I've always wondered... Do the developers, or paid staff play UO when they are off work?

Kind of a weird/lame question but i've wondered this... Do the employees (paid staff) actually play this game when they are off work? Or are they even aloud to? I just wonder if i've ever like encountered any before in the game that were on there personal accounts. Kind of makes you think twice about what kind of things you talka bout with your friends .

discuss.

Cal mentioned a couple of times that some of the dev team members were playing on Baja. Jeff's also said here, or on Twitter, or in that interview he did with Watchertoo, that he's been playing as well. I think he mentioned Baja. Back in August 2009, Logrus told me during the SA beta that he played in factions, but I couldn't get him to tell me which shard he plays on.

Do you think any of them PvP?

I have a very strong suspicion that Logrus PvPs. I also wouldn't be surprised if Supreem does too.

That must be a real fun job working up there... I mean they must seriously love UO to work 8 hours a day, get home and then play the same game you work with at your job lol.

If the devs actually played UO don't you think they would fix all the annoying bugs faster?

I don't think they're allowed to play for reasons of conflict of interest

Last I heard they ALL play.

They do play...

Clearly they play a different version of the one we all are stuck with. There was a posting a couple years back from Cal, I believe, saying one of the issues he faced was the fact that for a long time back the dev team was very limited in the actual playing of the game.

I can understand not wanting to play if you are stuck coding all day but I really think it's part of the job to have a true indepth understanding of the mechanics involved such as the economy, why people script, making suits and general stuff.

I'd be shocked if they all did the grind to 120 a guy, me thinks they would have a "way" around that.

Based upon posts I've read over the years, some devs (past and present) play, some do not. When they do they on occasion get accused of corruption or accused of faking play somehow. (When Serado won a PvP contest in 2006 folks insisted on saying it was faked or that he cheated somehow.)

-Galen's player

I remember many mentions of devs playing. But I wonder how many prefer to keep their characters names private due to what Galen had mentioned (accusations of corruption or faking play).

Jeff is a huge gaming fan. He twittered this weekend about playing Diablo 3 and Ultima VIII.

Kind of weird to think Ultima VIII came out the year before UO started development. I feel so old.

You ARE old.
Oh... wait... I had another birthday yesterday. Never mind.

You think Richard Garriot still plays or logs in ocassionally to see where the games going?

A lot.

He gives long lectures about videogames Richard Garriott Addresses Warren Spector’s Class

He twitters about them Richard Garriott (@RichardGarriott) sur Twitter

He's working on what he considers to be the next generation of gaming Home - Portalarium

I would like to think RG still cares enough to play. But, his or any of the current Developers' in-game IDs got out, they would be swamped, or harassed.

But I have to say, some of the best times I've had in UO were when the Developers took control of the invasions and didn't leave the mob control solely to the game AI. The Trinsic invasion is what comes to mind.

Alittle off topic... I seem to remember reading an article about where Garrot tried "buying back?" the company and that at the time Mythic did not want to sell it? Something about the direction that UO was going. Not saying a good or bad direction, but does any of that ring a bell?

He wanted to work with them or get the rights to use the Ultima name a year or two ago, but they told him no. I think he picked the worst time to ask, because it was right as they were starting up the Ultima Forever stuff. I think he if had made them an offer right after Warhammer crashed and burned, they might have taken him up on it, because they were laying off UO devs like crazy.

A few years before that, UO was making enough money that Garriott couldn't have afforded it, because he had lost a lot of money in the dotcom days, and was using the rest of his money for a trip into space.

He does own the rights to "Lord British" and can use the name Britannia I think. He's building a new RPG.

They do work with ex Origin people though. Chris Roberts is working on a Wing Commander game.

If R.G. ever decided to create another UO/RPG type sandbox game with better graphics and was able to tweak alot of the problems UO originally had based on almost 20 years of knowledge. It would probably be the death of UO.

I still can't decide whether the new Facebook game his team is working on is a subtle dig at today's UO players or not: Ultimate Collector - Portalarium . I read the description and I don't know why, but it sure does make me think of a lot of UO players....

Also see: Garriott's Ultimate Collector the "backbone" of new UO-inspired RPG • News • Eurogamer.net .

