Skip to content
Hallway
0:00 / 0:00

#ultimaonline#richardgarriott#starrlong

How Gamers Killed Ultima Online's Virtual Ecology | War Stories | Ars Technica

Ars Technica

390K subscribers • 8 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2018 to 2026.
  • Presented by Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 8 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

3.1M views8 years ago3 recommendations

Game developmentHistory and cultureGame designGame programmingRetro games and consoles

Richard Garriott and Starr Long explain how players immediately disrupted and destroyed the ambitious virtual ecology designed for Ultima Online.

When creating Ultima Online, Richard Garriott had grand dreams. Richard and Starr Long planned on implementing a virtual ecology into their massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was an ambitious system, one that would have cows that graze and predators that eat herbivores. However, once the game went live a small problem had arisen... Connect with Ars Technica: Visit ArsTechnica.com: arstechnica.com Follow Ars Technica on Facebook: facebook.com/arstechnica Follow Ars Technica on Google+: plus.google.com/+ArsTechnica/videos Follow Ars Technica on Twitter: twitter.com/arstechnica How Gamers Killed Ultima Online's Virtual Ecology | War Stories | Ars Technica

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a classic lesson in game design and the unpredictable behavior of players in multiplayer systems.

bringtheactionon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Database “sharding” came from Ultima Online? (2009)”

Heard the creator of UO claim this in a short 4 minute video I just watched 1 and thought it was a sufficiently interesting piece of trivia that it deserved to get posted. I recommend watching the video also btw. 1: link to this video
View on Hacker News

acomjeanon Hacker News • Recommends

On “How Crash Bandicoot hacked the original Playstation (2020) [video]”

Yew tube. (I expected trees..) I’ve seen a few in the series. Less technical but The NES comes to America is pretty good link And the Ultima online tried create programmatic eco system is kinda hysterical. 7 minutes (with lord British) link to this video Ars (the publisher)has a whole list of them. Non YouTube but seem to have transcripts. link
View on Hacker News

acomjeanon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ultima (2012)”

We loved ultima 3 growing up. A bunch of us were playing it in middle school and we'd occasionally swap hints about how to advance. Before the internet thats all we had. Out of our group, at least one of us had a real copy of each game, making the spell books and instructions available... The cloth maps were fun, but I don't think we used them during game play. The games were a bit of grind, but we didn't care. I do like the Ars Video on how they spent all this time on the "ultima online ecosystem" only to have it not work out.. link to this video
View on Hacker News

fennecbutton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Outside, Dungeon, Town: Integrating the Three Places in Videogames (2024)”

O-oh boy...well I guess he'd achieved his ultimate goal, perhaps there was nothing else after that. That's what I love about these sorts of emergent systems. Although I was discussing it with a friend, there's a great ars war story on ultima: link to this video Won't spoil it for you but we did have a great discussion from that around how emergent gameplay can be amazing, but player agency means that you'd still need the "hand of God" to be involved in fixing things and making adjustments so that major plot points and still enabled and the player doesn't kill the entire world (unless that's the point of the game I suppose).
View on Hacker News

Fjolsvithon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Modi’s Cash Crackdown Failed, Indian Bank Data Shows”

Reminds me of Richard Garriott's talk about how players destroyed the economic model in Ultima Online on the very first day of live play. link to this video
View on Hacker News

blotter_paperon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Nostalgia for Minecraft”

> So if you slay too many Gorgs soon there would be none left. Leave them alone and they'll eat all the Fraggles. Players would form culling expeditions every week. ... I think the venerable Ultima Online had a few features like that, or was supposed to, not completely sure. Ultima Online tried to have such an ecology, but the players didn't react to it as described despite the game designers giving players minimal rewards for killing herbivores so that they would focus on killing the carnivores. Instead the players indiscriminately killed both the carnivores and the herbivores, because the players were human. The ecology was removed. link to this video
View on Hacker News

gavmanon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Database “sharding” came from Ultima Online? (2009)”

This was discussed by one of the game's creators in the Ultima Online episode of Ars Techica's War Stories (around the 5:10 mark) link to this video
View on Hacker News

cpetersoon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Database “sharding” came from Ultima Online? (2009)”

Richard Garriott discusses a similar problem with UO's virtual ecology in the Ars Technica "War Stories" interview. UO had a virtual ecology system that tried to balance carnivores, herbivores, and plants. When the game opened, to the designers' surprise, players slaughtered all animal life across the land. link to this video
View on Hacker News

ajxson Hacker News • Mentions

On “Tibia (1997) is one of the earliest and longest-running MMORPGs”

…have stood the test of time, however it was undoubtedly an important learning experience for game design as a whole. I'm tempted to say its a shame that games like UO are a thing of the past. However when I look back at my time playing it, the thing that sticks out the most is how much time and effort was spent just avoiding abuse. 0 link 1 link to this video 2 link…
View on Hacker News