Something up with UO & Mythic

[WindupAtheist]

This rather cryptic message just appeared on Stratics.

Ultima Online and Mythic Teaming Up

    These are exciting days for MMORPG fans here at EA. With the acquisition of Mythic, the UO team will be working with the creative folks who brought us Dark Age of Camelot and are hard at work on the spectacular-looking Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I’m thrilled that the UO team and Mythic will work together to forge Britannia’s future.

    There is much to talk about with our new partners, and it will take some time to review and finalize our plans. Because we need to take that time, we are postponing the announcement that we were going to make this week. The in-game fiction cycle will take a break for a bit and will return soon.

    See you in Britannia,
    Darkscribe

A Station Pass type of dealie?  Something else?  I'll post it as I hear it.

[Driakos]

Mythic is going to oversee UO, instead of UO being directly under Larry.

[WindupAtheist]

Probably.  I get the vibe the UO devs just had this dropped in their laps from above and hardly know WTF is going on themselves.

[Arthur_Parker]

Classic UO server pre-trammel.

[shiznitz]

This could actually be very good for UO fans. Oh crap. I really don;t want to get my hopes up that a real 3D revamp will come to UO.

[schild]

Oh man. That's rich. Mythic gets bought and has to oversee a shitty MMOG.

Goddamn. This would make good TV.

Edit: Or they're working on UO2/X or whatthefuckever.

[Cheddar]

Oh man. That's rich. Mythic gets bought and has to oversee a shitty MMOG.

I will shank you.  Seriously. 

[WindupAtheist]

My gut says they roll the UO team into Mythic and eventually put out an EA Station Pass of DAOC, Warhammer, UO, Sims, and whatever else they have laying around.  Sims Online is still around, right?  Think I'll go see if there are any announcements related to that.

[schild]

What a shitty station pass. I'd rather pay one price for Ragnarok Online 1 & 2.

[WindupAtheist]

All quiet on the Sims front, as far as I can tell.  Which isn't saying much.  The official website is basically a big "buy now" advertisement, devoid of any useful news, and the Stratics is just a mess even by Stratics standards.

And Schild, you can troll us UO people all you like.  We know it's just because WoW made your e-peen fall off.  :-D

[schild]

I'm not trolling UO folks. I'm trolling EA and Mythic.

[WindupAtheist]

Cheddar is still going to shank you.  Just look at his Riddick avatar.

[schild]

I can dodge a guy that moves a quarter inch at a time.

[Kenrick]

Precasting.

[WindupAtheist]

Precasting has been back for ages.

[Cheddar]

Kenrick is a goddamn genius.  I just had yoohoo fly out my nose.  Thanks. :mrgreen:

[WindupAtheist]

I misinterpreted his comment as "Bring back precasting, beeyotch!" due to years of conditioning.  *shakes head*

Anyway, the Stratics monkeys are going batshit insane and threatening to cancel, as usual, even though they have no idea WTF is going on yet.  I think their going interpretation of the blurb is that UO people are being pulled away to work on Warhammer.  The level of discourse there is quite possibly below that of the official WoW forums.

How does anyone go there WITHOUT getting banned every couple months?

[Cheddar]

I misinterpreted his comment as "Bring back precasting, beeyotch!" due to years of conditioning.  *shakes head*

Anyway, the Stratics monkeys are going batshit insane and threatening to cancel, as usual, even though they have no idea WTF is going on yet.  I think their going interpretation of the blurb is that UO people are being pulled away to work on Warhammer.  The level of discourse there is quite possibly below that of the official WoW forums.

How does anyone go there WITHOUT getting banned every couple months?

[Krakrok]

I still have my money on them implimenting UO in the DAOC engine.

[WindupAtheist]

Well Wilki, the designated forum tard wrangler for EA, says they're absolutely not being merged with Mythic, so I dunno.  Repeated cries of "Okay, so what the fuck ARE you doing?" seem to be getting nowhere.  Darkscribe, the current UO boss, put out a positive but essentially content-free "It'll be good news when we can talk about it!" statement to placate the peons.

