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Spector, Garriott on Games
Warrior-GS writes "GameSpy has two interesting interviews up. Richard Garriott of Ultima fame talks about leaving Origin, getting bought out by NCSoft and becoming a pitchman for a popular Korean MMORPG trying to make it in the states. He also mentions his new game, Tabula Rasa. The other interview is with Warren Spector, who opened up a bit on the Deus Ex sequel Invisible War, while also commenting on linear games, anime style games and what the future holds."
that was the way my teachers described my mind, especially during exams.
You mean to tell me that the Deus Ex Sequel is going to come out BEFORE Half-Life 2 and Duke Nukem Forever?
Popular Korean MMORPG? Just what we need! Not only will it have the brilliant gameplay of Everquest, but the great community of Battle.net!
And it will make you many *GREAT OFFERS* to *ENLARGE YOUR PENIS* in a character set your terminal cannot display...
Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
- Oscar Wilde
I think that this game, Tabula Rasa, Is going to be a best seller. Look at it. It's made by a guy with a solid reputation (He brought us Ultima!), and by combining that with today's cutting-edge graphics technologies, It's bound to be good. I don't play any games like this, but I know people who do, and I'd bet they'ed sink thier money into this. Rock on, Richard!
Is naming games after the lives of the developers, per Tabula Rasa going to become a trend? Can we look forward to seeing Still No Date and Damn Soda on my Keyboard on store shelves soon?!?
Posting as directed.
"nana nana NA na NAAaa Na Spector Garriot. NananaNA NA NAAAAAAA!"
That has got to be the worst spelling of the Inspector Gadget theme song I've ever seen.
"Derp de derp."
Sure they'll talk about MMORPGs but will they ever address the long term effects of potions of healing? I heard theycause liver damage.
I look at what they're marketing as Ultima these days, and have to wonder what the heck happened. Why did Blackthorne go from being a corrupted nobleman to being a cyborg? When did Britannia get all ultra-high-tech?
I don't play online games. I like to go through at my own pace, on my own schedule, and complete a game. I don't want some 31337 kiddie to come along and screw up the game by being completely out of character or by cheating. And I don't want to pay extra to play a game that I've already bought.
So my Ultima experience is limited to the "real" Ultimas. I'll never know what accident of history changed Britannia to a sci-fi nightmare. And I won't lose any sleep over it.
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
"becoming a pitchman for a popular Korean MMORPG trying to make it in the states."
Would you like to live in the shadow of nuclear war? Haven't you always fascinated about frolicking in a demilitarized zone? Well, have we got a game for you!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
It was so horrible, I didn't even get what he was talking about until I saw your post. I was thinking he was aiming for
"na na na na... na na na na... hey hey.. good times.." And I couldnt for the life of me figure out why Spector and Garriot had anything to do with that.
If the new Deus Ex game lives up to the orignal it will be pretty sweet.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
http://www.lineage2.com/
This is the 'New' version of the Korean game. It's in early beta phase, but has a steady following. Character models are *gorgeous*.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
I started playing Deus Ex again this past week, and apart from it crashing constantly (either my 9500 Pro/Catalyst 3 drivers/DirectX 9) the other thing that struck me was how more real the game felt with all the political stuff going on now, just swop the Liberty statue with the Twin Towers, the extra laws being brought in to combat terrorism, et al.
Very scary indeed :(
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
"Please point us to the other spellings you've seen, please."
;)
Ya know, it's a slimey tactic to make a guy point out that he's never really seen what he implies he had.
"Derp de derp."
The Ultima Collection, available from eastore.ea.com all of the single player Ultima's except for the last one, number nine. They also through in Akalabeth.
Caveat Emptor -- Several of the games do not work properly on modern systems do to memory incompatibities. IMHO, the only Ultima really worth playing is U7, which now works perfectly do to the new engine made by Exult. However, Ultima's 4-6 are also very good if you have the time and patience to get them working (U4 worked fine for me except the sound but I could never really get U5 & U6 running correctly)
"It was so horrible, I didn't even get what he was talking about until I saw your post."
Don't give NanoGator too much credit, he didn't get it until I explained it on ICQ.
In the Garriot interview, he mentioned a riff between EA and himself about the future and direction of online games. And he hinted that his ideas led to UO being rather successful while EA's ideas led to the other online games that EA released being rather unsuccessful. I'd love to get the deets on this one. Anyone khave insight into exactly what EA's philosophy on online games was? And why it didnt gel with Garriots or translate into success? he didnt go into detail, but im interested
Some folks think that MMOGs are the next generation of MUDs, but I think not.
MMOGs are the AOL of the internet - a prepackaged, lowest-common-denominator experience. That's the economics of paying for the bandwidth and paying for the servers - you need so many customers. Because of that, MMOGs are simply not going to be as challenging as the single-player games in difficulty, but are still not going to allow everyone to complete the game. What will be challenging for the 10 hour a day player will be impossible for the 10 hour a week or month player.
The MUDs were so great because of the connection between community and the creators of the content - often there was overlap.
