Nok was kind enough to take some time out to answers questions submitted by our users.

Many thanks Nok!

If you don't use it already, I highly recommend the UO Toolbar that he's created!

1) My question is what is it that keeps you playing UO all these years later and not some other 'brand spanking new game?

“It” is a lot of things. Most importantly, friends... there are friends in TAA|tDw|MT (The Adeptus Astaries, The Dark Wardens, and the Mage Tower, I am the current guild master of The Dark Wardens) and other great guilds & players on Baja that I have known since I started playing UO. That’s almost 10 years of conversing with these friends nearly every day… that means seeing them going from teens to college, going through relationships, getting married & divorced, buying homes, changing jobs, having children. Many of them I know some of them personally in everyday life, and like the family in one’s home… they have become an extended, online family. I think the world of all of them.

Also the UO community, which for better or worse… has a passion for UO second to none. UO itself has a level of content depth and game play flexibility that I believe can be compared to the table top version of AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons). And UO has… history (the first Ultima shipped 27 years ago).

I enjoy other games. WoW and other MMOs are a lot of fun, but not so much that I would leave UO for them. I also like first person shooters (and would like to try out BioShock & Half-Life: The Orange Box).

2) Hi Nok When I was a kid I played Ultima IV, it's one of my favourite games even to this day and occasionally when the mood grabs me I still play it. Because of your long Ultima History, I was wondering what your opinion of the non-online versions of Ultima is

I remember them fondly… I still have most of them still in storage. Some players of Ultima will cringe at this, but my favorite of the old Ultima’s was… Ultima III: Exodus. There was something special about UIII, from a game standpoint it was such a leap of technology and game play from the other 8-bit games at the time. I started playing Ultima on an Atari 1200XL, but I had other 8bit & 16-bit computers… so I’ve played them all.

3) Also, I never even knew Ultima was popular, I was the only person I knew that played it. Do you think UO has suffered somewhat from lack of advertising?

Short answer… yes. Long answer… not in the way that most players would think. I have a different experience and perspective, my career besides IT has included high volume computer retail (chain and specialty VARs) & major computer distribution (Ingram Micro).

The Wal-Mart’s, Best Buy’s, EB’s, GameStop’s, etc. of the world would be more likely to carry a product that is heavily advertised and pre-promoted… but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. Even EA (the 800 pound gorilla of the gaming industry) cannot make a distributor or a retailer carry UO if they don’t want to. In the channel it’s all about numbers. How many units can be sold of that SKU from that shelf space. No amount of ads is going to get a retailer to allot shelf space to UO that would be taking up room for more copies of Halo 3.

Ad placement is expensive. And the key to ad placement is to reach your target audience in the hopes of getting a fair return on your investment. UO players –and- target players is a relatively small, but very diverse market… what type of advertising is going to work for a small, but diverse target market? The outlay of marketing funds has to be justified against the “return on investment”.

With a 10 year old community, 2 clients (one old and the other needing further development), a delayed expansion (SA is pending further dev on KR), and having a player community with stagnant growth (despite the Chicken Little’s announcing the sky is falling, the numbers haven’t changed that much) and that community heavily divided between those that still enjoy playing and those that criticize everything your team does or does not do… would you walk in to John Riccitiello’s (the current EA CEO) office with a proposal to spend millions on an ad campaign? I wouldn’t. I couldn’t justify it. UO isn’t exactly Madden NFL 08.

What would I do? What UO should be doing between every expansion… building on UO’s singular strength/weakness. The UO community.

Build a new, modern (aka Web 2.0) website. Establish web-based community tools so community contributors, guilds, players, and publishers can return the favor both in-game and from their websites. Reestablish the UO Team as a proactive leader of the community. More town halls and promotional events. Build an advisory group of contributors and publishers. Find a way to change the mindset of the disenfranchised players… without “greasing the squeaky wheel”.

Working on the clients, gearing for the next expansion, -and- rebuilding the community… would be UO’s best advertisement for now. Then when things are ready –and- everyone’s (relatively) fat & happy… do a larger targeted ad campaign.

