Low online, free2play solution... again

[SirZ]

So... Yes, this thread again about free2play, but I think this is the only solution to the problem of low shards online at the moment.

I hope the new Ultima producer will pay attention to this topic (nice dream is't it? ).

My F2P UO vision is 2 account types:
1 type is regular account with payment. This is regular accounts like now, without any limitations.
2 type is f2p accounts with limitations - they can't place a house, can't use transfer token and... thats all Restrict the purchase of addons, training skills and the PS use I think it makes no sense. This players must play to a full game and pick up economic and shards online.


P.S. Yes, I still dislike F2P game system, but we need to somehow save our favorite game.
P.S.S. Sorry for my english

 

[R Traveler]

No vet rewards. Since have no payed time - have no aging.
Char slots limit. 1-3, not more.

 

[pgib]

It might work but imo the 100% granted fill-with-players option is: stunning graphics + advertisement. You suck them in with the look and then they realize how pitiful other mmporgs are compared. But that requires big money from who we know.

 

[SirZ]

No vet rewards. Since have no payed time - have no aging.
Char slots limit. 1-3, not more.

I agree with this detals.

It might work but imo the 100% granted fill-with-players option is: stunning graphics + advertisement. You suck them in with the look and then they realize how pitiful other mmporgs are compared. But that requires big money from who we know.

Advertisement in a game? Is unnecessary.
F2P players will buy addons (SA, HS, etc) and other stuff from uogamecodes.

 

[Striga]

1 Type ---> Payment Subscription: can be able to place house in differents shards with one account (2 shards is the good choice).

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

UO has a limited free to play trial option already. Personally, I'd rather see the team move forward with the "upgrade existing gameplay" mindset and get the dungeons revamps, the EC artwork and quality up to where it could be, THEN start a "Return to Britannia" blitz highlighting the new features and go from there.

From OUR (the players/posters) point of view, we need to continue to give constructive feedback, then actually get to a point where we're not constantly on the "UO sucks" train because that is doing NOTHING to help the subscription numbers.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I hear there will be a f2p classic shard when they implement the new Chinese 3d client, but this won't happen until after the shards are first merged, then shut down.

-Galen's player

 

[Lord Frodo]

This will lose EA/UO way more accounts. I will just empty all my mule/house houlder accounts for clean up points and just let them go F2P. Who cares if a Mull Account can Xfer and I will learn to live with fewer houses.

Might as well save us the long death rattle and pull the plug now.

 

[R Traveler]

There is another option... Existing trial restrictions with option to remove time limit with any game code purchase.
Few payable options like remove PS limitation for $49,99, remove colored resources limitation for $29,99 and much more.

 

[R Traveler]

All monthly payed accounts should have free expansions. All f2p accounts should pay for every limit remove, upgrade, here and there.

And f2p only accounts allowed to see this nice message:

 

[Woodsman]

So... Yes, this thread again about free2play, but I think this is the only solution to the problem of low shards online at the moment.

Everything you mentioned does nothing to actually fix why people don't play UO. Nobody posts long "I'm quitting" messages in UHall discussing how they can't afford $10 - $13 a month. They post about certain things not being done or happening in game, being tired of low resolution graphics, boredom, etc. Those problems exist regardless of how the money is collected.

As others have said, UO has a trial option, and the time limit should be removed on that or stretched to a few months and just use that as a f2p option.

 

[Uvtha]

Everything you mentioned does nothing to actually fix why people don't play UO. Nobody posts long "I'm quitting" messages in UHall discussing how they can't afford $10 - $13 a month. They post about certain things not being done or happening in game, being tired of low resolution graphics, boredom, etc. Those problems exist regardless of how the money is collected.

As others have said, UO has a trial option, and the time limit should be removed on that or stretched to a few months and just use that as a f2p option.

Its about getting new players, not retaining old ones. People will quit games eventually, it just happens, but if you don't have a solid supply of new players eventually you'll see the ghost towns we see today.

UO needs active player bases to be its most fun.

Content problems are problems every game has, but you need players to keep the game running. Even if UO were bug free and filled with double the content it has now, there would still be a really low player base. The graphics can only be improved so far, and my guess is not much further than they are now.

