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The Game Archaeologist: Classic MMOs in August
How few players do you need to have before operating an MMO becomes ridiculously unprofitable and in need of closing? In the case of The Matrix Online, we found out that the magic number was 500. I wouldn't have even guessed that so few people were in that game when its shutdown was announced, especially considering the vocal anguish that arose when SOE lowered the boom. I guess it goes to show that we're often quite clueless what goes on behind the curtain. There's always this balance between the number-crunchers (who need players and money to justify continued operations) and the passionate creators (who are often developers putting in the effort because they simply love the game and its community). If nothing else, it reinforced my belief that SOE does bend over backwards to keep these games running as long as possible, much longer than some other studios would in a similar situation. So what other news regarding classic MMOs happened this past month? It's time for another one of my patented roundups, complete with archaeological commentary!
Ultima Forever arrives on iOS
Avatar! Get out of bed, put on some clean underwear, and leave a note for your mom -- there's adventuring that needs doing! Mythic's Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar is out for the iOS and can be played on the iPad 2, iPod 5, and iPhone 4S or higher. Mythic had recently held Ultima Forever back to fiddle with its economy and fix bugs, but it seems as though everything is solid enough for the studio to finally pull the trigger and launch it worldwide. Ultima Forever is free-to-play with optional in-app purchases. Mythic is working on Android and PC versions as well. It's a whopping 881 MB to install, so make sure you have the room before you check out this latest chapter in the Ultima series!
The Daily Grind: What out-of-the-way secrets have you found?
We all know that the cardinal rule of exploration in any video game is to check under every waterfall for a secret passage. That's a given. But true exploration shouldn't stop with a wet dip and a slow-motion hair flip as we emerge sparkling into the sun. Developers have been hiding funny or interesting little secrets in out-of-the-way spots for years -- and MMOs are a prime example of this. I recently read a piece on Warhammer Online that reminded me how the developers used to watch beta testers do all sorts of acrobatics to get to hard-to-reach locations in the game. Instead of stopping them from doing so, the devs put special bosses or other secrets in these locations to reward exploration. I'm sure you've discovered many secrets when you've gone off the beaten path in MMOs. I, for one, would love to hear about them. Share, please? 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 Forever delays release until later this summer
While Canada has been enjoying the fruits of Ultima Forever, the rest of the world's been waiting to get a hold of this mobile online RPG. Unfortunately, it looks as though the wait will be extended a little longer, as Mythic announced that the Ultima Forever's iOS launch has been delayed a few weeks. Mythic called upon players' Sacrifice virtue regarding the delay: "Our world-wide launch has been pushed back a handful of weeks, due to the need to spend a little more time tuning the economy and wrangling performance across all devices." The studio said that it will spend the time fine-tuning the game and incorporating tester feedback.
The Perfect Ten: MMO commercials that take us back
I don't see a lot of commercials these days. I like to imagine that I'm a one-man force out to frustrate advertisers, ducking and weaving whenever they try to wing a 30-second spot at me. A lot gets through, but I've long since canceled cable, and the only traditional commercials I sit through are the ones for the occasional YouTube video. But there's something about a good commercial that can take us back on a wave of "remember whens?" and community bonding. I hear more discussions about creative ad spots the day after the Superbowl than the game itself. Commercials can even be a time capsule that unlocks memories for us of favorite movies, toys, and experiences. But what about MMOs? Well, they have commercials too, although not as many have made it to the standard airwaves. They're out there, though. Lurking. Emitting nostalgia rays from the past. And I've been hunting them down, looking for commercials that take us back to a simpler, goofier time. A few thousand dead brain cells later, I've got 10 of the margh make it sop pleaze pleaaa... Enjoy.
Jukebox Heroes: Ultima Online's soundtrack
Ultima Online and EverQuest were bound in blood by their early place in MMO history, but both titles were also two of the very few MMOs that released with a MIDI soundtrack. I've talked about the charms of MIDI before, although I think that a good chunk of the modern playerbase has no idea how games used to sound. In short, UO's original score used to be 100% computer produced, but eventually the MIDI format was replaced by much better-sounding versions in MP3 files around 2002. The core game's music was done by a pair of composers, Kirk Winterrowd and Joe Basquez, both of whom worked on previous Ultima titles. There's not a lot out there about the duo's experience creating the soundtrack nor whom the game studio tapped for music duties after Origin Systems went away. What I find interesting about this score is that not only is it beloved by players who have fond memories for Ultima Online but it is part of the larger Ultima framework, harkening back to The Olden Days of gaming. Seeing as how I was never into any of the Ultima titles (for shame, I know), I'm going to have to fall back on a simple gut-check: Which of this music is appealing simply for its own sake?
