Launch goodies - small print says "Limit one offer per person"

[Jafanarae]

I was reading about the launch goodies at:

http://www.uoherald.com/stygianabyss/launch/index.php

Purchase Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss™ from September 8th-29th, 2009 and receive the following:

Three Alteration Tokens to transform
current characters into Gargoyles

An exclusive gargoyle craftable pet

Three Tokens to unlock one of five decorative
Stygian Abyss mob boss statues

I’m quite curious about the gargoyle craftable pet, because I haven’t heard about that before. The other items are self explanatory.

I’m slightly troubled by the small print, which I think must be inaccurate:

** Offer expires September 29th, 2009. Good only for new purchases of Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss™. Valid only at the EA STORE at www.eastore.ea.com and at participating online retailers. Limit one offer per person. Customers will be emailed the code with the email notification of product release. Download code expires December 31, 2010. Valid only in U.S. Offer may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. May not be combined with any other offer, gift card, rebate or discount coupon. Retailers, distributors and employees of Electronic Arts Inc. and their agencies/affiliates are not eligible. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.

Why would it be limited to one offer per person? Surely it should be limited to one offer per purchase. We’ve already read that if we want to upgrade more accounts than the gamecodes site allows, we should use the EA store, so the people at EA are clearly aware that there will be multiple purchases by some individuals. I’m planning on upgrading three accounts, but I can’t imagine they want me to change two of the three accounts into the names of family members first just so I can get the goodies on all three accounts!

Surely they don’t mean one per person, that wouldn’t be at all popular.

 

[canary]

I'm not sure why, but I don't find any of those incentives a decent reason to pick up SA.

 

[Jafanarae]

Well, I guess they are supposed to be incentives to get it sooner rather than later. I think the new content is supposed to be the incentive to buy it.

 

[Phaen Grey]

It could be miss worded in that you can only get one expansion per account? If you have three accounts you can register/enter the promo code once for each account but still have three sets, if that makes sense?

 

[Jafanarae]

I think it's worded incorrectly. It should be one per purchase / one per account. Also, the "Valid only in U.S." is pretty daft. I live in the UK, aren't I entitled to some goodies too? I always got them before.

It looks like they've just used some standard wording on there, they probably should have tailored it a little.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

I'm not sure why, but I don't find any of those incentives a decent reason to pick up SA.

With that I agree. Between the game Using UO Players as TEST guinea pigs, and Clever marketing by EA, nothing is seriously helping customers manage costs of maintaining one account let alone numerous accounts. After playing and paying EA/UO since 1997 hoping for better days, I have been forced to shut down numerous excessive accounts, with more closures following until there are no more to close. Recently I bought 2 white trees and an artistic Willow tree from EA's 11th-Anniversary-Digital-Item-Money-Making-offer ... before feeling like an idiot for being conned into paying for something that should be free in this game! What kind of business does that to it's customers? Wake up call!

Serious thoughts of quitting UO are now being entertained for the first time by myself and also by many others that I know. I will probably keep a couple of accounts going for now and probably upgrade my oldest account to SA out of bad habit, then enjoy what a few more months in UO might bring.

Is EA pushing to see how much players are willing or able to pay, or grabbing money off presently paying customers before pulling the plug on UO? Are they testing UO with SA to see if the game should continue, or do they already know the answer and are grabbing as much money as possible before shutting down UO? I don't have any confidence left in the powers that be. It's always a wait and see......

I would much prefer a box on the shelf for the expansion of SA with a book and disc to go with my UO Collection (since the first solo games) than to pay EA directly for a digitized upgrade to SA and no backup copy, with only their records to back me up. ... that's no offer.

 

[Lady Michelle]

An exclusive gargoyle craftable pet
its a gargoyle cat

 

[Mayadevi]

Valid Only in the US ?

I was reading about the launch goodies at:

http://www.uoherald.com/stygianabyss/launch/index.php

Purchase Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss™ from September 8th-29th, 2009 and receive the following:

Three Alteration Tokens to transform
current characters into Gargoyles

An exclusive gargoyle craftable pet

Three Tokens to unlock one of five decorative
Stygian Abyss mob boss statues

I’m quite curious about the gargoyle craftable pet, because I haven’t heard about that before. The other items are self explanatory.

