No Herald updates over a week now.

[atlanticScorpion]

Are the reporters on vacation? I check the herald daily to see whats new. Sometimes I will catch an article right after it got posted and got the jump on a new event or new item for sale. I feel left in the dark. And with the economy the way it is thay had to turn off the light at the end of the tunnel to conserve energy.

 

[Kayne]

Do you mean UO Herald or the stratics news? Because your suggestion of events and reporters leads me to think you mean the Stratics News Reporters.

 

[Korik Bloodguard]

Nothing's happening.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Pretty sure he means here:

Mythic Entertainment | Ultima Online | Play the 14-Day Free Trial!

Last post 30 Sept 2011. Nothing new since then. I think it's a well deserved break for them after all they did for Halloween, clean up etc. AND hopefully just the calm before the storm for more stuff to come. I do however still miss the Friday Five

 

[lucitus]

Pretty sure he means here:

Mythic Entertainment | Ultima Online | Play the 14-Day Free Trial!

Last post 30 Sept 2011. Nothing new since then. I think it's a well deserved break for them after all they did for Halloween, clean up etc. AND hopefully just the calm before the storm for more stuff to come. I do however still miss the Friday Five

I liked Cal's statements! But now it is so silent

Also i like to see a new producer letter, who is our producer now? What are his /her ideas? Plans etc.?

 

[Tina Small]

Late Thursday night, the UO Franchise Producer, Jeff Skalski tweeted: "Great day with Frank Gibeau today. Proud of my team."

Mr. Gibeau is the president of the EA Label at EA. Must have been dog-and-pony show day for Jeff on Thursday. Hopefully it means he got approval for some stuff he and his team have been cooking up and that will in turn lead to announcements of some sort.

If it helps any to put things in perspective, just keep reminding yourself that UO is really just a drop in the bucket for EA and Bioware, compared to everything else they have going on. If you want to see some of the new titles and updates they have coming, some in time for the holiday season, just go to Coming Soon Games - EA. As of today, I see 19 titles listed. Go to BioWare and see what shows up. UO appears in the drop-down list of games and the link takes you straight to the UO Herald site; the UO Game Code Store shows up in the Store drop-down box; and there is one slide for UO in the slide show at the top of the home page. The most recent "news" for UO on the site and the only article about UO on the site is exactly a year old today--an article about UO being inducted into the GDC Hall of Fame.

If that paltry showing for UO on the Bioware site means much, it is that UO doesn't count for much to them. Just another game they had to bring into their fold, I guess. They'll (barely) acknowledge its longevity, but that seems to be about as far as they'll go. Kinda gives me the mental picture of someone holding some dusty, tattered and torn relic at arms length and trying to find something, anything good to say about it and finally deciding that the best they can do is to say it's been around forever.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Late Thursday night, the UO Franchise Producer, Jeff Skalski tweeted: "Great day with Frank Gibeau today. Proud of my team."

I thought he was Franchise Producer for several brands and not just UO?

 

[Tina Small]

Late Thursday night, the UO Franchise Producer, Jeff Skalski tweeted: "Great day with Frank Gibeau today. Proud of my team."

I thought he was Franchise Producer for several brands and not just UO?

Well, Mr. Skalski said the following via Twitter last month in response to a question from Woodsman, "Yes, I’m the Ultima Franchise Producer & UO is now one of the projects I’m responsible for." Also, in his summary on LinkedIn, he says his current role is "Ultima Franchise Producer." I think he is responsible for the Ultima Forever website (http://www.ultimaforever.com/) as well as UO and possibly also has some oversight for the third party development by NetDragon Websoft of a 3D version of UO. I'm not sure whether he would also have some oversight over the new MMORTS, "Lord of Ultima" (http://www.lordofultima.com/en/).

He's made exactly three posts on Stratics so far. On September 23rd (two weeks ago) he said, "Expect something more formal in a few weeks." I really hope that what he tweeted yesterday about meeting with one of the top guys in the company means he will soon be able to communicate with us more openly about UO's future.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Cool, thanks for clearing it up for me.

 

[claudia-fjp]

Instead of the old Q and A I'd settle for a Friday "Hey! X Still Isn't Done This Week, Y Was Fixed, and We Did Z."

Then you wouldn't have people scratching their heads about things like:

"Also, we are working on getting house decay turned on and expect it to be working within the next week."-Kai Schober 14 Sep 2011 12:19:10 EST



As for the whole "It's a big company" thing. I don't need it from the President of EA. Companies that large have different divisions. It's not like one pool of people works on everything, one would THINK there are people still dedicated to UO.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

EA motto: "Communication is hard... Unless you want to play SWTOR."

You must remember, we're the enemy. We might hold them to things they say or expect them to maintain a dialogue regarding ongoing issues. This has apparently scared them since the 'In Development' and 'In Testing' Herald pages were abruptly ended.

They couldn't even get the 5 on Friday to continue past Chrissay's departure...save an all-too-brief respite under James... Which saw the birth of the waste of bandwidth that is the "Ask the Devs" forum.

