"Garriott Wants to Work on New Ultima, EA Not Interested"

[Silver B. Venom]

http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/articles/119/1192486p1.html

[Dominus]

Discussion on it on Aiera http://www.ultimaaiera.com/blog/richard ... l-barnett/

[Beryllium]

Yeah, what's the point, except for nostalgia over the plot line. The Ultimas up to, but not including U8 were something completely new in the gaming world in a way that is unlikely ever to be replicated.

The paradigm is now par for the course. Big worlds. Nonlinear exploration. NPC schedules. Intricate plot lines with optional sub-quests.

Another Ultima would just be another Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout or Gothic. Not that I wouldn't welcome it, if it was well done. But the Ultima franchise has been by-passed by the relentless passage of time. That river can never be crossed again.

[deplicator]

I agree with some of your points. It would gain a lot of hype from nostalgic players. Many games now copy what the Ultima series pioneered.

I disagree that it would be impossible to bring something new. Gaming is always changing (that's what makes it awesome). I'd love to see someone bring in fresh ideas to the RPG market. Will it be as revolutionary as what Ultima did back in the day? Probably not. Is there room for improvements... heck yeah.

Now, the real questions are; would EA and Garriott actually try to make a good game, or simply cash in on the fan base? Would EA let Garriott have his way? Finally, not to be harsh, but does Garriott still have it in him to make a great Ultima (his last games left a lot to be desired imo)?

[Scythifuge]

It would be easy to create a new Ultima game that would capture the magick of the original while surpassing the the current gamut of crpg's. It all comes down to atmosphere, delivery, and a non-linear game with certain linear aspects.

Look at the character creation and intro to Ultima VI and couple that with Ultima VII in it's entirety. Place that within Gothic II or even 3.

Plus, there is not ONE game that comes close to Ultima level interaction. While Gothic/Risen are may favorites RPGs after Ultima, they do not do everything that Ultima VI and VII did, period. Another example, though I am loathe to say it, is Ultima Online for interactivity.

[Clocknova]

Most RPGs STILL do not feature full NPC scheduling. I don't know why that's so hard to do. I loved the way NPCs in Ultima 7 get up in the morning, open their shutters to let in the sun, cook breakfast, go to work, have lunch, etc. What other game does this even today? Not many, if any.

[Dominus]

Because 3d made it overly complicated with npcs being stuck in walls, high in the air etc... Example: U9

[Colourless]

U7 also has stuff all in the way of animations. The schedules used the same few frames of animation for virtually any action. In the age of simple 2D games it was acceptable. Moving into the era of fluid animation and 3D games that is no longer acceptable. Real looking environments needs the characters to interact with them in a somewhat realistic fashion. Game developers in general wont have the time nor the money in order to get life like NPC scheduling working even reasonably well.

[Dominus]

good point

[Scythifuge]

Gothic 1-3 & Risen came close. Some characters walk great distances to other locations, eat, sleep, cook meat, smoke, sharpen blades, use alchemy gear, banter with other npcs, go to taverns, etc. This was being done back in 2001.

One great scene in Gothic 1 was when the leader of the mercenaries, Lee, leaves his cave, walks to and stands at an overlook. When you talk to him, he gives a conversation different from where he usually stays. He explains how he was in service to the king and through betrayal, was thrown into the magic barrier prison colony and how he will one day have his revenge. Epic.

[TDI]

I agree that the Gothic series of games are the most Ultima-like modern RPG. Bethesda RPGs are a close second. What is great about Bethesda that Gothic lacks are all the "real" movable items that are not stuck in the world. If you can see it, chances are you can pick it up and mess with it. But what I prefer about Gothic that Bethesda lacks is the seamless world and being able to look out the window of a castle and see everything.
A blend of the two systems would be almost perfect.

[Scythifuge]

I agree. I know that Ultima VII was a huge inspiration to the Elder Scrolls team, though they always had an issue with creating a seamless world. I found it odd in Oblivion that cities were zones.

[TheOtherAlex]

That's why I hope Corv and his team will keep going and release U9 Redemption.

[TheOtherAlex]

Of course, withthe old Morrowind engine it won't provide a seamless world either, but it looks like they put an awful lot of dedication to the story (unlike U9A).

[DebateMe]

The Ultima series had so many things done right. Some of these things were a large world to explore, complex systems of gameplay, non-linear quests, and NPCs with daily schedules. But in addition to these things, two things really drew me in and these two things have rarely been pursued in contemporary games.

1) World Simulation
With each new Ultima game, you never knew when you had tried and tested all the ways that you could interact with the game. There was a great sense of discovery - sometimes even after many tens of hours of gameplay you might still discover some game mechanic that had always been present, but you only just then discovered it.

2) Mystery
This ties in with 1 above but is still worth breaking out into its own point. What was so facinating with Ultima games is that the game manuals didn't disclose everything you might experience while playing. Back then, there was no internet and so for the most part, you were truely on your own to discover how the Ultima worlds worked. For example, it was always interesting to me how you would eventually acquire a ship. Or that you could negate a magic barrier. Or how you could combine objects and create new ones. That spirit of discovery was a real drug for me.

