DM Wyvern's Lair Ultima Online Podcast - Community Questions for Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong

Hail Avatars! 

I have a unique opportunity to speak with Bonnie "Mesanna" Armstrong, about her career as the longest-serving developer for this great MMORPG for the next episode of my Ultima Online podcast series.

This interview will take place on The Wyvern's Lair Discord on Thursday, May 15th at 12 PM EST. Here’s a link to my Discord:

https://discord.gg/YMckvmxFkA

Ahead of this interview, we hope to come up with a fun list of questions that can serve as the basis for our conversation with Bonnie.

If you have any questions you'd like us to explore with our guest, add them as a reply to this post, and I’ll see if we can get to them!

Thanks, Team UO!

Why would you add dinosaurs to UO 
man’s what’s the new purpose of NL 

Ya I didn’t play any of the old single player game non do really want to. I’m not into lore I’m more into fun game playing than reading 

Skett said:

Ya I didn’t play any of the old single player game non do really want to. I’m not into lore I’m more into fun game playing than reading 

here.. it's kinda interesting:


It's like the south american "plateau" they discover in the early ~1900.. with unique "species"
it's almost hidden / isolate from "earth" while being on earth.

(the setting differs part.. is your WTF here.. cuz I agree on UO.. we shouldn't have dinos)
the PvPer in me.. is like; Eodon could have been great for a BR zone mini-game.

Aye

dinosaur seem stupid in a medieval game 

Maybe we will get pandas one day as well that was a huge 

NL on paper is solid.. non persistent sandbox are real popular (limited in time) cuz of the building.
It gives the dev a great tool.. a tool they familiar with; built from the foundation.. (like the EC vs CC NL vs prodo) but better since.. it's also a better TC for them (dev tool)
Now it had turned into an extraction shard.. extraction game was very popular not long ago.. game like Dark and Darker.. hardcore and punitive game, that can also be strategic.

Plus it was promising to be everything it's not.. on paper NL was goat'ed.

Skett said:

Aye

dinosaur seem stupid in a medieval game 

There weren't dinosaurs or dragons in medieval times.  Nor orcs or ettins or undead or most things we fight.

 😂 

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper. Seasonal games have a market I guess like wow I heard has a version and Diablo (not sure I don’t play either) what percentage of their players participate in a seasonal wipe and what percentage of UO players like that and after seeing all the items added to beg people to play NL and also let them take all those unique items back to production it’s really an odd concept of a seasonal game. Go collect items and in 1 year take them home start over and over and over all while adding more and more to beg people into participating in gameplay they don’t like or want.  

Skett said:

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper. Seasonal games have a market I guess like wow I heard has a version and Diablo (not sure I don’t play either) what percentage of their players participate in a seasonal wipe and what percentage of UO players like that and after seeing all the items added to beg people to play NL and also let them take all those unique items back to production it’s really an odd concept of a seasonal game. Go collect items and in 1 year take them home start over and over and over all while adding more and more to beg people into participating in gameplay they don’t like or want.  

Diablo 4 came out a little before NL. They are on season 8.  

Most only play seasons in Diablo.

Seasons in NL last too long.

Skett said:

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper.

One of the huge problem of UO is.. sandbox "fresh start servers" are the GOAT.. wich explain the non persistent world.. but all those sandbox the building phase is WAY more complex than what UO is.. but NL is even under prodo in that domain.. such non sense.
On paper NL was addressing some of the major issues on a 30 yrs old game.. (old server.. new players, like competitive one, would never consider joining a 10+ yrs old server)

I always hated the "season" in diablo and PoE the "league" I was playing on hardcore on the standard server.. they can bring an entire new dimension to their hack n slash from one season to another.


PS: pretty sure the extraction plan.. except your character stats (for new players; quicker than prodo) the rest was added at a later stage.. cuz of the lack of everything from NL.. so, they bring everything they could, deisgn wise, to the table. It's like if a buffet were serving a tons of variety of food, italian, viet, kor, etc,etc.. but they had only 1-2 meal per variety..

Like for extraction game. (they already got a great extraction mini game on prodo.. it's called champion spawn on Fel) NL didn't needed that other than helping the noobs.. letting them move their characters skills on prodo.

Cuz I agree.. except the character skill.. the rest is only to bribe.. what BS does the best.. cuz it's poorly excuted extraction. Agreed.

KroDuK said:

It was just them poo'ing on the "low" fantasy/medieval to please daddy EA by using some of their "useless" IP.. on paper it was a great marketing-ting move.. like NL is.

