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Ultima Forever wants you to learn about yourself
Mythic Lead Designer Kate Flack has an interesting interview up on Gamasutra about her experiences with developing MUDs and how she's rejecting the industry standard when it comes to crafting Ultima Forever (legal disclaimer: This online multiplayer title is not an MMO, but hey, it's online Ultima so shh.). Flack says that because most MMOs are based on a DikuMUD standard, they all more or less play the same. She says that there's a freedom to starting from a different standard and developing from there: "It's a way of playing that doesn't necessarily have the same assumptions underlying them. It gives you a breadth of background and heritage that you can pull from. Just because it's always been done that way doesn't mean I have to do it the same way." Part of this design shift is in asking "sophisticated questions about ethics" to players, which is a vital part of the Ultima franchise. Flack says that Ultima Forever will be more nuanced and involve tough choices that will make a personal impact on gamers: "I want to make you stop, think, and go, 'Huh!' and then learn about yourself, because games can do that."
Some Assembly Required: Kick(start)ing the sandbox genre
Sandbox aficionados are known to reminisce about the "good old days." You know, that time long lost in the past when the greats of open-world play like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies (pre-NGE of course) enjoyed their heyday. Many a lamentation has also been heard about how things have never been the same, or how nothing has filled that void. Of course, the sandbox never died. In 2012 we started the year off with a guide to games sporting sandbox features to scratch a variety of virtual world itches and we ended with a look at some promising upcoming titles for 2013. With plenty of choices abounding, why are sandbox fans still decrying the lack of a home? It could be because they want one home for everyone to settle in together, basically one game to rule them all. But how realistic is that? Even with the plethora of offerings now, many folks want to play their ideal sandbox, and everyone has their own idea of what the perfect one would be (and conversely, what would kill it). Perhaps the answer, then, is to forget about a single universal home that accommodates the masses and actually create a number of niche games where people find exactly what they are looking for. Wait, that's already happening? Enter Kickstarter.
The Perfect Ten: Memorable marketing campaigns
I took only a single marketing class in college, so by no means am I an instant expert in anything but being on the receiving end of marketers' nefarious experiments to manipulate me so that I buy their stuff. I did take away the lesson that all marketers are professional liars who have no shame or dignity. Pretty much the same as a blogger, so I guess I have a backup career. Believe it or not, MMOs get off easy when it comes to notorious marketing campaigns. Anything on the following list, good or bad, is a pale shadow of what we've seen in the larger video game industry. Still, there have been plenty of attempts to promote MMOs in ways that make us either applaud or laugh at the studio (and sometimes both at once, which takes coordination). After doing some staff polling and internal polling, here are 10 memorable marketing campaigns from the era of MMORPGs. Maybe they're all winners in that they got noticed by at least one person, even if they're the most foolish notions in history. Here we go!
Ultima Online gives much love to housing
Ultima Online is well-known for being a player housing paradise, and it looks like the ability to make a comfy nest for oneself will get even better with the next game update. Producer Bonnie Armstrong posted a preview of what players should expect in the near future. The big news is that the UO team is considering allowing players to have houses on both Siege Perilous and standard shards, opening up the possibilities for multiple home ownership. Houses will also get a new theme pack that includes interactive gadgets. The art team continues to work on hi-res versions of house items, although this is "slow going" as it's a huge project. The UO team is also working on revamps to weapons and armor, the ability for players to run for ambassadorships of towns, new instruments, and a new global arc.
Massively Interview: Dr. Lawrence Sanders on MMO loyalty
Beyond amazing character design, compelling narratives, and the presence of dragons, there is one thing that all MMOs depend upon for success: player loyalty. Without returning subscribers, a loving community, or folks dropping a few dimes in the cash shop now and again, MMOs simply wouldn't be a feasible way for a games studio to do business. Smart development teams have player retention departments tasked specifically with tracking and analyzing the rise and fall of player allegiances and finding ways to leverage loyalty is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the creation process. Even the non-gaming world is getting in on the fray. Back in November, researchers at the University at Buffalo School of Management published a study tracing the roots of player loyalties in a variety of MMO environments. The study outlined the mentalities of MMO gamers and the things that successfully encouraged them to keep coming back for more looting, more grinding, and more /hugging. Most importantly, the study declared that an MMO that increases loyalty by just 5% can increase profits by 25-95%. We sat down with Dr. Lawrence Sanders, co-author of the study, to dive a little deeper into the researchers' methods, results, and plans for future MMO investigation.