We might get better communication under Jeff...yet he's held his position for nearly a month now (as far as it can be traced on Twitter) and has yet to put forth an official message on the Herald (though he HAS posted here). Not an auspicious beginning.

The simple fact is that we need a community coordinator/manager that is dedicated to UO and not split between EA's other two red-headed-stepchildren (DAoC & WAR). We need someone with the knowledge of Wilki, the attitude of Jeremy and the 'pep' of Chrissay to liaise with the community (on more than just Stratics) so people feel heard by TPTB. This would go a LONG way toward calming fears and settling nerves.

I think it's a well deserved break for them after all they did for Halloween, clean up etc. AND hopefully just the calm before the storm for more stuff to come.

I'm hoping you're being sarcastic here, I really do. They added a mob for Halloween with three pieces of new loot and flipped a virtual switch for trick-or-treating. Cleanup wasn't much more than that, as the system already existed they just tweaked the rewards (adding ONE new piece of art and a few poorly-conceived armor sets) and added a few things to the turn in list.

Do you get 'a break' at your job when you finish a project, or are you expected to transition into the next one with maybe a weekend in-between? Communication with one's clients (us) shouldn't suffer week+ long gaps during this period, yet with Mythic it consistently does.

This would be the 'acceptance of mediocrity' that several have complained of recently...

 

[MalagAste]

EA motto: "Communication is hard... Unless you want to play SWTOR."

You must remember, we're the enemy. We might hold them to things they say or expect them to maintain a dialogue regarding ongoing issues. This has apparently scared them since the 'In Development' and 'In Testing' Herald pages were abruptly ended.

They couldn't even get the 5 on Friday to continue past Chrissay's departure...save an all-too-brief respite under James... Which saw the birth of the waste of bandwidth that is the "Ask the Devs" forum.

We might get better communication under Jeff...yet he's held his position for nearly a month now (as far as it can be traced on Twitter) and has yet to put forth an official message on the Herald (though he HAS posted here). Not an auspicious beginning.

The simple fact is that we need a community coordinator/manager that is dedicated to UO and not split between EA's other two red-headed-stepchildren (DAoC & WAR). We need someone with the knowledge of Wilki, the attitude of Jeremy and the 'pep' of Chrissay to liaise with the community (on more than just Stratics) so people feel heard by TPTB. This would go a LONG way toward calming fears and settling nerves.




I'm hoping you're being sarcastic here, I really do. They added a mob for Halloween with three pieces of new loot and flipped a virtual switch for trick-or-treating. Cleanup wasn't much more than that, as the system already existed they just tweaked the rewards (adding ONE new piece of art and a few poorly-conceived armor sets) and added a few things to the turn in list.

Do you get 'a break' at your job when you finish a project, or are you expected to transition into the next one with maybe a weekend in-between? Communication with one's clients (us) shouldn't suffer week+ long gaps during this period, yet with Mythic it consistently does.

This would be the 'acceptance of mediocrity' that several have complained of recently...

This! ^^^^

Sick and tired of being ignored on all fronts.

It's high time we hear more than the few blurbs that make their way out of Twitter. Some of us don't use Twitter or Facebook. I for one refuse to put that Satanistic rubbish on my PC.

I do read the Herald. So many things in UO go to waste. The log-in screen SHOULD be used to give warnings and messages... about known issues and bugs.

Sadly this goes unused more often than not.


If you're expecting updates and news then you obviously haven't played UO long or you would know NEVER to expect to hear anything... Seems more and more often that communication is highly lacking.

Yes UO needs a community liaison..... desperately.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I'm hoping you're being sarcastic here, I really do.

No, honestly I was being sincere. I could be wrong but judging from the Dev names from snowmen, bells and candle years, to the Dev names on the masks, their number has decreased. It seems like UO is doing as many other companies are. Same level or more of work with fewer folks to do it with. While for some the content is lacking it still had to be a good deal of work for the seemingly handful of devs that are around. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Gunga_Din]

Well, Mr. Skalski said the following via Twitter last month in response to a question from Woodsman, "Yes, I’m the Ultima Franchise Producer & UO is now one of the projects I’m responsible for." Also, in his summary on LinkedIn, he says his current role is "Ultima Franchise Producer." I think he is responsible for the Ultima Forever website (Ultima Forever: the Ultima IV download page) as well as UO and possibly also has some oversight for the third party development by NetDragon Websoft of a 3D version of UO. I'm not sure whether he would also have some oversight over the new MMORTS, "Lord of Ultima" (Lord of Ultima - Free MMORTS - Play The Best Web Strategy MMO).

He's made exactly three posts on Stratics so far. On September 23rd (two weeks ago) he said, "Expect something more formal in a few weeks." I really hope that what he tweeted yesterday about meeting with one of the top guys in the company means he will soon be able to communicate with us more openly about UO's future.

Mr. Skalski is also in charge of the Janitorial Team, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Death of UO 12.20.11

 

[Tina Small]

What concerns me a bit is that it is once again that time of the year when we get the news that EA has made another round of layoffs. They just started the last half of their current fiscal year (theirs runs from April 1st through March 31st), so that is when a lot of large companies make the hard decisions on which projects planned for the year will actually get their full round of funding for the year, any extra funding/support they might need, and when failing or less important projects are set aside or killed. A very nerve-wracking time, to be sure.