There are some open-source mmog projects (mmog open-server) and Nel. There is some hope of community-driven content in mmog gaming. Of course, there is also, NeverWinterNights, which although proprietary, still is really taking off in terms of its community and its player-created content.
. This sig unintentionally left blank. I meant to put something here, but I'm busy.
When I was still doing laser shows, we did a a show for a party this guy threw, not sure if it was for his birthday or what. I missed the actual bash (had another gig elsewhere), but from what i understand, he threw a hell of a party. In addition to the laser show (dont remember if it was a custom show or the Pink Floyd show that we used to run), he had all sorts of props, he was in costume, and he staged a shooting where his wife burst in and shot him with a shotgun (he was wired to make it look like he was hit). Of course with out actually being there I couldnt vouch for it, but the show crew had nothing but nice things to say about the guy.
His second major product, was Ultima 1 for the Apple II.
Correct, I remember it well. Spent many too many hours playing it back in the early 80's.
It was written in Pascal P-Code I think, As was Wizardry 1 by another author.
Wizardry was indeed written in Apple Pascal (UCSD), but Ultima 1 was mostly written in Applesoft BASIC, as anyone who has perused the cracked copies that floated around the 'warez' circles back in those days could tell you.
Chances are Ultima 1 would have been less buggy had it been written in Pascal than in BASIC.
Spending hours on my old Apple ][, trying to avoid the 'a thief stole some food' message...
*sigh*...
I found one spot in one dungeon where using a magic attack would double all your stats. Do that several times, and you'd become a killing machine. I remember attacking with the bow, and killing things off the screen...
*sigh*...
I always thought that was cool of the guy. I think he's moved out of that house and into a "castle" on some serious acreage, not too far from his old place.
If you're a gamer, and you haven't played Deus Ex yet, do yourself a favor and GO BUY IT. RIGHT NOW.
I've seen it as cheap as $10 in the bargain bin (jewel case and CD only). The boxed version is only $20.
Deus Ex rocks. So much so, that I'm basing my next PC purchase on when Deus Ex: Invisible War is released.
-Teckla
"nana nana NA na NAAaa Na Spector Garriot. NananaNA NA NAAAAAAA!"
That has got to be the worst spelling of the Inspector Gadget theme song I've ever seen.
And as every child of '80s knows, the Inspector Gadget theme song is either sung with "doo do doo do" or "bom bom bom", NOT "na na na"
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
I haven't heard from Warren Spector in a long time. I used to have phone conversations occassionally when he was at Origin and Looking Glass. Back then me and a few others were trying to put together a gaming project of our own, and Mr. Spector was kind enough to give us some thoughts on how to go about doing it, what was required, what some dos and don'ts of the industry were, and the like. He was always pretty cool and I really admired most of the games he produced in addition to the fact that he was never too high and mighty to take some time out and chat with the little guy about the business and how to succeed. Richard Garriot is a lot like Warren in some ways. He was always very down to earth, I loved the games he produced (especially the Ultima series), and I was supposed to meet him at Dragon*Con in '97, but with all the work being done on UO he wasn't able to show up. It's unfortunate that he had to resign from Origin, but I can fully understand it with the way EA raped the company and changed it into something that RG had never intended. It's nice to hear that both these guys are still around and kicking. Maybe there's yet some hope for more good games to come out.
In at least one of the early Ultimas (I, II, or III) on the Apple ][+, if you hit CTRL-RESET at the right moment during boot, you got the Applesoft "]" prompt and could LIST THE PROGRAM!
--Pat
For one, numbers don't lie. Ultima Online's subscription totals dropped drastically in the year that EA started imposing it's will. I played that game, Ultima Online, before the EA integration, and it really was surreal how much weight the consumer's voice carried. After EA came on the scene the corporate influence was so evident that each and every little change carried it's stench. It was amazing, really, now that I actually take the time to reflect. UO had started to become a EverQuest (Sony's baby) clone with an outdated engine. Subscriptions went from 500,000 strong to 220,000 in a very brief time - the most reported cause for quitting wasn't because of the competition (in fact, many EverQuest players were actually first time MMORPG customers). The leading cause of quitting wasn't a bad product. Most people that quit UO in the now infamous exodus was because of the disloyalty that EA showed it's long term customers in the form of terrible support, a change to a time-sink-centric experience, and the elimination of intense community interaction in game development. Hell, they even cut their customer support staff in half at a time when more people then ever were trying their game out!
However, I don't know how right I am. My info comes from first hand experience as a player and the occassional chat with my pal that worked in customer support for Origin (the company that runs UO under the EA umbrella). He was laid off right after I quit playing a year and half or so ago.
Well, in any event, I hear that Ultima Online subscriptions have gained by about 15,000 over the past year since they started listening to their consumer again. The new expansion has caused a little buzz amongst the MMORPG crowd as well.
Last time I checked Korea was spelt with a K, not a C. You really should of watched more seasame street when you were younger.
"'And as every child of '80s knows, the Inspector Gadget theme song is either sung with "doo do doo do" or "bom bom bom", NOT "na na na" "
You forgot dead-ant.
"Dead-ant... dead-Ant.... dead-ant dead-ANT dead-ant Dead-Ant DEAD-ANT dead-and Dead-AAAAAAANT, dead-ant dead-ant dead-ant."
