I played UO many years ago. Pre-tram... no lockable skills, no soulstones, having to actually trust a "real" smith to repair armor and weapons and... *gulps* no insurance.
Well I quit UO, partly because my real life had become pretty complicated and the game was becoming more frustrating than fun. Back then (before EA) Origin made it pretty clear that if you cancelled your account you lost everything... not even a hint of the possibility of "re-activation" in those dark times.
Eventually I came back to UO and started a new account. After a few months, I found out that you could reactivate old accounts so I contacted EA and engaged in the procedure of activating my "original" account. I was very excited about this as I couldn't wait to see my characters again after all these years!
Before handing over the account, EA wanted to verify that I was actually the original owner. I couldn't remember the credit card # used... or the phone #, or the serial # from the CD... just my address at the time. I was desperate to get my old account back so I started telling them about the characters on the account. The skills, etc... even little stories about the adventures they used to have!
You see... I had forgotten that I had DELETED all the characters from the account before I closed it. Naturally, this led to some interesting emails from EA as they only saw a blank account and here I am rambling on about these characters like they are real people! They couldn't even understand WHY I would want to reactivate an empty account... but in the end they returned my account to me.
When I logged in and finally remembered that I had deleted the characters, I understood the confused emails I had gotten from EA. I think in the end someone at EA said... "This guy is crazy... he's telling us stories about characters that don't even exist... um... just give him the account."
EA did respond to my request to re-activate the account.
EA did exercise due dilligence in attempting to verify ownership.
...and in the end...
EA realized that... everyone that plays UO is insane and it's best not to get crazy folks mad.
Oh, there is an unexpected upside to the story. Even though I had deleted the chars... the account was reactivated with full vet status and I got all the rewards and perks. I didn't even think about that when I was trying to reactivate it... I just wanted my "toons" back.
Safe Travels, Sam
Well I quit UO, partly because my real life had become pretty complicated and the game was becoming more frustrating than fun. Back then (before EA) Origin made it pretty clear that if you cancelled your account you lost everything... not even a hint of the possibility of "re-activation" in those dark times.
Eventually I came back to UO and started a new account. After a few months, I found out that you could reactivate old accounts so I contacted EA and engaged in the procedure of activating my "original" account. I was very excited about this as I couldn't wait to see my characters again after all these years!
Before handing over the account, EA wanted to verify that I was actually the original owner. I couldn't remember the credit card # used... or the phone #, or the serial # from the CD... just my address at the time. I was desperate to get my old account back so I started telling them about the characters on the account. The skills, etc... even little stories about the adventures they used to have!
You see... I had forgotten that I had DELETED all the characters from the account before I closed it. Naturally, this led to some interesting emails from EA as they only saw a blank account and here I am rambling on about these characters like they are real people! They couldn't even understand WHY I would want to reactivate an empty account... but in the end they returned my account to me.
When I logged in and finally remembered that I had deleted the characters, I understood the confused emails I had gotten from EA. I think in the end someone at EA said... "This guy is crazy... he's telling us stories about characters that don't even exist... um... just give him the account."
EA did respond to my request to re-activate the account.
EA did exercise due dilligence in attempting to verify ownership.
...and in the end...
EA realized that... everyone that plays UO is insane and it's best not to get crazy folks mad.
Oh, there is an unexpected upside to the story. Even though I had deleted the chars... the account was reactivated with full vet status and I got all the rewards and perks. I didn't even think about that when I was trying to reactivate it... I just wanted my "toons" back.
Safe Travels, Sam
