Talk:Ultima Online/Archive 2

message: I wonder if some mention should be made of the amusing (in retrospect) grey goo issue that caused servers to crash when players cast field effect spells against slimes. Too esoteric, maybe? --Steven Fisher 03:36, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I added it to the trivia section. --Sydius 17:38, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grey goo 

message: I would like to comment- until I can further improve my skills and figure out how to add the section myself- a tremendous gap in the game history that I am shocked nobody has filled already. Perhaps it simply shows how 'elite' the information truly was? Or the fact that few who know the actual details have taken the time to step forwards and share.
A tremendous part of the history of online gaming is, I believe, the "Interest Program" started by Ultima Online. It began first with the Counselor program, where volunteer players were hired and managed by paid Origin employees to assist players and also enforce rules/regulations. It expanded in a dramatically new direction, however, when the Seer program was implemented using current "Counselors" as a test base to draw from. Counselors had certain powers that other game players lacked for the sole purpose of enabling them to enforce the rules of the game to the extent they were permitted- these rules were strictly followed, and little freedom was allowed to a counselor. You had shard a hierchy, however, and so there were volunteers who were shard leads and had greater abilities and powers- the actual GMs, Game Masters, were the only real Origin employees and mainly interacted directly with the volunteer shard leads.
I am unfamiliar with the complete history or timeline of its beginning, but I do know that the Seer program- which began with counselors to my knowledge- quickly explanded as they recruited from the roleplaying base of players. Initially there may have been no age limit, but eventually only players ages 18 and up were allowed to be volunteers- or Seers. Seers had a unique role that was constantly evolving and answered a question: how can player "Interest" (thus the name the Interest Program) be kept up in such a huge and tremendously growing environment? How can one company with limitted employees- and limitted technology of the time- possibly create personal experiences and memorable events on a large enough scale that everyone feels involved? How can we make each shard feel unique and players have their own heroic stories to tell?
Seers were the answer. Seers, closely watched by "Interest GMs"- Game Masters specifically chosen for the task of overseeing the Interest program (unlike the GMs who oversaw the counselor program), were given the same structure as counselors but an incredibly larger amount of 'power' and leeway. This was, of course, necessary in order to accomplish their goals. The structure quickly evolved, but by the time I joined the program consisted of a lead Seer, and then the other Seers of the shard. If counselors were known by their blue robes with no visible face- looking somewhat like sages- so too were Seers known in the same way, except with green robes if I remember correctly. It was rumoured that Seers' powers lay in their special robes- players would often be seen asking us "D00d, can I have ur robe!", others thought perhaps that we had a special game client. Whether or not GMs did, Seers and other volunteers had no special robe or client- we were simply given special in-game permissions and commands we could utilise that were allowed through special flags on our account. These flags were given in a step-by-step processs as a Seer was trained, put into a period of trial, and finally 'graduated' to full Seer status.
People associated the green robed sages with Seers, but in truth that form was rarely used- Seers most often travelled completely invisible to player eyes and could teleport instantly anywhere in the game map and beyond. There were certain restrictions to where they could go- they could go there, but if they were caught they would be disciplined. There was a specific area of the map that no players could get to designated specifically for Seers to use- and also other areas designated specifically for special events GMs organized that Seers occasionally "popped into" by accident. Oops, I just happened to appear in last year's Christmas event room- look at the trees! Oops, I just happened to appear in a foorless expanse of stars... nifty!
Later, the program expanded to include Elders. Elders were specifically recruited for roleplay and teaching ability, as their purpose was to conduct in-character roleplaying events for the purpose of teaching new players the game in an enjoyable way and performing events that young players could be involved in. After all, the average players were so advanced in levels that most events involved monsters that could kill a new player in one hit. So to involve younger players, Elders were brought in- and instantly the number of events increased to a large scale. Scavenger hunts, chickens invading a town- and incidentally slowing down the server- mad cow disease causing a killer cow to run around attacking players with the strength of a litch (a very, very powerful enemy).
The program evolved into a more organised system- you had the Shard Lead, head over both Seers and Elders. Then you had the Ancient and the Ancient Elder, and then the Seers and Elders. The Seers, being first and having more advanced powers, took something of a place of eminence over the Elders- especially since the Elders tended to be less skilled in roleplaying and less was expected of them. Last, and some thought least- not myself- were the troubadors- 'actors' of a sort, members of the volunteer staff with fewer hours to spare who came in to act parts for the Seers and Elders. The Seers and Elders had the power- or, should I say, the Ancients could specifically modify the bodies of the troubs- to play parts. The Seers/Elders could teleport and move the troub around- they were virtually powerless in and of themselves.
What did Seers and Elders do exactly? Well, eventually Elders did a lot of what Seers did- except for lower levels, teaching events, and also no 'persistent plots'. Persistent plots were anything more than one-shot events. An event or encounter was over and done within a single day- an event consisted of a series of encounters. An encounter was one action- players meeting up and fighting with orcs, chickens flooding a city, etc. A PLOT, or persistent plot, consisted of a series of events over more than one day that were linked. Only Seers could do this. I started as an Elder myself, and worked up to Seer due to my roleplay experience and ambition to get to share my creativity. Being a Seer was basically like being a game designer- you worked hard on building pages of work to make a template for every encounter, every event, and also every plot you were going to do. It had to be approved by the ancient, and special powers that only GMs had needed the GM to be scheduled in.
