Ultima Online

Ultima Online (UO) is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 24, 1997,[2] 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. 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Several expansions have been released, but its aging game engine and graphics may make it outdated compared to competitive, new massively multiplayer games. The release of Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn in 2007 brought a new game engine which offers a newer visual experience. 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 2003, and in 2008 sat around 75,000 subscribers.[3] As of April 2008, Ultima Online held a market share below 0.6% of the massively multiplayer online game subscriptions.[4]

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.

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 Garriott, 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. Koster drew inspiration from a number of prior online games[5] such as DartMUD.[6]

The project started in 1995 and was shown to the public at E3 in 1996. The development cost was much greater than traditional computer games, it relied on people accessing servers with modems. Ultima Online initial features included persistent player housing, skill-based character progression (without levels or classes),[7] a crafting and player-driven economy,[8] and unrestricted player-versus-player combat.[9]

Upon release, Ultima Online proved to be very popular, reaching 100,000 paying subscribers within six months of release, despite severe lag problems. 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), Asheron's Call (released in November 1999), Dark Age of Camelot (released in October 2001), Final Fantasy XI (released in May 2002) and World of Warcraft (released in November 2004). The Korean massively multiplayer game Lineage was inspired by Ultima Online, as have many other subsequent online games.

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 mechanics were integrated to compensate.
Artificial Life Engine

Starr Long, the game's associate producer, explained in 1996:

    Nearly everything in the world, from grass to goblins, has a purpose, and not just as cannon fodder either. The 'virtual ecology' affects nearly every aspect of the game world, from the very small to the very large. If the rabbit population suddenly drops (because some gung-ho adventurer was trying out his new mace) then wolves may have to find different food sources (e.g., deer). When the deer population drops as a result, the local dragon, unable to find the food he’s accustomed to, may head into a local village and attack. Since all of this happens automatically, it generates numerous adventure possibilities.

However, this feature never went into production. Because of several hurdles and concerns (like performance issues), the whole artificial life idea was considered a boondoggle.

Issues faced

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 were breaking new ground and had to solve complex issues that had never been faced in a commercial game on such a wide scale before. 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.

Another problem throughout Ultima Online's history has been flaws that allowed for cheating. In early years, methods to duplicate items were discovered and many took advantage of this loophole to mass produce gold and items, causing great harm in the game's economy and power structure. Even after this method was fixed, other methods were discovered over the years which bypassed server and game mechanics to duplicate items and gold. With the introduction of cross-shard character transfers, massive duplication between worldwide servers started to occur, greatly injuring the game economy.

Ultima Online was sued by former player volunteers ("Counselors") and settled in 2004 without admitting wrongdoing.[10] AOL had their volunteers train customer service personnel it hired, then shut down the volunteer program. Concern over future lawsuits led Microsoft to shut down their volunteer program for Asheron's Call

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 (May 4, 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 and was geared towards fighting monsters. Felucca also adopted a darker, more foreboding look and kept its player vs player roots.
    * 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 11, 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. Subscriptions reached a peak of over 250,000 accounts following the release.[12]
    * 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: Stygian Abyss (September 8, 2009) features a new playable race, the Gargoyle; additional play areas; and three new skills: imbuing, throwing, and mysticism. Stygian Abyss also features significant upgrades to the Kingdom Reborn client, which has been renamed to the Enhanced Client. The legacy client is still supported

Booster packs

At a public relations event on August 28, 2010 it was announced that the development team was moving to a "booster" style development process.[14] The stated goal is to release two boosters per year at a cost of $14.99

    * Ultima Online: Adventures on the High Seas (fall 2010) Focuses additions to sailing and the pirate skill. There are four new ship types, improved ship movement, pirate NPCs to hunt, and new boss encounters. The fishing skill is getting dozens of new types of fish and marine life to catch and an increased skill cap.