Note: 10 months after the writing of this report, EA Games CANCELLED production of Ultima X: Odyssey and disbanded Origin.  This game will never exist in retail form, and the company that was designing it is no more.

I'm not much of a fan of this new-fangled fad known as massively multiplayer games. Not that they're not good games; it's just that I've always been against the pay model that they all adopt. You pay money to buy the game - and then you pay money on TOP of that, every month, for the right to play the game. I have yet to see one of these games that warrants my shelling out monthly bucks. Much of their profit system seems to come from the fact that you get addicted, and the time/money investment you have already put in to the game will force you to keep playing, long after you've grown tired and bored of it all.

I've never been much of a fan of Electronic Arts - regarded by many gamers as a pretty evil gaming company. Profit has always been their bottom line, as they buy out gaming companies, replace their management and design philosophies, and wind up crushing their creative spirit. Some of my favorite game companies have been bought by EA in the past and transformed this way. EA, as a publisher, also forces their companies to release games ahead of schedule and not when they're ready, thus ruining some games that could have been truly amazing if the development group were given the freedom to polish like Blizzard's teams enjoy. But EA is also incredibly successful, raking in profits year after year and just generally possessing oodles of cash (Note: this could, however, just be because of The Sims, which is the highest-selling game in history).

I've been a computer gamer since Pong, and yet I have a giant hole in my gaming history because I've never played an Ultima game. I'm practically embarrassed to admit it - how can one call themselves a die-hard gamer without ever playing Ultima? This long-running series of games has continually set the bar on role playing, producing some of the best RPGs of the 80s and 90s. And yet, I've never touched any of them. I think it's the "sequel effect" - if I didn't play the first three Ultimas, well then what's the point of playing Ultima IV, and so on...

Sooooo, there I was reading my email when EA sends me a notice that they'd like me to go to San Francisco on August 21-22 for their EAX Event, a mini-convention of sorts where their latest massively multiplayer game, Ultima X: Odyssey, will be unveiled to a select group of gaming media types, fansite webmasters, and online guild groups. There we will be wined and dined while they generate buzz about their game. All on their dime.

So let me sum up:

1. I'm not a fan of massively multiplayer games.
2. EA is evil. Origin, the game's developers, aren't (in fact, I've always loved that company) - but still...
3. I'm not an Ultima fan at all.

So my choice was obvious.

Heck yeah I'll go! :-) Duh, did you catch the words "All on their dime?" How often do you get an all-expenses-paid trip somewhere to see (and play; more on that later) a game currently in development? I'm here to report on the game from the perspective many of you here might share - you love the Diablo series, but may not have gotten into MMORPGs yet. So if you're reading this coming from a link on an Ultima fan website, keep in mind that I'm not an Ultima player and my perspective is quite different from yours. With that disclaimer in place, let's begin!

Thursday, August 21st

I arrived at the W Hotel where EA was shacking up the attendees around 11:00 AM Pacific time. This being my second time in San Francisco (the first also being on another gaming company's dime), I partially knew my way around and went for a walk in the city to see some sights. I got back around 1:00 PM and noticed a gang of people at the hotel's bar. Now, on the way to the hotel and in the lobby I met a few people already - some from EBGames.com, ION Storm, but none from fan or guild sites. The moment I walked into the bar, I just knew. Maybe it's a radar thing, but I could instantly sense gamers, all sitting at the bar. I joined in the discussion as it traveled from what the heck we were all doing here, to what kinds of sites were invited, to games in general, etc. A fun way to waste hours and hours waiting for the event to start at 6:30 PM.

This was a media event, one that the gaming journalists are used to - the fanfare, the silly extra things the PR people do to drum up their game - but we fansite/guild masters aren't used to all this jazz. Before the event began, there was a mini-reception of sorts in the outer hall, where costumed actors role-played medieval fighters, commoners, and royalty, whilst mingling with the crowd of...nerds like me. Fun!

TPJ and I discussed at length how wild this was. As far as we (and every other fansite/guild site master we talked to) knew, no game company had ever tried anything like this before. Most kickoff events are held for the gaming media, the journalists who will return to their websites and put up a short blurb to get the game in their readers' minds. There's an unwritten rule in gaming journalism: your reviews after a game is released can be merciless and truthful, but previews before a game's release should be universally positive. You discuss the good things, not any bad things that you may have noticed - because of the oft-used reason that the game is "still under development." Well, we fan sites don't follow that rule. If what Origin shows us on Friday stinks, we webmasters are going to come back and spread the word that it stinks. EA was taking a huge risk with this event, costing probably over a million dollars when it's all said and done, and it could backfire on them badly. So, did it stink or not? Read on. :)

The next morning I woke up early (I'm on East Coast time, 7:00 AM there is 10:00 AM to me), and figured I'd go down at 8:00 AM for breakfast (however, only after I ate those darn cookies). Upon opening my door I was rudely shocked to find that I had been locked in! I could not escape! AAAH! No, wait, someone just taped a poster across my door. I had to walk through it to get out. Yet another PR stunt. 10 points to EA for style.

