Michael Moore
Michael Phoenix Moore, früher auch als Vex bekannt hat zwei Etappen mit Ultima Online erlebt. Die eine dauerte über rund fünf Jahre mit
und nach einem Zwischenstopp bei Richard's Garriott letztem Projekt war er seit September 2009 bis April 2013 mit an Bord als Systems Designer.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Facebook, 10. April 2013
(von Mike Moore's Facebook Seite)
Today was my last day at Mythic. For the past three and a half years or so, I've had the great fortune to come to a job with a team of wonderful people, always working to improve on what is still one of the best damn MMOs ever built. We truly are a different breed, always having to deal with flak coming from all directions, but always loving our jobs even though the job is like a bucking bronco and we're just along for the crazy, crazy ride.
Unfortunately, harsh economic realities and the nature of the video games business mean layoffs happen.
My immediate plans are to get soused (probably for much of the weekend), then after that it's time to see what new adventures might lie in my future!
Obliterating Inflation (Mai 2012)
UO's economy is a very interesting puzzle and there is no silver bullet that can solve all of the perceived issues with it.
I believe that the value of gold in UO is actually kept artificially high right now, simply because moving large quantities of it around is so difficult. Massive amounts of it are stored on player-run vendors and in chests full of checks. I'd bet that if all that cash were to suddenly become fully liquid, we'd see an absolutely staggering level of inflation overnight.
Now, I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing. But, a great deal of wealth in UO is stored up in non-currency form. If gold were to suddenly inflate or deflate by an order of magnitude or more, a bunch of people will take big baths either way.
I believe UO still has the problem of insufficient gold sinks. I also think that due to the extreme amount of gold in the game already, we must find a drain big enough to remove a large portion of those enormous reserves. The problem is, with gold's value being artificially high, it will be difficult to create such a drain because its cost will be seen as obscenely high. Plus, if large drains like that actually worked and started to bring the value of gold in line with reality, then the prices of big-ticket gold sinks would become truly outrageous.
Having the system dynamically adjust the price of big gold sinks could work, but I do believe that the portion of the playerbase holding most of the gold would collude, either explicitly or implicitly, to game them into ineffectiveness. Basically, if you have a lot of gold, then you can put upward pressure on the value of that gold simply by keeping it out of circulation.
As always, this is a subject that the team is aware of and we're always talking about different things to do. Of course, any game-changers related directly to UO's core economics must be approached with extreme caution...
Michael Moore zurück (September 2009)
"Way back in the latter half of 'aught zero, after Y2K failed to end the world, I was writing database software in Phoenix for a living and playing a whole lot of Ultima Online for fun. Then, a very rare and special opportunity presented itself to me: the chance to turn UO from a hobby into a profession. Taking advantage of that was a no-brainer, so I moved to Austin and become the designer called Vex.
During my years working on UO I made many contributions to the game, got promoted, and eventually moved to the San Francisco area when EA closed down the Origin studio. Over time, many faces came and went. One new face was that of Leurocian, who not only proved to be a talented and creative designer but also became a good personal friend to me. At the time he joined the team, I and several other UO folks had begun preproduction on an unannounced project.
Unfortunately, that project was killed in early preproduction. For many reasons personal and professional, I decided at that time to move on. This kind of fluidity is the norm for game development, and to me it has a big upside and a big downside as well. I wound up moving back to Austin to take a job as Lead Systems Designer at NCsoft on Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa.
It was my honor to contribute to that project through its full production cycle, and I stayed with it on its Live team right up until it was cancelled one year after launch. During my time on TR I worked closely with my former UO boss Lead Designer Paul Sage, and I had the treasured pleasure of working with Richard Garriott and Starr Long, along with a few other former Origin folks, and got to know and work with many new talented and motivated people.
After the cancellation of TR, I was out of work and looking. During those months, prospects were pretty bleak across the industry, because it was the height of our country’s recent financial crisis. Few new projects were getting funded and those who were hiring were not hiring very many. I picked up some contract programming work for a company in the Phoenix area, a connection I had from before entering the game business, and seriously considered a permanent exit back into mundane software development.
I found another golden opportunity when Leurocian told me there was a Sr. Designer spot opening up on the UO team. As it turned out, the folks here at Mythic were very interested in seeing if I would fit. They moved with remarkable alacrity to bring me up here for interviews. When I got here, it really felt like coming home, even though most of the faces are new. Even though nearly everyone I worked with on UO before has moved on, the spirit of UO’s development team remains the same.
This team has built an amazing expansion in Stygian Abyss, and it’s clear to me that everyone here is dedicated heart and soul to continuing to grow and improve Ultima Online. As one of the premier MMORPGs it continues to bring something unique and special to online entertainment, and it just keeps getting better. Long Live Britannia!
So, here I am. Everything old is new again, and I couldn’t be happier to be back contributing to UO, working with this truly talented and dedicated group. In the weeks since my re-hire, I have rapidly gotten back up to speed, helping fix bugs from the Stygian Abyss launch. Soon it will be time to start on future feature development; at the moment the team is working out the details of where we want to go next. The time to start talking about those plans will arrive in coming weeks.
To commemorate my resurrection as a Ultima Online designer, I’ve decided to re-register with a new nick. Henceforth, Vex is no more. Now, I am Phoenix. And I'll see you at the HoC Chat tonight! "
- Mike Moore
- Systems Designer
- (Phoenix_Mythic, Sep 23, 2009)
