Where is UO for sale?

[Hannes Erich]

- Mostly wrong: We are both on the same side, on most of this.

If we at least see eye-to-eye on the loopy UOGamecodes.com "train wreck", then I'm glad to apologize and take back the things I said about you not being in support of those changes. I'm sorry, but it's terribly difficult to explain that problem to people (see how long it took in this thread?). (Edit: Not even Mythic understands the problem. They know in a very vague sense that some codes have issues, but there is no indication anywhere that Mythic is aware of this particularly severe issue.)

However, please consider that a Buy Now button and Try Now button should both be offered for a similar reason: It would alleviate buyer confusion. Why? Because it's the industry standard, i.e. players are used to seeing this from other publishers of MMORPGs.

I was involved with the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and I'm getting familiar feelings here. It's very hard to make a Big Bad-Ass Company understand that it's not a horrible thing to work with the competition on some things, especially when it alleviates buyer confusion and increases convenience and profitability.

 

[AesSedai]

"I'm sorry, but it's terribly difficult to explain that problem to people (see how long it took in this thread?). "

- Heh, why do you think I get so long-winded when I'm attempting to clear things up or understand someone's point of view on these boards.


Glad to have helped bump your concern a little bit. Hopefully they will address some more of their website issues sooner rather than later.

 

[Hannes Erich]

I just want to add that my only intention here is to get some people behind the goal of getting more people to play UO, and making it easier for them to get in.

The number one thing that keeps potential customers away from UO (referring to those who are interested and want to play) is purchasing confusion, and other issues that are related to purchasing and billing. Many people simply don't know how to obtain the game. That is a good indication that improvements are necessary and should be desirable, if you're at all interested in this virtual world's future. Please, anyone who reads this, act like it if you're interested. Throw more support behind threads that call for positive changes in this area.

 

[gjohnson5]

EA is just going to have to go out of business because I will never buy another one of their products

 

[Petra Fyde]

No, that is an ML account where you cannot use the new glacial tiles.
I mean the 9th anniversary codes where you can use the newest tiles too.

A decent company would not sell an old edition when a newer one is about, or?

Just to clarify a small point. ML is the most recent 2D client. 9th Anniversary was a limited edition box with a special tile set as a selling point.

Mondains Legacy is a game expansion. 9th Anniversary is not. I believe there are plans to make the 2 tile sets available through some means, but I could be wrong on that.

 

[Cogniac]

We cant say illegal gold selling is bad, but illegal code selling is OK, but illegal selling of items is bad, but if something is hard to get otherwise then selling it is OK.

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

and i saw KR in best buy or similar store.

This comment baffles me. KR never had a box. It was a free client download. You are outright lying to make yourself seem important on an Internet forum.

 

[Moreeg]

I don't think that word means what you think it means.This comment baffles me. KR never had a box. It was a free client download. You are outright lying to make yourself seem important on an Internet forum.

It is used correctly in the context stated. Illegal from a standpoint of the TOS/EULA.

I never mention a box on a shelf for KR, nor did I specifically address shelf availability for UO, so please dont put words in my mouth in order to try and create a witty reply for yourself.

fail.

 

[Kellgory]

It is used correctly in the context stated. Illegal from a standpoint of the TOS/EULA.

I never mention a box on a shelf for KR, nor did I specifically address shelf availability for UO, so please dont put words in my mouth in order to try and create a witty reply for yourself.

fail.

Cogniac was quoting from a post from POTGUT about seeing ML and KR on a store shelf. The comment about the box on the shelf had nothing to do with your post. Cogniac might have gone back and edited the post afterwards to correctly attribute the reply to the right quote.

 

[Moreeg]

Cogniac was quoting from a post from POTGUT about seeing ML and KR on a store shelf. The comment about the box on the shelf had nothing to do with your post. Cogniac might have gone back and edited the post afterwards to correctly attribute the reply to the right quote.

I would like to retract my statement then!

I see that now, but I dont recall if it was that way originally... either way though, no need for us to turn UHall into the WoW forums (with its rampant hostility).

