Did you pledge from experiencing Ultimas of the pasts?

I don't want remakes or a return to actual Ultima. I want something innovative and new, but also something that hearkens back to my experiences playing the Ultima series.

Some of my big reasons for backing the project:
No exclamation marks above people's heads
No map markers that tell you where to go to complete quests
No pre-programed conversation
The necessity of taking notes to remind myself of who I need to talk to and about what

That reminds me of Ultima past. Of course, I want new and innovative stuff, too.

 

I pledged based on my experiences in Ultima Online.
I should have pledged based on my experience in A Mystical Land.

 

Or the days of BBS on that rocking 9600 baud. There are days I really miss the old L.O.R.D. server that my friends and I played on.

 

1200? Dang that was fast.

Try running at 300 on my Atari 400!

 

My first 1200 baud modem came with Prodigy which lead me to the Ultima Dragons. So even my first experience with "online" is wrapped in a nice warm Ultima blanket.

I got "internet" later when I worked weekends for an ISP which was the only way I could afford (FREE EMPLOYEE ACCOUNT). It was during my weekends working (open to close) I would play UO alpha and beta, as my phone lines and modem at home would smoke and crackle when I played it there.

 

Yeah, I do remember CompuServe, I was a Sysop for a board that CompuServe had. I used to work for a software developer who made CAD software and I would answer questions on those boards. As a result I got a free account. My very first modem was either a 400 or 800 baud if I remember correctly, I had it attached to my very first computer which was a C64!

 

I selected "Previous Ultimas" which also includes Ultima Online. I have played all of RGs games and have never been disappointed. The equal second reason is that the story, fictional setting and gameplay all appeal to me.

 

Right. So this is not in fact a conversation wherein I say something, you listen, understand, and respond meaningfully. It's just a vehicle for you to post comments at Mr Garriott. Fine by me, but I still would rather you did it without quoting me, since we aren't actually talking to each other. Emphasis on 'we'.

 

I played UO for a few years pre-2000 or so. It was THE best gaming experience of my life. I am sad to see what happened to that game starting with AoS. I pledged in day 2 or 3 of the KS as soon as I found out about it at the Citizen tier, upgrading later. I am a fan and follow Ultima & RG news very carefully. I have played other Ultimas since getting into UO and was left very satisfied, with VII & VIII being my favorite.

My goal here is to steer the game into the direction that is close to early days UO (without all the griefing of course)

 

I fell in love with Ultima starting with Ultima VI (and IV, V, VII....), and Houston and I have known each other for a while due to our shared love of the franchise.

As much as I adore Ultima, I don't mind the idea of SoTA being a new offering... as long as you can find in it the things that made Ultima special: Unique lore, a living land, and a sense of investment and attachment. The world-building RG did with Ultima was simply marvelous... but of course, we all remember that it took four games for Britannia and the early core of the game to solidify. That was mostly due to his youth, inexperience and taking time to find his own style... but by the time Ultima V and VI hit the ground, we all knew the world and its people, and cared for it.

I think that New Britannia and SoTA will be as engrossing and as successful... as long as RG comes to care for it and feel as invested in it as he was with Britannia. Though I don't think he would be running this gambit if he weren't capable of investing himself in a new world.

What I am looking for is not exactly the specifics of an Ultima game, but the feeling of belonging that was part of the Ultima patrimony. Of course, I regularly go back to visit Britannia since I bought all of the games on gog.com...

But I would be lying if I said I was not interested in the prospect of exploring new lands as well. Especially those made by the same mind that created some of my favorite fictional worlds.

 

Definitely because of Ultima. Not Ultima Online.

I want to see a game that is full of story and character like the entire Ultima series was.

UO was fun, but it wasn't exactly a story driven experience. It was just "Hey, here's Britannia, try not to get killed!"

 

I have never played an Ultima game. I was too young or not alive at the time to enjoy them in their heyday. In fact my only exposure to the series was the spoony reviews. Although I can sympathize with those of you who blame EA for ruining the series as I feel they have ruined bioware games for me.

I pledged because I saw an interview about this game that really spoke to me. Richard Garriott was talking about the current state of rpgs. Things like the impossibility of failure, monster farming, and the bane of my existence the magic brain compass that tells you exactly where your objective is , these things are all too common in rpgs now. I believe that some companies that produced high quality rpgs are changing the way their games are made to appeal to a wider audience. And while I can understand why they would do that it's gotten to the point where there are trying so hard to appeal to everyone else that they stopped making games appeal to people like me.

