What's with GMs and Customer Service?

[DHMagicMan_1]

I reactivated an account and I've been playing characters that I've had forever on them.

Last night I decided to create a new toon to hold skills off my soulstone so they aren't just sitting on the stone and I can use that for other stuff. If it tells you anything about how long it's been since I created a new toon, last time I created one, you actually started in Britain when that's the town you selected. Imagine my surprise when I go through the character creation process and it asks where I want to start and then it throws me to "New Haven"???

What's the point of asking me where I want to start if it's going to throw me to "New Haven" anyway? Why not just ask me for the name or whatever and then throw me to the town they want me to start in?

Anyway, I was running UOAM, which I know isn't being updated any more but since EA/Mythic doesn't provide anything similar and it is a critical tool for the game (to my way of thinking) so I see there is a moongate a little north east of where I started. I go running over there and I'm immediatly chased by tons of skelles and such but weave my way through and there's NO MOONGATE there? I see the dirt spot where there used to be a moongate but there's nothing there???

I go back to the starting spot and still can't find any way out or any NPCs telling me anything about how to get out of New Haven.

Finally, very frustrated with the whole creating a new toon process in UO, I created a Help Petition with the "I'm Stuck" button because I was stuck in "New Haven" and wanted to be in Britain. Here's the text of what I sent in my request:

No way to get out of Haven??? I chose Britain but started in haven?? There's no moongate where there used to be and I haven't played in 3 years... haven't started a new char in 3 years I mean. How do I get out of here?​

I waited another 90 minutes or so killing skeletons and stuff wasting time since I don't really need any fighting skills or any skills on this toon, it's just going to hold skills from my soulstone... finally I got a response from a GM as follows (not posting the GM name per policy)

Greetings, I have checked on you in-game and have determined that you can in fact move freely. I recommend seeking help from other players or searching player vendors for solutions to your situation. I'm afraid that we are not able to provide directions to players lost in dungeons or on the world map. You will have to find your own way out as it is not appropriate for me to interfere with your game play. Please make sure to use the stuck command ONLY when physically unable to move in the game. This feature is not a quick ride to town and will only serve to free up your character from a place it should not be. Take care.​

So basically, in the end, he answered nothing... I logged my newb toon out someplace, waited for him to time out... used a different toon, grabbed a backpack with a recall scroll and a rune to my house and then used a rune library to get to near where my new toon was logged, dropped the backpack on the ground, recalled my "real" toon back home, logged the newb back in and hoped that my backpack would still be there. Is this really the "INTENDED" way people need to get out of New Haven?

UO Changed how they created new chars at least 4 or 5 years ago forcing everyone through Haven (without all the undead) and with a moongate... I can't believe the new char creation screens still make you believe you have choices to make that you don't and now you don't have any in game way to get out of there...

 

[Littleblue]

I think I would have just looked up a map of New Haven. =P

 

[drinkbeerallday]

Greetings, I have checked on you in-game and have determined that you can in fact move freely. I recommend seeking help from other players or searching player vendors for solutions to your situation. I'm afraid that we are not able to provide directions to players lost in dungeons or on the world map. You will have to find your own way out as it is not appropriate for me to interfere with your game play. Please make sure to use the stuck command ONLY when physically unable to move in the game. This feature is not a quick ride to town and will only serve to free up your character from a place it should not be. Take care.​

So basically, in the end, he answered nothing...

besides the weird "searching player vendors for solutions" i don't see any problem with the GM's answer. you were simply lost. there's nothing a GM can do about that.

I think you are mostly frustrated about waiting 90 minutes then not getting the answer you wanted. you could have explored the entire island in 15 minutes but instead just sat around waiting for a GM to come help you.

 

[Ailish]

Well, didn't GMs used to be able to direct players to things like moongates? My guess is that the GM's no longer KNOW where the moongates are ... as they are not even familiar with the game mechanics.

For your future reference, they moved the Haven moongate closer to the new city. It is almost due (game) south of the bank.

 

[love2winalot]

It has always been like this concerning not knowing how to get someplace. Back in 1999 i got guardwacked for being, "To Dark". I had No idea where Chaos shrine was, and the GM responce to me was, "It is located between 2 mountains....just follow all the other ghost"........hehehe

 

[AirmidCecht]

Imagine my surprise when I go through the character creation process and it asks where I want to start and then it throws me to "New Haven"???

What's the point of asking me where I want to start if it's going to throw me to "New Haven" anyway? Why not just ask me for the name or whatever and then throw me to the town they want me to start in?

