Calvin's interview also came back today!

So here it is.

Questions:

1) Will EA/Mythic ever think about ressurecting Ultima X: Odessey or some other form of Ultima Online that is truly 3D?

This is a reaaaalllyyy bad question. By bad I mean letting anyone know anything about anything that has to do with something is not necessarily for everyone. So having said completely nothing about that, I’ll say this. I don’t know. I really can’t speak for what plans Mythic has in terms of a “Truly 3D” environment for Ultima Online, I know many have tried and failed … or the circumstances and timing have not been good, or moons didn’t line up. There are both good and bad reasons to try to develop or “resurrect” games or salvage/cannibalize art and concepts, but I can’t really say what Mythic’s plans are in regard to this, honestly because I don’t know.

2) Under "Staffing the team" does that mean, every aspect? As in, in-game GMs? If so, is that department under staffed?
3) Would you say that for the workload for everything UO related you are:
Under Staffed?
Appropriately Staffed?
Over Staffed?
4) There has been ongoing issues with guilds being unable to successfully leave an alliance, be able to join an alliance because of a prior alliance, and guilds & alliances not updating properly on the guild pages. Is this a known issue? And if so, what can you tell us about a resolution?
5) Since the move to Fairfax, what can you tell us about the staffing mix, and rebuilding of the UO Team? What is the biggest need for the UO Team, and what does it take to bring a new team member up to speed?

Okay, these are all basically the same question, so I will try to answer this as I have answered before … “We have enough to do the job, but more are always welcomed.” That is to say with the appropriate skills. We are not in a state where we will take anyone and everyone who “Loves games.” We’re always looking for talent, and tangible skills such as scripting, 2D artists, or programmers (C and C++ of course). The UO Team is larger than the folks here in Fairfax, though. I think I mentioned in a post that we’re across a few timezones, so it’s a bit of an effort really to even get a conference call together.

The largest need for the team … ? Hmmm I think just for the community to continue to appreciate what we’re trying to do this year. We’re laying out some great events, and fixing bugs as we can … And we may have some pleasant snippets and system surprises along the way too.

6) It has been over two years since the disbanding of the community program, many of the reasons behind the disbanding are no longer an issue. With Jeremy Dalberg, Robert Mull, and yourself at the helm... what could the UO community do to help the UO Team to build a new, official community program?
7) What are the future plans for UO?
8) How about Marketing?
9) UO 20th anniversary?
9a) What do you see for the future of UO, another 10 years?
10) Any thoughts, or plans for a free to play shard/system?
11) Why do you keep everything so secret in UO? It not like UO is cutting edge anymore. I am not asking for promises, how about guidelines where you see UO going?

The future of UO (with a resounding echo to follow …)

Yes we have an active marketing staff. And despite what people think about marketing, our guys are pretty cool. We’re actually getting a bit more attention than we let on, but in the near future … I would say before Labor Day, you will find out what our marketing team has been up to.

UO 20th Anniversary? Hell yeah!

Now for what the future holds, what our schedule is, and why we keep things so secret. The real reason is so we don’t get in trouble. We don’t like disappointing players by promising features and then not having time to implement them.

Stuff happens all the time. For example, the workday starts for me at 8:00 am at home, then 10am from the office. I have a plan, I promise I do. Draconi has a plan; everyone on the team has a plan. By 10:12 all plans are out the window. If it’s Monday magnify this by 208^n. We have milestones that say, this will go into this publish. This event will do this, and have these aspects, we’ll improve this system, balance this, scratch that. It goes to QA. BOOM! Refactor. Gets to test center! Boom!! Goes out live. Crap we didn’t think about item #254 or that we did #566 back in 2005, so this doesn’t make sense.

So why all the secrets? Let’s just say if we told you how much we want to deliver you would think us mad. “But you could just tell us a little …” We could but then you would know. It’s very difficult to find the balance between too little and too much information. If anyone has any recommendations or examples of who has done it well throughout history, please pass it on.

12) Are there any plans to make UO less item based?

This is a pretty gnarly question. I’ve read a lot of the posts on this, and feelings are mixed on the forums. There are some strong voices that say UO has devolved into an item based game, or that UO is not this, or it used to be … this. I will say: we look at balancing the game each patch. We try to have content that fits both the story and enhances gameplay. In addition to this, Draconi’s team has done a lot to remove a lot of the dross from event’s Past. I hope this answers the question.

13) How do you deal with all the stress related to your job?

What stress? I am over-paid! I love my job. I was talking to our art director just tonight saying…wow I get paid for this I would do this job for … “sliiiiightly less than I am making now” *winks* Really when I’m not smiling members of the team will stop me, or know something is about to go tango uniform. This is rare, or Chesapeake has crashed again …

14) What is the worst part of your job?