[deplicator]

I have to admit that my experiences in gaming these days lacks mystery, and I believe you hit the nail on the head to the reason: the Internet.

I decided to play the original Legend of Zelda second quest (there is a shameless plug to some lame blog posts and videos I made about it below). My goal was to play through, without the aid of the Internet, just like I did as a kid with the first quest. Needless to say there are only so many hours in a day and I eventually had to look up where dungeon 5 was.

The discovery magic is hard to capture. I had to force it and still failed. It would take some innovation to make it happen now, but I can't believe it would be impossible.


http://2dudes1blog.blogspot.com/search/ ... nd%20quest

[monotremata]

Zelda was one of those few games I remember buying and having the same sort of anticipation I had when U5 came out.. Ive played it so much since 1987 I can go through both quests in a few hours without any maps or hints. I can even remember the locations of just about every hidden heart and coin in the overworld too.. If ya do it right you can end up with the Master Sword and the blue ring by the 4th dungeon and the rest of the game is cake..

[shigzeo]

Interaction is one thing, history is quite another. Ultima has loosely created Britannia from the early trilogy, and since the Avatar trilogy, really gone on to enrich the world.

There isn't another RPG series that matches it, particularly because they change worlds, or the prior worlds change too much, or characters are no longer present. Ultima is so damn rich. When the virtues were implemented in U4, I was amazed. Ultima seemed to have 'gotten' something that lacked in RPGs, both of the day, and even to today: role playing.

Sure, you were locked into a game of penitence, but I find that much better than bugging around the world, killing everything, humping easter egg spawns, and basically becoming a roaming tyrant.

Ultima has all that, but it is curtailed to a large degree. Sure, it got lost along the way, but along the way, Britannia really opened up. It became bigger, darker, with longer histories, and giant libraries.

I've not found a single RPG to play after Ultima, primarily because not a single one builds on its forebears. Rather, it builds unto itself.

If Ultima 10 or whatever came out, it would rile its fans, not only because of nostalgia, but because, it would probably be based in the world we love and can, after so many years, relate to.

No individual wins for any game can add up to the success Ultima is as a series. Ditto the mechanics, and graphics, and quests. To be as good as Ultima, you have to go all out and create a world, not just in one game, but a world that people want to return to no matter how mundane the story is.

Britannia is the single biggest juggernaut in Ultima's arsenal, and I miss it whenever I try anything else.

[Anon]

Speaking of Bethesda and the Elder Scrolls games, if Garriott had just waited a bit longer before selling out, Bethesda might have become a good company to sell to after Morrowind. With Elder Scrolls releases spaced out as they are, it wouldn't have been hard to fit Ultima games in between so that neither product competed with each other.

Ironically, does anyone remember the interview where the head of EA was all "We're no longer the evil empire we used to be..." ?

Jokes.

[Dominus]

Bethesda wouldn't have had the means to buy a company as big and ambitious as Origin. Don't forget that Origin wasn't just making Ultimas. Being bought by Bethesda would have axed the Wing Commander series early

[El Guesto]

More

https://www.facebook.com/notes/richard- ... 7887434380

[Crowley]

Reading that, I am disappointed that he sees multiplayer games as the way to go. One of my biggest problems with MMOs is that the player cannot be allowed to have a lasting impact on the gameworld, because content needs to be equally available for all players. Garriott certainly tried to avoid that with Tabula Rasa, and I applaud the effort.

[Viking]

Garriott didn't sell out, he saved Origin from bankruptcy (largely because of the long development cycles of Strike Commander and Wing Commander III, apparently).

[Asmodian]

One can argue that, judging by ultima 8 although personaly I enjoyed just felt that the story needed about x2 time to develop and ultima 9 which was preety and an utter failure, I always felt said for the little lady sweeping the streets of britania in the middle of the night, Garret lost the ability to make great games some time ago.

[El Guesto]

More again: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... a-online-2

[Kensu]

Garriot seems to be unaware of the concept of asymmetric multiplayer. Can you imagine what things would've been like if, instead of Ultima Online, we'd gotten the Ultima Construction Set?
A beefed up Ultima 7 engine, with the entirety of Brittania available. Friends could connect and form a group of adventurers, while another played as the Ultima Master from a god console; possessing NPCs to talk directly to the players, sending thunderstorms or enemies our heroes way as a way to coax them into the adventure he'd set up.

I heard Neverwinter Nights had something similar to this (mods which required Dungeon Masters), but since no one else picked up on it, I imagine it wasn't implemented very well.

[Crowley]

I believe Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption also had a multiplayer aspect similar to what you describe for Neverwinter Nights.

[Scythifuge]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption is a good game though no one in my area was into it so I never had a chance to try out storyteller mode. I would love to play an Ultima as a storyteller.

[Anon]

lol @ "saved Origin".

How long did he save it for? 2 years?

[oneismany]

Open Letter to Richard Garriott:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/occupy-th ... 0408174406

which is a response to his column:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/richard- ... 7887434380

(which was already posted above)