 

[Uvtha]

F2P works. D&DO, LOTRO, EQ2, AOC, a bunch of others have all converted. The sun is rapidly setting on the "$15 a month or GTFO" model. The last thing UO needs is to be the only game left that ISN'T free.

UO should have been the FIRST game with an f2p set up, not the last. They should have gone with the plan to convert it to f2p, but instead they chose KR which stalled the games development for nearly 3 years.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

The graphics can only be improved so far, and my guess is not much further than they are now.

Love it, hate it, or don't care either way, as long as the 2d client remains in use, this will be true. Get rid of the anchor that is the 2d client and the graphic level can go as far as any new game out there. Within the current confines, the best path to take is to upgrade the EC as much as possible, get the graphics crisp and smooth with as little pixelation and distortion as possible, then start fleshing out the world environmentally and make it the most "alive" world possible and be able to present UO as a much more real experience than the level/zone clones.

 

[sirion]

I hear there will be a f2p classic shard when they implement the new Chinese 3d client, but this won't happen until after the shards are first merged, then shut down.

This is interesting. Where is the source of this info?

 

[Haruchai]

This is interesting. Where is the source of this info?

www.hespullingyourleg.com

 

[Shakkara]

Free2play is not the end-all solution.

Lego went F2P and they've recently announced that they're shutting down, even with 2 mil active users...

 

[Tor the Invincible]

At this point there are so many F2P games floating around, good professional 3D MMO games. I help a lot of newbies and returning veterans out in Haven on Atlantic, giving out crappy LRC suits and stuff like that, and all I hear is "I can't believe they still charge a subscription for this."

 

[Woodsman]

Its about getting new players, not retaining old ones. People will quit games eventually, it just happens, but if you don't have a solid supply of new players eventually you'll see the ghost towns we see today.

If you don't fix the long-term existing problems that have nothing to do with payment models, those new players aren't going to become veteran players.

UO needs active player bases to be its most fun.

Fully agree, but until you fix the other issues, it'll be a revolving door. Players who haven't played UO but have played other MMOs expect high resolution graphics, a modern/customizable client, and active support and a community.

Now we are getting high resolution graphics, and Pinco has been incredibly busy making the EC usable, but there are other issues that need to be seriously addressed before anybody looks at payment models.

Content problems are problems every game has, but you need players to keep the game running.

UO has an incredible amount of content. The biggest problems are updating a game to something that would be considered by a player who maybe new to MMOs or may not have even been born with Ultima VII was launched, let alone IV that everybody loves.

Warcraft probably loses more players in a few weeks than UO has subbing and there are many other large MMOs that are constantly losing players who are looking for something those games don't provide. UO could probably win quite a few of those players over, but first they have to be willing to consider UO, and you have to bring it up to date to something they would be interested in.

 

[tiggertessa2007]

The type 2 would only result in a person paying for one account to place a house for storage, then having a thousand chopping and mining bots all co owned dumping stuff in the trunks.........if the world was full of honest people it would be a great idea, but unfortunatly its not and it just wouldnt work at all.

 

[Woodsman]

The failure of DC Online to bring in more players, and the closure of Lego Online is going to make a lot of companies rethink things.

The BioWare Mythic VP said they were going to keep the three Mythic MMOs subscription based, and the BioWare heads defended subscriptions for Star Wars recently.

UO's problems are still the kind that would keep newer players away. Personally I think they need to focus on getting everybody onto one client once the EC high resolution graphics are finished. This two client thing doesn't work well.

 

[tiggertessa2007]

i personaly would quit uo if i was forced to play the enhanced client, i love the 2d as do most uo players...if i want a half a$$ed 3d world ill just go play rift.

 

[wanderer1origin]

lol rift that kicks updates out is very pretty and cares about player imput lol YAH!!!!!!!!
2d is down fall of this game but you really know this

i personaly would quit uo if i was forced to play the enhanced client, i love the 2d as do most uo players...if i want a half a$$ed 3d world ill just go play rift.

 

[A Thought Elemental]

So... Yes, this thread again about free2play, but I think this is the only solution to the problem of low shards online at the moment.

I hope the new Ultima producer will pay attention to this topic (nice dream is't it? ).

