Lord of Ultima Preview
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EA receives a lot of flak for their business practices, but one can hardly fault them for trying to make money from the rising success of browser-based gaming. I expect Lord of Ultima to have a Facebook page sooner or later, and make its way to smartphones before long. Admittedly, Lord of Ultima isn't even a bad representation of the Travian gameplay model. It's flawed inherently by the fact that players who have been playing the longest ultimately have the upper hand so that when your village comes out of its seven day initial safe-period, you just might find yourself on the losing end of an uphill battle. But like most time-based and RMT driven browser games it is addictive to a point, has fairly decent production levels, and I'll admit that it's certainly fun attacking and razing other players' villages.What do you think? If Lord of Ultima is profitable for EA, will they green light another traditional RPG in the series?
It's just not Ultima.
Lord of Ultima is little more than EA's attempt at leveraging the popularity of a beloved IP to make a quick cash-grab on the coattails of a rising internet trend. And yet the optimist in me sees it as something else: they're acknowledging that they still own the IP. Ultima isn't dead. It's not being buried. Lord of Ultima isn't an MMORPG and it's certainly not a real continuation of the fabled franchise. But it is a sign that Electronic Arts hasn't forgotten about one of PC gaming's most treasured and historical properties.
