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Ultimate Baseball Online’s Producer Steps Up to the Plate to Discuss the MMP title
“If you like baseball, you cannot get away from UBO”
Aw, the feel of the grass beneath your feet, the smell of leather, and the crack of a bat meeting a ball and the roar of the crowd … is there anything that can rival the thrill of playing baseball on a warm summer day.
Ok, so it’s winter and there’s three feet of snow outside. That doesn’t mean you can jump out onto a diamond and get in a few innings. Thanks to Netamin and Ultimate Baseball Online, you can do just that.
This is a different type of game, one that puts numerous players on the baseball diamond and asks players to work together in a massively multiplayer setting. You control one player – and position, field, pitch, or bat just as you would if you were actually playing a game.
This is a new entry into the world of MMPs (Massively Multiplayer games), but one that is rather amazing to look at and addicting to boot.
GameZone.com took a seat in the dugout and talked with Gabriel Law, Product Marketing Manager & Producer of Ultimate Baseball Online, about this concept.
Question: This title is extremely innovative in terms of community gameplay. What prompted taking a sports game in this direction? While it seems like a perfect fit for baseball, still much will be based on community support. What have you seen from the testers involved in terms of the addictive nature of the game play?
Gabriel: The founders of Netamin have always believed that MMO games would be the next big direction for the gaming industry, and character ownership and a sense of community are the two key elements for a successful MMO game. No other genre can provide a better to these two criteria than sports. Also, we just wanted to do something really extraordinary, something that no one had tried before. We want to enable gamers around the world to become virtual sportsman. As far as UBO being addictive, I think that was validated as a truism when once I worked till 3 AM and two games were going on. If you like baseball, you cannot get away from UBO.
Q: What deals, that you can speak of, are in the works to give this game more visual oomph? (this is in relationship to billboards on the ballpark walls?
Gabriel: To begin with, we need to make proper use of the billboards in the stadiums, whether by renting them out or posting real life sports news/scores in ticker manner. Some players have had a chance to see a patch that brings in more popup fly ball, diving/jumping catch as well as sliding to bases.
Q: The leveling skills seems very straightforward. Will players be invited to join leagues or will they have to search them out? Is this a minor league system in which players can be cut from league teams, or is moving around all voluntary?
Gabriel: Players would have to look their own schedule to determine whether they can commit to play in a league. As such, they would have to search out a team/division that fit their schedule. Players as well as team manager can independently decide on personnel move: players can quit any time and manager can let go/recruit any time.
Q: What kind of tournaments will players be able to take part in?
Gabriel: Aside from the post-season play, Netamin will host special league champion tournament in the off-season. All sort of other tournaments will be available: all-lefties, players within a specific range of experience points, ladies tournament etc.
Q: What will be the charge for the service? When will it be ready for the general public?
Gabriel: Our subscription rate will be comparable to the rest of the MMOG market. UBO is expected to launch in Q1 2004.
Q: Can you explain just a bit about how you brought all this to life? With so many players able to position players in relationship to how the pitcher is throwing, or whether the batter is left-handed or right handed, does this still come done to statistics (probability) or is each pitch or swing at the plate creating its own unique values outside of the general formula for programming a sports game?
Gabriel: Just like in real life baseball, it is a bit of both. Characters in UBO have certain parameter attributes that define which result (making a hit, failing to steal base, striking out etc) each action will bring; these are unique values. At the same time, another tier of attributes (we call it skill points) decides on the outcome of the play purely by probability: 2% more chances on getting a full power/contact hit, 5% more likely the hit will result in shorter distance and a groundball etc. Our Principal Baseball Consultant, MLB All-Star Darrell Evans, has been particularly helpful in aiding us on the probability/unique values structure.
Q: What kind of graphics engine is this using?
Gabriel: This is proprietary engine custom-made to obtain optimal performance on 3D sports action under a network setting.
Q: What kind of servers will be online and what will be the load capacity of simultaneous users?
Gabriel: We foresee one set of servers can easily handle more than 10k players simultaneously. One of the servers concerns statistics collection and compilation, so all players can check (or show off!) their performance on UBO website.
Q: What aspect of creating this title has proved to have the highest challenge?
Gabriel: The toughest challenge is to deal with internet latency. Because the ball moves so fast in game - it takes less than 0.25 sec for the ball to get past the batter and be caught by the catcher - we need to make sure everything is sync up despite the latency.
Q: It seems that this game will have a built-in fan base, but what elements do you think will appeal to a broader community?
Gabriel: Having more flexibility to build their own leagues and divisions (private league) will be extremely enticing to the general baseball/softball community.
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