My F2P UO vision is 2 account types:
1 type is regular account with payment. This is regular accounts like now, without any limitations.
2 type is f2p accounts with limitations - they can't place a house, can't use transfer token and... thats all Restrict the purchase of addons, training skills and the PS use I think it makes no sense. This players must play to a full game and pick up economic and shards online.


P.S. Yes, I still dislike F2P game system, but we need to somehow save our favorite game.
P.S.S. Sorry for my english

Um.

Sounds like a gold farmer's dream to me, since the buddy tokens don't work any more.

 

[Ultimaholic]

NO f2p!

Advertise and shelf presence.

Plenty of f2p garbage out there,no need to bring that into UO. Think we have scammers and cheats now? Has anyone played many f2p games? I sure have. Unless you forget about unattended macroing rules and such.... f2p will just open the doors to bad things with bad players that have no care of losing a free account.

Wanna pay for stuff to have ingame? Your in luck! ....

http://www.uogamecodes.com

 

[Uvtha]

...



Love it, hate it, or don't care either way, as long as the 2d client remains in use, this will be true. Get rid of the anchor that is the 2d client and the graphic level can go as far as any new game out there. Within the current confines, the best path to take is to upgrade the EC as much as possible, get the graphics crisp and smooth with as little pixelation and distortion as possible, then start fleshing out the world environmentally and make it the most "alive" world possible and be able to present UO as a much more real experience than the level/zone clones.

Its more the fact that the game world was designed for the 2d client, and to make a fully 3d client, or heck even some kind of non tiled client would require so much work that it would probably just be easier to make a completely new game.

The main thing that keeps the game world seeming flat is the fact that... it is flat. No matter how flashy the graphics get, the game will have to remain a flat 2d isometric game with tile based limitations.

You could make a 3d game with a fixed perspective, but like I said, it would be easier to just make a new game with systems designed for that kind of world rather than redoing everything and making sure it all works.

 

[Uvtha]

Free2play is not the end-all solution.

Lego went F2P and they've recently announced that they're shutting down, even with 2 mil active users...

Like all things, it has to be a good fit. I personally thing UO has an almost textbook fit for f2p. Very deep content, very deep customization, but with an antiquated look coupled with a prohibitive pay structure that serve to keep those surfing for new games at bay.

UO could make a boat load of money RIGHT NOW if they dedicated more time special dyes and vanity items in the for real money store, and if you added in housings rights, extra character slots and all the other things you could charge free account players for, the game would generate more money, and would have way more players making the game more fun.

 

[Uvtha]

If you don't fix the long-term existing problems that have nothing to do with payment models, those new players aren't going to become veteran players.

This is a common problem in every MMO, and no one is suggesting that problems and imbalanced should constantly be examined. This is not a UO specific kind of problem. But to be honest UO is more balanced and bug free now than it has ever been by a pretty easy margin. The low player base is not due to faulty systems or bugs. Its due to the natural degradation of the population, and the inability for the game to refill the subs.

Fully agree, but until you fix the other issues, it'll be a revolving door. Players who haven't played UO but have played other MMOs expect high resolution graphics, a modern/customizable client, and active support and a community.

I agree, but we have the EC which is a good client UI wise, fancy graphics are really only expected/demanded when you pay a premium for it, as for community thats what comes from more players, not to say we dont have a pretty good community as is. Support wise... EA has never been great on support from my second hand experience, but I personally have only had positive experiences with customer support so.. I cant really speak.

I highly doubt some free player is going to start playing the game then quit because of customer service or lack of modern graphics. I mean basically that is the point of wanting to go f2p. People will play antiquated games for free. People will get hooked when they play, then some of them will pay for dyes or houses or whatever. Economic interaction improves, easier to group, etc benefits everyone.

Now we are getting high resolution graphics, and Pinco has been incredibly busy making the EC usable, but there are other issues that need to be seriously addressed before anybody looks at payment models.
UO has an incredible amount of content. The biggest problems are updating a game to something that would be considered by a player who maybe new to MMOs or may not have even been born with Ultima VII was launched, let alone IV that everybody loves.

