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Like the Spring event, hope it starts soon
Sounds like they're going to release NL with no run-up or demos. It looks like Pawain will get his wish that it's a mystery box. Mystery boxes never end well in SDLC, which normally indicates they're hiding subpar functionality and user experience. Still, they've committed to an anniversary release date, what is that? September? We'll see if that timeline holds.
Who is taking the over that NL doesn’t release in September?
Anyone else feel there is a missed opportunity to showcase the “potential” of something that has been in the works for years…? Maybe they have something up their sleeves - or am I being “naive”?
I’ll remain optimistic - but hopefully the reality isn't disappointment.
Anyone else feel there is a missed opportunity to showcase the “potential” of something that has been in the works for years…? Maybe they have something up their sleeves - or am I being “naive”?
I’ll remain optimistic - but hopefully the reality isn't disappointment.
There will be an open Beta. We will all be able to see the new mechanics. Then when it is released there will be a novel written about how everyone but the antagonist has max skills a few hours after it opens.
The complainers will complain when it opens so any new players will not even join because of how horrible the few posters I could name now will say NL is. Self fulfilling prophecy.
Will there be a raffle stone for LS Stygian Abyss dungeon house?
The House in the East Area (Stygian Dragon half) has fallen. Its always sad to see a free spot. Thoose dungeon drop-ins are worth to be preserve.
forum.uo.com
I think Vic initiated both by Emailing Mesanna.
No, the newsletter is clear about that. Don't sign up for something you don't really want.
originally the abyss houses were added o the acct and grandfathered, typical Mesanna anti player action here to do what SHE wants and NOT of the good of the player base.
The Auction safe comment was a result o fly asking of help, I bought a house with 60+ safes that did not transfer, her "help" was to have the safe deleted. 100% out of touch with the players that woman is
When she realises that she works for the players and is not the master of she will be out of a job
The Auction safe comment was a result o fly asking of help, I bought a house with 60+ safes that did not transfer, her "help" was to have the safe deleted. 100% out of touch with the players that woman is
When she realises that she works for the players and is not the master of she will be out of a job
The first raffle stone Was on gl. I dunno if the stone on ls, which is a demon statue at the moongate, is or was active.
on gl is a plot in the abyss owned by Mesanna.
I believe you are mistaken in that. The houses were NOT grandfathered, it's one reason I didn't even try for one. With the help of the wayback machine I managed to find this:
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Or create some type of public transporter tile that can be linked directly to the area where those Abyss houses are locked down - something an EM/GM could place somewhere like in Luna / Britain (or maybe Royal City would be most appropriate). Maybe require some quest to be completed in order to be able to use it.
"Open Beta" suggest anyone would be able to play and that's just not true (like half the other nonsense you post). It's not an open beta at all, if you read the newsletter you would see people have to sign up. The last time there was a signup was for Alpha which only X people were selected.
I think every UO vet knows that there are plenty of things in the game (some still in the game today) that are not intuitive and many things do not function the same way when trying to do a similar task. I don't see this as an overt issue because maybe there is intention in the function of those things. Where the issue comes into play is when the Dev team isn't present/responsive about the functionality (ie providing a demo) and people become frustrated because they aren't sure if they are doing something wrong or if something is broken.
- Perfect example is how the summoned mounts worked (ie proxy) before the fix was made. The mounts suddenly would poof and people aren't sure if it's something they did or a glitch... they go to the official forums to post their problem and some bozo gives a smartass reply of "well I've never had that happened to me so obviously you are doing something wrong". Months later when the Dev team gets around to it they determine it was indeed a glitch. Oooops guess that complaint was legit... too bad they quit playing over it.
What's the return on investment going to be on a free shard
I think this is a key point here. Yes, some people will complain no matter what; that's just the nature of any user base. However, the average player will not get out the torch and pitchfork if there is clarity on how certain features and functionality work. They may not like how it works and provide feedback, but they're going into it with the correct expectations. With no expectations set, the user will apply how they "feel" it should work to the situation and become extremely angry when it doesn't perform how they think it should.
