct you there.
Lineage 2 was built on Unreal Engine 2, which is tech from the early 2000s, around 2002-2003. We're talking 8+ year old tech. NCSoft had to retrofit a seamless world streaming system into the game because it was not designed for that kind of world design. Back then, it was still about individual maps being loaded one at a time.
Mortal Online uses Unreal Engine 3, which is an entirely new, and drastically improved version of the engine.
Unreal Engine 3 is not a minor iteration of that tech.
Epic rebuilt a good portion of it from the ground up, changing several fundamental ways the previous 2 versions did things. More notably - likely "seeing the light" due to several developers using UE2 for MMO projects - they re-worked it to support large, streaming worlds.
Point is, UE3 is far from "old" or "antiquated".
Here's a recent tech demo of the Unreal Engine 3. Now compare that to even the best looking games made with Unreal 2 tech. There's a drastic difference.
Just wanted to point that out :-p.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Here's a recent tech demo of the Unreal Engine 3. Now compare that to even the best looking games made with Unreal 2 tech. There's a drastic difference.
I'll start by saying I absolutely loved UO. It was easily the best MMO ever made in my mind, and I wouldn't be the person I am today had I not played for several years. I also said that in past tense purposely. I know it's still going, but the game that's going now isn't the game I'm talking about. Ew. Anyways, when talking about making a modern 'UO2', aside from which era to work from, which I'm personally hoping it would be an earlier version.. The biggest thing you have to ask yourself is 'to what end?'.
What exactly will be improved on and to what extent? Just 3D graphics? They already did that for UO, and it was a monstrosity, so what else? While going 3D, are you also going to get rid of the fixed top down third person angle, or are you going first person? If you go first person, are you also deviating away from click-to-target, or are you going with a FPS style of targeting with collision detection? If you go with click-to-target, are melee and archer characters still only going to have an auto attack, where they simply chase someone around, stay within range, and keep line of sight? Or will you give them a bunch of skills so that they might actually feel that their 'skill' as a gamer, and not just their character's skillsitems, actually has some sort of impact? Or even just so that they won't be bored, or so that mages and battle mages won't be the only viable route for engaging gameplay? If you go FPS style you have even more choices to make, such as how to handle flagging in an open pvp world. Also there's huge technological leaps and sacrifices due to latency that have to be made, a la DF and MO..
Basically, how much can you change, while still preserving the core of the game we all loved? What exactly were the defining details of the gameplay that made it so amazing for us, from what specific patch or era? My guess is that most of us would all have different ideas of how we'd like 'UO2' to be. A lot of us probably loved a lot of different things, we'd want to keep certain things, and we'd all have different ideas on how we'd want to change or 'improve' on it as well. Taking a poll, you'd probably have a variety of answers from 2D, 3D, click-to-target, point-to-target, collision detection, fixed third person, adjustable third person, first person, skills for weapons, and many more factors that relate to and even set limits on what you can do with other aspects of gameplay. Thinking about it, I only even mentioned things regarding perspective and combat. There were ways to play UO, enjoy a sense of progression, excitement, and success, and love it just as much as the rest of us without ever once engaging in combat. So, I'm sure those that did would want to preserve and change things about the game that I couldn't even imagine. Thieves, treasure hunters, tamers, bards, crafters, ... Now I wanna play UO, damnit. Where's my time machine? >_<!
I'd welcome the return of UO. I've had this UO:X avatar for MMORPG.com since it was canned years ago. Wow, it has been a long time.
I see some debate over the idea that a game like this couldnt draw in enough people because peopel want a niche game that suits their playstyle, but I think a game that blends sandbox and themepark, that's polished, and has a ton of stuff to do out the door would be very successful. Devs would help themselves if the tools were included for us to be creative as it would buy them some time to drop new content.
Honestly i'm super confident EA will take the oportunity to renew that name once the Uo gold mine dryed for good (from EA point of view right).
And i don't even want to imagine what it will look like...
I mean they shattered every single peice of that game. Even in a nightmare you won't find someone that dishonest to an original concept. I mean for every single big gaming name that are renewed (let say Fallout for exemple); you see the new dev team taking so much precaution to stay fidel to an original concept right. But EA? EA did exactly the opposite with Ultima and they won't even deny it. Its like giving your child to a baby sitter that hate kids, not a good move.
Lifelong Ultima fan here. I played UO hard for the first few years and then slacked off. I log in once every three months now to keep my house for some reason. Keep telling myself I may come back if they clean things up.