Second Wind: Ultima Online
When I (legally) sold my Ultima Online accounts in 2000 for the hefty sum of $1800, the game was already three years old and being challenged by the likes of EverQuest and Asheron's Call. I thought I was done forever. My guild was eyeing Dark Age of Camelot, and I wanted to cash out and rid myself of the chore of maintaining a dozen grandfathered houses on the dying half of a shard struggling to find its footing in a post-open-PvP ruleset. I was wrong. A year later I was back in UO with a new account, prowling around Britannia. And the year after that. And every year since, only I never again made the mistake of selling my accounts even when I took extended breaks. It has a special magic that only a handful of MMOs have captured (let alone topped) since, and what it lacks in modern conveniences it often makes up for in unique features. The granddaddy of MMORPGs and one of the only true sandboxes still standing turns 16 this autumn, having survived EverQuest, World of Warcraft, the internet bubble, EA's blundering, Mythic's takeover, layoffs, price hikes, a recession, and disastrous design shifts. But is it still worth playing?
Some Assembly Required: Five ways MMOs should support player events
Over the course of Some Assembly Required, we've covered a few player-run events out there that haven't been highlighted in their respective game columns. After all, we're all about PGC here, and you can't really get content more player-generated than that! But with all the the possible events across the whole gamut of games, there's no possible way to attend them all, let alone cover them here; there is only so much time in the day and space in the column. Of course, that won't stop me from trying! From Age of Conan to Warhammer Online, a few of the events I've been able to catch are festivals, races, plays, fishing contests, tavern storytelling nights, quests (yes, quests), treasure/scavenger hunts, trivia contests, arena duels, gambling nights, musical concerts, war games, horse races, weddings, dance-offs, terraforming challenges, auctions, jousts, fashion shows, tournaments, funerals, crafter fairs, and more contests than can even be mentioned. These examples aren't restricted to any one genre, either; creatively concocted events run the gamut and include themeparks like Aion, MOBAs like SMITE, and more -- and not just sandboxes. As you might have noticed, that's quite a bit of content, content that comes at no cost to the the studio! So why is it these events can be so hard to find? With so much free content at their fingertips, it would behoove studios to make it the norm to support and promote these events. And the tools they need to do so are already at their disposal.
Ultima Forever adjusts store prices based on player feedback
Mythic's been field testing Ultima Forever in the Canadian iOS market, and the studio now says that it's making significant changes to the in-app pricing based on feedback from players. Most of the changes will swing in the players' favor, including lowered repair costs and cheaper storage space increases. The studio is also considering a one-time buyout fee to get rid of all freemium aspects, although this is not a given. One factor did increase in price, however. The studio raised the cost to loot high-quality chests, as the devs found that once players nabbed the good gear inside, they had less incentive to keep on looting. Producer Carrie Gouskos said that the changes were necessary to keep from souring players' experiences. "You've got to get people to love your game first," she said, going on to remark that when player loyalty is established, revenue will follow. [Thanks to Space Cobra for the tip!]
The Game Archaeologist: Checking in with classic MMOs
What's this, you say as you rub your eyes in disbelief. Is it... The Game Archaeologist, long since thought lost in his expedition to Atlantis (and the trials therein)? It is indeed, my friends. TGA has been a long-running passion of mine on Massively, but I needed a break for a while to recouperate and refocus. However, as of late I've felt the call of neglected classic MMOs and wanted to make sure that they were getting some column love here on the site. So going forward, expect to see The Game Archaeologist pop out of his hidey hole once or twice a month to talk about our old favorites and perhaps pontificate more on the history of MMO development. Sound good? Did you miss me at all? You totally didn't, did you. If you've been out of touch with classic MMOs, I've done the legwork this week to provide you with the 10 important and relevant news items that are sweeping through this aging yet still vibrant community. Read on, McDuff!
Meet the art director behind Ultima Forever
If you've been playing Ultima forever, you started out by playing the game on a monochrome monitor with all the graphical lushness that an Apple IIe could provide. Ultima Forever's art director Peter Lipman knows all about that, because that's where he started as well. So going in with a memory of the franchise from the beginning, he decided to really focus on exploring how lush the world could look with a modern aesthetic. This was the core idea behind using background tiles rather than a 3D engine; as Lipman puts it, he wanted to take the beautiful concept art that people would come up with and put it directly into the game rather than just make something similar. You can hear all of Lipman's observations on designing the game in the video just past the cut, including a discussion of changing the game's overall art style to help make the game stand out more for players.
Jukebox Heroes: Warhammer Online's soundtrack
Even though it's fashionable to bash Warhammer Online these days (or every day since 2008, I guess), I still have a lot of affection for this particular game. It was the MMO that got me into blogging, connected me with many of my current online friends, and provided exciting experiences for well over a year. So when I hear the music, there's a rush of nostalgia that floods my brain and runs down to my extremities. That's not to say it's a particularly terrific score. I'd probably classify Warhammer Online's soundtrack as slightly below average; it does the job it needed to do, but it doesn't provide any stellar breakout tracks that will endure long after I've logged out. Still, it's worth examining. The score was handled by Mythic in-house composer Brad Derrick (who also helped to make an amusing Dwarf ballad while he was there). What did he come up with to represent this savagely twisted world? Let's find out!
The Daily Grind: What obscure fluff feature would you like to see in other games?