I’m slightly troubled by the small print, which I think must be inaccurate:

** Offer expires September 29th, 2009. Good only for new purchases of Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss™. Valid only at the EA STORE at www.eastore.ea.com and at participating online retailers. Limit one offer per person. Customers will be emailed the code with the email notification of product release. Download code expires December 31, 2010. Valid only in U.S. Offer may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. May not be combined with any other offer, gift card, rebate or discount coupon. Retailers, distributors and employees of Electronic Arts Inc. and their agencies/affiliates are not eligible. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.

NO, Just NO.

I live in Canada now. It's Saturday.

Launch is Tuesday. Next business day.

I'd just been to EB Games, they said the EA cash card is only available in the states. Tried Walmart, Pretty much the same response. Called 7-11 and Toys R Us, No cash cards there either.

Came home to find it's only available in the States.

Well geez Ea, I can take a hint ! Don't want me money? OK

I'm Not buying it.

Mayadevi ( Who really DID think she'd be there until the last stars went out in Sosaria )

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Valid only in U.S. eh? What's that you say?

haha If I can't buy I can't buy it!!!
As a Canadian I've always had to spend too much on currency exchange and taxes for both USA (which should not be charged to Canadians or other countries) and Canada on top of monthly increasing monthly fees. Hey, hi Mayadevi! Makes me wonder what made me think I too would be here to the end!

 

[Fink]

An exclusive gargoyle craftable pet

Couple of questions:

How can it be exclusive if it's craftable?
Is it craftable only by gargoyles?
Can humans own it?
Is it in fact a pet gargoyle?

Both my tinkers are human, so I'd want #2 answered at least.

 

[Fortyniner]

I've long believed that the UO web sites are where they dump people who can't make it as game developers.

 

[Marcus Blackwell]

Valid only in U.S. eh? What's that you say?

haha If I can't buy I can't buy it!!!
As a Canadian I've always had to spend too much on currency exchange and taxes for both USA (which should not be charged to Canadians or other countries) and Canada on top of monthly increasing monthly fees. Hey, hi Mayadevi! Makes me wonder what made me think I too would be here to the end!

Yeah What is it up with that? does that mean the gifts are only avaible to US customers only or SA only? I hope they offer this to just more then the US peeps this just sounds like a bad way to **** off yer loyal customers.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Has anyone actually found the page on EAStore? I can't find it.

 

[Maplestone]

It does not appear that the page will be active until the 8th.http://www.ea.com/games/ultima-online-stygian-abyss

 

[Petra Fyde]

That page raises so many questions.
What part of the offer is US only? Can the rest of the world not upgrade?
Why is it 'one offer per person' if the person is buying multiple codes?
and how do you bread a battle chicken? How many loaves will it take?

 

[Maplestone]

The trouble with fine print is that it is usually written to a template by lawyers and may have no relevance to reality. Hard to tell until it is tested.

 

[christy1221]

and how do you bread a battle chicken?

Roll it in dough?

They have never made the gifts one per customer it's always been per expansion you buy. It would really suck if they changed it.

 

[THyRoID99]

I've long believed that the UO web sites are where they dump people who can't make it as game developers.

LOL

actually, they become testers.. shhh

Edit: btw I'm not buying SA and neither are my buddies... especially now since we can't get the bonus items up here in Canadialand. We also feel that the new content is uninteresting and wouldn't partake in it anyways. yay baskets, yay dyes, yay mechanical pets. Oh and lets not forget the great idea of adding more land and housing areas to already underpopulated servers... Ultima Online: We dislike like massively multiplayer.

 

[Aurelius]

All I've been able to find from the EA store page is a link to this

http://www.ea.com/games/ultima-online-stygian-abyss

Hopefully it will be there to buy before much longer!

Why is it 'one offer per person' if the person is buying multiple codes?
and how do you bread a battle chicken? How many loaves will it take?

Apparently spelling and SA are mutually incompatible, the 'Mysticism' entry in the playguide informs that

"Since The Shattering, by pouring over recently uncovered ancient texts, the Gargoyles have discovered this lost discipline of magic."

I'd rather they had been 'poring', pouring anything over texts makes the paper go soggy and the ink run....

