To celebrate the 9th anniversary of this website and its predecessor, Ultima Aiera, we’ve added a new collection to the Origin Gallery: scans of a style guide produced for the production team of UO Next, a cancelled attempt to re-tool, clean up, and streamline Ultima Online.

The style guide acknowledges that Ultima Online is, in many respects, the “king of the MMOs…the founder of the online gaming kingdom.” But it also laments that, “like Theoden of Rohan…it has to be lifted from its torpor…lifted back onto its horse, and feel its steel in its mighty grip as it rides, once again into glorious battle.”

UO Next, then, aimed to enhance Ultima Online based on lessons learned from projects such as Lord of the Rings (possibly the MMORPG, which would have been in development at the time, albeit not at EA) and Ultima Online 2. Interface, in particular, seemed to be a big issue for the project; it proposed significant overhauls to the Ultima Online UI, although it also focused on revamping many of the game’s graphical assets (wall pieces, etc.).

Anyhow, enjoy!