Nightly Open Thread

Admittedly, I feel more like murder than blogging, but that’s neither here nor there. You Dragons and Dragonettes are like a big virtual family/club/support group for me anyhow, and there’s probably nothing better I could do right now than fire off a blog post. Because the alternative would be firing off live rounds. And I don’t really want to end up on charges tonight.

So…here’s what all I found around the Internet, just for you all. Not that you have to talk about any of this, mind you…although I know that Sergorn Dragon (at the very least) is going to chime in on the last item.

What to Do if Your E-mail Account Gets Compromised

A pretty decent explanation of how to detect whether or not it’s happened, and what steps you can take to get control of what’s probably (if you’re like me). Some good prevention tips, too.

Want free Bethesda games for life?

It’s easy. You just have to have to welcome your new baby into the world on November 11th, 2011…and name him (or her) Dovahkiin (which, in the tongue of the dragons in Skyrim, means “dragon-born” or some such).

Easy, right?

Quoth Bethesda: “”Any reward for completing this quest will not ultimately justify the potential teasing your child could — and probably will — endure over its lifespan. Bethesda Softworks is not responsible for your parenting.”

Obsidian want to make an Ultima title

Sergorn Dragon has already mentioned this elsewhere, but it’s awesome enough to bear repeating.

Any Florence + the Machine fans out there?

Is their music a good fit for Dragon Age 2, or any medieval fantasy for that matter? Because…um…they’re contributing a track to the DA2 soundtrack.

J…J…Jade Empire 2?

Just a rumour, but apparently BioWare have been pushing a very…Asian-inspired armour set on Dragon Age Legends and Dragon Age 2. Which…er…doesn’t really fit with the lore of Dragon Age, but certainly dovetails nicely with another BioWare property.

Happy coincidence, or advance hint? Discuss…or don’t. It’s the open thread…talk about whatever.

Tonight’s post brought to you by the coolest Mass Effect fan art yet.

15 Responses

  1. Infinitron says:

    “Admittedly, I feel more like murder than blogging”

    I wonder about you sometimes, Ken.

    As for Miranda, she’s a constant reminder that my crew is working well, and that my ship appears to be performing to specifications.

  2. Sergorn says:

    A Jade Empire 2 would be awesome. Granted the first one was basically KOTOR in fantasy China, but it was an awesome game with a pretty original setting as far as RPGs go. I’ve actually enjoyed Jade Empire than I did Mass Effect 1 or Dragon Age Origins. It’s a vastly underrated game.

    And Obsidian doing a new Ultima would be the best thing that could happen to series, short of Garriott coming back to it.

  3. Thepal says:

    “And Obsidian doing a new Ultima would be the best thing that could happen to series, short of Garriott coming back to it.”

    You of course mean the amazing modders making Ultimas, right?* <_<

    I never actually played Jade Empire. I was going to, but my wife started it first, and told me it wasn't very good, so I didn't bother.

  4. Gulluoglu says:

    I picked up Jade Empire cheap for the PC a year or so ago and was pleasantly surprised considering I did not know much about the setting or what to expect. My favorite character was the little dead girl possessed by two feuding spirts/demons — which, now that I write that out, sounds like insanity. Some of the gameplay (mostly the flying around bit) and linear feel was ‘eh’ but overall I felt like the characters more than made up for it. I’d be interested in checking out a second one.

  5. Sergorn says:

    “You of course mean the amazing modders making Ultimas, right?* <_<"

    Now I mean Obsidian, they're the best RPG developpers around by a long shot. As great as fan content can be (and it certainly) the truth of the matter is that it can't match what a quality professionally developped game could offer.

    Regarding Jade Empire the only thing against it would be that the "shoot'em up" flying sequence mini game really sucked, but it's such a minor part of the game this is no big deal. It comes a bit on the short side too, only lasting 20-25 hours at a maximum… but unlike ME or DAO2 it doesn't suffered from having ANY filler content so it's all good.

