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Beau Hindman – Black
Bleak – Burnt Orange
Kyronix – Purple
Mesanna – Green
Misk – Olive
Onifrk – Grayish Blue
Phoenix – Blue
[00:00] Beau: All righty. Hello everybody. It is September 24, 2012. That makes it a Monday, which means it’s Rise and Shiney Monday. For those of you who are not familiar, Rise and Shiney is a column [dog barks in the background] in which I take a new…. There’s a dog barking in UO. That’s so annoying. And I take a different game each week. I look at it and then I basically see what’s up with it.
Well, in this case, I’m not really taking a new MMO. This is actually my very first MMO I’ve ever played. So I’m going to be looking at UO for the week, just kind of a recap on some of what’s going on with it and everything like that.
[00:37] [You see in the Enhanced Client a view of Beau’s character standing near the Minoc bank on the Great Lakes shard. He spends the entire hour of the video walking in and around Minoc, trailed at various times by other players and their pets.] Now what I’ve decided to do is something a little special. I reached out to the UO dev team and they said, “Sure, we’ll be on your little podcast that’s going to have a lot of problems, technical issues, thanks to TwitchTV and all that.” So I have six of them here. So I’m just going to get right to it and we’re going to introduce everybody, I’m going to play a little bit, and we’ll talk a little bit. And then if you guys and girls in the chat room want, have any questions, just holler in the chat room and I’ll see if I can get to them. But it’s really kind of hard with several of them going by, so just be patient with me.
[01:08] All right, so we’re going to start with Michael. Why don’t you introduce yourself there and tell everybody who you are, and how long you’ve been with the company and all that good stuff.
[01:15] Misk: My name is Michael Armstrong. My handle is “Misk” and I’m the Senior Lead Tester on Ultima Online. I’ve been with EA for four years.
[01:29] Beau: Four years. Very good. So you’re just a baby in the lifetime of this video game.
[01:32] Misk: Yes. Well, I’ve played for 15, but I’ve been on the team for four.
[01:38] Beau: Well then, you know what I’m talking about then.
[01:40] Misk: Right.
[01:41] Beau: All right then. Now Mike Moore, are you going to go next? How about you introduce yourself.
[01:44] Phoenix: Hi, I’m Mike Moore. I’m the…I’m Ultima Online’s System Designer. I started playing the game in 1999 and I went to work on it for the first time in the year 2000. I haven’t worked on it continuously, but I have been working on Ultima Online for eight years now.
[02:04] Beau: Oh! Very cool. So far we have all veterans, which is great. All right. Next we have Greg. Greg, why don’t you introduce yourself.
[02:10] Kyronix: Hi, my name is Greg Havlusch. I am an Assistant Designer on Ultima Online. I am the baby of the bunch. I have been on the team since January, but I’m no stranger to the game. I’ve been playing like since 1999 and very exciting.
[02:26] Beau: All right. Greg, I think somebody there might be hitting their mic a whole bunch with their chin whiskers or their nose or their sword or something. So be careful about that. Bonnie, why don’t you introduce yourself to everybody.
[02:37] Mesanna: I’m Bonnie Armstrong, known as Mesanna. I am the Producer of UO. I have been working on UO since 1999 and playing it since 1997.
[02:48] Beau: Really?
[02:49] Mesanna: Wooo! Oh shit.
[laughter]
[02:53] Beau: OK. Don’t get too carried away, you guys. We’re not done with everybody yet, before you start cracking up. Stephen, why don’t you introduce yourself, and if you want to go, “Woo,” go ahead.
[03:04] Kyronix (?): Oh I love my job.
[03:05] Bleak: I’m Stephen Brown. I’m the Software Engineer on Ultima Online. I’ve been on the team since 2008, so almost close to five years now.
[03:16] Mesanna: Scared the shit out of me.
[03:19] Beau: Okay, very cool. Somebody got scared there for a minute. Sounded like Bonnie…? James! Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody.
[03:26] Onifrk: Hello, I’m Jim Crawley. I’m actually the new Art Lead on the project. I recently started in July and I’m here trying to update, streamline, and make everything better as fast as I can.
[03:39] Beau: Very cool. So this is a big deal actually, today. This is not only special because this is the first MMO that I ever tried. It’s actually my wife’s first MMO. I remember the day I brought it home, I had the box. I’m sure you guys and girls remember the box with the art. Everybody on top and it looked like this giant world, and then you read about it on the back and it said, you know, “Join thousands of other players.” It was like, “No way. What is this thing?” you know. And I brought it home and, needless to say, my wife got super-hooked on it. I’d come home from work and she’d be playing it like eight hours straight. That was ’99 or 2000. And I still…this is my original character, Little Beau Turkey, I’ve had since then. But it’s…I’ve played it off and on over the years, but I have to be honest, I’m a little bit lost in this return, so I might have some questions for you guys and girls. But this is also, today–correct me if I’m wrong here—today is the 15th anniversary, correct? Your birthday?
[04:30] Mesanna: That’s correct.
[04:31] Beau: OK, so what are you doing around the office for the 15 year anniversary celebration?
[04:37] Mesanna: We’re going drinking.
[04:38] Beau: [laughs] You’re going drinking, or you are drinking?
[laughter]
[04:41] Mesanna: No, we’re going drinking.
[04:43] Beau: Oh, okay. So is that…
[04:44] Mesanna: I’m going to finish this first. [giggles]
[04:46] Beau: So you go somewhere and drink. That’s an…it’s been a while since I’ve done that, I guess. So…
[04:51] Mesanna: Yes, we’re going to go to a place that sells liquor and we’re going to go drink it.
[04:55] Beau: But, it’s…
[04:56] Kyronix: It’s been a while for us too. I don’t think we’ve done it in…god…two, three days.
[laughter]
[05:04] Beau: The question is, do you have an idea of where you’re going to drink, or are you just going to wander around downtown and…
[05:10] Mesanna: No, we’re going to go wherever Jeff wants to buy them.
[05:12] Beau: Oh, very nice. That’s always good. But, so I’m going to start with Mike Moore there. Just pick somebody at random here. Mike, what are some of your first memories of UO? What do you think is…what stuck out about it to you?
[05:26] Phoenix: Oh wow. Let’s see. Well, one thing that really stuck out was the fact that I got killed by another player within 15 minutes of having logged in. I created a new character who was a mage on Moonglow Island and it didn’t take me too long to start figuring it out. I started running around the island, outside of town, and I was just killing little animals. I think I had already figured out how to skin them for their hides and I was just running around killing innocent creatures, skinning them for their hides. Then next thing I know, I’m getting fireballs to the face and, being a complete new character, it only took like two or maybe three of the fireballs to take me down.
[06:15] Beau: Right.
[06:15] Phoenix: It was sort of a rough-and-tumble introduction to the game, but yeah, there we go.
[06:22] Beau: All right. Very cool. So Michael Armstrong, why don’t you give your first kind of impressions of the game?
