Tough Love: An Open Letter to Broadsword, Mythic, EA, OSI

[Grazz't1970]

If this is the case then on the same token as praise they deserve blame when things go poorly. Which appears more often than not. Making excuses and enabling is a bad road to go down. An attaboy for a bad job isn't constructive or required. But if u choose to do so then the opposite is also allowable.

 

[GarthGrey]

If this is the case then on the same token as praise they deserve blame when things go poorly. Which appears more often than not. Making excuses and enabling is a bad road to go down. An attaboy for a bad job isn't constructive or required. But if u choose to do so then the opposite is also allowable.

Oh no no, you're only allowed to praise them here, you are NOT allowed to blame them , because that's being snotty.

 

[Belmarduk]

I agree with the sentiment, but as a developer myself, it would seem the cause of most of your complaints.... art for example is really all consequence of "how do we continue develop a slowly dying and very old software product and still make a profit"

how many programmers, Q&A testers and artists do you think this game can actually afford? 1 programmer = 70k a min. let's say everyone is averaging 60k. If the UO team is only 5 people(for example) that's over 300,000 k of the budget just in those 5 people.

of course bods are kinda broken. because with a small team, doing the bulk of the work, push it out and fixing the issues later is the only way it gets done. We may not like it but let's look at the state of the game using a lens of reality

Ok - and why the *****!!!!&$!! dont they (EA) get the game on Steam to try to get more Players again = more income = bigger dev-Team possible ?????
Everything they (EA) did the last 15 years has been bad for the game - they either dont react or react much too late...
Why dont they just sell the game to a Company who really would do something for UO ?

 

[Nexus]

Ok - and why the *****!!!!&$!! dont they (EA) get the game on Steam to try to get more Players again = more income = bigger dev-Team possible ?????
Everything they (EA) did the last 15 years has been bad for the game - they either dont react or react much too late...
Why dont they just sell the game to a Company who really would do something for UO ?

EA and Valve don't have what you'd call a good relationship. A number of years back EA said they wouldn't put anymore games on Steam, instead they were going to go exclusively to the Origin platform.

 

[Meltedmantis]

Ok - and why the *****!!!!&$!! dont they (EA) get the game on Steam to try to get more Players again = more income = bigger dev-Team possible ?????
Everything they (EA) did the last 15 years has been bad for the game - they either dont react or react much too late...
Why dont they just sell the game to a Company who really would do something for UO ?

The simple answer is that EA has "origin", a competing product with steam.
Maybe if EA ever decides to drop origin? I have a feeling EA keep broadswords hands tied on many issues. One also wonders how much of the budget EA takes as it's cut.

 

[The Craftsman]

One also wonders how much of the budget EA takes as it's cut.

I would suspect EA take every single cent UO generates, and broadsword are simply sub-contracted by EA to run the game, on a fixed contract. If broadsword wanted to double its staff to work on UO theres nothing to stop it doing so, other than they tendered the lowest bid they could to get the contract and therefore cannot afford it.

 

[Belmarduk]

I just wonder why it was then announced and then green-lit by Steam
Typical EA - Start something and then stop half-finished...

 

[Picus at the office]

Steam won't save this game, we might see short term growth but the issues are still here. As I've said for AGES we need people who play this game for a few hours a week to be the same people who design it.

Why did UO work in the first place, the team played and enjoyed it thus they could see issues. It wasn't perfect but it was reactionary to the issues needed with a thought of how would this work in a players hand.

It wasn't perfect.

 

[MalagAste]

Steam won't save this game, we might see short term growth but the issues are still here. As I've said for AGES we need people who play this game for a few hours a week to be the same people who design it.

Why did UO work in the first place, the team played and enjoyed it thus they could see issues. It wasn't perfect but it was reactionary to the issues needed with a thought of how would this work in a players hand.

It wasn't perfect.

Fairly sure that Kyronix still plays...

I'm not sure Mesanna ever really played and I'm pretty sure Misk has no clue... I think Mesanna dabbled in stuff... Bleak... if he does play only plays in the CC as if he REALLY played in the EC he'd fix so much of what's wrong with it.... The art guy hasn't looked at UO a day in his life and obviously this is just a paycheck for him.... since he obviously could care less how hideous his art is compared to what we have in UO... and if any of them really play they don't go to Nu'jelm ... they don't play in the EC and they don't do any of the content they put in ...... save maybe Kyronix... My guess is Bleak still tries to PvP or PK.

 

[Uriah Heep]

and if any of them really play they don't go to Nu'jelm ...

I wish they would get that seedbox out of the garden!

 

[cazador]

Reading these posts always make me remember why there's such a big free shard player base...the shards should have been integrated not merged years ago..now you have 20+ shards where u can run around for an hour and not see one person. Pretty sad...


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[StressBall]

Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Wonder what song Mesanna was playing at the idoc

 

[Lady Mal]

The artist, I would have fired a long time ago. Some of the art he does, looks fine but the continuous errors would have led me to help him find something more suitable.

They did fire the good one.. GrimmOmen. They replaced him with, I assume whoever we have now. It's laughable. I love the "concept' of the new vet rewards- bbq smoker and alchemy station.. but they are some cartoonish looking items. Seriously.

 

[DifferenceDifference]

I agree with the sentiment, but as a developer myself, it would seem the cause of most of your complaints.... art for example is really all consequence of "how do we continue develop a slowly dying and very old software product and still make a profit"

I think it's the whales. A whale might be someone with 10 and maybe up to 150 (?) accounts active. And probably constantly buying those coin things from the Origin store.

 

[cazador]

Player art submissssssssions!! How dumbed down do we have to be! 2D>3ishD rendering is very easy! Perspective in UO art design is easy, it was designed in 1995-1996 soo I mean!!


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[Uvtha]

I agree with the sentiment, but as a developer myself, it would seem the cause of most of your complaints.... art for example is really all consequence of "how do we continue develop a slowly dying and very old software product and still make a profit"

how many programmers, Q&A testers and artists do you think this game can actually afford? 1 programmer = 70k a min. let's say everyone is averaging 60k. If the UO team is only 5 people(for example) that's over 300,000 k of the budget just in those 5 people.

of course bods are kinda broken. because with a small team, doing the bulk of the work, push it out and fixing the issues later is the only way it gets done. We may not like it but let's look at the state of the game using a lens of reality

In terms of art 99% of all the art is just static or with some limited animation, nothing that one artist can't handle. The current artist is very inconsistent. Some pieces are decent looking and fit the world fairly well, while others are sloppy, and look completely alien in game due to resolution, pallet choice, and simple style. I think they need to find someone with a better grasp of a simple retro aesthetic, and or to change the way they add art into the game if that is causing some of the issues I see.

 

[Uvtha]

Player art submissssssssions!! How dumbed down do we have to be! 2D>3ishD rendering is very easy! Perspective in UO art design is easy, it was designed in 1995-1996 soo I mean!!


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Just because it's old doesn't mean it's easy. The number of players who could make art of high enough quality to be added to game are probably exceedingly small, as you would need to be either a professional artist or a very practiced amature.

I've been saying for years this game needs someone who's an experienced pixel artist helming the art. UO's resolution is so low that you really have to go in and do pixel work for things to look "right".

 

[koris]

Yes. Why did they get rid of Grimm?

 

[MalagAste]

Yes. Why did they get rid of Grimm?

Because he didn't live in Virginia ...

 

[Uriah Heep]

Someday we will live in a technological age where networks and video chats and remote logins and access are invented, and then good workers can live anywhere and do a job!