 

[Jafanarae]

That page raises so many questions.
What part of the offer is US only? Can the rest of the world not upgrade?
Why is it 'one offer per person' if the person is buying multiple codes?
and how do you bread a battle chicken? How many loaves will it take?

As they've added some other bits and pieces for cooks in this expansion, I would hope that the breadcrumbs to roll the chicken in would be a GM cook craftable.

As for the "U.S. only" and "one offer per person" statements, surely they're incorrect. If not, that's ridiculous.

 

[Kiminality]

The theory I have going around in my mind is that this has something to do with the EAstore.
The sending of the code for the early buyer items is attached to the purchase of the item. This would have to be set up for every region's EAstore, since as I understand it, they have seperate offers and prices.
It's possible they've only set this up with the US EAstore, which is why it's listed as US only. Because the other regions won't have the offer associated with the purchase (if they have the purchase at all, that is).
One per person... EAstore purchases require an account, so it's likely one per account. It's possible you could register multiple accounts, and make one purchase with each of them, but it's been a while since I used EAstore (Mass Effect for the PC, I think).

If the offer is available on the UO Gamecodes site, then it's possible that won't be so discerning. Last I knew, you could buy gametime in $ there, worldwide.

 

[Shelleybean]

Thanks for pointing out the fine print! I can honestly day that I didn't read it, nor did I even see that webpage just a day or two ago. I'm not the only UO player in my home and I had planned to order multiple copies at once from the EA store. Now I need to think about what to do.

 

[Mitzlplik_SP]

Are they testing UO with SA to see if the game should continue, or do they already know the answer and are grabbing as much money as possible before shutting down UO? I don't have any confidence left in the powers that be. It's always a wait and see...... QUOTE]

LOL Yea,that makes perfect sense. You should quit now before ya find yourself ingame after another 10 years.



Yea UO`s dying....Chicken Little run! Go tell the others!!

 

[Spelosty]

Just hope SA does more good for the game than the bad we already see coming.

 

[EnigmaMaitreya]

An exclusive gargoyle craftable pet

Couple of questions:

How can it be exclusive if it's craftable?
...

I would assume that it means we all know the "Standard" Craftable Pets, this one is in addition to the "Standard ones".

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Mitzlplik LS: LOL Yea,that makes perfect sense. You should quit now before ya find yourself ingame after another 10 years.



Yea UO`s dying....Chicken Little run! Go tell the others!!

Yes If I and others like me survive UO economics for another ten years, UO will also survive economically!

UO? It's a business run by businessmen, based on economics and profit. The programmers, developers, artists and all other skilled staff in their employ, are all to be admired for their incredible efforts to meet the demands of the business while consistantly being creative and productive.

 

[Poo]

Valid only in U.S. eh? What's that you say?

haha If I can't buy I can't buy it!!!
As a Canadian I've always had to spend too much on currency exchange and taxes for both USA (which should not be charged to Canadians or other countries) and Canada on top of monthly increasing monthly fees. Hey, hi Mayadevi! Makes me wonder what made me think I too would be here to the end!

when a guild mate pointed this out to me last night i got a little..... ticked.

but then i remembered when AOS came out and as a canadian i had to wait a week after its release to be able to go in and have a chance at placing a house in the new area.
oh ya, that was fun.

so this dosnt really suprise me.

but alas, they dont call it an addiction for nothing.
i feel like an abused spouse.

UO slaps me around..... but it still loves me.... and i wont press charges.... just say you love me and you wont hit me again....



that was the last time.... im sure of it, UO still loves me and we can make this work.....



i still love's ya, hold me.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

- - - they dont call it an addiction for nothing.
i feel like an abused spouse.

UO slaps me around..... but it still loves me.... and i wont press charges.... just say you love me and you wont hit me again....



i still love's ya, hold me.

Yes. It's a love-hate addictive relationship with UO.

UO is unique. I love it. Uo is a Unique Game created by talented Developers, intelligent trained Computer Programmers, creative artists and writers ..... Since real life keeps me too busy, UO has always had more than enough content and variety of things to do, things to learn and goals to achieve than I've even had time for. I don't need other games.

ps: I think of EA and UO as being separate bodies.
EA is the Clever Business Marketing Company and UO is one of their commodities. I don't love EA.
UO is the game I love and pay EA to play.