[06:28] Misk: I remember a 15-minute battle royal with a chicken.
[06:35] Mesanna: [giggles]
[06:35] Beau: You’re talking like the first thing you saw was the chicken, you attacked it, and sat there…?
[06:39] Misk: I found a chicken, tried to kill it, and it took me 15 minutes to kill the chicken.
[06:44] Beau: Very cool. That sounds like a typical UO, you know, memory, though. Somebody…you know so many weird things like that honestly, and we’ll talk about this in a second, that you don’t really get in more modern MMOs. That’s good and bad, but…. Greg, why don’t you give an impression of…or give us an impression of your first impression of the game?
[07:04] Kyronix: Oh, let’s see. I was out in the woods of Vesper chopping wood to make bows, because I’d heard that was a really great way to make money. Somebody came along and stole all my logs and I kind of didn’t know what to do about it, because I just was like, “Dude, you stole my logs!” And then they called me a couple of names and I was like, do I call like the police? I had no idea. I was able to actually hire some guys in the town of Vesper to go hunt down this person. I think it cost me like 5000 gold and took me a couple of weeks to get all the money to put the hit out. But….
[07:41] Beau: Again, another typical UO memory, to me it sounds like from talking to players and fans as well. And then we’ve got…I knew we’d get our first player that’s on TV. “Look, I’m on TV!” Bonnie, how about you? Give us an idea of what you first thought of the game.
[07:55] Mesanna: Let’s see. The very first day that I logged in, I had bees talking to me in Skara Brae. It freaked me out and I decided I didn’t want to play a game where bees could talk to me. And I didn’t log in for a couple days.
[08:11] Beau: Well that….really?
[08:13] Mesanna: Yeah. [giggles] This was also when players could hide and talk.
[08:17] Beau: Oh, yeah yeah yeah.
[08:18] Mesanna: So, remember that?
[08:19] Beau: Yeah!
[08:19] Mesanna: So I had a player smack talking me at Skara Brae bank and I didn’t realize it. I thought it was actually the bees talking. Of course, I was stupid at the time, I guess, but I will never forget that.
[08:31] Beau: Well, but that’s one of the magical things about a game that allows players to do things like that, you know, to scare each other, to kind of sneak around, to actually physically disappear without leaving an outline, stuff like that. Again, we’ll get into it after introductions more, [barking dog in the background] but it’s…god, that dog [laughs]…. It’s one of those things that it’s just, you know, that UO continues to allow.
[08:56] Mesanna: Of course.
[08:56] Beau: Stephen, though, why don’t you let us in on your first secret memories of Ultima?
[09:02] Bleak: Well, I guess my story’s a little different from everyone else’s, since I haven’t…I was introduced when the game was in its young and infant state, almost 5, but just being, I guess, being guided through a dungeon and then dying. Then having a monster steal your weapon because you forgot to insure it and having to try to hunt down and find this monster again to kill it and take back your weapon. I think that was one of my fondest memories. Just being frustrated and being amazed that this game is pretty different.
[09:52] Beau: Yeah. Well, I have a player now asking me on the screen while I’m in-game here if I would like to see his horse, it’s in Felucia [sic]. Felucia. I always say that wrong. Which is, I’m not really that much of a newb. I mean I was playing back whenever…when did it split? I can’t remember.
[10:06] Phoenix: 2001?
[10:07] Mesanna: Yeah.
[10:08] Beau: Yeah. I remember…so I was playing around ’99, 2000. Uh…James, give us an opportunity to hear your greatest memory of Ultima Online, or at least first memory.
[10:17] Onifrk: Oh, well I’m actually probably the newest player, uh, person on the team. I have not been a playing member as of yet. But the one thing that has actually stood out to me a great deal are the fans of this game and the players in it. I’ve just been truly impressed by the number of people that love this game and support it to the point that they do.
[10:46] Beau: Yeah, and you can see that still. Whenever I ask on Twitter, and I’ve gotten e-mails already about it when I said I was going to be talking to the developers. They were like, “Ah!” People still freak out about it. And it’s not only funny to think that as with a 15-year-old MMO, one of the very first, I guess, graphical MMOs out there, if not what, the second? The first? I don’t know. I think Meridian might have been before, but it still draws in that kind of passion, and it still has that kind of a street cred. In fact, Ultima Online I guess would be the Rush of the MMOs, even if you don’t like Rush, you have to give them props. If not, you’re just kind of a jerk as they said in that documentary, so….
[11:25] So let’s talk a little bit about…I want to get to some questions and then we had one from…a couple from Twitter there that I wanted to particularly ask. Let me see, pull up here in Twitter.
[11:35] So it’s been 15 years, though…and anybody can take this and you can take turns or whatever you want to do, but it’s been 15 years. Do you think that UO could last another 15 years?
[11:44] Mesanna: I do.
[11:46] Beau: They said that’s no debate about it. You think so?
[11:50] Mesanna: Oh I didn’t even have hesitate. Yes.
[11:52] Beau: Why do you think it can?
[11:53] Mesanna: Because there’s no other game on the market like us. We are a total sandbox game. You could do anything, be anything you want to be, and you could learn something every day that you play. The creativity of our players is mind-blowing.
[12:08] Beau: Why?
[12:08] Mesanna: I mean, it’s absolutely amazing to go into the game. You can make up whatever you want to, the interaction between the players, and just the pure love of the game. That alone, I think, is going to just keep us going.
[12:21] Beau: Right. And also, there’s…and all of you will have probably a unique take on this, but I think with the graphics, I mean I still enjoy the graphics. They have definitely a nostalgic feeling. No, we’re not going for realism here or whatever, but you’ve got these graphics that are already kind of aged like fine wine. And so you don’t need to worry necessarily about it. But are we going to see a lot more improvements to the graphics? Are you going to keep them kind of how they are? Are you going to keep giving just parts that people can choose from within graphics?
[12:51] Mesanna: As you know, we have two different clients. We have the Classic and we have the Enhanced. We are working on the high-res art for the Enhanced client. So in the future they’re going to see some high-res art come in, you know, so…. It’s a slow process though.
[13:08] Beau: Do you think the graphics have something to do with the fact that, I mean people can always go back to UO and expect that similar look?
[13:17] Mesanna: With the Classic client, they’re always going to be able to have that similar look, because we can’t change it.
[13:21] Beau: Right. And is it, correct me if I’m wrong, but a lot of your players, in fact probably most of them, still enjoy the Classic client?
[13:27] Mesanna: A lot of…they won’t change from it, no…even if we offer something different, they’re not going to change from it.
[13:33] Beau: Is that because they’re fuddy-duddy, or because they’re [laughs] they’re just stubborn?
[13:37] Mesanna: It’s because we grew up with this client and this is what we’re used to.
[13:41] Beau: Right.
[13:42] Mesanna: You know?
[13:43] Beau: Right.
