The UO Crossroads...Continue

[donjn]

I dont know if it's just me, but UO has been at a crossroads for quite some time now. It seems like years. I am a long time player who just came back and confusion lurks. I submit the following 10 questions....

By the way I absolutely hate it when people make names of things with days of the week. It has always seemed like a low IQ thing to do. Did McDonald's start this back in 1998 with "Cheeseburger Tuesdays" and "Chicken McNugget Fridays"? Gosh, it is just so stupid. Anyways, rant over, I will give in..

Consider this a "Ten on Tuesday"

1. If the UO population is so low now, home come there are still houses in all the good spots?


2. How long can the game continue with dual clients? It seems that EA is afraid if they make the game KR only, they will lose an audience. But in 2008, 2D looks brutal on a nice, widescreen 22" monitor, stuck in tiny, 800 x 600 game window resolution.


3. Is Stygian Abyss coming out or what? We have not heard a thing in a long time.


4. How come old bugs are still there in KR? Right click looting sometimes does not work and sometimes you lose the ability to click and drag anything. It's been a year. What is going on? Why no fix? Why give us the option for legacy artwork? WE WANT LEGACY INTERFACE with KR artwork, not the other way around.


5. Jeremy has been more quiet of late. Why?


6. Every year, this game had a boxed set you could buy in the stores. So the 10th anniversary comes, and what do we get? Nothing. No boxed version. No map. A download of KR. Are boxed versions a thing of the past? How can the game thrive without them?


7. The "dupe" crackdown. Interesting thing here. I wonder if EA was doing this too see what percentage this would effect. And if it effected "X" percentage, it would be goodbye UO. Also, the lack of communication regarding people accidently buying duped items and getting banned was brutal. Not really a question..


8. "Five on Friday" questions. Who asks these questions? They are submitted in question format. Do the DEVs submit the questions to themselves? Some of these questions are as "softball" as a Barbara Walters interview. How about some serious questions about the future?


9. Why is the game still $12.95 a month? Can EA actually justify a price that is so close to Warhammer, World of Warcraft, and all the other MMO's which offer more polish and gameplay for this century?



10. Has Mythic entertained the idea of a dual subscription? Warhammer and UO for $19.99? Would be pretty nice.

 

[Uriah Heep]

All will be revealed Saturday afternoon in Seattle, Haven't ya heard?

Just be patient 4 more days!

 

[donjn]

All will be revealed Saturday afternoon in Seattle, Haven't ya heard?

Just be patient 4 more days!

I thought there was just something in San Diego a month ago where all would be revealed? Or a couple months ago, or last year???

Do you really think any of these questions will be addressed?

They will say just enough to keep you subscribed..

 

[Kaj]

I dont know if it's just me, but UO has been at a crossroads for quite some time now. It seems like years. I am a long time player who just came back and confusion lurks. I submit the following 10 questions....

By the way I absolutely hate it when people make names of things with days of the week. It has always seemed like a low IQ thing to do. Did McDonald's start this back in 1998 with "Cheeseburger Tuesdays" and "Chicken McNugget Fridays"? Gosh, it is just so stupid. Anyways, rant over, I will give in..

Consider this a "Ten on Tuesday"

1. If the UO population is so low now, home come there are still houses in all the good spots?
Partially because UO is not completely empty. I have 7 accounts and I know many others that have as many accounts. As long as there are ten thousands of players, the nice spots will still be taken. Also some houses are held by closed accounts (90 days decay).


2. How long can the game continue with dual clients? It seems that EA is afraid if they make the game KR only, they will lose an audience. But in 2008, 2D looks brutal on a nice, widescreen 22" monitor, stuck in tiny, 800 x 600 game window resolution.
Try KR. KR has more resolution options, ergo EA has anticipated a new generation of PCs. 2D is just very dated, and most likely limited in its options. I personally run a 2x 22" set up, so I face similar problems, but still 2D aint too bad. .


3. Is Stygian Abyss coming out or what? We have not heard a thing in a long time.


4. How come old bugs are still there in KR? Right click looting sometimes does not work and sometimes you lose the ability to click and drag anything. It's been a year. What is going on? Why no fix? Why give us the option for legacy artwork? WE WANT LEGACY INTERFACE with KR artwork, not the other way around.