Isn't that what people said the last time he made a game, which ended up crashing and burning to a fiery and violent death while he spent himself into out space (literally)?

Isn't that what people said when he joined the staff of Lineage or Lineage 2 in an attempt to bring that game to a US audience?

-Galen's player

I wondered that myself. If it's one thing UO is still known for, it's for the obsessive collectors.

I I think the Lineage thing was just putting he and his brothers' faces on the game. Lineage was never going to do that well in the US - there is a reason why many Asian games don't do well here.

But Tabula Rasa...so many things went wrong there, and it comes down to who do you believe. I blame both parties to be honest. NCSoft management seemed to have gotten too heavily involved in the game, but Garriott seemed to have tried to cultivate a free-wheeling atmosphere like the old Origin days, and the two just don't mix.

He's doing Facebook games. Don't think that's going to be a problem.

The Devs have said that they play, however, their decisions prove otherwise. See the changes which finally neutered factions or the obnoxious grind nearly every scripted event has been since Virtuebane was banished. If they play, they must be doing it on a closed internal server where they have godlike power. It's fairly obvious they haven't been playing with us paying peons.

re: Garriott
I hate to say this, but to be perfectly honest, Garriott is rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of future games. Sure, he gave us the Ultima legacy and had a finger in Wing Commander, but nothing worth paying any heed to since.. what... oh yeah.. 1997. As stated above, 2007's Tabula Rasa crashed and burned, and then he literally burned through his cash. Portalarium is.. how shall I put this... Meh. His 'ultimate RPG' is still little more than vaporware...the phrase "It will be delivered on mobile and social platforms..." will probably doom it to mediocrity and microtransaction hell.

Long live the king! My respect for Lord British is undying. My life would be different without his work. Calling him irrelevant is like calling Tolkien irrelevant. Garriott pioneered the CRPG and helped pioneer the MMORPG, and his touch can still be felt reverberating throughout these genres that have become industries.

If I could make but one last appeal outside his castle gates and have it be heard...it would be for him to stop seeking to outdo himself, stop seeking to make a big splash in the limelight; but instead reconvene with his muse, his gut, his creative spark, and create some good old-fashioned RPGs that RPGers want to play.

Do you think the makers of Legend of Grimrock expected their indie dungeon crawler to rise to the very top of sales on the Steam platform the other day?

The Ultima saga began humbly, but in earnest. Garriott was able to enter into and create Britannia from the inside, because he loved his creation enough to immerse himself into it. THAT is what this is ALL ABOUT. Creating worlds! You never know where that will get you.

Even when it doesn't get you top sales, it gets what you need. Today I'm playing Avernum: Escape from the Pit, Jeff Vogel's latest game. Ever heard of it? No? Vogel's fans have kept him floating along for over twenty years. Not just with money, but with a lot of love for the worlds he's built. The stuff a creator needs most.

I'm sure some do. I doubt I would though.

In the past I can say I knew alot of GM's who played and a dev or two.... NO names cause well they might still play and its not fair to point fingers at ppl.
Jeff has played ona few shards and Mesanna did offer him advanced char tolkens but he wanted to do it the natural way. ITs not saying he is playing uo now as he said ina recient interview that he was on many games and many machines meaning boxed as well as online was his play yard.
I know Mesanna was a long time player before her star rose in uo devdom. But I woudnt put it past her and her hubby from romping uo when they have the time.
Back in the day it was highly encouraged by the Dev to have their reps play the game, how else could they know what was going on and how it should be! But in this day and age the staff is not so well penned in to just uo. The vastness of the game world is their oyster and well lets face it uo is just a tiny pearl.
O'brian many things Richard did in uo with his team of friends and family in and for uo will out live many who have played here. As Ultima's creator he made the game what it was.
Your debasing of his accomplishments is very disturbing. The EA think tank made UO the game it is now... one that players flee by the droves ever time a patch is added. EA saw a oppertunity to get rid of the one person who wanted to keep it close to the original. They saw power being made that would kindle their base and we did just that to the point now we are dross under EA's toes that we were tossed to a secondary company to handle till we join the other dead games in the universe. I dare to say IF he didnt plan for stealing to be what it has become I place that blame squarely on EA's feet. I think if he ever got back uo's helm we would see alot of things go away like the dodo bird.. he has stated so in many interviews. I wouldnt be surprised if factions was one of them.