  6. Handshakes says:

    I hated Miranda with a fiery passion in ME2. I tried my darndest to get her murdered during the climactic missions, but to no avail.

  7. Andy_Panthro says:

    Haven’t much liked Bioware’s offerings recently, and although I enjoyed Mass Effect and DA:O, they weren’t quite as I was expecting.

    Obsidian on the other hand have been quite consistent in producing games I like, with Storm of Zehir being particularly good in my opinion.

    I’d be quite grateful if they could get some sort of agreement with EA and RG for a “proper” Ultima game.

    Until then, I’ll have to wait on all the fantastic modders to do their thing! Recently got the Ultima 4 module for NWN, which is pretty good (only been to trinsic so far).

  8. Sergorn says:

    I love the latest Bioware games but… admitedly they DO make more mainstream game nowadays (though I guess by 1998’s standard – Baldur’s Gate was rather mainstream too).

    What I find interesting about Obsidian’s work is that they seem to strike an interesting balance between mainstream and hardcore – their game do have a mainstream appeal in that pretty much anyone with a liking to the genre could play through their game and mindlessly enjoy them. But their game still keep a more hardcore aspect, notably by the way they handle stat influence in their dialogues as well as choice and consequence which is definitly THE thing they shine at.

    On a less game design perspective, Obsidian also have a quite unique and somewhat enviable position in that they are pretty much the only major RPG Studio that remains independant.

    Which means they can theorically work on anything: I mean they did KOTOR2 for LucasArts, NWN2 for Atari, Alpha Protocol for Sega, and Fallout New Vegas for Bethesda. And now they are doing Dungeon Siege III for Square-Enix.

    Even if it gives Obsidian the “sequel studio” nickname, I think this is very interesting – because if a publisher want to craft a RPG they can’t do inhouse, it’s one of the few studios who could actually do it for them, whoever the publisher is. Which is why an Obsidian made Ultima is theorically possible.

    Bioware was actually in a similar situation once – but this has obviously ended with the EA buyout. The Old Republic will be their last non EA IP, and taht was obviously because contracts were signed before the buyout (and I’m pretty sure LucasArts wish they could get rid of it).

  9. Sergorn says:

    Interesting bit regarding Ultima and Obsidian: it almost happened before!

    Back in 2006, EA was very interesting in releasing a new Ultima Single Player RPG and began shipping the idea around to all the major RPG studios. A new came very close to being made with one of them, but negociation fell through at the eleventh hour.

    Now THIS has been known for years – what wasn’t was what Studio almost did an Ultima. Well that was Obsidian:
    http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=2588689&postcount=52

    It’s very interesting that even many years after, Feargus Urquhart still wants to do one.

    Now of course the situation has changed quite a bit since then. Back in 2006 EA had no RPG Studio, and they probably wanted to resurect Ultima into a AAA IP. Since then they bought Bioware and have Dragon Age so this is not the same anymore, but perhaps the opportunity of an Obsidian made Ultima will come through again someday. This would be damn great.

  10. Ender Dragon says:

    I think Obsidian probably has the best writers in the business.

    EA owns Ultima, and they own Bioware. So that seems like a more natural fit. And Bioware has done some great work as of late with Dragon Age, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.

    I don’t think Ultima should get a sequel after 9. I think Ultima should get a reboot/remake. When Garriot did the original trilogy, he hadn’t yet planned for what the series would become. There are tons of inconsistencies, and Ultima II is a bit of a huge mess as well.

    I assume most gamers today have never played an Ultima title, perhaps for maybe Ultima Online. There is an opportunity to start again from the beginning with a better idea of what the overall story arch should be.

    I’d pitch an idea of 3 trilogies again. Each trilogy would share an engine and most art assets.

  11. Sergorn says:

    Bioware doing Ultima would seem like a no-brainer. However… the fact that Bioware has successful licenses such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect is the reason it’ll most likely won’t happen anytime soon: EA will want to use theses IP as long as they can.

