Richard Garriott + Spiritual Successor of Ultima Online

[Felithvian]

If you're tired of playing the same cookie cutter games that lack accomplishments, true friendships, epic battles, and a sense of free will:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0

 

http://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

 

More important than the name though, is the philosophy behind the design. The Portalarium team has set out to build a solid and robust incarnation of Ultima Online that embodies all the things we loved about the early UO, a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII itself and an even more compelling story than IV-VII.

 

Generally speaking, we might get an upgraded version of UO, with the possibility to play offline. If things go as smooth as they seem, there will be no reason to play or even release future MMORPGs. This title alone will suffice.

[BruceVC]

If you're tired of playing the same cookie cutter games that lack accomplishments, true friendships, epic battles, and a sense of free will:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/portalarium/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues-0

 

http://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

 

More important than the name though, is the philosophy behind the design. The Portalarium team has set out to build a solid and robust incarnation of Ultima Online that embodies all the things we loved about the early UO, a virtual world more interactive than Ultima VII itself and an even more compelling story than IV-VII.

 

Generally speaking, we might get an upgraded version of UO, with the possibility to play offline. If things go as smooth as they seem, there will be no reason to play or even release future MMORPGs. This title alone will suffice.

 

Yeah I pledged towards this game and I am looking forward to it .

[Drowsy Emperor]

These days my backlog grows by the minute.

[babaganoosh13]

I see they're now over $2.25M with PayPal. Are they going to do the mod tool stretch goal, or has that time passed?

[Tigranes]

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

[Hurlshort]

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

 

Tabular Rasa was pretty sweet, actually.  

 

Has it been 20 years since Ultima Online?

[BruceVC]

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

 

Oh yee of little faith

 

But yes I have a few reservations, but I can't be anymore disappointed by him than certain other companies in the last few years. So I am happy to be part of the cheer-leading squad at least until the game comes out and we can assess it properly

[Drowsy Emperor]

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

 

Same thing goes for Fargo. Its like someone cast mass resurrect on the graveyard of gaming.

[Felithvian]

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

 

Blame World of Warcraft for all the bloody mess they created in the MMORPG genre. We all knew that Tabula Rasa was planning to appeal a wide sector of the WOW community, since most of Garriott's ideas for the final project were cut off.

 

I think most game designers really just suck, and I think there's a reason why. Lack of education and a lack of extra-design skills are plaguing many of the so called "designers" and the industry at large.

 

Creativity requires going outside the NORM and doing something that will draw in audiences or even put them for a ride. Instead game developers use the most mundane, over-repeated stuff on earth. Your story-lines suck. Your graphics are disgustingly old and ugly-looking. Your limitations on what a player can do inside a game is baffling. You offer very little to no room for growth and expansion, but want both players and games to follow this mundane line called "normality".

 

Bring back Garriott's Virtues, mix it with some craziness from Mr. Moulyneux, add a mathematical equation from Stevo Barcia and bring in some guns from the lands of Romero and Perry. It'll most likely taste like the wine from the Golden Age of computer gaming.

 

[Drowsy Emperor]

Moulyneux is another one of those who sustains his reputation on pure bs marketing and nothing else. 

[Keyrock]

 

Meh. Let me know once Garriott's proven he can make a good game after twenty years of not. i.e. when this thing comes out.

 

Same thing goes for Fargo. Its like someone cast mass resurrect on the graveyard of gaming.

 

 

We're going to find out really soon if Fargo still "has it".  I personally thought The Bard's Tale (the new one) was fairly enjoyable, albeit thoroughly unspectacular, mostly for its tongue in cheek humor.  Wasteland 2 will be the litmus test.

 

 

 

 

Creativity requires going outside the NORM and doing something that will draw in audiences or even put them for a ride. Instead game developers use the most mundane, over-repeated stuff on earth. Your story-lines suck. Your graphics are disgustingly old and ugly-looking. Your limitations on what a player can do inside a game is baffling. You offer very little to no room for growth and expansion, but want both players and games to follow this mundane line called "normality".

