Events

BioWare Mythic at PAX – UO Announcement Perhaps?

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I was looking at the PAX Prime schedule and saw BioWare is making three presentations next week. For those of you not familiar with PAX, PAX is a three-day game “festival” that covers videogames (and not just consoles – PC and Mac as well). They have discussions and presentations from publishers. PAX is taking place August 26th – 28th, 2011, in Seattle Washington.

Those three BioWare presentations are:

BioWare Mythic – Content to be Announced
Pegasus Theatre
Saturday 5:30pm – 6:30pm
Come and meet the minds behind some of your favorite games plus check back to this page for exciting updates as PAX draws closer…

Dragon Age – The Future
Unicorn Theatre
Saturday 9:30pm – 10:30pm
Join BioWare and members of the Dragon Age development team as they discuss the Dragon Age franchise with a look back at what has been done so far and a look ahead to what you can expect in the future. BioWare staff and Dragon Age team members will be on hand to answer questions and to give a look at what is still to come for Dragon Age.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Force is Strong with This One
Main Theatre
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:00pm
The master storytellers at BioWare and LucasArts have worked together to create an immersive experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Old Republic team will be in full force at PAX this year, with a new presentation showcasing the development and progress of this genre changing story-driven MMO! Expect new reveals, exclusive gameplay footage, and a Q&A with attendees. Join us!

The “content to be announced” is very interesting as far as I’m concerned. Now most likely it will be the Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes game that was just announced in Germany at Gamescom this past week. At the time this schedule was assembled for the PAX festival, the Warhammer game had not been announced, and so it makes sense that they would use a generic description.

However they do mention a plural “games” when talking about developers who will be at that presentation/discussion. Now what else is happening next week? We are getting the details of Ultima Online Publish 72 which should include the first significant details about UO’s high resolution artwork update, as well as information about UO’s 14th anniversary. If BioWare Mythic is going to have personnel from multiple games there, it would stand to reason that they would not pass up a chance to draw attention to an artwork/graphics update for UO.

Lake Superior: Luna Summer Festival, August 27th

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Update #2: It’s back on, for this upcoming weekend, September 3rd, which is a holiday weekend in the US. Please see the thread at Stratics.

Update: The festival is temporarily suspended for now – keep an eye on here or the Lake Superior forum on UO.Stratics.com for more details.

On August 27th, 2011, there will be a Luna Summer Festival on the Lake Superior shard with a wide variety of events that should appeal to many people.

Keep in mind that these are all subject to change – refer to the Stratics thread linked below for updates.

They could still use about 400 nets.

Date: August 27th, 2011
Location: Luna Fairgrounds, Lake Superior

Events:
10:00 am (Central) – Welcome Announcement
10:15 am Crafting Expo

10:30 am Taming Expo for the public
10:30 am Pirate Hunt
10:30 am Naked Dungeon Hunt, starting in Tokuno Mines

11:00 am Best Flower Presentation
11:00 am BagBall 10k Tournament
11:00 am Last Man Standing

11:30 am Bunny Hop (ongoing thorn drop)

12:00 pm Level 7 Treasure Hunts
12:00 pm Capture the Flag in Fel

12:30 pm Flower Contest Winners announced

12:30 pm Archery Contest
12:30 pm Fishing Contest

1:00 pm Ferret/Squirrel/Chicken Races
1:00 pm Horse Races
1:00 pm 1000 Net Toss

1:30 Closing Ceremonies, Fireworks

Ongoing Events
* BBQ Pit, eating
* “Let’s Make a Deal” Tent

Although I need to get in touch with the people setting this up, I have an archery range built with 10 archery buttes laid out.

Full thread at Stratics.

Ultima Aiera Turns 7, Adds Digital Lycaeum

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I missed it, but yesterday was the 7th birthday of Ultima Aiera, and WTF Dragon has posted a summary of UA’s birthday:

I think I can finally say that the site has finally arrived, now in 2011, at the place I intended it to be lo those many years ago. This site really is the place to come for information about “all [the] remakes, patches, and Ultima-inspired projects and utilities out there on the web”.

If you’d like to take a peek at his first post, have at it, but WTF Dragon is doing something far more interesting for the 7th birth, he’s launching the Digital Lycaeum, which is very ambitious and will be well received as it was sorely needed. Here’s his take on it:

Over the years, and through many fine projects, Ultima fans have generated a lot of music, artwork, and even 2D and 3D graphical assets. My aim, in launching this Digital Lycaeum, is to bring together in one convenient repository as much of that content as possible, for other aspiring Ultima fan project teams to take advantage of and use in their own works. To that end, this site will allow registered users to upload all manner of game assets which, once they are vetted, can be downloaded and used for free by any and all interested groups. Interested users will also be able to sign up and post reviews of content…and maybe even other Ultima projects; I haven’t decided on that last point just yet.

If you are interested, you can visit the Digital Lycaeum.

And speaking of Ultima and Origin stuff, today the Wing Commander Combat Information Center celebrates its 13th birthday. In celebration of this milestone, the CIC is featuring “Newly released behind-the-screens material from every Wing Commander game!” and a live report from my hometown, Austin, Texas.

Stratics – Publish 71 Content Contest

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UO Stratics announced a few days ago, a new video contest. It’s focused on Ultima Online Publish 71 additions. It’s only fitting – Publish 71 is one of the more larger/memorable publishes in recent history that wasn’t tied to a specific add-on/booster pack. It’s also a good (hopefully) indication of which way UO is headed – more bug fixes, more tweaks to existing content and issues, and building up of existing content.

Anyway, here are the brief rules for the Publish 71 Content Contest
* Must be tutorial-style video
* Must be at least 5 minutes long
* Must abide by YouTube and Stratics Rules of Conduct
* Must be based on Publish 71 focused content

Prizes:
1st Place: 30 Days Gametime
2nd Place: Grand Bazaar Code
3rd Place: High Seas Booster

You do need to have a Stratics account to view the FAQ mentioned below.

Brief Rules: UHall/Announcements
Full rules/FAQ: UO Stratics