Gamespy tracked down Lord British (aka Richard Garriott), who had some very interesting things to say about EA's decision to cancel UO2. Perhaps the most interesting part is his definite admission that this cancellation actually opens the door for him to start a new company. Every Ultima fan should read this. Here's an excerpt:

"It's going to be interesting for me to go back to Austin and start up discussions with the large stable of close friends who are now looking for something to do, right about the time that I'm looking for something to do, so that should be fun."

Though I didn't believe it at first, Well Rounded Entertainment is reporting that OSI has pulled the plug on Ultima Online 2. In a statement released today, EA and OSI said:

Electronic Arts and Origin Systems have announced a plan that will increase their focus on Ultima Online and halt production of OWO: ORIGIN (UO2). The reason is simple, rather than creating OWO: ORIGIN (UO2) as a parallel world competing with UO, we've decided to put those resources into growing and improving the core offering for Ultima Online’s 230,000 loyal subscribers. In the near future and with the release next week of Ultima Online: Third Dawn , players will see new lands, new creatures and a world that is continually evolving within Ultima Online.

The full story at Well Rounded can be found here. This has been confirmed by David Swofford of OSI.

RPG Planet has posted a new preview of UO: Third Dawn, the upcoming expansion pack that upgrades the UO client to 3D, as well as incorporating a new land. Check out RPG Planet's preview right here.

A new editorial by yours truly has been posted on the Wayward Avatar. In this editorial, I discuss what exactly it means to 'roleplay'. You can read it right here.

Sven Carlberg has written an interesting port of Ultima III for the Gameboy Color. This is not a commercial product, this is a project put together by a fan. In addition to the original Exodus adventure, this version includes an entirely new, original game that is as large as the original. You can download the game from Sven's website.

To play the game, you'll need a Gameboy Color emulator. You'll find a whole bunch of them at Zophar's Domain. I was able to get this game up and running using an emulator called VirtualBoy, but it should work on other emulators as well.

Real Life, a comic that often deals with Ultima Online, has posted a feature entitled "All I need to know in life I learned from Ultima Online." It's quite funny, with such bits as:

Don't waste cloth -- it only takes one bandage to save a life.
Patience is not a virtue.
If you meet someone named SuPa KiLLa, 10 to 1 he's not looking to be friends with you.

Don't hesitate, go over and read it. Also, be sure to bookmark Real Life; it's a good web comic, especially for UO fans.

The website for Eriadain, the upcoming Ultima IX remake, is back up. After losing their last server, they are now hosted at The Ultima Dungeon. The Eriadain site is right here.

Chlorthos of the Eriadain team was kind enough to send me 3 conceptual drawings from their upcoming remake of Ultima IX. These images show the male Avatar, Blackthorn, and a nostalgic memory of Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre. Head on over and check them out.

Ultima Online Deutschland, a German Ultima site, has posted an interview with Moa and Chlorthos of the Eriadain team. Eriadain, formerly AlterU9, is a remake of Ultima 9 in the works. In the interview they explain that, despite rumors to the contrary, Eriadain is quite alive and seeking a new web host. For mor info, read the interview.

RPG Planet has 8 new exclusive screenshots from the upcoming Ultima Online: Third Dawn expansion pack. For those of you who don't know, Third Dawn (or 3D) brings Ultima Online into 3D, with a 3D world, items, monsters and characters. It features a moveable, redesigned interface and new animation systems. You can check out the new screenshots here.

Ultima Ressurection, a new pen and paper RPG set in the Ultima universe, has been released. Here's a sample from the page:

Welcome to Ultima Ressurection : Return of Virtue. The first tabletop role playing game based on the very popular Ultima computer game series and the MMPRPG Ultima Online. This is also my first real crack at writing a full fledged role playing game.

Why did I decide to write this game, wasn't the computer game enough? No. Well, it's great. I'm a big fan of the series, I must have played all of the games at least 3 times and I'm still a very active member of the Ultima Online community I'm glad to say. But I also am a tabletop role player, so I know the benefits of a tabletop RPG against those of a computer based one.

I haven't had a chance to look over the rules yet, but when I do I'll run my friends through a quest as guinea pigs... stay tuned for a review.

Thanks to UO2 Dimension for the tip.

The Ultima Worlds Online: Origin website has been updated with new team comments from graphics programmer Peter "Hyperion" Freese. Freese discusses the challenges of providing a good gameplay experience with good graphics. An excerpt:

For a MMORPG for be successful, it must succeed on many fronts: without instant visual appeal, players won’t buy the boxed product; and without solid game design, they won’t stick around in the pretty world after they’ve seen the sights. The game has to be immediately accessible and fun for the newbie, yet offer a fulfilling experience for the accomplished player.

Read the rest of it right here.

The Ultima Worlds Online: Origin frequently asked questions page has been updated with 3 new questions. A sample:

Will all the old towns and cities from previous Ultimas be present in ORIGIN?
Sure, there are many familiar Ultima towns such as Cove, Paws, Buc's Den, Yew and Britain, as well as some new places brought about by the cataclysm, such as New Minoc and New Skara Brae. Of course, there are also completely new areas on the Juka and Meer continents, which have not been seen before in an Ultima.

Read these questions, along with all the old ones, at the Origin FAQ.

Dragon Baroque, the man responsible for the Ultima 7 in Windows patch, has publicly released a patch for Ultima 8: Pagan that allows you to run it in Windows. You can visit the site here, or grab it off file planet right here.