The fun began mid-morning when we were all once again brought in and a demo of a quest in the game was held by the development team. They put the viewpoint of the party leader up on the big screens so we could all follow along. The demo of the branching quest system they had set up was pretty impressive, but I'll get into that in my gameplay review later.

If you're looking for screenshots, EA's got them up on their website and other fan sites out there. Screenshots barely do the game justice, since it's just amazingly gorgeous. Graphics-wise, the game scores an easy 10 - after all, it's based on an Unreal engine from Epic.

Lunchtime - TPJ and I grabbed some lunch (he went for sushi; I, being less brave, had a turkey sandwich - and all on their dime, of course). We wolfed it down because EA was holding group quest playtime demos inside for the few who ran in like us after eating. We grabbed two computers on one of the banks and played a group quest together. I'll discuss it on page two of this report.

After lunch and the group quests, EA held a question and answer session. Some of the questions were good, such as "what kind of support UXO will have for guild halls," while other questions seemed to come out of left field. For example, "Will I be able to dress up my character like a pirate?" What?

The PvP Tournament - Bolty Defends Lurker Honor

During lunch, I had been discussing strategy (what else?) with TPJ for the PvP Tournament. I noticed a few things while playing and watching others play:

1. While you can't run while using a bow (boo!), you can run while casting spells.
2. As every Diablo player knows, if you can kick rear from a distance, why kick rear from close-up while you take damage?
3. You don't have to worry about defense when every character runs at the same speed.
4. Diablo II's curse-style effects were available for some characters - and they worked in PvP! Imagine casting Confuse on someone. Well, they had a spell called Confuse which would make it very difficult to be hit by a melee character. Note to Origin: don't allow these spells in PvP.

So, my strategy was clear. I would pick a spellcasting character, pump up an offensive spell to its max, add Confuse to my arsenal for the melee classes, and throw in a heal spell (there are no healing potions).

There were four rounds of 5 players each, which would then be followed by a "champions' round" consisting of the four winners. I was in the first round - I wanted to get in there and try out my strategy. As it would happen, TPJ was also in my group. Time to die, buddy. The round began, and the melee classes started going at it. I ran over and cast fireball a few times. Everyone died. I was never even hit - the last fighter came at me but with a short cast of Confuse, his experience ended rapidly. Game over, right? Nope - TPJ decided that discretion was the better part of valor at the start of the fight and ran off. So I waited for him to come around and then blasted him into submission. Sorry, TPJ - there can be only one!

So, after winning my round, I waited for the other rounds to finish. By then the word was out. I may sound like an egomaniac here, but when I made my character I placed 10 points (the maximum) into Fireball, a few in Confuse, and one or two into Heal. Well, I saw a spellcaster do the same thing in a later round. Cough. Was he copying me, or did he also come up with that strategy on his own (after all, Fireball was not the only offensive spell to choose from)? He also cleaned up his group.

During this tournament, the action was viewable on the large screens for one computer from each bank. As fate would have it, my computer was one of the ones shown on the upper screens, so I got to hear everyone else hoot when I blasted an enemy.

The champions' round: four players, three spellcasters from what recall. Each (myself included) putting 10 points into Fireball, points in Confuse, and Heal. Hmm. Oh well. We had a mulligan when one of the players wasn't set up properly, so nobody else could attack him (and what do you know, he won that round). On the second try, the melee character apparently died quickly, and I blasted down a spellcaster. Two down, one to go - and as the last fighter left to oppose me in the PvP Tournament approached, he brandished a sword and I made the critical error of casting Confuse. A moment later, he opened up with a Fireball on me; with him getting in the first shot, I was chopped liver. Oh well, second place! I felt I defended the Lounge well. My congratulations go out to he who defeated me, whomever you are!

For all that effort, the Tournament winner (a contest winner from the Stratics website - I recommend that site for more info on this event) and I received a UXO T-shirt. Hoo boy! All the PvP Tournament participants received a pewter knife, which may not have been the best idea considering you cannot take that on a plane nowadays. I also then met TheAcolyte from PlanetDiablo - at the end of the event! We had no idea either of us was coming to this; oops.

The event wrapped up with the end of the tournament and an autograph session with the development team. I flew back to Philadelphia that night, after dinner with Amazon Basiners TPJ, Flick, and Erinye. Thanks for the good times, and nice meeting you! Before I left, TPJ hooked me up with a sweet Amazon Basin T-shirt, which will soon be available to buy from their site. As a fellow Diablo webmaster, I'm going to plug his product - support your favorite websites and go buy some AB swag when it becomes available! These sites aren't free for us webmasters and help is always needed.

So, hope you had fun reading about my two days in San Francisco. What about the game? Did I like it? Go find out on Page Two.