Ultima Online

Originally posted by jor8888

Does anyone even know UO or EQ was in development first?

From wikipedia, UO began development in 1995 and EQ began in 1996.  Interesting that EQ began development before UO was even released - didn't know that.

UO 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 Garriot, 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.

The project started in 1995 and was shown to the public at E3 in 1996. At the time (in the mid-1990s), Ultima Online was a very expensive project and quite risky for the company. The development cost was much greater than traditional computer games, it relied on people accessing servers with modems, and it attempted to transform the Ultima series into an entirely new genre. Ultima Online was an ambitious game on a number of fronts, such as:

• Players may buy housing and build houses within the persistent landscape (this is still an uncommon feature in many online games).
• A skill system without the more traditional experience-based levels or classes.
• Many different trades or crafts can be performed by the players to create an in-game economy.
• Players could be freely attacked anywhere in the game, even in cities (this has since changed).

Upon release in mid-1997, Ultima Online proved to be very popular, reaching 100,000 paying subscribers within six months of release. Subscriptions grew 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), Dark Age of Camelot (released in October 2001), and World of Warcraft (released in November 2004). The Korean massively multiplayer game Lineage was very much inspired by Ultima Online, as have many other subsequent online games.

EQ Development history

The design and concept of EverQuest is heavily indebted to text-based MUDs, in particular DikuMUD, and as such EverQuest is considered a 3D evolution of the text MUD genre like some of the MMOs that preceded it such as Meridian 59 and The Realm Online. John Smedley, Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover and Bill Trost who jointly are credited with creating the world of EverQuest have repeatedly pointed to their shared experiences playing MUDs such as DIKU and TorilMUD as the inspiration for the game.^[2]

Development of EverQuest began in 1996 when Sony Interactive Studios America (SISA) executive John Smedley secured funding for a 3D version of text-based MUDs following the successful launch of Meridian 59 the previous year. To implement the design Smedley hired programmers Brad McQuaid and Steve Clover who had come to Smedley's attention through their work on the single player RPG Warwizard. McQuaid soon rose through the ranks to become Executive Producer for the EverQuest franchise and emerged during development of EverQuest as a popular figure among the fan community through his in-game avatar, Aradune. Other key members of the development team included Bill Trost, who created the history, lore and major characters of Norrath (including Everquest protagonist Firiona Vie), Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin who implemented the spell system, and artist Milo D. Cooper, who did the original character modeling in the game.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful. By the end of the year, it had surpassed the leading competitor, Ultima Online, in number of subscriptions. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. As of 2004, Sony reports subscription numbers close to 450,000. SOE released a Mac OS X version of EverQuest in 2003, incorporating all expansions through Planes of Power. Development of the OS X version has languished since then, but the server remains up and running, supporting a small but enthusiastic user community.

I agree that the original vision for this game has been lost over time, but as it stands, I still believe it to be way deeper and roleplay friendly, than all the eq/wow clones out there.

Joeyboots...You are wise my friend. 

Originally posted by wrekognize

Joeyboots...You are wise my friend. 

Thanks wrek, just call em as I see em. I have read your posts before, and we have similar beliefs. I am tired of people saying this game is utter crap, when it is not, it is just different then when it started. What has not changed, is the immersion and how the game facilitates true "roleplaying" which has yet to be matched by any mmo, even the mighty mighty WOW. Maybe It's because I'm an old-school DandD geek, or maybe it's because I remember being first attracted to the mmo genre by the classic big three (eq1, uo, and AC), though i originally played eq. I was just a kid then, but I remember the attraction was the chance to be part of a virtual world, and play a role. Nowadays, it seems like mmos have become more style over substance. They seem to be more about instant gratification, instances and raids, and grinding for epic gear and such. Sure the graphics are better, and they tend to be more accesible and user friendly than the classics, but when you come down to it, it seems like these modern conventions are implimented at the expense of "persistance", and "roleplayability". Whatever happened to just wandering the world (with no instances or load screens), in search of adventure, or interacting with other players in character, whether they be fisherman, blacksmithy, mage, or thief. Community is important, not just a group of people who play the game, the economy and player base is extremely reliant on the many professions that can be chosen, as most things you might need are not sold at npc shops. I had a friend that was a tailor, and that was all he did, tailoring, and thus ended up buliding a house he used for his tailoring shop. He had the choice to do so, and thats what makes this game so special. You are not forced to level your toon, or even fight anything if you don't want to. UO was, and still is a world that you live in, not just a game that you play.

Some old PvP Vets always come by and say that EA destroyed UO, ironically it was people like you that destroyed the game for alot of people that didn't care to be Player killed as soon as they left the town.   It was total chaos and almost unplayable most of the times.   It was like the wild west with no law what so ever.  Even in towns, clever Beta players figured out ways to kill newbies.   UO has alot of its player base leave because of the out of control player killer bands roaming the lands preying on the player-base that just started the game.  

You say UO pre-trammel, was the best ever.   Yes it may have been for the people who loved to prey on the helpless who just started out in the game.    Just to rob them of thier pitiful 500 gps or whatever it was at the time.

Believe it or not Trammel actually brought back cancelled accounts and brought subs  to about 250k at its height.    UO was dying a rapid death with people leaving the game because of the PK chaos and little game out called Everquest which took out of UO's player-base and kept them for good.

Free for all PvP where everything goes will never be a success.   Even in the past history of mankind there was laws or there would be total chaos as some people can't behave themselves.

Even in Beta your "god" Lord British got PK.   That was a just a sign that this promising game was doomed from the start. 

We do agree. 

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/thread/141864

I myself am on both sides of the fence, actually. On one side, I believe the invention of Trammel and Felucca was actually good for the game, as it gave those who hated the rampant pk'ing, a place to play in peace, and those who still wanted to kill others at whim, a place to pk to their heart's content. On the other side, I believe the un-ultima like content that has been heaped onto the game since Mr. Garriott left, is simply ridiculous. So in short, this game was not any better or worse back then or now, just different. And, once again, this game is still a roleplayer's paradise.