There have been a few updates posted to the Ultima Online website recently, at least one of which gives some indication that the game just might have a positive future.

That would be, of course, this announcement of Event Moderator job openings:

Greetings Everyone,

I would like to announce I am looking for 4 Japanese Event Moderators for Mugen, Izumo , Asuka, and Mizuho. A little English would be helpful to communicate but we can always use a translator. The required hours are 24 hours a month and it is a contracted position. If you are interested in joining a great group of players and becoming and Event Moderator on a Japanese shard please email Mesanna@broadsword.com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Mesanna

That’s actually the second part of the post; the first is the same notice, but in Japanese…because the EM posts in question are (as you can see above) for the game’s Japanese servers. Granted, Ultima Online is handled a bit differently between Japan and the rest of the world (or so I gather), but even so…it’s encouraging that Broadsword are interested in taking on staff to better support the game. The UO team at Mythic tended to shed, rather than accrue, staff.

It’s also worth noting that Publish 85.3 has gone global, having been pushed to all shards last week. Of course, this event was attended by an issue with house customization, which I suppose must still be ongoing given the absence of a “problem resolved” update.