[13:43] Mesanna: We’re comfortable with it. And I do say “we” for a reason. [giggles]
[13:47] Beau: I mean, I’ve got I believe the Enhanced Client. You can zoom in and I think there’s some animations and stuff that’s a little bit different. To be honest, I actually do kind of prefer the 2-D client or the original client, just because it’s got familiarity but also it just works. I mean, everything just works perfectly well. Now everything in the 3-D client works as well, but there’s something comforting about that 2-D client. You can always just go back to it, you know.
[14:10] So let’s see here. This is a good question I got because I have a lot of people by the time they, you know, read about Ultima Online, they might have just now started to get into MMOs or they started with World of Warcraft or whatever. So they’ve never even heard or seen anything about Ultima, or they’ve heard about it but they’ve never played it. What would a more modern player, what could they get out of a game like Ultima Online? Anybody could take that. Michael Armstrong, actually, if you want to take it, I’ll give it to you.
[14:41] Misk: What could a modern MMO player get from UO?
[14:45] Beau: Yes. Let’s say a player that’s only played like World of Warcraft, or Rift, or something like that.
[14:51] Misk: There is…how can I put this? UO has a number of things that other games do not have. It has player housing that allows you to customize your house in almost any way that you want to. It has some of the best PvP out there.
[15:18] Beau: It has some intense PvP, I’ll give you that.
[15:20] Misk: Yes.
[15:21] Beau: That was actually a big, you know for those who don’t know, that was actually a big deal back in the day, that the PvP used to be open and then you split the shards. Correct? Is that a good way to describe it?
[15:32] Misk: Into different facets, yes.
[15:34] Beau: Right. And, again correct me if I’m wrong, but from my memory, I remember hearing that the game actually did better, or that the subscriptions or numbers of players picked up after the split. I don’t…
[15:46] Misk: I believe that is true.
[15:48] Beau: So, but even with that, I remember the PvP, if you do decide to get into it or you try it out, it is actually pretty intense and kind of scary, because you don’t necessarily see what’s coming. You just all of a sudden are hit with something…I mean it’s very intense stuff. So, how do you think that’s different from more modern PvP in, let’s say, a game like World of Warcraft?
[16:11] Misk: Well, with games like World of Warcraft or basically Dark Age of Camelot, games like that, you…it’s almost an opt-in. You have to specifically go looking for the PvP. In Ultima Online, as long as you are on the correct facet, you are basically open to attack pretty much anywhere.
[16:37] Beau: Right.
[16:37] Misk: So…it…it…
[16:43] Beau: I got it.
[16:43] Misk: It gives a sense of excitement that other games don’t provide.
[16:49] Beau: Right. Well a player in the game while I’m here said the true beauty of UO is that you can be a necromantic cake baker who lives on a boat. [laughs]
[16:56] Misk: That is….
[16:58] Kyronix: That is fact.
[16:59] Beau: Yes.
[16:59] Mesanna: This is true.
[17:00] Beau: He said, no lie. And you know that’s funny, because earlier I hadn’t logged in since I last really looked at UO for a while. And I have like 3 boat keys, but I have no boat. No little model or anything. So I have no idea what happened to my boat. And again, this is something I couldn’t stress enough to new players or the players who haven’t played a game like Ultima Online before, is things can happen that don’t make you happy. And that’s something I think that might be missing a little bit in more modern MMOs. You don’t really have any real, you know, there’s no real consequence to your actions.
[17:34] Stephen, just to kind of ask you, because I believe you were saying you were a little bit newer on the game, what do you think about how UO compares to more modern games
[17:41] Misk: Did I lose him, or did I crash?
[17:47] Beau: No, I think I’m still here with you, Michael, you’re here.
[17:50] Misk: Okay.
[17:51] Onifrk (?): I still see everybody.
[17:53] Beau: Yeah, I was just talking to Stephen there. I didn’t know if he had crashed or not.
[17:55] Bleak: I’m still here.
[17:56] Beau: Okay, cool. You guys are already drinking, so I was going to figure…
[laughter]
[18:02] Kyronix: That is another thing that is nice or exciting about UO is the fact that there is a sense of loss. If you die, someone can loot your body. In a lot of the newer games, if you die, you just have to go back to your spawn point or something along those lines.
[18:21] Beau: Right. Stephen, take that a little bit. What do you think about how that compares to more modern gaming?
[18:26] Bleak: Yeah, I think that really sets UO apart, or I was actually just about to say that. Just the fact that you can lose everything in that standpoint, that was one of my first experiences with the game. I got this awesome weapon, or what I thought was awesome at least, and I lost it. And I had to go try to get it back. It’s….
[18:56] Beau: It’s upsetting?
[18:57] Bleak: Yeah, it’s upsetting. I think comparing it to today’s MMOs, I mean there’s really no crutch in UO, you could say. There’s…if you lose something, it’s gone. You have to…. I guess there’s a lot of just interactions with players that you can’t control. There’s more freedom in UO than anything. And also I mean being it’s 2-D, that alone sets it apart.
[19:38] Beau: Right. And you can also, I mean, the 2-D client allows players to play on lower-end machines. I can play it on my Netbook even, which I’ve actually installed it on my Netbook, which is great. That’s just another opportunity for more players to play, but… So, another question… I’m sorry, go ahead.
[19:53] Onifrk: Real quick, this is Jim. I know I’m new to the game, but the one thing I’ve noticed most of all that sets this game apart from everything else is WoW, Dark Age, World of Warhammer, all of that stuff, you play a character in all those games. Whereas, when you play in UO, you’re part of a world. And I think for me, that’s what sets things apart. Like you said, you can be a baker, you can be a tailor, you can be an assassin hiding in the bushes. But there’s ups and downs and everything changes almost on a daily basis.
[20:30] Beau: Right. Right. Which is something that a lot of newer players might not be used to. So whenever they log into a game like Ultima, one of the first reactions I hear new players give, or at least players who haven’t been back for a long time, they forget the feeling of being kind of dissolved into a world. You jump in and then there’s not really…I mean you definitely have quests and stuff, but it’s not like this, “Hey, go over here and you have to do this, or you have to do that.” And that’s a very important difference there. There’s another llama.
[20:56] All right, so next question we have and I’ll let Greg take this one a little bit, since he hasn’t…since his little icon is cool. By the way, what is that from? Ah, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Ah, let’s see. Oh, here we go. And if you can’t answer this, Greg, whoever wants to answer it. Somebody, Naderal on Twitter, asks if there are any plans to introduce or reduce the price of entry. He says $30 for your first month, $12 for each month after is pricey for a 15-year-old game, and $15 for High Seas, the expansion. So are there any plans to reduce that price?
[21:27] Mesanna: I’ll take that one. Not at this time.
[21:31] Beau: [laughs] I knew that was coming. In fact, as soon as I saw that question, I was, you know they’re not going to comment on that. So I take it there’s going to be no comment on any chance for free-to-play then?
