Joshua Rowan, UO Stratics Managing Editor took his personal time out at the weekend to answer some questions we sent him.


1) How long have you been playing UO?

I started playing Ultima Online the same day that it became available for purchase at my local computer store, which I believe was September 30, 1997. Hard to believe that is has already been almost 9 years.

2) What are your duties at UO Stratics? Do you have to muck with the non-UO side of Stratics?

As the Managing Editor of UO Stratics, I provide the overall guidance for all aspects of the site – News, Forums, and Content - and help determine the direction that we’ll be going in the future for all of these sections. In addition to that, I also have specific areas that I still enjoy getting involved in directly, including our Candid Coverage/Comedy News and our brand new UOStraticsCast Podcast Shows.

In addition to UO Stratics, I also have a variety of other roles throughout the Stratics Network, two of the primary ones being the Assistant Editor for our DDO Stratics site and the Community Relations Coordinator for Tabula Rasa Stratics. Not to mention that in the past I’ve also managed previous sites such as UXO Stratics (Ultima X Odyssey) and UO2 Stratics, both of which unfortunately became unnecessary when the games were cancelled.

3) Is this (UO Stratics) a full time responsibility for you or something you do on the side?

My involvement with Stratics would have to be classified as a “Full Time Hobby”. Everyone here at Stratics is a volunteer and we do it because we want to help the gaming communities that we all care so much about. In addition to Stratics, I actually do have a day job in the newspaper industry that keeps me even busier than my duties here, believe it or not.

4) When is Stratics planning to update the UO Hunter's Guide to include information on the Mondain’s Legacy monsters and bosses?

As far as I’m aware, our Hunter’s Guide (http://uo.stratics.com/hunters/index.shtml) has been kept up to date with the latest Mondain’s Legacy creatures for quite awhile now – You can find most of them in the right-hand menu called “Latest Ingame Additions” of the Hunter’s Guide section (some are also found below that in the “Champions” menu). If there are creatures missing from our guide though, please do e-mail us at uoinfo@stratics.com with the creature’s details and any additional information you may know about it.

5) When is Stratics going to go through and delete out of date information regarding skills?

We try to keep our guides as current as possible, but since games like Ultima Online are constantly changing, it can be extremely difficult to keep up on every single change 100% of the time. That becomes doubly challenging when we ourselves have hundreds of pages worth of information to keep track of. The bottom line is that if anyone is aware of specific pages that need to be updated, we always welcome feedback from the community at uoinfo@stratics.com – Or if someone has a more current guide that they would like to have published that they feel would make it easier for other players to play the game, we would encourage those folks to submit their guides to that same e-mail – Not only will you be given credit for your work, but you will also be helping your fellow gamers out as well.

6) If they need volunteers to help gather this info, when are they going to ask for it?

See my answer above. The content from UO Stratics has been built over the last 9 years by the players for the players and we still work that way. If someone has specific information to help us update a section of the site, then please do send your submission to uoinfo@stratics.com – Thanks in advance!

7) How should new information be submitted? Particularly from those of us who have used animal lore on all the peerless bosses and emailed the information in to Stratics with no response and still no updates on the site...

For general guides and content, then you would use the uoinfo@stratics.com e-mail. In regard to the Hunter’s Guide (http://uo.stratics.com/hunters/index.shtml) though, that is a bit more fluid, as we have what is called USER COMMENTS in that section. If you have information about a specific creature, then go to that creature’s page, scroll down, and click on ADD COMMENT so that your feedback can be seen by everyone.

8) Knowing you are very much an Ultima fan (not just UO), which was your favorite Ultima game?

No question about it, ULTIMA 7. Although, I have to say that Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2 were an awful lot of fun too.

9) Where do you think UO's place will be in the future, near & far, of the MMORPG world?

UO has been a cornerstone of the MMORPG community for nearly a decade now and I don’t see that changing in the near future. In the far future, I am hopeful that Electronic Arts will remain strongly committed to the game and that they will continue to update it on a regular basis to keep players interested in playing day-in day-out. Specifically, I would like to see updates to the graphics (even just redrawing the 2D graphics would be an incredible improvement), additional races for us to play (including Gargoyles and Orcs), an even more significant commitment to the lore of Ultima, and more quests, quests, quests. If all of these things happen (especially EA’s commitment), then I can conceive of no reason at all why we won’t still see UO in another ten years from now being played just as much then as it is now.

