Classic Game Postmortem: Ultima Online

Interesting :-) Seems like the word 'shard' when used to define splitting up DB's etc. on different servers, actually originates from this game: ▶ this video

in “Do you remember Ultima Online?” · View on HN

Signed binaries use will come into being with trusted computing, they are embedding Denuvo in the operating system, aka future compilers will allow game companies and companies like autodesk to sign their exe's and the exe's if cracked can be added to a list that windows 11 can force update the bios to add these cracked exes to a list that will refuse to run. That's the gist of trusted computing they are building an alternative internet/mainframe computer inside yours that they only have access to. Where have you been the last 23+ years? The videogame industry has been stealing PC games since 1997 with ultima online. Hear it from the dev's themselves. Don't think MMO's killed local PC games? Listen here kids. ▶ this video EA killed ultima 9 when the UO beta got massive interest, that lead to the death of PC games as local applications, the industry from then on there was a massive war to back end all PC games, they couldn't immediately do that to quake and urneal because we'd been treated too good with Warcraft 1-3, Descent 1-3, Quake 1-3, and build engine games like Duke 3d. The entire industry has always wanted to kill piracy and Ultima online gave the entire industry the go ahead once they realized that many of our fellow programmers and gamers were irrationally stupid beyond their wildest dreams. Anyone playing quake and Descent at the time fear the loss of dedicated servers and level editors which used to come with the games, we knew if Ultima online was successful that Publi

in “Leaked stolen Nvidia cert can sign Windows malware” · View on HN

>This is a bad example because Steam's DRM is notoriously terrible You don't grasp Valve and the industry has already won any game where the networking code has been pulled out already acts like DRM, any client-server app requiring username and login accounts, or has some piece of code living on some remote server, means you no longer own your own stuff. Valve and the rest of the computing industry is boiling you all slowly. AKA look at this list of games from crackwatch. [link] You'll notice more and more games are "online only". Diablo 3 is literally diablo 2 /w drm, they wanted to kill piracy. Starcraft remastered, and reforged require internet to play, that means we've lost the battle. The public has eaten up client-server back ended games. You don't get that the whole point was to monopolize their own products and kill the local infinitely copyable binaries PC games used to be coded as, AKA PRe steam 99% of games were complete you got singleplayer+multiplayer inside the same game. MMO's/F2P are literally just PC games with their multiplayer ripped out, don't think so? Listen to the ultima devs here, when Ultima online was successful, publishers and devs went over their entire PC game list to convert their local apps to client-server apps and stuck "MMO" on the front so they could steal PC games from the public. ▶ this video EA killed ultima 9 when the UO beta got massive interest, that lead to the death of PC games as local applications, the industry from then on there was a

in “EU Buried $400k Study Showing Piracy Have Almost No Effect on Sales (2017)” · View on HN

Two or more computers in a network become and behave as a single PC, so if you buy any client-server software you are literally stealing programs for yourself. Because all programs are the same to a PC. AKA all programs executables can be divided into two or more exe's and run over a network it's called the client-server or mainframe dumb client model of computing and you don't want that because that's the end of the personal computer you own and control. Client-server apps are the ultimate security risk because you can't audit the code. The last 23 years there's been a war to kill the general computer. [link] >This language seems unnecessary, It's not, the average gamer and PC buyer has been stealing software from himself for the last 23+ years. Straight, steam/mmo's are just back ended c applications, there's no reason for any piece of software to require a "internet connection" (aka a second computer) half a world away. The 1990's were great because it was before the computer illiterate got internet. Everyone was expecting level editors and free maps, mods and skins Level editors [link] Free maps mods and skins [link] ... to continue in all the big budget games but that didn't happen because the computer illiterate masses gave up game ownership giving birth to all the evils of modern gaming (shut down games, mtx, always online drm, which is the same as mmo's, aka client-server back ended c apps). So we're losing game history down the shitter and games just disappear from h

in “America produces enough oil to meet its needs, so why do we import crude?” · View on HN

" As longtime poweruser all the dark patterns and user hostile behavior was astonishing." Two or more computers in a network become and behave as a single PC, so if you buy any client-server software you are literally stealing programs for yourself. Because all programs are the same to a PC. AKA all programs executables can be divided into two or more exe's and run over a network it's called the client-server or mainframe dumb client model of computing and you don't want that because that's the end of the personal computer you own and control. Client-server apps are the ultimate security risk because you can't audit the code. The last 23 years there's been a war to kill the general computer. If you've touched steam, xbox live or mmo's, they are all client-server exe's, windows 10 is a client-server operating system. They've been stealing software from 1997 with ultima online, how can you be astonished when valve and everyone were stealing PC games from 1997 onward? See this patent by microsoft here: [link] On games: It's not, the average gamer and PC buyer has been stealing software from himself for the last 23+ years. Straight, steam/mmo's are just back ended c applications, there's no reason for any piece of software to require a "internet connection" (aka a second computer) half a world away. The 1990's were great because it was before the computer illiterate got internet. Everyone was expecting level editors and free maps, mods and skins Level editors [link] Free maps mod

in “Latest build of Windows 11 has ads inside File Explorer” · View on HN

Uhh the red flags were there in 1997 when you all started buying client-server software. Intel and the industry know you are idiots at computers. MMO's/steam are signs of idiocracy, aka you are bad at understanding you are getting robbed. That's why we have TPM and client-server crapware in windows 10/11. If you buy any client-server SaaS you are a moron, everyone was expecting local applications forever until 1997. Even EA would have never imagined you'd all be dumb enough to buy incomplete programs where they take files hostage on a 2nd computer half a world away. So no the time to be alarmed was over 20 years ago, since there is no software or game that requires an internet connection, there was no steam, no stupid fucking login screens, nothing. The public has told the tech industry it is chimp factor five levels of stupid over the last 23+ years. So they are locking us out of our PC's, windows 10/11 is building copyright enforcement into the cpu so future applications won't run and your bios can be remote updated like a console to disable any pirated software or cracked exe's that are found on your PC. You all gave them this access to your PC, so why wouldn't intel and the rest just keep going? See here on EA and ultima, and the death of games as local applications: ▶ this video

in “Intel Introduces New ATX PSU Specifications” · View on HN

I was the original lead designer on Ultima Online and the key designer of this system. A few notes, because this article has MANY inaccuracies. 1. Ultima Online wasn't even in development for three years total. An early prototype was February to September 1995, done by Rick Delashmit. Starting late August and early September 1995, the core team showed up. We showed the game at E3 in spring of 1996 in alpha form. We showed it in beta form at E3 in the spring of 1997. And we launched on Sept 26th, 1997. The ecology was in the alpha test, and was removed during the beta after being rewritten by an engineer who didn't really like or understand it. 2. "Not many players know about" this is false. The strategy guide published simultaneously with the game even lists all the resource values for how much meat, hide, feathers, whatever, each creature represented. All of those statistics remained in the game and still are there to this day twenty years later. What was disabled was the AI. The values are still used by crafting, harvesting, and lots of other systems in the game. 3. Said AI is exhaustively documented on my website here: [link] (first article, there is a sidebar with links to the follow-ons) and also collected in my recent book POSTMORTEMS, which has a huge pile of historical info on Ultima Online as well as Star Wars Galaxies and other games I've worked on. 4. The reason the AI was disabled had nothing to do with why the ecology collapsed. The AI was disabled because of the

in “Ultima Online spent years developing a system that was destroyed by players” · View on HN