The Game Archaeologist's top MMO stories of 2012
As another gaming year spins to a close, we here at the Institute for Digital Interactive Entertainment have been holding our archaeological department hostage with a trained buffy-tufted marmoset until it delivered a final report. After hours of begging and infected monkey bites, the head of that department, Prof. Justin Olivetti, Ph.D., handed us a scrap of urine-soaked paper with the following article inscribed. While the Institute strongly suggests that you ignore this report and instead work on your button-mashing exercises, the board of directors stated that all such papers must be posted for the public to see. This report is presented in the Yetbari typeface and contains a sequential series of items that number between 11 and 13.
Ultima Online levies two-week rollback for high-pop server
It's not a good time to be a player on Ultima Online's Atlantic server, to put it lightly. Mythic was forced to rollback the game (and players' progress) yesterday on Atlantic to a backup from two weeks ago. Atlantic is the highest-populated shard in the Western hemisphere. The official announcement cut straight to the point: "Due to issues beyond our control, I am sorry to have to inform all of Atlantic that we had to revert to a Dec 5th backup. We have tried to retrieve a more current backup but we have been unable to do so due to corruption issues." Mythic said that it will be compensating affected players with a month of free game time, although that's undoubtedly small consolation to those who have lost progress and acquisitions during this period. Apart from the short announcement, there has been no additional communication from the studio on the issue. [Thanks to Brad for the tip!]
The Perfect Ten: Absolutely ridiculous cash shop selections
This past week, the Money Gnomes at Turbine tested the waters with the idea of selling a $50 horse in Lord of the Rings Online. Oh, not just any horse, mind you: It's a toy hobby horse. For $50. The representative who asked for feedback on the item and price-point probably caused herself internal hemorrhaging by stating, "This is not a joke." The fans responded, "Of course, and the sky is made out of blue cheese." At the very least, it allowed the more creative players to come up with humorous expressions of incredulity. The fun finally came to an end when the studio announced that the "experimental" price point was a failure. Of course, this is by far not the first time a game studio's attempted to sell a ridiculous item, an item with a ridiculous price point, or both combined. If you sell it, after all, the rubes will come. So in the spirit of a $50 hobby horse that costs something like $20 in real life to acquire, here are 10 completely ridiculous items that we've seen in MMO cash shops.
Ultima Online patches in a significant number of bug fixes
Get your scrollin' finger ready: Ultima Online just got a whole bucket of fixes and updates posted to the test server. If you're tired of your fish pies not being stackable, of mushrooms exploding under your house, or of gargoyles activating their stone form mid-flight, this is the patch for you! Lava Lobster fishing has been fixed, hats have stopped twitching, and gargoyle aprons have all been returned to their proper hue. At long last, golems can no longer be used to exploit combat training, and vendors are seeing some big changes. Rather than increasing their fees once per day, vendors will charge incrementally over time. They'll also give players a grace period before heading out after running out of funds, and all vending penalties have been abolished. Hit up the official patch notes for the lengthy list, if only so you can learn that "Robin's Egg candy will no longer fill the tummy of the eater." [Thanks to groovy webizen Derrick for the tip!]
EverQuest, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft among Time's top 100 games
We tend to think of MMOs as being different from other video games, but the genre has had a pretty major impact on all areas of gaming. As a result, it's no real surprise to see that three of the all-time most important MMOs show up on Time's recent list of the Top 100 Video Games of All Time. EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and Ultima Online are all included on a list that honors everything from Oregon Trail to Katamari Damacy and Pac-Man to Batman: Arkham City. The entries on EverQuest and Ultima Online both make note of the longevity and long-term success of the older titles, while the World of Warcraft article homes in on the diverse audience attracted to MMORPGs (something arguably true of the former titles as well). While other MMOs didn't make the list, it's well worth taking a look at the full article if you want a walk down video game memory lane.
