More UO? Do these guys ever give up?

[Constipated Craprunner]

http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/screen ... sp?id=4379
This is almost sad. Yet another expansion to the now infamous UO. Let me get this straight- you people cancelled UO2, the genre's one hope, so you can add pointless drivel to a game that make's Morrorwind or Arcanum a glorious example of what computer game balancing can achieve?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/screenshots.asp?id=4379
This is almost sad. Yet another expansion to the now infamous UO. Let me get this straight- you people cancelled UO2, the genre's one hope, so you can add pointless drivel to a game that make's Morrorwind or Arcanum a glorious example of what computer game balancing can achieve?

Actually, I think it's smarter to do it that way than to make a sequel. An MMORPG isn't like single player games where sequels merely continue a finite plot from the first one. You have people who've been playing on them for months or years, who've invested themselves in their characters and the assets of those characters.

Some of them probably won't want to give that up and move on to the "sequel" to the MMORPG, even though it has a few new features and better graphics. After all, in UO, you can own homes, shops, etc., so there's enough to keep you going in it.

So, what EA would have had to have done when UO2 came out is either run two server pools, one for UO and one for UO2, and deal with a divided player base or they could close down UO and piss off a lot of their fanbase. Those pissed off ones may or may not move on to UO2. It's really not a good scenario either way.

It's much smarter to keep improving UO and keep the fanbase flourishing and happy, and perhaps draw a few more people in, or back in, with each expansion.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

No one is doubting the commercial aspect. I agree, it makes sense.
However, this was a game with all the potential in the world, ruined by a group of fat-cat EA weirdos more concerned with thier daily amount of whores they can hier instead of making good games.
Anyway, would it not be possible to add x amount of crappy expansions to UO, therefore keeping the fanbase happy and create UO2 for all of us who want a good game?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Anyway, would it not be possible to add x amount of crappy expansions to UO, therefore keeping the fanbase happy and create UO2 for all of us who want a good game?

Like I said, that would be dividing the fan base for the game between two server pools. You'd need twice the upkeep costs because you'd need double the servers and double the support staff if you had both going.

 

[Rayt]

http://www.gamespydaily.com/news/screenshots.asp?id=4379
This is almost sad. Yet another expansion to the now infamous UO. Let me get this straight- you people cancelled UO2, the genre's one hope, so you can add pointless drivel to a game that make's Morrorwind or Arcanum a glorious example of what computer game balancing can achieve?

Actually, I think it's smarter to do it that way than to make a sequel. An MMORPG isn't like single player games where sequels merely continue a finite plot from the first one. You have people who've been playing on them for months or years, who've invested themselves in their characters and the assets of those characters.

Some of them probably won't want to give that up and move on to the "sequel" to the MMORPG, even though it has a few new features and better graphics. After all, in UO, you can own homes, shops, etc., so there's enough to keep you going in it.

So, what EA would have had to have done when UO2 came out is either run two server pools, one for UO and one for UO2, and deal with a divided player base or they could close down UO and piss off a lot of their fanbase. Those pissed off ones may or may not move on to UO2. It's really not a good scenario either way.

It's much smarter to keep improving UO and keep the fanbase flourishing and happy, and perhaps draw a few more people in, or back in, with each expansion.

Is that the reason why they cancelled UO2?

I thought it also had to do with huge amount of MMORPG's that came out and will come out. And it has yet to be seen wheter UO2 would become as successfull as UO (if it would come out). I think they chickened out.

Hopefully Origin wil focus on single player rpg's again after this expansion. They owe us a decent one after Ultima 9.

 

[Spazmo]

Origin is long gone, buddy. The company was disbanded by EA shortly after Richard Garriot left (or maybe because Lord British left, or maybe he left because of it. ANYWAYS). They only kept a few people along as support staff for UO. So no more Ultima (the series was done anyways), no more Wing Commander, no more Origin.

 

[Rosh]

Origin is long gone, buddy. The company was disbanded by EA shortly after Richard Garriot left (or maybe because Lord British left, or maybe he left because of it. ANYWAYS). They only kept a few people along as support staff for UO. So no more Ultima (the series was done anyways), no more Wing Commander, no more Origin.