What was the result? Well, Seers were allowed- with great time and effort- to get RPCs (Roleplaying Persistent Characters) authorised. These were long-term characters that played a major part in shard life and allowed players to get involved in the world- but were present on only ONE shard/server, unlike major characters like Lord British which ONLY GMs could play or write about. These RPCs could be a local female bard who often visitted a certain player-owned or city tavern and players would gather when she came to hear stories of certain legends or things that needed to be done. Certain changes in the world could happen- like a lake drying up- and a series of events needed to put things to right. Any manner of special plots occurred for high and medium level players alike, and over months players could be a part of these things. The inclusion of Elders allowed even more, smaller events- players walking through a forest and suddenly a thief appears, demanding money and when refused a mob of  NPC  rogues suddenly come out from the trees to attack.  Everyone now had the chance to be a part of the world.
The powers of every Seer and Elder were far, far above that of a normal player- but were limitted, and watched casually. The screening process involved background checks, submitting your drivers liscence and/or pasport, and signing legal documents. Just to get to that point requires filling out a long forum, then a series of interviews. Over a thousand people applied just for the round that resulted in the Elder group I was a part of! Of those thousand plus, less than a hundred were chosen for all the servers. There were maybe a total of ten interest volunteers per shard- including Seers and Elders, and each shard was different. The hierchy that had developed was GMs, Ancients, Seers, Elders, Counselors, and Troubs. This was slightly enforced, because association and help from/to counselors was highly discouraged since our jobs were so different.
Near the end a complex system of spawn points was developed, giving us a pool to draw from of any monster in the game to spawn- higher levels meant higher cost, and Elders had the least points, Seers more, then Ancients and finally the Shard Lead. Some monsters only the ancients and shard lead could spawn, or the GMs themselves. Due to the harsh legal penalties and close screening, honesty was a rule among the Interest program and abuse of power was relatively controlled. Once you joined the program, you were forced to disclose every shard you played on, and then you created- using only your single special interest-only account- your interest characters on your volunteered shard.  There were penalties of expulsion and loss of your player account if you were caught with play characters on one of your shards.
Perhaps the details may sound trivial to some, but this was a major part of UO history and online game history. Partially because the interest program- while similar in some ways to something Everquest did- was unique, in that it allowed volunteer players to not only monitor the game, but also create it!  Entire stories and plots were made- it was like being a game designer on a smaller scale, and hundreds to thousands of players experienced stories I wrote, created intricate templates for, gathered interest team members to carry out, and implimented myself. Not to mention the epic battles GMs created that I was allowed to play the 'enemies' or side characters in.  There came a time where I stopped playing UO as a player entirely-  it was simply too much fun playing the other side. I began to learn the strengths and weaknesses of all the monsters at different levels, solely so I could 'fight the players' better without killing them off by accident.  There was, though some might doubt it, a strong rule of- try to avoid player deaths.  They happened, but in general, it was something to avoid.  So in large scale events where we were told "kill at will", it was just good fun to see how many bold heroes or snide villains you could knock off with your heavily boosted specially hued "grand litch of death" leading the hoard of monsters taking over the town of Trinsic.
The volunteer program was shut down, I believe around 2002. There was a period of silence when our work went on as usual, but communication between the GMs and the volunteers grew less. The Shard Leads and Ancients were uneasy and attuned to something going on- but were unsure what. Then, one day without any warning, all interest account were suddenly wiped. Our powers dissapeared, we received a general announcement that the program was disbanded. Obviously, we were not warned so that nobody would attempt to abuse their powers in retaliation. The reasons were vague, but rumours came that some volunteers had spoilt all the fun by sueing (some said Origin, some said it was in Everquest this happened, or both) the company because they felt they should be paid for the kind of work they were doing.
Truth told, I often put in a minimum of 30 hours a week, often 40+ at times, but I loved every minute of it. Most all of us did- if you did not, you quit. The majority of volunteers were really upset that because of a few bad eggs, the joy we had was ruined completely. Other rumours were that too many people were abusing their powers. For whatever reasons exactly, EA had decided we were too much of a liability to keep- and the era of player fueled entertainment on UO ended in 2002. May the Interest Program rest in peace.
But it doesn't end there...
Could it be that this had an influence on the future of online games? What about the growing, exciting trend of games such as  Neverwinter Nights  2,  Morrowind , and others where players themselves can create plots, stories, and their own games from the content a game initially provides?  Even the  Sims  and Sims 2  community has taken on the idea.  Is there a chance that some of this movement came from ideas provided by experiments such as the Interest program, where the volunteers involved enjoyed running the game so much they invested 40+ hours a week and loved every minute of it? What effect did this have on game history, and while the secrecy enforced around it means many never knew the details- or forgot about it- is the effect perhaps still largely felt?
Also, what effect has this had on new technology, or how has more advanced AI and quest system development taken the place of what Seers and Elders once did?
I believe the above and more are all incredibly deep and important topics left largely unexplored on Wikipedia and encourage others to engaged in the exploration of these things with me.
-Pat
:Ah, the volunteer program. What a mess. Yes, it should be in the article. Thanks for pointing that out. I was training for the program at the time it was cancelled -- it was that sudden. As for why it was cancelled, you should have a look over at the AOL article. I think that had a bigger impact on the idea of community volunteering than anything UO ever did. --Steven Fisher 05:48, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Interest Program- Seers and more 

