The choice was made then to exclude players that enjoyed non-consensual PvP, and it has been done again...except this time, the invitation to take your subscription dollars and shove them has also been extended to those that did not like Age of Shadows as well.
The choice was to make a lot of money and to respond to EQ allowing for non-PvPers. That's what companies do, and that's why UO is still around. Hate on it all you want and know that I agree with you about Tram disrupting communities, but if the decision wasn't made to open up UO to non-PvPers, UO would have been long closed by now.
This is EA we are talking about, they don't keep games open because they are fond of them, they are not a charity. Hell, if Mark Jacobs hadn't stepped up to the plate when he did, UO would have already been closed before now - it didn't fit into EA's plans when he stepped up, and it definitely doesn't fit into the plans they announced earlier this month.
EA has publicly announced earlier this month that they want fewer titles that are better and have bigger profits. They made it clear several times that it's not enough to make a profit, it has to be big. That means things like Dragon Age, the sports stuff, Star Wars, and the occasional new shooter. That definitely doesn't include UO. It's ironic in a way, because the man who used to run the sports division of EA actively worked against Origin. He maybe gone, but he got what he wanted - Origin and its titles are all but dead and buried, and are only discussed when people talk about what old games would be cool to have ported to the iPhone.
We're all arguing, and meanwhile, the $300 million elephant in the living room that has Star Wars written all over it has been antsy. Should that $300 million elephant decide to imitate Warhammer, this argument won't matter - that elephant will tear the entire BioWare Mythic house down and EA will gut BioWare and we will be lucky if UO survives. The last time an MMORPG fell apart for EA, a lot of people lost their jobs within the MMORPG group.
I haven't always been happy with things going on with UO, and I've taken long breaks as a result, rather than sit around thinking something might change. What I do know is that I love UO, warts and all, and most of you do as well, including those of you raging over a classic shard or raging over Trammel. You may not admit it, but you are still furious over things that happened a decade ago, and that is a clear sign that you still love UO. If you didn't care, you would have walked away many years ago and not come back.
I've walked away and told myself I didn't care and to hell with AOS and Mondain's Legacy and everything else, and low and behold, I find that I do care.
I did WOW, EQ, Star Wars, even DAOC and AC. I also did the freeshard thing. I found plenty of companions and like-minded folks and rulesets that I enjoyed, but something kept drawing me back to the official shards every so often.
I know very little about this dev team - everybody I personally knew has long since moved on or been laid off, but I do know they want to keep their jobs, and that means doing what their bosses at EA tell them to do. Maybe some of you have been lucky to have job security your whole adult life or you're still young enough to live with your parents, but trust me, it's a crappy economy right now and finding a new job is not fun - I've been through that a few times. We maybe the paying customers, but we can't call up Cal or whoever and tell them how it's going to be or to sit on something. The executives at EA can and do.
Not you Morgana, but others in other threads have pulled this "we're the customers, you do what we say" crap, and it's childish and shows a complete lack of understanding in regards to how a large company works. If UO generates $12 million a year, chances are high that they don't get anywhere near $10 million out of it for work on UO - EA wants to maximize profits and that means taking profits from projects like UO and plugging them into projects like Star Wars. They get what EA gives them, and they do what EA management tells them to do, or they find themselves looking for a new job.
The things that we told ourselves back when the numbers from UO:R/AOS started to decline no longer apply. When you have well over 200,000 subscriptions, you have a lot of leeway and plenty of room to go downhill. 150,000, even 100,000, things are still okay, if a wee bit nervous for us. When you start hitting 75,000 and below, you start running out of room, especially when EA announces to its investors that it's chasing after fewer titles that are more profitable.
There is a point at which you run out of runway, and either you are in the air and wheels up, or really bad things are about to happen. I get the feeling that UO is running out of runway, and I'm nervous about what I'm going to hear next week. If I hear more booster pack stuff, I'm bracing for impact - that's the kind of stuff that appeals to existing customers, not brand new customers.
I want UO to be around five years from now. If that means the resources are committed to the EC, etc. rather than a classic shard, then whatever it takes. It does us no good to have a classic shard if UO gets shut down in a few years.
A part of me thinks this video has been delayed so long because we are hearing about the future of UO and I've got a weird feeling in my stomach. Some of the hostility in here makes me think I'm not alone in being worried. A lot of people lash out when they are nervous, and this is no different.
) some kind of a solid plan to make sure we get updates and meaningful communications on a regular basis, that will preclude any such type of requisite apologies.
and as HR >is my field< ^that one^ would stand up in court.
Whew..! I'd be wondering where to begin telling you how ridiculous this makes you look, if I didn't know where to stop to save me some time and you the trouble of trying to justify your point of view on this. I'm not insulted, I'm rather amused to be honest.. Such stupidity. 
