EA/Mythic Entertainment mount Ultima's corpse so they can kill it again

[Excidium]

Isn't there an anonymous way to release info about the game, without getting caught? Why honor an EA NDA anyways? You afraid they won't let you test their future awesome Ultima titles?

Already done: http://pastebin.com/Ls1096ue

(If you want to know whodunnit, RTFT)

Holy shit I nearly died of laughter reading that.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Official webpage is live: http://mythicentertainment.com/game-u4e.php

Lord British approves.

 

[Jaesun]

Gariott already went batshit crazy a long time ago. No surprise here.

I wonder if he at least trolled them with:

Lady British? LADY BRITISH? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!

I bet you really really wish you could use Lord British.

 

[Grimlorn]

There's probably a stack of money behind that map.

 

[Menckenstein]

Unsettling...

 

[suejak]

So it's a pretty good game?

 

[Infinitron]

With Richard Garriott's approval, Lord British will be making a cameo in the game: http://forever.ultimacodex.com/2012/10/11/lord-british-will-apparently-be-in-ultima-forever-sort-of/

As yet, it’s not been disclosed exactly how Lord British will appear in the game, although the mention of a cameo appearance in the Lycaeum certainly suggests one possibility. And it would be an interesting move, a keen inversion of a planned ending for Ultima 9 which would have zoomed out from the island of Skara Brae on its journey through space and time, through a telescope and into Richard Garriott’s observatory at his home in Austin, Britannia Manor.

One wonders if Garriott’s approval happened over lunch?

The First Age of Update: As Ben notes in the comments, Lord British will indeed appear in the Lycaeum’s telescope.

Liveblogging of Paul Barnett's GDC Online panel: http://forever.ultimacodex.com/2012/10/10/ultima-forever-gdc-online-liveblogging-a-classic/

Reading insulting comments from gamers who played alpha. One is furious about name change, one that Smith the talking horse isn’t here.

“Map not long enough”

Users furious that balloon is a zeppelin that can be directed instead of a balloon.

Alpha had food, poison, reagents. Players furious that this was monetization even though it was in original.

 

[Kruno]

I am going to slash my wrists...

 

[evdk]

I am going to slash my wrists...

That's a defeatist attitude. Better use of your time would be to slash their throats. Or at least break in their mansion and slit your wrists on their expensive rugs.

 

[Angthoron]

Isn't there an anonymous way to release info about the game, without getting caught? Why honor an EA NDA anyways? You afraid they won't let you test their future awesome Ultima titles?

Already done: http://pastebin.com/Ls1096ue

(If you want to know whodunnit, RTFT)

Wow. I think I'll be speechless for a while.

 

[Jaesun]

They actually caved in and had to pay him to get LB into the game (even if it is only a cameo)? hahahahaha

 

[Infinitron]

They actually caved in and had to pay him to get LB into the game (even if it is only a cameo)? hahahahaha

I doubt they're paying him.

 

[evdk]

That transaction does not reflect well on anyone though.

 

[Jaesun]

They actually caved in and had to pay him to get LB into the game (even if it is only a cameo)? hahahahaha

I doubt they're paying him.

Maybe they agreed to help publish his Ultimate RPG.

 

[taxalot]

Richard, Richard...

Why are you even trying anymore ?

It is too late. Your buddy Chris Roberts stole the show. He's our new best buddy. I don't want to play with you anymore.

 

[taxalot]

Is Ascension still canon? Or did they at least make the derp ending no longer canon?

They are not bothering with the Ultima ending or with anything in the previous games as far as I noticed. They consider it a "reboot" of some kind, which is pretty convenient because most of their userbase will never have played the game, and I _dare to think_ , most of their team working on that game either.

