Ultima Online Kingdom Reborn support.

[Cheetah2003]

A finite goal is more likely to stop development than encourage it IMHO. I wouldn't blame anyone on the team for wanting to move on to other things, and undoubtedly I wouldn't expect anyone to get themselves in legal trouble over a hobby. But saying that the goal has been reached, and no longer staying current with OSI, really to me signals the beginning of the end of RunUO.

Being that RunUO is open source, I'm fairly certain, if the current dev team decided to cease continued development on this code, there's plenty of interested people who will more than likely pick up the project and continue it's development.

As far as KR goes... I've mixed feelings about this Dev Team electing to not develop RunUO further to take advantage of whatever KR throws out there. It'll without a doubt hurt freeshards and RunUO as a whole.

As far as legal implications, not being a lawyer or anything, but I don't really see a legal foot to stand on in terms of EA trying to go after RunUO. RunUO itself uses no copyrighted material nor does it distribute copyrighted material. RunUO uses client files, which each individual user must provide. It's the users whom might be violating some sort of contractual agreement, and not having read the EULA for Ultima Online in sometime, the last I remember reading it, they simply say if you use third party programs, your account on their servers will be terminated.

I really don't see KR or anything EA tries to do helping their own servers. UO as a mainstream commerical game is in my eyes finished. It's now cult game, with a following that expects more than EA has ever delivered, or will deliver. Why do you think there are so many different free shards out there now? Everyone has a different idea of what UO should be like, and it's certainly not EA's idea.

 

[HellRazor]

I suspect that at some point in the distant future, as UO enters it's death spiral, that EA will then try to capitalize on the "free shard" business in some fashion by creating their own player run server software.

 

[Cheetah2003]

as UO enters it's death spiral

Hasn't UO been in it's death spiral since the release of Age of Shadows?

 

[Jeff]

Hasn't UO been in it's death spiral since the release of Age of Shadows?

Depends on your point of view, i lost interest during just after T2A

 

[Ryan]

There are some different legal situations with UO:KR. Obviously obtaining the alpha and beta will not be a problem for us. Reverse engineering it would (likely) not be a problem.

Bigger and better things... now that's something to talk about.... eventually.

 

[Ronin Warrior]

There are some different legal situations with UO:KR. Obviously obtaining the alpha and beta will not be a problem for us. Reverse engineering it would (likely) not be a problem.

Bigger and better things... now that's something to talk about.... eventually.

in my honest opinion, i see this as an opp to break away from keeping up with EA, and do things your way, the way this community as a whole would like to see things go to, as previously mentioned a new client. ok, is a good idea, break away from EA all together, if time and work allows it. now i dont have the knowledge as most, but if krrios's client was updated and able to support diff map files, idk what legalities would come into play by coping the look of EAs maps.

or hell make our own maps, would be tight, with that said, would be alot more work im sure, going back and making runuo support diff maps, i honestly like how runuo is now, and from what ive read of UO:KR, i dont like it, i like how UO is now,

 

[Cheetah2003]

There are some different legal situations with UO:KR.

Pardon me for being curious. And if my curiosity is out of line, just tell me. But... would you mind elaborating on that? I'm just curious.

 

[RavonTUS]

Bigger and better things... now that's something to talk about.... eventually.

Greetings,

Oh no it's Irth II.

Just joking

-Ravon

 

[shrundowr]

As far as KR goes... I've mixed feelings about this Dev Team electing to not develop RunUO further to take advantage of whatever KR throws out there. It'll without a doubt hurt freeshards and RunUO as a whole.

...... cocaine is bad for your health.

 

[kaball]

save ultima online ? just forget everything from the past , land mass, gui, playing style, viewing style everything. build everything from the scratch with new exiting and innovating things ! because thats what ultima online frist meant " people went like "OMFG WTF !!! " Because uo was inovation it was nothing anyone ever seen before !

imho ,a " ultima online 2" would defently put and end to the down spiral uo took since t2a and totally rebuild the MMO'S idea and concepts. and still bring the Ultima name back to the top . and yeah, eletronic arts dont give a f%k about what uo players want, they dont give a f%k about free shards, they dont even give a f%k about ultima ! they never did . all they care about is fast car games and hot chicks in it ! ( why ? , because ultima online doesnt give them mooney )

 

[narcof]

( why ? , because ultima online doesnt give them mooney )

I'm betting that's neither the case nor the reason...

 

[Jeff]

You guys all need to understand, OSI doesnt run UO anymore. EA does, and with that EA is a BIG company who has money to throw around. They have invested big money into this KR client, and in my opinion it sounds odd. Why invest 10mil+ dollars into a 10 year old game and still basically only give it a minor face lift? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Also, what would you do, if you put hours and hours of time and money into something only for someone to reverse engineer it and allow it to be used for free? Something about the whole thing smells fishy, and I don't like fish. EA didnt really own the rights, patents, copyrights, etc to the current client, Richard Garriott did. Seems that that could have played a huge roll in them not pursuing things previously. This gives them an upper hand, and to be completely honest...I'm not even remotely interested in testing those waters. If you feel brave enough, be my guest but, this decision was discussed, debated, and all around well thought out. Whether you support it or not, it is the right decision. Imagine EA's fury if only a few days after their KR launch ppl could play it for free, over here.... not good.

