Shroud of the Avatar - Update #13, Housing

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Ultima now has two sets of fans to appeal to: single-player and MMO.

Yes, Shroud of the Avatar has two communities to appeal to…
Ultima fans and UO fans… that is, middle-aged men and their gossiping housewives.
 
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Heh, the UO fans aren't the friendliest bunch...
 
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Yes, Shroud of the Avatar has two communities to appeal to…
Ultima fans and UO fans… that is, middle-aged men and their gossiping housewives.

A nice money pool to tap in.

I wonder in case the game is not hard enough, if the thesis explaining that players do not endure to be challenged anymore because of public education will be stated.
 
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Those interviews were reassuring enough that I decided to let my pledge stand for the moment. It is pretty clear from what he says that a lot of the design is still up in the air at the moment, so there is a lot of "trust me", but the clear commitment to single player story and interactive world on the U VII template convinced me.
I am still doubtful regarding the online elements. His "new smith"example is nice enough, but what if the owner of the shop decides to call his vendor R0xx0r Haxx0rr, or someone decorates his garden with flowers in stars and stripes form? But well, if I can turn it off, it's ok, just seems a waste of resources.
The most worrisome to me is how he dodged how they really want to get around the problesm of combining single player story and online (another 'trust me').
 
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Interactive world is the goal, but climbing and jumping isn't in? In a 3D game? Mmhh... I wonder why they didn't ask him about swimming.
 
Well, you can interact with all the micro-loot :) Unless people can add story or combat content, then I could care less about art, game-breaking weapons and armor, and knickknacks for my house. I really just use a house for loot storage. I don't invite real world friends over to look at how I decorate my house, much less imaginary friends in a game. If the game can be modded like Skyrim, then all is well. Otherwise, I don't see the point.
 
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Interactive world is the goal, but climbing and jumping isn't in? In a 3D game? Mmhh… I wonder why they didn't ask him about swimming.

Climbing and jumping were never part of the ultima games until 8 and 9, and people hated it...that's why it was asked.
 
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Climbing and jumping were never part of the ultima games until 8 and 9, and people hated it…that's why it was asked.

People hated it in Ultima 8. In Ultima 9, it did nothing except enhancing the gameplay/ feel of the world. I don't remember a single instance in U9 where jumping was as frustrating as it was in U8. Of course, a lot of people simply hated everything about U9 for not very good reasons mostly.
 
The most popular MMO by far (as in nothing else even comes close) is WoW, and it has no housing at all. So I doubt that statement is all that true.

No one ever says WoW is the best example of what an MMO should be...Ultima Online was known for it's freedom.
 
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In MMOs there are plenty of people who like houses to show them to others, just like they want the coolest armor and are willing to pay money to achieve those things.
Personally I don't care about any of this. I only use a house to store loot, so I would already be happy with a personal crate that is big enough to store all the stuff I probably don't need anyway. Then again having a backpack of endless storage is even better. Not realistic, but I don't care.
 
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Hmm, well, so this small country-side village which is part of the story actually grew to an enormous town with Christmas decorated player houses... that doesn't break the single player experience for me one bit... no not at all....
 
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I like to have a base of operations, be it a house or whatever. But,

it would greatly enhance my immershun if I could actually use it like a house; that is, return to it frequently. I don't see this happening in the single player campaign.
 
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