Ultima Online Video House of Commons and Publish 70

Information about the UO Video House of Commons that is set to take place tomorrow, has been posted.

Ultima Online Video House of Commons
March 1st, 2011
7pm Eastern, 6pm Central, 4pm Pacific

Topics to be discussed:
* Follow up to last week’s Dev Video Diary (Full story with transcript)
* Current story arc (In the Shadow of Virtue) and events
* Publish 70
* Restoration of Magincia
* Concept of player-driven towns

Video streaming information will be provided at a later time.

UOHerald.com

Death of Queen Dawn – From Nearly the Start to the Finish

So here you have it, from nearly the start where Queen Dawn speaks to us, to her death, to the fight with Virtuebane, to after Virtuebane had left and we were sent off to obtain a tombstone.

This was recorded on Lake Superior, on February 15, 2011, at around 8pm – 9:30pm Central.

I will try to work up a transcript. I did not catch all of Queen Dawn’s speech I believe, because this was a pretty spur of the moment thing. Because it was rushed, that’s partly what led to the lower resolution video and no audio.

Again, I apologize for taking so long on it, especially to EMs Aname and Autolycus.

I’ve been very busy and just now found the time to go through everything and to try and get YouTube to accept it at a higher resolution. Unfortunately I didn’t record it in a high enough resolution and so you are stuck with 480p. The original video was nearly in HD – close to 900×600, but YouTube makes a big jump from 480p to 720p and there isn’t an in-between. I’ve made a note of this for future events and will work to ensure that video is captured in at least 720p, if not 1080p. I’ve also made a note NOT to be using voice chat with other players while recording on the same computer as it was interfering with the audio recording of the event. There is no audio at this point. I was tempted to take the music from my Ultima IX soundtrack and add as a background, but I’m not comfortable with that as far as copyright, etc. In the future there will be audio, so it will not be a problem.

Speaking of 480p, if you are not familiar with YouTube, once you start playing the video, right underneath the progress indicator/red bar, you will see either 240p, 360p, or 480p – if you don’t see 480p, click on the 240p or 360p and select 480p.

There are six parts to it. Dawn is murdered in part 3. They are split up because I was trying different ways to capture the video and encode it for YouTube, and because YouTube has limitations on the length of video. In the future they will be solid 10-minute segments with proper transitions.

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Richard Garriott Plans a Spiritual Successor to Ultima

Update: Lord British’s New Britannia Announced.

Kotaku has a lenghty article up discussing Richard Garriott’s future plans, as well as a look back at the start of Ultima Online and how it went from an adventure game into a “social experiment” that saw the influx of players who were interested in non-combat pursuits:

“Most of the games at the time were about combat,” said Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima series. “But Ultima Online was a place where people made careers that had nothing to do with combat.

“It was a bit like some Ville-style games, there was shop keeping, farming, managing pets and displaying things in your house.”

Garriott talks a bit about some of the “Ville” games, such as FarmVille, FrontierVille, CityVille, and what he thinks of them and where he plans on positioning his next game from his company Portalarium. He was a bit cagey about what it would be about, saying that it was as “smallish game”, but that it would have a niche within social gaming and would be original. Once that game is finished, he has plans for something that interests a lot UO players:

“Once we get that game built, then we’re going to move on to the next grand Lord British game,” he added, referring to the name of his in-game persona for the classic role-playing games he’s made in the past. “It will be the spiritual successor to the Ultima legacy.”

Read: Kotaku
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Video of the Death of Queen Dawn

Update: Death of Queen Dawn, from nearly the start to the finish (all six videos).

This is part one and two, where we gather at Castle Britannia, to hear Queen Dawn speak, Shortly before heading off to Ilshenar. This was taken on Lake Superior on February 15, 2011.

Apologies to EMs Aname and Autolycus for taking so long!

Disclaimer: This was a pretty spur of the moment thing, so I didn’t capture everything, and it is not the best quality. It would probably be best if you click through to the YouTube pages to view them, and select the HD options, and the the option to enlarge the viewing area. If these don’t have 720p versions available (it takes a while for YouTube to render them), then I will re-encode them and re-upload them, because it’s hard to read the text even at 480p.

Once you start playing the video, right underneath the progress indicator, you will probably see 240p, 360p, or 480p – if you don’t see 480p, click on the 240p or 360p and select 480p. Hopefully 720p will be available there shortly.

Videos removed from this article – see the link at the top of this post for ALL videos!

If these render into 720p on YouTube, then I will post the rest of the videos, as well as the videos from this weekend’s events. I will also get transcripts up.

Yes, I’ve been trying out the Enhanced Client.

Establishment Spotlight #1 – Windamere Keep, Lake Superior

One of the things we liked about UO.com in years past is that it highlighted player-run establishments, as well as talked with players in-game. We decided to do that on UOJournal. We decided on a whim to start doing it today in the middle of everything else, and we wanted to make it a little more in-depth than what was available in years past.

And we aren’t necessarily going to do only one a week – we have a few lined up already.

And no, for the record, we are not prejudiced towards Lake Superior – Tim is mostly an Atlantic kind of guy anyways. If you’d like to have your establishment spotlighted on UOJournal.com, please contact us with coordinates and your contact information and we’d be more than happy to visit. If we are unable to work something out as far as meeting in-game, we can always provide you a list of questions we’d like to ask and go from there.

Today’s establishment spotlight, our first (click on the images for larger versions):

Ultima Online Establishment Spotlight #1, Lake Superior, Windamere Keep

Windamere Keep
Proprietor: Clinton Bonner
Lake Superior, Trammel
Near Minoc
90.10’N 59.45’E

I popped into UO, and was doing a quick bit of research on something, and came across a rune for Windamere Keep. Being the curious sort, I recalled, and low and behold the owner was there and available, and he patiently listened to my questions and responded. Any errors are mine, as I changed topics a few times and worked through the questions I wanted to ask. Whoever is my next victim, I mean spotlighted establishment, will have a much more organized set of questions asked of them.

On with the interview.

I started off asking about his background in UO
Clinton Bonner, Proprietor of Windamere Keep: I Started in 1999. I had to quit in 2003 because I bought a farm and no internet service. Then I started again in 2005 and been here since then.

How long has Windamere Keep existed?
CB: Well this keep has been here for 3 years or so and I have had it for 1.5 years, that’s how long it’s been Windamere Keep.

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