Thinking back on Ultima Online this last Monday (as small a thought as that was in that particular article), made me want to reminisce with the game. Many call it the first MMO, but really it wasn’t, there were many before it. Certainly it went much bigger than others before it, being the first to go to 10,000 players per server, and still remains one of only two or three to have that distinguishing accomplishment. If you consider this game to be the start of the MMO genre, it may very well be one of the only games there, sorry WoW & EQ with your 3k servers, you don’t come close.
This game was in fact a landmark game, and not just because it housed so many players on a single server, the mechanics of the game were highly original, many things done there have yet to be attempted again. For the sake of this article, I will talk about the launch of the game as the various expansions have changed the game dramatically for better or worse to be more like current MMOs.
There were a lot various basic differences in the game. This was really one of the last over the head MMOs (Shadowbane later did it as well), that issued in the end of an era in gaming. I think this was largely just an end of the time, not many games of any sort really carried this perspective as Third-Person and First-Person became the dominant force. The game had no real chat client, you had to be near someone to hear them. This honestly was good and bad. It was good in that it forced people near each other and created a party-like atmosphere where people liked to gather just to talk. It was bad because it was often inconvenient and even lonely to not talk to people in the world, and they later just added it into the game largely because of out of game chat clients like ICQ.
The systems however were genius. Skill-based system is rare even today; but that they made it use-based as well makes them in a league of their own. You could totally customize your character how you wanted it, based on how you used the game. It was a pain in the ass at times, and it obviously needed tweaking because it could be difficult to maintain at high levels, but it was a very intriguing idea. I don’t know how this system has changed in the past, but I know they’ve added locks to skills and they seem to have added classes? Which if so is a shame because I really loved the system as it was, it just needed tweaking.
They also remain the only MMO to have an economic cap. This essentially means there are only so many resources in the world at any given time. Resources can be recycled by destroying it, but once it is used it is used. This kind of countered hording, and created a mess as they tried to deal with item decay in the world, especially when you bring in housing and such. People would hoard items and make certain materials almost non-existent, but I think this made for a great aspect of the game that really made it interesting and gave meaning and purpose to the pvp and thieving systems.
Speaking of which the pvp and thieving was both a curse and a boon to the game. These systems were copied greatly for Shadowbane and lineage, but to this day I don’t think anyone has really found a fair way to have real meaningful pvp and thieving without giving into griefing. I know UO tried with various methods of honor and what not, but eventually they just ended up making a pvp and non-pvp version of the world in each server which was cheap and sad. This is pretty much how pvp goes these days, you either are or aren’t. There isn’t a real way for pvp to just come on you based on your actions or real warfare over resources except in the above games which are completely all out and often full of grief.
There was also another system related to the economic system but it was taken out in beta because it was largely imbalanced and not well thought out. The devs promised that they’d put it back in after they got it fixed, but I believe they just gave up on it after launch because they had more pressing concerns. This system was that of a virtual ecology. The virtual ecology basically was that certain animals needed other animals to eat in order to survive. If the chain, was broken, the animal would become more aggressive to people and towns. So if players over-hunted rabbits and bears eat rabbits, then bears start attacking humans even though normally they wouldn’t. Similarly if players overhunted deer and dragons ate deer, then the dragons may start attacking town for food. This created some very memorable moments in beta which was the entire point, the devs wanted the world to be more fluid and events to occur on their own. This one proved to be too much to handle though, they realized that by having dragons attacking town, it put newer players in a huge amount of danger, in addition the attacks started happening too often. EVERYTHING was largely too aggressive because players over-hunted far more than the developers realized they would. Unfortunately I think this got cut due to lack of time and money, but would have been pure genius.
Lastly are the houses and the ships. To this day, you only have about a 50% chance to find housing in an MMO, even fewer have housing uninstanced, and only UO and SWG allow the player to place the house wherever he wished (which has largely been restricted since launch I believe), but this allowed players to create unofficial towns which I, and I think most devs of UO, absolutely fell in love with. Again something totally dynamic, that was left to the players. Could it get any better than content that the players make themselves?
I think that Ultima Online at launch remains the best MMO to date, despite its rampant problems that it had. It may have also been the buggiest of launches to date as well. I would go back to it if I could, however a lot in the game has changed, and the graphics even at the time were dated. Now, a full 10 years later, they are hard to handle for long periods of time. I would love to see some of the original creators get back together and make a spiritual successor. Bringing the original concepts back to life in a new 3D world, just tweaked and balanced to actually work correctly. I don’t know if it would be as popular as World of Warcraft, but who cares. As long as it is good.