This used to be the case. I have a rune to Tye's abyss house on Pac, but it doesn't work anymorei wish they would just let us recall into those 2 housing spots in the abyss problem solved
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If you read what he said and what you're quoting you'd see he said there will be an open beta, not this is an open beta.
Take any new development as a gift, and play the game as you enjoy it. If you no longer enjoy it - quit, its your only power as a consumer.
This attitude is why we have a poor level of communication and accountability for a service that the players are paying for. You are correct; quitting is the ultimate power we have as consumers, but at the same time, they don't get a pass on being stewards of the game.
There was a brief open beta period for Stygian Abyss that occurred after the "closed" beta period (i.e., the beta period that required you to sign up). There was no signup requirement for the open beta. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a short open beta period for NL. I think it helped generate some good excitement for SA.
Again i ask previous expansions were paid for now we have invested 5 years in something free how will this help UO
The game is old. Not only that but it comes from a time and a company that famously mismanaged their code. Every time it has changed hands to a new team the process of onboarding, decrypting the Rosetta Stone and tiptoeing through the spider web has to start over.
You should show a little appreciation as if this game stayed with EA it would have been shut down many years ago. Honestly, I think this NL is a waste of time but I will check it out when it's done. Who knows, maybe it will be a fun experience.
Many people come and go all the time. I've left more times than I can count, hell I've been banned here 3 times over the years. You really need to manage your expectations to a more realistic level.
You not posting here if you go to one.
@Keven2002 so you don't think they are going to do some sort of stress test for everyone to log into?
Would be fine with me if we did not see the mechanics until it's live.
Would be fine with me if we did not see the mechanics until it's live.
I was speaking of NL
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my first thought when reading this was... if maps and SOS we have now will be useable then or if we have to battle something to get specific maps, like what we did with the 20th anniversary arc. (hopefully any map or sos we currently have will work)
very intrigued by what the pirate brawl entails
I'll copy and paste from offical forum but tl:dr I entered GL last week and won but was given the wrong house on accident (to be resolved). LS giveaway is still active and signup is a daemon at Luna moongate.
Congrats!
Luckily when you got the LS house it did not take away your GL house. That would suck if you spent hours decoing it.
A quality monthly newsletter and some demos, I think, are a pretty reasonable level of communication. That's a pretty low bar to clear. Instead, we get a monthly newsletter about every three to four months that contains nothing but vagueness, and everything around NL has been "trust us, it's cool!" But hey, let's blame the players; they're the real problem here, right?
Whom exactly is blaming the players? I only see the players attacking and blaming each other.
I only expect communication when a change is coming. They aren't doing demos because NL is still in early testing and they don't want to. On the flip side, if they did do a monthly newsletter you'd probably be complaining there wasn't anything of substance in it.
I only expect communication when a change is coming. They aren't doing demos because NL is still in early testing and they don't want to. On the flip side, if they did do a monthly newsletter you'd probably be complaining there wasn't anything of substance in it.
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OK - did some thread clean up. Let's stay on track.
@Anon McDougle - if you have nothing constructive to add, please keep it to yourself.
@Anon McDougle - if you have nothing constructive to add, please keep it to yourself.
While i must have missed the constructive part of the post i replied to i hear and obey
I mean, I guess you're right, you're not implying that the players are the problem for having a certain level of expectation of communication. My bad; all hail Messina.
Unfortunately given how some of the past publish releases have gone, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't do some sort of stress test.
I would hope they would do a stress test just to ensure usability / positive experience but that hasn't always been this team's track record. How many times have they just dropped things into production without releasing it to TC? Anyone remember the ToT in Destard?
This team (ie Mesanna) seems to dislike most feedback that isn't "rah rah this is an awesome release!!" so I can see this remaining a closed Beta because they don't want anyone to question/criticize something they've spent the better part of the past 4 years working on, but that's 100% their own doing with all of the closed doors decisions they've done on NL.
"NL is still early in testing"... you do realize that we are 4 years into NL right? Some people started and have graduated with their bachelor's degree in Project Management in the time it's taken to get where we are AND we still aren't out of the woods yet. I probably wouldn't count that as a legit reason for lack of updates. There has been at least 3-6 months of supposed testing... I think we should get at least a little update on how it went.