5. Jeremy has been more quiet of late. Why?
Perchance she's been busy? Or there just haven't been issues she could comment on. She's limited to what her jobs allows her to do.


6. Every year, this game had a boxed set you could buy in the stores. So the 10th anniversary comes, and what do we get? Nothing. No boxed version. No map. A download of KR. Are boxed versions a thing of the past? How can the game thrive without them?


7. The "dupe" crackdown. Interesting thing here. I wonder if EA was doing this too see what percentage this would effect. And if it effected "X" percentage, it would be goodbye UO. Also, the lack of communication regarding people accidently buying duped items and getting banned was brutal. Not really a question..
Note that around 150 accounts were banned. Most of those you do not hear. There's maybe a handful that you've heard commenting here about being unrightfully banned. Whether they were is not for me to decide.
EA has a privacy policy (which is a good thing) where they do not discuss private things publicly.
Out of the 400-500 people in UO I (occasionally) talk to, 3 were banned. This does not mean it was an all out banning spree and that the communication has been poor for all.


8. "Five on Friday" questions. Who asks these questions? They are submitted in question format. Do the DEVs submit the questions to themselves? Some of these questions are as "softball" as a Barbara Walters interview. How about some serious questions about the future?
This has been discussed before. If you do a little research (e.g. reading old FoF's) you will get the answer to these questions.


9. Why is the game still $12.95 a month? Can EA actually justify a price that is so close to Warhammer, World of Warcraft, and all the other MMO's which offer more polish and gameplay for this century?
No old MMORPG has actually drastically dropped his prices, rather the free ones stayed (partially) free. And I doubt the price has truly significantly influenced the amount of players, rather only the new subscriptions. But if you are looking for WoW, you will not be playing UO. UO targets a different market, so I doubt they will drop prices any time soon.


10. Has Mythic entertained the idea of a dual subscription? Warhammer and UO for $19.99? Would be pretty nice.
I doubt it. They target different crowds and UO isn't considered a serious brother to Warhammer, judging by the fact that UO isn't even mentioned on the Mythic site.

There you go.

 

[ravenwaves]

...UO isn't even mention on the Mythic Site.

Yeah, UO is sort of like the crazed senile old uncle in the Mythic Family that you don't want company to see

 

[Uriah Heep]

Note that around 150 accounts were banned.

I would love to note that. But I never saw that number posted anywhere by anyone who should know. And everytime I ask "Where did that number come from" it's *crickets*

So again I say, where is the source?

 

[Kaj]

I would love to note that. But I never saw that number posted anywhere by anyone who should know. And everytime I ask "Where did that number come from" it's *crickets*

So again I say, where is the source?

*sigh*

08-12-2008, 09:25 PM #7

Jeremy_EAMythic

UO Community Coordinator

Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 144

Re: Recent bannings: A casual players concern
It was about 150 accounts, all told. Not a terribly large-scale ban in the grand scheme of things.

__________________
E. Jeremy Dalberg, Mythic Entertainment www.uoherald.com

Source: http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=797061&postcount=7. I have reason to lie about these sort of things.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Finally !!!

And no, not calling anyone a liar bro, It's just that I have seen that number tossed out and no one could ever tell me where it came from. Can't believe I didnt see that post, but then again, there were so many at the time, who could read em all?

Thanks!

 

[Kaj]

Finally !!!

And no, not calling anyone a liar bro, It's just that I have seen that number tossed out and no one could ever tell me where it came from. Can't believe I didnt see that post, but then again, there were so many at the time, who could read em all?

Thanks!

*smiles*
No worries! Just trying to help!

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

Uriah, at work in the last week I have stated "Google is thy friend" to folks when they want to know how come I found out about a) a little known branch of the company, b) who the Federal Investigative Service is, c) how a nuclear power plant is good for endangered species.

