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EA Origin to Reveal Ultima-X Odyssey

Posted by simoniker on from the no-longer-lord-british's-domain dept.

Sutekh-Acolyte writes "Richard Garriott and the other founders of Origin may be gone, but the developer is still alive and kicking. Electronic Arts is hosting an event in San Francisco on August 21-22, dubbed 'EA-X Event'. It'll give around 100 hardcore MMORPG gamers and select members of the gaming press a first look at Origin's secret project that previously has been almost entirely in the dark up until now: Ultima-X: Odyssey. It will be interesting to see if UXO brings some innovation to MMORPGs or lives off the genre's popularity." As well as the movie on the EA-X site, there's a good summary of current information at RPGDot, and Ianstorm.com has a gallery of new 3D renders from Liquid Development, who seem in some way related to an unannounced Ultima project.

5 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Not really related to UXO, but UO... by jsse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Richard Garriott and the other founders of Origin may be gone, but the developer is still alive and kicking.

    They've gone for good. Richard, or Lord British, and the rest of the founders, are idealists.

    In the beginning of UO, Lord British and Designer Dragon insisted that there should have a completely free environment in which online players could create their own economy and communities. The free economy system collapsed immediately as players to players trading couldn't drive the in-game economy, and player-oriented craftsmanships weren't be able to take a major part in economy; thus we still had to rely on gold and treasure respawning. Unrestricted players' behavior did not result in healthy grow of communities, but instead a living hell of PK-everywhere.

    LB and DD's idea could have been suceeded, if there's no exploits and abusive behavior does not affect others, but that kind of ideal online environment simply doesn't exist.

    UO had undergone radical changes after LB, DD and the rest of idealists were gone. House system, for example, has been changed such that the ownership doesn't rely on just one in-game stealable object - key, and trading become more secure. That kind of changes would not be seen when LB still around.

    Although it's many years too late for a 3D UO to come, but I'd absolutely give UXO a try.

    1. Re:Not really related to UXO, but UO... by ObligatoryUserName · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Designer Dragon == Raph Koster. Last I knew, Raph Koster was the Lead Designer of Star Wars Galaxies. The philosophies you're talking about can be clearly seen in that game. Sad to say, if most of the complaints about Galaxies are true (haven't played it myself) it seems that this player centric philosophy isn't sufficient for a game to be good - it needs to be correctly and effectvly meshed with quality pre-scripted content. (Which can be cost-prohibitive for games of this size; Everquest is huge because it has been using its revenues to build up the world over the years it has been operating.)

  2. Origin is gone by Mana+Knight · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Richard Garriott and the other founders of Origin may be gone, but the developer is still alive and kicking."

    Sorry, but Origin died a long time ago. It's nothing more than an a part of EA now.

    There is no Origin, only Zuul!

  3. Lack of content, say it with me now... by August_zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    UO was only entertaining in the days of the "PK-hell". When all of that got pushed aside it only served to reveal the true cause of the problems: THe game world was hideously boring with nothing to do other than crowd into one of 8, count em 8 dungeons supposed to provide thousands of players with areas to hack their way through.

    When 6 people jump every single respawn anywhere in the world you are going to have some problems.

    Now I understand a lot of content has been added since the bad-old-days when I used to play it. but as someone who played the game in its first year and watched them nerf everything to hell until there was nothing left to do, I can tell you that lofty ideals of the creators had less to do with the smoking crater the game turned into than the whip cracking suits that pushed it out the door a long time before it was ready to go live.

    --
    On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
    1. Re:Lack of content, say it with me now... by MGrie · · Score: 3, Interesting

      THe game world was hideously boring with nothing to do other than crowd into one of 8, count em 8 dungeons supposed to provide thousands of players with areas to hack their way through.

      Correct, but i have to throw in, that i read that UO was originally designed for about 300 to 500 players per shard (more like the other MMO's/MUD's back then) and they completly got overrun with players since they didnt expect that much interrest in this kind of games in the first place.

      This also explains the openness of the game, since in old MMO's the "target audience" was mature/intelligent/whatever enough to make the game enjoyable for everyone, even if they built (the textual) Rooms themselves.

      The mass appeal brought in the less controlled people that thought senseless PK'ing was a legal playstyle when they are bored.