I really, really dislike this new "feature"
Not all players want to start in New Haven! Draconi has addressed this before and I believe there was a "we'll look into it" statement made but it's been quite awhile.
*sighs*

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Welcome back.

As a returning player, customer service has always, always, been UO's weakest point.

However, this story is a very bad example.

Oh....the New Haven Moongate is a screen or two south of the south city gate.

The Undead in the ruins of Old Haven are non-hostile.

Click "map" in-game, the in-game map was improved some years back. It can be of enormous use. No replacement for UOAM by any means but of great use especially in places that came along after UOAM stopped updating.

-Galen's player

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

I don't really have any problem with a game starting you someplace if they give you cluse about how to get to your next locations.

I think it's INSANELY STUPID of them to have forced players to start in Haven and now New Haven God knows how many YEARS ago and yet the development team hasn't bothered to update their New Player Creation screens to not ask where you want to start, SINCE YOU DON"T ANY CHOICE, and when you do start in wherever you are, there's all these NPCs saying talk to me about Training for XXX or talk to me about Training for XXX but no one says talk to me about visiting distant lands????

What kind of stupidity?

 

[T_Amon_from_work]

Ya know, just the other night a returning player simply stopped me and asked what happened to the moongate and could I please take to it?

So I got off my ethy and walked with him out the south gate of the town and showed him where the moongate was. He offered an escort fee, but I gladly refused.

Moral: Nicely ask a player where it is and they will probably be more than happy to escort you all the way. It's even faster than a GM response (canned or not).

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Ya know, just the other night a returning player simply stopped me and asked what happened to the moongate and could I please take to it?

So I got off my ethy and walked with him out the south gate of the town and showed him where the moongate was. He offered an escort fee, but I gladly refused.

Moral: Nicely ask a player where it is and they will probably be more than happy to escort you all the way. It's even faster than a GM response (canned or not).

No doubt, and frequently I have asked for and found very helpfull people on Lake Austin, where I play, but it was about 11:30 PST (my time) and I didn't see anything other than NPCs the whole time I was stuck there, and I was very tired and frustrated.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Or you could have used the stuck feature and been teleported to a city of your choice...la

 

[Sheridan]

you could have explored the entire island in 15 minutes but instead just sat around waiting for a GM to come help you.

That was the very first thing I thought of.

 

[CatLord]

Or you could ask the npcs for directions...

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Or you could have used the stuck feature and been teleported to a city of your choice...la

I did use the stuck feature... but instead of teleporting me it had me type in the text which I did above, and then I got the response above... I'm guessing because I was already in or near a city it didn't work the way I expected... I tried it from outside the protection zone too... same results.

 

[Experimental]

Or you could have used the stuck feature and been teleported to a city of your choice...la

He did...read his post. A GM answered instead of him getting teleported, which totally amazed me that a GM actually answered.

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

I think it's INSANELY STUPID of them to have forced players to start in Haven and now New Haven God knows how many YEARS ago and yet the development team hasn't bothered to update their New Player Creation screens to not ask where you want to start, SINCE YOU DON"T ANY CHOICE

New Haven wasn't created until Old Haven was blown up by black rock about a year and a half ago. while i agree it's stupid that the new player creation screen still asks you where you want to go even though it only takes you to New Haven, it wasn't "YEARS ago". Just be glad they moved the moongate closer to the new city. for the first half year of New Haven you used to have to run ALL the way through Old Haven, through a mess of brigands and lizard men who killed me many times, to the old moongate.
Usually you can find players in New Haven and most are very happy to help, but I would concur that on LA that late at night it would pretty much be a ghost town. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that crap just to get your new toon to your house.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

The GM answered, 90 minutes later and completely unhelpful but answered none the less.

My frustration is with the developers and designers who can't be bothered to think about "New Player Experience" that they changed, what 5 YEARS AGO!!! and completely SUCKS!!!!

I've played many MMOs like Eve, LOTRO, WOW, POTBS, AC etc and all of them take a "Newb Char" and walk them through a process and guide them from a starting place to someplace more populated and then to a "hub" of some sort.... They don't drop you in desolation and say F-you, find your own way out. I have other toons and now I have a rune so I'll just do my little drop a bag with a recall scroll etc when it comes up again, but I think it's just **** poor design and implementation for new players and for GMs and Customer Service to offer no assistance when they know the starting design sucks just makes the whole thing worse.

Thats my opinion.