 

[Sorcha of Sonoma]

One thing that would help in a huge way - make UO show up on the http://findgames.ea.com/genre/mmorpg search function. Currently Warhammer, DaOC, Hellgate London and Star Wars: The Old Republic show up there.

*Heads on over to the uo.,com feedback button .......*

 

[Duskofdead]

My two cents:

UO is dead, as far as the market is concerned. Not just dead, but long buried. A lot of the funeralgoers are still standing around the gravesite.

I'm not saying the game isn't fun, doesn't have potential, and still doesn't offer a lot more of a lot of things than other mainstreamized, more recently produced games do. I'm saying that its time in the market has come and gone. Stygian Abyss or not, as far as most players are concerned, UO is some smalltime oldschool MMO that went the way of the dinosaur ten years ago as far as being a major name in the market. It is typical for MMO gamers today to not even know the name. That's cold, hard fact.

Look at what EA produces.... I think the only reason UO is still around is because even a virtually depleted MMO is still essentially profitable. The actual hardware to run it was long ago purchased and paid off. The costs of actually maintaining the services are nominal compared to the income a player base the size of UO's can provide. (People forget but, UO even at only 150 or 200 thousand accounts was once the largest and most successful MMO ever to have existed, so despite its low numbers compared to WOW, it certainly more than pays for itself and kicks a nice profit boost into EA's coffers.) My guess? Most of the money is already preappropriated for other, non-UO projects before it even comes in each month. And even if it's not, most of it will simply be used to help pad the already reported poor and suffering new game projects/sales this holiday season in the down economy. To think that most or even a substantial amount of UO's revenue is somehow sacrosanct used only to reinvest and give things back to UO players in terms of content and service by EA is..... I think, wishful thinking. Despite no doubt losing a ton of money on yet more mainstream casual gamer junk projects and template formulaic mass market appeal games in the last six months, most if not all of EA's revenue I'm sure will continue to be diverted into projects with potential for major new growth. Which, for many reasons (some rational and simply fact, like the very aged game engine, and some perhaps arguable), both EA and the market consider a dead-end in UO's case. There is not really potential for major new growth. Only potential for stop-loss and retaining existing subscriptions, IMHO.

 

[Tek]

Funny on EA.com using the ‘game finder’ shows Hellgate London listed for RPGs, which is having its servers shut down at the end of January, but no mention of UO, cant even search for it, I’m shocked. Okay not really.

I did see a dusty box of 9th Age on a shelf at EB Games today, probably be there for a few more years till they eventually throw it out.

Maybe we have to go underground and do this ourselves, do the advertising with out EA.
Put posters up in places, or even burn off cds and leave them in librarys, schools, slide them into new PC boxes at a computer store, etc.

 

[Sam the Scribe]

I second this. I feel like 90% of these boards are really, really good trolls. Any time someone mentions an obvious flaw with the game, or the way EA handles marketing/distribution, there is a flock of naysayers to tell us "its sufficent! we don't need to fix anything!". These are the same people that never had to sit in a line for AN HOUR just to start the download for the game client on file-planet. The people that have never payed good money for something and had to wait to get it in the mail through some un-heard-of vendor. I should be able to go to any local store and find UO on the shelves. Its absured to think that they can't even stick it in the bargain racks. I see abysmal games that never deserved to be developed in the first place that are still on store shelves and have clearly been dead for ten years already. What gives?

So anyone that doesn't agree with all of the "obvious flaws" is trolling the thread?

How about this... I don't even look for EA on shelves cause I hate shopping. I've pre-ordered the last two releases of Ultima Online on Amazon and got great deals. You don't need to go to some "un-heard of vendor." Unless you've never heard of Amazondotcom?

As for the download... yup... long wait on fileplanet, why didn't you go to one of the other listed download sites? If you want to go to the largest and busiest FTP server in the world, don't blame EA for the delay. Hey, did ya actually just try and download it from EA? That's where I got my version of KR.

