<html>

<head>
<title>loonygames presents: Inside Origin Systems</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
a { text-decoration: none; }
a:hover { color:000000;  text-decoration: underline; }


</style>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFF4D0" link="#3333FF" vlink="#000000" alink="#000000">
<center>
</center>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="58">
  <tr> 
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i><img src="../../images/logo_new.jpg" width="182" height="63" border="0" usemap="#logoa"> 
        </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="center" valign="top"> <center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2373963192914918";
/* 468x60 */
google_ad_slot = "3417104156";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><font size="2">about</font></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<div align="center"> <br>
</div>
<table width="100%" border="0">
  <tr> 
    <td width="72%"> 
      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../../2.10/index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.11</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">Inside Origin 
        Systems</font></a>://<a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E">1</font></a>, 
        <a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E">2</font></a>, <a href="index4.php"><font color="#7C420E">3</font></a>, 
        <a href="index4.php"><font color="#7C420E">4</font></a>, 5</font></b></h5>
    </td>
    <td align="right" valign="middle" width="28%"> 
      <div align="right"> 
        <h5><a href="../../cgi/printme.pl?url=%252F2.11%252Ffeat%252F"><img src="../../images/icons/print01.gif" width="26" height="27" align="baseline" border="0" alt="switch to printer-friendly version"></a></h5>
      </div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr> 
    <td align="center" valign="top" width="25%"> 
      <table border="0" width="99%" bgcolor="#D7B582" align="center" bordercolor="#E0E0E0">
        <tr> 
          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
             </font> <p><webdog><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#693A0C">What's 
           new today:</font></b></font> 
          
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../../index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">New!!!</font></b></a><br></b>
  The archives have been cleaned up, dead links fixed, and the printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the main page!</font></p>

 
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Livin' 
  With The Sims</font></b></a><br></b>
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Pixel 
  Obscura </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Josh Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Real 
  Life </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Check out our newest comic strip, <b>Real Life</b>! Updated daily!</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../uf.1" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">User 
  Friendly</font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Updated daily!</font></p>
<p></webdog> </p>
 
            <p></p>
            <p> </p>
            <p></p>
             
            </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr bgcolor="#D7B582"> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <p align="left"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#00025E">Random 
                Feature:</font></b></font> </font> </p>
              <p><p align="CENTER"><img src="../../images/thumbs/bnl.jpg" width="129" height="107" align="MIDDLE"></p><p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../1.13/feat/index.html">Blue & Levelord Get Drunk</a>: Truly the definitive interview with Levelord, Stephen "Blue" Heaslip and the Ritual level designer get drunk and talk about the gaming industry.</font></p>

<i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> 
                </font> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="99%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" name="">
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Search 
                the Archives!</font></b></font> 
               
                 <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=12 maxlength=255 value="">
 <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
 <INPUT type=hidden name=cof 
VALUE="LW:216;L:http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/images/logo1.jpg;LH:55;AH:center;S:http://www.loonygames.com;AWFID:13a298c7abe84fd0;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="loonygames.com"> 
<input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="loonygames.com">               
</div>
              </form>

              <p align="left"><i> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
    <td width="75%" align="center" valign="top"> 
      <table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
        <tr> 
          <td width="50%" valign="top">
            <div align="center"> 
              <table width="98%" border="0">
                <tr> 
                  <td width="55%"> 
                    <div align="left"> 
                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Inside 
                        Origin Systems</font></i></font></b><br>
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        <a href="mailto:tim@damarr.freeserve.co.uk">Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; 
                        O'Malley</a></font></div>
                    </div>
                  </td>
                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 11<br>
                      February 7, 2000</font></b></h5>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
              <loonystart>
              <p>&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">So, if 
                you want a good idea of what it will be like, imagine an online 
                form of <i>Blade Runner</i>. RG also said that fashion will play 
                a role in <b>X</b> as well, and it will be interesting to see 
                how that turns out. In addition, he has said that putting hours 
                upon hours into <b>X</b> won&#146;t guarantee advancement in character 
                stats and skills. Instead he hopes to implement a different system, 
                but no details have been released yet.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course, 
                the original <b>Ultima Online</b> is still an ongoing project 
                at Origin. The game boasts a support team of over 100 Game Masters, 
                thousands of volunteers, dedicated to providing game support or 
                plots, and a team of 12 people constantly working on the game&#146;s 
                programming. They are constantly adding new, and sometimes controversial, 
                elements to the game. Putting anything in, or taking something 
                out, is always considered very carefully before its put into action, 
                as it may seriously upset the players and their society. More 
                recently, a page called &#147;In Concept&#148; sprung up on their 
                web site, outlining future plans, and asking players for feedback 
                and comments on the proposed changes. It may have its fair share 
                of problems, but the people who complain are a vocal minority, 
                with the vast majority of players usually agreeing to changes 
                in the game. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A large 
                aspect of games in the future will be putting in modifications 
                after the game has been released. Almost every game these days 
                has patches, which fix bugs and add new features. Perhaps one 


