A click of the mouse is heard, and Yahoo! mail opens. Deraj finds in his inbox a single unread message. Confused, he read it aloud, "Deraj... we miss you?" Suddenly he became aware at the moment of his terrible crime. By depriving the good people at uoforums.com of his unparalleled brilliance, he left them starving for the limitless wisdom which he alone possessed. "Ye gods!" said he, "I must make haste towards yonder forums and return order to the kingdom!" Throwing on his old cloak, he mounted his faithful horse and rode speedily down the stormy road... but could he get there before the people went mad over missing Deraj? Only time would tell.

Why I hate Kingdom Reborn.

To be honest, I don't hate Kingdom Reborn as much as I hate the spirit in which KR is being made. What do I mean? Listen well...

Ultima Online is, simply put, the best game I have ever played. That's no exaggeration. If there was a list of games that were my favorites, Ultima Online would be at the top of the list. That's why it pains me to see my favorite game morphed into something else, and KR is, and represents, all the change that I so despise.

The game is already plagued with HUGE problems, and I don't mean silly little bugs. I'm talking about major inconsistencies and flaws in the core design and contradictions in the general philosophy by which UO is designed (this is the impression I receive based on my own personal observations). What sort of problems?

-AOS, which was a brilliant idea though poorly implemented. Could have led to some revolutionary game enhancements but instead destroyed crafting, PvP, and PvM as well as pave the way for crappy expansions. Oh, and chivalry blows as well. And while I'm at it, Luna sucks too.
-SE, which defied the established theme of Ultima by introducing "ninja crap" as well as two skills, which like chivalry, have no secondary skills, thus resulting in a chaotic skill system with people coming up with these ridiculous templates to poon everyone. Oh, and a new land was introduced, which was boring and uninspired.
-ML, which really set the Warcraft tone with elves (I disagree with the idea of elves but that's a debate I'd rather not get into), "peerless" (a direct nod to Warcraft bosses and philosophy) as well as a bunch of silly new items and a "quest" system which in all respects is dumb and uncalled for.

That's just a brief synopsis.

Why Warcraft?
A common argument is that UO is trying to be like Warcraft. And as usual, you'll get tons of people who say, "Uhhhh, warcraft didn't invent this or that" and everytime I have to shake my head because when people talk about Warcraft, they're not actually taking about *just* Warcraft. Warcraft is just a representative for games like Warcraft, a design philosophy if you will. I've played both Ultima Online and World of Warcraft extensively, and I have come to see them in my mind as perfect opposities, yet two sides of the same coin. On one hand you have Ultima Online, a game that epitomizes freedom and open gameplay, while Warcraft is a game that epitomizes a highly controlled environment and linear progression (that's not a complaint, just a simple observation). Allow me to illustrate.

When I first entered WoW, the first thing I saw was an NPC with a "!" over his head, and thus began my one way path up the staircase to nowhere. Everyone does the same quests. Everyone runs the same dungeon instances over and over and over again. It truly is a theme park. It's an endless pursuit to get to the top which, in the end, is ultimately meaningless.

On the flip side, when I first entered UO, there was no silly quest. It was simply, "Okay, here is your character, and he is in this world. What do you want to do? Where do you want to go?" That's an open world and something I truly appreciate about Ultima Online. I've done things in UO that no quest could be designed for, some of which are simply not possible in WoW. The best way to describe UO is "adventure-driven", which is a concept that is gradually fading away.

Another example is UO's skill system vs. WoW's class system. In fact this is a perfect example because on one hand you have an open skill system where you can be whatever you want to be and change if you don't like it, while in WoW you pick a class and that's it. Sure, you can change your "spec" and perform a different role (this is something I do appreciate), but you're always that class. You're bound by class expectations and the gear oriented towards that class. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about either system; just saying what I see.

Hopefully my view on UO vs. WoW is clear. They're not apples and oranges, but two sides of the same coin. UO is about open gameplay where the player chooses his/her path, and WoW is about closed gameplay where the developers choose the player's path. It's really just that simple. And this is the primary reason I'm so pissed, because with ML and KR, I see a design philosophy more closely resembling WoW instead of UO.