[21:40] Mesanna: Yeah, there’s going to be a “no comment” on that one also.
[21:43] Beau: Okay. You’re sure? Because you can go ahead and talk.
[21:45] Mesanna: Actually, there’s no use to do free-to-play. We have a good number of key players. So, at this time it’s not really something we’re looking at doing.
[21:54] Beau: Well, and I think it’s important also for people, for players to understand that free-to-play doesn’t necessarily save or help or hinder. I mean, it can do, it can work all sorts of ways for all sorts of games. So just because you want it to be free, doesn’t mean it should be free or need to be, you know.
[22:09] Mesanna: This is true.
[22:10] Beau: You know but…
[22:10] Mesanna: What we want doesn’t always help us.
[22:12] Beau: Right. And Bonnie, you’ve been playing games, obviously, for a while. What do you think about that whole new wave of free games that now has players, you know, wanting free games when they used to kind of prefer subscription games?
[22:30] Mesanna: Ah…that’s a really hard question. I feel some games should be free-to-play. There’s just some out there that shouldn’t be. I don’t think there’s any reason…a good reason why UO cannot do this is because we’re not level-based. We don’t go in the level to 15 and then say, “OK, you can’t go any further.” So it would be really hard to restrict UO just to certain things to put it into that category of a free-to-play game. So….
[22:58] Beau: Right.
[22:59] Mesanna: I don’t know. Some…like I said, some of them I think are, should be free-to-play and that’s the way…and they work well that way. And some just aren’t built for it, so….
[23:09] Beau: Well, I think, yeah…exactly. It depends on the game. Like I said, you can’t just say this game should go free because I would like to save some money. I mean, it could swarm your game with new players, or it could, you know, destroy it. Who knows. I’ve seen plenty of games fail in both free-to-play models and subscription models, so and UO…. Go ahead, I’m sorry.
[23:31] Mesanna: In fact…
[23:32] Beau: Go ahead, I’m sorry.
[23:33] Mesanna: No, I was going to say exactly. I totally agree with you.
[23:35] Beau: Okay, what is the deal…? Since I have six of the developers here, why are these “angry rioters” so angry?
[23:41] Mesanna: [giggles]
[23:43] Beau: What are they doing?
[23:44] Mesanna: I will let Greg answer that one.
[23:47] Kyronix: The “angry rioters” are really upset because there’s no king or queen in Britannia at this point. She unfortunately was murdered by her husband about nine months ago or so and they haven’t been fed, they are all out of work, because the nobles are taking all the money and keeping it for themselves. So it’s been a pretty terrible time to live in Britannia as a peasant right now. But we’ve actually been going through an epic arc to kind of flesh out Britannia’s future and we’re about…let’s see…today is Monday. So we’re about five days away from the ultimate climax of the past eight months. So it’s really exciting. We’ve had a lot of great fiction come up through the…through our EM program as a result of the…for the arc and everything like that, so it’s been really exciting stuff. But I think the peasants are going to be happy soon, so I’ll just leave it at that.
[24:44] Beau: So you’re saying there’s a culmination of something happening within this week?
[24:49] Kyronix: Yeah, yeah that’s right. We’re actually hosting an event here in Fairfax on Saturday that…
[24:52] Beau: Yeah! Cool.
[24:52] Kyronix: …a lot of our players are coming out to and it’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be a whole bunch of people that really love UO just like we do and we’re going to do some really exciting and fun stuff. Myself and Mike spent a good part of today packing up some of the goodie bags. And you guys are really going to love those. So, yeah, it’s really exciting.
[25:16] Beau: Oh that’s funny, because I picked the perfect week to…because actually we…I saw the anniversary coming up, I said it’s been a while since I’ve basically taken a deeper look at the game again, you know, because I have to cover a different game each week, if not a couple. And, uh, perfect! Because that means I’ll be able to have a live event and I can write about it. My column comes out on Sunday, so….
[23:35]: So let’s see. More questions here. What do we have? Bonnie, I guess you’re going to probably have to answer this: We talked about, you know, UO in 15 years or whatever, what about in the immediate future, let’s say the next 32 days to 57 days, just to throw out a number. What can UO players expect?
[25:55] Mesanna: Wow, that’s a pretty good-sized number.
[25:58] Beau: Don’t go above 57 days, by the way. Just so you know.
[26:01] Mesanna: Well, actually I can’t go above 57 days because we haven’t started our next one yet. We have been working on, which players are going to really appreciate, a way for them to get the stat scroll, so they’re going to love that. We have also been doing our vet rewards, our anniversary rewards, our Christmas items, so we’ve been working on the holidays, which just takes so much time to not only come up with the items but to get them working like we want them in-game. So we’re pretty proud of what we’ve come up with this year and I hope the players will like them.
[26:38] Beau: Very cool. Just on a side note, how does a player claim a vet reward?
[26:44] Mesanna: They just log in to the game and—
[26:46] Beau: It will tell them?
[26:46] Mesanna: –a gump comes up. Yeah.
[26:49] Beau: OK. I don’t have any vet rewards then.
[26:52] Mesanna: You don’t?
[26:52] Beau: No. Yeah, I mean I was curious because I saw something about them coming up and I knew that this happens with pretty much any time I write about an older game, especially people re-log into it, in case they were wondering, you know, how they might claim those.
[27:05] Mesanna: Yeah, you have to be 30 days for Christmas items, so your characters have to be 30 days’ old. Your anniversary items, you just also have to be 30 days old. But other than that, they just automatically pop up when you log into the game.
[27:18] Beau: OK. Very cool. And now my game music is going crazy. Very nice. Let me turn that down a little bit. All right. So let’s see here. Check Twitter really quick. Another question that was, it was kind of hard to understand, but essentially I think it probably had more to do with the payment model. But they’re asking about any more kind of extended trials. Are there any plans to do…I know you do Return Back to UO-type of things, but do you have any plans to do maybe an extended trial, like 30 days free or something like that?
[27:48] Mesanna: Right now we have the 15-day trial. The Return to Britannia was for this month. It’s over on October 5th. But at this time, no. After that’s over, we’re probably not going to do any further extensions like that.
[28:03] Beau: Yeah, I guess that’s what kind of threw me off when they asked that. I’m in the middle right now of the September was a free month for returning players.
[28:10] Mesanna: Right.
[28:10] Beau: Yeah. Which is why I’m in right now. Very cool. All right, so let’s go ahead and just get some more of the memory type of things. Not what’s your first memory of the game, but whoever wants to take that. We’ll go with Michael Armstrong first. What’s probably your favorite part of Ultima Online? Unless I lost Michael. How about Mike Moore go ahead and take it.
[28:32] Mesanna: He’s there.
[28:33] Misk: I’m here. I had it muted. My favorite part of UO. I’m a crafting junkie. I like crafting. I like doing BODs. I like putting together the very best suit of armor or weapons that I can craft. And I’m an Excel junkie. I like putting together the spreadsheets that will detail out how well my suit is going to be.
