The Canned Ultima

Did they REALLY expect this game to NOT sell? I knew a lot of people who were looking forward to it. And since when does a company worry about who many customers an original game loses to its sequel?

Normally in RPGs, the only indication of a character's level is a statistic and, possibly, what that character is wearing. We wanted to go further, so in addition to those elements, you could simply watch the way a character interacted with the game and know approximately how good that character was--if you saw a character doing some over-the-top triple-spin sword cleave move, you'd know that character was very experienced.

Skills wouldn't just be an indication of level, it would also allow for additional specialization. Role-playing games typically make it easy to be a fighter at the beginning of the game, but later on in the game, magic users are really powerful and can cast a huge variety of spells, while fighters are still essentially doing the same thing that they were doing when the game started. But if you play a fighting game on a console, fighters have hundreds of different moves, with at least as many choices as a magic user has in an RPG. So the skill-based system would allow fighters to specialize, allowing one character to learn martial arts, while another could master sword moves.

What a wonderful description of diablo2... I don't think it could have been put into words better than this.

Once a mild force to be reckoned with, now has leveled up enough to SLAY and DISTROY others that had greater experience and respect...Who is this evil killer??? It is known only by one name...and that is ELectronic Arts, development slayer.


Ok that sucked but you get the idea...

Mmmmm canned tuna!

lard buttish

UO2 wouldve owned the shit :(

nah osi is more conerend over pumping new peepes in and HOMOSEX'ing the vets :P
but i play it anyways..... damn this addiction!

People still play UO? Wow. I played in 1997 and 1998, but gave up because of the constant lag problems and PK issues. And I went back to graduate school. If they've fixed those problems, perhaps UO will be worthwhile again. It was interesting in 1997 because it was really the first of it's kind. Besides, who didn't like going invisible and throwing pants at people in town?

Finally, a game developer that places its original core followers first?

I'm stunned.

Thanks!

-Lex

230,000 loyal subscribers of which 225,000 just refresh their housing on a normal basis.

Yay EA.

we were designing the product, our original design devoted about two-thirds of the map to player-vs.-player zones, with the remaining third not allowing that sort of conduct. Just prior to the game's cancellation, we had completely reversed that decision and were moving toward allowing only player-vs.-player battles in a third or a quarter of the map.

NO WAY. There just wouldn't be enough incentive at the early stages, for me...and a lot of people like me. A 1/3rd size pk zone might as well be instant death for the uninitiated who haven't worked out the art of PKing to perfection. The 2-1 zone ratio was the only thing that made the game tolerable for me...in relation to what UO was originally (not the bastardized "no danger until you have a godly character BS" that it has become).

No, I wasn't a perfect PKer.. I fucking SUCKED. I was killed more times than I could remember and it was devastating every time, but that's what made the game fun for me. That element of danger. I loved it...dying MEANT something other than "oh no I have to walk a long way to get my items"....which is tedious and boring. You get set back a lot further, but it just makes you that much more aware next time you put yourself in a dangerous situation. This heightened awareness becomes a necessary skill to improve your overall game. For the same reason I love hardcore diablo2 (shit if i die its all over for this character...better not happen OR ELSE) even though I'm far from being in the upper echelon of d2 talent...I wanted the 2-1 pkzone ratio.

I won't ever play another MMORPG until it has a similiar system that gives you that sense of persistant danger no matter how weak your character is... Something like I get out of hardcore diablo2...or like the original UO. I want to say "OH FUCK I'M GONNA DIE AND I HATE THIS FUCKER FOR DOING IT TO ME..." I want to have a reason to do everything within my power to keep from dying 100% of the time I'm playing the game. If I have the option to be safe and reap nearly the same benefits, of course I'll do it. I'm not stupid. I don't want that option though.. MY mmorpg has DANGER.

lets make it 100!

Translation: We'll milk UO for as long as we can until all the players leave and we can finally shut down Origin and focus on consoles.

lol, irc server

I'm still kinda pissed they cancelled UO2 >:(

It sounded like a game I could really get into, since I want to role play AND do the 'gain levels' thing. Seems most games now are just ways to gain as many levels as possible. Blah.

MORALLY THAT IS A DRAW.

first post?