    I’d argue Dragon Age might also be a sort of a brake for any big scale return of Ultima at that point: when EA was shipping Ultima around a few years ago it was becaue they wanted their own AAA Fantasy IP. They now have it with Dragon Age and even if Britannia is very different from the D&D-ish setting of DA, they might be self-concurring in the end. And I don’t think DA is going to go anytime soon: it’s pretty obvious from the way Bioware crafted their universe that they want it to be there for a long time and have the DA setting used ten years from now juts like the Forgotten Realms have been used for 30 years.

    On a personal note I’m not sure I would want Bioware to do an Ultima. I love Bioware’s games well enough, and I have no doubt there are big Ultima fans at Bioware – but these have a very different philosophy from Ultima games and I’m not sure Bioware could make an Ultima-ish game.

    I also agree about doing an Ultima IX sequel to be point (coming from someone doing a post Ultima IX module, I see the irony :P). The thing is, no matter what one thought of Ultima IX: it DID put an end to the Ultima series and the Avatar’s story. So a direct follow up would be rather pointless epsecially so long after the fact (indeed while I loved the UXO concept, my main beef with it was always that I felt the Avatar/Guardian thing was a done deal – but there was still some sense of doing an Ultima X in 2004).

    At this point I’ve always pictured a return of Ultima a this point in time would only come in either of these two forms:
    – Either a continuation a very long time after Ultima IX, with a reimagination of the concept of Ultima and the Virtues and the original series basically serving as some kind of mythological background for this news one.
    – Or by a straight reboot of the series, starting with a remake/reimagination of Ultima IV, basically beginning with a new Avatar where the series originally begun.

    Either would be fine by me, altough there would probably some part of me sadened to have the old Britannia swept aside. You know this is also why I am doing Return as it is, because this way we can have some sort of direct continuation of the original Ultima universe.

  12. Ender Dragon says:

    I also think you can approach the original trilogy, and add more depth to make them more like proper Ultima titles.

    Consider for a moment you live in a world where the love of your life dies, and there is magic to resurrect them. Why isn’t everyone effectively immortal? And why aren’t there more power-hungry wizards like Mondain?

    Couldn’t you approach the first Ultima as a story on the abuse of power? On the effects of magic in society? On the concept of immortality? Should magic be outlawed? Should we inherently fear those who are more powerful, or different?

    Perhaps Ultima II or III gets into the power void created with Mondain is killed. Despite the presence of four Lords, Mondain was the ultimate power in the land for 1,000 years. What is the butterfly effect of that changing?

    Then again, if I redid the original trilogy, I’d remove the time-travel aspects.

  13. Ender Dragon says:

    Why were there all these other races present in Ultima, and then why did they suddenly disappear?

    Do we just pretend they never existed in a reboot? Or do we explain them?

    What if early Sosaria is a fluid, dynamic land of high magic? And as people decided to restrict magic, some of the more mythological aspects disappear? We see Sosaria embrace science directly at the cost of higher magic?

  14. Sergorn says:

    Oh, Ultima I~III could conceivable be reworked into something more interesting with nice and good thematics and they’d be even more complicated to reimagine.

    The thing about the other race is a good point: would a reboot of Ultima I go back to this D&D-ish kind of world, with the events of the trilogy gradually explaining how and why these dissapeared? Or would we stick to a purely human world as envisionned in all Ultima after IV (which for all intent of purpose also retconned these ancient races out of existence).

    Arguably both could be interesting approach, altough having Elves dwarves and the like would really erm… make the world of Ultima I rather generic (unless you stick to the technological bits of the worlds, which could also be very interesting…)

    But the thing is no matter how you would reimagine Ultima I, II, III – in the end they’d still be a “Kill the Baddies” kind of game while an Ultima IV recreation would be almost as revolutionnary now as it was back then (which I guess paint a sad state of the current status or the RPG genre).