 

[Kayne]

This! ^^^^

Sick and tired of being ignored on all fronts.

It's high time we hear more than the few blurbs that make their way out of Twitter. Some of us don't use Twitter or Facebook. I for one refuse to put that Satanistic rubbish on my PC.

I do read the Herald. So many things in UO go to waste. The log-in screen SHOULD be used to give warnings and messages... about known issues and bugs.

Sadly this goes unused more often than not.


If you're expecting updates and news then you obviously haven't played UO long or you would know NEVER to expect to hear anything... Seems more and more often that communication is highly lacking.

Yes UO needs a community liaison..... desperately.

THIS THIS THIS. I also agree with what Martyna said

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

No, honestly I was being sincere. I could be wrong but judging from the Dev names from snowmen, bells and candle years, to the Dev names on the masks, their number has decreased. It seems like UO is doing as many other companies are. Same level or more of work with fewer folks to do it with.

I think we can all accept this as a reality. The Dev Team definitely has been losing members over the last two years since the SA purge (for which EA should be eternally ashamed ). If they have gained any new people, then it's been quietly and behind the scenes.

While for some the content is lacking it still had to be a good deal of work for the seemingly handful of devs that are around. Just my opinion of course.

A good deal of work...maybe. Remember, the last publish was Sept. 20th, so they should have been working on new things since slightly before that. We know Grimm is working in EC graphics, since he finally confirmed it. But we don't know what the rest of the team, however small, is working on.

We can assume they are working on 3 things: 1) Implementing the new art in the EC 2) Holiday (most likely just X-mas) content (assuming it's not just recycled...again) 3) Vet rewards (since they were MIA for the anniversary for the 5th year on a row).

But we don't know because they won't tell us. Secrecy = bad. While some things should be a surprise, we should at least know what to look forward to in future publishes. Arenas? A new booster? A major bug squash for the EC? Spirituality? Humility?

Dovetailing with that, I'm sure we'd like to have some input into new systems and big changes. We could have avoided the universally despised Compassion nerf had there been a dialogue.


Communication is key.

 

[canary]

Put me down as also in agreement with Martyna.

People, this might just be a form of entrainment, but we pay their bills. Let's hold them to just even a tiny bit of accountability, shall we?

 

[Kayne]

Communication is key.

I think someone has lost the key and didnt take out lost key insurance....

 

[Lady Storm]

With the loss of playerbase UO has slipped down to the level way past seen and not heard by our parent company. EA has resigned UO to the lesser worth sub company with limited funds and now it seems even more limited support crew.

I personaly think Cal was released from his job and we wont be getting a UO Producer of our own again. This said, one would need very thick rose colored glasses to put a bright spin on these developments of the last 9 months of UO.

Not to put a downer on all reading this, but open your eyes and see the reality of whats going on. The reason we dont hear from "OUR" Lead Producer is we dont have one.

I am not sure if BioWare asigns us one or EA.. ether way who ever this other person is I for one have seen not one sign he is the UO team leader.

Lets be honest here, even if we had our top 275k in players paying each month, we still would be the dregs of the EA games. At our hight in the game world yes we were a game to base comparesons on but now...... It's not our graphics or our code that is our down fall.
It's Time.
EA washed its hands of us. We are hardly found on its web sites. We were handed over to Mythic with the purpose to try a rescue... with BioWare as the watchdog on how it was going.
Cal ether he walked out on his own two feet or was tossed off UO/Mythic due to unseen reasons.
This dont matter when each Lead Producer left over the years the minute a new one was asigned UO we got the "HELLO I'm ***" with in a week or 2. Mesanna and the last team are still doing their things but if you havent noticed its without its zeel. I dont like doom and gloom but even I have to look at the signs and read them as i see them. I dont see alot to smile over.

Now we have other reasons for our downgrade...
We have lost more players then we have gained back due to of all things billing. Not some game glich or mass deletion of houses... a billing system that made people so angry they packed up and moved on.
I have seen "NEW" and I mean New players who have never heard of UO come in. Brought in by active players. Something we have needed our player base to do for years to improve our game. We need more if we are to survive, lets face it... if UO is to live on we have to take the bull by the horns and do it ourselfs.

 

[Kayne]

Reading Lady Storms' post it struck me that if I allow myself to admit it I don't actually believe UO will make it to its 15th birthday as an EA product. They will either sell it off or just close it down.

As pointed out by Lady Storm all the signs are there and its a rather scary thought.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

I think someone has lost the key and didnt take out lost key insurance....

Heh.

I think someone jealously guards the key believing silence is golden. Silence will equal the death of any customer service based enterprise since all it will do is **** off the customer.

• Canned messages 95% of the time from GMs.
• MIA "Community Coordinator/Manager"
• Poorly maintained, woefully out-of-date UO Herald.
• Nearly non-existent dialogue from the Dev Team.
• Silence from EA regarding migration issues.
• UO's future not known any farther than the last publish.

