Finally, the 2011 Ultima Online Developer Video Diary with Transcript

A lot of us have been waiting on this, and here we have it. Cal announced the video in a Stratics thread.

This is a shortened version of the original.
We will cover more information in the Video House of Commons … February 30th.

Kidding! … March 1st.

See you there,

– C

I almost feel like it needs no introduction at this point, but I want to point out it was heavily edited, mostly likely by EA public relations, as Cal made a reference to them going through it and adding some things. Cal states above that it is a shortened version, but I want to point out just how much it was shortened. Some of it made no sense to just have a second or two or three removed. If you watch the video closely, you can see where edits were made, or you can simply look at the transcript I threw together below.

Full transcript (any errors are entirely mine):

0:00 minutes
Opening (ESRB Disclaimer)

0:03 minutes
Calvin Crowner, “Cal”, UO Producer: (Speaking about a classic shard)
Instead of a ruleset, which is basically….a checklist….if we go through a checklist, there’s no way we’re gonna appeal to everyone. So instead of doing that…we’d rather really get back to that feel and that flavor that brought players to Britannia every day and brought them to log in, and that’s where I think we need to make our focus.

0:25 minutes
Cut to “Ultima Online in 2011” card

0:30 minutes
Bonnie Armstrong, “Mesanna”, UO Associate Producer
I think we’re going pretty strong. We have event moderators on every shard.

0:35 minutes
Video Jump/Cut
We’re getting away from basically just quests that you go out and kill mobs and we’re getting more into the story of a quest

0:44 minutes
Calvin Crowner, UO Producer:
We don’t need to have these long, elaborate story-arcs. We need things that are engaging…and well I’ll just call them bite-sized.

0:51 minutes
Video Jump/Cut
(UOJ note – not the clearest audio) ..then get your player, get you in, get you out.

0:53 minutes
Derek Brinkman, “Supreem” UO Lead Engineer:
As far as performance and stability are concerned, the client has come a long way.

0:58 minutes
Video cuts to in-game footage and a voice-over from the lead engineer.
Ahh..I think it’s pretty much there.

1:01 minutes (UOJ note – something cut)
s..it’s always been a dream of ours to actually get a higher-resolution….environment art set

1:07 minutes
Calvin Crowner, UO Producer:
We want to focus on making Magincia a player-driven town so that the framework for it…

1:13 – 1:14 minutes (UOJ note: apparent edit/jump, as Cal’s statements don’t match up)
…and when it’s all done..and the big bad is dead, then players can say we did this.

1:18 minutes
Derek Brinkman, UO Lead Engineer:
Getting new players into the game is very important to us.

1:21 Minutes
Video Jump/Cut
being that our game is over a gigabyte in size..the download can take a while. We want to bring the initial download to less than two hundred megabytes.

1:30 minutes
Bonnie Armstrong, UO Associate Producer
This is the good part…we’re going to come up with a new…a new player adventure, a new player area..just designed for them.

1:40 minutes
Derek Brinkman, UO Lead Engineer:
(UOJ note: clearly cutting into a statement he was making) …where all the new players go

1:41 minutes
Video Jump/Cut
…and that has a limited of art assets…in the world. This will allow us to give them a small initial download that just has what they need to play there. While they’re playing there, they will be downloading in the background, the rest of the game.

1:54 minutes
Bonnie Armstrong, UO Associate Producer
So I hope that everybody is going to enjoy the change, and we hope to make it better and better every year.

2:01 minutes
Calvin Crowner, UO Producer:
This game has touched developers and players alike, and it’s really exciting to be part of the legacy of Ultima and Ultima Online, and I just got this sense that everybody needs and deserves to play this game.

2:15 – the end
End credits/disclaimers
(UOJ Note: Cal was clearly cut off at 2:15)

My comments:
Something was definitely cut from the beginning, as Cal appeared to be talking prior to the start of the video. Several cuts were made elsewhere, and for such a short video, I really have to question just how much needed to be cut..such as between Cal talking about moving away from elaborate story-arcs. I’m also curious why there was a cut at :35 seconds or so when Bonnie was talking about EMs. Cal literally talked in one segment for 2-3 seconds, if that, before it cut away to Supreem!

Not every shard has an EM, but I won’t speculate other than to say they are either going to hire more EMs, or certain shards slipped her mind.

As far as the in-game footage, I do not believe that was the higher resolution art set, but the video was only released in low definition, so I’ll withhold judgment. If it was the higher resolution art, they should have released the video in at least 720p or released some screenshots, which leads me to also believe that it was not the higher resolution art set. I have read comments elsewhere speculating about what they meant in regards to the artwork, but I believe his statement is referring to new artwork, or at least bringing back the Kingdom Reborn artwork in some manner.

At :58 seconds when it jumps to in-game footage, I’m not sure if it’s a continuation of the lead engineer’s statement leading up to it when he says “I think it’s pretty much there”

At 1:01 minutes, I believe there was a definite cut/edit made that jumped from the lead engineer talking about the client to the artset, but it’s hard to say thanks to it showing in-game footage. I believe you can make out that he was saying something else prior to that.

At 1:21 minutes, there was a very quick jump/cut with Supreem – his hands barely changed positions. Same at 1:40 minutes

At 1:30, the associate producer was clearly smiling about something before she started talking, so I’m guessing there was also something cut before that.

As I said, I really have to question just how much needed to be cut….at least one of these cuts appeared to be just a second or two, maybe enough for a full sentence. There is a lot going on behind the scenes though.

So what did we learn? We learned that I can waste several minutes typing out a transcript and pausing and starting a video and looking for edits. We also learned that there was some really weird edits made, that were clearly not made for time.

I’m happy that new art is coming, I think it’s interesting they are putting so much into the new player experience.

Note: This story originally appeared on UOJournal.com