Special Valentine's Day Sale on UO Japan Site

[Tina Small]

It looks like the UO Japan site is running a special promotion from February 13th through February 27th. Either the Pigments of Tokuno are a special gift for orders over a certain amount or are going to be available for a limited period of time. I can't really tell. Can Chrissay or one of the developers comment on what's going on??

http://ultimaonline.jp/entertainment/campaign/special/valentine2009/

 

[Flora Green]

 

[Teeshy]

Oh cool =)

Hopefully they'll be selling somethign I want to buy =P

 

[MalagAste]

What she said!

 

[Bazer]

gah must find translator...

 

[Phaen Grey]

And we are still waiting for the 11th anniversary tokens...

 

[shanshu]

It looks like the UO Japan site is running a special promotion from February 13th through February 27th. Either the Pigments of Tokuno are a special gift for orders over a certain amount or are going to be available for a limited period of time. I can't really tell. Can Chrissay or one of the developers comment on what's going on??

http://ultimaonline.jp/entertainment/campaign/special/valentine2009/

I think you get a free pigment with a purchase of 3500 yen or more.

 

[Nexus]

I think it's saying if you spend over 3500 ¥ (Yen) you get them as an addon gift. Which comes to about $38.10 (US) or € 26.62 (Euros) or £ 26.52 (Pounds)

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I wish I was Japanese...then I could has coolness too.

 

[Bazer]

オハイオ州Iの願い私は日本および点検にそれらが悪い状態をそう有するすべてのAnime住むことができる。 そして彼らが書くものを読める。

 

[Littleblue]

I wish we had the opportunity to purchase *all* the Tokuno Dye shades.

Even better if they were obtainable in-game again, seems like it was very popular.

 

[christy1221]

 

[Kith Kanan]

hmm I feel bum rushed again... well nm , packing down 6-7 houses this week and putting the accounts on hold

so euro players my lil village of 5 houses next to each other near fel yew gate will be comming up for sale soon

Feel free to have a look at em , all say property of Kith Kanan

 

[athos_uo]

Wakoku, New Haven, had a sparkly gate in front of the tailor shop that led to a beautiful Chapel of Love building with 2 chests in front. I could not figure out exactly what was happening, but whatever it was, it looked special! And beautiful.

A scavenger hunt was held at last night on Japanese shards. The two chests contained a list of items to collect.

 

[It Lives]

WTF!


what a joke.

 

[Millie]

オハイオ州Iの願い私は日本および点検にそれらが悪い状態をそう有するすべてのAnime住むことができる。 そして彼らが書くものを読める。

As for request me of Ohio state I all Anime which so possess a state where those are bad to Japan and inspection it can live. And those which they write can be read.

I think my translator is not working right. lol

 

[Bazer]

yea that is weird i used a free translation website and when i typed in what i wrote it put that up there and when i went to translate it it ewasent even close to what i first typed in it to translate.

 

[Sweeney]

If you aren't used to this already, you're behind the times.

 

[Bara]

 

[Hemisphere]

In the news tomorrow:

"EA Japan deems US servers "unsustainable", makes moves to take all western servers offline and distribute their items evenly amongst the Japanese playerbase as a token of thanks for their loyalty and support"

 

[Tina Small]

It looks like it's saying that for every 3500 yen of purchases made during the two-week period with the same store account, you are automatically sent a Tokuno Dye code. I believe the code gives you your choice of three 50-charge bottles of dye, out of 19 available colors.

https://ultimaonline.jp/store/item_list.php gets you to the first of two pages of items that can be purchased through the store. This is what it looks like you can buy now:

• Individual 11th Anniversary collection items for varying prices (i.e., Earrings of Protection; Hitching Post; Wooden Bookcase; Streetlamp; Fallen Log; Armor Engraving Tool; Snowy Tree; Maple Tree; Willow Tree; Ancestral Gravestone; BOD Book Cover; set of 12 BOD Book Covers).
• The entire set of 11th Anniversary collection items.
• 10th Anniversary token (I think this is the same as the Legacy token for either a Charger of the Fallen, a full soulstone, or a shroud).
• 10th Anniversary commemoration and character transfer token. (I think....??)
• Character Transfer token only.
• Soulstone fragment.
• 30 days of game time.
• 90 days of game time.
• 180 days of game time.
• Character name change token.
• Advanced character token.
• Additional account code.
• Gender change token.
• Mondains Legacy upgrade that includes a Charger of the Fallen. (I'm guessing on this one.)
• House and bank storage upgrade code.
• A token for a herald. ??
• 1 item from the Spring Decor collection.
• 12 items from the Spring Decor collection.
• 9 items from the 9th Anniversary collection.
• 1 item from the 9th Anniversary collection.
• 1 item from the 8th Anniversary collection.
• 1 item from the 7th Anniversary collection.
• Tokens for the crystal and shadow house customization items.