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

yeah, but even if they did allow new players to pick the town they want, it still wouldn't help with directing them where to go from there. i agree the system for new players needs to be improved so some sort of guide walks you through how the game works and what to do and where to go. i remember when i first started playing in 2003, i got dumped in old haven, but there was a whole system of quests set up that i found pretty easy to navigate through. i don't *think* it's that intuitive anymore, but it's been a long time since i was a newb.

 

[Ailish]

If you start a new char in KR you get this (walkthrough) ... apparently they felt no "newbies" would be using 2D ....

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

For the LIFE of me, I can't get KR to run under Vista on my machine but 2D works fine. Don't understand why? You'd think the older one would be incompatible and the newer one would work better.

 

[Ailish]

Dunno man. My husband runs it on his Vista machine just fine ... won't work on mine currently as I need a new video card (old one burned up and running on board currently).

 

[Endrik]

Welcome Back! Sounds to me like you had a great taste of whats to come. I think the problem is that people start playing or come back to UO expecting it to be fun. Silly. UO is not supposed to be fun. Its supposed to be mind numbingly repetitive and frustrating. Not all of us are blessed enough to have a stressful real life, or lucky enough to have migraine headaches naturally. Thats what UO is here for. To give those of us who have perfect lives something to complain about. Hope to see ya around!

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Welcome Back! Sounds to me like you had a great taste of whats to come. I think the problem is that people start playing or come back to UO expecting it to be fun. Silly. UO is not supposed to be fun. Its supposed to be mind numbingly repetitive and frustrating. Not all of us are blessed enough to have a stressful real life, or lucky enough to have migraine headaches naturally. Thats what UO is here for. To give those of us who have perfect lives something to complain about. Hope to see ya around!

ROTFL

 

[BartofCats]

I have to ask OP... what shard were you on that you couldnt stop and ask another player where the moongate was? Surely there would have been someone who would have answered the question.

 

[Radun]

New Haven wasn't created until Old Haven was blown up by black rock about a year and a half ago. while i agree it's stupid that the new player creation screen still asks you where you want to go even though it only takes you to New Haven, it wasn't "YEARS ago". Just be glad they moved the moongate closer to the new city. for the first half year of New Haven you used to have to run ALL the way through Old Haven, through a mess of brigands and lizard men who killed me many times, to the old moongate.
Usually you can find players in New Haven and most are very happy to help, but I would concur that on LA that late at night it would pretty much be a ghost town. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that crap just to get your new toon to your house.

and the "Old" Haven you refer to didn't always have those spawning there... all the hostile used to be contained in a boxed in area only accessible to young accounts.. and even this even older Haven was completely different than the original Haven from UO:R which I think is the best of all, and they should have just opened it up and made it public (it was young only) and left it as it was instead of messing the whole island up.

 

[drinkbeerallday]

I really, really dislike this new "feature"
Not all players want to start in New Haven! Draconi has addressed this before and I believe there was a "we'll look into it" statement made but it's been quite awhile.
*sighs*

it should also ask if you want to start in Felucca or Trammel and explain the difference.

 

[Brucie Kibbutz]

New Haven wasn't created until Old Haven was blown up by black rock about a year and a half ago. while i agree it's stupid that the new player creation screen still asks you where you want to go even though it only takes you to New Haven, it wasn't "YEARS ago". Just be glad they moved the moongate closer to the new city. for the first half year of New Haven you used to have to run ALL the way through Old Haven, through a mess of brigands and lizard men who killed me many times, to the old moongate.
Usually you can find players in New Haven and most are very happy to help, but I would concur that on LA that late at night it would pretty much be a ghost town. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that crap just to get your new toon to your house.

Been a newb your whole UO career? It auto transported people to Minoc before it auto transported them to New Haven, so it has indeed been YEARS since you could choose your location.

 

[Cear Dallben Dragon]

New Haven wasn't created until Old Haven was blown up by black rock about a year and a half ago. while i agree it's stupid that the new player creation screen still asks you where you want to go even though it only takes you to New Haven, it wasn't "YEARS ago". Just be glad they moved the moongate closer to the new city. for the first half year of New Haven you used to have to run ALL the way through Old Haven, through a mess of brigands and lizard men who killed me many times, to the old moongate.
Usually you can find players in New Haven and most are very happy to help, but I would concur that on LA that late at night it would pretty much be a ghost town. Sorry to hear you had to go through all that crap just to get your new toon to your house.

Been a newb your whole UO career? It auto transported people to Minoc before it auto transported them to New Haven, so it has indeed been YEARS since you could choose your location.

worthless post /\

on a side note..
if you had asked a human being.... or a player. you would have been out of new haven in 11 seconds, via gate made or a player taking you two screens south of the bank where you spawn.