In all the hype over the new games being released these days, one might think that older MMOs would fall by the wayside as players scramble to snap up the latest offering on the market. Not so, says Tim Cotten in a recent interview with Gamasutra. The lead designer of Ultima Online says the game is still going strong.

Ultima Online has "got a very core player base, and not a small one", says Cotten. A good MMO will earn player loyalty no matter how long it's around, and Ultima Online is still enjoying that player base after twelve years. They recently invited former players to return for a couple of free weeks, and new content is still a feature -- the eighth expansion was just released in September. Cotten hints at lots more to come too: "UO itself, if you want to go for a historical timeline, we're only around Ultima VI; we've got tons more of content left to play with."

It looks like there's definitely something to be said for old favorites. Keep it up, UO!

Did you ever have an Ultima Online account? If you did, then Mythic's new "Return to Britannia" campaign is aimed at you. All closed accounts in good standing have been reactivated, and will remain open until the 16th of October. Content up to and including the seventh expansion (Mondain's Legacy) will be playable by old accounts, which puts this offer in line with the 14-day free trials, with the added bonus of being able to play your previous characters.

The "Return to Britannia" campaign is part of the celebrations for Ultima Online's twelve-year anniversary, but keep in mind that the game's first expansion in years also launched earlier this month. Mythic Entertainment's Jeff Hickman made a statement about the offer: "UO was the first love of many MMORPG players, and it still holds a special place in their hearts after 12 glorious years. I think returning players will be pleasantly surprised to find a thriving and vibrant community from around the world ready to welcome back their former compatriots and include them in their ongoing adventures."

If you're keen to get back into UO, the client can be downloaded here, and Mythic is encouraging folks who can't remember their old details to try EA customer support.

Fans of the massively multiplayer online game genre know that Ultima Online paved the way for so many other titles. But twelve years later, should we still care?

Though it's still touted as the first MMO to reach 100,000 subscribers, a lot has changed since 1997. The game's on its second engine, and its eighth expansion Stygian Abyss -- with a new playable race as well as new skills and play areas -- launches today. So while longtime fans of the franchise will no doubt be checking out what's new, we wondered if UO had anything to offer those who've never logged on.

"Do we think we'll attract new players? Yes," says producer Calvin Crowner in an e-mail interview with Massively. "I think we will, simply because the average gamer out there is looking for a new play experience. I think they are finding the 'rail' method of adventuring is getting old and want a more expansive 'world' to play in... [Ultima Online is] a world without boundaries that every game since UO has tried to achieve, but not thoroughly captured."

Crowner also talks about the challenges of working on the longtime-running game and if Stygian Abyss marks the beginning of a new era for UO... or the beginning of the end.

Those of you playing the long-running Ultima Online will be happy to know that its eighth expansion, Stygian Abyss, will launch on September 8th. The expansion comes in two flavors, one for $40 that includes a month of playtime or one for $30 that doesn't. This is a digital expansion, so players won't have to drive on down to a brick and mortar store for their copy.

Gargoyles are being added as a new player race, which means many of us can live out our late 90s afternoon cartoon fantasies -- we'll be named something like G0lie4th. Also being added are new enemies and arenas, one which Mythic has claimed is the game's largest dungeon ever. Subscribing players can check out the expansion during an open beta running from August 14th to the 23rd, just in case you need a little try before you buy.

We have a couple of things to say to those that subscribe to Ultima Online and still haven't bought the Mondain's Legacy expansion. Firstly, get with the times! The expansion came out in 2005 for crying out loud. Secondly, you won't have to spend any cash to catch up, as Mythic Entertainment has put out a press release indicating that Mondain's Legacy will now be free and included as part of the base game client. Probably of slightly more relevance is the fact that the game's 14-day free trial will now also grant access to the expansion content, including the Elven race and several extra dungeons.

No doubt this all has something to do with getting ready for the release of the brand new Stygian Abyss expansion this summer. Stygian Abyss will be the 8th expansion pack for the venerable Ultima Online and promises a playable Gargoyle race and the game's biggest dungeon to date. For anyone keen to try it out ahead of time, beta sign-ups are still being taken.

