UO Population / UO economy

[Valerin]

I left the game a couple years ago in large part because of lack of an anti-cheat system and because of the dwindling UO economy (gold had gone from $7 per 1mil to $3 per 1mil)

My question... has the UO population continued to decline, and how many people is it estimated, still play? Secondly, has the UO economy also continued its decline?

Of all the mmorpgs, UO is and will always be my favorite, but I haven't been able to convince myself to get back into it.

 

[Maggie]

People still cheat and gold is still cheap (cheaper really) but I think the population is up. At least on my shard.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

People still cheat and gold is still cheap (cheaper really) but I think the population is up. At least on my shard.

argh.

if you think low gold prices to dollars is a decline in the economy dont come back.

There is not way to prove population is up. So dont come back.

If you want to come back because the economy is working perfectly. That is all items reflect the gold prices. So no you dont have 50 million gold and can buy a power item for 100 gold you have to pay 1 million. Its balanced. Its working fine.

If you want to come back because you can just step right into the economy regardless of perception of gold prices... come back.

If you want to come back because the game play is there. Come back.

 

[AtlanteanAngel]

There are always some people who love it if gold is worth lotsa USD (eg. gold farmers or sellers), and there'll always be some people who love it if gold is worth very little USD (eg. buyers or end consumers).

But if you're really into the gameplay for the sake of the gameplay, you shouldn't be adversely affected either way (unless you're only into UO to farm and sell gold; or you choose to let your personal enjoyment of UO be determined by how rich/powerful other players are relative to yourself - the keeping up with the Joneses syndrome).

 

[Valerin]

There are always some people who love it if gold is worth lotsa USD (eg. gold farmers or sellers), and there'll always be some people who love it if gold is worth very little USD (eg. buyers or end consumers).

But if you're really into the gameplay for the sake of the gameplay, you shouldn't be adversely affected either way (unless you're only into UO to farm and sell gold; or you choose to let your personal enjoyment of UO be determined by how rich/powerful other players are relative to yourself - the keeping up with the Joneses syndrome).

I was in the game for both gameplay, comradery, and selling gold/items. The population decline hurt gameplay imo, the lack of an anti-cheat system hurt gameplay imo (pvp mainly), and the declining economy pushed me over the edge (had i quit months after i did, I would have lost about $1000).

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

I was in the game for both gameplay, comradery, and selling gold/items. The population decline hurt gameplay imo, the lack of an anti-cheat system hurt gameplay imo (pvp mainly), and the declining economy pushed me over the edge (had i quit months after i did, I would have lost about $1000).

If you attaching real dollars to the game. No need to come back. Less you are speculating. Then $1 gold is a good deal.

 

[Valerin]

If you attaching real dollars to the game. No need to come back. Less you are speculating. Then $1 gold is a good deal.

UO economy is only a small part of the pie for me; but a part nonetheless. Imo $1 gold is not a good deal. They had the right idea with trying to implement goldsinks with the museums/library, but it didn't work as intended. Another gold sink would be a good idea.

I mostly care about population/gameplay though.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

It is difficult enough to define what a functioning economy is in real life, let alone in a game.

However, the exchange rate between in-game gold and RL money doesn't seem to be appropriate.

As to population we'll never know.

Based solely on observation on 1 or 2 shards, it's up from, say 6 months ago, and 6 months ago it seemed to be up from a year or so before that.

Upward trend? Possibly, based on my limited observations.

But UO will never regain its former heights. That era is over, and we all need to accept that. I think EA has, finally.

-Galen's player

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

UO economy is only a small part of the pie for me; but a part nonetheless. Imo $1 gold is not a good deal. They had the right idea with trying to implement goldsinks with the museums/library, but it didn't work as intended. Another gold sink would be a good idea.

I mostly care about population/gameplay though.

The gameplay is good.