Warcraft probably loses more players in a few weeks than UO has subbing and there are many other large MMOs that are constantly losing players who are looking for something those games don't provide. UO could probably win quite a few of those players over, but first they have to be willing to consider UO, and you have to bring it up to date to something they would be interested in.

UO is NEVER going to be up to date. I think we just need to face that. That is the whole reason people talk about f2p in the first place. It would be easier to build an up to date UO2 than to somehow cobble the current UO into something resembling a modern MMO. Its just not feasible. And the "Ultima" franchise is functionally a non factor at this point. Its been out of the market for a whole generation basically.
As for the "HR" graphics... they will make zero difference to new players. The difference is noticeable to us, but honestly minimal and I think would generally have no impact what so ever on a UO virgin.

 

[Uvtha]

NO f2p!

Advertise and shelf presence.

Plenty of f2p garbage out there,no need to bring that into UO. Think we have scammers and cheats now? Has anyone played many f2p games? I sure have. Unless you forget about unattended macroing rules and such.... f2p will just open the doors to bad things with bad players that have no care of losing a free account.

Wanna pay for stuff to have ingame? Your in luck! ....

http://www.uogamecodes.com

Only if you do it wrong. UO will never be back on shelves and they will never spend money on advertising. Why? It's not a sound investment, its not a product many people are going to be willing to pay 14 bucks a month for over WOW or EVE or whatever other sub based games out there.

I want to be clear, I think UO is superior to those games on most levels, but you have to be realistic about its value in the mmo market.

UO is very very very unlikely to have anything other than the slow player drain off that we are currently seeing until the game goes zombie (servers up, no new content) and eventually dies, or they try a different payment method to try to rebuild a player base.

I'm not "gloom and doom" here. Its just the realities of the mmo world and the world of video games and really all products in general. Time passes, more modern options arise people move on, some segments of the population remain with the old stuff creating niche markets allowing the fade off to last longer than it would on average. That is where we are now in the fade off. I fully expect UO to be vaible for years yet with this current pay scheme, but it WILL not last forever, and the game will NOT thrive again unless it goes f2p (which will become a more and more low risk choice as time goes on) or they chose to invest a silly amount of capital into completely revamping a 15 year old game based on an decades old franchise. That simply will not, and honestly should not happen.

In my opinion UO need to do one of two things to move forward: 1) Accept UO is what it is, and oldie... but a goodie. Accept that you cant keep asking people to pay the same price as they do for other modern mmos, look into new pricing options like f2p, drop trying to make it modern, sell it to the niche market that certainly exists out there.
or 2) zombify UO, and move on to UO2. No wow clone, but a real Ultima Online spirited game containing all of the features and whatnot from UO in an updated (graphically and system wise) game.

The trying to mix the two together is just making a mess.

 

[aarons6]

just remove the 14 day limit on trials and let them be.
you cant do anything dangerous to the game with them..
no way to script mine or lumberjack or any other mass resource gather as they cant use deeds. they dont even get access to special woods or materials.
cant place houses, and they are only upgrade to ML so no use of the new lands and items.

i dont even know if they can use a bank check, so you can only hold so much gold.

no vendors either i dont think, and soon they cant type in gen chat..

 

[Uvtha]

just remove the 14 day limit on trials and let them be.
you cant do anything dangerous to the game with them..
no way to script mine or lumberjack or any other mass resource gather as they cant use deeds. they dont even get access to special woods or materials.
cant place houses, and they are only upgrade to ML so no use of the new lands and items.

i dont even know if they can use a bank check, so you can only hold so much gold.

no vendors either i dont think, and soon they cant type in gen chat..

Not a bad idea. Id like to see something more thought out to maximize the effectiveness, but it would be a good change.

 

[Woodsman]

NO f2p!

Advertise and shelf presence.[/url]

Don't be surprised if in 5 years the majority of EA games are sold online through Origin.com. EA is wanting to get out of the physical retail business and sell everything through Origin.com. Them selling through Origin.com means 100% revenue versus having to pay for distribution and share the proceeds with Amazon, Best Buy, etc.

As for the "HR" graphics... they will make zero difference to new players. The difference is noticeable to us, but honestly minimal and I think would generally have no impact what so ever on a UO virgin.