Kingdom Reborn's Interface
I don't really hate the KR interface. Afterall, that's what I use in WoW. I just hate it in UO. Why? I hear a lot of people say, "Uhh, the interface isn't the gameplay" but this statement is so absurd it's not even funny. Try this: the UI *defines* how you play the game. WoW's UI was designed to accomodate WoW's gameplay, and the same goes for UO. Now, you have WoW's UI- err, excuse me, WoW-type games' UI in UO.... Just after Mondain's Legacy.... and just before another expansion that's going to open up a big-ass dungeon filled with - you guessed it - new monsters and new phat lewtz.

So why do I hate the KR UI in UO? (acronyms... weeeeee!!!) How about the total lack of innovation? The complete dismissal of immersion? The retarded excuse of "UI standardization"? By the way, what is UI standardization anyways? That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I've played a ton of games but I wasn't troubled by the fact that so many of them have different interfaces/buttons etc. Try playing Ultima IX then playing WoW, or vice versa, and maybe you'll see what I mean. So instead of improving UO's already great interface, they just copy WoW's UI- er, excuse me, I mean WoW-type games' UI and call it UI standardization? I'm going to have to call BS on this one. Instead of non-UO gamers adapting to our interface, we have to adapt to a non-UO interface? The hell?

And while I'm in this mode, I'd like to take a moment out of this rant to rant about something else: UOAssist.
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UOAssist is the dumbest thing that ever was, or ever will be. I can't believe how screwed the playerbase became as a result of that. I actually tried out a UOAssist-like application while playing a free server at one point (won't give out any more details beyond that, and no, I did not use this application with EA servers so no rules were broken) and quite frankly I was shocked at what it allowed me to do. So basically, what it comes down to is this: either you dish out $15 for UOAssist and get the same advantage as other players that have it, or you're screwed because UOPro is not accepting any more additions, and thus making you're own version of UOAssist (even if it possessed the same functionality) is against the rules and would get you banned. Oh, and TugSoft has a nice little monopoly because no one can intrude upon his business. Is anyone seeing what's wrong with this picture?
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But anwyays, back to the KR interface. Let me stress again that it's not necessarily the KR interface that I hate, but the KR interface in UO. Like I said at the beginning, it's the spirit of the change that I dislike so much. In other words, the reasons for the change don't sit well with me. I wouldn't have a problem with the KR interface if it was an improvement upon the old interface, but it's not. It's a new, different interface. And while it's impossible for me to say what's going to be in the coming expansion, with ML followed by KR it's difficult not to draw a gloomy conclusion as to what I will find in that dreadful abyss.

Some more Rants!

Trammel/Felucca
One thing that has always pissed me off was the Trammel/Felucca divide. Don't get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the benefits of Trammel/Felucca, yet still I feel it was a poorly thought-out solution to a very huge problem (rampant PKing). In WoW, they solved this problem in numerous ways. For one there are different kinds of servers (Normal, PvP, RP, and RP-PvP). Secondly, even on PvP servers, there are safe zones where players are not automatically flagged for PvP so high level players couldn't come in and kill them.

I've also played EVE-Online, and the interesting thing about EVE is that I think it has really captured what I loved so much about UO; the freedom and open world (or in EVE's case, open universe). In EVE you have "Empire Space", which systems that have varying levels of protection, or "Security levels". The highest level is 1.0, and then 0.9, and so on down to 0.0, which are lawless systems. In these lawless systems players have built corporations and have *literally* taken over large portions of the known universe. That's something you could never do in UO, not even with factions. However, the Security Level system is a great solution to control PKing in a game like EVE.

What could they have done for UO though? It's hard to say, really, because it's not an easy problem. The problem with Trammel/Felucca, though, is that it's a well-known fact that players generally take the path of least resistance. Now look at what happened to Felucca. It is, for the most part, a desolate and boring facet with what little activity it has focused on "hot spots" for PvPers. The idea of "murderers" has basically evaporated, and left in it's place is the concept of "PvPers", a bunch of people that sit around and fight each other. What's the point? Where's the adventure? If I wanted to sit around and fight people pointlessly I'd play an FPS. There's no immersion in it at all. It's just a stupid game of stats.