 

[Teeshy]

Yeah, seems like spend 3500 yen and get a pigment free =)

Cheeky buggers, the 11th anni collection is 3400 yen =P

So I guess I wont be buying it, cos then I'd have to find a second "something" to buy as well to make up the difference =P

Ah well, I got away with it last time they had the tok dye tokens up for sale, guess not this time!

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

I think it is absolutely hilarious that some of you are throwing a fit about not being able to buy items for dollars (or yens). Tokuno pigment dyes should not be a token item but be available in game, if they are to be made available again.

Seriously, if it makes you that upset that you can't hand over your hard earned money for some pixels then... *baffled*

I am certain that if the tables were turned, some of you would be still complaining. There is a *lot* of things that North American/European players have that Japanese players do not:

1) We have a higher chance of getting our feedback heard than Japanese players. In fact, there are sooo many incidents of Japanese players getting the middle finger because developers tend to take input from us.

2) Now, we have EM's on all shards which is actually not present in Japanese servers. Their seer program is not nearly as extensive or visible as EM program based on my experience.

What they do have which we do not.. is a lack of people who only look at the glass half empty.

 

[Bazer]

Eh half empty or half full just meeds u still got some left

 

[athos_uo]

Thanks for your calm and reasonable post.

I agree with you in the following point:"Tokuno pigment dyes should not be a token item but be available in game, if they are to be made available again."

But this kind of promotion will be done repeatedly in Japan, I suppose.

The producer of EA Japan UO team said once: "We should find another kind of way to make benefit."

In this case, "another way" means the other way than to assess monthly fee. That means, I think, selling items.

A lot of basically free online games are emerging in Japan in these days, so it is very difficult to acquire new players to an online game that assess monthly fee from them. There's no other way for EA Japan than to make benefit by selling items to us, I think. This tendency is very obvious for me now, since they sold 11th anniversary items to us.

 

[Shelleybean]

I have mixed feelings about that. Where do you draw the line between offering items as free in-game content and selling items for a profit? I haven't made up my mind about it yet. But I think it's pretty unfair that UO Japan offers items that we can't get. I don't understand why there is such a disparity.

 

[athos_uo]

Where do you draw the line between offering items as free in-game content and selling items for a profit?

I don't know. But I suppose EA Japan would like to sell things that sell well. And those items should not break the balance of game, as Draconi has once stated in one of similar threads. Tokuno dyes sell best, and themselves do not destroy game balance, therefore one of the best items to sell.

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

I really do wonder if the people clamoring loudly day in and day out over "cash for pixel" system of UO Japan realize what exactly they are asking for?

As Athos_uo mentioned, in Asia they have a different model emerging where things are moving towards increased amount of items via cash. Do we REALLY WANT more of that happneing on our shards? I think some of you in your blind desire to constantly compare (and complain) with Japan are missing the bigger picture...

Instead of demanding the same silly tokens, we should be crying out against such tokens as they can be transferred to our shards too. I, for one, don't want UO to go down this road more than it already has.

 

[Kith Kanan]

I think it is absolutely hilarious that some of you are throwing a fit about not being able to buy items for dollars (or yens). Tokuno pigment dyes should not be a token item but be available in game, if they are to be made available again.

Seriously, if it makes you that upset that you can't hand over your hard earned money for some pixels then... *baffled*

I am certain that if the tables were turned, some of you would be still complaining. There is a *lot* of things that North American/European players have that Japanese players do not:

1) We have a higher chance of getting our feedback heard than Japanese players. In fact, there are sooo many incidents of Japanese players getting the middle finger because developers tend to take input from us.

2) Now, we have EM's on all shards which is actually not present in Japanese servers. Their seer program is not nearly as extensive or visible as EM program based on my experience.

What they do have which we do not.. is a lack of people who only look at the glass half empty.

What we are " trowing fits " about is the way the player base is NOT treated equaly , we play the same game and pay the same amount of money , but the support , gamre play and options sure as hell aint equal !!!!

 

[Tina Small]

The official announcement we received on February 2nd to explain why we still can't purchase the 11th Anniversary Collection refers to "technical difficulties." It also promises that we'll receive updates about the situation through the UOGameCodes website.

http://www.uoherald.com/news/news.php?newsid=505

While I don't disagree with you, Tomas, it does sound to me as if the US team has every intention of selling these items to us as a way to get more revenue out of the game. It was certainly the direction they were headed in before they cancelled The Sims Online. They had even added ATM-type machines so you could purchase in-game currency with real dollars through their official store. I haven't browsed the Pogo site recently, but I know it's always had "premium" content you could purchase separately over and above your base subscription fee.