I don't know why you think you should be able to go into "any store" and find copies of UO. Here's something to think of... the folks that run the stores decide what to stock, not EA. They like new and flashy stuff. If you think your local store should always have a couple copies of UO why don't you ask them why they don't stock it.

It's a new era in marketing and distribution. Folks don't go to the local Blockbuster store anymore, because they order their DvD's through Netflix. After a time, Netflix will fade to dust cause everyone will just order their movies digitally, etc.

Considering that you can download it for free or buy an extremely cheap copy from a reputable online vendor, what's the beef again?

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[Duskofdead]

So anyone that doesn't agree with all of the "obvious flaws" is trolling the thread?

How about this... I don't even look for EA on shelves cause I hate shopping. I've pre-ordered the last two releases of Ultima Online on Amazon and got great deals. You don't need to go to some "un-heard of vendor." Unless you've never heard of Amazondotcom?

You dodged the entire point. His entire point was that the board is full of people who seem to go out of their way to be argumentative over something that they supposedly don't care about, aren't inconvenienced by, and see no problem with. If you have no problem with acquiring CD's or copies or content for UO, fine for you. The fact that the other 95% of us (who might be considering joining, re-joining, returning, lost CD's, damaged CD's, or any other issue) can't find what we need is a real problem though. Having a bunch of rabid oppositional disorder people derailing every thread with "no it's not. No it isn't. Stop whining" isn't helpful.

 

[Maplestone]

9th ed is still on sale in most computer game stores around where I live.
Links to KR download on the uo site.

If there is going to be a marketing campaign or new box, I would expect it to surround SA. But what sort of marketing you do depends a lot of where they decide to go with the SA gameplay - if they want to break out of the do-it-ourselves nostalgia crowd, I think there need to be some story arc style content laid overtop the world (but that's another discussion).

 

[Duskofdead]

9th ed is still on sale in most computer game stores around where I live.
Links to KR download on the uo site.

If there is going to be a marketing campaign or new box, I would expect it to surround SA. But what sort of marketing you do depends a lot of where they decide to go with the SA gameplay - if they want to break out of the do-it-ourselves nostalgia crowd, I think there need to be some story arc style content laid overtop the world (but that's another discussion).

I think that from a sheer "trying to recapture the market" perspective, almost all suggestions lead towards turning UO into EQ/WOW.

Yet, out of the people who've hung around for the last 10 years... isn't not being EQ/WOW the reason they're still here at all?

I think it's a catch-22.

 

[Sam the Scribe]

You dodged the entire point. His entire point was that the board is full of people who seem to go out of their way to be argumentative over something that they supposedly don't care about, aren't inconvenienced by, and see no problem with....

If that was his point, would have been nice if he said that. What I read seemed to focus around specific complaints with easy solutions. I'm not "dodging" anything.

I've been on both sides of the "whiner/troll" fence so I see where YOU are coming in making YOUR point. He didn't make that point... at least not as clearly as you did.

I don't read between the lines, I just read the words written on them.

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[Duskofdead]

If that was his point, would have been nice if he said that. What I read seemed to focus around specific complaints with easy solutions. I'm not "dodging" anything.

I've been on both sides of the "whiner/troll" fence so I see where YOU are coming in making YOUR point. He didn't make that point... at least not as clearly as you did.

I don't read between the lines, I just read the words written on them.

Safe Travels, Sam

Well hopefully *I* am being clear. The board is full of exactly the types I previously described. When people arguing oh I dunno.... there's nothing wrong with UO's market distribution, there's nothing wrong with tamers, and there's nothing wrong with scripting are all using precisely the same argument.... something's wrong in the cosmic balance, IMHO.

 

[BloodstoneGL]

We dump cash on EA every month. Okay... so? What the heck are they doing with our cash? Are they giving you anything? Doesn't cash usually get used to improve things? Are they pumping it into other properties that have nothing at all to do with Mythic or UO? Are they bathing in it? Where the heck is all of our cash going?

Madden of course.