 

[Marcus Blackwell]

when a guild mate pointed this out to me last night i got a little..... ticked.

but then i remembered when AOS came out and as a canadian i had to wait a week after its release to be able to go in and have a chance at placing a house in the new area.
oh ya, that was fun.

so this dosnt really suprise me.

but alas, they dont call it an addiction for nothing.
i feel like an abused spouse.

UO slaps me around..... but it still loves me.... and i wont press charges.... just say you love me and you wont hit me again....



that was the last time.... im sure of it, UO still loves me and we can make this work.....



i still love's ya, hold me.

No answer from EA on this yet? Would be nice if they clear afew things up like if this is just EA store related or includes ordering through Gamecodes as well? And will the other EA stores from other countries atleast offer the same thing as the U.S. store does? Right now this litttle bit of fine print seems to be ticking off alot of non US customers..

 

[Slayvite]

Their wont be a response till later on. Remember its been a holliday weekend in US so they wont be in till Monday morning, or even Tuesday. I wonder if thats why they put the release date on a Tuesday?

 

[Heartseeker]

when a guild mate pointed this out to me last night i got a little..... ticked.

but then i remembered when AOS came out and as a canadian i had to wait a week after its release to be able to go in and have a chance at placing a house in the new area.
oh ya, that was fun.

so this dosnt really suprise me.

but alas, they dont call it an addiction for nothing.
i feel like an abused spouse.

UO slaps me around..... but it still loves me.... and i wont press charges.... just say you love me and you wont hit me again....



that was the last time.... im sure of it, UO still loves me and we can make this work.....



i still love's ya, hold me.

No answer from EA on this yet? Would be nice if they clear afew things up like if this is just EA store related or includes ordering through Gamecodes as well? And will the other EA stores from other countries atleast offer the same thing as the U.S. store does? Right now this litttle bit of fine print seems to be ticking off alot of non US customers..

Being outside the US, this doesn't sound encouraging.

 

[Tina Small]

Their wont be a response till later on. Remember its been a holliday weekend in US so they wont be in till Monday morning, or even Tuesday. I wonder if thats why they put the release date on a Tuesday?

I would imagine many members of the UO team will work most of this 3-day weekend while many other EA employees are enjoying the holiday and won't return to work until Tuesday. Some of the employees enjoying the long weekend are undoubtedly the people in marketing and those that support website sales.

 

[Otis Firefly]

honestly if launch offers and release date purchase are only available in the US..
i'll be passing

 

[Kiminality]

Well, this is an encouraging silence.
Day before launch, and not a word as to whether non-US subscribers are out in the cold.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Well, this is an encouraging silence.
Day before launch, and not a word as to whether non-US subscribers are out in the cold.

Are you serious? It's 5:30ish AM when you posted. What dev or EA person is gonna be reading this forum at 5AM??
Hold off on the "one day left" commentary till there is actually someone at the office?

 

[Cailleach]

Are you serious? It's 5:30ish AM when you posted. What dev or EA person is gonna be reading this forum at 5AM??
Hold off on the "one day left" commentary till there is actually someone at the office?

Might be 5am to you, but over here in the UK, it's 10/11am. Perhaps, since the game is multi national and multi time zone, EA could get their act together and actually plan accordingly? Or would that be expecting far too much?

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Might be 5am to you, but over here in the UK, it's 10/11am. Perhaps, since the game is multi national and multi time zone, EA could get their act together and actually plan accordingly? Or would that be expecting far too much?

Also note. Today is Labor Day in the United States. A holiday. EA employees will likely not be at the office today anyway.

 

[Kiminality]

Are you serious? It's 5:30ish AM when you posted. What dev or EA person is gonna be reading this forum at 5AM??
Hold off on the "one day left" commentary till there is actually someone at the office?

Very serious.
Because there is one day left, Labour Day does not have space/time bending capabilities that render tomorrow to be anything but tomorrow.
Just because I posted at 5am doesn't mean that's the only applicable time. The matter existed even before this thread was created, and that was 2 days ago.

 

[Jafanarae]

Another thing that I am concerned about is the EA store. When I go to the EA store, it automatically takes me to a local version of the site with prices in pounds sterling. I can’t find any mention of Ultima on that site (I tried browsing and using the search box), so I wonder if that’s the same for the US version of the site and that the UO details will appear there tomorrow or if the version of the EA store I have access to just won’t include UO at all.

