NEWS Developer Meet and Greet Transcript ~ Origin Shard 1/11/16

[BrianFreud]

season 13 (2015) - 301 items, 2 Mesanna named
season 12 (2014) - 319 items, 6 Mesanna named
season 11 -(2013) - 308 items, 5 Mesanna named
season 10 - (2012) - 448 items, 22 Mesanna named
season 09 - (2011) - 430 items, 25 Mesanna named
season 08 - (2010) - 1016 items, 29 Mesanna named

I'm not double checking those counts, though I can say 2010's list/count is actually low by a couple hundred. But when you look at it, don't ignore the number of different items, but also look at the quantity as well. 2010 was the most fun year for EM items - a ton of those are easter eggs and carrots, all made up by hand by EMs, and with more than a little shard-specific humor. If you'd included 2009's numbers, the dropoff would be even more clear, with at least a few hundred solstice stag items alone. Now we've had two years without the EMs doing an Easter or Christmas event at all.

On the Mesanna end, 2010-2012 had Mesanna tour items, almost all uniques. The non-tour items in those counts have pretty well all been lanterns and other roulette-style items.

 

[Lord Bishop]

I was wondering how many of you knew that all jewelry could not be powdered?
Have any of you noticed the loot change to the unbound ev.

 

[Longtooths]

Absolute nonsense. The game's producers decide what to offer and how much to charge for it, they decide how long it should take a house to fall, and the only input a customer has is to either pay money or not. There is literally zero potential for dishonesty here. You put in your money and you get what they give you.

There is a flip side. They can also change this without telling anyone and everyone would lose their houses. That being well within the guidelines, you of course would be ok with that, no?

 

[TimberWolf]

or we could do reduction of 90 day time to 30 and the house is locked out until account is reactivated or it falls on day 30. Now that is fair and consistent. Even for our service members serving abroad.

 

[Spock's Beard]

There is a flip side. They can also change this without telling anyone and everyone would lose their houses. That being well within the guidelines, you of course would be ok with that, no?

Changing the house decay rules in secret and then sitting back and cackling as the forum fills up with "OMG WTF IS GOING ON" posts would be actual dishonesty, but only because of the secrecy, not because of the rule change.

Leaving aside that lame red herring, the people in charge of UO are perfectly entitled to change the terms of their offer and close this little "loophole" any time they happen to feel like doing so. But they haven't, and this has been the status quo for years. Broadsword knows perfectly well that they're selling 30 days of account access and 90 days of house security for $12.99 and apparently they like it that way.

 

[Kirthag]

Besides you get an email when your account time is up.

No. No you don't. Sorry, have to disagree there. Yes, my email is confirmed, accurate and accessible.
I don't play the 90-day thing anymore (used to) - but I would NEVER get an email until the accounts actually closed - and that has only happened ONCE (otherwise I wouldn't have lost my rares-house on Napa). No warning, no "... your account expires in 7 days..." like other EA games I used to subscribe to. I'd see nada until *poof* done. THEN I get a, "... your account is closed..." notice. And lord forbid - I really don't check my emails every day (the beach is rather tempting) so it might be a week or so until I actually SEE the notice.

Now, considering I use GTCs to pay for my accounts - and those are bought via the Origin store using EA credits (for no, I will never again submit a CC to a the "Mythic" website - note: Update the site, the code, and the commerce! that is another tangent I could get into - being a developer of ecommerce systems ) - I would greatly appreciate at minimum a 7 day warning so I can skip on over to wally-world and scour the gaming section for the ever increasingly rare EA cards. Even an in-game admin message that appears upon login (much like the vet reward notice does) would be an awesome way for people to remember....

 

[Assia Penryn]

Are dead people complaining a lot or what?

I meant death of someone close to the player, not the player themselves. *smiles* I know UO would be the last thing on my mind if someone close passed, particularly if it was immediate family and I was in charge of arrangements and the aftermath.

If it was the player who died... they'd probably be playing "Organ Trail" (Which is hilarious)