I see what you are trying to say on the monthly newsletters but I'd disagree (at least for me) on that. I've been part of many project teams and there are some updates (ie monthly newsletters) that are going to be light but they can still give a high level summary of what they've worked on the last month and what's on the docket for next month. I'd have no problem with light content newsletters as long as it is showing progress.
I say this as more of a general statement, not really directed specifically at you, many people don't really understand how basic project management works. The only thing Veldrane and I are asking for is some accountability which is the crux of PMing. Something quick and high level like "we worked on adding some new art last month and this month we plan on adding logic on how that new item works". This gives bare minimum details to nitpick but allows people to see monthly progress when the thing they are working on is changing. If they hit a snag and are working on the same thing for a second month that is fine but tell people you hit a snag. That's accountability and it's project management 101. Now if we see the same copy/paste update 3 months in a row, it's pretty obvious and I think people have a right to question what is going on. This is something a bad PM or project team doesn't want so they keep people in the dark and say "we are hard at work" because that's an arbitrary thing.
I've seen several people who are on their way out (mentally or found a new job) do exactly what this Dev team has done. They give the same BS updates (or no updates and never respond to emails) for as long as they can and once they are gone or someone finally puts their foot down what is left is absolute junk. Typically it results in a rebuild or just dropping the project.
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Yeah, the last time I played before I left again they had just announced it. I can't say that I'm surprised it still isn't done, but that's not terribly relevant.
They've got a small team that by the look of it is pulled in a few different directions. You can't just throw some academic concept of project management at it and call it inherently bad. Yes, I deal with PMs every day and Ive yet to meet one worth their pay.
This is a known quantity, nothing has changed for a considerable amount of time. I am struggling to understand why this is such a tough concept. I take a pragmatic approach to just about everything, most of all games. There's far more important things in life to get wrapped up about than something that is is supposed to be entertainment.
They've got a small team that by the look of it is pulled in a few different directions. You can't just throw some academic concept of project management at it and call it inherently bad. Yes, I deal with PMs every day and Ive yet to meet one worth their pay.
This is a known quantity, nothing has changed for a considerable amount of time. I am struggling to understand why this is such a tough concept. I take a pragmatic approach to just about everything, most of all games. There's far more important things in life to get wrapped up about than something that is is supposed to be entertainment.
I don't understand how you can say you've left the game sometime after they announced it and just came back with NL still not being done and that's not terribly relevant. I'm assuming you left the game because you were bored with the content so you took a break. Fast forward X years later you have come back and the game is almost exactly where you left it when it was boring enough to leave in the first place...and the thing they said would be the "biggest boldest" thing ever still isn't in place.
Of course it's relevant that it's not done yet if you are looking for something more than what UO currently has to offer (which has remained unchanged for about 5 years now). What it means is that they are hanging their hat on their current product as it is (and has been for 5 years) and are willing to gamble that their consumers are too... meanwhile other games (and free shards) are out there hungry for market share so they are giving players more. Best case scenario, UO would keep their player base where it's at (because we know it's not drawing anyone new due to no new content) but in reality they are losing subscriptions due to people being bored with the content or just general health issues with an older players base; IE they are (net) losing players much faster than they are gaining.
As time goes on they are only losing more customers...so I'd have to disagree that NL not being released yet isn't terribly relevant. It's actually the exact opposite.
Look at Blockbuster as an example. They were a large company 20 years ago with their movie selections but they didn't bother trying to change with the times (ie they kept the same cookie cutter plan) until it was too late. By the time they tried to do the whole rental box thing, Redbox was already too far ahead that they couldn't really tap into that market. Where is Blockbuster now? I think there might be like one left (the original one maybe?). Timing and ability to adapt is everything.
While what we are saying does have academic textbook support, I'm speaking from real life experience in which I've seen first hand how things work and I've been around long enough to understand human nature on project teams (ie if left unchecked a majority of people will coast). There is a happy medium between micro managing and being completely hands off. NL screams of mismanagement and honestly it's bordering on straight up deception. It's been VERY loose timelines on when they will finish with almost zero updates throughout the project all while the paying customer base is getting bare minimum for what they are paying.