 

[Courageous]

EA didnt really own the rights, patents, copyrights, etc to the current client, Richard Garriott did.

Really? I would have thought EA would have bought all IP rights, as is normal during the acquisition of one company by another.

C//

 

[HellRazor]

EA didnt really own the rights, patents, copyrights, etc to the current client, Richard Garriott did. Seems that that could have played a huge roll in them not pursuing things previously.

This isn't correct. It is all owned by EA. The only part of Ultima Richard Garriott owns is the trademark to his own "game name" of Lord British (which is why UO stopped using references to Lord British awhile ago). So I doubt any of this has any impact on why they are creating a new client.

The new client is an effort by EA to keep their cash cow alive a little while longer. The subscriber base is dwindling and they are basically giving the aging technology a new paint job. Since they are writing a new client, they will also likely incorporate anti-cheat stuff like Punkbuster and address other issues while they are at it.

What I'm interested in knowing is, was anyone on the team actually contacted by EA, or is this decision being made based on assumption of what EA may or may not do based on the release of a new client and their recent statements to Computer Gaming World (aka Gaming For Windows)?

 

[Malaperth]

This isn't correct. It is all owned by EA. The only part of Ultima Richard Garriott owns is the trademark to his own "game name" of Lord British (which is why UO stopped using references to Lord British awhile ago). So I doubt any of this has any impact on why they are creating a new client.

The new client is an effort by EA to keep their cash cow alive a little while longer. The subscriber base is dwindling and they are basically giving the aging technology a new paint job. Since they are writing a new client, they will also likely incorporate anti-cheat stuff like Punkbuster and address other issues while they are at it.

What I'm interested in knowing is, was anyone on the team actually contacted by EA, or is this decision being made based on assumption of what EA may or may not do based on the release of a new client and their recent statements to Computer Gaming World (aka Gaming For Windows)?

I don't see how that matters. Easiest way to avoid a lawsuit is to not do things that will invite one. Messing with this brand new client (or whatever it is or is not) looks like an invitation for bloodsucking lawyers to become involved to me.

 

[Jeff]

This isn't correct. It is all owned by EA. The only part of Ultima Richard Garriott owns is the trademark to his own "game name" of Lord British (which is why UO stopped using references to Lord British awhile ago). So I doubt any of this has any impact on why they are creating a new client.

Ok my mistake.

What I'm interested in knowing is, was anyone on the team actually contacted by EA, or is this decision being made based on assumption of what EA may or may not do based on the release of a new client and their recent statements to Computer Gaming World (aka Gaming For Windows)?

Why tempt fate? Whether contact was made or not, why not just accept this change, or go after it yourself? No one is stopping you from trying, but don't think for a second I wont send you an 'I told you so' if anything comes of it. Imagine this for a minuete. Let's say the dev team jumps all over KR, lets say they have working hax and whatnot 1 day, 2 days, hell 1 month after its release. Now lets for a minute say EA sends a Cease and Desist order. RunUO will be shutdown at a drop of a dime... you really want to tempt fate this way?

 

[HellRazor]

I don't see how that matters. Easiest way to avoid a lawsuit is to not do things that will invite one. Messing with this brand new client (or whatever it is or is not) looks like an invitation for bloodsucking lawyers to become involved to me.

It may not matter at all so far as the decision itself goes. I respect the team's decision regardless of why it was made, it is their project after all and I'm thankful for what we have.

But as someone interested in the emulation community even outside of RunUO, I'd be interested in knowing if something is going on behind the scenes that influenced the decision, that's all.

I guess if I received a cease and desist letter, or knew someone at EA who told me they were gearing up to sue anyone who reverse engineers the new client, I wouldn't want to risk that either. I'm interested in knowing if that is what is happening here.

Since that stance could also lead to people running shards eventually being at risk, I think a lot of admins would like to know too so they could be forewarned.

 

[HellRazor]

Why tempt fate? Whether contact was made or not, why not just accept this change, or go after it yourself? No one is stopping you from trying, but don't think for a second I wont send you an 'I told you so' if anything comes of it. Imagine this for a minuete. Let's say the dev team jumps all over KR, lets say they have working hax and whatnot 1 day, 2 days, hell 1 month after its release. Now lets for a minute say EA sends a Cease and Desist order. RunUO will be shutdown at a drop of a dime... you really want to tempt fate this way?

Don't get me wrong, I definately understand the concern. Not arguing with the decision at all. Just wondering if there was anything solid that influenced it, or if it was made just based on what we all already know.

 

[Jeff]

I guess if I received a cease and desist letter, or knew someone at EA who told me they were gearing up to sue anyone who reverse engineers the new client, I wouldn't want to risk that either. I'm interested in knowing if that is what is happening here.

No thats not what happened, that i can assure you. Infact you know everything that went into this discision

 

[Malaperth]

or knew someone at EA who told me they were gearing up to sue anyone who reverse engineers the new client, I wouldn't want to risk that either.

Well, think about it... Anyone that reverse engineers a new piece of software that is intended to make money for a company, AND then distributes it or things intended to work with said reverse engineered product and does not expect to be sued should not be surprised at what they get...