ultimate-rpg
Latest
Portalarium hit with layoffs
If there's one thing that sucks, badly, about December, it's layoffs. Portalarium, Richard Garriott's social games studio, has been reducing in-house redundancies. Senior programmer Paul Evans broke the news Friday on Twitter, saying that Portalarium "had to lay off people" and that he was one of those people. He also said that "the whole thing was a surprise." Portalarium representatives confirmed to GamesIndustry International that the studio is "reducing staff to the appropriate levels to support and grow [its] recently launched products." As ever, we wish the best to those affected.
The Game Archaeologist: Is Ultima Online 2 a doomed prospect?
When it comes to classic MMOs that have strong nostalgic pull with veterans, the topic does arise from time to time what a sequel to any given game would look like and how it would be received in the current gamer climate. We've already talked about updating graphics here in The Game Archaeologist, but I'm talking about more than a new coat of paint -- I'm talking about a new game entirely. A Star Trek: The Next Generation to the classic Star Trek. A One Direction to the New Kids on the Block. A Madden '13 to a Madden '12. I'm stretching here. In a recent franchise producer's letter, Mythic's Jeff Skalski gave fans of Ultima Online a teeny tiny glimmer of hope that Ultima Online 2 might one day be a reality. Depending on your read of it, it could've just been a "stop asking about UO2 already" plea, a shameless way to promote Ultima Forever, or one fan talking to another about something that could happen if both parties work toward a common goal. Considering the troubled past of Ultima Online's sequels, we have to wonder: Is this more false hope than real hope? Is there any conceivable way that this 15-year-old MMO could one day be granted the same honor as EverQuest, Asheron's Call, Guild Wars, and PlanetSide by getting a sequel that actually launches? I have some thoughts on all this, which is good because otherwise there would be a whole lot of white space after the jump.
Garriott's Ultimate RPG 'clearly the spiritual successor' to Ultima
The Richard Garriott crazy train is heading toward a section of track that long-time fans of the gaming god might actually appreciate. In a new interview with Eurogamer, the man behind Ultima Online talks a little less about his recent foray into social casino games and a little more about what might be Ultima Online 2. Yes, we've seen the UO sequel smoke before. This time, though, there may be fire. "We've actually talked to Electronic Arts about [Garriott leading Ultima Online again]. I would love to have access to the Ultima property. We've had discussions at very high levels with Electronic Arts about access to the property," he explained. Regardless of any EA deals, Garriott says that his new Ultimate RPG is "clearly the spiritual successor of the Ultima series."
Richard Garriott describes his 'ultimate' RPG
Before Tabula Rasa, before Ultima Online, before any of the Ultimas, Richard Garriott had a vision for what he called the "ultimate" RPG. In a lengthy Facebook post, Garriott takes us back to 1974 when he first got the idea for such a game after being influenced by Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons. Starting with BASIC games on his school's teletype and moving up through the modern era of MMOs, Garriott details how he's been pursuing a dream of creating and refining one RPG to rule them all. He doesn't have kind words for how Ultima Online's shaped up since his absence, however, saying that elements like Elves and Ninjas were added against his wishes. "This is only a small example of why and how Ultima has drifted away from Richard Garriott, but I have not drifted away from Ultima," he writes. "It is clear to me that I, Richard Garriott, am an essential ingredient of at least the Ultimate Ultima, if not more broadly the Ultimate RPG. Perhaps one day, now that the people who pushed me out of EA more than a decade ago are long since gone, EA will recognize that together, we could rebuild that franchise in a way that they have failed to do in the intervening years. Richard Garriott is an essential ingredient in the Ultimate Ultima!" He ends his passionate speech with a few glimpses into the design for this "ultimate" RPG that he and his team are currently designing: "You will have customized Avatar homesteads and real roles to play in a deep, beautifully realized highly interactive virtual world. It will have virtues and the hero's journey reflected back to the player. It will have the best of synchronous and asynchronous features in use. Fiction will support your arrival from earth into this new world. I even hope to make maps, coins and other trinkets available to players of the game."