I can proudly say that the current UO Team all plays UO, one is a noob but most have played since 97 and 99.

HA Mesanna called one of her staffers a noob..that's classic.

But of course they all play....who in their right minds wouldn't?

But of course we're not supposed to know who they are or what shard they play on, they want their anonominity (I totally can't spell that) and they want to just play to enjoy the game without getting harrassed.

Wow Tazar and I thought we were friends.

He's a pretty cool guy in person, and he's doing what a lot of us would do if they had the money - go on insane space and underwater adventures.

He's not the best of managers, but UO would not have happened without him, period. He had to go to bat to get the funding for UO, at a time when other parts of EA were trying to undermine Origin, and his biggest problem was not his management skills, but the fact that the last several years of his time at Origin/EA were spent engaging in ridiculous turf wars with other executives that hurt EA as a whole. Those executives did not want other parts of EA to succeed, and they did a good job of hurting them.

This is a part of the story:

The Escapist : The Conquest of Origin

Visionaries are often called idiots beforehand, and in-between, and a little while after, their grand accomplishments. But it hasn't always been this way. Today's computer gaming fans are tremendously fickle.

O'Brien, the Stratics mods may allow your "contribution" here in the form of personal insults against a former producer, but it doesn't make your behavior respectable.

Someone had to balance out all the glorification of a man whom the success of UO was as much because of as it was in spite of. Of a man who flaunted power and treated the playerbase like mere royal subjects whether it was in-character or not. But seeing as how there's a biased audience in a forum where glorifying someone is allowed but not debasing, I digress.

Meanwhile, I'll keep daydreaming about what I would do with that kind of money. Like sending a poor kid into space instead of myself. And hoping that some will come to realize that what makes a great game isn't always only the planning and energy put into it by a producer. Sometimes its a phenomena whose time has come.

Yes, she did Tazar. lol

It could have been worse she could have called you a perma noob.

I'm just glad Tazar brought it up.

Mesanna, we'll be discussing this in your next performance review.

HA! Remember, Mesanna was here first. You think the rioters in town are bad? Just try riling up a bunch of UO players by giving Mesanna a bad review!

Thanks I needed a good chuckle. Mesanna is awesome... you have to watch your step if you try to say something about her... after all just think of what would happen if you lost her! Then you would have to fill her shoes.

Now Jeff........ on Mesanas defence I can say without a doubt if she called you a noob is was with great afection and reverence for your position...Pfft hehe
Look kiddo being a noob is a good thing. You learn our game from the ground up and I for one commend you for doing so and not taking the advanced route. How else will you get to know your players? Whats needed and how to better serve those of us ? I have known Mesanna a long time, she is a good egg and tries her damnest to help and keep UO a fun and happy place. Hehe I see you got the rath of the UO croud on picking on her already so il let you go from under my thumb... It's super nice to know we have a full uo dev team with their fingers in the game. There are few of us Shard Moms left, so if you do find your travels a bit rough dont hesatate to give me or any of the vast older players a yell for advice or a small hand in finding your way. We dont need to know who you are but will help you no matter what. It's what moms are meant for cupcake.
with love
Mom

Nicely put Lady Storm.

Here here. Same with me I love making suits and would be more then happy to help. Also feel free not to tell me your the big cheese I help players just as much as I help any Dev. Maybe more since you guys should all be good at math

I could care less if they play, as long as Da Man up top does. He may recognize a mechanic and say UO needs a little of that. How do you know your competition if you don't play 'em?

The love for Mesanna is strong. I love her too. =) We would be nothing without her. Good to see you guys and girls got her back.

Well, based off of some of the patches and events that show up. I'd say not completely. Not HARDCORE, so to say.

No you dont kiddo I do and some of the other dev as well 43 accounts on today geesh soooo i got proof!
I'll defend your back too jeff. This mom dont pull favorites. I love all my kids equilly! But that dont mean i dont put my foot where its needed when its needed.
Hugs Tazar (ruffles fur)

Given the state of the game and the design choices made by the team - I'm even more saddened by this. I was assuming they didn't play so that is why all the mistakes in design and content. This is even more troubling.

I wonder how many dev's have obtained the mace and shield glasses by using the current turn in method?