THE LATEST FROM ORIGIN STATE UNIVERSITY [Author: Lum the Mad]

Apparently OSI is resigned to losing Paul Sage and Kirk Black now; in an interview with Gamespy Rick Hall, UO’s Producer, confirms their departure and assures us that yes, some people still actually come to work every day for UO. Other interesting tidbits include the fact that over 80% of UO’s population sits in Trammel. He also describes in some detail the workings of the “scenarios” that Jon “Calandryll” Hanna’s team has been toiling away at.

One of the improvements that is coming soon is a global event system which will allow for serialized fiction, stories arching over a period of time, which they can use to introduce new storylines, new monsters, new equipment, etc. Each cycle will last about 8 weeks, then another cycle will begin after that. It will even be possible to have different outcomes to the storylines per shard and world, although it doesn’t sound like the branching stories will be long lasting. It seems as though once a new cycle starts, all shards and worlds will begin at the same place once more.

I also caught up with both Paul Sage and Kirk Black while at E3. While neither were ready to go on the record as to their final destination, they both insisted that their leaving Origin was basically due to a desire to move on to other things and not a reflection upon OSI. Paul Sage also told me that his wife Amy “Cynthe” Sage, who works with Leilo and Melantus in the Community Relations division, has no plans to leave her current position.