Commentary

Yes Virginia, There will be a New Ultima Online, and a New Sims Online

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I really wasn’t planning on wading into a lot of commentary on UOJournal.com – we are still understaffed for what we want to do, but I’m finding myself drawn into some drama.

I’m posting this now because it’s no longer April Fools day and it’s just after midnight Friday night. I really want to get this out of the way. I have contacted some sites that are running a very misleading story that implies that EA is putting together a new Ultima Online, when the links they are pointing to very clearly show that EA is recruiting for jobs related to The Sims in Redwood, and specifically Sims on the web. I wrote about this a few days ago in my Ultima IV, EA, and a New Ultima Online article. It says it right there in the job description – you can read it for yourself. The fact that it’s in Redwood City should have been the first sign that it had nothing to do with BioWare or UO. The fact that it explicitly states that it is a job related to a web version of the Sims should have been even more obvious that it has nothing to do with BioWare or UO. There are other signs as well, but those two are sufficient.

So why did some websites ignore the fact that it was related to a new version of Sims Online and try to play up an Ultima Online angle instead? There are a lot of reasons that gaming websites do what they do. Sometimes it’s deliberate, sometimes it’s laziness and just copying other websites, sometimes it’s ignorance. It’s definitely not a factor of time spent researching the story – it takes you less than 30 seconds to end up at the actual job link.

What’s interesting to me is that a new Sims Online is a huge story and these gaming sites are completely missing that! They are running with a rumor that has no basis in reality and ignoring the story that is right there in front of them. The Sims Medieval is #1 and #5 on Amazon’s top PC games list and The Sims 3 Deluxe is #10. The Sims Medieval is even beating out Rift. Most of us know somebody who loves the Sims – it’s the best selling game in PC history.

How can you miss one of the biggest MMO stories to come around in a while – EA making another attempt at a Sims Online game, and one that may even have serious Facebook integration? I have to go with them being ignorant and lazy, because deliberately ignoring such a huge story in favor of trying to generate some traffic with some kind of Ultima Online 2 story is very foolish from a business point of view. This site is a small site that is ignored by most, and yet we have received a lot of traffic related to people searching on Sims Online, and here you have these gaming websites totally missing this story.

On to Ultima Online stuff. I’ve gotten a lot of emails about my Ultima IV, EA, and a New Ultima Online commentary. Let me get this out of the way, as simply as I can. If you were to walk away from UO today, and come back after EA finishes the graphics, quest, and new player updates, UO will look like a new Ultima Online. Now EA maybe still supporting the Classic Client for some reason, but if you come back to UO and select the Enhanced Client with the graphics update, it will look and feel like a new UO, maybe even more so than with Kingdom Reborn.

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Ultima IV, EA, and a New Ultima Online

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I have seen the new Ultima Online, and it’s the Ultima Online that many readers of this website are currently playing, just with high resolution graphics and better player experiences, for both old and new players alike.

You read that right. Below are eight ten reasons why I think there will not be a new Ultima Online, but also why I think the current UO will feel like a new MMO if EA follows through on their plans. Some of these I’ve spoken at length about in the past, but given the high interest generated in Ultima IV that is currently present on the web, I think it’s important to point some things out.

I’d also like to point out that the jobs postings that have come to light (link) are tied to a possible second attempt at The Sims Online, only through a web browser this time around. Some have confused them and not actually read the job description, which explicitly states that it’s tied to a new Sims “experience” on the web. Even Massively failed to read through the links and see that the job posting was for somebody to work on The Sims.

Speaking of the Ultima IV story, that’s why I’m writing this – I’ve had several people ask me for my thoughts on it. If you are not familiar with it, read the original Ultima Aiera story about Ultima IV and some of the actions EA is taking as well as the article WTF Dragon posted earlier today trying to clear up a lot of the misinformation that is floating around the various game sites.

For the record, I think there is something happening with the Ultima franchise, obviously with UO as my long-winded post below illustrates, but also in other areas. Whether these are simply the original Ultimas distributed in some kind of DOSBox format or packaging, or some kind of online play, or some kind of update similar to the Secret of Monkey Island special editions, remains to be seen.

On with the list.

1. There are some still left in EA that remember the fiasco with Ultima Online 2.
However you may look upon Ultima Online 2 and how it was handled, EA did not have the ability to handle an MMO that was going head-to-head with an already existing EA MMO, and some of those in the upper ranks of EA’s current management were around to witness it. You can attribute it to not knowing what they wanted to do with Ultima and Origin, not knowing the target audience, or any number of other things. That’s not to say that other companies haven’t done so successfully – Sony has done so with Everquest and Everquest II, and CCP hopes to have two different MMOs successfully integrate, with EVE Online and Dust 514. Dust 514 is an FPS (First Person Shooter) MMO that will be set within the EVE Online universe and the players from each will be able to interact with one another.