                of the best patches ever added to a game was the <b>Team Fortress 
                Classic </b>multi-player mod added with a bug fix to <b>Half-Life</b>, 
                giving players a reward for upgrading their software to the latest 
                version. Even now, some Dreamcast games offer extra levels, as 
                a free download. <b>Sonic Adventure</b> has a downloadable Christmas 
                level, and this has been done on some PC games before, and will 
                happen many more times in the future, as people realize the benefits 
                of patching a game. Origin seems to have noticed this, and <b>Ultima 
                Online</b> receives patches on a monthly basis, while mostly fixing 
                bugs, also giving players some extra items at the same time, making 
                the patching process worth the wait, so it doesn&#146;t seem so 
                tedious.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It does 
                have a lot of problems though. Anti-social players, cheaters and 
                indiscriminate player killers have driven many people away from 
                the game. $10 is a lot of money to pay just for the privilege 
                of being harassed, and harassment problems rarely ever result 
                in the offending player getting banned. The system for reporting 
                incidents is just too dodgy, with some players afraid to use it, 
                as miss-use can result in a ban if you do it 3 times, so most 
                people just stay away from it all together. And on top of that, 
                there are some websites out there, which seem hell-bent on destroying 
                <b>UO</b>, but trying to justify their actions at the same time, 
                but <b>UO</b> was the first game of its kind, and such problems 
                were inevitable. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Richard 
                Garriot decided to do <b>Ultima Online</b> because he believed 
                that socializing has always been an essential part of any RPG 
                experience, and he hoped to deliver the best social experience 
                online anyone could get. He most certainly succeeded with his 
                plan. Unlike <b>EverQuest</b> and <b>Asheron&#146;s Call</b>, 
                a very strong community exists between the players of UO, and 
                this is partially due to the ability to build homes. Many player-built 
                towns have sprung up all over the <b>UO</b> servers, and these 
                are usually a safe heaven for role-players while out in the wilderness. 
                Many of <b>UO</b>&#146;s best-known players are the people who 
                run some of the more famous towns, such as Paxlair. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <h3 align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The Future 
                of Origin</font></h3>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> It seems 
                that without a doubt, the future of games lies with online gaming, 
                and Origin intend to be at the spearhead of this concept. Richard 
                Garriot has announced that Origin will now be making online games 
                exclusively, and Electronic Arts, their parent company, said they 
                would be investing heavily into the new market for online only 
                games. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The developers 
                at Origin seem to firmly believe, that human interaction is really 
                the best element any game can offer. In the future, children will 
                probably laugh at the idea of having to play a game by yourself, 
                with no other humans taking part in your adventures. Who knows 
                what they may do in the future. Maybe in 20 years they will be 
                producing games with a Matrix-style level of reality, with people 
                being able to use virtual reality to actually enter the medieval 
                world of Britannia, or the sci-fi settings of <b>X</b>. Whatever 
                happens to online gaming, Origin will be one of the few developers 
                at the head of it.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Whatever 
                they make, like <b>UO</b>, it will be a massive world filled with 
                people, both real and computer generated, and putting painstaking 
                detail into everything that they create. I believe the following 
                sums up everything that Origin is, and hopes to achieve in the 
                future: </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Company 
                Motto:</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>&#147;ORIGIN 
                creates worlds of immersed simulation and technological innovation. 
                We create worlds with unparalleled attention to detail, setting 
                new standards in interactive entertainment. But most of all, we 
                create worlds of fun.&#148;</i></font></p>
              <p align="right"></p>
              <p align="right"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">- 
                This is Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; O'Malley's first contribution 
                to loonygames.</font></i></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
            </DIV>
            <blockquote><div align="left"></div>
            </blockquote>
            <div align="center">
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br></loonystart> 
                </font> </p>
            </DIV>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></p>
            <div align="center"></div>
            <table width="100%" border="0">
              <tr> 
                <td width="50%"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index4.php"><font color="#7C420E"><b><font size="+1">&lt;&lt;Prev</font></b></font> 
                  </a></font></td>
                <td width="50%"> 
                  <div align="center"> 
                    <p align="left"></p>
                    <p align="left"></p>
                  </div>
                  <p align="right">&nbsp; 
                </td>
              </tr>
            </table>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>about</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="35%"><a href="../../../index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i>loonygames</i></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="65%"> 
      <div align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF">  </font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Joachim. This article is &copy; 2000 Tim &#147;Damarr&#148; O'Malley. 
  All other content is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction 
  is prohibited. So don't do it, or we'll make you cry, sissy.</font></i></p>
 <map name="logoa">
  <area shape="rect" coords="52,47,112,59" href="http://www.bluesnews.com">
  <area shape="rect" coords="3,3,179,46" href="../../../index.html">
</map>
</body>
</html>
