Ultima Online 2

Teki187 · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:01

Here's the old video.

What on earth happened to it? what was the story behind its downfall?

misterjingo · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:04

ahah. I remember getting excited about all the UO2 vids (there was a pretty long one going around years back which showed a dungeon raid).

Teki187 · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:05

When i first watched that video all the years ago, hair on my neck stood up, still does now. The graphics are not that bad, but damn what potential.

Coldfox · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:33

The character animations actually look pretty good.

Teki187 · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:36

Coldfox said:
The character animations actually look pretty good.

They look better then most games produced now.

Edward78 · 12 Sep 2008 at 16:50

I got hyped a lot also, but like all great PvP focused games, it just faded, I wish they would update Shadowbane, it has a great set of PvP,siege rules that no game comes even close to.

Werewolf · 12 Sep 2008 at 17:06

Teki187 said:
Here's the old video.

What on earth happened to it? what was the story behind its downfall?

IIRC the short version is that EA decided to close down the Austin office that housed the old OSI/UO and UO2 dev teams and offer them packages to move to the main EA offices, thinking that because the same deal worked with some other dev teams (in areas with no other such employers), the UO/UO2 teams would be happy to up and leave their homes/friends/extended families.

They didn't, and whilst quite a few UO core team went (and some more came to arrangements to work from home), from one recent article it seems that only about 2 people from the UO2 team accepted the offer which basically killed it - not even enough of the team the get a new team up and running.

Basically the accountants decided it would be cheaper to get everyone under one roof, and that what worked for a Vegas based dev team (no other games companies there at the time, cost of living similar to around EA HQ), would also work for an Austin based dev team where there were plenty of other games companies/dev teams and the cost of living is much lower.

Teki187 · 12 Sep 2008 at 17:10

Cheers for that.

Such i shame.

JBod · 12 Sep 2008 at 19:51

misterjingo said:
ahah. I remember getting excited about all the UO2 vids (there was a pretty long one going around years back which showed a dungeon raid).

No such thing as a "dungeon raid" back then. Or any other stupid names that have crept into the MMO genre.

misterjingo · 12 Sep 2008 at 20:10

JBod said:
No such thing as a "dungeon raid" back then. Or any other stupid names that have crept into the MMO genre.

True. But the vid in question showed a large group of people running through a dungeon attacking things, some of them doing martial arts

.

Raumarik · 12 Sep 2008 at 21:53

I'm waiting on Kainz showing up here..