These are all nails in the CS coffin. They alienate and disillusion customers to the point of terminating subscriptions, something UO can't afford.

Like Lady Storm said, we need new players. But we must also need to keep the vets happy since they are UO.

If the list above isn't resolved, or at least greatly ameliorated somehow, only those with the rose-colored glasses surgically implanted will remain loyal.

 

[Kayne]

Heh.

I think someone jealously guards the key believing silence is golden. Silence will equal the death of any customer service based enterprise since all it will do is **** off the customer.

• Canned messages 95% of the time from GMs.
• MIA "Community Coordinator/Manager"
• Poorly maintained, woefully out-of-date UO Herald.
• Nearly non-existent dialogue from the Dev Team.
• Silence from EA regarding migration issues.
• UO's future not known any farther than the last publish.

These are all nails in the CS coffin. They alienate and disillusion customers to the point of terminating subscriptions, something UO can't afford.

Like Lady Storm said, we need new players. But we must also need to keep the vets happy since they are UO.

If the list above isn't resolved, or at least greatly ameliorated somehow, only those with the rose-colored glasses surgically implanted will remain loyal.

Can't argue with any of that.

I love UO. However since 2008 when I took my very first break from UO which lasted quite a while. I then came back for a while and subsequently left again for an even longer break.
Now I'm back and enjoying UO again but becoming increasingly frustrated that the game seems to be heading into the history books as another game that no longer officially exists.

The devs/EA/Mythic/Bioware need to do something if they intend to keep it running or they wont have anyone to keep it running for except the monsters that spawn around the world and the NPC's

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Communication is key.

I do agree with this. I miss the days of the Dev's posting a good bit on here. That is what kinda suprised me when I saw Grimm posting away recently, it brought that sense of community with the Devs, even if only for a moment. I am not sure what happened to the "Community Liason" they had for a while either. Jeremy was running that, I had to take a job that kept me on the road a while and when I came back both Jeremy and seemingly the postion was gone. Maybe everyone has to get approval from superiors prior to releasing anything these days, and we ALL know how that goes. Ask a superior something and it can be a month or more before you actually get a reply

 

[canary]

Maybe everyone has to get approval from superiors prior to releasing anything these days, and we ALL know how that goes. Ask a superior something and it can be a month or more before you actually get a reply

That still does not explain why pretty much every other game on the market (and ESPECIALLY SWTOR) is able to communicate better and more effectively.

Seriously, there are only so many ways one can apologize for the UO team before it is painfully clear that there is a problem.

 

[Pinco]

this silent remeber me this...

[YOUTUBE]Y6wAxKoky38[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Lady Storm]

We I am afraid WE must take our game in hand. We need to do what EA/Mythic/BioWare wont.
This is guna sound campie but if we want UO to stand on its own 2 feet we need to do the work they wont. This is our game... if we want more attention we need to population to do it with.

Remember these people who run UO answer to the all mighty dollar... infuse the game with more players that $$ gets louder... EA thinks we are a dying game so pawned us off on mythic.
I for one know we all understand full well how the $$ runs the world. The game is the same principle. Personaly I expected this a few years ago, EA would let Bio gobble up Mythic and then EA would chomp on Bio and poof back to EA again.... if the big cats in the board room are anything to go by they didnt get there by being nice. They earn high end 6 and 7 figure paychecks each year with bonuses that way exceed many 3rd world countrys gross income!
The mass majority of us biring in 5 figures in the lower end of that to boot.

This means unless they see a bigger income from our end they will pass us by like stale bread.
We here on stratics have many bright people who understand this and well guys and gals we need that brain power to fix this ourselves. We cant count on any of them(points to the fat cats under the EA banner) to do it.

 

[HD2300]

In business when someone new takes over, it takes time to assess the situation and formulate a plan. This normally takes a couple of months.

The new guy has to sort through all the bs and undo the damage done in the last 2 years... bs that has has caused UO to lose ~50% of p(l)ayers in the last 2 years.

The good news is the new guy is not a bsartist with 0 experience. He is one of the big guns in Mythic, and the Mythic outsourcing guy in China is also one of the big guns in Mythic. So it will take time, but 2012 will be a good year for the Ultima franchise.

I hope through all this, the pom pom wavers in the cult of mediocrity and 101 excuses have learnt something. When you cheer on and excuse mediocrity, you get mediocrity and the game will suffer.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Now I'm back and enjoying UO again but becoming increasingly frustrated that the game seems to be heading into the history books as another game that no longer officially exists.

The devs/EA/Mythic/Bioware need to do something if they intend to keep it running or they wont have anyone to keep it running for except the monsters that spawn around the world and the NPC's

Well, I'm not trying to go all gloom and doom, or say that Sosaria's sky is falling. Yet. UO has its bright spots too, they are just few and far, far between.

The EM program is a massive bright spot, though the gimme-gimme aspect of the payers brings it down.