4) How long were you developing the toolbar for? Its good to see somebody with the drive and ability to make such a program, do you ever get told in game that people use your bar? How does this make you feel?

By the way, thank you. Well UO Toolbar is coming up on its 2nd anniversary in November, and it is still being developed so to speak. With any community, not just UO’s, things change… feeds, links, sites, and streams change; search functions (the toolbar’s most powerful feature) change or need tweaked; features get added or removed depending on the community’s needs. It’s always changing.

I hear all the time from players that use the toolbar (there is over 500 people using it now)… they love it. Many of the things in the toolbar come from player suggestions and recommendations. I enjoy the feedback; it’s nice to be able to give something back to the UO community. There will some toolbar surprises coming in November and December.

5) How do you feel about online criticism after developing your toolbar? Do you find that developers should take note of the constructive suggestions or do you feel that people whinge on the internet no matter what?

Well I haven’t seen much online criticism, except when the toolbar was first announced. Several people, who hadn’t even tried it, claimed that because it was software and a browser toolbar… that it just “had to be” spyware or worse. It was submitted to several malware scanning sites and found 100% clean, and remains so today. Fortunately several people stood for the toolbar and gave it a try… it’s been nothing but positive since. 

Well there is the catch in your question… who gets to decide what is constructive? Yes, the UO Team should listen to constructive criticism. But in my opinion there is very little constructive criticism coming from the UO community as a whole. I believe sometimes the devs listen too much. Yes, I feel there is –way- too much whinge and negative criticism in the UO community.

6) Do you think that in some ways its too necessary to make friends than being able to solo a lot of the time at higher levels?

For me… no. Being able to solo any high level monster depends on your character template, items… and most importantly your ability to play that particular template. If enough people can solo the highest level of monsters, then many players will complain that those monsters are too easy… and will scream to the devs to make the monsters harder. If not enough people can solo a monster and it takes too many players to kill the monster, then many players will complain that those monsters are too hard… and will scream to the devs to make the monsters easier. The UO Team is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

Granted there are exceptions, but… nine times out of ten, I believe the UO Team gets things right to start with.

7) What were your first impressions of UO?

I couldn’t believe someone wanted to charge a monthly subscription for a game! But it was Ultima… so I tried it anyway and I was hooked. UO was the reality of something that my old table-top RPG friends and I had only dreamed about… the ability to play on a computer any kind of characters we wanted, and we could change those characters at will. Having a game like UO meant no more creating dungeons and characters with paper & pen, no more carrying about stacks of books and bags of dice, and no more limiting the number of people to play with. Ultima Online felt limitless.

Even then it wasn’t about the graphics and look of the game… it was about the freedom.

8) Do you think, seeing as how you've played since the start, that now UO is truly dying unless EA make some serious new truly great stuff? I have the feeling UO is a sinking ship and I am looking at the twilight of its years.

Dying? Not this year or next. If literally everyone up and quit tomorrow, UO would die soon… but that’s not happening. “I have the feeling UO is a sinking ship and I am looking at the twilight of its years.” I heard people saying that 9 1/2 years ago and every year since. I believe the Ultima franchise and Ultima Online still have plenty of life in them for years to come… it’s immediate success is dependent on how it is implemented.

Doing “some serious new truly great stuff” takes time. Making a game is very much like making a film… they take years of planning and production. Expansion and sequels less time and money, but pretty close. Whatever the UO Team would like to do 3 or 4 years from now, should already be storyboarded and getting ready for pre-production planning.

In the here and now though, great stuff now would be to tighten up KR, then get the team transitioned back to SA (both of these seem to be the plan anyway), and at the same time now addressing community & support issues.

9) How do you feel about EA? Do you think they're too interested in profit and doing their own thing than making a game the long standing fans want?

Well as a gamer I’ve had a love/hate relationship with EA since Trip Hawkins founded the company, and I started buying EA games like… Archon, Mule, Murder On The Zinderneuf, and Pinball Construction Set. I loved the games. But I hated it when they would announce a game then cancel it… even 25 years ago!

