THE PRODUCERS
Rick "Stellerex" Hall - Unknown/Prior Senior Producer
DUTIES: Previously a Senior Producer for Ultima Online Live and MVP of the year for 2000 at OSI, Stellerex now works behind the scenes, ensuring a bigger and better future for UO. He is an avid player of almost every type of game, and a chess fanatic.
"I think different people handle this sort of position in different ways. While I really enjoy contributing creatively, I don�t want to smother my team. I think it�s extremely important for them to feel like they have some ownership over the game systems they work on. What I try to do is provide overall direction and focus. And while I enjoy discussing system concepts with both the programmers and the designers, I try to let the do their jobs without feeling micro-managed." - UO Stratics Interview 11/7/01
UO STRATICS INTERVIEW WITH STELLEREX - November 17, 2001
Team Comments - November 7, 2001
Team Comments - September 5, 2001
Team Comments - June 11, 2001
Team Comments - April 20, 2001
Bryan "Tajima" Walker - Senior Producer
DUTIES: Tajima is the Senior Producer for Ultima Online's "Live" Team. He oversees the efforts of the programmers, artists, and designers while coordinating with the Customer Service, Game Masters, Operations, Engineering, and Marketing teams. In his spare time, he enjoys playing Tech Support rep on the Discussion boards.
"I'm Bryan Walker, better known on the UO boards as "Tajima." In the 3 1/2 years I've been here at Origin, I've served as producer for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, producer/designer for Fighter Pilot, and producer/development director for Ultima Online: Third Dawn. Prior to arriving here, I worked on several standalone and online titles for Eidos Interactive/Domark Software as a producer and designer, and wrote freelance reviews for Computer Gaming World while serving in the US Army as an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter pilot." - Team Comment 9/26/01
UO STRATICS INTERVIEW WITH TAJIMA - September 16, 2002
Team Comments - September 26, 2001
THE LEADERS
Tom "Evocare" Chilton - UO Live Lead Designer
DUTIES: A long-time Ultima Online player and virtual world enthusiast, Evocare is Lead Designer for Ultima Online. His responsibilities include managing a design team in such a way that the designers retain their sanity, determining which game features the design team works on, and giving the final "yay" or "nay" to said designs. In theory, this is all done to develop the most fun path to the cheese. Over time, he has developed his skill in claiming all credit for success while passing all responsibility for failure on to the Producer (much to Tajima's surprise).
"One of my primary goals here at Origin is to take a holistic approach the design of game systems. In order to deliver the best possible play experience, it�s crucial that we have a keen understanding of how each game system relates to other game systems. The idea is to create and maintain a web of essentially symbiotic game system relationships so that the combination of systems becomes dramatically more interesting and compelling than the sum of the value of each individually. Beyond creating an interesting and deep game world, one of the greatest benefits of this approach is the ability to deliver the aforementioned experience with a minimum of complexity and clutter when compared to a game of equal depth that is comprised of largely unrelated game systems." - Team Comment 04/23/01
Team Comments - September 20, 2001
Team Comments - April 23, 2001
Christian "Prophet" Lassonde - UO Live Lead Programmer
DUTIES: When not camouflaged as a Canadian hockey fan at the Olympics, Prophet handles the responsibilities of Lead Programmer for Ultima Online. When asked to describe a typical day at work, Prophet replied succinctly, "I do stuff. You know, press keys, bitch a lot, and deny everyone's new feature requests. It's in my job description." His l33t programming skills can be summarized by the following anecdote heard from his peers while watching him crash a test center while trying to fix it: "If that's him trying to fix something, god help us if he actually tries to break something."
"I started working on UO in September of 2000 as a server programmer, dealing mostly with the back-end server systems of UO. Since then I have touched just about every section of code in one way or another, either through bug fixes or new content addition to all the various servers and both clients." - Team Comment 05/04/01
Team Comments - September 20, 2001
Team Comments - May 4, 2001
Tim "Alai" Schubert - Lead Client Programmer
DUTIES: Alai has worked on all aspects of MMORPGs at some point or another, including (but not limited to) map building, customer support, art, sound, animation, writing, design, and programming. Over the years, he has managed to claw his way up the management ladder to Lead Client Programmer for Ultima Online where he's coordinating efforts to improve the quality of the client in all ways possible. He prefers the green M&M's.
