[Akis]

Fargo: So, what's the thrust of Ultima's next foray online? If you were to sum up the focus of the game, what are people going to get out of this?

Hanna: I would summarize this as an action-adventure, online role-playing game.

Fargo: So you would put "action" first.

Hanna: Yeah, I put action in there, but that doesn't necessarily mean fighting monsters. It means you're always engaged somehow, whether that's through questing or what have you. It's not just about bashing monsters. And, of course, adventure: There's a whole system of being able to go on quests and being able to make choices during those quests -- that's the key feature of the game, what we call the "odyssey-adventure system."

Hall: That's the key feature, and I would have answered it slightly differently -- which is why it's good to have us both here just for counterpoints. He's absolutely right, those are the main features of the game, and I'd say the main focus of our game is that we wanted to build something where you get an opportunity to feel like an epic hero. You're not a faceless member of the crowd in a game like this. This is an opportunity for you to shine, for you to feel like you are the main character in a fantasy novel.

Hanna: And, of course, the biggest thing is it's an Ultima game!

Hall: Ultima through and through.

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Fargo: There are a LOT of fantasy/RPG online games out there, though. What's going to really set you apart from the crowd?

Hall: I've gotten that question a lot. In fact, different people want to hear different answers. I think what sets it apart really is that we've taken a different spin on just about every feature of the game. We've taken a different spin on combat. We've taken a different spin with how we incorporate virtues -- which is the main component of Ultima -- into everything about the game: from the characters, their modifying their special abilities, to be able to improve your items ... even the layout of the land! Everything is really being derived from the virtue system. But I think the thing that does set it aside is what I said earlier: You REALLY have the opportunity to feel like individually you count in this game.

The other PSWs [Persistent State Worlds] out there, all of them (including the original UO) really focus a lot more on how you have to be a member of a guild, or you have to be a member of a larger crowd. You don't HAVE TO in this game. There are advantages to doing it, but it's not a necessity.

Fargo: Speaking of the original game, is the original Ultima Online really at peak subscription? The most players it's ever seen? That blows me away.

Hall: Yes, it is!

Fargo: And what would you attribute to Ultima Online's enduring success? I mean, that's like a six-year-old PC game. And it's still got over a quarter million subscribers.

Hall: Ultima's a twenty-year-old franchise. There are a lot of people out there that like this game. I think that's one component. The second component is that we never stop working on that game. We constantly provide updates, added content, we work with the community, we try to give people stuff to do no matter how long they've been playing the game. We have not, and we will not, abandon that product.

Hanna: Yeah, I think it's about the work my team has done, like in the last three and a half years or so, really getting rid of all the bugs, getting rid of a lot of the old bugs, fixing some of the problems players didn't like. You know, just making the game really different than when it first shipped. It's a completely different game. It's totally different from the when it originally shipped: they fixed it and now they're improving it, so we're past that. You know, we're actually making it better now rather than fixing problems.


Rick Hall gleefully goes over some of Ultima X's features.
Fargo: That leads into my next question. You made a conscious decision not to replace Ultima Online. Ultima X: Odyssey is a very different product, a sister product instead of a replacement.

Hall: Right!

Fargo: Could you talk a little about, about that decision? Was it driven by the huge audience UO still has?

Hall: It's not so much that there's a quarter-million people in UO, it's that there's a fundamental belief that UO is going strong right now. There's no reason to try to target our own game when it's time for a new game. It's going strong, people are very happy with UO, so there's no reason to believe that they're gonna leave anytime soon. So let's try to do something different! Let's try to provide people with a different kind of experience that's not competitive with UO It's something different ... aiming at a very different kind of gameplay.

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