Rumor: Origin hacked, EA denies intrusion [Updated]
If you have created an EA Origin account for any reason, such as for Star Wars: The Old Republic or Ultima Online, we advise you to change your password posthaste. Numerous sites are reporting that hackers have breached Origin's security and are potentially modifying account information and stealing it. Allegedly affected players claim that the hackers are changing the log-in emails associated with their accounts and that the new email addresses have a Russian suffix. In response to a question about whether any accounts were compromised by hacking, an EA spokesperson made the following statement: "At this point, we have no reason to believe there has been any intrusion into our Origin database." EA has updated us with its full security statement: Anytime a player has a question about the security of his or her account or personal data, we take it very seriously and take all possible steps to help. For any customer who cannot access their Origin account for any reason, we ask them to please contact Origin Help or EA's customer experience group at help.ea.com. The robust security measures in place to protect Origin users accounts are constantly being expanded and upgraded, and we also strongly recommend customers take the protective steps of using strong passwords and changing passwords often.
Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest's soundtrack
I've always felt that MIDI tunes were to computers what chiptunes were to 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. Before storage media expanded and technology increased to the level of using regular instruments, practically every PC game had a MIDI soundtrack at its back (as did quite a few early and misguided websites). MIDI wasn't a file format that stored recorded music; instead, it was a file full of instructions for your computer to assemble a tune on its end. I never really liked MIDI songs the way that I enjoyed old console soundtracks. Songs done in MIDI have a distinct and somewhat unpleasant, flat tone to them, although sometimes composers were able to finagle toe-tapping tunes with it. It certainly is nostalgic to hear, however, to those of us who played games in this era. Before MIDI faded out at the end of the 90s, some of the earliest MMOs released with their scores done in this format. Ultima Online (which we'll get to later on) and EverQuest were two such titles, and today we're going to listen to what EverQuest sounded like back in 1999. The original score was composed by Jay Barbeau, who has since released a remastered soundtrack called The Original, Opus I. But we're not going to go for that remastered stuff; let's listen to the sounds of the past, shall we?
Hailan Rising raises funds for 'love-child of DAoC and CoD'
MMO Kickstarter projects are coming out of the woodwork now, and each one has to sell its concept to would-be donors or else face possible extinction. Today's scrappy contender is Hailan Rising, the "love-child of Dark Age of Camelot and Call of Duty," according to the devs. Hailan Rising is a fantasy PvP MMO that ditches classes and levels for a more level (but not equal) playing field. It features instant action, strategic territory control, randomized loot, and over four billion possible character builds. The game is built on the Unity 3-D engine. The project is being worked on by a couple of MMO studio vets: Adam Smith (Knight Online) and Jess Mulligan (Asheron's Call, Ultima Online). Mulligan said he was attracted to the title's unique PvP mechanic, adding that "this is the fastest and most competitive PvP environment I've ever seen in an MMO." The team's Reloaded studio is looking to raise $275,000 to finish the game for a potential 2013 launch on Mac and PC. If the stretch goal is met, the developers are eyeing mobile platforms as well. Hailan Rising has been in development since 2010. [Additional source: Reloaded press release]
The Perfect Ten: Worst expansion names of all time
When SOE announced that EverQuest's 19th expansion would be titled Rain of Fear, I instantly found myself tripping over the name. I shouldn't have -- it's a few simple words that are first round picks for spelling contests -- but it defied the traditional naming conventions for MMO expansions. Many people I talked to kept wanting to write "reign" instead because "rain" seemed like a deliberate misspelling by some intern in Smedley's empire. Homophones aside, Rain of Fear is hardly the worst expansion title I've ever seen. The industry has had its share of bad names, from the confusing to the downright unpronounceable. Sure, we get used to these titles, and perhaps it's nit-picky to lug them out at such a late point in many of their lifespans, but petty is my middle name. My first name is Tom. And these are 10 poorly named expansions. Deal with it.
Rise and Shiny revisit: Ultima Online
What can I say about Ultima Online that hasn't been said before? This week, the grandparent of MMOs turns 15 years old. In MMO terms, that's a long, long time. In fact, Ultima Online is the measuring stick for resilience. Think about it: Does any of us believe that many modern MMOs will last even half that long? While it's very possible, it's also very hard to imagine. For many different reasons, Ultima Online still maintains a playerbase, continues to be developed, and even attracts new players. It also runs on a subscription model and will likely continue to do so. If you read the transcript of my recent livestream with the UO devs that was so generously typed out by Ultima Codex, you know that I asked about a free-to-play or freemium Ultima Online and received this as an answer: Actually, there's no use to do free-to-play. We have a good number of key players. So, at this time it's not really something we're looking at doing. That was Producer Bonnie Armstrong. Oddly, I received some form of the free-to-play question from people who are not playing the game currently. The players inside the world seem just fine with the payment model. Has this old-school approach helped the game last this long? I'm not sure, but during this annual return to Britannia, I found the same great game I do every time I visit.