(Pink Panther)
"Derp de derp."
after all of these years, he stil never mentions them.... I mean am I the only one who really enjoyed that stepchild Ultima - Martian Dreams ???
It's entirely possible that I am being nostalgic here, but where else could you play a killer game and in some small way enlighten your knowledge of classics, and science and politics? The NPC's were outstanding! I remember Freud, Tesla, Twain, Lenin, Roosevelt - heck I even recall reading parts of their intellectual works within the game!!
I enjoy a good scifi/fanatsy trip as much as the next guy, but in my book, on content alone, Martian Dreams was the standout of Garriots crop. Ambitious and smart.
But then again, I really enjoyed Savage Empire too.
Nothing in that game seemed to resemble anything I was familiar with, and I'd played all the Ultima games (including both Ultima Underworld titles, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams). Ultima VIII was completely different from what had come before, but it had to operate under a different set of rules, because it took place in a different universe/dimension as far removed from Britannia as Earth was. Ultima IX could utilize no such excuse... It just made no sense, and was boring as heck, despite being graphically superior to... well... almost everything.
I agree with Garriott about Ultima VII being the Ultima of Ultimas, though. Those were the days!
--Matthew
"If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
again - I wish there was a bit of elaboration on this. I'd love to hear exactly what it was they cut out of Ultima 8 - because, like you, I rather enjoyed the game.
So would I. Ultima IX was, as far as I am aware, chopped to shreds and released in a form that completely betrays its original intent. Ultima VIII, despite its imperfections, simply looks and plays better; it's intelligently designed and cohesive. In short, it feels like the creators got exactly the game the game they were trying to write, whether or not theey actually did. Ultima IX feels like it was a gigantic compromise, patchy and completely lacking in focus. From all I hear, that is exactly what it was.
Regardless, it's a sad ending to the Ultima series... Ultima VIII held a lot of promise and suggested the series still had plenty of fresh, invigorating places to go. Ultima IX felt old, tired, and boring, though it looked absolutely spectacular. But, as I was raised on Infocom text adventures, and games that didn't have nigh infinite resources on which to draw, I look for content first and graphics much later.
--Matthew
"If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
EA/OSI is staging their latest publish to the servers right now, and there's some bit of a scandal there.
EA was offering a new landmass to the playerbase, only if they ordered through Gamestop, EBGames, Amazon, or EA's own store. The new client was to ship on the 11th. What EA sisn't say was that they were going to dump all of their packages at UPS's Louisvilla Air hub at 2AM, ensuring that the packages got delivered that day. A lot of people are crying foul, but it really doesn't seem to matter..... The servers haven't come back up yet (they said it would take 4-5 hours.. it's been about 12 now..) One of the servers has come up and I've seen turtles **** faster.
They have changed a bunch of merchant and housing rules in order to generate more subscriptions and it just keeps getting worse and worse. They don't fix the nastier bugs and they ban people that accidentally stumble on bugs (There's a tile that you can step on and send a broadcast message - Fixed? Not that I know of. Bannable? You betcha - Can they lock something over it so nobody steps on it? Sure! Why don't they? No idea)
Garriot said it - "And as Ultima 8 got into scheduling trouble, as every Ultima always did, rather than make a decision as we had in the past to hold the game until it was polished, we began to cut things out to stay on schedule. And we cut and we cut and we cut and the game that was finally released was not only shipped early even for the cut version (and therefore buggy), but also had its guts ripped out as far as being an Ultima."
They have no interest in fixing what is wrong, they keep introducing new "features", and their customer service has been offshored by people who don't play the game and english is their second language.
Real frustrating knowing that your pixel crack is been cut with noise...
You're right, Ultima 9 was a completely sorry thing when it left the door. But years after its release, I'm playing through it now and am actually finding it enjoyable. The reason? The devoted fans who released patches for the game, the most important being the dialogue patch, which changes the dialogue, books, etc. (and to some extent, the plot) so that they reflect the rich history of the Ultima saga (and fix a lot of contradictions!). If you played Ultima 9 and found it as sorry as I did, give it another try with the fan patches. Sure, there's still plenty of problems, but the dialogue patch makes the game at least feel (mostly) like an Ultima game.
6 0. zip
Check it out at
http://reconstruction.voyd.net/zips/u9fanpatch1
Thats not how it goes at all...
Duh-duh, duh-duh duh duh duh duh duh
doodley doo-doo
dum dum diddle diddle dumby doot do.
That's Pink Panther.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
I played a small part in Richard Garriott's first Halloween spook house at his newly opened Britannia Manor mansion, back in 1988. I wrote a long letter to friends about that amazing experience.
While we're being pedantic, it's "should have" and not "should of."
You also spelled Sesame incorrectly, Mr. Pot.
I never bought anything from him the rest of my life, and instead bought almost EVERY other RPG ever made.
Er, yeah. You really showed him...
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Article 1: I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours.
Article 2: True, it was a masterpiece, as was Ultima 3.... but it was a flawed UNPLAYABLE piece of crap.
Am I missing something here?
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