But UO needs more than a facelift... It's such a mish-mash of uncompleted and buggy systems now that a complete overhaul would be needed to get the game back to where it should be. Sadly, an overhaul will never happen because of the large investment needed from EA and also... because of the current players. They're very happy with keeping UO in the stone age and any suggestion otherwise brings out the pitchforks.
I have some hope for the supposed Elder Scrolls MMO in development. The guys at Bethesda are huge Ultima fans and I think if anyone could do it "right" it would be them.
Comments
I would agree and disagree with you, if you were talking anything other then a first title premiere mmorpg. The guy was just saying how when the game came out it was the premiere game players had no other choices and thus the game molded them into who they were and community. Now days there are to many weak and POS mmo's that it's hard for any new player to get the same feeling we once had by playing UO or EQ. New mmorpg today are to easy, they create your path to follow and ultimately are carebear in how things work.
I believe your right change happens but the fact this is a game that shouldn't be redone unless they keep the original mechanics and game play intact. Read my post above yours for further details what I mean.
It sounds like YOU are the bitter grumpy one. The poster you quoted was just pointing out a dynamic that existed in the game that DOES NOT EXIST today.....which ultimately had an effect on the community as a whole.
No where in thier post did that say that everyone should be wedged in a sandbox game so that sandbox enthusiasts can have a large MMORPG. The fact of the matter was (in 1997) if you didn't like little aspects of the game play of Ultima Online, you either...
A) Went back to your console game
C) Sucked it up and adapted
For many, they went back to their Console or pen & papper game. For the rest that decided to "deal" with minor aspects of the game play, they typically ended up becoming better "Gamers" because of it. Not better people.....better gamers, as defined as someone who is capable of playing and manipulating their character and environment for their benefit. As a UO player for over 4 years....I can tell you the average player in the Ultima Online community was FAR more knowledgeable of their character and the game than you'll find in an average player in World of Warcraft.
" Laziness, the large influx of ultra casual players, and people interested in being the super duper hero all the time prevent a world and community like Ultima Online had from forming in the modern world of MMORPGs. Our niche is tainted and won't ever recover. "
What dynamic? people having a choice? Is it somehow not possible to find a group of niche gamers that dont fall into this handy generalization of lazy,ultra casual,wanna be heros? Im sorry but just because games like wow and themepark games in general have achieved amazing numbers and success, it doesnt eliminate the demand for niche games like eq1 or uo. They will never equal the subs or success of the popular titles but there is still room for them.
Saying there can never be a community like uo and blaming it on the current gamers is ridiculous. No community will ever be exactly like a previous one but that doesnt mean there cant be similar ones that have the same feel and appeal.
If EA would upgrade the graphics of the current UO, they would probably do a lot better.
The Enhanced Client is horrible and to many gamers the Classic 2D client is bad too.
For those of us who love UO, we play anyway. Many for 10 years + and would hate to have to start over. I dont think a completely new game would be possible without losing the vast majority of the current player base.
I have been paying to play UO since December 1997. I don't want better graphics, I enjoy the 2D!
A great game doesnt need to have great graphics to be great.
UO was great and if they did re-invent it (provided they didnt mess with the formula too much) I for one would play it.
Haha, actually I do now.. I'm quite busy with life as I am older. But UO was some great memories.
Remember Old School Ultima Online
UO was great because of the PLAYERS not the game. If they remake/re-boot UO it'll never be the same.
True gamers like you are a rarity these days, kudos.
Ok, let me take a deep breath. ...
First off... I played Ultima VII maybe 30 or 40 times completely through. I played Ultima VI maybe 10 times through. I breathed, ate, drank and slept Ultima. There was a time when I knew the story of every rock and tree of Britannia.
That said: Ultima Online has for me as much to do with Ultima, like Readers Digest with the Nobel Price for Literature. Ultima Online had only 2 things in common with THE Ultima: the names of some stuff like Lord British or the cities and the shape of the landmass. THAT IS IT. I am not saying UO was a bad MMO. But it wasn't Ultima. Not at all!
What made Ultima great was that it was the pinnacle of CRPGs, and for me it remains on that pinnacle un-topped. What made Ultima great was that it had all these features the very best RPGs of our days have, but ALL of it. It has great story, memorable characters, unexpected and fascinating plot twists, the famous ethical dilemmas, a vast open world to explore, thousands of items to use and ways to interact, real night and day schedules. Ultima had everything decades before these things became the "trademark" of Bioware and Bethesda RPGs, only that Ultima had ALL THESE in ONE. If we trunctuate these into two hallmarks, you can call it story and vast open detailled world. The things which these days make Bioware and Bethesda games great.