 

[spoonyd]

Since SA came out I'm really enjoying the balanced gameplay in PvP. Everyone has access to good items and can compete because of imbuing and faction items. The game is more about skill than it has been in a long time. Big time PvPers no longer have this huge edge due to duped runics because you can just imbue whatever you want. Those that have solid temps, know the meta, and play their character well are the ones seeing success.

 

[UOKaiser]

Since SA came out I'm really enjoying the balanced gameplay in PvP. Everyone has access to good items and can compete because of imbuing and faction items. The game is more about skill than it has been in a long time. Big time PvPers no longer have this huge edge due to duped runics because you can just imbue whatever you want. Those that have solid temps, know the meta, and play their character well are the ones seeing success.

Sadly he is right. In turn because of this Crafter have more goods to make and merchants more goods to sell but prices have droped on high end items to pennys. Current gold price is a dollar a mil from coomercial web sites but player to player trades gold is valued around .50cents per mil.
Because of this while 1 mil gold now is the same as 10k gold back in the days the prices of items are still being priced like if they were still being sold in earlie 00's So all in all the market is all screwed up. So the rich will remain rich and poor will remain poor. "Poor spend all there time bod,crafting,hunting, in order to sell time extensive items at any price. Rich spend a couple of pennys on those items." Interesting isn't it.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Sadly he is right. In turn because of this Crafter have more goods to make and merchants more goods to sell but prices have droped on high end items to pennys. Current gold price is a dollar a mil from coomercial web sites but player to player trades gold is valued around .50cents per mil.
Because of this while 1 mil gold now is the same as 10k gold back in the days the prices of items are still being priced like if they were still being sold in earlie 00's So all in all the market is all screwed up. So the rich will remain rich and poor will remain poor. "Poor spend all there time bod,crafting,hunting, in order to sell time extensive items at any price. Rich spend a couple of pennys on those items." Interesting isn't it.

The rich will remain rich and the poor is crap. Sorry.

Any event and any time can get someone into the economy. Easy. Back then has nothing to do with balance.

Ive taken 0 gold charactures to 10's of millions and show people.

The economy is fine and dandy.

 

[UOKaiser]

The rich will remain rich and the poor is crap. Sorry.

Any event and any time can get someone into the economy. Easy. Back then has nothing to do with balance.

Ive taken 0 gold charactures to 10's of millions and show people.

The economy is fine and dandy.

Sorry My definition of rich is multi billions. to me 10's of mils is the same as 1 hour of work. Which you can say the economy is crap when a player have to sell valorite hammers,verite hammer.heartwood kits,museum collections.rare drops that take a very very long time to collect depending how much they play to some one that makes that amount in a hour of play. Gold 1.3mil each Agapite 3.5 mil each,verite 10mil each,valorite 15mil or less each and it takes the person gathering them who knows how long. The time is not worth the prices. Don't even want to get into other rewards.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Sorry My definition of rich is multi billions. to me 10's of mils is the same as 1 hour of work. Which you can say the economy is crap when a player have to sell valorite hammers,verite hammer.heartwood kits,museum collections.rare drops that take a very very long time to collect depending how much they play to some one that makes that amount in a hour of play. Gold 1.3mil each Agapite 3.5 mil each,verite 10mil each,valorite 15mil or less each and it takes the person gathering them who knows how long. The time is not worth the prices. Don't even want to get into other rewards.

Well you dont need billions to play. There is nothing even worth buying at 50 million but decorations.

I look at an economy as getting what you need to play and play well. As is the economy is fine. As for rich... in game to each his own. I found not much use for gold after 250 million but to rebuy stuff and stock my vendors. In a way the ease of getting gold allows me to skip events and just buy stuff. Ive become a slave to selling. Kinda of boring actually.

 

[Valerin]

somewhat off topic; have they finally added commas to checks to prevent duping? And have they added checks with values greater than 1mil? It was getting annoying when ppl had to check 100 different 1mil checks.

