Ultima Online is a pivotal title in the history of online gaming, helping to introduce many of the conventions that are now considered standard in MMORPGs today. As of September 2009, the game will celebrate its twelfth anniversary; more amazingly, the game still has roughly 100,000 subscribers after all this time. With nearly a dozen years on the market, and a new expansion (Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss) releasing soon, we had the chance to talk with Mythic Entertainment Producer Josh Drescher and Mythic Entertainment Development Manager for Ultima Online Calvin Crowner, about the latest happenings of the game, what the future holds for Warhammer Online and the possibility of a return for classic Electronic Arts owned IP.
IndustryGamers: Tell me a little bit about the game's eighth expansion, Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss.
Calvin Crowner: From a timeline perspective, it's between contemporary Ultima Online and after Ultima VI: The False Prophet, which introduced the gargoyles. So what you have is the gargoyle race trying to connect to Britannia; their queen has saved them all but they don't have enough resources to survive, and that's when they find the path to the Abyss which rests between their land and the overworld. There, you'll find stuff from the earlier Ultimas and Ultima Underworld, and if you look at an old Ultima Underworld map, you can see where we've taken a lot of the same shape and architecture.
Josh Drescher: Ultima Online has been around for 12 years and the Ultima franchise has been around for 30 years. What we've done in Ultima Online over the past dozen years is that we've expanded what people can do in that world and we've tried to take into account the 30 years of history. The biggest deal [for the expansion] is to introduce a playable race. It gives me a chance to get back to the roots of the classic franchise and connect with the lore of Ultima.
IG: Why do you think that Ultima Online has managed to keep a consistent fan base after all these years while newer MMOs, like the Matrix Online recently, shut down?
CC: We talk about this every 27 minutes! I think it's about two different things; one, we have a player community that's not like any other player community. They are the guys that stand up on the pulpits and preach about the game for us. The second factor is that the game is sticky after all these years; I think that certain people like that they can get in without being told what to do. There are also options in there that you can't do in any other game, like build castles and explore without boundaries.
JD: What makes Ultima Online distinct and interesting, if you go back into that age of early multiplay RPGs, Ultima Online was on the leading edge, and it was the first time you could do certain things and there were difficulties that came with it that came with anonymous interactions. With every other major game that's come afterward they told you explicitly how to play it. It's like a Disneyland ride: we're going to snap you in and it's going to be fun but everybody sees the same stuff. So what you have is a massively single player experience where maybe it would be better if the other players just weren't around! Ultima Online brings with it a sort of social contract, and that's not for everyone, but there are fanatics that yearn for that level of freedom and Ultima Online stands alone among online games where you can do that. People haven't paid attention to the lessons about PVP from games like Ultima Online and Dark Ages of Camelot nor do they let them make that game what they want it to be.
The gargoyles are now a playable race, though they won't look nearly this awesome in-game.
IG: How long have most Ultima Online users been playing the game?
CC: I think over time, the tally is in the millions and every user account ever created has a number. The average player has been around six to seven years - what we do know is when they come in they don't initially leave. When the next best thing comes out we worry that they'll leave, but they stick around. I don't know too many games where grandparents play with their grandchildren. There's a legacy of a player base that few other games can brag about.
IG: We've heard that roughly half of all subscribers to Ultima Online are Japanese. Is that true?
JD: [pause] We'll get fired if we discuss subscription numbers. *laughs*
CC: I will say the Japanese community is super strong with Ultima Online. The numbers are a matter of national security. I'm pretty sure Dick Cheney has an account on the game...
IG: So that's the reason why you guys are stationed in Northern Virginia!
CC: *laughs* Right!
7 Comments
August 17, 2009
Do you have any proof for your claim of 300K Warhammer Online subscriptions? Many forum people don't believe you. I don't personally know whether to believe you or not (this is the first of your articles I've read). Having a source to show that you're legit and don't just throw around guesses would make me think of you as a credible journalist in the MMO arena. Thanks for the article.
August 17, 2009
I assume you're referring to this: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/mythic-you-should-expect-a-warhammer-online-expansion-in-the-near-future/
The 300k subscription figure was something mentioned by EA during financial report: http://news.ea.com/portal/site/ea/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090203006591&newsLang=en
That was in March: it could be more or less since then. The conversation with the Mythic guys was great, but they weren't at liberties to discuss subscription numbers on UO or WAR.
August 17, 2009
Thank you very much. And yes, I apologize for posting in the wrong article. The main reason I ask is that people have heard 300K for a long time, yet most claims are that subscriptions have plummeted (xfire numbers reject that, in my opinion).
In one forum that I visit a couple posters took your statement to mean definitively that subscriptions are still at around 300K, as opposed to a greatly reduced number that many people say is currently the case, due to canceled subscriptions over the past 6 months.
Again, thank you for the clarification.
August 17, 2009
No problem, sorry for any confusion caused by the mentioning of the 300k subscriber number. I wouldn't be surprised if it was lower, but EA is keeping those numbers close to their chest right now. The Xfire numbers aren't great (I just checked), but that only gives an incomplete picture at best, so I wouldn't draw any solid conclusions from it.
August 24, 2009
Alright, as someone who's been playing the game since the beginning of 2009 I can tell you that the number of subscriptions is nowhere near 300k. I play on numerous servers and the amount of people unsubscribing each day is spectacular. Besides that, there are at least a couple hundred people who are just waiting out another month until other games come out. I've heard people even mention that their whole guild consisting of dozens of people is moving to Aion once it comes out. Bottom line, Warhammer will not survive after all the subscriptions they will lose in mid September.
August 24, 2009
Oh and this is by far the worst game I have ever incountered. The amount of broken features, lag, nightly server crashes, lack of customer support, lack of testing, horrible character imbalance, horrible maintenance, overall horrible coding, disregard for their customers and lack of good judgement are the reasons this game if a total failure and is losing the remaining handfull of their subscriptions.
September 8, 2009
I'm sad to see this, i love Warhammer and the big big problem mythic made was creating to many servers, they feel empty and deserted, they need to reduce the number of servers so you won't feel like your playing a RPG instead of a MMORPG