If a new Ultima Online were created, while the old one was in place, it would create of hostility and resentment from current UO players if the new Ultima Online were treated better than the current UO, which wouldn’t be hard to do. Everquest II came fairly quickly after Everquest I, within 5 years I believe, whereas current UO players have been around for over a decade. Admittedly, UO’s numbers today versus the era when Ultima Online 2 was in development are much lower, but as I point out below in reasons #5, #6, #7, and #8, the actions that EA is supposed to be taking with the current UO do not reflect those of a company who would be considering another Ultima MMO, because they are indicative of a company who is trying to bolster the long-term survivability of the existing UO.

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A Sense of Entitlement in UO

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I really don’t like to do actual commentaries on here, but the sense of entitlement that some have is just insane these days, and some of the things I’ve seen players do lately is just, how do I put it. I’ll just say it doesn’t help the image of UO.

Tonight at the memorial service held for the Japanese victims of last week’s earthquake, somebody decided that since there were EMs in attendance, that they should receive something.

Keep in mind that this was an event organized by Queen Mum of UOForums.com. Queen Mum is not an EM or an employee of EA. Queen Mum is a player who cares a lot about the UO community.

This was not some kind of event where there was an EM challenge or we participated in some fight against an EM-controlled Virtuebane.

This was a memorial service that was organized by a player. The EMs and Mesanna showing up to attend was very nice, but this was still a player event. That didn’t matter to some. They decided to spam us with all caps and swearing and they were upset that the EMs weren’t giving them something, and were very upset when other players pointed out that this was a player event.

It’s probably best to watch that on YouTube.com (link) and watch it in 480p in expanded view.

This is my opinion, and my opinion only, and does not represent the views of anybody else mentioned in this article or this video.

UO Graphics Update = Booster Pack?

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I read Hermes’ post about the graphics speculation and I thought I’d throw my own two gold pieces in. The booster and the graphics were probably two of the biggest items they were most cryptic about, or refused to really discuss. We got a lot of info about Magincia, about Publish 70, about the New Player Experience (NPE). Maybe not as much about the NPE, but they weren’t being very cryptic about the NPE – it was clear to me that when they wouldn’t discuss certain aspects, it was more because they hadn’t decided, not because they were trying to hide certain things.

With the booster and the graphics/artwork update, they were cryptic and dodged the issue.

In part two of the House of Commons transcript, this was said about the booster pack:

Off Camera: Estimate on the arrival of the next booster
*Silence and sighing*
Cal: Uhh…might as well just (said quietly)..hrm…let’s put it this way. When you see the new items, you’ll probably see the new booster at the same time. How about that. I don’t know, it’s just..fine
Mesanna: You don’t
Cal: Okay, fine…Umm..You will see an…You know what, I’m not going to take..I’m just going to say it wrong, and Bonnie keeps looking at me..so Uhh…I cannot give you an update on the date, but you will see some new items soon. How about that, is that alright (last bit said quietly)
Mesanna: Okay, it’s not going to be a full-blown booster though.
Cal: Right.
Supreem: Yeah.
Mesanna: Okay.
Cal: So.

This was said about the artwork:

Off Camera: More questions, a mention of high resolution artwork was made on the short video, is there any update on that or plans that one can be made aware of.
Cal: Umm..I can say one thing..umm…and that it’s not going to be just one blast of an art update…Umm..we’ll be doing it in pieces. One so you guys can see progress, and then two so that it actually looks like it’s planned, and then three, so we don’t miss anything.

We’ll see the new booster at the same time we see the new items. If the new items involve new artwork or artwork that is of a higher resolution, then we could be seeing the new booster pack.

If the booster pack was simply an expansion, a smaller expansion than High Seas, but in the same vein – some new quests or a new area like the market in High Seas, Cal could have just said we’d see a new area and some new quests or mobs. Instead Cal got really careful about what he said.

We don’t know at this point if we are getting brand-new artwork or artwork used previously with the Kingdom Reborn expansion. If it’s new artwork, it would be pretty easy for them to charge a fee of sorts. Mesanna did say it wasn’t going to be a full-blown booster. If it is all new artwork for Ultima Online, I can’t see EA giving it to us for free, and I wouldn’t have a problem paying a bit extra for some kind of graphics booster pack. If the artwork we get is from the KR expansion, I wonder how that would work for those who paid for KR. You probably shouldn’t charge them twice.

The speculation is not as good as what Hermes was discussing as far as the gaps/delays pointing to the major decision being an artwork update, and for the record, I think he’s probably right. We get this mysterious gap between January 3rd and late in February that Cal references, and then we get a mention of new artwork, just a few seconds in the dev video diary, and then a very reserved mention of artwork in the House of Commons chat, and then just a few days later we are told that the planning is done, and we’ll soon get details.

They wouldn’t have decided on new artwork in just a few short weeks between when Cal announced the video and when it was supposed to be posted in early January. At the time that Cal mentioned the video, it seemed like a very low-key video that would be done in a day or two and posted on YouTube. That does not fit a graphics update either. I could see them spending 6 weeks deciding what to do about the graphics update. It would also explain why this video became such a big deal, why it had to be so heavily edited, and why they clammed up when talking about the booster or graphics.

Remember, that’s just speculation, not news.