"As I sit here in my office, listening to the whirring of my computers, a smile is inching across my face. Every time I get a spare moment to think about what�s coming up for UO I get all a-tingle again. This is no small feat, as I�ve been working on it for three and a half years now. I�ve survived T2A, Renaissance, and Third Dawn � I am a seasoned veteran. Nothing should faze me anymore, and there certainly shouldn�t be anything I could get excited over. Right? Well, I�m excited. The upcoming releases are going to knock your socks off. We�re going full-bore with content, new models, new spell effects, new sprites for the 2D players, new audio� a lot of stuff. Tack onto that the huge leaps and bounds we�re making in improving the clients and I am simply astounded." - Team Comment 11/14/01
Team Comments - November 14, 2001
Team Comments - April 5, 2002
John A. Matzen - UO:LBR Lead Programmer
Jason "Stormwind" Sr - Technical Director
DUTIES: Stormwind is the Director of Technology for UO. When he's not evaluating libraries and technologies for use in UO products, he's forcing the programmers to follow coding standards and write technical design documentation. Stormwind has been around since before the public beta of UO, forcing letters and numbers to line up and stand at attention on the screen to make the servers work better. He also serves as a backup programmer as needed.
WindRider - Senior Artist
DUTIES: WindRider is the senior artist on the Team. WindRider is responsible for giving life to the art, the creatures, and buttons you click on. When WindRider is not pushing pixels around for new menu screens, he is teaching the creatures how to walk, run and eat in the creature aerobics class.
THE DESIGNERS
Michael "Vex" Moore - Designer
Current Specialty: Bard Skills
DUTIES: Vex, a designer on UO Live, started programming 8-bit home computers at age 11, and later built a map editor for Ultima IV on his Atari 800XL using a BASIC compiler. In school and for a while afterwards, he played bass (the guitar, not the fish) in an alternative rock band before eventually moving into database and Web development. Vex started playing UO with the release of T2A, and began working for Origin shortly after the release of Renaissance. In addition to systems design, he also programs, fixes bugs, and does world building and testing.
"In my time here, I have quickly learned the difference in scale between running a MUD with a few hundred players and working on a big-time online RPG. Writing code for a server cluster instead of a single process involves levels of complexity heretofore unknown to me. Having to balance the needs of thousands upon thousands of diverse players completely eclipses the same task in the context of a small MUD. I am still a neophyte in the commercial gaming biz, but in these six short fast-paced months, I have already been able to prove my abilities while at the same time gaining what feels like a lifetime�s worth of knowledge about the relatively new field of massively multiplayer games." - Team Comment 04/09/01
Team Comments - October 30, 2001
Team Comments - August 6, 2001
Team Comments - April 9, 2001
Pete "Adrick" Warner - Designer
Current Specialty: PvP/Factions/Felucca
DUTIES: An active player of Ultima Online since August of 1997, Adrick's focus as a designer in Ultima Online revolves around combat systems (PvP and PvM), guilds, factions, reputation, and player interactions and reputation (non-consensual PVP).
"So what does a designer do at OSI? It�s two-fold really. First we come up with ideas and concepts that will enhance the game, add value to a system already in place, or fix an imbalance, bug or exploit. Secondly we write the scripts that make this happen along with the programmers, who work more with the server or client C code. We are also heavily involved in the QA process in that we test our code as best as we can and work with the quality team to ensure that we deliver the best product possible to the players. This doesn�t always work as intended and its one of the major frustrations of the job. The last thing we want to do with the code is introduce another bug or imbalance into a system we are trying to eliminate them from." - Team Comment 11/01/00
Team Comments - November 27, 2001
Team Comments - October 1, 2001
Team Comments - April 30, 2001
Team Comments - November 1, 2000
Kai "Helios" Steinmann - Designer
Current Specialty: Localization
DUTIES: Currently, UO Designer Helios is deftly working on the New Player Experience / New Player Retention initiatives and design-side localization stuffs. Of course, he also works to keep his sanity while sharing an office with Hanse, Vex and Adrick every day, which is a job all on its own. :-)
"What am I working on these days? Recently, I have been working on a wide range of localization changes as well as some ideas for animal lore (which you guys liked for the most part - woohoo!). We're always trying our best to improve the localization process to be as unobtrusive to the game's ambiance as possible. There�s always room for more improvement, but at this point, some of the localization changes we�re making now are so transparent that you can't even distinguish them in game. You�ve got to love those programmer types."