 

 

 

 

The problem with going outside the norm is that 95% of the time it's going to spectacularly fall on its face.  While nothing is a sure bet to make money, outside of Call of Duty 83: Modern Warfare 17: Ghost Protocol 3: Elite Unit: Squad Alpha: Classified Ops and Madden's yearly full game price roster update DLC, it seems, because people are sheep, doing retreads of the same tired garbage is a safer bet than going out on a limb. (that's my entry for Run On Sentence of the Year  ) It's still thoroughly worth it, in my opinion, for that 5% of the time that going outside the norm does produce something revolutionary, or at least fresh and interesting.

 

Moulyneux is another one of those who sustains his reputation on pure bs marketing and nothing else. 

 

I have to sadly agree.  Dungeon Keeper was fantastic, as was, to a lesser degree, Populous (for its time, at least), but since then, he's pushed out a steady stream of mediocrity, in my opinion.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Keyrock

[Felithvian]

 

The problem with going outside the norm is that 95% of the time it's going to spectacularly fall on its face.  While nothing is a sure bet to make money, outside of Call of Duty 83: Modern Warfare 17: Ghost Protocol 3: Elite Unit: Squad Alpha: Classified Ops and Madden's yearly full game price roster update DLC, it seems, because people are sheep, doing retreads of the same tired garbage is a safer bet than going out on a limb. (that's my entry for Run On Sentence of the Year  ) It's still thoroughly worth it, in my opinion, for that 5% of the time that going outside the norm does produce something revolutionary, or at least fresh and interesting.

 

 

That 5% was nearly 85-90% during the 80s, 90s & 2000s. I highly doubt they "fell on their face", since most if not all our glorious childhood memories came from those ages. Plus they used to sell like hell during those years.

[Keyrock]

 

 

The problem with going outside the norm is that 95% of the time it's going to spectacularly fall on its face.  While nothing is a sure bet to make money, outside of Call of Duty 83: Modern Warfare 17: Ghost Protocol 3: Elite Unit: Squad Alpha: Classified Ops and Madden's yearly full game price roster update DLC, it seems, because people are sheep, doing retreads of the same tired garbage is a safer bet than going out on a limb. (that's my entry for Run On Sentence of the Year  ) It's still thoroughly worth it, in my opinion, for that 5% of the time that going outside the norm does produce something revolutionary, or at least fresh and interesting.

 

 

That 5% was nearly 85-90% during the 80s, 90s & 2000s. I highly doubt they "fell on their face", since most if not all our glorious childhood memories came from those ages. Plus they used to sell like hell during those years.

 

I think you're looking back at those times with rose-tinted glasses.  It's natural that the successes are remembered and failures are forgotten.  I'll give you that success rates for unconventional projects were likely higher in the past, but 85% is a ridiculously optimistic figure.  I don't have any hard data to back me up, but I have complete confidence that that number is nowhere near realistic.  One thing I will say about the past is that major publishers were generally more willing to take a chance on an unconventional project back then.  The market was still saturated with clones of Super Mario Brothers and Double Dragon and the like, but budgets back then weren't nearly as uncontrollably out of control as they are now, so going out on a limb meant potentially a loss in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe a million or two in the worst possible scenario.  These days publishers are looking at potential losses of 8 or 9 figures if **** goes south, and that's just bonkers.  This has led to major publishers basically just sticking to clones and retreads of established game types with and established fanbase while the vast majority of outside the box thinking and innovation comes from small independent studios working on limited budgets.  The "innovation" in games from major publishers these days consists mostly of "we crammed more polygons into it" and "moar explosions in set pieces".

 

This ties in to the Is PC Gaming Dead thread where greylord obsessed over some mythical lack of "AAA" games on the PC.  To me whether such a "lack" truly exists or not is irrelevant since that's not where the innovation comes from any more.  It's the indie studios that are bringing interesting and fresh games, and while they do have a presence on XBLA and, to a lesser degree, PSN, the PC is still overwhelmingly the #1 playground and testbed of indie games.

Edited June 1, 2013 by Keyrock

[Dream]

I'd still rather play WoW.