UO Team Shitcanned, Development moved to Mythic

[WindupAtheist]

Normally even I would be far too sane to expose my dick to the sort of sandpapering it would take due to posting a thread related to UO on this particular forum.  But this isn't just any old topic.  This is one which deserves to be seen by a wider audience than those who roam the Graveyard, if only because it will bring many of you a schadenfreude-fuelled LOL. This is some added text to bump the weirdness off the frontpage. Please just keep reading. At the end, there will be cake.

First there was this item.  There's a lot of positive-sounding fluff, but the core of it is thus:

I wanted to share with you a significant change that is about to take place with the UO development team. Over the next several months, we'll be moving the team from its current location at EA's headquarters outside of San Francisco, CA to the EA Mythic studios in Fairfax, VA.

Then we go to the forum, where a two-post newbie account has posted this.

There is nothing to lose for me to post this and I admit I feel bitter, so why not let you know the truth?
Alot of the UO team was laid off today including me and all of QA.
We were escorted out of the building and not even allowed to email our goodbye email to everyone else. They even had managers watching us the whole time like we had done something wrong.
Most of the engineers are already working on Warhammer.
Most of the rest of the UO team is not going to Virginia. Only one person is moving fore sure and maybe one or two more are considering it too. That's it. Almost all of the famous devs are not going.

[schild]

oh god

apology letter incoming

Industry: 1 | F13: 36

[schild]

He who lols first, gets the last lulz.

Edit: Also, all of you who got jobs, the grass IS greener. Nonetheless, my condolences.

[WindupAtheist]

Well, I don't REALLY think they'll unplug it.  I just think this is where it becomes a walking corpse ala MXO.  Based upon the fact that the new UO producer is also the DAOC producer, I kinda figure they're going to slap the two games into one combined "Leave the servers plugged in, it's free money!" zombie MMO department.

Mark, I see you reading this thread.  Post something.   :-D

[schild]

The UO team will be working under Mythic’s supervision but will remain in Redwood Shores. There are no plans for them to move here as that would be counterproductive. Besides, who wants to leave a really cool campus at Redwood Shores to come to our bare-bones offices in VA?"

I don't know. Because MAYBE WE'RE THE ONLY ONES WHO SEE EA AS THE FUCKING BORG?

[WindupAtheist]

Me a minute ago:  Thread moved?  Aw shit, was it the Graveyard or the Den?
Me, a few seconds later:  Whaa?

Hey, do I get a blue name now?   :-D

[schild]

No. But you will get cake.

[MarkJacobs]

All,

  I wish I could post something useful other than to say it isn't what it seems, there's much more to it than meets the eye and some of the facts are easy to find and from them right conclusions can be drawn but for all the obvious reasons, I can't.  What I can say, with all due respect to Schild, this move was not about EA being the Borg and that UO & DAoC are not becoming zombies.  One day, I'm sure they will as every MMO does but it isn't today or even this year (I hope).  Now, please layer on the hate over a nice piece of distrust and tell me you don't believe me.

  Oh, that quote is a year old and things do change in a year.

Mark

P.S. When I said "this year" I meant a year from now, not this calendar year. Sorry for the confusion.

[WindupAtheist]

Dude, gay.  My sandpapered-dick comment and carefully researched correct spelling of schadenfreude are on your front page.  That amazing several seconds of hard work should totally be rewarded with the equally magnificent boon of having my forum name in a different color.

This is like when they stole all that land from those Indians.  Or that really horrible thing that happened to the Jews.  What was it called again?  Oh yeah, Corey Feldman.

[schild]

Deleted post. We are not your personal link site. Go away.

[Trippy]

Dude, gay.  My sandpapered-dick comment and carefully researched correct spelling of schadenfreude are on your front page.  That amazing several seconds of hard work should totally be rewarded with the equally magnificent boon of having my forum name in a different color.

This is like when they stole all that land from those Indians.  Or that really horrible thing that happened to the Jews.  What was it called again?  Oh yeah, Corey Feldman.

How's that?

[WindupAtheist]

YES!  PINK!

While I'm at it...  Take this for what it's worth, but here's what is supposed to be that anonymous two-post newbie's first post from "months ago".

This has to be anonymous now that we have been absorbed into EA Mythic.

Work and design on Kingdom Reborn was taking place for months before the Mythic deal was announced. We were 2 days away from announcing it when they asked us to stop and to take a look at what we were doing. They have challenged us to do more on a shorter time table than we had planned. Hopefully quality doesn't suffer because of this. They are contributing some expertise now to the project that we will use to make it even better.