Origin was gone much earlier than that. Basically, at the inception of UO, most of the development teams were going or already gone. Garriot was basically a figurehead after a while, and his creative input was mainly held back because of the suits at EA. Who need to have some funding to take up for some of the loss made by their stupid sports game rehashes.

He wanted to work on the bugs, but more for the features that were promised, and to make it fun. Unfortunately, the setting has been whored to death, and the Ultima series has long since died. This is something the pro-Fallout Online, pro-Arcanum Online, and pro-Single-Player Game Online retards haven't really figured out. The game becomes a farming cash whore, and to get anything of quality out of it, you need to arrange appointments or events often days in advance.

It's true the main reason UO2 was canned was because it was perceived by EA's suits that it would have been straining at the audience they already had, but for more than the running costs of the original. To break it down for people who might not understand, it would have required an entirely new infrastructure, development team, network backbone, hardware sites, etc. Essentially, it would have had to be even larger than what they already had going, and separate. The ones they had were costing them a lot as it was, and they weren't cheap to put in to begin with. They also couldn't really gauge anything accurately, and it would have presented them with quite a problem when they either underestimated their audience and their resources weren't up to the task (like AO), or they bit off more than they could chew and spent a lot more for something that isn't returning as much as just continuing the single-player with expansions. Frankensteining off parts of the UO system to the UO2 couldn't be done, as it's to my understanding that when a server is added to, it becomes rather dependent upon that new item and it can't be taken out too easily. Too many communities were still going on UO for them to just switch them off, or whatever.

Since Origin isn't in an independent entity anymore, they are used to pump in cash into EA projects, and couldn't afford making all the new hardware sites and more unless EA felt like it. They had essentially become a piggy bank along with The Sims for EA to fund all their other crap games with. A shame, since Origin was EA's #1 source of creative, addictive games, and they are now dead for all intents and purposes.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

So we do not have Origin to blame U9 on?
Yeah!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It's true the main reason UO2 was canned was because it was perceived by EA's suits that it would have been straining at the audience they already had, but for more than the running costs of the original.

This was a lot smarter than most of EA's decisions though. Like I said, sequels are largely a single player game construction because they have an end. It's much, much smarter just to continually develop and improve the one you have that's profittable than to follow the old mentality that if something's good, you make a sequel.

Asheron's Call really wasn't that profittable, so it's a good idea just to make a new version of it in hopes that it'll draw a larger audiance. Making an EQ2, on the other hand, is a silly idea because they're treating EQ like a single player game that needs a sequel.

 

[Rayt]

Origin is long gone, buddy. The company was disbanded by EA shortly after Richard Garriot left (or maybe because Lord British left, or maybe he left because of it. ANYWAYS). They only kept a few people along as support staff for UO. So no more Ultima (the series was done anyways), no more Wing Commander, no more Origin.

Damn

I read on the BIS forum Lord Brittish or whatever he's called in real life started a new company (NCSoft Austin) and is busy developing a new game called Lineage.

Unfortunatly it's a MMORPG.

 

[Spazmo]

So we do not have Origin to blame U9 on?
Yeah!

No, that one was Origin's last game.

Origin is long gone, buddy. The company was disbanded by EA shortly after Richard Garriot left (or maybe because Lord British left, or maybe he left because of it. ANYWAYS). They only kept a few people along as support staff for UO. So no more Ultima (the series was done anyways), no more Wing Commander, no more Origin.

Damn

I read on the BIS forum Lord Brittish or whatever he's called in real life started a new company (NCSoft Austin) and is busy developing a new game called Lineage.

Unfortunatly it's a MMORPG.

Lord British is now at NCSoft, which is a Korean game developer/publisher. He worked on the US version of Lineage (mostly promoting it). However, Lineage sucks ass. It's just a cash cow to pay for NCSoft's Lineage II, which looks decent. Right now, Lord British is not working on Lineage II. He and his team (which I believe is mostly ex-Origin people) are working on an MMORPG called Tabula Rasa, which will probably pick up quite a few people who will migrate from UO when they hear that Lord British has got something new to play with.

 

[gimpz0r]

I would rather play UO than spend onemore night in EQ or DAOC

UO is not a bad game really, and I am looking forward to this expansion