The legendary breakthrough to whom we owe ALL our great RPGs of today was Ultima IV, Quest of the Avatar, when Richard Garriot changed the concept of what was supposed to be a computer game. It was the first of it's kind where you didn't just kill everything that moved, where it wasn't about some great evil or world at stake, but about YOU the player and his moral course.
Ultima ONLINE had almost nothing to do with it. Not that I minded people enjoying UO. But for me as ultimate Ultima fanboy, it was more a waste of time to focus on making UO instead of on making more single player games.
I CAN imagine a Ultima MMO, but only in the same sense as Bioware's SWTOR: as heavily story driven, with memorable companions and all these elements that made the SINGLE PLAYER games great. That would be the only worthy follower of the name Ultima. That, or a new single player series.
Anything else is nothing but a sacrilege. I am no kidding about anything Ultima.
"Remove your shoes, wanderer, for you tread on Holy Ground!"
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
hope that UO2 would be sandbox asi UO was
Keep it. Otherwise you're going to dissapoint every poster above this one.
'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.
When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.
No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.
How to become a millionaire:
Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.
I currently play UO as a Alt game. It used to be my main game many years ago. Here is some great info that might help. Now this isn't a fact, but. My friend is friends with a family member of a DEV of UO and she leaked some info to him which he leaked to me that, soon, they plan on destroying the city of Luna, like the did with Magincia, and trying to being the life of the game back to the Old World. With that being said and most likely true. That probably means there is no plans for a UO2. I think they are going to continue on with the works of UO as long as there is a deticated player base. NOW.. I don't understand why Mythic(EA) wouldn't take the incredible concepts of what UO has and can offer and make it modern. Seeing ( in my opionian) It would actually become VERY successful. But, for whatever reason. They are happy with what they have now and will continue to milk it as long as there are people supporting it.
Well i hoped that info helped.
Or they could make another single player Ultima game. I think Richard said himself he wants to see the X on an Ultima game one day. MMORPGs should be about the players.
Future doesn't look so bright for Ultima though. Both EA an Richard are dragging the name and characters through the dirt with EA's Strategy MMO and Richards "social game" titled "Lord British's New Britannia"
Bottom line that should be present in all these comments?
ULTIMA, ULTIMA, ULTIMA, ULTIMA!!
THIS ^^
Well either that or the only reasion it (uo2) wouldh't have 12 million customers is because they didn't make it like some other game... Its a 50/50 propisition as to which would be the reason for the "turned to crap".
Ultima Online to me was the best MMO I ever played. Could it have been better? yes, obviously.
Yet at the same time I just imagine a new UO with updated graphics etc but the same core mechanics. In MMO's today you have people spamming general chat asking for the answers.. because they can't even be bothered to notice the huge glowing symbols over the npc's heads. Can you really imagine that market trying to navigate UO?
Or Archery/melee combat when they didn't have hotbars full of icons to bash.
The complete non existence of the "holy trinity"... that would really throw people for a loop. Seriously "back in the day" of UO you never once saw someone spamming for a tank, dps or healer...
Which is why I doubt it will ever happen, simply because I'd play it. So if they ever do make UO2 it won't be anything like what I would want.
Even if they made another I wouldn't expect it to "flood" with subscribers.. Most of the casuals (that viewed the genre as a "fad") that WoW brought into the genre are slowly but surely moving back onto consoles and their other hobbies..
The flooding of the market and failure rate of the genre has forced it to stagnate and this will be good for growth in the future as the competition fades away as well as the "clutter" paving the way for games like this to actually reach their audience.
Depending on when they release this game, it has a chance to be one of the titles that helps to rebuild the genre as it reverts back to the "nerd, geek and misfit" niche again..
Need to correct you there.
Lineage 2 was built on Unreal Engine 2, which is tech from the early 2000s, around 2002-2003. We're talking 8+ year old tech. NCSoft had to retrofit a seamless world streaming system into the game because it was not designed for that kind of world design. Back then, it was still about individual maps being loaded one at a time.
Mortal Online uses Unreal Engine 3, which is an entirely new, and drastically improved version of the engine.
Unreal Engine 3 is not a minor iteration of that tech.