But UO:KR would have happened either way. This is our project. It was conceived by us and will be finished by us. Mythic is a welcome partner, and our contact with them has been great on the personal level, but let it be known that UO:KR has more Origin in it than it does Mythic.

We remember our roots.

- A few members of your loyal UO Team

[schild]

Meanwhile, a number of employees at both studios have already been let go as of earlier today, with more to follow as EA tightens its belt in the coming months.

[schild]

STOP ASKING PEOPLE TO POST AT OTHER FORUMS. WE ARE NOT HERE FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT, YOU ARE HERE FOR OURS.

I say that in the nicest way. Now, quit it.

[WindupAtheist]

Listen, I crossposted this to Stratics since I figured you kids would want to read it.  And since the whole story is the result of crossposting some stuff from Stratics over here in the first place.  But let me tell you Stratics monkeys who are reading this thread a couple of things.

1)  Yes, that's the real fucking Mark Jacobs.

2)  This is not Stratics.  Stupid shit like that last post will get you eaten alive.

[lamaros]

One day, I'm sure they will as every MMO does but it isn't today or even this year (I hope).

Things can't be that rosy if you have to hope about this year. Seeing how it's nearly November and all.

[Margalis]

"San Francisco, CA to the EA Mythic studios in Fairfax, VA."

Well, you don't move from SanFran to Virginia and expect to keep staff on.

Virginia? Serious question, what is the talent pool like there? Do workers come from the area or out of town mostly?

[bhodi]

There is a HUGE talent pool in this area for tech workers of all kinds; I'm not sure how many you can con into working at a game studio, however.

This entire area is in constant flux. You will rarely find someone here who is actually *from* NoVA. The Fairfax location's a good one, as far as commute goes -- you can drive in easily and your commute is likely to be in the 30m neighborhood. Rent's probably about the same as in CA, though it's much higher than the area of some other dev studios, such as those in Austin.

[Aussie Refugee]

Since EA just did that deal with BioWare/Pandemic for 860mil, guess the wallet's a bit empty. Wonder if people at those studios need to start looking for Furniture removalists..or just start checking the want ads?

[Airmid]

If I promise to be witty and not mention any other sites do I get to grab Mr. Jacobs there by the balls and twist em a lil?  Naysayers may wanna UO bash and throw it out to pasture but the jist of it is this: 10yrs ago it started it all. There is a player community that has supported it with all the lame ass changes despite the rosey smoochie flat out lies. Mythic has our attention and the hope is that UO continues no matter what coast its on but this latest news for the UO devs sucks like a CatHat hairball. Good luck to the devs who are moving on or moving over to VA.

[Reg]

The fact that they're only moving a couple of the old UO people to the Fairfax studio means that the writing is on the wall for it's closure and borgification in a year or two. Whoever ends up on the Warhammer live team better like the idea of living in California.

[Jain Zar]

All,

  I wish I could post something useful other than to say it isn't what it seems, there's much more to it than meets the eye and some of the facts are easy to find and from them right conclusions can be drawn but for all the obvious reasons, I can't.  What I can say, with all due respect to Schild, this move was not about EA being the Borg and that UO & DAoC are not becoming zombies.  One day, I'm sure they will as every MMO does but it isn't today or even this year (I hope).  Now, please layer on the hate over a nice piece of distrust and tell me you don't believe me.

  Oh, that quote is a year old and things do change in a year.

Mark

Dude.  Ever hear of the old cartoon "Fist of the North Star"?  The main character would hit dudes who would then mumble how they could take plenty more only for the hero to tell them "You are already dead".  Then a few seconds later their heads would explode.

That is every company and IP bought by EA.  The odds of you not quitting or being let go within a couple years are NOT very good.  And your creations over the years EVEN WORSE.

Mythic is fucked.  Fucked the same way Origin, Westwood, and Kesmai were.  And they did a lot more than you guys have over the years.  Im sorry but its completely true and you dang well know it. 

Oh well, maybe you can sell your soul and get a nice middle management position...

[WindupAtheist]

I can live with zombification, really.  I'll pay them the twelve bucks a month or whatever to fuck around roleplaying and tinkering with my house until the sun burns out.  If they somehow get enough resources to polish up the KR client and finish the SA expansion before EA sends it off in search of braaains, I'll consider it to be just about as good an outcome as could be expected for a billion-year old game.

[Aussie Refugee]

I can live with zombification, really.  I'll pay them the twelve bucks a month or whatever to fuck around roleplaying and tinkering with my house until the sun burns out.  If they somehow get enough resources to polish up the KR client and finish the SA expansion before EA sends it off in search of braaains, I'll consider it to be just about as good an outcome as could be expected for a billion-year old game.