Ongoing events have been bright spots... Though I'd personally wish that the temporary quests were more accessible to all players and not full of uber kitchen-sink-specialed 50K+ hp mobs it takes a group of twinked out vets to even have a chance of taking down...Only to find out it gives ONE of the needed item. /rant

In March we were told that there was to be a new New Player Experience, the vague outline of which annoyed most current players. (The retconning of New Haven into Ocllo, the fact it was "offline," etc.) Now its nearly mid-October and we know nothing more about something that could be a key system, and something that vets should definitely have input into creating. Who knows UO better then the players?

I've tried bringing friends into UO... They expected to be hand-held by the system until they were adequately familiar with the game to be pushed out of the nest. They both felt they were barely out of the egg before they were drop-kicked into the deep end expected to perform.


The biggest bright spot that I could think of would be for the new "franchise" producer, or the current Devs, to open a frank and honest two-way dialogue about what they are working on, would like to work on, and where they want UO to go. No more cloak and dagger mystery, no more transparent marketing spin...

 

[canary]

I've tried bringing friends into UO... They expected to be hand-held by the system until they were adequately familiar with the game to be pushed out of the nest. They both felt they were barely out of the egg before they were drop-kicked into the deep end expected to perform.

Please add to that my boyfriend's response: It (UO) is ugly. It looks like it was made in the early 90s.

As much as some people who play UO (you know who you are) say otherwise, a decent graphics experience is a MUST in order to garner new players.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

We I am afraid WE must take our game in hand. We need to do what EA/Mythic/BioWare wont.

But, uhm, we already do. The fan sites run 100% of the modern "UO playguide" info and 100% of the forum presence. Mythic has the Herald, nothing more. How much more should the fans be expected to do before its too much?

Let's remember here, UO IS a business...and last we heard, the only MMO EA owns that's actually making a profit (albeit small). While $ talks, EA needs to remember that UO has made them money for 14 years regardless of the slash and burn operations.

This is guna sound campie but if we want UO to stand on its own 2 feet we need to do the work they wont. This is our game... if we want more attention we need to population to do it with.

*sigh*

Let's be honest here. Who is going to want to play a 14yo MMO who's main client looks like it is from the early 90's? Not that the EC (which I play) is much better since it uses poorly-scaled versions of the CC art. It doesn't help that the player base resists change to the point of absurdity or cheers on mediocrity.

What really needs to change is the community. We need to hold the Devs to some kind of standard, demand that certain things be fixed (UO Herald, NPE, bugs, and the EC), and then be willing to accept a trickle of 'new' content until those issues are addressed. This way we might actually be able to draw people to UO without being laughed at.

While many of us will blithely say "graphics don't matter," most who do are hypocrites. Graphics matter to modern gamers, nobody will drool over UO's dated sprites or its mishmash kludge of a UI (talking CC here) or the garish clown UI thats is default in the EC. (Pinco's FTW)

Yet, instead of moving with the times, we fight about the clients amongst ourselves.

The community needs to change.

 

[Woodsman]

Late Thursday night, the UO Franchise Producer, Jeff Skalski tweeted: "Great day with Frank Gibeau today. Proud of my team."

Mr. Gibeau is the president of the EA Label at EA. Must have been dog-and-pony show day for Jeff on Thursday. Hopefully it means he got approval for some stuff he and his team have been cooking up and that will in turn lead to announcements of some sort.

That twitter thing was reposted by the official Ultima Forever twitter but not the official Ultima Online twitter.

They'll (barely) acknowledge its longevity, but that seems to be about as far as they'll go. Kinda gives me the mental picture of someone holding some dusty, tattered and torn relic at arms length and trying to find something, anything good to say about it and finally deciding that the best they can do is to say it's been around forever.

The happy birthday message last month seemed like an afterthought. UO maybe a part of a separate franchise but Kai is still in charge of the website and he's obviously busy with Camelot updates and with the Warhammer website overhaul that keeps getting delayed.

At this point I rank us somewhere above Warhammer but below Camelot, at least until we see the graphics update in pub 73.

 

[Woodsman]

Well, Mr. Skalski said the following via Twitter last month in response to a question from Woodsman, "Yes, I’m the Ultima Franchise Producer & UO is now one of the projects I’m responsible for."

He's never responded to my twitters, just to one of the Stratics threads I started about it where he posted:

Just wanted to stop by and say hi to everyone. I got a lot of catching up to do as you can imagine with getting reacquainted with UO. It's been over 10 years since I've played and a lot has changed since then as many of you know. Regardless, the team has run me through what they have planned for the next couple of publishes and cool things are coming. Right now I'm focused on doing everything I can with getting us through the remaining migration issues. I know it hasn't been as seamless of an experience as we originally hoped for some people, but we have more fixes in the works.

He also responded to I think Kayne saying they were aware of the communication problems and were going to work on it Seriously, Skalski, if you read this, you post a lot on Twitter but don't post anything significant about UO. Think about that. Even the Warhammer producer woke up and posted a thread a few days ago.

Also, in his summary on LinkedIn, he says his current role is "Ultima Franchise Producer." I think he is responsible for the Ultima Forever website (Ultima Forever: the Ultima IV download page) as well as UO and possibly also has some oversight for the third party development by NetDragon Websoft of a 3D version of UO. I'm not sure whether he would also have some oversight over the new MMORTS, "Lord of Ultima" (Lord of Ultima - Free MMORTS - Play The Best Web Strategy MMO).

