Ultima Forever
I like Paul Barnett, and continued to like him when he fell out of favor with the crowd. The man certainly has artistic vision, great enthusiasm, intelligence, and is great fun to watch. These qualities might not be matched by an ability to actually turn all that artistic vision into reality, but it would be unfair to put the whole blame for WAR not living up to its promise and "bears, bears, bears" only on Paul. So I think we should give the man another chance and see what he will make out of Ultima Forever. Already it can't possibly get worse than Lord of Ultima. And I'd rather see Paul Barnett trying to revive the Ultima brand than Richard Garriott.
Skeptics will point out that Ultima Forever will be Free2Play, and is already using stupid marketing tricks like a fancy official "U4E" abbreviation. Shouldn't that be "U4E4"? Anyway, for me this is a sign that U4E is an attempt to make a far more modern version of Ultima. Let's face it, beyond a few diehards most people would consider the original Ultima IV as well as Ultima Online to be unplayable these days. And a lower budget game with a Free2Play business model might actually give the developers more freedom to create something new than a full MMORPG with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.
So I signed up for the beta, and will give the game a try when I get the opportunity. Maybe Paul infected me with this optimism, but I think both the brand and the man at least deserve that I'll take a look at that game.
Skeptics will point out that Ultima Forever will be Free2Play, and is already using stupid marketing tricks like a fancy official "U4E" abbreviation. Shouldn't that be "U4E4"? Anyway, for me this is a sign that U4E is an attempt to make a far more modern version of Ultima. Let's face it, beyond a few diehards most people would consider the original Ultima IV as well as Ultima Online to be unplayable these days. And a lower budget game with a Free2Play business model might actually give the developers more freedom to create something new than a full MMORPG with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars.
So I signed up for the beta, and will give the game a try when I get the opportunity. Maybe Paul infected me with this optimism, but I think both the brand and the man at least deserve that I'll take a look at that game.
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