Wow,what a surprise.UXO cancelled

[Marc Trueshaft]

I got an email from the UXO email group.

From: Launius, Chris [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 4:58 PM
To: Binky
Subject: Announcement concerning Ultima X: Odyssey



Greetings Ultima X: Odyssey Community,



I wanted to give you a status update on Ultima X: Odyssey.



We've decided that in order to focus more resources on upcoming Ultima
Online projects, we will permanently suspend the development of Ultima
X: Odyssey. We understand that you may be disappointed by this news, but
let me assure you that this decision is in the best interest of the
franchise.



Members of the UXO development team will be moved to other Ultima Online
projects, including an upcoming expansion pack that is due out this
winter, as well as another unannounced project.



The overwhelming response to our recently released 7th Anniversary
Edition and upcoming expansion pack convinced us to focus more of our
development efforts on the future of UO. There are some amazing things
in store, and I have never been more excited about what I'm seeing in
development for Ultima Online.



"I'd like to thank the fans for their support of Ultima X: Odyssey. It's
that kind of passion that has fueled Ultima Online's success for seven
years and will continue to drive it for years into the future," said
David Yee, Producer of Ultima X: Odyssey.



I have attached the post from David Yee (which will live here:
www.eagames.com/redesign/games/pccd/uxo/home.jsp) for your
review.



Thank you for your support.



I'll see you in Britannia!



Chris "Binky" Launius


Seriously,I wasn't surprised.No Cal = nobody with any passion or vision.
Thats the biggest problem i had with UO when I cancelled over a year ago.I just didn't think anyone over there knew what the hell they were doing.
They made some mention of another secret UO project,but really who's going to take them seriously at this point?
Ahh well,I honestly don't care any more.Create an online game that offers up real role play over kill stuff,sell stuff so I can buy better stuff to kill more stuff with,rinse,repeat,and I'll give it a shot.Till then,give me NWN and Avlis.
On Avlis my half orc barb/rogue just made Blackguard,has joined an evil PC group,and we just played a major part in a storyline that will have major repercussions for the world.We did it through figuring out clues,overcoming some great DM obstacles,teamwork and role play,not collecting random mob drops ( hey you just knew I had to slip in a mention of Avlis,didn't ya?).

[Furri]

Geez you have got to be kidding me....


*gets hammer and pounds another nail into the coffin*

[Wizul]

Do you need any NWN expansions to play Avlis?

[Eliga Tibbar]

This is just history repeating itself. Ultima (in all it's incarnations) essentially died when EA/Sony bought out Origins and swiftly got rid of the guy behind it all, Richard Garriot. I remember before the acquistion, UO2 and U:9 were both in the works, along with a few other projects. Ultima-9 barely got out the door and was so buggy you couldn't play it, and UO2 (Everquest-style 1st person UO with characters and concepts designed by Todd McFarlane) was killed outright. Garriot quit over it and there was a mass exodous of his team.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise when the souless and visionless money-grubbing corpoarte weasel-dicks who inhereted the game continue to do whatever it takes to milk the cash cow with minimal creative effort until it rolls over dead. But hey, I'm not bitter about it *snicker*

[Wizul]

Hell said:

This is just history repeating itself. Ultima (in all it's incarnations) essentially died when EA/Sony bought out Origins and swiftly got rid of the guy behind it all, Richard Garriot. I remember before the acquistion, UO2 and U:9 were both in the works, along with a few other projects. Ultima-9 barely got out the door and was so buggy you couldn't play it, and UO2 (Everquest-style 1st person UO with characters and concepts designed by Todd McFarlane) was killed outright. Garriot quit over it and there was a mass exodous of his team.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise when the souless and visionless money-grubbing corpoarte weasel-dicks who inhereted the game continue to do whatever it takes to milk the cash cow with minimal creative effort until it rolls over dead. But hey, I'm not bitter about it *snicker*

My thoughts exactly.

[Marc Trueshaft]

Zeus said:

Do you need any NWN expansions to play Avlis?

Yeah,that's the downside,you need all the expansions,plus some downloaded content.
But IMO,it's well worth it.

But the world is still growing,especially since it was featured in a NeverWinter Wednesday a few weeks back.
Plus they are making portals to other servers as part of the CoPaP (Confederation of Planes and Planets) project. It lets other world builders link up with Avlis.There are already several other worlds/servers linked.
Everything from an evil server,tototally different worlds ( although they do have to follow CoPaP guidelines).Theres even a couple servers based on Forgotten realms in the works ( Avlis is not FR,it's based on a PnP campaign world designed by Avlis's creator,Orleron).
Anyone interested in checking it out,follow the link!

www.avlis.org/

[Wizul]

Hm. I can't seem to find my SoU disk and don't have HoTU yet.

Will have to wait a bit I guess.

[Jaxs]

Ultima Online looks bad these days. Almost all new MMORPGs offer everything that is in UO now. It just boggles my mind that a product could totally dominate the market and through bad managent and poor development practices slip so far from glory.

[ganesh]

Ya the only UO worth any time is player run. Try some, Angel Island is a nice pvp shard, you can check it out through this website....... www.game-master.net

Or you could come to DoJ's shard, its called Asgeroth Isles. ;D