New players do expect PC MMOs to have a higher resolution than their cell phones. Even laptops are getting large/high resolution displays, and UO's pixels don't look to hot. Thankfully that is being fixed, but it's an issue right now.

 

[kelmo]

The trying to mix the two together is just making a mess.

*chuckles* This kinda reminds me of some of the battles we used to fight on the Siege forums, just on a larger scale. We never could agree about what was best for Siege... The players that is. Not you and I specifically. *winks*

We argued this way, that way and the other. Many of "us" knew exactly what it would take to fix Siege. We did polls, we argued and fought very passionately... some even went over the edge and 'lost their voice' here.

My little rant here will fall of some deaf eyes...

People often say. "If this! Then that!" I have been guilty of this.

Player 1 wants this, Player 2 wants that. Player A will quit if this happens (seems this player has several accounts and many friends *winks*) Player B will quit if this does not happen!

All the while the kindle burns lower...

 

[Uvtha]

All the while the kindle burns lower...

You have to plug your kindle into the usb cord for it to charge kelmo!! ;P

 

[Uvtha]

Don't be surprised if in 5 years the majority of EA games are sold online through Origin.com. EA is wanting to get out of the physical retail business and sell everything through Origin.com. Them selling through Origin.com means 100% revenue versus having to pay for distribution and share the proceeds with Amazon, Best Buy, etc.

Yup. Physical media is dying out in general. Which is both great in some ways and terrible in many others. One hopes the negatives will lessen in time.

New players do expect PC MMOs to have a higher resolution than their cell phones. Even laptops are getting large/high resolution displays, and UO's pixels don't look to hot. Thankfully that is being fixed, but it's an issue right now.

Yeah I mean people expect pay mmos to look fancy, but f2p.. it's not that big of a deal. As for the graphics update from what I saw the difference was very minimal. Rather than 10 stones per inch in a cobble stone floor there's 20. It doenst look much different IMO, and I have a hard time believing that a new player would even notice the difference.

 

[kelmo]

kin·dle
1.to start (a fire); cause (a flame, blaze, etc.) to begin burning.
2.to setfire to or ignite (fuel or any combustible matter).
3.to excite; stir up or set going; animate; rouse; inflame: He kindled their hopes of victory. 4.to light up, illuminate, or make bright: Happiness kindled her eyes.

 

[Uvtha]

kin·dle
1.to start (a fire); cause (a flame, blaze, etc.) to begin burning.
2.to setfire to or ignite (fuel or any combustible matter).
3.to excite; stir up or set going; animate; rouse; inflame: He kindled their hopes of victory. 4.to light up, illuminate, or make bright: Happiness kindled her eyes.

So I can't read the new twilight on it?

 

[Merion]

tl;dr

but they should take a look at what Lord of the Rings Online did: LOTRO Free to Play Plan Comparison

i think this could be easily adapted for UO.

 

[yorky]

Its funny this thread came up as I just started playing Fallen Earth again and I have to say, its packed! Before that went F2P it was like UO population, never saw many people, chat was dead, everyone soloed and its the reason I left. However now the starter towns are jam packed with new players, people who never heard of Fallen Earth are asking why it was never a big mmo, the help chat scrolls by so fast its hard to answer all the questions and there is almost always someone else on my screen.

UO should have gone F2P last year, but as they say its never too late.

 

[twoburntfouryou]

Its funny this thread came up as I just started playing Fallen Earth again and I have to say, its packed! Before that went F2P it was like UO population, never saw many people, chat was dead, everyone soloed and its the reason I left. However now the starter towns are jam packed with new players, people who never heard of Fallen Earth are asking why it was never a big mmo, the help chat scrolls by so fast its hard to answer all the questions and there is almost always someone else on my screen.

UO should have gone F2P last year, but as they say its never too late.

I agree

 

[A Thought Elemental]

They should never make any aspect of this game free-to-play unless it's a trial account system that is carefully designed and is monitored for performance and abuse.

.. unless the whole thing goes F2P but I think then, it would be over.

This game's been abused enough, already. It isn't right for the ppl who run the game to not pay attention, but, if someone happens to be pretending to be a regular gamer but they are actually an abuser (who needs free accounts to get business done), you can bite me.