He made a comment that he was over BioWare Mythic projects and that he had nothing to do with other stuff and that Lord of Ultima would never have happened if he had anything to say in the matter which I thought was cool because having played Lord of Ultima, yeah, it's nothing to do with Ultima.

He's made exactly three posts on Stratics so far. On September 23rd (two weeks ago) he said, "Expect something more formal in a few weeks." I really hope that what he tweeted yesterday about meeting with one of the top guys in the company means he will soon be able to communicate with us more openly about UO's future.

Like I said in the other post, that was only reposted by the Ultima Forever twitter, not the UO twitter which I think says a lot. The Ultima Forever twitter only posts Ultima IV related twitts and that is probably the key to figuring this out. Plus Barnett is dropping hints again and Barnett has never said anything about UO, at least not in the last year. Barnett is obsessed with Ulitima IV.

It's possible that he showed the pub 73 stuff to Gibau since that would be something new being done by one of Skalski's teams, but I doubt it. This Ultima Forever thing really has me understanding how some of the Warhammer players feel about the Wrath of Heroes arena game and why some of them feel threatened by it.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Please add to that my boyfriend's response: It (UO) is ugly. It looks like it was made in the early 90s.

As much as some people who play UO (you know who you are) say otherwise, a decent graphics experience is a MUST in order to garner new players.

^ This.
Or we can always keep going in the current direction of complaining and resisting every effort and attempt at trying to improve and modernize UO because THAT has done a BANG UP job in increasing the subscription numbers and thus the economic viability of the game.

{Insert Sarcasm tag for the sarcastically impaired}

Usually when the devs go silent on the boards it tends to mean that they're in the process of working on the next publish (or at least it has seemed that way with the last Team), then once that publish goes out we'll see a flurry of activity which will then again subside when they start on the next one.

 

[Woodsman]

What really needs to change is the community. We need to hold the Devs to some kind of standard, demand that certain things be fixed (UO Herald, NPE, bugs, and the EC), and then be willing to accept a trickle of 'new' content until those issues are addressed. This way we might actually be able to draw people to UO without being laughed at.

I agree with everything you said 100%, including the stuff I cut. I swear it feels like if you asked a lot of players would they rather have new pixel crack or have the devs work on stuff to bring in new players, pixel crack will win hands down. We are never going to get a bigger dev team either so it's not like they can do both or at least do a lot of both. I'm picturing TheGrimmOmen putting in 90 hours a week as it is.

While many of us will blithely say "graphics don't matter," most who do are hypocrites. Graphics matter to modern gamers

Not only do they matter, but until Ultima Online, graphics mattered a great deal to the Ultima games - Garriott was always trying to push the hardware to the limits. Now we are stuck in the '90s. Garriott must laugh and weep at the same time over how UO basically froze in time.

He's probably somewhat happy they are doing some kind of Facebook thing with Ultima IV, although he sounded sad that he couldn't be involved or use stuff from the Ultima franchise.

Yet, instead of moving with the times, we fight about the clients amongst ourselves.

The community needs to change.

Amen.

 

[MalagAste]

...

Please add to that my boyfriend's response: It (UO) is ugly. It looks like it was made in the early 90s.

As much as some people who play UO (you know who you are) say otherwise, a decent graphics experience is a MUST in order to garner new players.

^ This.
Or we can always keep going in the current direction of complaining and resisting every effort and attempt at trying to improve and modernize UO because THAT has done a BANG UP job in increasing the subscription numbers and thus the economic viability of the game.

{Insert Sarcasm tag for the sarcastically impaired}

Usually when the devs go silent on the boards it tends to mean that they're in the process of working on the next publish (or at least it has seemed that way with the last Team), then once that publish goes out we'll see a flurry of activity which will then again subside when they start on the next one.

I could not agree more.

Sadly most the time we are held back by ... well us.

Many hate change and the can't stand any update in graphics... can anyone say "sheep"...... Baaaa...

Sadly it's our own fault. Refusing to come out of the 2d hole has left us in the dust of other games.

The EC can't even save us since it too is now stuck in the 2d time warp.

There are things that keep me playing... The EC and it's promises to improve... The EM program which I support wholeheartedly... and the community.... sadly the community is getting so low that those who are left are pretty much the diehards who love UO and those who wish to exploit it for every dollar...


Try as I might to offer up every suggestion and advice to draw back folk to UO and make it more enjoyable... I often feel that what I say falls on deaf ears.

Trust me I have bent over backwards and sideways to try to bring folk back to UO. When I FINALLY convince someone to return there seriously aren't enough folk left to help them adjust to all the changes.

No one wants to join an MMORPG without the Role-play.... or the players. Heck most the time I feel I'm playing a solo game. I hardly see other players about anymore and more often than not NO one is either in game or online... and I know I'm not alone in my sentiment either.

And I play on one of the more "populated" shards. Thankfully on GL you can usually find folk who are willing to meet you for a "Circle" in Brit... and many times folk who want to do Corgul will announce that they are doing a run and invite anyone willing to join.