Age of Shadows
Where to begin... AOS was quite possibly the most brilliant idea that was ever conceived in the entire universe. When I think of AOS I can't help but think that those responsible had their hearts in the right place, but they just didn't implement it properly. The potential for what AOS could have introduced was tremendous, but instead it just brought in a bunch of overpowered items. And instead of nerfing all these items, they just put in caps, permanently sealing these absurd things in the game. As a result, PvM was screwed because characters are stronger (i.e. overpowered). PvP was screwed because it became too item-dependant, or in other words, a silly stat game (even with caps). Crafting was screwed because casual crafting is a no-no. Insurance and indestructable items (thanks to the crap-tactular repair deeds) insure that players do not need a constant supply of gear, and the overpowered nature of items insure that players do not need GM gear, which is the foundation of any normal crafter's business; the only way a crafter can get good business nowadays is by either farming peerless for those stupid craftable-artifact materials (I'm sure every mule is equipped for that... right?) or grinding out the broken BOD system, and speaking of BODS...

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BODs. What a load of crap. I remember when BODs were first introduced, and at first I appreciated the addition and the boost it gave to me as well as the crafter community. That was until the harsh reality of it all set in. Day after day of receiving useless weapon deeds. Smiths running entire accounts devoted to gathering BODs. How am I supposed to compete with that? Then there were those ridiculous BOD sites. I cannot even count the number of times I tried to get in contact with smiths and either they would never answer or they would but I didn't have anything they needed because I wasn't running craploads of smiths to mass-collect BODs. Then you have the issue of tailoring BODs being too simple, resulting in a ton of barbed kits producing a ton of overpowered leather items, versus smithing BODs that are too hard, resulting in very little good metal armor being produced.. and THAT'S because AOS made metal armor completely useless! ARRRGH.
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But anyways, AOS set the precendent for expansions to come: new dumb items to feed the endless quest to "gear up"... how very WoW-ish.. err, I mean to say, how very WoW-type gameish...indeed.

Oh, and come to think of it, one of the things that annoyed me about AOS was that it introduced the items, but nothing else reflected the changes in items. For example, what precisely is the point of resists? When AOS was coming out, people were thinking, "Well I suppose this means if I were to go to the Ice Dungeon, I'd want to stock up on cold resist, right?" Wrong. And that's because you can go to the Ice Dungeon and magic monsters will cast all manners of elements upon you; fire, cold, poison, energy, you name it, they'll cast it on you. So what's the point? Why is an ice elemental throwing a fireball at me? Where's the damn consistency?

Can anyone see what I mean when I say that AOS had an enormous amount of potential? All the ways a character could specialize were going to be increased, thus resulting in a more diverse environment. Instead, everything was overpowered so everyone got everything. Max out caps? That's not diversity. That's stupid.

Samurai Empire
Yeah... this expansion really sucked. It was bad. Samurais? Ninjas? See, here's what I love so much about Ultima: it's a fantasy game, yet it's not (or in this case, wasn't) some generic theme oversaturated with the fantasy element. Furthermore, it had some close parallels with England, which in my mind, made it seem more mythological than fantasy. You have Britannia, Britain, the song "Stones" (which alludes to Stonehenge), and the fact that moongates appear in circles of stones (if you play Ultima IX, you'll see that the circle of stones as these stonehenge-type structures). Skara Brae. Lord British. Ninjas. Eh? Where does that fit in? And don't give me that garbage of "Oh well it's very plausible in the Ultima universe". I don't want to hear it. So what ended up happening was precisely what I predicted would happen: instead of these clearly clashing themes co-existing, they just meshed in this weird pointless way. People wearing samurai/ninja armor with plate/leather/etc because, Oops! It's all the same. Ever hear about samurais? I sure don't. I hear about bushido-mage-pally-gimpish-overpowered nonsense. And speaking of skills, let's me talk about why bushido and ninjitsu (as well as chivalry) piss me off.

Most skills in this game that really count for something have a secondary skill. Magery has Evaluate Intelligence. Swordsmanship has Tactics. Animal Taming has Animal Lore. Provocation has Musicianship. Hell, Necromancy has Spirit Speak. Why? It's to control the skill system and prevent people from doing what's happening now: all these absurd templates aimed at pooning in PvP/PvM rather than "being something". Skills and professions are cheapened and devalued. Once again, it's a bloody stat game. You might as well just call the skills "Skill 1, Skill 2.." and so forth, because none of them mean anything. These stand-alone skills make them a lot easier to toss onto a template, and because their respective "spellbooks" contain a pitiful amount of spells, the bulk of the spells can be used without being GM in skill. There's also spellweaving, but frankly I haven't even messed with it, so I won't say anything about it.