...and there's lots of other stuff in this game which needs TLC as opposed with working hard on a trial account system that would barely be used as intended. Like for example, the fact that if I'm using the EC client and I've been in-game a while and try to use my tab targeting of hostiles, it brings up invalid mob healthbars - repeatedly. And "cohesion" while trying to pass through a gate. And "you must wait before performing another action". That's where the TLC belongs right now IMO.

 

[Trebr Drab]

Its funny this thread came up as I just started playing Fallen Earth again and I have to say, its packed! Before that went F2P it was like UO population, never saw many people, chat was dead, everyone soloed and its the reason I left. However now the starter towns are jam packed with new players, people who never heard of Fallen Earth are asking why it was never a big mmo, the help chat scrolls by so fast its hard to answer all the questions and there is almost always someone else on my screen.

UO should have gone F2P last year, but as they say its never too late.

Of course it's got a bunch of newbies. It's newly FREE!
-That doesn't mean they are going to spend money on it. At least for very long.
-There's always going to be that initial rush of Cash Shop sales from people who get excited initially. It drops off dramatically unless the entire game is based on RMT. Is that the game you want? Play to make money to pay for the pizza? Watch corporate gamerica demand changes to suit their pocket book?
-You don't see either DDO or any other of these traditional RPGs bragging about anything after that initial rush. Why do you suppose not?
And finally....
-For Gods sake, why the hell am I even posting? I'm done with MMORPGs and really don't care anymore, because the lunatic run to cheap arse games for the pizza and tooth decay crowd has taken over.

 

[A Thought Elemental]

Its funny this thread came up as I just started playing Fallen Earth again and I have to say, its packed! Before that went F2P it was like UO population, never saw many people, chat was dead, everyone soloed and its the reason I left. However now the starter towns are jam packed with new players, people who never heard of Fallen Earth are asking why it was never a big mmo, the help chat scrolls by so fast its hard to answer all the questions and there is almost always someone else on my screen.

UO should have gone F2P last year, but as they say its never too late.

I can understand what you're saying but...

I feel like UO is at it's core not a piece of ****, and if it were properly done up, it would be great, and have proper subscribers rolling in, and nobody would suggest it going F2p any more than they would WoW.

... I do think that what's surrounding the other wise not-**** core is messed up. I'll stop short and not call the EC client a piece of ****, but I bet you the ppl who designed the WoW client wouldn't hesistate. Broken tab targeting of hostiles, no cast bar even possible despite a multitude of different spell cast times, binding character movement to keybinds eventually glitches and stops responding... I mean it's kinda like, holy ****.

All these shortcomings make me angry because what's underneath could be great. But yeah, going free-to-play is like giving up and determining that it will stay ****ed up forever.

 

[ahardy]

I won't post here much but i will tell what i think about all that post war.

F2p don't work for uo, unless you want all comodities go into 1gp worth, boards on large scale shards like atlantic atm worth 2gp each, if game go f2p the price maybe go to 0.5gp maybe less, and that apply to all colored wood, ingots, sands, bods and all farmeable things.

A good idea of f2p would be free all on f2p but only let the player play on test center shard, then playes will play on tc see what uo can offer, with the bonus of set-up char, see all commands, and if he like the game he can pay to play.

Other point is 14$Usd is very high prices for players outside europa and N.America, so is really rare see players like me from Brazil playing this game actually.

Other thing is us really need that lot os EAST and WEST America shards? let's be honest no one play legends when can play on atl and have same ping but 10x times pop, playes on lower shards actually only play for farm afk, script lots os resources, powerscrolls and such then merge to the main shards, so why just close the low pop shards, and resume the game on 1 East 1 West 1 Europa 2 Asian 1 Oceania shard? and maybe transfer a dead shard for a host on South America and one for Africa? idk if africa can have players to play the game, but i'm sure south america have, if you search on google you will find 10+ fakeservers with 100 - 300 online players on south america, i think they only play on fakeservers because the high latency for play the real UO servers. I ping 170ms on the less latency shard atm, its impossible for pvp, but its nice for pvm, but the large scale of games wich like uo like the pvp not only the pvm like me. If players don't want leave Legends for example, merge the host for EA Brasil or EA Argentina, then let they play on Legends and let Brasilians, Chilens, Argentinos play Ultima Online.