But even then it's quiet most the time... Even factions seem almost dead. Not that I've ever really given a hoot about Fel or Factions it's still sad to see such things going the way of the Dodo....


Yes we need to help... but some of the things we CAN do to help are to stop being so horrid to one another in game. Helping out folk who return... (No I don't mean handing them the game on a silver platter) I mean answering questions... Helping them find information about templates... suit construction... helping to find what sort of character design would be most suited for their playstyle and current needs. I'm talking about being courteous to our fellow players. That also means not "hogging" spawn... not being a jerk-o and jumping someones spawn... and things of that nature.... and NOT scamming them.

I do my best as well to police the horrid language in General Chat as well.... reporting abusers and directing new players and returning players to help and NICE guilds.

"If" everyone did their part for their communities we "might" be able to keep a few more returning and new players than we do.

I don't know how many players have come back only to leave again saying "See this is why I left...... " and putting the blame not only on bugs in the client, hard to understand character builds.... the poor economy.... but largely on the absolutely deplorable treatment other players give them and the extreme LACK of Customer Service on the part of EA.

 

[lucitus]

For me the journey called UO has nearly ended. One 90 day gametime, maybe two, but not more i going to give them to get the things clear.

But if iam thinking about it for me it is dead over a year, was a great game, but it is over and i have to see it an mmorpg without massive players is no longer worth to play. iam excited maybe they can hold me with the high rez update, but i know EA long enough, they had loosed before they begun, they will loose also with the new Star Wars MMO.

 

[hen]

The communication in recent months has been utterly dreadful. With Cal gone we have Mesanna as associate producer. Her silence speaks volumes.


Mesanna, please have the decency to communicate with your playerbase.


The treatment of UO players is SHAMBOLIC.

 

[Ludes]

I agree with everything you said 100%, including the stuff I cut. I swear it feels like if you asked a lot of players would they rather have new pixel crack or have the devs work on stuff to bring in new players, pixel crack will win hands down. We are never going to get a bigger dev team either so it's not like they can do both or at least do a lot of both. I'm picturing TheGrimmOmen putting in 90 hours a week as it is.
Not only do they matter, but until Ultima Online, graphics mattered a great deal to the Ultima games - Garriott was always trying to push the hardware to the limits. Now we are stuck in the '90s. Garriott must laugh and weep at the same time over how UO basically froze in time.

He's probably somewhat happy they are doing some kind of Facebook thing with Ultima IV, although he sounded sad that he couldn't be involved or use stuff from the Ultima franchise.
Amen.

I have to agree.. the single player game Ultima IX that directly preceded UO, looks and plays better than modern day UO. and it's 16 years old.

 

[yorky]

Really have to agree, as a recent returnee its a daily disappointment to read the uo website and still see the catskills treasure hunt news every day. UO really needs to do 1 of 2 possible things right now, either go F2P or get back on the UO2 bandwagon.

EA could make a fortune from a UO2 project, mmo players are sick and tired of themepark mmo's they are practically screaming for a sandbox and uo's gameplay is the essence of a very well made sandbox, you add a 3D environment to this gameplay and you have a born success story.

EA .. go nike on us and JUST DO IT!

 

[MalagAste]

I am hoping they follow the Mediacom commercials around here.....


Hey! I need an upgrade! (Changes from little kiddy wading pool to full sized backyard pool complete with waterslide)

So my UO can change from the 2d dead horse to a full blown 3d awe inspiring masterpiece...


Ah the stuff dreams are made of.

Heck.... I might even be willing to start over from scrap if I had a real UO 3d.

"Might".... though tossing 10+ years of memories down the drain would be tough.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

I'm still skeptical about a 3d (ala WoW/LotR/etc) Ultima considering that the series has had a poor record with that specific medium (one completely botched release of a game and 2 MMOGs that were canned before hitting alpha). That's not to say that we wouldn't be better off with the technology, getting untied from the tile-based 2d system would be a HUGE boon to UO even using the same viewpoint/style that UO currently uses.

But it's more than just a "3d UO" that we would have to see... what would the gameplay be like? Would it be more "sandbox" (UO) or "themepark" (WoW/LotR/etc)? Skills or levels? Seamless world or zones?

Given that we're still waiting for certain upgrades to what we already have, begging for a sequel (which really is something that doesn't make sense in terms of a game that doesn't actually end, but that's a different topic) or yet another client/tech that will be hated by a stagnant playerbase seems like an exercise in frustration.

I want to see something amazing... but I'm not sure if they have the manpower to do it, and it really seems like there are some people here who simply don't want it to happen and want to fight it every step of the way.

 

[HD2300]

Lets play connect the dots...

Christopher Ondrus | LinkedIn
New UO Franchise Producer - http://vboards.stratics.com/2016521-post21.html

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Yeah, dots exist... But it doesn't mean they are necessarily connected.

When you can prove this project is anything other then line in a two year old shareholder report...more than vaporware...then you can trumpet it to the heavens.

Till then, stop...just stop.