EA didn't own them when Savage Empire was released (the Worlds of Ultima game that had Eodon/dinosaurs) nor would they own them for another two years.  Martian Dreams was released a year before the EA deal as well.  Savage Empire happened because of a failed moongate experiment, and Martian Dreams was straight-up time travel (it's been 30 years since I played, but I think it was time travel and not moonstones).

The original Ultima game had space ships. Can we get some space ships?

Will she ever address the Halloween contest winner issue? @DM_Wyvern @CM_Fenneko

Pawain said:

Skett said:

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper. Seasonal games have a market I guess like wow I heard has a version and Diablo (not sure I don’t play either) what percentage of their players participate in a seasonal wipe and what percentage of UO players like that and after seeing all the items added to beg people to play NL and also let them take all those unique items back to production it’s really an odd concept of a seasonal game. Go collect items and in 1 year take them home start over and over and over all while adding more and more to beg people into participating in gameplay they don’t like or want.  

Diablo 4 came out a little before NL. They are on season 8.  

Most only play seasons in Diablo.

Seasons in NL last too long.

So what happens at the end of the season do you get to keep all your loot do you transfer off 
like I said I’ve never played Diablo

Skett said:

So what happens at the end of the season do you get to keep all your loot do you transfer off 
like I said I’ve never played Diablo

Last time I played diablo.. the hype around those seasonal "league"
Was the LADDER.. personally always loved the ladder stuff on diablo.. and the fun of this temporary stuff was mostly to be top first.. a race.. look how they marketed D4.. the statue with ~1k name on it (first 1k to lvl 99-100)

PS: yes they transfer you on "standard" after league/season ends.. but your loot is almost worthless on standard, compare to the league/season stuff.


PoE it's different.. they does like NL plan to do.. they add new mechanics, more depth to their season.. game is very different and u also have unique stuff u can bring from those "league"
Personally PoE lost me with their labyrinth.. as an HC only player.. going blind with one life.. dying to trap.. it's fishy.. PoE was less and less HC friendly, last time I played.

Interesting stuff here.. if u die in HC.. your character goes in softcore, unlike Diablo.

PoE is more complete.. Diablo is mostly a ladder race event more than a new "game" every season. PS: I could be wrong.. not a huge HnS nerds.. I play those 3 months max, hardcore, before getting fed.. hvn't played neither in yearss.


@NamelessJourney a connoisseur.. personally i'm very noob on the M&M games.. but last time I played mandate of heaven in ~2017.. took me 2 days to get used to the old graphic and control.. had a blast for an entire month after that. good OW and theorycrafting.. with A LOT of cheese ^^

Ask Mesanna why we never got basements.

Skett said:

Pawain said:

Skett said:

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper. Seasonal games have a market I guess like wow I heard has a version and Diablo (not sure I don’t play either) what percentage of their players participate in a seasonal wipe and what percentage of UO players like that and after seeing all the items added to beg people to play NL and also let them take all those unique items back to production it’s really an odd concept of a seasonal game. Go collect items and in 1 year take them home start over and over and over all while adding more and more to beg people into participating in gameplay they don’t like or want.  

Diablo 4 came out a little before NL. They are on season 8.  

Most only play seasons in Diablo.

Seasons in NL last too long.

So what happens at the end of the season do you get to keep all your loot do you transfer off 
like I said I’ve never played Diablo

Your toon and items go to normal area, where less ppl play.

Lokea said:

Ask Mesanna why we never got basements.

https://forum.uo.com/discussion/14900/deco-fallen-under-the-house#latest ;   

Pawain said:

Skett said:

Pawain said:

Skett said:

Know your core player base ?

not sure I understand how it looks good on paper. Seasonal games have a market I guess like wow I heard has a version and Diablo (not sure I don’t play either) what percentage of their players participate in a seasonal wipe and what percentage of UO players like that and after seeing all the items added to beg people to play NL and also let them take all those unique items back to production it’s really an odd concept of a seasonal game. Go collect items and in 1 year take them home start over and over and over all while adding more and more to beg people into participating in gameplay they don’t like or want.  

Diablo 4 came out a little before NL. They are on season 8.  

Most only play seasons in Diablo.

Seasons in NL last too long.

So what happens at the end of the season do you get to keep all your loot do you transfer off 
like I said I’ve never played Diablo

Your toon and items go to normal area, where less ppl play.

So there are already games out there that’s have seasons if UO players wanted wouldn’t they already be playing that. Give ‘em pie 

so they are try’s to copy other games why not copy what has a proven track record with uo players and copy free shards content and items 

I have removed some disrespectful and/or troll posts as well as some that were off topic.