EA's current fiscal year ends March 31st. I imagine their annual report might make an interesting read for anyone who is curious about what they have planned for their online games both in the US and abroad.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Seriously folks, do you *really* want to pay EA more money? As a separate transaction from the code store? *shakes head*

If anything, I would rather they just give us the content and additions like they always have, and increase the monthly fee a coupla dollars or three.
Not a popular idea, I know, but hey, if we gonna pay for em anyway, let's do it monthly.

The main problem here is, if they increase the monthly fee, will they still run the goodies out to us? Or will we be left dangling, like we were with the last increase (for better CS)


Personally, I'd rather just pay more per month, and get em free, than to deal with the codestore and stuff.

 

[Lord Kotan]

Why do Japan shards get so many more benifits? Isn't it the same company that runs both? I still haven't seen those 11th anni items that haven't been Xfered over here.. like the real hitch post, etc

 

[Flora Green]

I think it is absolutely hilarious that some of you are throwing a fit about not being able to buy items for dollars (or yens). Tokuno pigment dyes should not be a token item but be available in game, if they are to be made available again.

Seriously, if it makes you that upset that you can't hand over your hard earned money for some pixels then... *baffled*

I am certain that if the tables were turned, some of you would be still complaining. There is a *lot* of things that North American/European players have that Japanese players do not:

1) We have a higher chance of getting our feedback heard than Japanese players. In fact, there are sooo many incidents of Japanese players getting the middle finger because developers tend to take input from us.

2) Now, we have EM's on all shards which is actually not present in Japanese servers. Their seer program is not nearly as extensive or visible as EM program based on my experience.

What they do have which we do not.. is a lack of people who only look at the glass half empty.

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you regularly criticize others for their views. It's not as if people haven't asked for the dyes to be added back to the game. Suggestions have ranged from making them a champ drop, adding back to the turn in guy in Zento or allowing alchemists to craft them. Yet, you completely ignored that in your post.

Lay the blame where it belongs, at the feet of the devs for removing the dyes in the first place and without warning or explanation. Also, this is the second time the Japanese players have the opportunity to get the dyes. If the only way we can get the dyes, the old Spring Collection or other items is from the store, some of us will take that option.

ETA: Obviously I prefer to NOT pay for items from the store, but since they apparently have no intention of adding the dyes back, what other option is there? These are popular items, I'm amazed they haven't milked it already because they are going to make money off of them.

 

[canary]

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you regularly criticize others for their views.

He's not criticizing; he is voicing an opinion. Last time I checked that was kind of the purpose of message boards, right?

 

[Esmeralda]

Tbh I am mostly upset, that I can´t buy from that japanese site..lol
I soo badly need one of those autumn trees to finish my decorating my home *sighs*

And I´m upset with that "soon" mentality ea shows the players. I mean, we got promised those items for december 08, now it´s mid february and the last official post about them wasn´t really giving me much hope!
I know it´s somehow weird to throw money at a gaming company just for pixel crack, complaining that they stop me from spending money....... but that´s what I WANT to do! *blushes*

 

[Kratos Aurion]

I believe the UO Japan team is more in tune with user desires than the American team. It doesn't necessarily mean they take better care of their players but rather they do what needs to be done then sell it for mass profit. Therefore they keep their playerbase happy and leaving us either sad or frustrated that the American team can't compete or respond as fast on the matters to us.

Example:

Japan Team: sells promo tokens with all new items that have been under request on American servers for years and years (i.e. bookcases, stable poles and colored bod books)

In response American team: Creates an implemented craftable bookcase/stable pole that are extremely hard to get and frustrates just about all the playerbase because it was something we've been requesting but never got.

I think even the American playerbase would rather buy promo tokens vs wasting time on the half-ass immitation implementations the American team does to compete against the Japan team.

 

[Tomas_Bryce]

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you regularly criticize others for their views.

You are criticizing me for criticizing you for criticizing someone's decision to not sell these items for dollars on your shard. Tee hee

On a serious note, there are a lot of us who would like EA/Mythic to keep extra charged items at bare minimum. We would rather have the item not be in game than encourage such a system. I would agree with you that they should have a new round of ToT, but hopefully in a more spruced up manner.