Team Comments - October 19, 2001
Team Comments - August 27, 2001
Thomas "Hanse" Eidson - Designer
Current Specialty: Crafting Skills
DUTIES: Hanse is a UO designer and bug fixer extraordinaire. When he's not eradicating bugs with a vengeance, he's busily creating new content for systems such as creature spawn locations/amounts, bulk order deeds, magic spells, map changes, decorator tools, monster enhancements, and many others. Hanse likes to stare at orange juice containers because they say 'concentrate'.
"The developers here devote their time to many different tasks, which are split into different groups. This allows us to work efficiently on the specific areas of the game we are assigned (a few examples are bug fixing for server code, bug fixing for the client that runs on your computer, and new content). The whole team does not stop what it is doing to create an �orc mask�. One or two developers can make an �orc mask�. Quality Assurance maintains a database of bugs for us to review and their priorities. Many of the bugs in the database were submitted by players or brought to our attention through posts on the MyUO boards. Usually, there is not a workday that goes by without someone deliberating over some kind of fix for the game." - Team Comment 05/29/01
Team Comments - May 29, 2001
Team Comments - April 3, 2002
Jonathan "Oaks" LeCraft - Designer
Current Specialty: Taming Skills
DUTIES: As a designer for Ultima Online, Oaks works on a variety of systems ranging from world-building to spell effects, and has recently tackled things like improving the new player experience and leveling the playing field in regards to the taming profession. He is easily identifiable by his vampire-like skin and brightly-colored Hawaiian shirts; testament to his long hours of game playing and programming. His online alias, Oaks, originates from a favorite pen-and-paper RPG character best known for his non sequitur dialog and insatiable battle hunger.
"Right now, I'm focused on making the journey to whatever goals you are trying to reach in UO more enjoyable - more fun. In life, finally reaching a goal and reaping the benefits is sometimes the only reward, but there's no reason is has to be like that in our game. Imagine if you had to climb a bleak mountain to find a treasure cache. It's nothing but a long haul up a boring landscape, where you are driven only by your (admittedly greedy) desire for loot. What if, instead, you had to solve stimulating intellectual challenges or trek through a dangerous forest filled with traps and monsters, both with the same end reward? If the difficulty were balanced, very few people would climb the mountain." - Team Comment 06/01/01
Team Comments - June 1, 2001
THE PROGRAMMERS
Tim "MrTact" Keating - Lead Programmer
DUTIES: MrTact is the newest server programmer for UO, having recently moved over from QA Engineering. He is notorious for fearlessly asking EA executives pointed questions during company-wide meetings, yet still somehow retaining his job.
"Seriously, as the lead, I am more responsible for the overall development process. I am more aware of the schedule now, and I'm the point man when it comes to taking on onerous duties (like figuring out why the current server build is crashing test centers) so other team members can stay focused on AoS development. Plus, I go to a lot more meetings" - Team Comment 09/04/02
Team Comments - September 4, 2002
Daniel "FierY iCe" Buckler - Programmer
DUTIES: FierY iCe is a Programmer on Ultima Online, and works on all kinds of systems from server maintenance to monster tweaks to combat fixes, and anything that needs to be done. Previously working as a Designer, he still tries to help them out whenever they have Programming needs. His favorite things to work on are monsters and loot. He also gets a kick out of logging cheaters.
