In response to GameSpot News readers wanting to know the latest on what is commonly referred to as the Ultima Online lawsuit (the class action suit brought by a group of gamers represented by San Diego attorney George Schultz), we have obtained - from Schultz - the most recent set of documents presented by either of the two sides.

　　The documents, which will be available to the public through the records department of the Superior Court in approximately two weeks, are the two sets of interrogatories presented by attorneys representing Electronic Arts Inc. and Origin Systems Inc. The questions were presented to the gamers suing those companies. (See the adjacent Related Links for background stories on the lawsuit.)

　　On June 17, 18, and 19, attorneys and various employees of Fenwick & West, the Palo Alto, Calif., law firm representing both the Ultima Online developer and publisher, traveled to San Diego to secure depositions of some of the plaintiffs Schultz represents.

　　While GameSpot plays no role in determining the validity of the plaintiffs' complaints against EA and OSI, we remain curious as to the extent to which both sides are pressing their cases.

　　What follows is a subset of the 131 requests and interrogatories presented to the group of plaintiffs. The goal seems obvious: to require the plaintiffs to document their complaints and, in general, substantiate their claims against EA and OSI of intentional misrepresentation, breach of contract, and negligence, among others (contained in a complaint filed last April 16 in Superior Court of California, San Diego County).

　　If nothing else, the requests and interrogatories should alert gamers to the extent a company such as Electronic Arts will go to protect the integrity of its product and what it requires of gamers to substantiate claims of wrongdoing.

　　To all the attorneys, all the stenographers, the judges, gamers, and plain folks who like to stand on the sidelines and watch as a good fight continues, here are just a few of the 131 requests EA is making of the above-mentioned plaintiffs:

　　All documents sufficient to identify any other online games that You have played in the last three years.

　　All documents sufficient to identify any fantasy or adventure software games that You have played in the last three years

　　All documents sufficient to identify periodicals to which You subscribe which have discussed online games or fantasy or adventure games.

　　All documents concerning the names of characters You created or played in the Ultima Online game.

　　All documents concerning any names, pseudonyms, avatars, or nick names You have employed in the last three years.

　　All documents sufficient to identify each and every electronic forum in which You have participated in the last two years (including all such chat rooms, bulletin boards, discussion groups, use groups list servers, etc.).

　　All documents constituting your phone bills for the past two years

　　All documents reflecting any telephone number assigned to You or repeatedly used by You in the last two years.

　　A print out of the directory of the hard drive of each computer on which Plaintiff installed Ultima Online that shows all files, including subdirectories, if any, present on that hard drive.

　　A print out of the directory of each disk that Plaintiff used with Ultima Online that shows all files, including subdirectories, if any, present on said disk (s).

　　Identify all software running on your COMPUTER SYSTEM each time you experienced "lag," as described in paragraph 29 of the First Amended Complaint, while playing Ultima Online on that COMPUTER SYSTEM.

　　State the amount of uncompressed disk space available on the COMPUTER SYSTEM each time you experienced "lag," as described in paragraph 29 of the First Amended Complaint while playing Ultima Online.

　　DESCRIBE each and every "crash" you experienced as alleged in paragraph 30 of the First Amended Complaint.

　　Describe all COMPUTER GAMES played by you from January 1, 1990 to the present.

　　Describe all multi-player online games which you have played since January 1, 1990.