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The Game Archaeologist: WAR's biggest battle was with itself
Who would have thought that on WAR's fifth anniversary and just days after I dropped a few favorite things about the game, Mythic would be announcing a closure instead of an exciting celebration? While we can all say it that Warhammer Online's upcoming sunset was expected, nobody predicted that the news would go down on its fifth birthday. Maybe someone over there likes order more than chaos and sees a nice symmetry in this. Personally, I think it felt a little bit mean to do that to the remaining community that was patiently sitting there hoping that the studio would toss them even a small bit of recognition. But facts are facts, and after December 18th, the game of public quests, the Tome of Knowledge, "bears, bears, bears," Slayers and Marauders, RvR and scenarios, exploding squigs, and drunken Dwarves will be no more. There are a few months left to experience the game if one so desires, but the end is finally here. It's caused many of us who were invested in the game back in 2008 to take stock of our memories and deal with the last chapter of this strange, wild rollercoaster that started with a strong IP, a studio steeped in PvP MMO development, and a pair of white sunglasses. In the end, WAR's biggest battle was with itself -- and it lost. Today, let's look at the whys, the what ifs, and the community reaction.
One Shots: Darkness Falls
Going through the One Shots email account is a little like peeking into strangers' photo albums, complete with their private stories and embarrassing toilet shots. Seriously, folks, what is it with you people sending in toilet pictures? OK, it's a little funny, so keep 'em coming. I was particularly drawn to Callie's photo from Dark Age of Camelot circa 2003 this past week: "My fiance and I loved going into the dungeon of Darkness Falls so much that we would frequently go down and fight the Prince, just the two of us, on our Warrior duo. I know newer games have come and gone, but nothing beats dungeon exploring and fighting a difficult boss with the one you love. Still one of my favorite MMO memories." One can only assume that your characters discovered the lavatory behind the boss room and took many, many pictures as well. Speaking of tawdry screenshots, we've got a few more for you behind the break!
Happy 16th birthday, Ultima Online
I've taken my share of ribbing from the youngins on the Massively staff (as well as the readers!) about my continuing obsession with Ultima Online, but I can't help it: It's hard not to love the game that effectively started it all, especially in an age when MMORPGs have veered so dramatically from the standards set for them by the earliest titles. Next week, Ultima Online turns 16, and you'd better believe we'll be at the party. To honor the game, of course -- not just to gobble free cake. Earlier in the summer, we took a deep dive into the current state of the game (as well as its music!), but since that article ran, Mythic has been ratcheting up the update machine. It's bringing out new veteran rewards, an anniversary event complete with the usual round of anniversary festivities, and a new patch that includes tweaks to the Clean Up Britannia rewards and turn-in system, new Halloween content, and new character titles. Oh, and did I mention players will be embarking on the first part of a new dynamic story arc? With any luck, this one won't end with the brick-by-brick destruction of a beloved NPC town (but hey, at least actions in the game have permanence!). The big party is happening this Saturday, September 21st, on the test server so that everyone can attend no matter his home server. Expect a hedge-maze scavenger hunt, design contest, and storytelling event, complete with some pretty pricey prizes. See you there, and happy birthday, UO!
Warhammer Online to close December 18th
Today is Warhammer Online's fifth anniversary, but instead of getting a celebration, the players are getting a pink slip from Mythic. The studio announced that it will be shutting WAR down as of December 18th because its licensing deal with Games Workshop has come to an end. The official statement gives the important details: "We here at Mythic have built an amazing relationship working with Games Workshop creating and running Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning over the last 8 years. Unfortunately, as with all licensing deals they do eventually come to end and on December 18th, 2013 we will no longer be operating Warhammer Online. As such we will no longer be selling three-month game time codes or have the ability to auto renew your accounts for three months as of September 18th, 2013. From all of us here at Mythic we thank you again for your dedication and support over the last five years." Producer Carrie Gouskos also posted her own memories of the game on this somber occasion, including the revelation of a now-cancelled Asian F2P edition of the game and a vampire-themed expansion. "It has been a tremendous honor to work with Games Workshop and even though we may be parting ways, our relationship with them remains strong," she wrote. "And now, hopefully, because this may be the last thing I ever write about Warhammer, I'll be allowed to acknowledge the existence of Chaos Dwarves. Or maybe not."
The Game Archaeologist: What I loved about Warhammer Online
As I got my start in blogging over Warhammer Online, I've become "the guy" everyone on staff goes to whenever WAR hits an anniversary. The problem is, there's precious little good to say about this title's development over the past year. Pretty much all of the news we've gotten has been negative, from the closure of Wrath of Heroes to the elimination of the six-month subscription to the departure of its most vocal developers. TL;DR version of my feelings on the topic: WAR needs F2P or it will die probably much sooner rather than later. But instead of going maudlin and piling on the obvious, I want to go down a different road today for the sake of those who loved and perhaps still love Warhammer Online. Obviously, people continue to play it even though its day in the spotlight is long gone, and I'd like to chime in with some positivity for a change. After all, WAR's celebrating its fifth anniversary, and that's pretty cool. So in honor of that, here's a list of seven things that I loved about WAR from my time playing it and why it wasn't quite the abysmal failure that revisionist history has made it out to be.
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!]
Ultima Forever reduces most freemium prices after Canadian beta
Ultima Forever, being made by EA for iOS platforms, has received some major tweaks to its freemium currency prices. The RPG has been available in Canada as a beta for a while now, and producer Carrie Gouskos says the biggest change – besides performance adjustments – has been to the cost of things. In the free-to-play RPG, your character has items that will break over time. You'll need to spend keys of various qualities (that can be earned in game, or purchased with real money) to repair those items. Gouskos says player feedback made it clear that repair costs were too high, and repairs for the highest quality items have been lowered from about 60 keys to around 8 or 10. Additionally, the cost to increase storage space in your stash was lowered, as the team found it was a mistake to charge people an increasing cost for simply wanting to collect more of the game's items. One price went up: The cost to loot the highest quality chests was raised a bit to make up for the decreased costs elsewhere. Gouskos also says that once players had good items on their characters, they tended not to loot as much as when they first started playing. For her part, Gouskos says she's "worked too hard to have people not play" the game, so she's striving to make sure there's a way to play that's both free and fun. The team is still considering providing an optional "buyout" fee to essentially negate the game's freemium elements, but no matter how the final product works, says Gouskos, making the game fun takes priority over the tangled monetization model. If you want to make money from a freemium game, says Gouskos, "you've got to get people to love your game first."
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.