[29:02] Beau: Oh really.
[29:02] Misk: Yeah.
[29:02] Beau: That’s hard-core.
[29:04] Misk: Yeah.
[29:05] Beau: That’s…We’ve known about kind of the spreadsheet players, for, well since the beginning. And I’ve met a few. But I’ve never met one who currently makes the game. So that’s pretty interesting. What is a BOD, by the way, for those who don’t know?
[29:19] Misk: That is a Bulk Order Deed. Basically a player can go to a non-player character in the game and request a Bulk Order Deed, which is basically an order for items, whether it is tailoring items, or blacksmithing items. Basically the NPC will say I want 10 of these, or 15 of those, and the player will then fill that order, bring that order back to a non-player character, hand it in and get a reward.
[29:49] Beau: OK.
[29:49] Misk: The more difficult and more time-consuming BODs that you do offer better rewards.
[29:57] Beau: OK. And let’s talk a little bit about, we were mentioning earlier, but again with Rise and Shiney we’re presenting, we’re supposed to be presenting a new game. But in this case, it’s not new to me. But I still want to talk about what makes UO different. One of the biggest things that makes UO different, especially for more modern games, is you’ll hear about and on my screen–and by the way, chat room, if you have any questions, just holler for the devs here and I’ll try to ask them if you want to holler about anything, we’ll see if we can get an answer—but one of the things that makes it really, really different and really open and wonderful to play is the skill system. The skill system is not a little tree where you have a class and you can pick from like 3 or 4 different, you know, abilities or whatever, you know. This is basically anything you can think of, you can pretty much go after. In my case, when I started back in what, 2000—ah, somebody’s shooting me—I started with archery, I believe. But now I’m a Grandmaster. Bonnie, Grandmaster is still the max, right?
[30:52] Mesanna: No, Legendary is.
[30:55] Beau: Oh man. That sucks.
[30:56] Mesanna: You’ve gotta get power scrolls. [giggles]
[30:58] Beau: Oh boy. And so if I’m Grandmaster, see there’s no real levels to it, so is that like going to Legendary status, is that like another whole Grandmaster?
[31:08] Mesanna: It’s 120.
[31:10] Beau: Oh boy.
[31:10] Mesanna: Instead of 100. You have to go to 120.
[31:12] Beau: Oh, that’s not that bad. I can maybe do that.
[31:14] Mesanna: Depending on the skill, yeah, it’s not bad. Taming, lockpicking, stuff like this, will make you gouge your eyes out, it’s just painful.
[31:21] Beau: Right. By the way, chat room asked real quick when will there be more beards? I don’t know what that means. I guess for your character.
[31:30] Mesanna: Yeah, I’m sure he means for like the hair stylist and stuff?
[31:34] Beau: Yeah.
[31:35] Mesanna: We want to put in…I don’t know about beards, but how about horns?
[31:39] Beau: Horns sound cool. Chat room, how does that sound? Also somebody screamed, “Someone is streaming UO?!” Yes, UO is still and actually a wonderful game. And just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s gone and all. So yes, we’re streaming UO.
[31:54]: But anyway, I started off with Archery and you know, as she just pointed out, I’m still a newb at archery, even though I’m a Grandmaster. Then I moved, I believe, to Tactics, which came with Archery, if I’m not mistaken. I think I learned a little Healing. Where would that be at here? But anyway, as you look, as I’m clicking through my little skill tree here, you see that there’s little up arrows and down arrows and a way to lock a skill. Does somebody want to explain what that means, the up arrow, down arrow, lock? Whoever wants to take it.
Kyronix [32:24]: So basically that just allows you to lock your skills in place. So the way you gain skills is, you know, in UO is you basically just do it, and as you do it over time, you gain proficiency in that skill until eventually you reach a maximum proficiency. But sometimes you want to stop it before you get all the way to the very end, so those little arrows allow you to just have more control over your overall skills and stats and what not.
[32:52] Beau: Right. So if I’m, because earlier I said, hey I’m going to train up some of these skills I never messed with, like Hiding and Animal Taming and, well Animal Taming I’ve got a little bit. But I wanted to raise a little bit. But when I did, it said I was at a maximum of 700 points. So what does that mean? Do I need to lower some skills before I can raise more?
[33:09] Kyronix: Yeah. You’re capped at 700 and then eventually you get little bonuses for longevity. But basically you can draw from that pool of 700 or so points in any way you like, which is to me what makes UO one of the most awesome games as far as your character building. Because it’s like you mentioned: You can be…I think my first template was a cook/swordsman, so I spent my days baking and my nights killing deer and boars and all the stuff that I need to sell out of my bake shop. So you can do it any way you like.
[33:44] Beau: Oh, by the way, the chat room is for the devs. You should come out and visit us on Great Lakes. Diago, I think it is, Diago that’s where I’m actually at right now is in Great Lakes. Maybe that’s why they said it. Oh boy, now there’s a huge fire happening. Oh. It was magic.
[33:56] Mesanna: Just double-click it.
[33:57] Beau: No, it was somebody’s magic spell. But, um, so in other words, I couldn’t learn, just to be clear, I couldn’t learn every single skill in the game, is that right?
[34:07] Mesanna: That’s right.
[34:08] Beau: And do you think…have you heard that…so the next step, in other words, for me who has hit the 700 skill cap, what do I do from there to keep going?
[34:19] Mesanna: You don’t have 720?
[34:22] Beau: No. I have 705.
[34:24] Mesanna: OK. Well, if you stay in the game longer you can actually get another stat scroll and go to higher, but you can go to 7, what is it 720 is the highest now?
[34:36] Beau: OK.
[34:37] Mesanna: After you’re in for six weeks, you get another scroll and stuff, so….
[34:39] Beau: OK.
[34:41] Mesanna: You can go to 720. Other than that, it’s make a new character.
[34:44] Beau: So I do need to lower some skills before I wanted to do something else?
[34:48] Mesanna: Yeah, you have to refine yourself after that.
[34:49] Beau: OK. Is there any way for, and this I’m asking these questions again for any potential new players, is there any way that I could just kind of respec all my skills? Like just wipe them out and start over?
[35:01] Misk: You can use what is called a soulstone to basically store a skill onto the soulstone, which will allow you to use those points for another skill.
[35:12] Beau: OK.
[35:13] Misk: That is a vet reward and you can actually craft them now.
[35:18] Beau: But then I guess you wouldn’t want any players to necessarily to just be able to buy something in a cash shop to respec their character because then you…it’s kind of defeating the purpose of Ultima’s system, I guess.
[35:28] Misk: Well in some cases, like on my crafter, I like to have all of my crafting skills available to that character because crafting one item may require a certain set of skills, while crafting another item would require a second set of skills. And I can use a soulstone to build up my, say, Tailoring and then when I am not needing that Tailoring, I can then soulstone that away and bring over my Blacksmithing or what have you.
