MMORPG.com has conducted the first interview with Broadsword Online Games, concerning Broadsword taking over management and development of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot from EA.

It’s a very comprehensive interview, covering Rob Denton’s background, going back to BBS games in 1985, through Mythic and Electronic Arts. It quickly gets into the partnership with EA.

EA and Mythic are both pretty focused on creating great games. I think as they looked at the long term future of Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online – they were looking for someone with the experience to run high quality gaming services, the passion for multiplayer games and a strong connection with the products. I founded Broadsword with the mission to deliver high quality gaming experiences to communities of committed gamers.

We are committed to ensure that our player community will continue to get the same high quality experience, compelling content and top-tier support that they’ve received under EA and Mythic. Our near term focus will be on the community. We’re looking closely at the Camelot Herald and uo.com to see how we can improve the interfaces, add back real time data about RvR, stores, events, and such, and promote stronger community interactions for our players.

That last little bit would be easy enough, by creating official communities for the players. UO has not had an official community in over 10 years.

Bonnie Armstrong, Ultima Online’s Producer, has some good news on the website front, and even answered a few of the questions I asked about yesterday:

It’s really exciting for us to finally be able to bring back popular community building features such as MyUO and new game features like our new Vendor search, to support the game economy. We are also looking forward to creating a new/returning Player Experience to seamlessly welcome both new and former players to Britannia. With the Hi Def Art update we are excited to present our game sharper than ever before to foster in a new generation of UO players.

Keys to bringing in new and former players:
– Better new player experience, both offline and online
– High (or “modern” as I call it) resolution artwork/graphics
– Official community

UO still has a very good chance at making it to 20 years, it’s just that somebody has to really look at bringing in new players. Hopefully that’s happening.