Low uo price for 10usd/month maybe 7$usd for 6 month buyers, and start close that farm free shards, maybe merge a server for another continent, and let it be.

S.America has a nice internet scale players i just don't know why the Bioware and other game teams don't look for us, just look statistics, Brasil is huge on all "comm sites" like fb orkut, myspace, msn, twitter, and others.

All american players have good computers, uo is a game for cheaper computers with low configs.

f2p isnt in economy financial and economy in-game the best solution, maybe make uo a worldwide game is, for example a game like age of empires, an 98 game not a mmo a rts game, have over 8000 users online playing on vietna.

3rd World Country, is the future, they have economy free, don't have a web game competition, and all are justing waiting a place for invest their bucks.

Trump come to brazil 2 weeks ago to sell some share of the new trump tower on NY, take this like an example.

 

[Zosimus]

NO f2p!

Advertise and shelf presence.

Plenty of f2p garbage out there,no need to bring that into UO. Think we have scammers and cheats now? Has anyone played many f2p games? I sure have. Unless you forget about unattended macroing rules and such.... f2p will just open the doors to bad things with bad players that have no care of losing a free account.

Wanna pay for stuff to have ingame? Your in luck! ....

http://www.uogamecodes.com

UO is not on the radar of EA's advertising division.. UO will never have a shelf presence again. As Woodsman said it will all be through Origin and I agree with his statement.

UO advertising has been left to the players. There are many ways to advertise UO and by not only just telling your friends, family and coworkers.

I will use Swifty and Athene as a prime example.

Go to youtube and look those 2 guys up. Btw I dont play WoW and never will but those two promote WoW with all their crazy nonsense babble. Only reason I know of them was Athene is now promoting any game channel made to help out other games. Since I am a big fan of GW and waiting for GW2 to come out, Athene was promoting a channel I am subscribed to for GW2. It's not like GW2 needed the help since it's ranked up there with SWTOR as one of the biggest games being released but Athene did. He is willing to help out any others that need it.

So I would suggest to add to the arsenal we already have to promote UO is to use youtube in a way not to just "show" videos but to talk about UO. You definetly need some colorful personalities to do it and willing to go to gamescon and other events to get the word out. What I mean by that is to wear t-shirts of UO, go to these events and talk to people and ask questions about UO, video tape these people you are talking to, make crazy game videos and make them exciting of PvM and PvP. Talk a little trash and act like your the greatest UO player ever. Spread the word. Do whatever it takes to catch the peoples eye to check out the videos. It worked for Athene and Swifty for WoW, and many other games they play and people like that keeps the firing burning for those games.

F2P has been so debated concering UO. I like many F2P games out there. Not all F2P games are so great but there are many that surpass UO. I prefer the B2P model personally. UO already has a subscription and a cash shop. So you have a UO game equation of P2P + F2P(item shop only atm) = 2 x $$$$$$.

I think F2P would work for UO but many dont want it to go that route and keep the population low. Plus when I read about cheaters ( been brought up in many f2p threads before) and how many more new cheaters would be in UO went to F2P I call BS. UO already has plenty of them just like other games but I think more it's RMT sites are afraid of UO going F2P. Thats $$$$$ they will be losing even if UO got an influx of more cheaters. Gosh forbid even "IF" EA would sell items cheaper then the RMT sites if it went F2P.

While paying for a subscription ask yourself this. How much of my subscription is actually poured back into UO? We know customer service is out the window, GM's are a needle in a haystack, and a down sized dev team. Yeah pretty well sums it up that 100% of our monthly subscriptions goes back into UO. ......not I'm not bitter or angry because this is what the people want and I fully back the people.

Love it or hate it.............. it's still UO

 

[Uvtha]

Of course it's got a bunch of newbies. It's newly FREE!
-That doesn't mean they are going to spend money on it. At least for very long.

... why do you assume they wont?

-There's always going to be that initial rush of Cash Shop sales from people who get excited initially. It drops off dramatically unless the entire game is based on RMT. Is that the game you want? Play to make money to pay for the pizza? Watch corporate gamerica demand changes to suit their pocket book?