[35:54] Beau: Right. And chat room’s asking…bringing up a good point, because being that Ultima’s 15 years old, a lot of people, you know, they’re hanging out on the week and they’re like, “Man, I really miss Ultima Online.” And I’m like, “Wait a second. It’s still a game.” And so they go and they want to log back in. SissyHD said, “Man, if I could only remember my e-mail password, I could reactivate my old account.” What would you recommend to somebody who wanted to reactivate their old account? What would the steps be to do that?
[36:20] Mesanna: Honestly, they need to send e-mail to Support@ultimaonline.com and they’ll ask for a lot of information, try to verify it’s their account. If they can remember the secret word, that would be the easiest way to get the account back.
[36:33] Beau: Here’s what I did, because in between this time and the last time I played, which was almost a year ago, because I covered it for Rise and Shiney again last year. Not even a year ago. But a while ago, I wrote I think it was the Support you said and they were able to help me out. But where it got a little bit confusing is there’s the EA Mythic passwords, Master accounts and all that—
[36:57] Mesanna: Right.
[36:57] Beau: –so the only thing I could recommend for anybody that’s out there who’s who’s wanting to resub their account or get back in, is to get a pad and a pen and write everything down very clearly so that you have all your different passwords clearly. That’s what I ended up having to do, just because I would forget oh this is my Mythic password, this is my UO password, and da da da da. So, that’s all I can say about that.
[37:18] As a matter of fact, is there anything special for returning players when they pop back in, or will they find their character just as it was? Or any bonuses?
[37:26] Mesanna: No bonuses. It should be just as it was, without a house probably.
[37:29] Beau: Which is really strange to think of, if you think about it. I mean, I’m here looking at my character and I’m opening my backpack, I’m looking at things in my bank. And they’re literally things…I know they’re not physical, but they’re things that have been there for 10 years, 12 years maybe in some cases.
[37:44] Phoenix: Some of those things might be rare and valuable. I wouldn’t go throwing any of it away, unless you’re sure it’s useless. But there’s a lot of really old, you know, anniversary gifts, holiday gifts that were given out, and you might be able to sell those to a collector and make a tidy little profit off of those.
[38:03] Beau: But isn’t that kind of a strange, in fact am I talking to Armstrong?
[38:06] Phoenix: No, this is Mike Moore.
[38:07] Beau: Moore. I’m sorry, Mike. What do you think about that? Do you ever sit there and think I work on a game with pixels that are 15 years old now?
[38:15] Phoenix: I think it’s one of the things that makes Ultima Online one of the greatest games ever. [laughs]
[38:21] Mesanna: Hear, hear.
[38:21]: Beau: Right. I mean, I’m sure you’ve swapped out hard drives, and you’ve done all that stuff that tech people do, but essentially the 1’s and the 0’s have been there forever. So that’s a pretty interesting thing. In fact, do you guys and girls—
[38:33] Phoenix: I think psychologically, I mean, you can get attached to virtual stuff just as easily as you can get attached to real things. You know. I’m not sure that there’s really much of a difference.
[38:44] Beau: Right. In fact, that’s kind of a funny question. Do you have any items that you still hold onto, even though they’re not very…they don’t have any use, just because they’re nostalgic?
[38:54] Phoenix: I’ve got a few collectible items. Like every now and then, as a team, we’ll include as one of our holiday gifts an item or two that might have some of our in-game names on them. And I like to collect those, just sort of an ego thing I guess. [laughs]
[39:11] Beau: Yeah. Anybody else? Bonnie, do you have anything that, any items that you continue to hold onto?
[39:16] Mesanna: Burnt meat.
[39:18] Beau: Burnt meat?
[39:19] Mesanna: [laughs] Whenever you used to cook a long time ago and if you failed on cooking, it would burn the meat. Like ribs, it would be “burnt meat.” [laughs]
[39:29] Beau: So you still have a pile of burnt meat?
[39:32] Mesanna: Yeah.
[39:32] Beau: So it’s kind of like you can look at it and it keeps you humble, I guess.
[39:36] Phoenix: Well that’s an example of something that can’t be created in the game anymore, as well. So, something that goes that far back, that might have been created at one time and is no longer created is now, therefore, special.
[39:50] Beau: Right.
[39:50] Phoenix: Because, you know, there’s…you know, it’s like old coins. It’s like a 1952 silver quarter. Every now and then, I find one of those in change that I might get or something, that’s rare and valuable just because they don’t make them anymore.
[40:04] Beau: Right. Jim, do you have any particular items you continue to keep, even though they’re pretty much worthless now?
[40:11] Onifrk: Well, as a new player, I would actually have to get my characters to the point I have items. [laughs]
[40:18] Beau: Well surely you have some in your bank, or are you just like I’m never going to throw this away…you know, that kind of a thing?
[40:21] Mesanna: No, he’s really new.
[40:23] Onifrk: No, I’m genuinely new. I have not had a chance to adventure. I wouldn’t even have an item older than a year at this point.
[40:33] Beau: Very cool. Well, we’ve got about, and you guys and girls are good for about ten more minutes, is that right? You okay, or are you that eager to get out to drinking? Because I was going to see if the chat room has any more questions.
[40:42] Mesanna: No, go ahead.
[40:43] Onifrk: Actually, real quick. As a point though, for the players, that also tells you that we don’t cheat and give each other all these super-rare items behind the scenes. I really need to earn the items that I want, so…
[40:56] Beau: Um-hmm.
[40:56] Mesanna: Oh yeah!
[40:57] Kyronix: Hands off my stuff, Jim. [laughs].
[41:00] Beau: So there’s none of this, hey that item looks cool, as a new player or as a new developer, can I have it? And they’re like, No, go earn it.
[41:07] Onifrk: Yeah, basically. Absolutely.
[41:07] Mesanna: Oh, I won’t give him anything–
[41:08] Beau: That’s actually—
[41:10] Mesanna: –unless they were…
[41:11] Beau: I mean—
[41:11] Mesanna: The thing to do is to kill players.
[41:13] Beau: To kill new players?
[41:15] Mesanna: Kill all players.
[41:17] Beau: You just randomly go around using GM powers to destroy players? [laughs]
[41:21] Mesanna: No, I do not. I make a game out of it.
[41:23] Beau: No, I know.
[41:25] Mesanna: My signature is, “I kill because I care.”
[41:27] Beau: So is this a…now you’ve gotta expand on this a little bit. Is this something that, you know, there’s some kid and he’s, err, there’s some player in-game and he’s not being nice and you just go ahead and torture him for a while, or what?
[41:35] Mesanna: No, I actually make up games. The first one was made up by the players on Chesapeake. That kind of went over large. It was called “Mesanna Roulette.” We have dice in the game. I would go up and I’d say, “OK, roll me a six.” If they did not roll a six, I got to kill them. If they did roll a six, then they got to live and I gave them an item.