[Via MMOWatch]

Good news everybody! EA and Chinese developer NetDragon are putting together a brand new Ultima Online! Bad news... we'll probably never see it.

This new Ultima Online sounds like more than a simple translation from the sound of the press release, as NetDragon will be collaborating with Mythic Entertainment on the new project. In addition, NetDragon will have the exclusive operating rights for the game in China, Hong Kong, Macau, and India.

However the new game sounds like it's being made for Asian audiences only -- not a brand new Ultima Online that will see a world wide release.

UO fans can still rejoice as they will be getting a brand new boxed expansion, the Stygian Abyss, thanks to the efforts of Mythic Entertainment. However, it looks like this brand new game is staying overseas for now.

If you're one of the devoted nation of Ultima Online players, you already know that EA are making good on their agreement to continue to develop the game, and that there is another expansion coming. What you may not know is that the developer team is currently looking for some good players - especially those with beta testing experience - to give them a hand testing the new Stygian Abyss expansion!

Beta testers will have the chance to step into the claws of the new Gargoyle race and stomp around the new areas before anyone else. This expansion purportedly has 'the largest dungeon area ever introduced to Ultima Online', as well as PvP zones and of course, the new Gargoyle homelands. Those who are interested in joining the beta test have to be current Ultima Online subscribers, and will be based on "computer system specs, previous testing experience, community involvement and other criteria." Signups are currently open on their site, so you'd better hurry if you're interested.

Tom Endo over at The Escapist has written an interesting editorial in which he suggests the idea that we all need a villain as a vessel for people's frustration with authority such as Bonnie and Clyde or Robin Hood. In the case of MMOs, that anti-hero is the Griefer, who will push the game mechanics to and past their breaking point or intended use in order get ahead.

Second Life has had more than its fair share of griefers over the years, and it's true that in games such as Eve Online, the actions of the players have had a massive impact on the game. Some might say that with some games they have had more than the developer itself. Such is the case with the various self-styled bad-boy corporations and alliances throughout the years in that game, or the actions leading up to the Felluca/Trammel split in Ultima Online. But Endo puts forward the idea that players need these griefers and the stories that they create, despite the true nature of their actual actions.

Head on over to The Escapist to read the full article and see if you agree with his ideas.

Publishing giant Electronic Arts have announced that the latest expansion for Ultima Online will be released this summer. Stygian Abyss is the eighth expansion pack for the game and promises a slew of new content to explore as well as a new playable race: the Gargoyles.

The Gargoyles have a slew of racial abilities including the ability to fly, which in turn unlocks special Gargoyle-only areas. However, players will also be excited to hear they've not been forgotten. There are a host of new lands and dungeons to discover from Ter Mur and the Gargoyle homeland to the Stygian Abyss dungeon itself.

EA are touting the Stygian Abyss as 'the largest dungeon area ever introduced to Ultima Online' which 'will contain new boss monsters of unparalleled difficulty including the Medusa, Primeval Lich and the Stygian Dragon, as well as Player vs. Player zones where adventurers will be turned against each other.'

Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss will require the original game to play, and more information can be found on the game's official site.

Game designer Soren Johnson has written an opinion piece titled "Game Economics", essentially his analysis of the sticky problem of creating a balanced game economy, which is of course integral to massively multiplayer online games. Johnson has worked as a designer and programmer on titles like Civilization 3, Civilization 4, and Spore, and his "Game Economics" originally appeared in Game Developer Magazine.

Johnson writes, "Game design and economics have a spotty history. Designing a fun and functional economy is no easy task as many design assumptions tend to backfire when they come into contact with the player." He discusses a few MMO economies in light of this issue. He mentions the early game economy issues with Ultima Online, and how things have since progressed to the auction houses of World of Warcraft, and even how CCP Games hired an economist to analyze the economy of EVE Online. The bulk of his article isn't necessarily MMO-centric, but no less interesting a read.

