Just to help clear up any misconceptions about UO's past, here are some quotes from Lead Designer Raph Koster and Senior Producer Rich Vogel taken from various UOHOC chats in 1998 commenting on the anti-social issues that were plaguing the game at the time.
DesignerD - We feel that PKing is rampant and badly needs to be restrained. Our intent with the new reputation system is to channel those who wish to engage in pk towards guilds and other forms of "legal" warfare where they do not prey on innocents
DesignerD - Those who do prey on innocents will get very very harsh penalties, intentionally
DesignerD - We definitely want to solve the problems with excessive player thievery in UO, and there's a variety of things we can do there. First of all, is of course plugging the holes that the exploit programs are using
DesignerD - which this new update does
DesignerD - After that happens, we'll assess what we can do to help the legitimate, interesting, role-played thief, and harm the obnoxious, bank lurking, pkill-oriented, hit and run rude throwaway ghost thief
DD - I have grown cynical enough to think that players don't need "evil" skills to be evil to one another. They do it regardless
DD - As it is now, everyone hates thieves. (Yes, thieves, you may well admit it). Nobody currently likes a thief except the thief himself. In fact, even other thieves don't like the PvP thief.
RVogel - I don't like PvP thieves..They are disruptive and hurt the online experience for many players. I am recommending these changes
RVogel - to channel the thieves away from player into a profession that is more about adventuring
RVogel - and not about promoting anti-social behavior
DesignerD - They started doing something about harassment already
DesignerD - the order is out to crack down, and they have been for the last few days
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The only logical and worthwhile period to try to accurately replicate back then would be right before the renaissance after the important issues were being addressed throughout 1999, and the 'cleanup britannia' phases coming to completion in early 2000 which left the shards running much smoother afterwards. I can't imagine the dev's even considering trying to replicate the first half of '98 with the exploitable notoriety system. That just wouldn't fly. It would have to be customized in a way to remove the exploits, which would only change the way it really was back then anyway. (ie crazy)
So mostlikely, it will be some kind of custom version one way or another if they are even seriously considering making a classic pre-ren shard at all.
Some food for thought...
Reading the quoted content from UOHOC was actually quite insightful into the mindset of the developers at the time.
Personally, I played a thief character at one time. I also fell victim to thieves whilst playing as other characters. I don't believe I was a rampant thief on that character, it was just "another" challenge and play-style. I certainly saw no point in deliberately trying to annoy other players or cause grief. Normally, if someone appeared to take a "theft" personally and got upset, I actually felt guilty and gave the stolen item back.
As for when I was the victim, I simply didn't take it personally. At the time, the game wasn't as item driven as it is today, meant that most often what I lost to a thief, I could replace easily enough with one of my crafters.
The fact that there was:
1) Players who abused a player versus player "skill" to cause grief.
2) Players who took
any attack/theft
very personally.
...shows why we are where we are today. Lack of understanding from different perspectives. The problem though, is that invariably the knee-jerk reaction from developers arguably cause
further damage to the credibility of the game. Should we blame the developers at all, is another factor for consideration, when they must work within the constraints of the publishers demands.
For what it's worth, I would much rather developers took a bolder stance. If they don't feel that a particular "skill" benefits the game any more, instead of nerfing it to oblivion, they should remove it from the game all together.
There's a lot of skills still "available", which have little to no point in having. That clearly being the case, they
should have been removed years ago. The pretence of a skill serves nothing other than to cause frustration and disillusionment.
I much prefer that they were honest an up-front. Come out and say
"Look everyone, we tried this... it hasn't worked as we liked, so we're taking it out completely". You'll inevitably get those who would complain, but I believe the wider audience would have
more respect for the frankness of the developer.
I'm afraid there's little about current UO that actually makes me want to play the game any more. Before
Restroom Cowboy jumps in (or anyone else) with the inevitable
"Can I Have Ur Stuff?" comment, frankly,
yes... you can, when my account runs out in July. If they make a classic shard at some point, then I won't be needing the production shard "stuff" I've accumulated since 1999. If they don't, then same thing. Most of the "items" I have are more memorabilia of good times whilst playing UO, than "uber" items of the modern age. Before my account expires, they'll be given to people who want and appreciate them on Europa.
I just want to play on a server where PvP is there, but simply a "part" of the game like any other. If there's a reason and a purpose to PvP, then I'll always participate more. I enjoyed Order/Chaos. It gave it a purpose for me. I enjoyed playing as a red, although more as a
role-play angle. I enjoyed hunting reds for bounty, as a group, or simply for the challenge that hunting a "person" offered over the predictable nature of a "monster".
I wish for a return to the days when items weren't as important as skills. Days when the crafter was a central figure in the community, interacting with all manner of people, from PvP'ers to PvM'ers, roleplayers to home-makers. A smith or tailor is little else than a supporting role for an imbuer these days, in my opinion.
UO is dead? No it isn't... not to the fans of item-based "just like any other game" gameplay. Not to the
"I've got to have it now", short attention span, little effort players of many different games. The fact EA/Mythic are selling more "items" now, directly, for a price, from their website... tells it's own story. They can profit from "items". They will obviously look to generate more income in any way they can from a dwindling audience. They've a business to run, after all.
Dead to me? Yes. I yearn for the "classic" style of gameplay I enjoyed most around the
Second Age of the game. I still even have the original game box and CD from then.
Do I think a "classic" shard through EA/Mythic will be a reality? It's more
hope than belief. Frankly, the way the gaming industry is heading, especially MMO's, I don't believe it will. Everyone wants a slice of the success that Blizzard has enjoyed with Wow. Nobody is bold enough to do something
different to get there at the moment. Therefore everyone else is looking at a niche audience.
A "classic" shard
would be a niche audience, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that to get sufficient subscribers, no matter the arguments about it being "low maintenance", it would have to be
publicised well to draw new players, not just existing players or an as yet random number of returning players. Past evidence shows that even with their core game, they're not exactly busting a gut to do much external advertising or promotion for UO.
Perhaps I'm just an "older" gamer who lives in the past too much when it comes to something like UO. Strange thing is, I can load DOSBOX and play something like the X-COM series, reminisce for a little while, then play something "new", like Mass Effect 2 and enjoy it just as much.
I think it's more that I've been
around UO for over ten years, watched it go in a direction I'm increasingly frustrated and unhappy with. To that you might ask "why still play it?".
UO has always had the potential to offer something that other sandbox games have struggled to offer me. To play in a world where the users dictate the course of the game, more than be dictated to. The community has always been a big draw in me coming back repeatedly. That community has evolved over time, just as the game has. It's not the same as the community I loved before.
So, there will be a bun-fight for "items" when I quit for good in July no doubt. I would love to return to a "classic" UO at some point in the future and I would enjoy starting from scratch.
Enough of the wall of text from me. I'll most likely be an interested observer from this point, rather than tread ground with comments I've repeated many times. Until such a time that a "classic" shard is reality, I bid you all a fond "farewell".