 

[Edina Monsoon]

I highly doubt that EA would shut down UO.

Here is my reason.

It is a financial cash cow. I am guessing, since they never say, but with 100,000 subscribers world wide, paid accounts, many of us have more than one account, but just as a number lets say 100,000 times $14 a month. That's $1.4 Million a month, times 12 months is $16.8 million a year. Take out of that $16.8 million a year, a few salaries for devs and the costs of keeping the servers going. They are making a nice profit off of all of us. And all they have to do is come out with an expansion here, a few holidays things there, and maybe a bit of content. I am sure that there developers not only work on UO but probably on other games as well.

Now its not a huge amount of money to a large corporation like EA, but it is in the black. And with very little maintenance, why would you cut off something that steadily brings in money year after year?

They will close it down when it doesn't make money any more which may not be for a long time, especially as it seems that they keep getting rid of people on the team.

 

[Yazman]

You know you guys are right.

You can't buy anything from uogamecodes.com without already having a UO account.

 

[Tina Small]

You know you guys are right.

You can't buy anything from uogamecodes.com without already having a UO account.

Yazman, I still have a couple of 9th Age boxes around with unused New Player Account Registration codes if you don't succeed in getting a code any other way. According to the info in the box, it will give you 30 days free play time, let you use the crystal and shadow housing tiles, and give you a sixth character slot. I'm not sure if it will let you access the Mondains Legacy stuff, though.

 

[Sam the Scribe]

...I'm not sure if it will let you access the Mondains Legacy stuff, though.

Yup, as you buy later versions of the game all the previous upgrades are included. So that would include Samaurai/Mondains... and whatever came before.

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[Hannes Erich]

You know you guys are right.

You can't buy anything from uogamecodes.com without already having a UO account.

Ha ha it took 71 posts for someone to "get it" (not including the few in the choir I was preaching to). I'm almost ashamed I looked back at my thread here.

This community is fracking hard-headed. Actually, from now on, when I want to make a point on the forums, I'm going to make a thread that contradicts my point. That way, dozens of aimless forum warriors will come along and argue my point for me, backwards and forwards. My gosh, what an ingenious idea (though I'm sure someone will argue otherwise).

 

[Setnaffa]

Ha ha it took 71 posts for someone to "get it" (not including the few in the choir I was preaching to). I'm almost ashamed I looked back at my thread here.

This community is fracking hard-headed. Actually, from now on, when I want to make a point on the forums, I'm going to make a thread that contradicts my point. That way, dozens of aimless forum warriors will come along and argue my point for me, backwards and forwards. My gosh, what an ingenious idea (though I'm sure someone will argue otherwise).

But as a new player, why would I go to www.uogamecodes.com? If you google "Ultima Online", the first site that comes up is http://www.uoherald.com/ (no sight of uogamecodes.com at all on the first search results page) which will take you directly to the creation of a new account and downloading of the client software (by clicking on "New Player" or "Mondain's Legacy).

I think you are making it more difficult for yourself than it would be for a new player because you know about uogamecodes.com; a site that isn't meant for new players.

 

[Maplestone]

Ha ha it took 71 posts for someone to "get it"

Step 1:

Create account at www.ultima-registration.com

Click "Create Account", following account creation instructions -
when prompted, enter registration code: FREE-UOKR-REG1-14DT

Step 2:

Download Game Client

Download game file from the same download site as registration code. Allow patch screen to update and then press "play"


Got it?

 

[Hannes Erich]

You people need to be preparing your counter-arguments. My next thread related to this issue will be about how EA should not invest in any more point-of-purchase strategies ever for UO, and make their selling strategies as nebulous as possible. I'll make it sound more subtle and sophisticated than that, but I'm just giving you a heads up, forum warriors!

You're doing good in this thread though, keep up the argumentative nay saying!

 

[Maplestone]

I'll take that as a no.

 

[Hannes Erich]

I'll take that as a no.

Okay forum troll, I'll feed you just this once.

