<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions --> <!--X-From-R13: "Ybfgre, Dncu" <exbfgreNbevtva.rn.pbz> --> <!--X-Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 15:47:01 -0700 --> <!--X-Message-Id: 11A17AA2B9EAD111BCEA00A0C9B41793EDBEF1#forest,origin.ea.com --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, [MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg01388.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01390.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="msg01376.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg01393.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#01389">Author</A> | <A HREF="#01389">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#01389">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: "'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions </LI> <LI><em>From</em>: "Koster, Raph" <<A HREF="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 17:43:43 -0500</LI> <LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> > -----Original Message----- > From: Adam Wiggins [<A HREF="mailto:adam#angel,com">mailto:adam#angel,com</A>] > Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 4:36 PM > To: mud-dev#kanga,nu > Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions > > Which, of course, leaves you with two primary options: one, to try to > not innovate too terribly much, and instead just do it "the old way", > except do it > really really well, and maybe put some twists on it that no > one has ever seen before. Legend falls into this category, as (I'd guess) > most of our favorite muds (Arctic, of course, is mine, and most > definitely qualifies > in this category). Hmm, I really wonder whether an awareness of the "old way" as a "way" was really present, if you know what I mean. Meaning, how many decided to view the split between simulationist and storytelling as an aesthetic choice, and how many actually just made the hodgepodge because it was all they knew? > Ultima Online is > another, and has > experience wild success the likes of which the world has never seen > before. Hurm... how successful was Gemstone III in its heyday? I don't actually know the numbers, but I bet that it made a ton of money, because of the amazingly high fees. So it'd depend on how you defined success, I guess. > A tangential question this raises: Raph, how much of UO's > success would > you attribute to cutting edge game technology, That being? Graphics? The fact of graphics in itself was not new. The display engine? Bitmapped 640x480 16 bit color was nifty when we started, but was just up to par when we shipped, and is now dated. The capacity of the servers? New, but not earth-shatteringly so, and not done so well as to blow the world away. > and how much > to just having > a ton of marketing UO actually had very little marketing, in that we ran a few ads (I think there were five) prior to release, and had no online ads. We had a website two and a half years in advance of release, of course. The magazine coverage we got was just about all initiated by the press themselves, rather than by our aggressively pursuing it. > and one of the most popular single-player > RPGs whose > shoulders you could ride on? That's a honking huge advantage, unquestionably. It resulted in a LOT of press interest, for example. Press that Meridian 59 never got, and that The Realm never got, and that Lyra's Underlight or Lords of Empyria still haven't gotten. I think, though, that what caught the initial fan base's attention was a combination of the name, and the approach to the design: basically, a simulationist world. People thought the idea of living in a virtual world that they knew well from past games was very appealing. Early fan writings and websites are full of "oh wow, you'll be able to do THIS in it!"--the "this" being stuff that generally muds don't support, like being pirates or running shops or whatever. > If you did the same (or > similar) game but > not Ultima and minus Origin's marketing, would it have done > as well, or > nearly as well? Minus marketing, nothing does well. :) Minus a brandname, everything does less well. It's very very rare that a new brand is established in the games market and becomes a major hit. The industry right now is seeing the vast majority of titles fail to make money. I think the common phrase is that 90% of the money is made by 10% of the titles. The ones that do tend to make it big usually have a strong franchise behind them (read: sequels) and a major publisher behind them with lots of marketing money. > If they had done Ultima Online as a > standard, scripted > Ultima game with multiplayer capability and a burly central > server, would > *that* have done as well? Would it have done better? Good question--there you are asking if UO done as a storytelling instead of a simulationist game would have done better. Who knows? Nobody's done a storytelling game at that scale and with that sort of presentation yet. Everquest is about to try it, though they are lacking the brand. Meridian was also lacking the brand, and its presentation wasn't quite there. Also, at the time that it came out, Diablo had just made it to market and was doing phenomenally doing basically what you describe... For that matter, UO done the way it WAS done could easily have done better in the market than it did, if we'd just taken slightly different approaches to things. Such is hindsight. All told, though, it went #1 PC software in Japan (not #1 game) and looks to do it again, top ten game in the States (top 40 for the year), was the fastest selling product in EA history, is now in the top three bestselling Ultimas ever, and blah blah blah. Secondguessing seems a bit like looking a gift horse in the mouth. :) Doing it as a storyteller environment, and coming out six to nine months earlier, maybe it would have traded places with Diablo (which makes the above accomplishments look puny). So who knows? -Raph </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <ul compact><li><strong>Follow-Ups</strong>: <ul> <li><strong><A NAME="01393" HREF="msg01393.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong> <ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Adam Wiggins <adam#angel,com></li></ul> </UL></LI></UL> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01388.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: META: who are we?</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01390.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Prev by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01376.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg01393.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#01389"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#01389"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: Simulation (Was Re: Room descriptions)</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <ul compact> <LI><strong><A NAME="01375" HREF="msg01375.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Simulation (Was Re: Room descriptions)</A></strong>, James Wilson <a href="mailto:jwilson#rochester,rr.com">jwilson#rochester,rr.com</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 01:28 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01378" HREF="msg01378.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Simulation (Was Re: Room descriptions)</A></strong>, Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt <a href="mailto:hhs#cbs,dtu.dk">hhs#cbs,dtu.dk</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 11:35 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01381" HREF="msg01381.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Simulation (Was Re: Room descriptions)</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 17:03 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> </ul> </ul> </ul> <LI><strong><A NAME="01376" HREF="msg01376.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong>, Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:chattemp#ee,port.ac.uk">chattemp#ee,port.ac.uk</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 08:57 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01389" HREF="msg01389.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 22:47 GMT <UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="01393" HREF="msg01393.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Thu 01 Oct 1998, 01:01 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01390" HREF="msg01390.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong>, S. Patrick Gallaty <a href="mailto:choke#sirius,com">choke#sirius,com</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 23:15 GMT </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01391" HREF="msg01391.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Room descriptions</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Wed 30 Sep 1998, 23:35 GMT </LI> </ul> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="01284" HREF="msg01284.html">[MUD-Dev] Room descriptions</A></strong>, Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Sat 26 Sep 1998, 22:31 GMT </LI> </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>