10) Do you feel that the firmly established, lively online resources independent of EA (uoforums.com, Stratics, the rares collecting sites, et cetera) help keep UO alive in a market that is radically different than 10 years ago?

Absolutely. And that doesn’t just go for Ultima Online. One of the most incredible aspects of MMO games is that they tend to develop player-supported communities outside of the game that are just as strong as anything you might find within the games themselves. And without the gaming fansites to help support and nurture those communities, I don’t see how the games could possibly be better for it in the long run. Personally, if I ever got to a point where I felt that UO Stratics wasn’t making a positive and influential impact on the game and the UO community separate from what EA is already offering the players, then it would be time for me to retire.

11) If you weren't involved with UO, what other MMORPG would you see yourself working on and why?

I’ve played nearly every other MMORPG on the market today. However, other than Ultima Online, very few of them have really captured my attention for an extended period of time. Of those, the three (live) games that I thoroughly enjoy are Everquest 2, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and World of Warcraft. In addition, I am really excited about the upcoming Tabula Rasa game that is currently being developed by Richard “Lord British” Garriott and other UO alumni such as Paul Sage and Starr Long. The reason why I like these other games is simple – They are FUN to play and they all create a strong sense of attachment to the characters that I play in them.

12) What would that game have to interest him that UO doesn't have?

There are three main things that these games have that UO doesn’t (although UO certainly has better systems that these games don’t have too) – 1) A ton of quests (i.e. hundreds of them); 2) Instanced Dungeons (i.e. play the game on your own terms with just your friends); and 3) In-Depth Storylines built directly into the quests that help develop the world that the players are adventuring in. In addition, a couple of the games also provide significantly more detailed Crafting systems that I really enjoy tinkering around with (EQ2 to be specific).

13) What do you like to do when you’re in UO - PvM, Gardening, PvP, and all that good stuff?

The majority of my time is spent adventuring in Ilshenar (I just never tire of this region for some reason), crafting (I have a GM Tailor, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Tinker and Alchemist), resource gathering (GM Miner and Lumberjack), gardening (my 4-story house if filled to the brim with plants of every type), BOD collecting, shopping at player vendors (always looking for one of those great bargains), and socializing with friends. I also have a GM Pickpoc….errr, nevermind *grins* - let’s just say that there are some aspects of the game that I wouldn’t mind EA returning to the “old ways” to make PvP more intriguing ;-)

14) How long did it take you to get where you are now in Stratics?

I actually started off with an out-of-game UO community way back in early 1998 helping with an e-mail community that is now called Ultima@yahoogroups.com – From there, I was recruited to the UO Stratics General News Team to be a Reporter by a great Atlantic player named Ce’Nedra Willow (I believe this was in 1999). From there, it was just a matter of remaining dedicated to the UO Stratics community and having a constant desire to make things even better than they already were – a constant drive for improving what we already had and a great interest in all areas of the site – not just in the news, but in the content and forums too. Plus, I have had some amazing mentors along the way that have really helped me learn what it means to be a community leader (Xena Dragon, Amy Sage, Raph Koster, and Jonathan Hanna to name just a few of the incredible people that I’ve met along the way).

15) Noticing that you work with the DDO part of Stratics, how do you like DDO?

I have an extensive “First Impressions” article that I wrote about this exact topic. For those interested, you can find it here - http://ddo.stratics.com/content/guid...mpressions.php - Needless to say, I really do like the game. The only aspect of it that I don’t like – which they are slowing fixing by the way – is that they practically force you to play the game in groups. One of the ironic aspects of MMO gaming is that a lot of people enjoy playing these games on their own in Solo Mode, and I’m someone who enjoys doing that from time to time too (this is an especially nice thing to have in UO). If and when Turbine begins to realize the importance of this in DDO, then I will be much happier. Besides that though, if you are a D&D gamer, then this is a game that you are almost required to play.

Thank you very much!

~Joshua Rowan
UO Stratics Managing Editor

---

---

On a personal note, i'd like to thank Joshua for taking the time to answer these questions, my staff and I sure appreciate it.

Great interview! Good job!

Yeah I agree, real nice interview

Great interview, thanks!

Another great interview, and I enjoyed reading it.

Nice interview.

Great interview!

excellent interview.

Nice

Keep the interviews coming