Ok, Sannio posted a nice summary of this issue on our
Announcements and Reminders board.
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Sannio
(Community Relations, Origin Systems)
01/27/04 08:39 AM
Is it appropriate for players to change their UO files?
Every so often we get asked if it’s acceptable to tweak Ultima Online’s game files—one player asks if he can make his game map to look different, another asks if she can see the latest monsters without having to buy the expansion, and a third person wonders if his own custom artwork can be displayed while playing. We’ve seen a small resurgence of such questions lately—via board posts, private message, e-mails, etc.—and we wanted to share the following word of caution.
The answer to pretty much all of these types of questions would have to be the same: We would consider editing the client files to be inappropriate, even if the effect of those changes exists only on the computer of the person who edited the files.
There’s an important paragraph in UO’s Terms of Service that relates to altering your UO files, under the “5. Rights and Responsibilities” section:
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(d) Official Service. Ultima Online has been designed by EA.com for play only on the Service. The Software is licensed to you for play on the Service only. EA.comdoes not grant you a license to use the Software for any other purpose. You agree to play Ultima Online only on the Service and not through any other means. You further agree not to create or provide any other means through which Ultima Online may be played by others - for example, through server emulators. You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the Software, including any proprietary communications protocol used by the Software. You acknowledge that you do not have the right to create, publish, distribute, create derivative works from or use any software programs, utilities, applications, emulators or tools derived from or created for Ultima Online unless specifically authorized in writing by EA.com.
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Even if the changes the player was asking about had no immediately obvious (combat) advantage, our official stance would still be that if we learned that a player was implementing such changes then it is possible we would bring action against their account(s). (Each circumstance would be examined on a case-by-case basis and the type of action, if any, would be determined by our Customer Service/GM staff only after that investigation was complete. Could such file-tweaks be enough to get you banned? They could be—please don’t risk your account trying to find out.)
The only exception to changing imagery/appearances would be if the player was somehow instructed or authorized by an OSI staffmember to do so, or through the use of UOAssist's "View Yourself As" feature (letting your own character appear as a chicken, dragon, etc.).
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Keith "Sannio" Quinn
Community Relations
Ultima Online (
www.uo.com)
Origin Systems
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