If you hired a carpenter to build a cabinet for you and they gave you a wish-wash completion date of "later this year" you might be willing to trust the process. I get that. But when they go radio silent with no updates about what they've done for months at a time and then suddenly it's years later do you think that's fine because the carpenter has probably been pulled in a few directions? ... Or do you want your damn cabinet or a refund? At some point people need to start explaining what's going on. It's accountability.
Again this isn't a shot at you but you said it yourself, you just got here so of course you don't think relevant that the Dev team is terrible at project management. For those of us who have been hanging around for 4+ years looking for something different to do it's getting a little old hearing the same thing over and over OR just not hearing anything at all.
While I'd agree there are many PMs that are pretty worthless, there are many that do actually keep the train on the tracks by keeping milestones in check. That said, Mesanna has proven to me that she is the worst damn PM I've ever seen in my life by a mile...and it's not even close. She's the equivalent of having Ray Charles as my Uber driver. I'm sure she's talented at something...but it ain't what she's currently being paid for.
I think he meant it's not relevant that he isn't surprised NL isn't finished.
This, and I simply don't care about it. It comes across as a subset of people are just using this as an excuse to **** on management. Just play the game and have fun, whatever manner of fun it is that you do. Me, I fish, I craft, I shop and occasionally kill things - it tickles my fancy
I don't care about NL. I'll give it a look if it ever comes out but I simply don't care.
i left last time after what I considered to be an indefensible decision by management not to do holiday gifts for #23. Destroying a long standing tradition. I voted with my wallet, walked away and they lost several hundred dollars in subscription fees in that time.
The thing that I find fun about the game is doing end-game style content and looking for different strategy on how to get there (ie what's the best way to do the end game content / how can I solo the roof / etc). I've done that many times over on pretty much all end game content at this point so this is exactly why I'm griping about the sh!tty management of the game.
I also do not care about NL but I think you, and many others, fail to see the bigger picture which is that NL has been the scapegoat of essentially the same 3 reskinned things for half a decade. Said in another way, NL is representing the opportunity cost of giving the player base something new to do in production.
I guess where I'm confused is that you seem to be defending the management style of the team that they've used to effectively give us the same 3 cookie cutter things for the last 5 years while giving almost zilch about where they are on the one big thing that's taking all of their time (ie has all this lack of content actually led to anything?)... yet you walked away because you disliked a judgement call the team made about holiday gifts for a single year.
I guess we'd be in agreement if Mesanna would have said "we decided to break tradition for the holiday gifts due to having a small team and you know...NL"??
At the end of the day, it's whatever floats your boat which I understand. In your case it seems to be repetitive things like fishing / crafting and collecting holiday pixels in various hues which I have no problem with that...for you, but please don't try to discount what others are saying about how mismanaged things are simply because we'd like more than to just mindlessly craft/collect tokens.
For the record, I am also speaking with my wallet and I'm down to a single prepaid account compared to multiple reoccurring accounts just a year or so ago. That is also part of where I'm coming from; I really do like UO and want it to stick around but the way it's currently being managed I do not see that happening unless Mesanna starts managing better.
I'm not defending them, I expect nothing from them. There is a distinct difference. I play to relax and chill, not chase meta.
The game is effectively in maintenance mode and has been for a long time. There's enough money coming in to keep the ec2s powered up and to pay a small staff, that in itself is somewhat encouraging.
There is no end game and the belief that there is perpetuates the content grind. It just is and if you can't be content with that then maybe an aarpg is more to your desires.
The game is effectively in maintenance mode and has been for a long time. There's enough money coming in to keep the ec2s powered up and to pay a small staff, that in itself is somewhat encouraging.
There is no end game and the belief that there is perpetuates the content grind. It just is and if you can't be content with that then maybe an aarpg is more to your desires.
Agreed.
Only thing I’ve been doing is preparing for the spring event by actually training a fisherman. Never in 24 years would I have guessed me doing this, and well, because fishing sucks.
Hope there’s something more to it than it sounds.