[41:57] Beau: Man.
[41:58] Mesanna: Because they lived.
[42:01] Beau: I had no idea the developer team would be so sadistic and kind of…
[42:03] Phoenix: Oh no, it’s not the team.
[42:05] Mesanna: No, it’s just me.
[42:06] Misk: It’s not the team.
[42:07] Beau: Oh, OK.
[42:08] Phoenix: It’s just her.
[laughter]
[42:09] Mesanna: Wow, you guys threw me down there so fast.
[42:11] Beau: Threw you under the bus. Well somebody in the chat and the game said no, you kill because you can. Which is, you know….that’s…that’s, you know, the scorpion. It’s in his nature, so you…that’s I guess the solution there, is you kill some player and he’s like, “Why did you do that?” And you’re like, “Because it’s in my nature.” That’s all.
[42:25] Mesanna: This is true.
[42:27] Beau: Well, very cool. So it’s 15 years. I can’t wait to play it for the rest of the week and do my write-up on Sunday. I’m just going to go ahead down a list and I want each of you to kind of, if there’s anything that you could say to maybe get somebody to try out the game or whatever. I mean, by this time if an MMO player has not tried out Ultima Online, you really don’t deserve to play MMO’s just because it’s, you know, [laughs] it’s not only one of the founding fathers or mothers of MMO-dom, but it’s still a fantastic game.
[42:55] So, Michael Armstrong, I guess we could go with you first. What do you think a new player or someone who is wanting to try the game, why do you think they should play UO?
[43:05] Misk: Hmm.
[43:06] Beau: You know, we kind of covered it a little bit earlier, but…
[43:08] Misk: Right. It’s still kicking! 15 years! It’s been around for 15, it’s going to be around for many more to come.
[43:22] Beau: You know the—
[43:22] Misk: I would—
[43:23] Beau: Go ahead. I’m sorry.
[43:24] Misk: I was going to say, I would say if you tried it before and quit playing for whatever reason, come back. Give us a try again.
[43:35] Beau: And I wanted to throw this out there, that does remind me. Bonnie, I’m sure you’d have to take this real quick. Is there any chance, or have you ever thought of doing like a mobile version, you know, an app version of Ultima Online?
[43:48] Mesanna: I would love to, personally. I think it would be pretty cool. I think somebody kind of joked around and said you know when somebody’s 90 years old, they’re going to be in an old folk’s home playing UO on their phone. So, you know [laughs] so that kind of sums us up.
[44:01] Beau: Right.
[44:02] Mesanna: [unintelligible] and that’s probably…. Hopefully we’ll get around to it.
[44:04] Beau: Well, and you can technically, I’ve written about this before, using Splash-type remote or some kind of a virtual desktop remote on your iPad or on your, any really tablet now, you can just stream it off your desktop. Which is actually really fun, because UO works well with touch screens, you know. You can hold down, and you can move, and stuff like that. So it actually works really well.
[44:24] Michael Moore, what do you think? Let’s say I’m undecided about jumping into UO after seeing this video or I’m just kind of like, “I don’t know. It’s not, you know…. It’s isometric.” You know. What do you think that person should know?
[44:36] Phoenix: I think that UO is…it’s not the kind of game that’s going to lead you through a theme park by the nose, following quest after quest while you grind up leveling, you know, doing the same rotation of abilities over and over again, you know. It’s…the game is completely different than any other MMO/RPG you’ve ever played. It’s confounding, confusing, and it really, really is so much fun. You know, all I gotta say is just if nothing else, give it a try because it’s different. Because, honestly, a lot of other newer MMO/RPGs that you play are going to…they’re just going to have a lot in common with other games that have come before. Everquest, WoW, Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online, Tabula Rasa, any number of other games. They’re all just essentially the same and if you’re in the mood for something different, then UO is the game for you. [laughs]
[45:45] Beau: Yes. I’d completely reinforce that statement. I think that’s one of those things that I think actually can kind of confuse more modern players. They’re not expecting something where they can, you know, they log in and they think there’s going to be a linear quest that’s necessarily going to force them through a certain area. But you’ve got to really gotta kind of make your own world. Greg, what do you think, if I’m a new player or a player on the fence about it? What do you think I should know?
[46:10] Kyronix: I think that whatever way you want to play, you can play. There’s no reason why you need to do something or you don’t need to do something. And I think most importantly the community that you’re going to encounter within UO is unlike any other. It’s devoted, it’s passionate, it’s compassionate. I mean, you could probably run through all eight virtues and find a niche of every community in every shard that exemplifies themselves [unintelligible]. Along those lines, every shard is a little different.
[46:44] Beau: And Greg is being kidnapped by a space beast right now, so that’s what that sound was. Sorry about that, Greg, but you started to…somebody came in and blasted you with a ray gun. Bonnie, I know you probably have something to say, so I imagine though you’re probably going to mention the fact that new players will get killed by you automatically as soon as they log in their game, is that probably fair?
[47:05] Mesanna: No, that’s not true! I don’t kill ‘em just to kill ‘em. I mean, I can, but I don’t.
[47:11] Beau: Yeah, yeah.
[47:11] Mesanna: You know.
[47:12] Beau: Let’s be honest, occasionally you do. No, I’m just kidding.
[47:14] Mesanna: No I don’t– Well, only if they ask. [laughs]
[47:16] Beau: Right.
[47:17] Phoenix: Well, think of it this way, your chances of encountering Mesanna are about like those of encountering a tornado. You know. It could be devastating when it happens, but it might not.
[47:27] Beau: You realize you’re talking to somebody from Tornado Alley right now.
[laughter]
[47:30] Beau: And I was in May 3rd, the largest tornado in history, so I’ve played with Bonnie, I guess, is the point.
[laughter]
[47:38] Beau: So is, Bonnie, other than potentially dying by a GM’s hands, what can a new player expect, what should they look for?
[47:47] Mesanna: The beauty of UO is if you’re bored, it’s because you don’t have any imagination. You can do anything you want to do. You could be a crafter. You could be a designer. You could design your houses. Architect. Whatever. There’s just so many different possibilities and there is no end-game. You don’t hit level 60 and you’re done and you’re wondering what you should do next. That doesn’t exist here. So, there’s the beauty of UO is…is…it’s UO. It’s total sandbox. You can make anything out of a hat and some yarn and whatever, and make it turn into a little snowman, or whatever, you know. It’s just absolutely amazing what all the players can do and what you can do with some imagination.
[48:34] Beau: Right. Go ahead, sorry.
[48:38]Phoenix: I’m sorry, I just wanted to interrupt a minute as well, you know. One thing that UO really has going for it that other games do not is the Event Moderator program. This is a group of people who, their entire purpose basically is to create content for UO live with the players on all the different shards. Each different server, each different shard, has different character, a different group of Event Moderators running events for it. And, you know, this is one of the…UO is an older game and its age gives us a little bit of an advantage, because we can dynamically construct new scenery in the game. And the Event Moderators often do that, decorating areas out and they’ll actually change the way a particular place in the game looks as part of an event. You know, that’s just another type of thing that you can see in Ultima Online that you just won’t see in another game.
