An MMO I would like to see Reborn and Updated
Posted 05-24-2010 at 09:48 AM by Silverspar
(This is a repost from my old blog as I try to save old articles.)
As many should know, I've been playing MMOs since December of 1997. My tenure in UO didn't come to an end until not long after the Samurai Empire expansion, think it was the summer before Mondain's Legacy was suppose to debut. At that point I was sort of leap frogging my subscription just to retain my house, but I had grown lax in even that duty, and I was informed one day my house had fallen. My final ties to UO having completely been severed, all the years worth of rares and momentos given to me by friends, either completed erased from existance (some items were one of a kind never to be seen again) or gobbled up by some farmer looking to make quick gold on the market. It was a fairly alrge house to, 18x18 that had gotten many accolades from GMs to other players for the design and effort I went in to making it look very aeshtetically pleasing as well as welcoming to all who would enter. But that's nalstagia talking and the world of UO I loved and admired had ceased to be with the Age of Shadow expansion. The loss of my hosue severed any reason for me to go back, which my rares and house were pretty much the only reason, so I started my adventure of looking for a new home.
Let's rewind to the year 1999. UO is two years old, the Rennaissance expansion was or just had come out (I forgot exactly) and UO2 was just announced. A lot of excitement and buzz was in the air over this one, as it promised to expand upon UO as it was, and provide a new world to adventure in. Graphically, for the time at least, the game was very much on par to modern 3d games, of course exceptionally dated by todays standards. But it's not the graphics that appeal to me. Nope, it's something else entirely. The lore of the world, and the fact it would continue the foundation that UO had originally started. Crafting, player interaction, housing an impact that players can have on the world at large, not just a visual chat room. These are things that appeal to me for my MMO experience and it's something that is sorely lacking in the modern day MMO.
The one thing I can say, and I think I say it very effectively, is the modern MMO lives and dies on the backs of the crafters who are willing to tough it out. Some will point out WoW, of course, but aberations always exist. However, every game that has promised a deep and interesting crafting system has ultimately fallen short of expectations by a land slide. UO, when the Age of Shadows hit, the crafting system dried up. People left in droves. Star Wars Galaxies the samething occured. The more development companies started making crafting less important to the game as a whole, the less people were interested in their world. I think EVE Online proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the game can live or die on the backs of the people who want to be crafters, because without them there really isn't a fun or engrossing game nor is their an economy to actually live by.
UO2 promised to expand upon what UO started and have a deep, rich economic system. But took it a step further by making specialization mean something. The stated promise was that a grandmaster blacksmith wouldn't something that everyone could be, in fact only the most dedicated should reach it. The skill system (a sort of hybrid of leveling and skills as stated in their forums long ago) was similar to the Diablo 2 tree system, but different in that pure dedication to one skill would only net a few of the most dedicated to creating the best or becoming the best and so on and so forth. It's a fundamental part of the system that leads to the next part; Community.
I am sure there are plenty of UO veterans out there who remember Rivendell on Lake Superior and all the other important communities with special attention to details that sprung up. UO2 promised the same ability to create those samethings, but actually have the housing zoned off for crafters and such, thus crafters would be able to put up vendors and such near popular trade routes and people who didn't want anything to do with crafting could build thier communities and housing out in the boonies where ever they felt. Crafting is something that leads to community, and both are practically required to actually have a fundamentally long lasting MMO experience. If a player can truly leave their mark on the community, then they are more inclined to stay. After all, if there are hundreds to thousands of people just like you, there really isn't a mark you can leave, so there is less attachment involved.
UO2 or Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, as it was later called, had captured the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of people with it's rich lore and backstory. So much so, that before the game even demonstrated working footage, players were already creating stories, art and even songs about the game. Fan Art and videos, songs and more were popping up all over for this one game. The factional war between the Britanians, Technocracy, and even the Meer mystics (I forget the name of that faction) was fascinating beyond belief. And to top it all off, a best selling trilogy novel was written about this period. That's staying power.
Ultima Worlds Online: Origin offered players a world where they could choose a faction, not based on one of the three races they started as, but on their own motives. They could be a Juka in the Britannian army, or they could have a Meer in the Technocracy, it was their choice. Or they could remain neutral. The continent of Britannia was also PvP free except for factional confrontations, leaving the Meer Lands and Juka lands as PvP wild country that hard core PvPers could more readily fight over resources in to.
Would that type of set up work today though? Parts of it would need a change, most definitely, graphics would have to be updated, but for the most part, the foundation would definitely work, and honestly I think if EA did restart it now, UWO:O would be a smash hit in todays market of stagnant, samey MMOs and so forth. Take the foundations of UWO:O slap in some innovations from UXO, such as combat and virtue system, and you would have a game with staying power.
UO hasn't stayed for nearly 13 years now because it's a WoW clone, though now it's killing itself trying to be a WoW clone. It has stayed this long because it was an actual living, breathing world people could leave their mark in.
So basically put, if I had the power to say make it so, this is what I would do to make UWO:O a reality and allow players a new, fresh look at the world of Ultima and probably the most anticipated MMO ever and a sure fire smash hit;
1: Take a look at the lore, work with it and mold it properly.