14 replies on “Thoughts on Ultima Online”
WoW is a great game for what it is. However, if a new game came about that was a 3D version of old school UO, I would jump to it in a heartbeat. Housing, skills, real PvP with consequences, all the great things we loved about UO. One day, hopefully…
I loved your article, it’s true the skill based system in UO was fantastic at the time and still today. I don’t play it anymore but i remember me and my friends use to play it and just run around killing people, it was fun. Anyways, good article, hope to see more to my liking.
[…] of Warcraft, and many, many more. Razakius of Razakius.com spent a lot of time in Brittania, and takes a long look back at Ultima Online and what made it a game where stories were told and legends began that are […]
I always have to take a stab at WoW whenever I talk about MMOs cause i really do hate the game quite a bit=P And ya know it isn’t really even that it’s even that bad, it’s more the attitude that its players have that it is so great JUST because of the numbers it has… as if American Idol is the best TV show ever created cause it gets great numbers. Numbers means, nothing, it is ok, not great, not even good. I should go through and rank MMOs based on systems and what not… good idea for an article.
You bring up a lot of great points that get talked about constantly by my gaming pals. WoW = fail. AoC = fail.
We patiently await Darkfall, and if that fails, too, then I suppose we all will never see a truly great MMO again. The Sims players will have finally and completely succeeded in changing PVP oriented MMOs into giant chatrooms and auction houses with instancing and solo grinding. What fun! (Ugh.)
Darkfall is in production still? Thought that was vaporware=/ I at one point knew one of the devs on that game but have since lost contact with him so can’t check on it.
Personally I’ve never been a PvP player, but I do appreciate some aspects that it CAN (not always does) bring to an MMO.
For me, the future games I’m looking forward to are Hero’s Journey because it will be the first foray into graphical MMOs that Simultronics has done, and because they are givin game masters a lot of power to create quests, characters, monsters, and events on the fly which should make for a much more dynamic game. I am also looking forward to the MMO that Bioware is doing, which is rumored to be Knights of the Old Republic Online. Largely because Bioware is a solid group, I know they have at least one of the major AC devs working there, and they are also using the HeroEngine. Lastly, looking forward to Marvel Universe because the CoH devs are working on it and I am hoping they learned from their mistakes in CoH and I hope they bring in a more refined play environment that brings more than a couple months of enjoyment. (CoH was great for a short while, just not for long which is unfortunate).
I think UO was probably the best MMO for all the reasons above, but also for its limitations. Here are a few that I think really made UO seem like a huge magical world:
1. Travel was challenging. Monsters, PvPers, distance… going from one place to another was a huge task. Moongates had to be timed and when the game first released, the recall spell meant that you had to drop your object first to recall from it… thus leaving it behind to decay away. (as a side note, if you ran across an object laying in the woods, many times casting recall on it would bring you to some interesting places. People marked a LOT of items in the world).
2. The chat system was non-existent, as mentioned above. You talk, everyone hears you. If you whisper, then only those next to you hear you. This limitation made for GREAT roleplaying and general stranger-stranger interaction. I met so many people because I was walking by and caught a bit of a conversation and joined in. Standing in any city in WoW and listen… only the NPCs are talking! Conversely, in UO hanging by the forge while you wait for a smith to get to your repairs was a social hub. UO’s world seemed full when you were around other players. All modern MMOs can feel so empty.
3. The simulated world was a loose structure to hang things on. You could be almost anything you wanted to be. I played a smith who never fought. GM Smith, GM miner, GM mage (for travel), and a few supporting skills was all I used. Yet, because ingots were horded, ore became almost impossible to find and thus raising your smith skill because almost impossible too. The result, for months and months there were only a handful of GM smiths on the servers and everyone knew your smith name. Even PKers would halt an attack to get repairs by a passing smith.
4. Community! UO had it in piles. More than any MMO I have seen. Now, I have run across large guilds in WoW – but nothing like the general public community that UO had. I think the chat had a lot to do with it. You met people because people talked to one another. These days in an MMO, I will talk to someone and half the time they don’t even notice, acknowledge, etc… They only pay attention to their guild chat text.