 

[Infinitron]

http://forever.ultimacodex.com/2012/10/12/destructoid-fills-in-some-details-from-paul-barnetts-talk/

Destructoid has an article up about the trials and tribulations of Ultima Forever’s development, which summarizes Paul Barnett’s talk at GDC Online yesterday and includes some choice quotes:

“We went back in time to go forward,” Ultima Forever creative director Paul Barnett said during a GDC Online presentation, Wednesday, on the game’s tumultuous production history.​

…​

“We really cared about it! We really wanted do to it, and we could get our hands on it,” Barnett says about Ultima. “You’d be surprised how many times you want to put your hands on something and someone else says, ‘It’s mine you know!’”​

Just a couple yards away sits Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott who laughed and applauded throughout Barnett’s off-the-walls, hysterical presentation, which doubled as a descent into one man’s madness experienced during production. Ultima Forever has been rebuilt multiple times, shuffled around by production houses, and saved from cancellation through the act of begging to BioWare’s co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.​

..​

“We needed people to believe in what we were doing. All we had was a chicken and a spoon. We were up against it!” Barnett says.​

..​

“We just had to prove it could work,” Barnett says, as a video of an employee imitating Medusa plays in the background. Another glimpse into the madhouse of Mythic.​

Months spent making a working prototype in Excel (not a joke) and painstakingly hand-crafted maps were for nothing, as the developer soon rebuilt Ultima Forever from the ground up. The main conflict came from an aesthetic disconnect between the art direction and game. For such a lighthearted adventure and bright world, it didn’t make sense to have grim, D&D-style character portraits.​

Also, this is funny:

In March 2011, EA was overlooking its projects, trying to figure out which ones were making progress and which ones should be canned. Mythic scrambled together new footage and invited BioWare’s Ray Muzyka for a studio tour. After feeding him a sandwich, Muzyka rushed off and threw up for two days. Instead of giving Muzyka a tour, Mythic had given him the wondrous gift of food poisoning.​

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

“You’d be surprised how many times you want to put your hands on something and someone else says, ‘It’s mine you know!’”

Well no shit.

Also, this is funny:

In March 2011, EA was overlooking its projects, trying to figure out which ones were making progress and which ones should be canned. Mythic scrambled together new footage and invited BioWare’s Ray Muzyka for a studio tour. After feeding him a sandwich, Muzyka rushed off and threw up for two days. Instead of giving Muzyka a tour, Mythic had given him the wondrous gift of food poisoning.​

Oh those crafty bastards. They didn't have anything worthwhile to show so they made sure Muzyka wouldn't see it also.

 

[evdk]

“You’d be surprised how many times you want to put your hands on something and someone else says, ‘It’s mine you know!’”

Well no shit.

Also, this is funny:

In March 2011, EA was overlooking its projects, trying to figure out which ones were making progress and which ones should be canned. Mythic scrambled together new footage and invited BioWare’s Ray Muzyka for a studio tour. After feeding him a sandwich, Muzyka rushed off and threw up for two days. Instead of giving Muzyka a tour, Mythic had given him the wondrous gift of food poisoning.​

Oh those crafty bastards. They didn't have anything worthwhile to show so they made sure Muzyka wouldn't see it also.

Oh, I'm pretty sure he saw pretty much exactly what they would've shown him themselves - a toilet full of sick.

 

[Kane]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[IDtenT]

Fascinating.

 

[Average Manatee]

In March 2011, EA was overlooking its projects, trying to figure out which ones were making progress and which ones should be canned. Mythic scrambled together new footage and invited BioWare’s Ray Muzyka for a studio tour. After feeding him a sandwich, Muzyka rushed off and threw up for two days. Instead of giving Muzyka a tour, Mythic had given him the wondrous gift of food poisoning.​

Wow, what did the studios who got canned do? Rape toddlers?

 

[taxalot]

The main conflict came from an aesthetic disconnect between the art direction and game. For such a lighthearted adventure and bright world, it didn’t make sense to have grim, D&D-style character portraits.

Well, is this why this looks like a comic book for 14 years old and still somehow inspired by mangas ?

Also, that article sounds like the incredible story of how a game that all of EA thought it was going to bomb is going to be artificially forced on us. Yes, this really makes me feel like playing it some more.

:declining:

 

[Infinitron]

taxalot Jaesun

(Not mine)