Other problems with SE: When SE was coming out, a lot of people were wondering if the new land would be a Felucca ruleset. I thought to myself, that might not be such a bad idea. After all, there are already three Trammel facets, and SE seems to be more combat oriented, what with ninjas and samurai and so forth. Instead they didn't, and while it isn't a very big issue with me, what is an issue is how pointless Tokuno is. It's a giant, boring, uninspired landmass much like it's demented cousin, Malas. The dungeons are dumb, fire beetles are dumb, the stealable artifacts are dumb, and the monsters introduced looked dumb and were not interesting at all. Wooooo, a giant wolf with three heads. Oh no, a turtle standing on two feet is coming my way! Oh look, giant... bull things, or whatever. I don't really care.

The only good thing about SE was the new guild system, but even that had its problems. The main problem of course being that it screwed over guild stones. What were they thinking?

Oh, and soul stones are stupid. Good grief.

Mondain's Legacy
Yeah, Mondain left a legacy alright... he's destroying the world from the inside out, apparently. One thing I absolutely despise about ML are elves, but since I don't feel like going through the impossible effort of convincing people that elves are dumb, I'm just going to say "that's my opinion" and leave it at that. Besides elves, though, Mondain's Legacy introduced a ton of crap, including a quest system, craftable artifacts (recipes), and peerless bosses.

Before the quest system there were these quests, the hag quest, elwood, etc, and I got some small bit of enjoyment from them. "This is neat," I thought, and in some ways I look back on those old quests with some fondness, but then I have to think, what do quests mean to me? I almost have to laugh when I see crafters grinding those ridiculous heartwood quests to get runic tools, primarily because the idea of such a thing is outlandish. Now they have this New Haven area packed with newb quests that give out blessed rewards. Let me repeat that: newb quests that give out blessed rewards. All I have to say is, "WoW". Quests are just going to become a larger and larger part of the game. The question is, how large?

Peerless bosses. There is no doubt in my mind that peerless bosses are a direct nod to boss monsters in WoW. Having a walled off area that only one party can access at a time is as close to an instance as UO can get, and to top it off, they're "bosses". I might as well be playing Super Mario for NES. Furthermore, these bosses are farmed, over and over for their materials and artifacts. Unfortunately for UO, creating a meaningful PvM system is going to be a near impossible feat because there are two major obstacles blocking the way: overpowered items, and a chaotic skill system. There is absolutely no way those two things will ever be fixed. Ugh, forget it.

Actually, I do have one good complaint about elves. I like how easy it is to change from an elf to human or vice versa. It's like saying, "Hmm, I don't feel like being a human today, I'm going to be an elf". It's like a wearing a set of clothes as opposed to being a particular race.

The Conclusion
Some of you may be thinking, "Deraj, do you even play UO?" The answer is no. I have an active account and I log on every so once in awhile to poke around and see my dead shard (Napa Valley), but I don't really play it because there's just no point. The community is largely non-existant, people are sparse, and there's no real adventure to be had.

And I say real adventure because real adventure is what you have with other people. When you play a single player game, you're not having an adventure. Playing a single player game is like reading a book or watching TV. When I started playing UO I had all sorts of adventures, and I wasn't even as immersed into the community. I tried running a guild and had a lot of fun with it. I joined a guild and had a lot of fun with it. But what's the point now? Roleplaying and immersion are things of the past. Apparently the new trend in games is providing a bunch of stupid arcade games inside a giant chat room, which is what Warcraft is and what UO is becoming. I don't want to farm peerless. I don't want to quest for the "greatest gear in all of Britannia". I don't want to "PvP" by today's standards. I don't want to farm those stupid purple birds in the fairy dungeon. I want to have an adventure. I want to see epic wars between guilds, cities, and monsters for control of the land. I want to immerse myself in Ultima.

And so, in conclusion, I think I can safely say that I hate Kingdom Reborn not because the "graphics look icky", or "omg that's wows interface devs u suk". I hate it because it represents to me the most negative change and trend that UO is heading towards. It represents to me the gradual abandonment of a design philosophy that once defined UO: open world, freedom, dynamic and diverse. And that, as they say, is that.

