classic-shard
Latest
Players vote for 2007-era RuneScape server
Believe it or not, an "old-school" RuneScape server may be in the making. The crazy developers over at Jagex discovered a complete backup of the game from August 2007 and are allowing the community to vote on whether or not there's interest in playing this five-and-a-half year-old copy of the game. The poll will go live on Friday for the following two weeks, but Mod Mark wanted to explain the hows and whys of this potential project in advance. He also set milestones for voting, with the minimum for the old-school server to become a reality being 50,000 votes for a maintenance-only version. If the server project gets enough votes, Jagex will actually hire a team to develop for it. Mod Mark did want to clarify that possibility, however: "If this idea gathers sufficient support, then we will not need to take our current talent away from all of the exciting updates to be implemented into the current version of the game, as we will be able to hire a new dedicated team to work specifically on this project." Tell you what: Why don't we have our own unofficial pre-poll poll right now? Vote on whether you'd play on a classic server after the jump!
Ultima Online developer Q&A video covers... way too much for this headline
An Ultima Online developer Q&A was released today for all the undyingly loyal UO fans out there, and boy is it packed with information. Allow us a moment to take a deep breath and get a glass of water as we try to break it down for you. In the Q&A, UO Producer Cal Crowner (Uriah) and Associate Producer Bonnie Armstrong (Mesanna) cover a ton of territory, including spring cleaning, bug fixes, the potential addition of rare titles, and... woodchucks. A few notable responses, though, involved new additions coming to Ter Mur, the upcoming new player experience update, and the oft-discussed classic shard. Regarding the former two, the devs say that the tweaks to Ter Mur aren't finished just yet, with a new live event arc -- which will "encompass the history of Ter Mur" -- coming this June, while the new player experience is getting a huge revamp with the sweeping adjustment of many classic dungeons and the early play experience. And lastly, but very certainly not least in terms of "how likely is this to raise a firestorm from the deepest and most depraved depths of Hades," is the discussion of a classic shard. The verdict? There won't be one... for now. The team says, "We hear you... and yes it would be great, but there are so many ifs that people can't agree on... that it would be a really bad pursuit right now with what we're doing." That's right, light your torches and pitchforks, classic UO-lovers, and riot on past the cut for the full video.
The Daily Grind: Would you play on a progression server?
EverQuest fans have been abuzz ever since SOE announced that a new progression server will come to the game this March. A progression server is kind of like a "way back" machine, resetting an MMO to the core game with expansions rolled out at a steady pace thereafter. It basically allows one to experience a sped-up version of how the MMO initially developed while forcing the players to stay together within certain boundaries. Even if your memory is long and clear enough to know that the good old days weren't always good, nostalgia has a way of sucking you in, prompting cries for a "classic shard" to try to duplicate that original experience. And that doesn't always necessitate some shadowy underground emulator (which we can't talk about on Massively anyway, so don't do it!). Sometimes the companies themselves try to cash in on the nostalgia. Gamers coming to a long-established MMO years after launch often feel behind the curve as the bulk of the playerbase is already at max level, yet progression servers put everyone on equal footing -- at least initially. So would you play on a progression server if your MMO offered one? What would it be like to go back to old vanilla World of Warcraft or Ultima Online's era of a free-for-all frontier? Or would it be an unnecessary nostalgia trip that would fail to recapture that unique initial experience? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Ultima producer's letter talks classic shard
Classic Ultima Online servers have been talked about so much over the years that nowadays most people usually shrug, roll their eyes, or point you to a private server whenever the topic comes up. Game forums around the web are usually the starting (and stopping) point for such discussions, as creaky old-timers wax on about how great the genre was prior to the MMORPG equivalent of the Endless September. When Ultima Online's current producer writes about classic shards, however, it becomes a bit more interesting than wishful speculation. In a producer's letter dated August 13th, Calvin Crowner indicates that a classic shard is being subjected to serious internal discussions in order to determine the appropriate business model and assess all the risks. He also intimates that a definitive answer will likely be forthcoming prior to the end of the year. Go easy on the celebrations though, as Crowner points out that it's not quite as simple as bringing back old customers. "It [a classic shard] needs to draw, along with the hype, an audience truly interested in understanding that before there were games on rails, there was a game built on skill and the thrill of a game with consequence."
