Ultima X: Odyssey Designer Diary #1

Origin's Jon "Calandryll" Hanna has written a new designer diary on GameSpot, in which he talks about making Ultima X: Odyssey different from other MMORPGs. A snippet:
UXO's experience point system is designed to let you group with your friends, regardless of your level difference. If your friends like to play 40 hours a week, and you can play only 10 hours a week, you may fall behind them in terms of character advancement. But despite that, you should still be able to group with them regardless of how advanced they are or how inexperienced your character is. So even if your friend has a character that is virtually "maxed out," and you just created your character five minutes ago, you can group and play together. If this means your new character will advance a little faster (a practice that is commonly called "twinking"), that doesn't bother us one bit. In fact, the sooner you get some levels under your belt, the more your character can contribute to the battles. That's a good thing.