 

[ElvishArcher]

You know what part kinda get to me? It is the fact that when you goto the US version of the UO site where they sell the game time codes at... you know the ones you can buy a code instead of just a regular credit card deduction every month? On the US site you only have the option from what I can see, to purchase time codes in 90-day form only. The Japanese version offers 30/90/180 day codes. I am in the military and quite honestley there is always the chance I may get deployed yet one more time (2x in the last 4 years already). With that being the case, there is the chance I could forget to terminate my credit billing service tied to UO and continually get billed for a game I cannot play from were I to be redeployed to the wonderful Disneyland called Iraq *blue denotes sarcasm intentions*. I would much MUCH rather have the option to use codes in 30-day increments, and I remember a few years back that's all I ever did.

In a nutshell, I could care less about the other items, sure what's good for the goose should be good for the gander but that's my opinion. Don't care about much of the other stuff as I already have 90% of that stuff from when it was originally released (barring the 11th Anny Items which I am really upset about as well), although I do sympathize with what others are saying in regards to their desires to get the other items the Japanese Site offers.

 

[Tina Small]

Someone somewhere obviously has built a program that generates the promotional codes for those items so they can be communicated to customers. The customers then use the in-game Help option to input the code and generate either a token or a specific item.

Question for Spada: Does your group have the ability to generate codes for the 11th Anniversary items and the Tokuno dyes? Could we purchase them through the "Contact Us" option on the support pages and completely bypass the gamecode site and its current technical difficulties?

 

[Harb]

I'm not opposed to dev's efforts generating revenue on either side of the Pacific pond, in fact I'm all in favor of it if it keeps up moving along! I do have concerns. 1) What's good for a Japanese player is good for a player here or accross the Atlantic pond, if any of us has the opportunity to purchase or receive items, we all should. 2) Dev has long "missed" opportunity. There is no divide or rift internationally between players. A holiday gift, such as a wooden cow, should be dispersed to all players, along with an explanation of meaning. Spread culture, it really is a unique opportunity. And while on this theme, a Christmas gift is a Christmas gift, not a "holiday" one. 3) I suspect the Japanese code store works if they're providing incentive for greater purchase. Too bad our codes site is not as user friendly. It needs to be fixed. 4) The Japanese codes site apperas to be a couple incentives "in front" of ours here in the western world. Please see concern 1. Gees.

 

[Millie]

I think they should give the Japanese what ever they want to sell them. Dyes, 11 Anniversary gifts etc. But and I do mean a big but, if we Westerners do not get them par quest or event, or the choice to buy the same idem as the Japanese do. Then the idem should not be able to be transferred to a Western shards. I'm Sick of seeing vendor after vendor of the stuff being sold for outrages prices on western shard because it's the only way for us to get it.

 

[Teeshy]

Tbh I am mostly upset, that I can´t buy from that japanese site..lol
I soo badly need one of those autumn trees to finish my decorating my home *sighs*

You can, you know =) Just need an online translator, a lot of patience, and a little bit of "reading between the lines" (for where the translator fails)

I did it last time they had the tokens, cos I just wanted the 50 shot dyes (I wasn't playing when the originals were available) - but don't ask me try and remember WHAT I did to register and buy, I just know it was as above, translator, patience etc

Oh, and I remember I had to fib a little when registering, cos I needed an japanese address (or postcode), so I googled for one =P I've had to do the same thing before on other sites, when I needed a US address

 

[Flora Green]

You are criticizing me for criticizing you for criticizing someone's decision to not sell these items for dollars on your shard. Tee hee

Fair enough, Tomas.

 

[Harlequin]

I am certain that if the tables were turned, some of you would be still complaining. There is a *lot* of things that North American/European players have that Japanese players do not:

1) We have a higher chance of getting our feedback heard than Japanese players. In fact, there are sooo many incidents of Japanese players getting the middle finger because developers tend to take input from us.

2) Now, we have EM's on all shards which is actually not present in Japanese servers. Their seer program is not nearly as extensive or visible as EM program based on my experience.

What they do have which we do not.. is a lack of people who only look at the glass half empty.

Yup, I think the AOS coloured dyes were nice and should be made available.

1) One of the more recent times where the Japanese players' voices were unheard - they basically got shafted by the necro requirements for the sammy template because someone on Stratics was not happy about it. From what I see in Doom, more than 50% of the players on the Japanese shards use a sammy. Mages/tamers/bards/necros/spellweavers make up the remainder (ie about 10% each).

2) I believe most (if not all) of their events are held by the GMs instead of EMs. And no uber items either.

Thanks for your calm and reasonable post.

I agree with you in the following point:"Tokuno pigment dyes should not be a token item but be available in game, if they are to be made available again."

But this kind of promotion will be done repeatedly in Japan, I suppose.

