Oh no... I have to say my heart sank when I read this update. In part because the vast majority of it was dedicated to things I personal had no interest in, but mostly because the little mentioned for the Live Event was so disappointing. It reminded me of the last Event I took part in, way back when I first played... the cursing of Yew, which had such an obscure secondary target, many shards were unable to work it out in time; UOGuide still isn't too clear on what it actually was, even all these years later. I know we failed it on Europa, possibly because we cured all the trees so quickly on the first night and thus cut off the timer for the second part.
In this case, let's take what little information we have;
So you’ve battled the Chosen,
Actually, the event was set up so you could battle
either. Myself, I've battled both, and earned the reputation with both on different "Good" and "Evil" (or at least, just materialistic and cheeky) characters. And the second part, you don't need to battle any at all. The Power Crystals can be harvested from Blackthorn minions if need be. Indeed I'd be interested to know if
anyone has bothered with the second part, as Bane Dragons have proven curiously unpopular... I suspect the new Bane Recruiter has had to resort to laying trip wires to try and stop people running past on the way to the Twisted Weld instead! The Meer on the other hand, don't even seem to have noticed there's a war being waged against them...
the crystal has gone missing,
Which we couldn't prevent...
and it seems that everyone is falling in line with the easiest route to get the spoils of the game.
Ok, no you might have a point that it's not "Humble" to click the reward chest...
if you'd not made it the exact same mechanism for at least 2 global events before this,
including the one which was directly serving our Queen when she asked us to find from Ricardo the code which opened the Vault which led to the Crystal in the first place... And is obeying the call of your kingdom un-virtuous? *sighs* You know, the Quest Of The Avatar would have been much, much easier if he'd said to Lord British at the start "You know, I can suddenly see into the future and it'll release the Guardian if I bother with this so... I won't. Sorry, you can stuff your virtue of Valor, I'm staying at home!"
Furthermore, "easiest route"... and "spoils"? Would that be the Bane, or the Ophidians? Because it turned out that although killing the Ophidians was the easiest to do physically, and
possibly the less virtuous path, the Bane reward was mostly unwanted except as a future rare. The best reward people seem to have decided was the Matriarch Tongue, so simple greed meant, at least on my shard,
people were fighting the Bane most instead.
Of course, it was certainly a
humbling experience to fight up to a few hours against the forces of evil, and then for the vast majority of times to actually be told at the end of it "And if we look in this box we see your efforts were worth... A leather tunic you'll just leave on the floor by the box!" But I suspect that level of awareness isn't quite what we were supposed to be thinking.
Seems it’s very easy to be evil when it’s so obvious that that’s what the devs want you to be.
Evil? The Bane Dragon requires only "Taming" to collect; is Taming now evil? It can be fed from just killing the genuine evil in Castle Blackthorn, or if you can ignore it's own evil spam about being peckish, you can just use Tasty Treats and never deal with the Bane themselves at all. Mine has not eaten a Blackrock Stew in it's life yet, although not for virtuous reasons, but because it's only just become peckish, and I've not got around to trading any power crystals in for one. Is that still an evil act then? Is just owning one sinful, because it's such a powerful 3 slot creature? And it's an Evil aligned creature yes, but so are Mares, Rune Beetles... and never mind the Necromancers running about the lands! Britannia is in
a lot of trouble if we're going to be judged on the hinted at standards so far...
But were the Ophidians "Good" in turn? The way I read one of their lines of text was that they were wanting to "come in from the cold" as it were, and I played my good character that way in turn; He fought for them them to show former enemies could become friends. And because Compassion means not killing a creature that has shown it can make a moral choice, or which seeks to end the fight. But they weren't ever really in the official fiction were they? So maybe Queen Dawn thinks we're all prostituting ourselves to former invaders of Britannia for nice shinies eh? *sighs again*
Just a warning: Magincia is a town of Humility. What are some ways to be humbled beyond being burned to the ground?
Big bane camp is built on it's ruins permanently? Well it's a bit late to stop that now, as there's no way for the Meer to even be made aware people are selflessly defending them, even if they thought they should do it in order to save Magincia. Which it's not exactly clear they should, what with there being no actual war and that. I suppose we could organise a "Boycott Blackrock Stew!" movement, but then as mentioned I think people are doing that accidentally anyway. We could all go and pummel the Bane for absolutely no reward too I suppose... if those invisible item filchers turn up like they did in the throne room again however, it's all going to feel even more pointless... and nothing says "humble servitude" like enforced impotence!
Seriously, I'm being deliberately sarcastic because I played the early Ultimas because they in turn had
sharp plotting; And Humility then wasn't about denying power, because using that power virtuously was itself a virtue. It was about not seeking fame, or reputation, or glory for the acts that you did. In Ultima Online however, you need Fame... For Sacrifice! And good luck fighting against Bane Dragons without something at least as good as a Bane Dragon.
The very logic of the game universe itself has not allowed us to be classically Humble. Even the Virtue itself isn't in game yet
So... unless the next acts really tighten up the wider structure, I can't but feel we're on course for a disaster; events where you damn yourself through your own actions better damn telegraph the choices
as they'll be interpreted well in advance, because trying to guess hidden motivations IS... NO... FUN. It's frustrating and makes people feel used, and dirty, because they've been playing a game they couldn't realistically win all along.