Miss me yet?

Good job on a well written post

I agree with you on some of your points, but not all

I think soulstones were a GOOD thing for UO.

I would comment on the rest of your post, but truth be told, why bother?
I mean it doesn't matter how much people rant about UO and it's current state (I do agree it's in a mess), it won't change

I believe it'll be expansion after expansion, with new items, areas, skills etc, rather than fixing the underlying problems/code/inconsistences etc

I believe it's one of the sole reasons the population in UO has gone down so much
That mmorpg graph which is at www.mmorpgchart.com (or something) shows quite clearly the number of active accounts dropping by 100k or so, after AOS came, that's almost half of what it had.....and it's my understanding that graph is accurate, at least for UO's current active account count (Even if it is a year out of date, almost)

I think that's one of the reasons player run shards have surged in popularity
There's so many of them and so many different options on them (aos/pre aos/pre uor etc)

Do I think UO will be saved? No idea
Although I don't think bringing out a client aimed at "Low end computers" will save it either.

I dont really know what to put in this post without someone flaming and saying that was a pointless post, Although I would just like to say I read the whole of your post and I dont think I can disagree with anything you have on there. Thankfully for myself im still finding enjoyment in UO but I know the same with any game that one day that fun will fade, and ill be forced to find something else to do. What I do not understand is why do they not make ultima online 2? they started it, then cancelled it. There would be a huge market if they could pull it off. I think if you put the Ultima Online game, all fixed and shiny with oblivion graphics, Would that not be the most popular MMORPG available to the world today? I think so!

Well done in your post, Im very impressed by what you wrote. Its just a shame that nothing will actually come of it because people in this day and age dont care, its just shareholders who want there money but wait no they want more money. Greedy money grabbers, They dont care about the game, they dont care about the community as long as they get there pay packet who gives a damn eh? I harrowing thought.

Great post!

UO was a world before. I logged in and it was fantastic. Now it's just a boring, silly game like every other MMO out. I agree with you that AoS was a great idea. I was pumped about Necromancy and stuff. Things change I guess. C'est la vie.

I think the regular 2D graphics were simple and great. Sure a few small fixes like on short spears etc. The best games I have played were 2D. They are Ultima Online and Infantry from sony.

I never minded neon hair or ethy mounts.

Exactly. This reminds me of the roads. They very rarely feel the tread of any travelers feet these days. Why even bother upgrading them for KR... might as well just leave them out. Ive heard that in the early days you couldn't walk a short distance down a road without bumping into several people, now you can walk from Minoc to Trinsic and not see a single soul.

I say do away with recall and gate!

When my son gave me my account 6 years ago, he told me that he walked from Yew and Britain regularly when he started out. Told me to do the same as that was the best way to learn the land. I like recall, but I agree about the loss of immersion. Maybe that is why I like to mine... Something about digging up the ore, needing to go to the forge and smelt it.. I sure miss people standing around to talk with while raising skills at the forges.... among other things.

I remember the bod system coming in and how excited I was to get rewarded for learning my skill, but as you say, it got old in a rush when it became near impossible to fill good bods without buying them from 'bod farmers' for costs greater than the reward.... How many of those rewards I have thrown in the trash is uncountable. You can only use so many stretched hides or shovels etc.

We just keep on logging in though.. to see if somehow a miracle has occurred and the gameplay is magically restored.

Good post Deraj. I agree with a lot of the things you have said. At one point it was stated that the new UO IU is supposed to be more like other games (read WoW) so it will draw in new players who are used to that.

What about the vets? I spent over 30 minutes the other day trying to figure out guild chat lol. I still don't think I ever got it down. UO is pretty much the only game I have ever played. It is certainly the only game that's ever held my attention for more than a month.

Instead of drawing in WoW type game players, instead, it is making me consider checking out one of those WoW type games. If it's basically the same, but a different game has graphics I can actually see, then what's the deal?

I think the whole KR thing is just a lazy attempt at trying to generate new players.

This isn't even worth a reply, the fact that you spent so much time complaining over a PC game is XXXXXXXXXXXXX

And yet you did Carl?

Good post Deraj!

(RP is still alive though! It's what I'm here for)