[49:38] Beau: Right. And I haven’t even…and I’m going to touch on this during the week in my article write-up, but basically more about the skills and some of the other systems like virtues and, you know, there’s just so much to really cover. There are quests, definitely for sure, but I haven’t even really touched on those. Who are we talking to now? Who just talked? Was that Moore? I’m sorry.
[49:58] Mesanna: Yes, that was.
[49:59] Beau: Stephen, what do you think? You’re a relatively new player, so what do you think a new player, should they be afraid of UO or should they just jump right in?
[50:09] Bleak: I think they should just jump right in. I think that UO has its level of complexity, but it is truly different than other MMO that’s out there. It’s the best sandbox game to date. I mean, just based on how many years it’s been running, it’s 15 years of content available for players. So, I mean, the community has been its strongest…I guess the thing that makes UO that special is its community. It’s given the game life for over 15 years. So, I mean, it’s just that. And the combat is one of the, I would say, one of the best of any MMO out there. Just the different aspects and combinations and ways you can build your character and how they can interact with each other. So….
[51:11] Beau: Well, one of the funny things that I noticed, that the key words that was even, Bonnie said it earlier, Jim you could probably comment a little bit on this, is she used the term, was it Bonnie I think, used the term “end-game.” And that’s something that I don’t think came along until after UO, the games after UO. So, you see what I mean? There’s really no end-game in UO, so when did that come along and is that good or bad to have kind of a place for players to kind of end?
[51:38] Kyronix: Well, the fact of the matter is, for UO it’s about the adventure, it’s not about reaching an end-point and beating this one boss over and over and over and over and over again.
[51:52] Beau: I mean, you do have definitely dungeons to go to and monsters to kill, for sure.
[51:57] Kyronix: Oh yes, but it’s not the goal. The goal is experiencing the world and actually being a part of it.
[52:03] Beau: Right. As a matter of fact, at my level, which…I’m not a level…but at my ability here, let’s say a Grandmaster in Archery, I know I’m a newb now thanks to Bonnie crushing my spirit earlier telling me. But where does a player like me go, someone who I was never really a dungeon player. I was more of a monster-out-in-the-open…liches were the worst. I’d go after liches. And they still scare me to this day. Where should I go? Is there a dungeon I should try?
[52:30] Mesanna: Keep in mind, we’ve redone several of the dungeons. So, Shame is probably a good one to start with.
[52:38] Beau: Shame. Where is that? I am going to point at it on the map for anybody who doesn’t know. Is it even going to be on the map?
[52:46] Misk: If you pull up your atlas, you should be able to see it.
[52:49] Beau: Oh boy, there’s a lot. And the little symbol. Oh, I see, it’s like Destard is a dungeon, correct? Oh, there it is! Shame! Oh wicked.
[52:56] Mesanna: Yeah.
[52:56] Beau: So I now have my map and my goal for the week. I want to go to Shame and see if I can survive in there and if not, I’ll be pretty sad about it. But, so there you go. That’s not a bad goal to have, I guess, to see if I can go and survive. But that’s how UO works. I mean, generally you have to kind of figure out what you’re going to do next and then you kind of have to organize your own fun a little bit, in some ways. But what happens, is you end up having a lot more fun because you ended up crafting it yourself, so it’s a win-win situation, you know.
[53:29] But anyway, so all right. That’s about an hour roughly. I had some technical issues earlier. Sorry for that. Also, the team is raring to go out partying for the 15th anniversary. There is actually a 1997 party, I believe, on the server tonight, am I correct? Does anybody know about that?
[53:43] Mesanna: That’s correct.
[53:44] Beau: What is that? What is a 1997 party?
[53:45] Mesanna: It’s an EM event. They’re having one tonight and then they’re having another one to remember all the old mobs, the different creatures and characters in the game, the bad guys. So you should definitely try to make tomorrow night also.
[54:03] Beau: OK. Very cool. And that party tonight, is it just…
[54:07] Mesanna: It’s just a kind of like 19…just remembering from then ‘til now.
[54:12] Beau: OK. So people can just randomly, they don’t have to have anything special to join or anything?
[54:16] Mesanna: No, just anything you want.
[54:18] Beau: Very cool. All right. Any last comments, Bonnie, before we go, since you’re kind of the head honcho over there, if I’m not mistaken?
[54:25] Mesanna: [giggles] Yeah, I kind of am.
[54:26] Beau: Okay, well—
[54:26] Mesanna: I just want to thank everybody for making this a great 15 years. All of us are really happy and glad we’re working on the game and we’re excited to see all of the new things that we’re going to have planned, that we actually have planned to put in. So I hope a bunch of you stick around and see what we’re doing in the future.
[54:45] Beau: For at least 15 more years, is that right?
[54:47] Mesanna: At least, yes.
[54:48] Beau: OK. That would be pretty amazing, and I’m being completely straight-faced honest here, I believe it really can do it. If there’s one game that can really do it, I think it’s UO because…not only because of the player base, but because of, like I said, the graphics are already set in stone. You know what to expect and you guys and girls can kind of add to it as you want. But generally, people know what to expect, so it’s a very comforting thing to be able to have that always, that similar experience every time we log in, you know.
So, anyway, I’m Beau Hindman from Massively.com. If you want to contact me, e-mail me at beau@massively.com. If there’s any other games you want to see me cover, I do several columns, but this one is Rise and Shiney where I take one game, look at it for a week, and then write up my first impressions on Sunday. But in this particular case, of course, it’s not a first impression. It’s a recap of, kind of a look-back. But again, thanks all six of you for coming and hanging out with me, even with the technical issues. I hope everything worked out on your end all right.
[55:42] Mesanna: Thank you very much, Beau. We appreciate you doing it too.
[55:46] Beau: Well congratulations on the 15 years as well. And have some fun tonight, you know. Don’t drink too much and then log into the game and just murder everybody. Just…that’s probably not a good… It’s kind of like drunk dialing, it’s drunk destroying, you know. You don’t want to do that. But thanks again, though, and everybody, if you want to follow me on Twitter, it’s @beau_hindman. I’m always Tweeting on there. If you want to watch this video, it’ll be up on my YouTube channel, which is my name over there, is BeauTurkey, or you can just keep an eye on the video section of our Twitch.tv/massivelytv channel and it’ll be up on there labeled and everything within about 5-10 minutes. So, nice seeing everybody. I’ll see you I think tomorrow with, I forget what I’m…oh, wurmonline I’m streaming tomorrow. Have a good one. Bye bye!
[56:27] Phoenix: Thanks.
[56:28] Mesanna: Bye.
