Ultima Online

Ultima Online (UO) is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 25 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today. The game is played online, in a fantasy setting similar to that of the other Ultima games that preceded it.

The success of Ultima Online opened the door for the creation of many new massively multiplayer games. Ultima Online is a fantasy role-playing game set in the Ultima universe. It is online-only and played by thousands of simultaneous users (who pay a monthly fee) on various game servers, also known as shards. It is known for its extensive timing-based player versus player combat system. Over a million paid accounts have been created in the game.^{[citation needed]} To maintain order in the online community, there are Game Masters who resolve player disputes, police the shard for terms of service violations, and correct glitches in the game.

Several expansions have been released, but its aging game engine and graphics make it outdated compared to competitive, new massively multiplayer games. This changed with the release of Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn in 2007, which features a new game engine. Since Ultima Online's prime in 2003, the overall subscriber base has seen a steady decline. Subscriber numbers peaked at around 250,000 in July of 2003, and to date sit around 135,000 subscribers (approximately 70,000 of whom are Japanese).^[1] As of June 2006, Ultima Online held a 1.1% market share of the massively multiplayer online game subscriptions.^[2]

Quoting directly from the Electronic Arts press release announcing the Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn expansion, Ultima Online was "the first MMORPG to reach the 100,000 subscriber base, far exceeding that of any game that went before it. Since then, it has added seven expansion packs and dozens of free content updates, making it one of the deepest, largest MMORPGs ever created. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest continuously running MMORPG in history."^{[citation needed]}

History

Ultima Online is the product of Richard Garriott's idea for a fantasy game involving several thousand people who can all play in a shared fantasy world. There were a number of prior games that allowed hundreds of people to play at the same time, including The Realm Online, Neverwinter Nights (the AOL version), and Meridian 59. However, Ultima Online was intended to be a significant improvement over the previous games, both graphically and in game mechanics. The initial team was composed of Garriot, Starr Long, Rick Delashmit and, a bit later Raph Koster, who became the lead designer for the project. Koster wrote a number of public "designer letters" and usually went by his nickname of Designer Dragon.

The project started in 1995 and was shown to the public at E3 in 1996. At the time (in the mid-1990s), Ultima Online was a very expensive project and quite risky for the company. The development cost was much greater than traditional computer games, it relied on people accessing servers with modems, and it attempted to transform the Ultima series into an entirely new genre. Ultima Online was an ambitious game on a number of fronts, such as:

• Players may buy housing and build houses within the persistent landscape (this is still an uncommon feature in many online games).
• A skill system without the more traditional experience-based levels or classes.
• Many different trades or crafts can be performed by the players to create an in-game economy.
• Players could be freely attacked [by other players] anywhere in the game, even in cities (this has since changed).

Upon release in mid-1997, Ultima Online proved to be very popular, reaching 100,000 paying subscribers within six months of release even despite severe "lag" problems at the time. Subscriptions continued to grow for several years reaching a peak of some 250,000 paid accounts. Origin was able to make a great deal of money from the monthly fees required to play Ultima Online and many other companies took note and began development of their own massively multiplayer games. The most successful games after Ultima Online have been EverQuest (released in March 1999), Dark Age of Camelot (released in October 2001), and World of Warcraft (released in November 2004). The Korean massively multiplayer game Lineage was very much inspired by Ultima Online, as have many other subsequent online games.

Game mechanics

Main article: Ultima Online game mechanics

Ultima Online continued the tradition of previous Ultima games in many ways, but due to advancing technology and the simple fact that it was Origin's first persistent online game, there were many new game mechanics as well. Partially designed as a social and economic experiment, the game had to account for the widespread player interaction as well as deal with the long history of players feeling as if they were the center of attention, as had been the case in single-player games. New to both the developers and the players, a lot that was planned never happened, and a lot that was unexpected did, and many new game systems were put in place to compensate.

Issues faced

Main article: Issues Faced by Ultima Online

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In an infamous incident during the beta, Lord British was assassinated.

Ultima Online has seen many major revisions throughout its history. This includes gameplay revisions, staff changes, technical revamps, porting the backend to Unix, and fundamental design changes. With few earlier MMORPGs to take lesson from, the staff behind Ultima Online was breaking new ground and had to solve complex issues that had never been faced in a commercial game on such a wide scale before. The importance of understanding psychology, social interaction, economy, and other issues became increasingly important as complex social behavior evolved.

Throughout the pre-release development of the game, a well-balanced, realistic economy and social structure was the goal. While not all of the features planned for incorporation made it into the first release, the developers did manage to give almost all of the control to the players in terms of what they could do to each other and the world as a whole. What ensued caused permanent repercussions still faced in the game today.

Expansions, sequels and other releases

Throughout Ultima Online's long history, there have been many releases of the game, both on store shelves and online. Several sequels were in development but canceled, and expansions have been released regularly.

Sequels

Two sequels were planned by Electronic Arts, but both were canceled during development so that more focus could be spent on the original game.