Grimbeard said:

Will she ever address the Halloween contest winner issue? @ DM_Wyvern @ CM_Fenneko

Soon ™

Rorschach said:

I have removed some disrespectful and/or troll posts as well as some that were off topic.

I understand why you mention off topic.. cuz one my posts you deleted was not disrespectful nor trolling.. answeing paiwan about low fantasy calling out someone for using "medieval".. dinos and pow pow on a sword and shield low fantasy.

But since u mention and did off topic moderation.. that one post (one of many deleted) was simply off topic.. i'm re-reading all the posts here.. u miss a lot of off topic post.
Do I have a fanboy? -.-


PS: If u delete what u consider disrespectful post toward BS when I point out the flaws.. I should be able to delete the post where I defend them like the idea of NL.. being good on paper. (for a question of balance;I did not wanted to defend stuff like NL, now u broken that balance i'd like to recalibrate it ^^).. 


Edit: even the one post I answer to Lokea about EA and their IP.. was 0 disrespectful and 0 troll.. if I was offtopic, talking about ToL.. his should also be.. like wtf!!
Like he made 0 sense.. like that moderation u just did.. the frick..

All these questions/comments will surely make UO better.  😂

I can see why yall have made nothing anyone uses.

Legit got 50% of my post deleted just now.. only my post were.. meanwhile read someone like Paiwan.. on 4 post.. 3 should be deleted.. 2 off topic and 1 troll.

This is madness. @rorsnchach, do better!

Pawain said:

All these questions/comments will surely make UO better.  😂

I can see why yall have made nothing anyone uses.

Oh are we now changing direction and back to “trying” and “better” I hope it’s for the majority this time. 

NamelessJourney said:

The original Ultima game had space ships. Can we get some space ships?

We got the Juka and Meer from UO2, so why not the steampunk elements at least?

@DM_Wyvern would be interesting to hear about what story or world elements of the single-player Ultima games, along with UO2, that are not currently in UO, or not fleshed out in UO, that the devs/Mesanna would like to see added to UO

Preferably not Logos/Teklor (the location in relation to Hythloth was problematic from what I recall) but Alucinor would have been fun.

@DM_Wyvern ; Ask her how many emails UO gets daily.

Thanks

I think it's very important to discuss the Halloween contest because it's the epitome of her legacy. Surely she'd like to do the right thing 

I also think it's important to know what the head of customer support and all her team is doing on a daily basis.. knowing the state of the game (no one getting ban in game; tickets right into the trash bin) and we have a tiny players base.

The moderation gonna delete both our question, once again.

@paiwan email like hotmail do not make it pass their firewall.  😂

Rorschach said:

I have removed some disrespectful and/or troll posts as well as some that were off topic.

I appreciate you helping out here @Rorschach ❤️

Lokea said:

Ask Mesanna why we never got basements.

I think that's cool question to ask Mesanna! I'll add that to our list of questions for her. Thanks Lokea!

KroDuK said:

I also think it's important to know what the head of customer support and all her team is doing on a daily basis..

Dropping your usual troll under the bridge extra KroDukness, I actually think that's a great question for Mesanna! I think it would be cool to hear what a usual workday looks like for her, as Head of Customer Support. I'll add that to our list of questions. Thanks @KroDuk! Also, I think it's cool you played the original Might & Magic CRPGs, Clouds/Darkside of Xeen 4TW!

DM_Wyvern said:

Thanks @ KroDuk! Also, I think it's cool you played the original Might & Magic CRPGs, Clouds/Darkside of Xeen 4TW!

I never did.. Stop spreading lies, thank you!
I'm sure one of my forum nemesis can back me up on that @NamelessJourney

DM_Wyvern said:

Dropping your usual troll under the bridge extra KroDukness, I actually think that's a great question for Mesanna! I think it would be cool to hear what a usual workday looks like for her, as Head of Customer Support.

ty,ty!
This is not the question tho..


I'll give it to you.. why your question ain't a good one. She supervise the customer support team and answer the important email, on a daily... i'm wondering as a whole.. why the head of customer support, you know..
with GM mostly ignoring the TOS.. except billing problems.. with a tiny player base...

No need to wear gloves mate.  ❤️

Happening tomorrow, Team Ultima Online!

Happening today, 50 minutes from now!

Will you post a copy for those of us at work 

Grimbeard said:

Will you post a copy for those of us at work 

Hey @Grimbeard! I will personally send you a message in a bottle as soon as the edited interview is uploaded to my YouTube channel. It might take 3 or 4 weeks because I have other work to handle first, but the interview will be uploaded as a VOD soon!