"I started at Origin as a web programmer, moved on to eventually become a designer on UO, and then finally found my calling as a programmer. I've seen UO from many different angles and have really enjoyed working on a great game that continues to evolve. It�s especially rewarding to be part of a game that I have played for so long. Back when I was playing the Beta in 1997, I never dreamed that I would have the chance to actually work on UO. It has been a long road to becoming a programmer, but it has definitely been worth it. " - Team Comment 08/17/01
Team Comments - August 17, 2001
Kevin "Jalek" Saffel - Client Programmer
DUTIES: When not bringing in donuts for the entire team, Jalek spends his time sitting in the dark void he calls his office, shunning the sunlight and hissing at passers-by while working on mysterious and complex background programming tasks.
"I have worked on client bugs, helped out with the party system, done some server work and I was one of the client programmers on UO: Third Dawn. Now, I am working on cleaning up some of the client code, fixing bugs, and supporting the events team to some degree." - Team Comment 06/05/01
Team Comments - June 5, 2001
Jason "Fyshstyk" Bragg - Programmer
Pierre "Bulldoz" Gagne - Programmer
DUTIES: After bodly catapulting the old UO pixels into the third dimension and working tirelessly to help track down the cause of crashes in Third Dawn, BulldoZ finally achieved the ultimate dream of all programmers and now spends his days on an obscure research project where he has nothing to do but think, eat and drink. In his spare time, he dreams of digital organic lifeforms.
Clark "Indy" Janes - Programmer
Ed "Greyburn" Groover - Programmer
DUTIES: When asked about the myriad of intricate and sophisticated tasks on the plate of a UO client programmer, Greyburn describes his duties and himself eloquently as, "Client. Code. Bug squishin', party improvin', little talkin' mofo' with a lead foot and a cheap rental. Er, bugs an' clients an' stuff. And code. It's all about the code. Yup."
Christian Lange - Programmer
Fertbert - Server Programmer
"I'm the new server programmer. I work in C++ on various flavors of UNIX constructing the basic building blocks of the UO code base. Most of what the server programmers do isn't directly seen by the players -- a recent exception being the Publish 16 housing changes. Much of what we work on are new features that the designers need in order to be able to script new gameplay, and that the client programmers need in order to improve the user interface. We also do a lot of behind the scenes work to make the existing code more robust, so that we can continue to reduce server downtime. There's always a server programmer on-call, ready to investigate any shard crashes that the Operations group can't immediately identify as a networking or hardware failure." - Team Comment 07/24/02
Team Comments - July 24, 2002
THE SCENARIO DESIGN TEAM
Michael "Ignatz" Farone - Scenario Designer
DUTIES: Ignatz started life wandering in search of truth and love... or failing that, a job in the video game industry. One fateful day in 1997 while walking in downtown Austin, Ignatz noticed a scrap of paper stuck to one of his boots. Ripping the newsprint from his shoe, he noticed a classified ad soliciting applicants for a testing position on Ultimate Onlink... or something. Intrigued, Ignatz applied. Now, after almost five years of working on just about every facet of UO, Ignatz is a UO Live Designer and has recently landed yet another position on the Ongoing Content team.
UO STRATICS INTERVIEW WITH IGNATZ - April 1, 2002
Tom "Augur" Ivey - Scenario Designer
DUTIES: Augur is a designer on the Ongoing Content team, responsible for creating everything from new monster and item additions, to devious puzzles and expansions to the Britannian geography. When not delving into the codebase of Ultima Online, he enjoys daydreaming about delving into the codebase of Ultima Online. You may have also seen him in such roles as "Dirty Hippy #2" in Stop, or My Mom Will Shoot! and "Topo, the Monkey Boy", in Circus Maniacs 2.