I still really enjoy EA games, but don’t always agree with decisions (like any gamer) that affect the game I like to play. But from an industry perspective, I have nothing but respect for EA. As a company, they define the gaming industry… for gaming they are the equivalent of Google and Microsoft. And most importantly are the people… I’ve met several of the UO Team at one of the town halls, they are nice and truly care about the game and the community.

EA has always been about profit, that’s why Hawkins founded it… to make money, by making financially sound decisions not popular decisions. A good company makes good choices, a better company makes both good and popular choices… EA’s not perfect, but it’s much better than people give it credit for.

10) What was the first game you were addicted too?

An Activision game called KABOOM!, it was for the Atari 2600 Video Console System. In the game, there was a mad bomber on top of a building dropping bombs to the ground below. Your job was to run back and forth with a bucket of water and catch the bombs using an Atari paddle controller. I knew I was addicted when I would see the game in my sleep!

That’s when I decided I had better get a computer so I could learn something and do something constructive.

11) Favorite Hobby?

I’m a bit of a “foodie”, I love to cook. On the grill, the oven, the stove… doesn’t matter.

12) Favorite Movie?

The epic adventure. I’m a film fan too, I have quite a few DVDs and prefer movies over regular TV shows. Films like… Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean. But classics like… High Noon, Patton, River To Nowhere, and Tora Tora Tora. Last 2 films seen at a theater… Stardust and 3:10 To Yuma (going to the real Yuma in 2 weeks).

13) Favorite treat?

Carne asada sopes from King Taco, with the rojo chili sauce, and large horchata. It’ll make you pucker in places you didn’t know could pucker!

14) Which is your favorite season and why?

Spring. Everything is blue, green and wet.

15) What is your favorite color?

Blue.

16) What is your most treasured possession?

A 1967 Chevrolet Camaro Rally Sport. 275HP/2-barrel 327CI V8, 2 speed Powerglide transmission, GM offset rally wheels… all original. No! It’s not blue or for sale.

17) What is your greatest fear?

Phew… where do I start. 2008 Presidential election. Outsourcing. Tribalism. Recession. Elitism. Perceived entitlement. Extremism. A declining middle class. And a liver & onion dinner.

18) What is your favorite 'outdoor' thing to do. ?

Go someplace… camp, drive, fish, hike, sports and swim. Just be active.

19) Would you/Have you ever thought of designing your own game ?

Not really. I’ve thought about a fantasy/sci-fi book or screenplay though.

We’ve all heard of legends and myths that are just childhood stories… or are they? Even legends & myths that may have been real died long ago, or… were they separated?

Imagine Earth as we know it now, but this same Earth has multiple dimensions… each dimension having its own races, societies and development (or lack of). All existing at the same time, same place, same planet… just dimensionally out of sync with each other enough so as not to collide.

The antagonist of the story wants to rule not only his, but the other dimensions too. The goal of the protagonist of course is to stop it. How? Discovering the lost secret of dimensional phasing... the ability to safely travel between dimensions without dying.

Lots of possibilities. Someone’s probably already written it though.

20) What time line do you prefer in a game,present,future,mediaeval

Anything but the present. I wouldn’t want to live in any other time than now, but I wouldn’t want to play a game in the present time.

Just a final thought. Thanks to Adam, Queen Mum, and the great staff & users of UOForums… it’s a great site & community. And this has been fun.

Great interview Nok! Many thanks

Thanks for answering all the questions. Great interview

Vepl

That was alot of fun! Thanks Adam for posting and thank you Nok for taking time out to type all that! Err and I think Adam typed those out after getting questions from diffrent people... so uhh thank you to the people who thought of the questions and Ugh nevermind!

Thanks to everyone! haha!

-RMS Carpathia-

Great interview!

Thanks Adam and Nok!

Great read- many thanks Nok and Adam

Great! Was a fun and informative read! Thanks Nok!!

Great read,great Q & A ,thanks everyone

"There will some toolbar surprises coming in November and December. "



Ohhhh you little teaser!!

Thank you Nok for sharing your time and talents with us, great interview!

Wow! This definitely was one of the best interviews I've read. Thanks all for taking the time!

Ok I have a dumb question Who is he and what is Uo tool bar?