[Via GameSetWatch]

Raph Koster couldn't help but wonder when he read the blog post entitled, "Lessons Learned: Sharding for startups," if he had a hand in creating that terminology. Sharding, as this blog post put it, was a method of running databases parallel to one another and making sure that the program could look in the right one for the information it needed. All of the older MMO users in the audience, however, know that this was not the first time the term "sharding" was used with parallel databases.

Raph had coined the phrase "sharding" years before during the inception of Ultima Online. The story writers were looking for a way to tie in the concept of multiple servers running parallel copies of the same world into the lore of the Ultima universe. It was at that point where they got the idea that each server was the reflection in one of the many pieces of the shattered Gem of Immortality from Ultima I -- a shard world. So, is MMO terminology leaking into mainstream database programming? Raph has the whole story over at his blog, where he traces the origins of the term "shard," how it may have gotten used over at Flickr thanks to Game Neverending, and expanded into a term of it's own right. Check out the story, it certain brings back memories of the old days.

Mythic CEO and Warhammer Online lead designer Mark Jacobs is a man who speaks his mind in the face of opposition and criticism. In truth, it's an admirable trait, even if it might occasionally cause some trouble. In the face of criticism from forum trolls and Blizzard COO Paul Sams, he posted a super-long defense of his game and himself. That's interesting on its own, but there's a gem hidden inside. Jacobs claimed that EA wanted to shut down Ultima Online, but he saved it!

Jacobs was defending himself against the accusation that he has a thin skin to criticism by listing things he's weathered and done over the course of his career. Listing those, he said he was "blamed for the state UO is in," but went on to say that "EA wanted to shut down UO when they gave it to us but I convinced them to spend more money on the game."

While it's not surprising that EA wanted to can UO, we're not sure whether to believe he was solely responsible for UO's rescue -- but if that really did happen, well, uhh... thanks, Mark Jacobs!

[Via Kotaku]

Mythic passed on word that Ultima Online, the game a lot of folks think of as the grandaddy of modern MMOs, is getting a new expansion. Alongside games like Meridian 59 and EverQuest, UO launched the US fascination with massively multiplayer games, as well as the careers of several of the country's biggest online designers. The expansion continues that fascination with the realm of Lord British in a new content pack called Stygian Abyss.

Stygian Abyss will offer a number of new features and gameplay elements for die-hard UO players. First and foremost is the ability to create a new character of the gargoyle race! The gargoyles have come through a portal in the land of Sosaria, visiting the lands of Britannia from their original home on the world of Tel Mur. As a gargoyle, players will be able to fly overland and have basic familiarity with missle weapons and Mysticism from the get-go. Other features of the expansion have yet to be fully detailed on the website, but it sounds as though there will be at least one new dungeon, new spells, and new equipment. The full release is below the cut.

I've been thinking recently about loss. Having been incredibly lucky with my own brush with the possibility of losing my World of Warcraft characters, I got to thinking. Not only about what I would have done if things hadn't worked out for me, but about how loss works in MMOs today.

Last week, Gabriel wrote a fantastic column about item decay in games past, present and future. I've been playing Diablo 2 again lately, for obvious reasons, and I had found myself thinking on the similarities and differences between the durability system in Diablo and WoW.

I've said before that my MMO career started with Star Wars Galaxies, so I don't have the long-term experience many of the other writers here at Massively do. I've never had to worry about making corpse runs in Everquest, or had to concern myself with losing my items in Ultima Online. While Galaxies did have item decay, it wasn't set to a punishing degree – items did wear out eventually, but at a reasonable rate. When an item eventually gave out, you crafted yourself a replacement, or you picked one up from another player. By doing so, you knew you were contributing to the economy, so if you tried hard you could convince yourself that you were actually helping the game.

Specie (n) - any type of coined money, usually of metal. Also used to describe commodity metals.

The crafting systems of MMOs have taken their queues from many different sources to find minerals for mining professions. The usual, generally lower-level, metals such as copper, tin, or iron, are seemingly universal. But as you level you may run across some rather odd materials that are difficult or impossible to find in real life.

Today we will be looking at where the metals seen in games came from. Common or rare. Real or created for the sole purpose of sounding like it could be, these are the metals of our games.