"...come to find out he became a GM a few years ago and then moved into the Seer program. From there he finally moved into the Content Development team. Then he really impressed me. He told me about writing the code for the Orc Bomber and Scout! It then all began to make sense that the AI in game that I thought was the coolest (the Scout logic) was written by such a talented player. He told me an inside secret that each Scout spawns with about 720 bandages on it, and that if by some miracle it manages to stay alive long enough to use all of them it wont be able to heal anymore. He also told me that he was the one that made the Orc Mines and used all sorts of graphics to put it together. His other inside information is that the rail road track that is in there is actually a bunch of Torture Racks laid end to end =). He had to create some invisible tiles on top of them so that we could walk across them. He also built the Golem Power Generators and used a simple maze building logic to generate the puzzles on them. He said that because the logic is so simplistic it can create invalid puzzles that loop back on itself. He wrote the code to stop and rebuild if such a case occurred, but found in testing that some Generators would get stuck in a loop and eat all the CPU on the server (as in lag the server till they brought it down and back up again!) So to fix that problem he wrote more logic that said if a Generator failed to generate a good puzzle in 5 tries that it would self destruct. So if you are ever wandering out through a Generator spawn area and see one appear for a split second and then immediately explode, you will know why ;)" - From Falcon, Central Server Crusaders after meeting Augur at the Austin OSI Happy Hour on December 20, 2001.
Dave "Gromm" Saleh - Scenario Designer
DUTIES: Gromm is a member of the Ongoing Content team and has adopted the duty of Fiction Poobah. When not trying to think of new and interesting ways of spreading waves of mass destruction across the world of Britannia that leave nothing but blood, ash and suffering in their trail, Gromm enjoys spending time with his kitten. Although he enjoys working on UO tremendously, the position is only temporary until he returns to his homeworld of Gritt'hhhya''sfvvv'''eee to continue genetically installing thumbs on other races in the galaxy.
"One of my favorite things about my new position as an Ongoing Content designer for UO is the chance to work with the rich Ultima Prime fiction. I, like many of you, played the Ultima games when I was a wee lad. I grew up with people like Iolo and Dupre for heroes, and monsters like Mondain, Exodus, and the Guardian as enemies. The stories and characters from those original games influenced me growing up. Now I�m in a position where I�m partially responsible for those characters and stories." - Team Comment 09/17/01
Team Comments - September 17, 2001
Team Comments - May 21, 2001
THE UNKNOWN
Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna - Designer of the Unknown
DUTIES: Calandryll, a designer at Origin Systems, holds the esteemed title of the OSI employee most often blown up, killed or otherwise maimed in fan-produced flash movies. Calandryll got his start at OSI in the Community Relations department and later moved over to development on the UO Live Team. Currently he spends his time in a dark, locked, secret room working in shrouded mystery.
"I have always believed that fiction is at its best when it is created by the players themselves. The best part of the Trinsic Invasions during the Renaissance publishes wasn�t the stuff we did� it was the stuff you did. What I do want, however, is to provide context for the changes and additions to the world, to create an interesting backdrop for all of you to tell your tales in, and to throw the occasional curve ball at you, just to keep you on your toes." - Team Comment 04/13/01
The Virtue System
Team Comments - August 8, 2001
Team Comments - April 13, 2001
THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS TEAM
Amy "Cynthe" Sage - Manager of Community Services
DUTIES: Since 1998, Cynthe has held six different positions at OSI, including Game Designer, Community Coordinator, and Web Content Supervisor. She is now Ultima Online's Manager of Community Services, but leaves much of the delicate community work to her fantastically capable OCR team: Kerowyn, Greywolfe and Sannio. Her greatest joys include showing off pictures of her son, and busily writing "State of the Boards" addresses that are too long for anyone to actually read.
"For the most part, I try to make sure that everyone else in the team has everything they need, and I'm always working to come up with better ways to utilize the work we're already doing so that it reaches the largest number of people possible. I also work with the team to come up with better internal communication processes, hoping to eliminate surprises (both for us and the players!)." - Cynthe 03/14/02
Team Comments - October 26, 2001
Team Comments - August 20, 2001
Team Comments - July 10, 2001
Team Comments - June 15, 2001
Team Comments - May 16, 2001
Keith "Sannio" Quinn - Online Content Coordinator
DUTIES: Sannio is Ultima Online's "Online Content Coordinator," which is simply a more professional way of saying he's the company's official "Town Cryer." As the main researcher for the OCR department, it's his job to sort through all the myriad bits of paperwork, e-mails, scraps of notes, and back-alley conversations that relate to UO, and somehow present it to the players in such a way that the company doesn't realize valuable gaming information is being given away for free.
