Ultima Online (UO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Origin Systems, which launched on September 24, 1997. It can’t claim to be the first graphical MMO, it can rightly claim to be one of the defining titles of the genre, and continues to run to this day.
The weekly round-up of news about BioWare, their various sub-studios, and the various RPG titles and series that they have produced or are working on.
Raph Koster has posted his thoughts on — and some corrections to — a pair of lengthy articles at MMORPG.com that look at the history of Ultima Online.
Former Ultima Online lead designer Raph Koster has published an interesting blog post arguing that narrative in games is not a game mechanic, but is instead a form of game feedback.
MMORPG.com interviewed Ultima Online’s associate producer, Bonnie Armstrong, last week, talking about the game’s success, its recent updates, and where the game will go in the future.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Richard Garriott explains more of his plan for his “Ultimate RPG”, including his intent to produce a spiritual — if not an actual — successor to Ultima Online.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Richard Garriott confirms that Portalarium’s upcoming game, Ultimate Collector, is in fact his means of supporting the development of his ultimate RPG.
Richard Garriott’s new company, Portalarium, has announced its next game: Ultimate Collector. It’s a game about garage sales, basically.
Raph Koster links to, and comments on the inaccuracies in, a four-part video series that attempts to examine the history of MMOs, beginning with MUDs.
I had a chance to check out the weekend beta of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming MMORPG from BioWare’s Austin studio. I managed to play through portions of the origin missions of three classes, and took quite a number of screenshots along the way.