Sorry for the lack of an update, but I've finally resolved some ISP troubles that have prevented me from accessing the GSI servers. Never fear, though, the Wayward Avatar will now be updated as soon as news presents itself. Also, look forward to a fairly major redesign by month's end. That's all for now; be sure to check back for all your Ultima needs.
-Uther

Gamespy.com has posted an Interview with Lord British as part of their "20 Questions Not About Their Game" series. One question struck me:

GameSpy: Are there any games that you are looking forward to playing?

Richard Garriott: I have not even thought about games for about 9 months! Ah, it has been so nice. So, people are still making games? That's good!

So, it seems unlikely he's working on another game right now. Another question that caught my eye:

GameSpy: Looking 10 years down the road, what would you like to be able to say about the intervening years?

Richard Garriott: I'd like to feel I continued to make significant contributions to the state of the art. Games still have so far to go, to become the immersive virtual worlds I hope they will become.

Sounds like he hasn't completely given up games... This is LB's first interview since he left OSI, so if you're interested in what our noble leader is up to check it out here

The official Ultima Worlds Online: Origin page has been updated with new team comments from lead programmer Jeremy Gaffney. In this post, entitled "Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting...", Gaffer discusses the flipkicks that have been showcased in the demo movies. An exerpt:

Getting the flipkicks into the game was pretty challenging from a technical standpoint - it'd be very easy to make them waste a lot of bandwidth (= lag) or not work across server boundaries (= exploits) or generally look or feel bad (= unhappy fans). We've overcome those issues, though, so we are making sure to add in lots of Matrix-style fighting moves as part of making combat exciting. Some people feel that it's just graphical fluff, but it actually enhances gameplay as well (well, ya gotta admit, it does also add a certain graphical flair).

Check out the full post here.

Also, 11 new screenshots have been posted in the appropriately-titled Screenshots section. they show off, among other things, the aformentioned flipkicks. Check them out here.

Grandor Dragon has released his Ultima 9 dialogue patch, which replaces much of the dialogue and books in Ascension to increase the depth of the story. I've only made it to Despise so far, but already it looks incredible. Among the topics brought up so far are the origins of the Wyrmguard & Blackthorn's new regime, growing support for the Fellowship, and what exactly happened in Pagan. I'll post a full review on the Wayward once I finish it, but don't hesitate and download it yourself.

The alpha test for the upcoming Ultima Online: Third Dawn has begun, and discs have been sent out to players involved. The Third Dawn alpha shard, called "Alpha 3rd Dawn", is open to all players, but only players with alpha discs will be able to travel by moongate to the new land of Ilshenar. Conversely, the Third Dawn client can be used to access any UO shard, but the land of Ilshenar will only exist on the Alpha 3rd Dawn shard.

The Ultima Worlds Online: Origin team comments page has been updated with comments from Amy Sage, UWO:O Community & Web Coordinator. In this update, Ms. Sage discusses her responsabilities & goals as C&WC; for UWO:O.

A new trailer for UWO:Origin has been released (they seem to just be calling it Origin for short -- and I'm all for that, except of course that it's a little confusing whether you're talking about the company or the game). The trailer is available for download in small (8.1 MB), medium (14.0 MB) and large (20.4 MB) sizes in QuickTime format, and offers some three and a half minutes of in-game footage. The only thing that concerned me was that most of the action seemed a little choppy to me. Oh well, judge for yourself.

Wolf Dreamer pointed out this fan project to create a version of Ultima IX that uses the original plotline. I was skeptical, but after playing the demo, I'm pretty impressed. It looks and plays like an old Super Nintendo RPG, like Mystic Quest or Lufia. Definately worth checking out. I've added it to the Extra Stuff section of the site.

A few days ago, Ultima 9 celebrated it's first birthday. Not surprisingly, this site is only a few days behind it. The Wayward Avatar first appeared on November 29, 1999 as a simple text walkthrough on some free web space. Back then it was called the "Bard's Ultima 9 Walkthrough." A week later it moved to RPG Planet to become part of the gamespy network. The message boards (which have become the most successful aspect of the site) debuted during the last few days of December.

To celebrate this birthday, I have done a re-design of the site. This is something that I had sitting on my harddrive for a long time, and I thought this was a good excuse to make use of it.

Join the Origin team this Wednesday as Origin Stratics hosts another Origin House of Commons. The conference will occur November 29th at 7pm CST in #originhoc. The Origin design team will be on hand to answer your questions about this exciting new world, which takes Ultima to the next level. The topic will be announced prior to the chat.

To join the conference, connect to one of the following Stratics IRC servers, then type /join #originhoc. Or, use the Stratics Java IRC Client.

• irc.stratics.com
• compu.stratics.com
• dhp.stratics.com
• frws.stratics.com
• intworks.stratics.com

The Wayward Avatar's parent site, RPG Planet has published an account of their recent visit to Origin Systems in Austin. Have a look at the article.

Gamespot is running a special series about online RPG's, which includes sections on both Ultima Online and UWO:Origin.

A few weeks ago, Origin held the first annual Ultima Online World Faire in Austin, Texas. Gamespy was there and gives a full report.

Xenerkes Dragon has created a new party editing utility for Ultima IV. A description from Xenerke's Ultimatrix site: Are you tired as I am of searching through your Ultima Collection CD or your Hard-drive where Ultima executable files are located ? That's why I've done this launcher. You can launch each Ultima very easily : select each executable path once, and then just double click on an icon to launch one of those Ultima ! Expect a mirror to be up here at the Wayward within the hour.

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