For example:

My favorite Rpg of all time is the elder scrolls Morrowind. I thought it was a unique world that allowed you to do so much and had a fun system that really allows you to make a unique character. If you took the time to learn about the world and explore the game you could do just about anything, including becoming powerful enough to kill gods with your bear hands. What I enjoyed most was trying to complete quests outside of towns. Things as simple as go to this cave and kill this bandit were never simple in the game. You had to ask around town for directions which were often not very good directions, you needed to reference the map that came with the game constantly and really explore the world. I had dozens of tiny post it notes all over that map as well as an entire notebook devoted to the game. And then oblivion came out, and while I enjoyed oblivion it didn't achieve anywhere near the level of challenge or engagment that Morrowind did. Mostly because of the magic brain compass your character has that tells you the exact location of your objective and your ability to instantly travel to anywhere on the map you've already been just by clicking on it. You could still make a ridiculously powerfully character but you no longer made the items yourself because all the best items were found in random loot drops. But at least I enjoyed the characters and the story and I could still invent custom spells which was always fun. And then skyrim came out, I pre-ordered skyrim and returned it the next day. The cashier was stunned, frankly I am to this day confused as to why anyone , even causual gamers, liked that game.

 

I really liked Morrowind, as well, though I never finished the game. The Elder Scrolls series just didn't grab me like the Ultimas did. I enjoyed running around and killing things, but I never really felt like I was part of the story. I returned Oblivion after a couple of hours.

There was always something impersonal about TES that Ultima seemed to overcome, despite the fact that TES had really superior systems. Had someone remade an Ultima game using the Morrowind engine, that would have been awesome. I did play the hell out of Arena and Daggerfall, though. I never actually got into the quest part, but just ran around as though I were in a sandbox. That was when I had lots more time on my hands.

 

You sound like Brisco County Jr.! You're looking for the "Coming Thing"!

 

I started with UO, after or during rather i got the Ultima series to experience it.

 

I'm pretty much in the same boat. My first exposure to Ultima was U6 in 1990. I was absolutely enchanted by the whole package, the hook was the cloth map which actually corresponded to the game world (and was in a sense indispensable). Had it pinned to the wall with little peices of masking tape on which we wrote translations. U7 just took it to a whole other level with its full screen view and streamlined mouse interface. U8, lets not go there...in fact, it was so bad I forgot about Ultima. Many years later I noticed U9 sitting in the clearance section of a store and grabbed it...well, lets just say I went back to U4/5 at that point.

I too was in on the beta of UO, but never played at launch. These were the days of dial-up (beta updates had to be mailed out on CD!), and at that time the notion of tying up the phone line to play a game was a huge barrier, and the concept of paying a monthly fee for a game seemed (at the time) asinine. LOL.

 

I don't know how active you were in beta, but do you recall people crowding around the various shrines and wrestling completely naked? This was the early method of powerleveling a skill. If you died, you were instantly resurrected, and because there were so many people there, you learned quicker through "observation." I happened upon this simply because I was looking for a shrine to visit. When I saw what was going on at one of Britannia's most sacred sites, I realized the game wasn't going to be for me.

 

Word for word, exactly the same for me in '86.

 

And I also must admit to be a sucker for Martian Dreams... I never took much to Savage Empire, because I wasn't into the Doc Savage genre. When I learned that a third game was planned, and that it was going to take place in the setting of the Arthurian cycle, I wept for its cancellation. Oh, if only...

 

G: None the above.

I played the stand-alone Ultimas starting with the first one on my Apple ][+. I enjoyed most of them but stopped buying after Ultima IV. I moved on to other software.

I never played Ultima Online. I had friends that did and the constant player-killings turned me off. It didn't look fun so I never tried it.

I've followed Richard Garriott's career over the years. I got to meet him (though I doubt he would remember) at a NCSoft VIP party...I was notably bitching that there wasn't any Guild Wars posters present.

I pledged for this project due to Chris Roberts mentioning the Crossbow Perk by cross-promotion. This project reminds me of a project I was involved with many moons ago (that never got made) called Adellion. I hope SotA helps recreate that "imagined enjoyment" which our project was going to make a reality.

TQQdles™