"Sannio's role has switched from being divided evenly between boards and website posts to being fully focused on web updates. Sannio is responsible for "dynamic" news, such as UO.com front page news posts, development documentation write-ups (In Concept, In Development, In Testing, etc), patch message updates, and keeping the event calendar current. If it's something that needs to be posted "now!" then it probably comes from Sannio (with the exception of most of the round-the-clock shard issue posts, which come from our support department)." - Cynthe, 03/14/02
Team Comments - February 1, 2002
Team Comments - October 8, 2001
Team Comments - August 24, 2001
Team Comments - July 26, 2001
Kerowyn - Online Content Editor
DUTIES: Kerowyn is the Online Content Editor and current reigning "Miss Tackiest Office Color 2002". When not stalking her co-workers for their Team Comments, she spends her time communicating with the fansites, arranging chats and interviews, posting web updates, and completing various other miscellaneous writing/editing tasks.
"Kerowyn's role has changed from being divided between front page news posts, Playguide updates, and fansite relations to now focusing on Playguide Updates and the fansites. Now that she has to spend less time focusing on getting the skinny on immediate news information for the UO.com front page, she can spend more time focusing on scheduling interviews and chats with fansites and going through the Playguide to see where we can improve, and what needs to be updated. She also selects and edits the Screenshots of the Week, Spotlights, and keeps the player luncheon page up to date." - Cynthe 03/14/02
Team Comments - July 26, 2001
Greywolfe - Online Community Coordinator
DUTIES: Greywolfe, UO's Online Community Coordinator, spends a great deal of time on the MyUO Message Boards. After a busy day reading and responding to hundreds of posts and emails and attending various meetings, the 'wolfe likes to play UO while enjoying a strong cup of Sumatra coffee, write a little horror fiction, or attend various dog-type functions with the infamous Toy Fox Terrier "Kajun-Fox Beausoleil." Greywolfe has been known to comment that if only coffee and Beau were in the game, all would truly be well with the world.
"Through demonstration of good community sense and a great deal of patience, Greywolfe's role has grown from being only a moderator to now being our main communicator on the boards! While still being responsible for keeping the boards civil, Greywolfe's duties also include gathering and reporting player feedback to the team, and addressing concerns on the boards whenever and wherever possible." - Cynthe 03/14/02
Team Comments - April 1, 2002
THE PLAYER RELATIONS TEAM
Maleki - Player Relations Manager
Let's see� I came to work for EA/OSI around December of '99 as a Game Master for UO. I had previously spent some time as a Counselor, Seer, and a Senior Companion. Over the past two years, I have spent time as both the Player Relations Manager and UO Product Manager. Prior to working for EA, I attended the University of Central Florida, out in Orlando, FL. I am originally from Tampa, FL.
UO Stratics Interview - August 25, 2003
Mustang - Player Relations (Team Lead)
"Other games have communities and even cultures that have developed around the game. However, UO has gone farther than that. In essence, there is a complete society inside the game world. I know, because I have seen it, both from the eyes of the players, and from the eyes of a GM. Many of the issues that I have dealt with over the last two years in UO are just as complicated and important to the individuals involved as real world legal issues. I truly believe that those that play this game are living two separate lives, and as an observer, I have found it absolutely amazing. Where else besides the real world can you find wars, weddings, criminal syndicates, shopping malls, casinos, con artists, taverns, libraries, local governments, symphonies, artwork, museums, and charities, all created solely from the minds of the players. I have seen every one of these in the game because of the imaginations and efforts of the players? Most of these are not things that were ever imagined to be a part of the game by the developers, but became reality because the world of UO allows for freedom of action and freedom of imagination." - Team Comment 12/03/01
Team Comments - December 3, 2001
GM Platinum - Player Relations (Support Team Lead)