Try using the search function on these forums ... it takes some getting used to with the right phrasing to search on, but it can return all you ask for and more. I'm just now getting pretty good at it! **smile**

 

[Uriah Heep]

I'm trying, but it seems I either get nothing, or 1,111 hits *laughs*
but, I'm getting better

 

[drawn]

The only reason that UO is still around is because of its unique play style - skill based leveling vs lvl based grinding, pvp engine, crafting, player owned housing and most importantly - the average age of each player! I left UO about 1+yrs ago to pursue some "pretty" MMO's as well as WoW. After the initial luster wore off with the pretty graphics and animations the games became a complete grind fest. Funny thing, I actually bumped into an old Developer from UO "Ando" in one of the games as well as a few different players from UO. We all said the same thing, nothing can compare to UO. For my $, I will take the bugs, the outdated graphics, the scripters (surprise surprise! they are in EVERY mmorpg) within UO as long as they keep the servers open. The only reason in my opinion that EA keeps the servers online is because of us. So to all members of the UO community both new and veteran players give yourselves a huge pat on the back for keeping this game going for 10+ yrs!

 

[Sebrina]

The only reason that UO is still around is because of its unique play style - skill based leveling vs lvl based grinding, pvp engine, crafting, player owned housing and most importantly - the average age of each player! I left UO about 1+yrs ago to pursue some "pretty" MMO's as well as WoW. After the initial luster wore off with the pretty graphics and animations the games became a complete grind fest. Funny thing, I actually bumped into an old Developer from UO "Ando" in one of the games as well as a few different players from UO. We all said the same thing, nothing can compare to UO. For my $, I will take the bugs, the outdated graphics, the scripters (surprise surprise! they are in EVERY mmorpg) within UO as long as they keep the servers open. The only reason in my opinion that EA keeps the servers online is because of us. So to all members of the UO community both new and veteran players give yourselves a huge pat on the back for keeping this game going for 10+ yrs!

Well said! *shoots off a fireworks wand*

 

[donjn]

The only reason that UO is still around is because of its unique play style - skill based leveling vs lvl based grinding, pvp engine, crafting, player owned housing and most importantly - the average age of each player! I left UO about 1+yrs ago to pursue some "pretty" MMO's as well as WoW. After the initial luster wore off with the pretty graphics and animations the games became a complete grind fest. Funny thing, I actually bumped into an old Developer from UO "Ando" in one of the games as well as a few different players from UO. We all said the same thing, nothing can compare to UO. For my $, I will take the bugs, the outdated graphics, the scripters (surprise surprise! they are in EVERY mmorpg) within UO as long as they keep the servers open. The only reason in my opinion that EA keeps the servers online is because of us. So to all members of the UO community both new and veteran players give yourselves a huge pat on the back for keeping this game going for 10+ yrs!

While I appreciate the spirit of your post, it's your never say die attitude that makes companies rest on their laurels. How can they ever or why would they ever improve their product when they have such a core audience like yourself? Why improve? You seem so content.

 

[Harb]

While I appreciate the spirit of your post, it's your never say die attitude that makes companies rest on their laurels. How can they ever or why would they ever improve their product when they have such a core audience like yourself? Why improve? You seem so content.

It's not so much a spirit of contentment, for me it's more a sense of commitment. I've been in UO since pre-launch; it's the only game I've played since. Without a competitor that offers the same depth, complexities and player maturity, UO may well be the last game I’ll play. I’ve never in fact been content, often disappointed by what was and could be done with the game vice what has been done. I get as aggravated as anyone with all the “boo-boos,” but again, don’t see a competitor for what UO does offer.

For those of us around since the beginning, we all remember the difficulties encountered with the early player base. Over time, it has become much more mature. Older players have entered the game, gender demographics have changed (time was 90% of female characters were male players, now wholly reversed), many of us have aged (I began at 38, and turn 50 this year), and even some of the early “trouble-makers” that stuck around left adolescence for adulthood. I really don’t want to relive those early days in any gaming environment - regardless of “wow” factor or a sense of “freshness.” And let’s not forget international appeal, another aspect of continuing “pioneering” into various market potential that UO seems uniquely focused upon.

I don’t think the sense of belonging and commitment should be ignored by EA, there really are no laurels for them to rest upon. Perceived lack of commitment on their part has contributed to diminished subscriptions. Complacency may remove the retained demographic completely from the market. This would constitute a major loss both for EA and the industry. Not to be snide, but there is large potential for revenue within this demographic, in all likelihood the largest per capita potential of all. In this regard, UO remains an experiment, as it has been from the beginning.

To be fair, yes, I’m a “never say die” guy. But I’m equally, probably more so, a “who dares wins” guy. I’d also like to see more of the latter from EA.