Yes, I get the easily refuted logic behind your counterpoint. Unfortunately, this is the Internet, where all of my refutations can also be easily refuted, over and over and over, thanks to the Submit Reply button, no matter how much sense I make or how many people agree with me. Just think, if UO had a Buy Now button right on its official website, new customers could buy UO almost as quickly as you can refute me on the Internet.

WOULDN'T THAT BE AWESOME?

 

[Setnaffa]

"Buy Now" would work great for an offline game. After all, you are buying the game so you can play it on your personal computer. But for an online game, you aren't buying the game. You are buying a service.

I like the model they currently have. Try, then buy. Choose "New Player", install the free software, then create a trial account. Give it a whirl, then decide within 30 days if you are addicted enough to keep playing. I guess something a little more obvious like a "Try me" button might make a small difference (for those that don't understand what "New Player" means).

Regardless, your claim that there is "No digital point-of-purchase publishing model. As in goose eggs. None." is incorrect. There is such a model, though they might not use the exact description or process you are trying to impose.

 

[MoonglowMerchant]

"Buy Now" would work great for an offline game. After all, you are buying the game so you can play it on your personal computer. But for an online game, you aren't buying the game. You are buying a service.

I like the model they currently have. Try, then buy. Choose "New Player", install the free software, then create a trial account. Give it a whirl, then decide within 30 days if you are addicted enough to keep playing. I guess something a little more obvious like a "Try me" button might make a small difference (for those that don't understand what "New Player" means).

Regardless, your claim that there is "No digital point-of-purchase publishing model. As in goose eggs. None." is incorrect. There is such a model, though they might not use the exact description or process you are trying to impose.

I think the point is that there ought to be an option for a trial account or to purchase a new account.

He states in the other thread that try now and buy now are industry standards and that companies with both buttons sell more games.

Since I am an established player, I wouldn't ever want to buy a trial account because trial accounts are restricted in some ways. I'd want to buy a new account. Currently, there is no way to do that.

Correct?

 

[Maplestone]

WOULDN'T THAT BE AWESOME?

My point was that there IS a buy now button on the main website (although it perhaps could be slightly more prominent)

Oh, and I don't disagree that returning to an annual "here is the current patch level" box would be great. But right now we're in a no-man's-land ... there is simply too much competition from other games for 2d to pull in enough new players to cover the costs (in my humble unproven opinion) and KR was forced out before it was ready so should not be a new player's first introduction to the game in its current state. Since the 9th edition boxes are still prominently displayed in many game stores (in my area at least), until the new client is ready and has been through a little trial by fire, I am very skeptical of any plan to risk precious resources on a new box gamble.

(but, in the interests of the flamewar reduction project, I shall yield your thread back to your care)

 

[BloodstoneGL]

I have an unopened copy of T2A and UO:R if you want to buy one.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

Every EB games Near my place has one...

 

[Duskofdead]

Every EB games Near my place has one...

every EB, Best Buy, Babbages and Gamestop near my house does not have one.

 

[Hannes Erich]

"Buy Now" would work great for an offline game. After all, you are buying the game so you can play it on your personal computer. But for an online game, you aren't buying the game. You are buying a service.

For your viewing enjoyment, CCP and Sony Online are good examples of digital publishers. Their "Try Now" and "Buy Now" buttons are located in close proximity to each other.

Their "Buy Now" buttons don't take you to some stupid website where you're really just getting a trial account. They actually, really let you buy a fully active account if you want! (Wow! OMG it's unheard of! The scandal! Those UO Stratics forum warriors will never approve of this travesty!)

This is an industry standard, by the way. Look outside of your 11-year old refuses-to-keep-up MMORPG before you make blanket statements about something you don't know much about.

Every EB games Near my place has one...

You're either in Japan or you're a forum troll. If you're in Japan you're lazy, because there are posts all over this thread explaining the difference between EA's support for the western and eastern demographics. (Read the thread before mashing the Reply button, don't be a lemming.)

 

[cdavbar]

Losing UO would be like losing a lifelong companion,