Well by the time EA get stuck into Bioware/Pandemic and suck whatever they can out of those studios, should be about time to toss a bucketful of cash at Garriot and NCSoft and get them in as well..then package the whole lot of the MMOs under one roof, put General British aka Lord British aka Garriot back on the Throne in Britannia and flog the lot off to Blizzard.
Then EA can get back to doing what they do best, making craptacular games for 13yo console-tards

Err, I mean what they(EA) do second best, they are actually best at taking great dev companies with good products, gutting them mercilessly and transforming them into fading memories of "Back in the Day"

[squirrel]

We had some good times though didn't we? Remember when you thought I was going to kill you? And you were all like Oh No! And I pretended that you were going to burn? That was fun.

ps. WuA - Pink looks good on you.

[WindupAtheist]

I love it.  I get to join Cheddar in the super special awesome club.

[squirrel]

I love it.  I get to join Cheddar in the super special awesome club.

That's a Charlie Chaplin quote waiting to happen. And yeah, sorry bout your game, Mythic aint the worse place it could land though.

[sinij]

Holy fuck, they should have done this years ago, pinkslip motherfucking incompetent bitches. Its not like UO developers contributed anything positive to the game in quite some time now. Ninjas, robots, elves and another failed 3D client? By the time they get 3D client right it will be time to start working on 4D client.

I think this could mean only good things for UO (or what left of it), at least DAOC team (or what left of it) historically shown to be a lot more competent than any UO team.

[sinij]

Mythic is fucked.  Fucked the same way Origin, Westwood, and Kesmai were.  And they did a lot more than you guys have over the years.  Im sorry but its completely true and you dang well know it.

I agree. It is not question of IF, it is question on WHEN and HOW.

[squirrel]

For those of you who stick with UO, there will be cake! I've told them not to cut it, they're waiting for you.

Oh yeah and - bbbbbbrrrraaaiiiiiiiiiiiinsssss......

[WindupAtheist]

If I promise to be witty and not mention any other sites do I get to grab Mr. Jacobs there by the balls and twist em a lil?  Naysayers may wanna UO bash and throw it out to pasture but the jist of it is this: 10yrs ago it started it all. There is a player community that has supported it with all the lame ass changes despite the rosey smoochie flat out lies. Mythic has our attention and the hope is that UO continues no matter what coast its on but this latest news for the UO devs sucks like a CatHat hairball. Good luck to the devs who are moving on or moving over to VA.

At first I thought posting this thread to Stratics was a good idea, because it's the main forum for UO and people there would want to read it.

Then I thought it might have been a bad idea, because I remembered that I hate almost everyone on Stratics for being the sort of dipshit who thinks "sucks like a CatHat hairball" is clever wordplay.

Now I've realized it really was a good idea, because here I can tell them how much motherfucking shit they suck, and how much I hate them.

I hate almost all of you at Stratics so much it makes my dick hurt.  That forum is a complete fucking sewer of abject frothing stupidity.  If I were Mark Jacobs, not only would I never post there, I'd forbid anyone else under my authority from ever doing so either.  It is a blight upon the internet, a river of shit I reluctantly bathe in because it's the only place to go to have any insight into the game's development.  It makes the WoW forums look worthwhile.  All of you can go right straight to hell.

God, that felt good.

Sinij, I know I said I'd never reply to you again, but I'll break that vow just this once to remind you that Peaches will almost certainly be reading this very thread at some point.

[squirrel]

Not to reply to myself - oh well fuck it. I've thought about this abit and I don't get the read from either Mark or the PR that they are or are not seeing UO for what it is. Yeah ok Sinj, it's got lesbian pirate ninja robot elves. Ok. We know that's wrong. But it would be a pity to see the game dis-assembled for no real reason as well. Mythic is one of the few studios I've had a lot of faith in vis. MMOG's due to their experience, but there's no reason to fuck with UO really ... it's fine with the 3.51785 versions it's on. Unless there's ulterior motives. And that's where I think EA and the Borg play a part. And they suck ass at this. So, pity, let's bury what we knew and call it a day. Or sumsuch.

Can anyone here play Taps?

[Reg]

Geeze WUA, I hope this doesn't mean you've changed your mind about starting up a daily ABM thread here on F13.

[WindupAtheist]

I'm cool.  I finally got it out of my system, and I have a cigarette.  Good times.

[squirrel]

I'm cool.  I finally got it out of my system, and I have a cigarette.  Good times.

Hey you were there man. You were there.


And there was cake.