Ultima Online 15th Anniversary Interview
MMORPG.com published an interview with Ultima Online’s associate producer, Bonnie Armstrong, last week, in which she discussed the game’s historical success, the current raft of updates for the game, and where her team hopes to take the game in the future.
For those of you who follow UO, it contains several details that will no doubt be of interest. I daresay, however, that if you’re reading this site, you’re probably a bit more interested in hearing more about another Ultima project that BioWare Mythic (who are the developers in charge of Ultima Online now) is working on.
(hat tip: GameBanshee)
Is this the official announcement, right here? Your sentence was, “I daresay, however, that if you’re reading this site, you’re probably a bit more interested in hearing more about another Ultima project that BioWare Mythic (who are the developers in charge of Ultima Online now) is working on.”
You didn’t suggest or say it was rumored, but stated it clearly. So this is confirmation that there’s a BioWare Mythic Ultima game being worked on? Maybe I missed a post, but before it was always more indirect language. We knew and believed they were working on one, but nice to hear it said so succinctly.
Sanctimonia: The exact nature of the project remains unknown, although the fact that it exists — and is Ultima-related — at this point seems all but a certainty.
“Seems”. Damn you WtF. Like I said, I’m sure it exists, but I thought I had a confirmation for a second. Queue Q*bert: @!#?@!
What’s sad is that hype always exceeds grasp, especially after so many years. Hopefully it won’t make the same mistakes as VIII and IX, and will exceed VI and VII. A tall order, I know.
Sanctimonia:
The danger there, of course, is that after about 20 years, there may be a need to “baby step” back into all the things that gave games like U6 and U7 their grandeur.
In other words — and I think I’ve urged caution to this effect before — don’t expect the entire suite of features that, for you, define an Ultima-like experience. At least not initially.
You find your feet first…then you learn to foxtrot.
Haha, that’s probably a good way to look at it. Ultima by virtue of its gameplay mechanics is a terribly ambitious series, as I think many of us who’ve tried to recreate it have discovered the hard way. Anyone who thinks they can be recreated in all their technical glory either have balls of steel or are naive.
I’d be a lot more pleased anyway if the next official stab at Ultima was a bit more humble in scope, perhaps just encompassing some of the real joys of the games rather than a full-on AAA explosion of bullshit.