The producer of EA Japan UO team said once: "We should find another kind of way to make benefit."

In this case, "another way" means the other way than to assess monthly fee. That means, I think, selling items.

A lot of basically free online games are emerging in Japan in these days, so it is very difficult to acquire new players to an online game that assess monthly fee from them. There's no other way for EA Japan than to make benefit by selling items to us, I think. This tendency is very obvious for me now, since they sold 11th anniversary items to us.

That's correct, it's a marketing strategy by EA Japan to increase sales in Japan. Most of the Asian countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan) have been coming out with ALOT of free online games over the past few years. Instead of monthly fees, they earn money by advertising or by selling in-game items/powerups or by capping your avatar's potential unless you are a "paid member" (eg in UO terms, akin to haveing a permanently free trial account with skills capped at 50 etc).

Similar to nintendo/sega titles that were never translated and sold outside Japan, these online games are also virtually unknown to the western hemisphere. But they are definitely eating into the MMO market share there.

With that in mind, I wouldn't say that by selling these, it's a case of favoritism or that the rest of us are being shafted. Instead, I think it's a wonderful strategy that EA US can adopt to boost sales globally.

 

[Bara]

EA

It's obvious that many players would pay real cash for these options if they were present on our UOstores. Like it or not, that is the blatant truth.

Would you like for ultima to bring in more cash this year or not?

You want a piece of that revenue?

The ball is in your court.

 

[soulstoner]

Originally Posted by Flora Green
I think it is absolutely ridiculous that you regularly criticize others for their views....

I pretty much always feel that way too - glad I'm not alone on that -- Perhaps it's the tone - but horray for free speech ........

Anywho tis exciting that there's potential opportunity ... It's like being in Maine ... it takes a while before things get to us - sometimes that's a good thing.

 

[Harb]

EA...The ball is in your court.

There are a couple new threads weekly regarding this theme, folks ready to pay for the work dev does. Draconi originally said to look for them mid-December, but later stated a "technical issue" was responsible for further delay. I assume this "technical issue" is codes site related, as the items have been "up and running" since November - available in Japan and functioning on all shards via the "importers."

There's nothing in the collection that I'm personally holding my breath for, but I'll purchase all of them, as like many I horde everything and more importantly, I am absolutely convinced that money spent on the game is the lifeblood of current and future development and the single determining factor of the life span of our game. I love soul stones, and buy my codes site imposed limit of two each month. I didn't buy them in Dec, Jan, and thus far haven't bought them this month, as the site will block further purchases for 30 days if I make the purchase - meaning no 11th year collection if you've already made your two purchases for the month. So based on information coming from Draconi, I'm in "delay mode." So deferred revenue isn't just the collection proper, there are other consequences.

The bigger issues, at least from my view, aren't so much the collection, but rather the sporadic, vague, and inconsistent communications received from the folks driving our game onward. Coupled with seeming apathy and lack of appreciation for those of us who have stuck around UO for over a decade, and the implied "second class" treatment we seem to receive relative to the player base in Japan, I really am becoming irritated over this one. I don't become irritated often, or easily. I sincerely appreciate the work dev does, and likewise am grateful when they do communicate with us - it's something they don’t "have" to do and currently are not staffed to do. But really, this has been handled very, very poorly.

 

[Kariny]

EA

It's obvious that many players would pay real cash for these options if they were present on our UOstores. Like it or not, that is the blatant truth.

Would you like for ultima to bring in more cash this year or not?

You want a piece of that revenue?

The ball is in your court.

I think Mark Jacobs tossed the ball to the players a long time ago.

I wish I had kept that link now, but once he stated we do have the option to cancel if we don't like how things are run.

 

[KilandraEAMythic]

Greetings!


About twice each year, our friends in Japan have a promotional “bonus” for customers that purchase items over a pre-determined sum of money in the store for a short time. The bonus would be, as the wonderful folks here have already posted, a choice of Tokuno dyes. If memory serves me correctly, this is the second time that the Tokuno dyes have been apart of this bi-annual promotion.


Thank you, Tina Small for the nice post from the UO Japan store. And thank you Athos for continuing to help connect our UO players across the globe.


We are all open to constructive feedback. Please feel free to post your ideas.

~Kilandra

 

[Tina Small]

We are all open to constructive feedback. Please feel free to post your ideas.

Is there any chance we can use the "contact us" option in the Support section of the uo.com site to order the items that are available through the UO Japan site? Someone has obviously built an application to generate the promotional codes that are used in-game to get the tokens or items. Can you make that application available to the English-speaking support reps so we can order these items through them while you work out the technical difficulties associated with the uogamecodes site?