You know I really had to think about this one. I really don’t think there is one. This is my dream job. Maybe I will meet some of you guys at Town Halls and talk about this but, this job rocks!

15) What is the best part of your job?

Getting to spout off without restraint in interviews!

16) What are some things you'd like to see added to UO in the future? Anything you'd like to remove or wish wasn't changed?

There is not enough time to answer this one. And I really don’t know enough about UO to answer every element. But I will say this: I want UO to return to its roots. This is not a shock, and something I wrote up in our internal 18 month plan I shared with the crew who came from EA/RS as well as our VP Rob Denton. I have surfed and looked at every game that tries to be UO and fails for that “sense of place.”

My big thing is story. Love love love story, and the ability to come and be part of a community. So capturing the real “feel” of not only Ultima Online but what Ultima is (with a big “U”) would be my goal for the future of UO.

17) Why did you have to bump the cocoa trees/seeds? I do not have a gardener, but was it that hard to work in? I am guessing you would just rehue/rename a current tree graphic and seed.

Ummm these are in our milestone schedule and you will see them very soon.

18) How high on the priority list is the stacking issue? I just noticed that the new Ophidian Rations don't stack with the old ones, so it's not only old stuff like wires (the smith semi-rares), blackmoor, fertile dirt, executioner's cap, dead wood etc. but an ongoing problem.

19) Why do things still not stack? ie arcane gems, granite, sand, etc.

Ah stacking … we talk about this maybe twice a week. There are a few features we want to implement. As far as priority, I would say it’s high as it is an important gameplay focus for the community. When we’ll get to it? I can’t say for reasons that you will understand very soon. We have a pretty active schedule and trying to priortize player requests, game balance, shard stability … et al, as best we can.

20) When will problems with bugged houses be fixed? Examples inculde houses on atlantic with no owners which have survived for over 5 years and houses placed on inactive accounts during the yearly "Welcome back to Britannia" promotion weeks which occur each fall when those accounts become accessible which also never decay.


The promotional zones we have actually spoken to Marketing about, and they are returning them into our sticky little hands, we’re just trying to figure out how best to let them loose on the community.

Also, at the time that I am writing this CS and players are coordinating to locate some of the homes that lay in need of “liberation” you should see postings, and a mad rush for plots at the time of this posting.

21) What is the status of the Stygian Abyss expansion? Will it be released in 2008 or is it dead?
22) The original Stygian Abyss gave me an adventure that no other game comes close to.
Would love to know what plans there are for the Stygian Abyss expansion and would it be close to the original?

I so wanna answer this!! Soo soo realllly want to answer this.

23) Was KR a good idea to release in its present state and if not whatcha gonna do to fix it?

Actually, I can’t judge on the state of KR when it was released. I think it’s in a better state now than it was then with a higher adoption rate. The team at that time did what it could, and I would rather not second-guess the decisions of the team at that time.

As is stands now we still dedicate time and energy fixing elements of KR. There will be new content released for both KR and Legacy probably by the time this gets posted 

And whatcha is not a word.

24) Regarding commodity deeds…What good does it do to place the Items in a deed when the only place you can transport them and “cash them in” is to a bank???? Why can’t we “cash them in” at home? What about making a strong box we can buy from the bank that allows us to “cash in” at home?

Be on the lookout for this during our re-introduction of Vet Rewards.

Many thanks Calvin for a great interview
Thanks as well to our users for submitting their questions!

Thanks for the interview!

Seems i missed the regular gnome questions again

Gr3at interview!

I have translated this interview into Japanese for Japanese people to be able to read it easily in "Asian Shard Forums". Thanks for this great interview!

日本の人たちが簡単に読めるように、"Asian Shard Forums" に日本語訳を置きました。

[quote][7) What are the future plans for UO?
8) How about Marketing?
9) UO 20th anniversary?
9a) What do you see for the future of UO, another 10 years?
10) Any thoughts, or plans for a free to play shard/system?
11) Why do you keep everything so secret in UO? It not like UO is cutting edge anymore. I am not asking for promises, how about guidelines where you see UO going?

The future of UO (with a resounding echo to follow …)

Yes we have an active marketing staff. And despite what people think about marketing, our guys are pretty cool. We’re actually getting a bit more attention than we let on, but in the near future … I would say before Labor Day, you will find out what our marketing team has been up to./QUOTE]

Getting REAL close to labor day....

I know that guy. Much love @Cal.

Met Cal last Saturday at the Seattle UO Town Hall. He's very funny in person.