UO’s Top 4 Strengths and Weaknesses

I received an email about last night’s article, Ultima Online: The Awakening (Are We The Rioters?), asking what I thought UO’s strengths and weaknesses were heading into the 15th Anniversary.

Now I would place the UO players as the #1 strength UO has, but that goes without saying, because without the players staying with UO, UO would have long since been retired.

UO has four major advantages over most MMOs/MMORPGs:
1) 15 years worth of content to draw upon
2) Skill-based system
3) A housing system that no other MMORPG can touch
4) It’s one of the few games where people can truly roleplay non-combat characters.

We have a persistent world that has developed over the last 15 years – new land masses, new and revamped dungeons, etc. A contrast to a skill-based system can be a little tough to describe to somebody who has only played UO – you really only see the difference if you have tried other MMORPGs where you are forced into a specific template or role that really doesn’t change or evolve. Some consider housing and the crafting/other non-combat roles to be UO’s biggest strength, and there is some truth to that. In theory there are houses on shards that could have been placed in 1997 and still be in use. Most MMORPGs either don’t want to consider housing, or they push for instanced housing if they offer it at all, whereas UO allows players to fundamentally alter the landscape and the world by placing a house within the world of Britannia than any and all can see and even access, should the owner allow it. Combine housing with those people who prefer the crafting and other non-combat aspects of UO, and you have a game that should be pulling in a lot more people who grow tired of the hack-and-slash themepark MMORPGs.

UO has a few major disadvantages right now:
1) No clear direction or future has been laid out.
2) An incomplete new user experience.
3) Outdated artwork (which is being worked on).
4) Incomplete/uninformative website (which is being worked on).

The artwork and website are being worked on. The artwork is a welcome addition to help try and draw new and returning players into UO.

The direction of UO, and the new user experience are the two biggest problems facing UO. The upcoming PC Gamer interviews with the Ultima Franchise Producer and UO Associate Producer should clear up any doubts about UO’s future – I believe they will lay out clear plans for UO in it, since they understand the importance of getting UO into PC Gamer once more.

The PC Gamer interview could literally lead to thousands of new and returning players trying out UO in the next few weeks. That’s where the new user experience comes into play. That concerns me, because a bad new user experience means many of those potential UO subscribers will not stick around, but I’m just not going to worry about it too much, because it’s too late to fix now.

If you are an existing UO player, and reading this article, when the PC Gamer magazine magazine hits newsstands and when the interview hits the web, I urge you to round up all of your friends and head over to Haven to help out any new players. They will need it.