If I can’t buy the upgrade from the EA store, I’ll have a problem upgrading multiple accounts because of the gamecodes site’s restrictions.

I guess I could use a US proxy to get access to the US version of the site but that may have security implications. Anyway, if the EA store wants to redirect me to a UK site based on my IP, will getting through to the payment page with a proxy just mean I get redirected to the UK site when EA realises I have a UK credit card and address?

Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Cailleach]

Also note. Today is Labor Day in the United States. A holiday. EA employees will likely not be at the office today anyway.

Then perhaps EA could have taken this into consideration when planning their release date for SA? It's not rocket science!

 

[Ken of Napa]

I wouldn't be too concerned. I live in the US and when I go to the EA site it says nothing about UO. I can't even find it by searching the site. I would assume they will be adding UO to items for sale tomorrow, when they plan on selling them.

It does concern me a little that they don't mention UO at all. However, I keep telling myself that it's only because they have nothing to sell Which is in of itself a sad thing

 

[Jafanarae]

Ken, thanks for confirming that there's nothing on the US version of the EA Store yet either, guess we'll just have to keep checking.

Strange that they don't have some sort of standard year round UO page anywhere on the EA Store though, even if it's just to sell a new account code for the current expansion or a link to the gamecodes site or uoherald site.

I understand that a physical shop presence with boxes costs money and that’s why we’ve gone the way of digital download instead of physical media, but surely a spot on the EA Store website would have a negligible cost and do a little profile raising.

 

[DarkScripture]

Due to it reading US only , I was wondering if EA Japan is giving a diffrent offer..

 

[Slayvite]

Due to it reading US only , I was wondering if EA Japan is giving a diffrent offer..

Yeah, knowing them their will be atleaste a set of neon ToT dyes in their to make ugly gargoyle armours.

 

[Jafanarae]

I still hope and believe that the small print is a mistake, that upgrades of multiple accounts will give multiple bonus goodies and that non-U.S. players won't be left out in the cold.

 

[Lorax_Pacific]

Has anyone actually found the page on EAStore? I can't find it.

I did find it on August 13 and purchased it, but am now worried I won't get the extra stuff since I purchased before Sept 8.

<snip from order>
Order Date: August 14, 2009
ORDER SUMMARY

Product SKU: 70528
Product Name: Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss™
Qty Ordered: 1
Amount: $29.99

SubTotal: $29.99
Shipping & Handling: $0.00

Tax: $2.79
Total: $32.78

I will be highly bothered about not getting the extras. I tried to order another upgrade, but cannot locate any of this on the eastore.ea.com site.

-Lorax

 

[Xanth de Orlig]

I still hope and believe that the small print is a mistake, that upgrades of multiple accounts will give multiple bonus goodies

i read somewhere , though i cant remember exactly where ... that there is to be an option of buying up to 5 upgrades per purchase ... so i am supposing that this means 5 upgrades, one bonus set ...

if thats the case ... and i do end up getting more than one of my accts upgraded, then i will just make X amount of purcheses to get a bonus pack with each

though i could be way off too ;-)

 

[Jafanarae]

I'm sure they'll sort this out soon and let us know. As the in game items don't actually cost them anything (now that they've done all the coding) but do act as an incentive to many players, I don't think they'll try to shortchange us. I just don't like that the small print means that they can.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

when a guild mate pointed this out to me last night i got a little..... ticked.

but then i remembered when AOS came out and as a canadian i had to wait a week after its release to be able to go in and have a chance at placing a house in the new area.
oh ya, that was fun.

so this dosnt really suprise me.

but alas, they dont call it an addiction for nothing.
i feel like an abused spouse.

UO slaps me around..... but it still loves me.... and i wont press charges.... just say you love me and you wont hit me again....



that was the last time.... im sure of it, UO still loves me and we can make this work.....



i still love's ya, hold me.

Of all things, and despite all things ... that brilliant, funny post from Poo still has me laughing so, I am jumping in here, pushing the SA issue aside, and going off topic to say, "THANKS Poo for a great laugh!"

 

[Shelleybean]

I hope we get clarification on this today.