• Ultima Online 2 (UO2), later renamed Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (UWO:O) was announced in 1999. It was to add steampunk elements to the fantasy setting, set in a world where the past, present and future of Sosaria were merged together by a mistake made by Lord British while attempting to merge together the shards of the Gem of Immortality. Todd McFarlane was hired to design original monsters and regions for the game, as well as help shape the story. It was cancelled in 2001 before its release, citing the competitive nature of the massively multiplayer online gaming market — Electronic Arts feared the sequel would harm Ultima Online's subscription numbers. Some of the monsters and art made for the game were later used in the Ultima Online expansion Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.
• Ultima X: Odyssey was a new MMORPG to be set in a world named Alucinor, created by the Avatar after the events of Ultima IX: Ascension. It was cancelled in 2004 when Electronic Arts closed Origin. The UXO team was invited to move to the Bay area to finish the game. However, only a small number of people on the UXO team accepted the transfer. In the end, UXO was cancelled because the development team dissolved.

Expansions

Expansions have been released regularly, all of which add new content in the form of landmass, art, quests, items, or game mechanics.

• Ultima Online: The Second Age (October 1, 1998) featured a new area of land called the Lost Lands, along with an in-game chat system and new creatures. Also known as T2A. It was released in two boxed versions with the first having different artwork and a single manual.
• Ultima Online: Renaissance (April 3, 2000) doubled the size of the world, as there were literally two copies of it. The worlds were called Felucca and Trammel, after the two moons in Ultima's Britannia world. The Trammel world did not allow player killing, while the Felucca world did. Felucca also adopted a darker, more foreboding look.
• Ultima Online: Third Dawn (March 7, 2001) included a 3D client to compete with 3D competition like EverQuest. Also, a special Third Dawn only land was created, called Ilshenar. It was accessible only to 3D clients until the release of Lord Blackthorn's Revenge.
• Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge (February 24, 2002) brought "a dark new world based on new characters from Todd McFarlane" to Ultima Online with improved game artificial intelligence, in-game help, and improved character creation.
• Ultima Online: Age of Shadows (February 28, 2003) brought the landmass of Malas with space for new housing, two new character classes (Paladin and Necromancer) and the ability to customize house designs. The item system was completely reworked with this expansion. Armor resistance was split into five types of resistance, and many new properties that affected game play were added to weaponry. As good equipment became vital, this expansion also brought with it item insurance.
• Ultima Online: Samurai Empire (November 2, 2004) brought ancient Japanese mythology and folklore to the game, two new classes (Ninja and Samurai) and a new area to explore, the Tokuno Islands. The new class skills shifted the balance of player vs. player combat away from mage dominance.
• Ultima Online: Mondain's Legacy (August 30, 2005) introduced a new race, elves, and a new skill, spellweaving. Several dungeons were also added.
• Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn (June 27, 2007) introduced a new client with new graphics and interface.
• Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss (TBA, originally planned for 2007) will feature a new playable race of Gargoyles and the largest dungeon in UO to date.

Other releases

Ultima Online has had several special releases which were not expansions, but came with boxed or in-game extras.

• Ultima Online: Charter Edition (September 30, 1997) was available to pre-order from Origin Systems at the launch of Ultima Online and in small quantities alongside the standard retail box. It included a signed lithograph of the Ultima Online artwork by the Hilderbrandt brothers, a pewter pin badge bearing the Ultima Online logo and the box was signed by Richard Garriott. The Charter Edition also included the cloth map which was also a feature of the standard box.
• Ultima Online: 7th Anniversary (September 25, 2004) was a special release of the game to celebrate Ultima Online's seventh birthday. Like all of the items listed in this section, this release did not bring anything new to the game and is not an expansion, although it did include a more recently patched CD; the Age of Shadows was still the most current version at the time. This release was contained in a small cardboard box containing a triple-CD jewel case, featuring Ultima Online: Age of Shadows, but also included Ultima IX: Ascension install and play discs as a special bonus. A glossy booklet showing the history of Ultima Online expansions was included which contained historic art and an interview from the Ultima Online team and community leaders. Also included in the package a code for an in-game gift, one of which was Ultima Online's famous Hilderbrant print, an extra character slot (a total of six characters was now available) and 7 buddy registration codes.
• Ultima Online: Gold (July 18, 2005) was a special release sold by Wal-Mart and includes the same content as Ultima Online: Samurai Empire. This edition also comes with an Advanced Character token code, and quick-start manual.
• Ultima Online: The Eighth Age (September 25, 2005) was a boxed game CD with an array of in-game tokens. Though not bringing any new features, the release was to celebrate Ultima Online's eighth birthday. The box included an updated game CD (with more recent patches), a glossy booklet feauring an atlas of Sosaria, in-game tokens for an anniversary gift (choice of 8), a character transfer, an advanced character and a 45-day free trial code. Also a time-limited blue soulstone was included.
• Ultima Online: 9th Anniversary Collection (October 31, 2006). Formerly known as "Eve of a New Age."

