In the Austin Games Developer Conference (Austin GDC), Heatwave Interactive Director of Development Tim Keating gave a lecture on how video game coders can handle the more shady people who play online games.

Most of what he shared are based on his real-world experience when he was the lead designer of the popular MMORPG Ultima Online.

Keating gave advice on how developers can protect their games from the more common methods of attacks and hacks including duping and denial-of-service. Here are the main and interesting points the director raised:

• Don't give information to players about other players that can be used in duping scams.
• Avoid "monkey patching" - fixing code in a piecemeal fashion. Instead fix all scripts at once.
• Remember that when you add new features, the interaction testing burden increases in a nonlinear fashion.
• Fix the problem on the front-end "or it will bite you on the back end."
• Don't allow flexible inventory limits in your game. "Players will take a reasonable excess and use it pathologically," said Keating.
• Make sure your network infrastructure can support arbitrary packet sizes, but also ensure that packet sizes above a certain threshold raise warning signals.

Keating's new company Heatwave Interactive was formed back in February this year. The development studio has yet to announce its first project.

To say that Ultima Online is a respected MMORPG franchise is an understatement. The first of the series launched a bit past the mid 90's and was one of the first truly "massive" online games ever in terms of scope and player accommodation capabilities. All of this happened at a time when most people were on dial-up and that's saying something.

However, times have changed and young colts are now running the show. The old lion may have seen better days, but the people at EA Mythic are showing in this video that they still have enough magic up their sleeves to turn our heads. Have a look at Ultima Online's latest chapter Kingdom Reborn:

Clearly, the new game engine is giving a fresher look than ever before to this iteration. Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn may not be the most visually stunning MMORPG we've seen in this day and age, but we can safely say that it looks as if it can more than hold its own in today's standards. It's been revealed that the interface will be as solid as ever and that movements will be less driven by tiles. A more free-form attitude has been adopted and that should be interesting to see. We'll update you for more.

Speaking to developmag.com, Richard Garriott revealed that his keynote speech at the Brighton Develop Conference will be entitled "The Rapidly Maturing Genre of Online Gaming." Garriott said that in this speech, he will outline what he sees to be the future of MMORPGs, and what possibilities are there for game developers and gamers alike.

While talk about NCsoft's Tabula Rasa is unavoidable, since that game is Garriott's next baby, we'll give you all the revealed Tabula Rasa contributions to the MMO genre later. For now here's how Garriott sees the MMO genre the way it is now:

The MMO world is both the same and different. It is the same, in that I believe MMO game design has not evolved nearly as fast as it should have in my mind. Nearly every MMO to date is still built in the mold of Ultima Online and EverQuest, which laid the design foundations ten years ago. People still level grind in the constantly replenishing static respawn zones, carefully managing their D.O.T (Damage over Time)

Garriott also says that "community" is what makes MMOs different from so many other types of games. He says that in order to support the "community", one has to not only support the clans, guilds, and other player groups within the game, there must also be dedicated employees ready to support and represent the player community as directly as possible.

As for MMOs in consoles, Garriott notes that that is an ever increasing possibility as large hard drive space and online support is becoming more common on consoles. He says that MMOs on game consoles is something that he "will be watching keenly."

As for Tabula Rasa's contributions to the MMO genre, more of that when you click on the "Full Article" link below.

 

For those unfamiliar, here's a refresher: Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn is the eighth expansion pack for the classic (well it has been ten years - UO came out 1997) MMORPG Ultima Online. The expansion is intended to be an upgrade to the game's graphics and interface.

Fans of the game that's used to running it on lower end PCs, however, shouldn't feel left out, as it should still be flexible enough even for those with old, cheap, PCs to run the game.

Okay, now that the refresher's over, here's the news. The registration page for the Beta Testing of Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn is now up and running on the official site. If you're eager to participate in Electronic Arts' Beta Test, feel free to head to the page via our "read" link below.

They'll ask for the usual stuff like contact info and personal info. They'll also ask about the specs of the PC you're using and you're history as an Ultima Online player. They'll also want to know what other 3 games you've tested for. Yeah, it seems that they're pretty exacting when it comes to their screening process.

The Stygian Abyss expansion comes out a few months after Kingdom Reborn comes out. The Stygian Abyss will require Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn.

The Kingdom Reborn (KR) client for long-running MMO video game Ultima Online aims to modernize the title's graphics without compromising most of its fan base that is used to running UO on lower-end computers. Aside from graphics, Kingdom Reborn will also let players enjoy improved user interface as well as a renovated tutorial system for new players.

Don't be mistaken that the client is only intended for players as it will also give EA Mythic an easier time once it goes live this summer. According to the company's developers, Kingdom Reborn will allow them to add new content without retreating through outdated and outmoded art. For the techie ones, KR was coded in 3D and then backslid to 2D. It's rather simple if you know what you're doing.

Anyway, to give us all as preview, EA Mythic sent in the screenshots above that compare Ultima Online's in-game graphics before and after Kingdom Reborn has been implemented. And by God, the client did wonders to the 10-year old IP. We're pretty sure those who've left the game will not have any choice but to return.

Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn was first announced back in August of 2006. It will be released, as we've mentioned, this Summer as a free download for all active players. It's minimum PC requirements are:

• 1GHz CPU
• GeForce 3 series video card
• 2GB of hard drive space
• 512MB of RAM

As promised, we've got the second part of the Voodoo Extreme's DICE Summit interview with Ultima Online">Richard Garriott (and a new screenshot to boot!). The transcript has already been posted and we're surprised that the brother, Robert Garriot, also decided to drop in a couple of thoughts during the interview.

As the sit-down progressed, they went on talking about the status of NCSoft through the years. It is, after all, the 10th anniversary of Ultima Online. So how far have they gone and what can they expect in the next couple of years, especially with Tabula Rasa?

Robert Garriot answers this with a quick recap of recent history, with UO setting the standard with its 50,000 sign-ups for beta and eventual 100,00 sold out during its first run. And then EverQuest came out and flushed UO to the side. And eventually, more games came out, each of them surpassing the 100,000 mark of UO.

Richard Garriot then continues the conversation and brings it over to Lineage - yet another market hit. It's even reported that one out of ten people in Korea have a Lineage II account. They go on with talking about market saturation and what it takes for a "next-gen" MMO to survive in the cutthroat battlefield of online accounts - including sticky reticles and more gameplay mechanics.

Check out the full interview found behind the "Read" link below.

When you are a ten year old IP and generally regarded as one of the first, if not the first, MMORPG to set the mold, sometimes taking on a whole new look while remaining true to the original isn't so bad an idea. Hey, it worked for MegaMan when he got X'd. And this is what EA Mythic hopes for with Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn.

This is the presentation they made, with GameTrailers in attendance to capture it all. New graphics engine. New interface. New player experiences. New reasons to come back to the game. And, lucky for us, new videos of the game in action. That's always good. Moving pictures are worth a million words.

WarCry Network was recently able to have a chat with Aaron Cohen, Producer of Ultima Online, to talk about game graphics and combat, on why they're sticking with the isometric view, and lots more.

So let's get this show on the road and allow us to bring you some snippets from the interview:

On using an isometric view: Even though very few mainstream games use an isometric viewpoint, Cohen says they decided to stick with it because for a game where customized housing is important, this view lets users see their homes and the stuff they've built. It also works good on the battlefield because you're able to see "what's behind you, places to hide, places where you can peel off pursuers, places to put down area of effect spells or wall spells."

On the combat system in Kingdom Reborn: Cohen admits the combat system in KR will be about the same as other RPGs in the market but they will be fixing some basic mechanics. You'll also go into "war mode" when you want to attack something/someone.

The interview tackles all these and more in detail so if you wanna check out the full interview, just hit the read link below and you're good to go.

EA Mythic is taking Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online out for a little sunshine and fresh air. Should be a change of pace for gamers locked in their rooms, endless hours in the gameplay. Mythic announced its schedule for 2007's DAoC and UO Town Halls (a.k.a. fan gatherings).

Benefits: meet the developers, meet other game fans to trade stories and secrets, sneak peek at upcoming content, and who knows, maybe even new romantic relationships, which can then be nurtured over late nights gaming? Not to mention getting out and enjoying fresh air and sunlight. Never hurt anyone to enjoy fresh air and sunlight. Here's the sked so far... (Please note that Camelot and UO events are taking place separately.)

• January 27, 2007 - Atlanta, Georgia
• February 24, 2007 - New York, New York
• Coincides with New York Comic-Con
• March 24, 2007 - Rockville, Maryland
• April 21, 2007 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• May 19, 2007 - Chicago, Illinois
• July 7, 2007 - Columbus, Ohio
• Coincides with Origins
• August 25, 2007 - Seattle, Washington
• Coincides with Penny Arcade Expo (PAX)
• Fall (date TBD) - Austin, Texas
• November (date TBD) - Orange, California
• Coincides with GenCon SoCal

In light of a massive exodus of people flocking through the Dark Portal and into the Outland, you can't help but wonder what's left in Azeroth? Is "the Old World" still even there? Well, yes it is, apparently. You get a bunch of people having their own "boring crusade" and bosses talking about the lack of mobs.

rufbo from Curmudgeon Gamer decided to resurrect his WoW account, and since he didn't have the Burning Crusade expansion, had to settle for good old Azeroth. Unsurprisingly, it's not the same "good old Azeroth" that he once knew. What he saw reminded him of expansions of Ultima Online.

When UO started throwing in expansions, the old worlds very quickly started clearing out.... a bustling urban center [turned into] an absolute ghost town, made all the more eerie as the wandering NPC robots grossly outnumbered humans for the first time in my experience. That's happening now in WoW. Ironforge is nearly empty... auction houses, banks, city square, all nearly empty on my server.... I couldn't tell if my "new video card" was providing much better performance or if there simply wasn't anything to render!

Should Blizzard be worried? rufbo even playfully suggests that Ironforge should host a bingo night for gamers. On a good note though, he thinks that they should create expansions that are backwards compatible so that "players with expansions should continue to flow through old hotspots (possibly with new buildings in cities accessible only if you have the expansions, etc)."

Yes, equilibrium point will break even given some time, but for now, to those who are in the new frontier, let's use this time to reflect on our roots and where we've come from...