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When Ultima Online came out 17 years ago it blew my teenage mind. My medieval fantasy world was alive, inhabited by actual other people. I didn't care that I didn't have any idea what to do because it was so exciting! But Ultima Online was obtuse - making progress was an initiation, not a right. It was a reward in and of itself. And knowing that someone could come and kill you in a dungeon and loot everything you carried? Part of the magic.Now massively-multiplayer role-playing games are common, and they've changed (barring ye olde Eve Online). They're friendly, they don't kick you while you're down. They can't; if they let go of your hand and you stray too far off the entertaining path, you'll leave - and they can't afford you to. Attitudes changed and their design changed, but for the better?
Not according to Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online, but what does he know? He hasn't made a great game since Ultima Online. For us to listen, he'll have to prove it - prove he knows better by making the game we want him to: Ultima Online 2. I can tell that after playing Shroud of the Avatar for 15 hours, his new game, it is the sequel he's promised in so many ways.
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