 

[UOKaiser]

Well you dont need billions to play. There is nothing even worth buying at 50 million but decorations.

I look at an economy as getting what you need to play and play well. As is the economy is fine. As for rich... in game to each his own. I found not much use for gold after 250 million but to rebuy stuff and stock my vendors. In a way the ease of getting gold allows me to skip events and just buy stuff. Ive become a slave to selling. Kinda of boring actually.

There are many of us that the fun is in the selling and buying. We pvm everything though we find enjoyment once in a while,we find pvp boring and we explored everything. We pvm for the chance of the next valuble item,We do bods and sell suits for profitability. We enjoy to receiving hard to get rewards that we can sell for high amounts for effort. We use our gold to buy real estate, Rares for our museums,open up communty events,Help fund other players in there achievements,Make towns, compete whith each other, Give gold to pvp guilds for spawn protection or event protection etc...

We enjoy the merchant-crafting aspects of the game more than anything. Unfortunetely many of the crafting and so forth needs to be profitable for our time to be worth it. Many of the players that don't have that much will have trouble getting to our level even in another 10 years time if UO is around.
But besides all that the problem is that many high end reward were made at a time when it is difficult to achieve them and it takes effort then finaly the feeling of accomplishment and the reward for them.

Sadly these items are going down in price it is the nature of the game and we will adjust but I wanted to say that at the moment the economy is lob sided. I like when players need crafters and merchants that devote most there time to tese aspects for there needs. When a player can get everything they want with only a few minutes spending on there make believe crafter then what will the crafter-merchant players do? Maybe we are a long ways from that happening but it looks like a direction we are heading to eventual uselessness like the old time smiths at the forge.

Fortunetely there are many of us and such a destruction will lead to eventual downfall. Of course this is way down the line.

Even so we still love UO but we know that players need to work for what they want so it can feel like a achievement and not get everything they want like test shard then what will be the point of playing you can achieve everything whithout struggling like all us vets being doing since the begginig.

Wow went out of topic a little sorry about that. It's like 2 conflicting sides but they match up. Am for the little guy and the big guy to achieve equal balance between the 2. Need some Monster Energy drink

 

[GL_Seller]

To know about the population you should probably list the shard/s you played.

As for Great Lakes the population has dwindled alot from year or two ago. Especially on the pvp scene.

As for economy and items imbueing has made everyone able to have top end items and gear. Coming back to sell items and make money is really not a good idea.

Hacking/Cheating is up to the highest I've ever seen in the time ive played uo. I've played over 12 years and if you come back to pvp be prepared to be disgusted. People dont even care about hiding it anymore. I dont look for it to change any time soon either.

 

[spoonyd]

Cheating or not people still compete very well without that. The ones that cry "cheat/hack" are typically the ones who don't have much experience in pvp, have bad temps, or just haven't practiced with their character enough. There are PLENTY of LEGAL macros for UOA that good players use that bad players have no clue about yet still yell "hacker" when they die. I'm not saying that cheats don't give players an edge because they do. I'm saying people overuse that excuse instead of working on their characters, improving their skills with that character, or ask more experienced players what they might be doing wrong.

 

[Valerin]

Cheating or not people still compete very well without that. The ones that cry "cheat/hack" are typically the ones who don't have much experience in pvp, have bad temps, or just haven't practiced with their character enough. There are PLENTY of LEGAL macros for UOA that good players use that bad players have no clue about yet still yell "hacker" when they die. I'm not saying that cheats don't give players an edge because they do. I'm saying people overuse that excuse instead of working on their characters, improving their skills with that character, or ask more experienced players what they might be doing wrong.

Yes there are people that yell hacks/cheats when there are none, but at the same time, at least when I left the game; the cheats existed and were definitely being abused especially by the top pvp guilds (I was in a couple and know 1st hand even though I personally didnt use any).

I would have liked to see punkbuster implemented. I was disappointed when it was not.