Epic rebuilt a good portion of it from the ground up, changing several fundamental ways the previous 2 versions did things. More notably - likely "seeing the light" due to several developers using UE2 for MMO projects - they re-worked it to support large, streaming worlds.
Point is, UE3 is far from "old" or "antiquated".
Here's a recent tech demo of the Unreal Engine 3. Now compare that to even the best looking games made with Unreal 2 tech. There's a drastic difference.
Just wanted to point that out :-p.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Cool stuff. Thanks for posting that link.
I'll start by saying I absolutely loved UO. It was easily the best MMO ever made in my mind, and I wouldn't be the person I am today had I not played for several years. I also said that in past tense purposely. I know it's still going, but the game that's going now isn't the game I'm talking about. Ew. Anyways, when talking about making a modern 'UO2', aside from which era to work from, which I'm personally hoping it would be an earlier version.. The biggest thing you have to ask yourself is 'to what end?'.
What exactly will be improved on and to what extent? Just 3D graphics? They already did that for UO, and it was a monstrosity, so what else? While going 3D, are you also going to get rid of the fixed top down third person angle, or are you going first person? If you go first person, are you also deviating away from click-to-target, or are you going with a FPS style of targeting with collision detection? If you go with click-to-target, are melee and archer characters still only going to have an auto attack, where they simply chase someone around, stay within range, and keep line of sight? Or will you give them a bunch of skills so that they might actually feel that their 'skill' as a gamer, and not just their character's skillsitems, actually has some sort of impact? Or even just so that they won't be bored, or so that mages and battle mages won't be the only viable route for engaging gameplay? If you go FPS style you have even more choices to make, such as how to handle flagging in an open pvp world. Also there's huge technological leaps and sacrifices due to latency that have to be made, a la DF and MO..
Basically, how much can you change, while still preserving the core of the game we all loved? What exactly were the defining details of the gameplay that made it so amazing for us, from what specific patch or era? My guess is that most of us would all have different ideas of how we'd like 'UO2' to be. A lot of us probably loved a lot of different things, we'd want to keep certain things, and we'd all have different ideas on how we'd want to change or 'improve' on it as well. Taking a poll, you'd probably have a variety of answers from 2D, 3D, click-to-target, point-to-target, collision detection, fixed third person, adjustable third person, first person, skills for weapons, and many more factors that relate to and even set limits on what you can do with other aspects of gameplay. Thinking about it, I only even mentioned things regarding perspective and combat. There were ways to play UO, enjoy a sense of progression, excitement, and success, and love it just as much as the rest of us without ever once engaging in combat. So, I'm sure those that did would want to preserve and change things about the game that I couldn't even imagine. Thieves, treasure hunters, tamers, bards, crafters, ... Now I wanna play UO, damnit. Where's my time machine? >_<!
I'd welcome the return of UO. I've had this UO:X avatar for MMORPG.com since it was canned years ago. Wow, it has been a long time.
I see some debate over the idea that a game like this couldnt draw in enough people because peopel want a niche game that suits their playstyle, but I think a game that blends sandbox and themepark, that's polished, and has a ton of stuff to do out the door would be very successful. Devs would help themselves if the tools were included for us to be creative as it would buy them some time to drop new content.
Honestly i'm super confident EA will take the oportunity to renew that name once the Uo gold mine dryed for good (from EA point of view right).
And i don't even want to imagine what it will look like...
I mean they shattered every single peice of that game. Even in a nightmare you won't find someone that dishonest to an original concept. I mean for every single big gaming name that are renewed (let say Fallout for exemple); you see the new dev team taking so much precaution to stay fidel to an original concept right. But EA? EA did exactly the opposite with Ultima and they won't even deny it. Its like giving your child to a baby sitter that hate kids, not a good move.
Lifelong Ultima fan here. I played UO hard for the first few years and then slacked off. I log in once every three months now to keep my house for some reason. Keep telling myself I may come back if they clean things up.
But UO needs more than a facelift... It's such a mish-mash of uncompleted and buggy systems now that a complete overhaul would be needed to get the game back to where it should be. Sadly, an overhaul will never happen because of the large investment needed from EA and also... because of the current players. They're very happy with keeping UO in the stone age and any suggestion otherwise brings out the pitchforks.
I have some hope for the supposed Elder Scrolls MMO in development. The guys at Bethesda are huge Ultima fans and I think if anyone could do it "right" it would be them.