[Righ]

Classic UO server pre-trammel.

Presumably you mean "nothing but a pre-Trammel server" because Fellator was a roaring success when all the sheep left the wolves behind, wasn't it?

[WindupAtheist]

I support the notion of a pre-Trammel shard.  I want a certain segment of the UO community to realize that they can never go home again, so that they'll finally shut the hell up.  And nothing would drive that point home like a bunch of play2crush types logging onto a pre-Trammel shard in anticipation of finally reliving the Good Old Days, only to realize that there's STILL nothing to do but shit-talk each other at Yew gate, because all the breadbakers stayed home.

Anyway, this is weird.  Wilki is doing his best to downplay this... whatever it is... as if it were just the UO and Mythic devs having tea and discussing design concepts.  And yet the in-game event series and whatever "big announcement" they were planning on making have both been put on hold because of this.   Meanwhile Darkscribe is passing along these little notes to the effect of "Our plans are either going to stay just as they are, or get a lot more ambitious, we don't know yet!"

So SOMETHING big is up, but I have not a clue what at this point.  Maybe they really are going to do a proper 3D client.  Lord knows they've flirted with the idea enough in the past.

And as for "ZOMG UO IS UNWORTHY OF MYTHIC'S TIME" and such...  Look, I don't know how accurate Bruce's DAoC numbers are, but Lum has stated in the past that his UO figures are reliable.  If we take his chart at face value for the moment, guess which game has more active subs at the moment?  It's not DAoC.

[schild]

I don't think it's unworthy of Mythic's time. They sold out to EA.

They don't deserve real work to have fun at the office.

[WindupAtheist]

I hate to invoke the Bruce chart again, but it shows DAoC taking it in the ass in terms of subs, presumably due to WoW.  (Which I find plausible.)  Between that and having a high-profile project in development, I have to wonder if they sold to EA because they really needed money.  And not just to make hats out of.

[Arthur_Parker]

Classic UO server pre-trammel.

Presumably you mean "nothing but a pre-Trammel server" because Fellator was a roaring success when all the sheep left the wolves behind, wasn't it?

I think there would be a market for a single wolf shard.  The problem with Trammel was it was implemented on all shards, the only alternative was SP for the 10% or so of the population who hated Trammel.  I'm not saying it would be an amazing success but if the old code is still available it might bring a tiny fraction of life back into a very dated game.

[tazelbain]

DAoC was bleeding before that because of ToA.

[WayAbvPar]

forum tard wrangler

This really needs to be the new moderator title.

[Lum]

I don't think it's unworthy of Mythic's time. They sold out to EA.

They don't deserve real work to have fun at the office.

Hate much?

[HaemishM]

Probably.  I get the vibe the UO devs just had this dropped in their laps from above and hardly know WTF is going on themselves.

So then it should be just like any other day I suppose.

[Slayerik]

I don't think it's unworthy of Mythic's time. They sold out to EA.

They don't deserve real work to have fun at the office.

Hate much?

Schild is the Blazing Sword of Hater Voltron.

[shiznitz]

I still have my money on them implimenting UO in the DAOC engine.

If they did that, they would get my money.

[Reg]

They might even have enough time to do it during the honeymoon period before EA steps in and destroys them.

[Numtini]

I'd play an updated UO.

Geez. I get pangs about reupping even without it being updated. And I was tired enough to IDOC my house inside of Skara Brae.

[Xanthippe]

I'll likely buy anything Mythic makes until they make a stinker.  I fell in love with DAOC until ToA broke my heart.  It just engaged me despite all the things I hated about it.

[Ironwood]

I don't think it's unworthy of Mythic's time. They sold out to EA.

They don't deserve real work to have fun at the office.

Hate much?

Schild is still bitter that he sold himself so cheaply to SoE.