2: Update the graphics engine to modern graphics.
3: Modify but keep the skill system. People are rather sick of leveling treadmills and class locking.
4: The concept of no mana bar excited a lot of people where skills and abilities were a resource and recharge times. It made the concept of skill sound even more important instead of blowing your wad.
5: I would take some of the ideas from UXO and incorporate them into UWO:O. The combat system especially. Being apart of combat is more fun than just watching it take place.
6: Try to incorporate a couple of other races that are staple to the world of Ultima. Gargoyles would be my first pick in this matter. A fifth race would probably also work, though I wouldn't suggest orcs or elves, both are tired and too fantasy for the majority of MMO gamers now.
7: Update Juka lands looks to be more like a technology laiden land, but not the original post apocalyptic look that was originally gone for. Update apperances as well so they look somewhat futuristic for the areas with clothing that looks more modern.
8: Update the Meer lands so they look alien yet familiar at the sametime. Most pics the lands looked way too alien for the casual gamer.
9: Keep innovative ideas from UXO like the ability to teleport to friends if at all possible.
10: Limit gate travel and recall powers. One thing that killed adventuring in UO.
11: Housing is important to the UO player. In fact it's an often asked for feature. UO2 without housing would be a travesty, but solving housing crisis is also important. It's probably an impossible feat to guarantee housing for everyone, but locking housing lot's to one per account would probably be the wisest choice, with an ability to upgrade a plot to a bigger house as the player earns money or something similar.
12: Crafting is essential to the health of an MMO. Making items permanent is a bad, very bad design decision. You are telling your crafters they are worthless. One of the things I enjoyed was hanging around Britain forge and repairing people's things. Another thing I enjoyed was creating armor and weapons for people. I had a very successful shop that sold plain leather all the way up to heavy archer armor (let's see who knows that one) and even had requests for plate mail of GM quality on a regular basis. All out of Felucca. So resources must be leaving the system for it all to work.
Anyways, that's a small list. The chances of an EA exec actually reading or being able to put it on the table? Pretty low, but I am sure if they did it, and udpated the game, they would have a hit on their hands. A lot of people ahve a lot of negative things to say about UO2 these days if it's brought up, but the truth of the matter, many are very bitter over EA just up and cancelling with promises for UO, and no tangible results. The samething occurred with UXO as well. In fact, evidence points towards that EA is pushing to close UO down, at least in my opinion, considering the last expansion for that game had so few developers on it it took them over two years to put the last expansion out.
So in closing, if UO2 were put back into development, I would damn well play it.
As many should know, I've been playing MMOs since December of 1997. My tenure in UO didn't come to an end until not long after the Samurai Empire expansion, think it was the summer before Mondain's Legacy was suppose to debut. At that point I was sort of leap frogging my subscription just to retain my house, but I had grown lax in even that duty, and I was informed one day my house had fallen. My final ties to UO having completely been severed, all the years worth of rares and momentos given to me by friends, either completed erased from existance (some items were one of a kind never to be seen again) or gobbled up by some farmer looking to make quick gold on the market. It was a fairly alrge house to, 18x18 that had gotten many accolades from GMs to other players for the design and effort I went in to making it look very aeshtetically pleasing as well as welcoming to all who would enter. But that's nalstagia talking and the world of UO I loved and admired had ceased to be with the Age of Shadow expansion. The loss of my hosue severed any reason for me to go back, which my rares and house were pretty much the only reason, so I started my adventure of looking for a new home.
Let's rewind to the year 1999. UO is two years old, the Rennaissance expansion was or just had come out (I forgot exactly) and UO2 was just announced. A lot of excitement and buzz was in the air over this one, as it promised to expand upon UO as it was, and provide a new world to adventure in. Graphically, for the time at least, the game was very much on par to modern 3d games, of course exceptionally dated by todays standards. But it's not the graphics that appeal to me. Nope, it's something else entirely. The lore of the world, and the fact it would continue the foundation that UO had originally started. Crafting, player interaction, housing an impact that players can have on the world at large, not just a visual chat room. These are things that appeal to me for my MMO experience and it's something that is sorely lacking in the modern day MMO.
The one thing I can say, and I think I say it very effectively, is the modern MMO lives and dies on the backs of the crafters who are willing to tough it out. Some will point out WoW, of course, but aberations always exist. However, every game that has promised a deep and interesting crafting system has ultimately fallen short of expectations by a land slide. UO, when the Age of Shadows hit, the crafting system dried up. People left in droves. Star Wars Galaxies the samething occured. The more development companies started making crafting less important to the game as a whole, the less people were interested in their world. I think EVE Online proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the game can live or die on the backs of the people who want to be crafters, because without them there really isn't a fun or engrossing game nor is their an economy to actually live by.
