EA Launches Ultima-Based Browser Game 106
On Monday Electronic Arts launched Lord of Ultima, a free-to-play, browser-based strategy game that's based on the Ultima universe. Quoting VG247: "Set in the new world of Caledonia, players start the game as conquerors raising an empire, and then move from developing a village to evolving it into a highly customized capital. Players can be peaceful merchants by trading resources over land or sea and using diplomacy, or become feared conquerors using armies of knights and mages to crush their enemies one by one in maniacal glee."
Re:Real time browser games (Score:3, Informative)
Eve online is real time...
Let me see if I understand (Score:3, Informative)
They want you to pay real money for resources. (Score:5, Informative)
Played for a while, until I clicked "Get diamonds" and was taken to a page to enter credit card details. With diamonds I could get a magical bronze hammer or something, which in turn would magically give me extra food, wood and stone.
So, if you're rich and like a game where real world money gives power, knock yourself out.
As far as I'm concerned AE can stick this game right up their butt.
Re:[long_no] (Score:2, Informative)
As a fellow long-time Ultima fan let me just say that the "hazy, beautiful memory" of Ultima was stabbed in the heart when Ultima Online was released; and then the corpse was violated and burned when the abomination known as "Ultima Ascension" was released.
Ultima has been dead and gone for a long time, and it didn't even get a good burial. Can't even blame EA for that, the blame lies squarely with Richard Garriott and Starr Long, who decided during Ultima 9's development that MMORPGs were far more important. UO killed U9, leading to the abortion that was U:A.
I would rather just think about U7: Serpent Isle as being the end of the series. They retired M*A*S*H with more dignity than Ultima.
Re:[long_no] (Score:3, Informative)
Don't speak for me! I have the Ultima Collection and periodically replay the gems. Exalt is also great for actually playing Ultima 7, although 5 is still my favorite.
Re:Free to play, not to compete (Score:3, Informative)
I came here to say exactly that: It is not free to play! It is free to use.
Playing involves by definition a motivating interest curve (the base of all game design), which itself unconditionally demands a certain ratio of winning. And this is not the case with those so-called “free to play” games.
Basically, unless you pay (usually more than with normal games), you’re just walking around in a very elaborate lounge. It’s not even a demo, since a demo also includes playing.
So you don’t have to wait for long, until most people will stop, because all they will get, will be frustration. And those people will all flood the forums with how much the game sucks. So in the end, the game will be known as crap, and nobody will play it anymore.
And this is why I myself, or any other self-respecting (read “art & love for it > money & greed”) won’t ever pursuit such a financing model. It only gets you bad publicity. And unless you’e a huge publisher who can act like a dick because of the amount of marketing you can and must put into it, you’ll quickly kill yourself with it.