Shard emulation

Main article: Ultima Online shard emulation

Fans of Ultima Online have reverse-engineered the game to produce server emulators of the original Electronic Arts servers. With the modern emulation server software available today, it is possible to customize most aspects of the game and support large numbers of concurrent players on a single server.

Clients

Electronic Arts provides the standard client with which players are allowed to connect to the Ultima Online servers, though some third-party clients have been made.

Original client

The original Ultima Online client is completely 2D and, while it was state of the art when released, it is intended to be used on low-end machines that cannot support the more taxing 3D client. It also presents a different artistic flavor which some people find more attractive than the 3D client. Many of the graphics used are high-resolution versions of graphics used in Ultima VIII.

Ultima Online: Third Dawn client

The 3D client was originally released as a part of the Ultima Online: Third Dawn expansion, but has received poor reviews from both veteran and new players alike due to a large number of performance issues (especially memory leaks early on) and what many see as sub-par graphics. An update to the 3D client was made on January 30 2006 when characters and creatures from the game were scaled down to smaller sizes.

As of early May/Late April 2007, the Third Dawn client was done away with by EA, in order to make room for the Kingdom Reborn client (see below). Official UO servers will no longer work with the TD client.

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn client

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn was announced in August 2006 was released June 27, 2007. The new client, according to the Ultima Online team at Electronic Arts, is being created for the purpose of modernizing the game's look, making it easy to add new content without backsliding through outdated and outmoded art, while maintaining the niche market as an MMORPG that can be run on lower-end computers. Unfortunately, many players noted that it was released before it was really ready, as it was extremely slow on most computers and many things were still left to do, as even some of the client art was unfinished at its release (among other things). Many players also voiced their dissatisfaction with the 'updated' art, stating it was still extremely dated in terms of its craftsmanship and overall look.

At a players' convention in Atlanta, EA announced that the recommended specs for the UO:KR client are a 1 GHz CPU, a GeForce 3 series video card (low end enough to be considered obsolete by the manufacturer as stated on its Internet site), 2GB of hard drive space, and 512MB of RAM. It stated that it had "some success" running UO:KR at 256MB RAM, but that 512 was recommended. This was changed as of August 13th, where according to the UO.com site the recommended specs are: Windows XP or Windows Vista, CPU: Intel Pentium III 1000 MHz or AMD Athlon 1000 MHz, RAM: 512 MB or more, Video: 64 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as NVIDIA® GeForce™ 3 class card or above, hard drive: 6.0 GB available space.

EA has referred to the UO:KR client as "2.5d," meaning that it was written in 3d and then effectively backslid into 2d to make it, in theory, easier for lower-end computers to run -- and, presumably, to maintain the "feel" of the game. Many players of the game disagree with this, however, stating that the system requires far more work and optimization to run adequately on lower and middle end systems.

The client is available as a free download for current players of the game.

Statements made by EA originally suggested, or appeared to suggest, that the KR client would replace the long-standing UO client. However, at the first of several EA-sponsored players' conventions referred to as "UO Town Meetings," in Atlanta, EA representatives suggested that the two clients would exist side-by-side until about 80% of the players had switched over to the new client.

Easter eggs

Ultima Online has included some well known Easter eggs throughout the years.

• Lord British's throne is the top half of the Ultima Online logo.
• On rare occasions, casting the spell energy vortex will summon a purple llama instead of the cloud-like creature the spell is meant to summon. The purple llama is labeled in-game as "an energy vortex" and has the same powers as the creature the spell is named for.
• A monster called a slime existed in-game which is a small slithering blob. Some years ago on rare occasions, it was possible to encounter a slime that was renamed a "jwilson," which was purportedly named after magazine editor Johnny Wilson, who had given Ultima Online a bad review and thus earned a derisive place in the game by the developers.
• Cows may be tipped by clicking on them numerous times.
• Occasionally, an aggressive "mad cow" will be spawned in place of a docile cow.
• Pack horses will eat jester hats.
• Walker the legendary Ranger trainer, an NPC trainer in New Haven, looks suspiciously like Chuck Norris, with references to Walker Texas Ranger in his dialog boxes.

See also

• Ultima Worlds Online: Origin (Ultima Online 2) First canceled sequel.
• Ultima X: Odyssey Second canceled sequel.
• Ultima Online timeline
• Worlds of Ultima Online

References

UOForums.com - Interview with Punkbuster's Founder, Tony Ray.

UOForums.com - Interview with Jeremy Dalberg, Community Coordinator for Ultima Online.

UOForums.com - Interview with Tim "Draconi" Cotten, Designer for Ultima Online.

UOForums.com - Interview with Dave "Cathat" Brown, Character and Environmental artist.

UOForums.com - 2nd Interview with Dave "Cathat" Brown, Character and Environmental artist.

UOForums.com - Interview with John "Wilki" Wilkinson, Designer for Ultima Online.

External links

• UO.com - The official Electronic Arts Ultima Online site.
• UO Stratics - Fan site with forums.
• UOGuide - Fan created wiki with thousands of pages of Ultima Online information
• UOForums - Forum based fansite for Ultima Online.

ca:Ultima Online

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