Difference between revisions of "Ultima Online"

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One of the more decorative UO logos.

Ultima Online (UO) is an MMORPG that is currently published by Electronic Arts and launched on September 25, 1997. The game is subscribed to by thousands of players worldwide across dozens of Shards.

The Ultima Online retail version included one month of unlimited free play, a cloth map of Britannia, collectible pewter Ultima Online lapel pin, game software, AT&T WorldNet Service with a 30-day introductory period, and a copy of Netscape Navigator. It carried a suggested retail price of $64.95 US.

Are you with us?

Experience real-time social interaction with thousands of people in the same exciting game world. meet new friends and foes, engage in group combat, venture off to uncharted lands, or visit a tavern and chat with players from around the world. It's an ongoing, ever-changing world of adventure.

• Mass player engine allows thousands of real people to play simultaneously.
• Day and night effects, 3-D terrain and 16-bit color SVGA graphics.
• Customize your onscreen characters, including gender, skin tone, clothing and hairstyle.
• Detailed character-defining systems and fully simulated virtual ecology.
• Real-time combat, adventuring and social interaction.

--1997 Catalog Description

History

UO Alpha Testing

Alpha testings began in April of 1996 with a few thousand players participating. The event closed on May 20, 1996 with a true apocalypse scenario when a supposed speech by Lord British and Lord Blackthorn turns out to be a "setup" with the two Lords summoning hoards of monsters to slay the unsuspecting crowd.

UO Beta Testing

EA held the first "phase" of their public beta for Ultima Online during June 1997, sending out only a few thousand CDs. The Ultima Online Beta Test Kit consisted of a cardboard disk envelope that contained one (1) CD in a plain white paper sleeve. The CD is marked "Ultima Online Public Beta Test". A few weeks later, in July, the second phase was held, and new CDs were sent out to all beta testers, including those from the first phase. There is no distinguishable difference between the two different beta CDs, apart from the postmark date on the cardboard envelope and the timestamp of the files on the CD.

More than 25,000 people from around the world paid to participate in the 1997 beta test. The beta CD cost $2 U.S. On August 21, 1997, Electronic Arts announced that UO established the worldwide record for the largest number of people concurrently playing in the same virtual world over the Internet by hosting 2,850 gamers. At the time, the total game geography covered more than 189 million square feet of terrain. Showing the entire game surface area at once would have required 38,000 17-inch monitors, nearly enough to occupy a football field.

Graphically, the beta was vastly improved over the alpha version. However, there were also a lot of bugs, exploits, and server downtime. The Beta Test ended on September 23, 1997. Once again, thousands of daemons were summoned to run amok in the last few hours that the Beta servers were up.

Expansions

UO has seen many expansions, averaging 1 per year since its release. Some have simply added to the game (The Second Age) while others have changed it drastically (Age of Shadows). The graphics have remained largely the same since release (aside from the Third Dawn client), with most items never being modified. This approach was dropped in favor of the Enhanced Client, which featured a completely new render engine and appearance.

Current Direction

After the Mondain's Legacy expansion, the game had taken a new course. Instead of simply planning for another expansion the developers focused more on bug fixes and in-game content. This continued for nearly two years, culminating with the epic Inu storyline, which led the announcement of the Kingdom Reborn expansion. It was later changed to Stygian Abyss, but in-game fiction and tie-in events are now commonplace.

See Also

References