"I have been working as a Senior Game Master for just over a year now. I know a lot of you are probably not familiar with the role of a Senior Game Master. Your first instinct may be to request one of us if you are unhappy with the answer another Game Master has given you. However, the best place to send any concerns about in-game service is to [email protected]. The Senior Game Master is there to manage all the calls that come into the queue, as well as complete various administrative tasks. There are some calls we receive that are extremely important, such as calls about hacked accounts and calls from players who have been scammed. Help requests like these need to get attention immediately, and we do everything in our power to make sure a Game Master goes to these calls as quickly as possible. So, if you get a call from a Game Master asking you to provide more information, it is nothing more than an attempt on our part to make sure that high priority calls get attention as quickly as possible." - Team Comment 10/12/01
Team Comments - October 12, 2001
Parn - Player Relations (Team Lead)
GM Silvani - Player Relations (Senior Game Master)
"Though it may seem like GM�s have godlike powers, we are not �all knowing�. Game Masters need help from the players in-game in order to perform their jobs properly. Many people question the wait times associated with calls. I cannot express enough the need to clarify pages that are sent into the global queue. For example, include the name of the person that you are calling about instead of just saying "some guy". This will expedite the process. If something as simple as a name is included, we can start looking for the player and checking into the situation. The simple facts of who, what, when, where, why and how should be the focus of your call. I know it may seem like 40 characters is not very much room, but you don't have to be worried about writing complete sentences when requesting help. You would be surprised at what we are able to understand after all the pages we go through in a day. Many players will even page into the queue with no spaces between their words in order to include all of their information. It's amusing, but it also gets the job done." - Team Comment 01/18/02
Team Comments - January 18, 2002
Other Senior Game Masters:
GM Alura
GM Onyx
GM Ash - Player Relations (Game Master)
"Along with the public responsibilities, Game Masters work behind the scenes to talk about Ultima Online issues and policy. When I was younger, I always joked that I would never use my Student Congress skills in real life. Then I learned that as a Game Master, one function of the job is to help debate and shape UO policy. When players make suggestions to Game Masters, they listen to what is said and bring it up in policy discussions. We present the ideas, and if we can reach a consensus, the changes are implemented. The discussions are always interesting and are very similar to policy issues that people face in the real world." - Team Comment 08/31/01
Team Comments - August 31, 2001
GM Carbon - Player Relations (Game Master)
"I was hoping to let slip some scandalous Game Master secrets here, but alas, I can't think of any. We're just normal folks trying to make the game run smoothly for you. Well, most of us are normal. Nothing more exciting than that, I'm afraid. Instead, I think I'll use this space to further emphasize a point GM Silvani made in her Team Comments. If you decide to page for help, and it's about some other player who has committed some heinous crime against you, include their name and what they did in your page. A lot of players complain about the amount of space given for a page, yet they never include any useful information. Instead of paging with: "ok, like some guy with a robe was just totally bad. Like way bad,� please include the player�s name and what he did. So, it would look more like this: "GM Carbon is dumb and he turned my castle sigil purple!" Now we can get the lowdown on this GM Carbon fellow and what he did immediately when you page, instead of much later when the other player has long since logged off." - Team Comment 02/22/02
Team Comments - February 22, 2002
Other Game Masters:
GM Anwyn
GM Dengar
GM Dionysis
GM Fletch
GM Foster
GM Halona
GM Mordor
GM Panda
GM Pax Vobiscum
GM Phields
GM Pigpen
GM Roland
GM Spada
GM Starblade
GM Visigoth
Maleki - Dev Team and Support Liaison
THE QUALITY ASSURANCE TEAM
Brian "BIGtiny" DuBose - Quality Assurance Director
DUTIES: Being the manager of the UO bug exterminators, BIGtiny's job is to make sure that bugs are quickly removed from UO society. Usually under the cover of darkness and with as few witnesses as possible. BIGtiny could not be reached for comment, but a spokesman said, "We have nothing against bugs; in fact, I have an ant farm at home. But when bugs enter the world of Britannia, they cross the line and must be dealt with... severely."
Dan "Clyde" Campbell - Quality Assurance Lead
Daniel "Oghma" Betsinger - Quality Assurance Process Lead
Krum - Automated Testing Developer
DUTIES: After leading the programming effort behind Lord Blackthorn's Revenge, Krum volunteered to take a break from actual game development and courageously took on the arduous task of developing an automated testing environment for our quality assurance staff, which will provide the team the ability to release a higher quality product in less time.