message: Right now, I thought the largest PRS was an American one, UOGamers? Using UOGateway it seems to be the largest with over an 800person average; however, what are bigger Asian or European ones? If I can't seem to dig any up I'm going to end up deleting that. UOGamers seems to have a large international community as well from China, Japan, Germany and elsewhere. Volksgeist 04:58, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Player Ran Shard Server Size, Large Asian and European ones? 

message: Free UO servers are not emulators. (See emulator.) References to the dubious term "server emulator" should be stripped. Source: http://www.runuo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70528#10
: Look Kethinov hundrets of people looked over that article already and had no problem with it, just because you object to this term does not qualify you to call the whole chapter to be "disputed". Jestix 21:14, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: They emulate the server packet protocol, and even if they didn't, it is the term most commonly used to describe this kind of software.  --Sydius 16:52, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

text: The article server emulator currently reflects a consensus about the issues around the term "server emulator", i would suggest to redirect discussion about pro and cons about this notion there. 16:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Factual Accuracy (use of the term emulator)

message: Please, I would suggest to refrain from use of this word in privatly organized projects like Ultima Online. Just take a look at a synonym database what "officially" really means - an act of a state. Call it "original" implementation, or EA/OSI client or anything like that. EA/OSI is not an office in a legal sense, meaning beeing empowered with sovereignty (like e.g. a court) and it's doings are therefore not "officially". (The "office" beeing in private organisations has the developemnt of its name from history, when in the 19th century large industrial organizations copied structures to organize themselfs the state had already employed, btw. france under napoleon was here the first.) Jestix 20:05, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I disagree.  It has much more lax connotations.  IE, the "state" is the governing body of the software, and so they may have an "official" shard.  It is a common term for that sort of thing, regardless of the original definition. --Sydius 14:50, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I mean, if you find a better word than "original" that carries the same connotations as "official" (in the eyes of the majority of readers), then sure, that would be better.  --Sydius 14:53, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I agree that "official" is colloquially often used more widely. However the avoidance of the term officially is here onpurpose, since EA is not "a state", since it cannot do any sovereign acts. A third party server-client implementation (both not connecting to products from OSI/EA) is in example just as "official" as EAs is. Neither is unoffical Especially the term is misused in GPL projects, where a central maintainer group claims to have "the official" version, devaluing all "unofficial" version the GPL-License encourages (see e.g. The cathedral and the bazaar) Just as that I don't see third-party reimplementations "unofficial" - unofficial meaning as in oxford dictionary: "unofficial• adjective not officially authorized or confirmed." This is the subliminal wave of denotation I dont want and don't thing its right. If you find a yet better term than "original" I would be for it! Jestix 16:06, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I think "official" is being used properly.  The original author of the game would be the "official", whereas any emulated servers would be "unofficial" -- EA has "official" power in the sense that it owns the copyrights, trademarks, and is the most popular/best-known.  Official does not have to mean government-sanctioned power, but in this case, EA has that anyway (copyrights/trademarks on the client data). --Sydius  14:57, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I agree that with "owns the copyrights, trademarks" comes something thats pretty close to official, however "is the most popular/best-known" is defenitly not an issue that makes anything official or unofficial. --Jestix 16:42, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Official" 

message: "A severe set of gold sinks, such as that employed in World of Warcraft, curtails inflation, but does not eliminate it." Is that nescisarry? Presumably the reader may not have any familiarity with World of Warcraft. 'tis an encyclopedia after all, not stratics. --69.113.106.92 06:43, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed it.  It was redundant anyway. --Sydius 17:03, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  What's with the name dropping? 

message: I moved the game mechanics and the issues faced articles out to their own pages since they were too long for inclusion here. That way, they can be elaborated without worry. --Sydius 15:30, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Moved some pages out