The Daily Grind: Is farming ruined forever?
One of my favorite things to do in games is farm. No, not the kind of farming that involves killing zillions of mobs for mats and money -- real (virtual) farming. Like when you buy seeds and plant them in the ground and wait for them to grow and then collect the literal fruits of your labor. Think I'm talking about FarmVille? Nope. Lord of the Rings Online, actually. And Ultima Online and Glitch and hopefully, someday, ArcheAge. MMOs actually implement farming so much better than the social game that seems to have redefined it. In UO, I can grow decorative plants and buff petals; in LotRO, I can mass-produce crops that are used by cooks to make food; and in Glitch, I grow flowers and herbs used by tincturers. I suppose even in Star Wars Galaxies, I was farming up corn and tubers in my oversized industrial extractors. But I have to wonder whether the FarmVille-induced stigma attached to farming as a gameplay concept has ruined it for MMO fans forever. Even when we discuss ArcheAge's amazing farming system, we can't help but crack jokes about tractors, jokes we wouldn't make about big, burly, angry Orcs practicing their fine tailoring skills in World of Warcraft. What do you think -- is farming in MMOs ruined forever? 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!
Garriott shares Ultima Online anecdotes for 15th anniversary
It's been a week of remembrances for past and present members of the Ultima Online dev team. The title's 15th anniversary has offered ample opportunity for stories from the early days, the latest of which come courtesy of Lord British himself (and no, it's not the one about his in-game death). Richard Garriott tells of his run-in with a player thief bent on ruining the game experience for a new player. It's an amusing anecdote that illustrates how UO's early incarnation led to plenty of unexpected gameplay scenarios. "After [the incident], I began to think more carefully about the rules we ourselves put in the game, and the inevitable play styles that would come of it," Garriott writes.
Raph Koster reminisces about Ultima Online 15 years later
Fifteen years of any MMO is a legitimate enough excuse to wax nostalgic, so we can't blame original Ultima Online developer Raph Koster for writing down a few thoughts about the game's 15th anniversary. His article is a collection of early behind-the-scenes vignettes, including how a player from one of his previous MUDs followed him to UO to sue the game, how the architecture presented challenges, and the pain of cutting unfinished content prior to launch. Koster is bluntly honest about the middling reception of the game at the time of its launch, although he said he reveled in the positive press: "The EA lawyers were very unhappy with me over a quote from that newspaper article in the pic. I ended by saying Ultima Online was 'a grand experiment.' They said, 'Don't you realize that's the sort of thing they will use in court against us?' But it was. Grand."
Ultima Online celebrates 15 years with regicide [Updated]
Ultima Online has a big anniversary today, one that you can only really celebrate if you're the first graphical MMO on the market. This marks the game's 15th anniversary, and that's definitely the sort of thing that merits a celebration. So the staff has decided to celebrate by deposing the current ruler and ushering in a new king. (We admit that the plot may not actually involve regicide, but kings are not usually known for their calm and peaceful surrender of power.) The changing of the king is the culmination of a seven-month plot arc, with the actual coronation of the new ruler sparking a major in-game event. If you're a former player, it's well worth jumping back in to check out what happens when power changes hands. You can also jump on past the break to see our own Beau Hindman livestreaming with the Ultima Online development team in celebration of the 15-year anniversary. [Source: Electronic Arts press release] [Update: UltimaCodex.com has a full transcript of the chat if you want to read it yourself!]
The Daily Grind: Are live events due for a revival?
Live MMO events have long since fallen by the development wayside in the pursuit of scripted "dynamic" events. It used to be that game studios would send paid GMs into the game to roleplay with players in a tabletop-like scenario, conducting large-scale storytelling events and spawning enemies, locations, and items. Ultima Online, which celebrates its 15th birthday this week, is particularly well-known for these sorts of events, but they've seldom been replicated in later generations of triple-A MMOs. TERA, apparently, hopes to change that with the implementation of Flash events, "spontaneous events focused on small groups of users and run by staff." They might seem a little out of place in TERA, but they could be a niche worth resurrecting. Live, impromptu events might have the disadvantage of involving only small groups of people and not the entire population, but that's exactly what makes them so intriguing for the players who happen to be in the right zone at the right time when one of these events starts. What do you think? Do you wish more studios would get over their crush on pseudo-dynamic events and return to live events? 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!