Jens "Khensu" Page - Quality Assurance Software Engineer
Lindsay "Jex" Collier - Senior Quality Assurance Tester
JoAnna "Aardvark" Green - Senior Quality Assurance Tester
Zafer "Kat P" Hamza - Senior Quality Assurance Tester
Craig "Usul" McDonald - Online Testing Coordinator
DUTIES: Being one of UO's Lead bug exterminators, Usul's job is to make sure our QA group is using the latest and deadliest insecticides. Many of these insecticides are potentially harmful to the environment, and sometimes downright illegal; so his duties also include keeping the EPA and left wing environmental groups off our backs. Hey, you may not like carcinogenic chemicals in your food, but at least your dinner plate won't be garnished with a cockroach. :)
Grok - Quality Assurance Tester
"Our unofficial motto in QA is: "Silence is louder than applause". What this means is that if we've done our job, no one notices. While this may not seem to be the most glorious position, I am certainly extremely proud of our contribution. This was my first shipped title, and I couldn't have picked a better project to work on. QA as a whole has spent many a late night in the office making sure LBR had as successful a release as possible." - Team Comment 03/01/02
Team Comments - March 1, 2002
Patrick "TranSendze" Cremin - Quality Assurance Tester
Anthony Dimario - Quality Assurance Tester
Mike "Sihugo" Green - Quality Assurance Tester
Jay Jack - Quality Assurance Tester
Lucas Johnston - Quality Assurance Tester
David Jones - Quality Assurance Tester
Trey "Rosicrux" Neshyba - Quality Assurance Tester
Russell "Sobie" O'Henly - Quality Assurance Tester
Jonathan Reynolds - Quality Assurance Tester
Brian "Helix" Richardson - Quality Assurance Tester
Cody "Zoot" Russell - Quality Assurance Tester
Tim Stewart - Quality Assurance Tester
Christopher "Tgyps" Tschacher - Quality Assurance Tester
Sarah "Jazz" Tye - Quality Assurance Tester
Bonnie "Mesanna" Davis - External Lead Tester
THE EUROPEAN TEAM
Cordicat - Community Manager
"I work closely with the OCR department at Origin to listen to the community. I`m talking to players, support staff, our other European territories. Increased awareness, increased communication, increased results, falls into my domain. I work with the newly hired European IGM, the UO Webmaster for Europe and this site, and the great GM support." Interview from UO-Europe.com
GM Sol - ex-Game Master Lead: Europe
"As the Manager of [the European GM] group I interview and train new GM`s and account representatives. I prepare the work schedules and if we are short on GM`s (what can happen from time to time) I also provide GM Support on the shards with my GM Character. I take care that the support group will answer all incoming mails and I ensure that the "special" support cases (banned player, scammer, exploiter) are dealt with accordingly. Additional to that I am in daily contact with the American GM leads and our Volunteers." - Interview from UO-Europe.com
GM Darkness - ex-Game Master: Europe
"[My job] is customer service and we assist players ingame with our characters and different available tools to resolve issues they might have. We do not interfere with the gameplay, unless there is an exploit, harassment etc. going on. Next of being active and available on the actual game, we do also answer support and harassment Emails, talk to our volunteers and co GM�s in the states through chat channels." - Interview from UO-Europe.com
GM Philanthropist - ex-Game Master:
Europe
"[My name is Philanthropist because] I hope this conveys my outlook towards our players. I am here to help them to the best of my abilities. If they see my name, I hope they know they are going to get a fair deal. Of course they might have to look it up in a dictionary first. Oh, and everyone just calls me Phil, for obvious reasons" - Interview from UO-Europe.com
GM Xena - ex-Game Master: Europe
"I am a bit of a social street worker really. Many problems are of a technical nature of course but the hard work is to convince the player that everything will be good eventually =)." - Interview from UO-Europe.com
IGM Talos - ex-Interest Game Master
"I am the European Interest Games Master, which means I design and build new locations, fiction and events within Ultima Online. Another large part of my job is overseeing the interest volunteer network, working alongside a very talented bunch of people, with the key goal of making Britannia as entertaining and welcoming a place as possible." - Interview from UO-Europe.com