 

[Willard]

I've been playing UO from 1999 with only a short 1 year break, but kept my accounts active. I have had at least 4 accounts since my 2nd year of playing and at one time had 7 accounts. Of, late I am finding less and less reason to log in. I would love to see some communication as to what will be the direction of the new leadership of the UO team. I desperately need some motivation to keep paying for 4 accounts--heck,,,,1 account. The lack of communication from the Divs makes me wonder if anyone but the players really care what happens to UO.

 

[Pinco]

Lets play connect the dots...

Christopher Ondrus | LinkedIn
New UO Franchise Producer - http://vboards.stratics.com/2016521-post21.html

you keep saying there will be a new 3d UO... Grimm already confirmed that there will NOT be any 3d uo, because EA is cheap and won't spare any more money to redo the UO client.

IMHO the ones who choose to make EC a 2D graphics client made the first bad choice, then they started to copy WoW style interface and web site and this was the second bad choice.
However as I can see EC is like a patchwork made with the spare parts of warhammer and also in the spare time, something to working on when you are boring and there is nothing better to do

UO is great game, with huge amount of contents but don't have a client able to validate all this... and not enough people to working on... and also not enough money for the project... and devs probably are working at home because EA can't afford to pay for an office...
ok, maybe the communication is not the worst problem atm

 

[Kayne]

I agree with everything you said 100%, including the stuff I cut. I swear it feels like if you asked a lot of players would they rather have new pixel crack or have the devs work on stuff to bring in new players, pixel crack will win hands down.

Give me work on stuff to bring in new players over more items and pixel crack any day.

That aside, I've said around here that I am a 2D client person all the way. There are various things I don't like about EC and they are virtually the same as my problems with the KR client (other than the fact EC is actually much better performance wise)

If they can give me the UO-ness of the 2D client with some of the functionality of the Enhanced Client and without some of the graphics I hate then I will gladly switch.
I hate the UI (pinco I did try yours for a few sessions but your UI just can't fix the EC. Well done on a good mod though)
It has always screamed WoW rip off.

One thing I did love in KR and at least partly with EC is how much nicer some of the textures do look - as in roads and grass, the floors etc. But that alone doesn't make me want to switch.

When I finally win the Euromillions I'll see if EA want to sell

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Lets play connect the dots...
Christopher Ondrus | LinkedIn
New UO Franchise Producer - http://vboards.stratics.com/2016521-post21.html

quite similar huh? what a coincidence. Maybe there's 2 NEW GUYS?

 

[Woodsman]

Really have to agree, as a recent returnee its a daily disappointment to read the uo website and still see the catskills treasure hunt news every day. UO really needs to do 1 of 2 possible things right now, either go F2P or get back on the UO2 bandwagon.

F2P would not fix the problems that are holding UO back - read why people are quitting, they aren't quitting because it's $10 or $12 a month, it's because this or that system isn't fixed, the accounting problems, boredom, the graphics, etc. etc. And the term "free to play" is a silly notion to begin with - anybody who thinks it would be free has never tried the f2p games out there. They are really glorified trials and are ultimately pay-to-play.

As for 3D, the EC can handle 3D just fine - RIFT, Elder Scrolls: Obvlivion, Fallout 3 are all based on the same engine as the EC. The major things needed for a 3D UO is to ditch the CC and swap the graphics. That's overly simplistic, but as long as we have the CC, the tile-based system has to remain in effect. Trying to mix two clients that have different movement systems would break a lot of things or create more hassles than they are worth.

The problem with a UO2 is that if you try to replace UO with another game, if you don't provide a means for UO players to migrate with their stuff and their characters and if you don't provide a similar sandbox-style environment, then there is damn good chance they'll just walk away completely, including look at other games or free shards.

This is what the Netdragon fanboys don't seem to comprehend - providing a replacement UO that isn't really really close to UO is going to provide an incentive for people to say "**** it" and walk away and look at other games or freeshards. Especially if a replacement UO is as cartoony and non-sandboxy as all of the other Netdragon offerings. If UO players want cartoony or non-sandboxes, they would have already left.

 

[Kayne]

As for 3D, the EC can handle 3D just fine - RIFT, Elder Scrolls: Obvlivion, Fallout 3 are all based on the same engine as the EC. The major things needed for a 3D UO is to ditch the CC and swap the graphics. That's overly simplistic, but as long as we have the CC, the tile-based system has to remain in effect. Trying to mix two clients that have different movement systems would break a lot of things or create more hassles than they are worth.

One of the biggest problems I can't see 3D working for is things like Custom house building. That would be horrifically difficult in a pure 3D setting. Unless of course they gave the tile based, iso-metric view we have now for custom designing.

However I don't think UO would really gain all that much in terms of players from a completely 3D overhall.
The player base as far as we know is still majority CC and I have a feeling there would be a huge number of leavers if UO went down the 3D route and ultimately I don't think in the world of todays games and graphics and the fact most games are "hand it on a plate" or simple grind mechanics that any players that did come to try it wouldn't stay.

UO actually requires some thought to play and more than picking a race and a skill and then going out to level up. It requires knowing how items work in your favour and how skills combine with others to make you more powerful.

Just to point out we have managed to go completely off topic here