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We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

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Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#21

Post by Macha »

ianbutler wrote: post #12
no_wizard wrote: post #9

Aside from being an amazing story, my other takes are the following: C / C++ are truly powerful and efficient languages for execution. Can you imagine doing this with Java or C# and still keeping the memory usage and speed reasonable, even in 2022? This is the late 90s (maybe early 2000s). C++ is a workhorse, warts and all. Game development is just so different from all other types of development, but I feel like if…

I don't know about that I'd say we're doing pretty good on the MMO scene. FF XIV really revitalized the space, but WoW is still chugging along, ESO, Star Wars, New World, Guild Wars, EVE, MMO Lite Destiny 2, etc. Basically there are a lot of MMOs with really stable populations where doing activities isn't cumbersome and you can play whatever aesthetic (fantasy, space, etc) you'd like. It's certainly different from th…

I'm not sure I'd even call Destiny 2 MMO-lite at this point, it feels as much of a MMO as retail WoW or Guild Wars 1 at this point.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#22

Post by furyofantares »

> Not that I’m saying MMOs need blockchains;

I would hope not! Lots of MMOs exist, for example.

> but it turns out Proof-of-Work ledger technology had a use case here!

Right, blockchain and more narrowly Proof-of-Work have loads of use cases. They're just the worst solution available for almost all of them.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#23

Post by nhinck2 »

xwdv wrote: post #10

Ultima Online is the only MMO that felt like a true virtual world and not just a grindy RPG game played with a lot of people. It occurred at a unique time in history that is unlikely to be replicated again. You could build the same game but players have largely moved on from this style of MMO. A shame.

Yeah UO only worked because it was basically the only game in town.

The sheep were playing alongside the wolves. Once there was more choice in the market the more casually and cooperatively minded players self-selected into games catered to them.

Everyone who wants 'the next UO' has got to realise it's never going to happen.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#25

Post by tiagobraw »

nrb wrote: post #7
nyanpasu64 wrote: post #5

> Not that I’m saying MMOs need blockchains; but it turns out Proof-of-Work ledger technology had a use case here! Do you need a proof-of-work ledger, or just a central sequentially-consistent transactional ledger shared between all servers (without burning energy for rare SHA checksums)?

Since only the server is authoring the entries, just a ledger.

also known as database

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#26

Post by yreg »

ianbutler wrote: post #12
no_wizard wrote: post #9

Aside from being an amazing story, my other takes are the following: C / C++ are truly powerful and efficient languages for execution. Can you imagine doing this with Java or C# and still keeping the memory usage and speed reasonable, even in 2022? This is the late 90s (maybe early 2000s). C++ is a workhorse, warts and all. Game development is just so different from all other types of development, but I feel like if…

I don't know about that I'd say we're doing pretty good on the MMO scene. FF XIV really revitalized the space, but WoW is still chugging along, ESO, Star Wars, New World, Guild Wars, EVE, MMO Lite Destiny 2, etc. Basically there are a lot of MMOs with really stable populations where doing activities isn't cumbersome and you can play whatever aesthetic (fantasy, space, etc) you'd like. It's certainly different from th…

I've heard good things about Oldschool RuneScape.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#27

Post by palata »

furyofantares wrote: post #22

> Not that I’m saying MMOs need blockchains; I would hope not! Lots of MMOs exist, for example. > but it turns out Proof-of-Work ledger technology had a use case here! Right, blockchain and more narrowly Proof-of-Work have loads of use cases. They're just the worst solution available for almost all of them.

They are actually pretty damn good for some criminal use-cases...

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#28

Post by nerdix »

axus wrote: post #14
v8xi wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there with you - UO was the greatest game I ever played

A game development pair working on a kind of similar MMO for the last 10 years. "Haven and Hearth" has all the house building, player killing, crafting, and trading. No pre-made safe zones, though, and it resets every year or two. I think all of these small, independent efforts fall under the radar without the advertising of more expensive games. I don't know if UO was well-advertised at the time, but it was certainl…

UO was well advertised before launch. One of my most prized possessions as a kid was a summer of 1996 (want to say June) issue of PC Games magazine that had an in depth preview of UO. It came out about a year before the game actually launched. I probably read that article about 100 times. I was never going to get my parents to pay the monthly subscription fee so that magazine and my imagination was the closest I got to UO until I was in college and could afford it myself (that was during Age of Shadows and EverQuest had already supplanted it as the most popular MMORPG)

In the late 90s, Ultima was still one of the biggest (if not the biggest) PC/Western RPG franchises. UO launched before Ultima 9 kind of killed the franchise. I'd be surprised to find anyone who was really into PC gaming during that era that hadn't heard of Ultima Online.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#29

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

tiagobraw wrote: post #25
nrb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since only the server is authoring the entries, just a ledger.

also known as database

The article strictly points out the need for a shared concurrency models required in the functioning of a online game thats massively parrelled across both clients and various individual 'servers'.

Unique, hash based, 'stacked' items that are non-fungible with a decentralized shared state across clients.... yes, technically that's 'Just a database' but a highly complex one.

I get people hate the hype and 'uselessness' of crypto and even the term 'Blockchain' is loaded, but dismissing the technology out of hand is uncalled for. Especially when the author gave a very clear use case for a very real problem in shared state computing.

Re: We Burned Down Players’ Houses in Ultima Online

#30

Post by DixieDev »

I missed UO's hayday, but when I've played the big modern MMOs I find myself instead attracted to the idea that individual characters shouldn't be able to do everything. I feel like forcing players to interact if they want to gather specific resources or craft vital items would really help a game feel "massively multiplayer".

Are there any modern MMOs with mechanics like this, e.g. life-skill limits or some other source of dependence on other players?

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