UO2 promised to expand upon what UO started and have a deep, rich economic system. But took it a step further by making specialization mean something. The stated promise was that a grandmaster blacksmith wouldn't something that everyone could be, in fact only the most dedicated should reach it. The skill system (a sort of hybrid of leveling and skills as stated in their forums long ago) was similar to the Diablo 2 tree system, but different in that pure dedication to one skill would only net a few of the most dedicated to creating the best or becoming the best and so on and so forth. It's a fundamental part of the system that leads to the next part; Community.
I am sure there are plenty of UO veterans out there who remember Rivendell on Lake Superior and all the other important communities with special attention to details that sprung up. UO2 promised the same ability to create those samethings, but actually have the housing zoned off for crafters and such, thus crafters would be able to put up vendors and such near popular trade routes and people who didn't want anything to do with crafting could build thier communities and housing out in the boonies where ever they felt. Crafting is something that leads to community, and both are practically required to actually have a fundamentally long lasting MMO experience. If a player can truly leave their mark on the community, then they are more inclined to stay. After all, if there are hundreds to thousands of people just like you, there really isn't a mark you can leave, so there is less attachment involved.
UO2 or Ultima Worlds Online: Origin, as it was later called, had captured the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of people with it's rich lore and backstory. So much so, that before the game even demonstrated working footage, players were already creating stories, art and even songs about the game. Fan Art and videos, songs and more were popping up all over for this one game. The factional war between the Britanians, Technocracy, and even the Meer mystics (I forget the name of that faction) was fascinating beyond belief. And to top it all off, a best selling trilogy novel was written about this period. That's staying power.
Ultima Worlds Online: Origin offered players a world where they could choose a faction, not based on one of the three races they started as, but on their own motives. They could be a Juka in the Britannian army, or they could have a Meer in the Technocracy, it was their choice. Or they could remain neutral. The continent of Britannia was also PvP free except for factional confrontations, leaving the Meer Lands and Juka lands as PvP wild country that hard core PvPers could more readily fight over resources in to.
Would that type of set up work today though? Parts of it would need a change, most definitely, graphics would have to be updated, but for the most part, the foundation would definitely work, and honestly I think if EA did restart it now, UWO:O would be a smash hit in todays market of stagnant, samey MMOs and so forth. Take the foundations of UWO:O slap in some innovations from UXO, such as combat and virtue system, and you would have a game with staying power.
UO hasn't stayed for nearly 13 years now because it's a WoW clone, though now it's killing itself trying to be a WoW clone. It has stayed this long because it was an actual living, breathing world people could leave their mark in.
So basically put, if I had the power to say make it so, this is what I would do to make UWO:O a reality and allow players a new, fresh look at the world of Ultima and probably the most anticipated MMO ever and a sure fire smash hit;
1: Take a look at the lore, work with it and mold it properly.
2: Update the graphics engine to modern graphics.
3: Modify but keep the skill system. People are rather sick of leveling treadmills and class locking.
4: The concept of no mana bar excited a lot of people where skills and abilities were a resource and recharge times. It made the concept of skill sound even more important instead of blowing your wad.
5: I would take some of the ideas from UXO and incorporate them into UWO:O. The combat system especially. Being apart of combat is more fun than just watching it take place.
6: Try to incorporate a couple of other races that are staple to the world of Ultima. Gargoyles would be my first pick in this matter. A fifth race would probably also work, though I wouldn't suggest orcs or elves, both are tired and too fantasy for the majority of MMO gamers now.
7: Update Juka lands looks to be more like a technology laiden land, but not the original post apocalyptic look that was originally gone for. Update apperances as well so they look somewhat futuristic for the areas with clothing that looks more modern.
8: Update the Meer lands so they look alien yet familiar at the sametime. Most pics the lands looked way too alien for the casual gamer.
9: Keep innovative ideas from UXO like the ability to teleport to friends if at all possible.
10: Limit gate travel and recall powers. One thing that killed adventuring in UO.
11: Housing is important to the UO player. In fact it's an often asked for feature. UO2 without housing would be a travesty, but solving housing crisis is also important. It's probably an impossible feat to guarantee housing for everyone, but locking housing lot's to one per account would probably be the wisest choice, with an ability to upgrade a plot to a bigger house as the player earns money or something similar.
12: Crafting is essential to the health of an MMO. Making items permanent is a bad, very bad design decision. You are telling your crafters they are worthless. One of the things I enjoyed was hanging around Britain forge and repairing people's things. Another thing I enjoyed was creating armor and weapons for people. I had a very successful shop that sold plain leather all the way up to heavy archer armor (let's see who knows that one) and even had requests for plate mail of GM quality on a regular basis. All out of Felucca. So resources must be leaving the system for it all to work.
Anyways, that's a small list. The chances of an EA exec actually reading or being able to put it on the table? Pretty low, but I am sure if they did it, and udpated the game, they would have a hit on their hands. A lot of people ahve a lot of negative things to say about UO2 these days if it's brought up, but the truth of the matter, many are very bitter over EA just up and cancelling with promises for UO, and no tangible results. The samething occurred with UXO as well. In fact, evidence points towards that EA is pushing to close UO down, at least in my opinion, considering the last expansion for that game had so few developers on it it took them over two years to put the last expansion out.
So in closing, if UO2 were put back into development, I would damn well play it.
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