There are a few things I wish the next generation MMOs would implement:
First, no levels. UO used skills. WoW’s level 70 content uses factions. There are a bunch more ways to give players advancement without a global leveling system. Levels also have the sad side effect of rendering content pointless, and fast. Again, WoW’s world, the majority of it, is something that the average level 70 character would rather just avoid because it is just travel time crossing it. So much great artwork gone to waste. Again, in UO the whole world could be dangerous at any time. Levels also separate friends. I love achievement, just not the global level system used today. Maybe micro-levels over a global level is a better way of saying it.
Second, RP servers – all chat gets broadcast on “local”. So, if you say something on guild chat, we still see it local just like today if someone talks on a cell phone. This helps the RP server become more RP and naturally encourages interaction. Or, if you want privacy, you actually go find it!
Third, all spells and attacks should have a non-combat effect too. Quite frankly, you should be able to fireball your guildmate but instead of doing damage it creates a temporary graphic effect. This is more for RP again. That, or you open the world for RP and like UO, you can fireball anyone if you are willing to live with the results. But, on non-PVP games, this can encourage RP and immersion. UO was a simulated world where as WoW feels more like a game. I would love to see the richness of the WoW world in a simulated world like UO was. Makes me wish I had the time to hack one of the server emulators for WoW out there and do it!
And last for now, teamwork. By that, I don’t mean you have a healer and have a tank, but rather I would like to see MMO explore the idea of true teamwork more. LOtR has those combinations. That is on track. In UO, I always imagined a bunch of mages getting together and casting a super powerful spell that a single mage could not do alone. That would be cool. In combat, combination moves done by various party members to create more powerful attacks than anyone could do alone. Things like that.
forgot about the effect of magic on friendlys in UO, I remember that was something in Dark Sun Online as well, and notably one of the earliest things that got snipped out in later generations. Understandably so…. I mean people die so easily in big groups as it is from player stupidity… would be compounded by a fireball that affected other players… still… there is something to be said of an aoe that might be hella awesome but has an adverse affect to those who are too close to it…
I enjoyed the article. Having never played UO myself it’s important to know where things come from (and how far they’ve fallen off). Is Vanguard the only other game since to feature player-controlled ships?
Either way, we need to rescue aquatic vessels from MMO obscurity!
Well outside of the obvious pirate games… Technically you could also include star wars galaxies and eve online in ship control, however those games are far different than what you got out of Ultima Online. I would like to see aquatic vessels return to MMOs…
I enjoyed this article, thought it was a bit misleading to say UO now has classes. The game still has the same skill/use-based system, though they added a few skills over the years. The “classes” are simply recommended groupings of skills that tend to work well together for new players (but by no means required to make an entertaining character). What other game would allow me to play a murdering ninja chef, PVM vampire samurai, or nox-mage; let alone make it entertaining? Some people elect to not build any skills on their characters and run auction houses, casinos, or other in-game events.
If you haven’t played in a while, I recommend that you download a client and start a two-week trial account. If the outdated graphics in the 2D client bother you, then give the Kingdom Reborn client a spin.
The bottom line is I keep trying newer shinier MMOs, but UO keeps dragging me back because I have yet to find a game with the freedom and the depth of UO.
To be fair I did put a ? after that meaning it seems like they added classes but I could be wrong, they advertise it as such and I haven’t really mucked around with it to try it.
I have tried going back to UO but too much is different for me to enjoy it. I tried with Mondain’s Legacy and Samurai Empire, neither time took. The problem with the game now in my eyes is that they split every server into two worlds, and while I understand that most people play on the pve world, it kind of sucks to split the server population like that not to mention that I just didn’t get it at all. I also didn’t care for some of the UI changes they’ve made or any of that. They also suffer from old game syndrome where the populations have dwindled quite a bit and the servers aren’t vibrant anymore and the server split didn’t help. But no, the 3/4 perspective doesn’t help either. At one time I thought I couldn’t play anything that wasn’t that perspective, now I hate it, I need over the shoulder…
Anyone else remember Wish? I was in the beta before it folded. It was a 3D remake of UO, essentially. It was amazing. Too bad it was canned. 🙁
Eh, I never thought Wish wasn’t going to fold so I never put credence in it. But it would be nice if someone did what Wish was trying to do. It is too bad that no one is willing to pony up the money with the realization of the godly amounts of money that would come out of a modernized UO.