The other day I was thinking about Warhammer Online. I've no idea why. I haven't played the game in ages and to be perfectly frank, I didn't much care for it when I was playing. One thing I fondly recall, though, was that nifty feature that let you display medals and assorted military-style decorations on your avatar. I can't recall seeing that in another MMO, and it's one of those quirky quality-of-life things that I wish every game would implement. What about you, Massively readers? Is there an obscure fluff feature out there you're particularly fond of and that you'd like to see become a standard? 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!
Ken Hartsook discusses Ultima Forever from behind the scenes
Looking forward to having some nostalgic adventures with Ultima Forever when it releases this summer? Then you might enjoy a trip behind the scenes of development with Ken Hartsook, a software engineer working on the title at Mythic. Hartsook is the subject of a new video detailing some of the programming challenges associated with bringing Ultima Forever to the iOS family of devices as well as his favorite parts of the game as it approaches launch. According to Hartsook, one of the biggest challenges was finding a control scheme that worked for tablets and smartphones, which meant deviating substantially from classic control models. He also discusses the tilesets in the game and his experience playing a Fighter in the test version of the game. So if your iPad is ready and waiting for a chance to take the jump into Britannia, check out the full interview just past the break.
One Shots: Thar be dragons
It would be a rare fantasy MMO that didn't have a posse of dragons roaming the land (or flying through the skies), and Guild Wars 2 certainly does not break that trend. It doesn't mean that going head-to-head with one is any less intimidating, however. Reader Paul sent in this little meet-and-greet with Puff, saying it was when his Asuran Mesmer first encountered a dragon. Let's just hope he remained alive to have a second encounter. Asurans often look like popcorn chicken to dragonkind. It's not just flying lizards in this week's One Shots! What wonders await you, I wonder?
Some Assembly Required: Community as content
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to cover an occasion during which an in-game community came together and created a new player-run annual event. Born as an anniversary follow-up to a service event for the young terminally ill player Ribbitribbit, the new tradition focused on celebrating that very community that pulled together to create him a dream playground within EverQuest II. If the game lacked a sense of community in the game before that original project, it certainly didn't after. After tugging at my heartstrings for a while, that experience made me reflect on how much our communities are really a cornerstone of player-generated content. How often have you attended or participated in an event or run a mission created by someone other than yourself? And yet, when discussing important tools and elements needed to support player-generated content, we often overlook the necessity of a vibrant community. It's like trying to bake a cake without adding the flour. Or how about this analogy: You can give folks a giant tool box full of a shiny implements and tell them to build a house, but not much will happen without the actual wood and materials! So to foster PGC, games need to foster building communities.
Mythic community manager bids a sorrowful farewell
It looks as if yesterday's EA layoffs are hitting MMO gamers closer to home than originally thought. In a post today on BioWare's Warhammer Online forums, Mythic's Timothy Chappell announced that he has been let go. Chappell was the community manager for Warhammer Online, Ultima Online, and Dark Age of Camelot. I am very sorry to say that I was informed that my position was no longer needed. Though I had many titles I was handling for Mythic, I grew to love and appreciate all the communities and only wish I could have had more time or resources to get more involved with them. Though I had only been in the position for a little over a year, I will miss a great many of you and hope that you keep in touch. The news is of particular concern for Warhammer, which also lost its lead developer earlier this week. Ultima Online, by contrast, assured players of its continuing operation in a producer's letter last week. [Thanks to Fozee for the tip!]
Warhammer Online's Keaven Freeman leaves Mythic
Lead Developer Keaven Freeman is no longer heading up Warhammer Online. Freeman wrote a goodbye post on his personal blog stating that he is leaving Mythic Entertainment to "explore new growth and new career possibilities." "It is with heavy heart I report I am leaving Mythic Entertainment. I have worked with Mythic since 2007, and it quickly became my family," he said. Freeman expressed his gratitude to the company and fans, saying that his time with WAR was rewarding: "I'm by no means saying everything was perfect -- there was a lot I could have done better, in hindsight, but I think we really managed to take some giant steps forward as well, as non-perfect as those steps may have been."
Jukebox Heroes: Battle music!
It's time once again to take a week off from looking at specific MMO soundtracks and open ourselves up to a theme instead. The topic? Battle music. Yeah, it can be some of the most obnoxious music in the game, especially after hearing it for the 3,000th time, but every once in a while I hear a piece that has some merit to it. These are the ones we want to examine today. What makes for a good battle music track? I think it has to get you excited without being annoying or grating and not so loud or incredibly noticeable that you can't help but get tired of it sooner rather than later. It was actually pretty tricky to pull together six such tracks for this column, but I managed to do with with the help of Colonel Bugle up there. He's got the best MP3 collection around.
Ultima Online producer's letter talks vendor search, vet rewards, and more
Ultima Online producer Bonnie Armstrong has penned a new producer's letter designed to do two things. One is to disseminate some of the ideas in the pipeline for 2013, and the other is to quell any community uncertainty stemming from the recent EA layoff announcement. Some of the coming updates include a second house on Siege, more accessible veteran rewards, and vendor search functionality that should eliminate the need to use third-party script sites to find who's selling what. Read all about that stuff and more at the official UO website.
