Ultima X: Odyssey Interview

The guys at Gamer.no have conducted an interview with Origin’s Jon (Calandryll) Hanna, asking him several questions about the upcoming Ultima X: Odyssey. Check it out:

Q: What do you think will make Odyssey stand out from other online games on the market? Which mistakes are you trying to avoid, and what innovations are you trying to give the genre?

A: Ultima X: Odyssey has a lot of concepts that give it the sense of a single-player game while still maintaining the advantages and feel of a massively-multi-player game. This allows us to create a game where each player gets to really feel like a hero. For example, in most MMORPGs, you gain quests by going to designated quest NPCs. In most cases, you have to go to websites to learn where these quest NPCs are. In Odyssey, much like in traditional fantasy novels, the quest comes to the hero. In addition to the adventure system, the attention to detail in systems like our user interface and our stylised graphics will really make UXO stand out. Our user interface takes full advantage of the graphical nature of the game and doesn’t force you to memorize a bunch of slash commands.

Everything you need to do is presented to you in the interface in the form of buttons, drop down menus, etc. While seemingly a minor detail, a well designed interface will actually add to the game-play experience a great deal! Virtue questing is also a unique feature, providing a completely separate advancement system that allows players to customize their characters and items far beyond standard leveling systems, as well as carrying its own substantial reward ascending to Avatar status! Another stand-out feature is our strategic combat, which is highly interactive and is guaranteed to keep players involved every minute of every battle.

Finally, in terms of mistakes to avoid, we’ve taken a good look at those trivial things in other games that cause players to invest time outside of the most fun aspects of the world, and we’ve worked to eliminate them. Our goal is to keep players entertained and having fun, experiencing all of the challenge with none of the tedium.