I dont understand. Its ok for "corporate gamerica" to demand 14 bucks a month from you to play... but making that 14 optional is somehow evil? Some evil game overlords didn't like... decree this new payment model. Like everything else in business someone took a risk, and it worked, so people emulate them. Theres only ONE reason games are going f2p from a subscription model...it works better.

-You don't see either DDO or any other of these traditional RPGs bragging about anything after that initial rush. Why do you suppose not?

DDO was the third most played MMO of 2010. Behind only WOW and Runescape (which is also free) and I have seen no evidence that they are slowing down. It might have something to do with the fact that it fell out of YOUR sphere of attention.

And finally....
-For Gods sake, why the hell am I even posting? I'm done with MMORPGs and really don't care anymore, because the lunatic run to cheap arse games for the pizza and tooth decay crowd has taken over.

I think you have a clear bias against f2p, which is fine, but I don't really get it. Just because a game is f2p doesn't mean that a) they cant also have optional subscriptions so that the ONLY change current players would see is more people to play with, or b) that f2p cant be done well or done poorly... that its ALL done poorly no matter what. That's just blatant prejudice.
Are there bad f2p experiences out there? Of course. Are there good ones? Yes, there very much are.

I think its more a problem of perception that anything.

 

[ahardy]

... why do you assume they wont?



I dont understand. Its ok for "corporate gamerica" to demand 14 bucks a month from you to play... but making that 14 optional is somehow evil? Some evil game overlords didn't like... decree this new payment model. Like everything else in business someone took a risk, and it worked, so people emulate them. Theres only ONE reason games are going f2p from a subscription model...it works better.



DDO was the third most played MMO of 2010. Behind only WOW and Runescape (which is also free) and I have seen no evidence that they are slowing down. It might have something to do with the fact that it fell out of YOUR sphere of attention.



I think you have a clear bias against f2p, which is fine, but I don't really get it. Just because a game is f2p doesn't mean that a) they cant also have optional subscriptions so that the ONLY change current players would see is more people to play with, or b) that f2p cant be done well or done poorly... that its ALL done poorly no matter what. That's just blatant prejudice.
Are there bad f2p experiences out there? Of course. Are there good ones? Yes, there very much are.

I think its more a problem of perception that anything.

I will resume all with some words

Actually scripters pay 30 accts and afk macro with 30 accts, paying 14$ each so its = 30*14 = 420$ usd month, now if the game como f2p in place os 420$ he will need only 14$ for one acct. and can have 120 acct in place of 30, its why f2p don't work on a farmable game like UO.

 

[A Thought Elemental]

Just because a game is f2p doesn't mean that a) they cant also have optional subscriptions so that the ONLY change current players would see is more people to play with, or b) that f2p cant be done well or done poorly... that its ALL done poorly no matter what. That's just blatant prejudice.
Are there bad f2p experiences out there? Of course. Are there good ones? Yes, there very much are.

I think its more a problem of perception that anything.

Not sure you realize how abusable a free-to-play account is, especially with this ancient game that does not even have the framework to permit a gold cap. Gold is for practical purposes untraceable because it is not specifically owned by accounts (it exists as world items). Gold can be stored on player vendors and as items thrown into chests in houses, or 'invested' into items which seem likely to hold very high value due to design (such as, dread warhorses).

Make a F2P account, work up some taming on it, pop a stable full of dreads on it, and let it lapse. Fire the account back up when you want to liquidate. All for free. uh huh.

These things are already part of the abuse, but adding a free-to-play deal into the mix would make certain kinds of abuse all the easier.

 

[Uvtha]

You could curtail things like this, but yes, it could be abused, in many of the same ways free accounts are abused now.

But on the other hand the vast majority of new players would NOT be cheaters.

All the more excuse to implement an actual anti cheating system I think.

 

[Coppelia]

I'm not going to insist on the fact that it's been a long time that UO can't advertize. The budget allowed to advertizing for any product is always the lowest priority. It's just Marketing ABC.

Is it really a problem to pay $14 a month? Yes. Remember, UO is currently :
Monthly fee + expansions + booster packs + cash shop.
That's really expensive for a very old game with little to no customer support and a skeleton dev team. For example, I stopped UO because I felt cheated on the price. Even if I could affort it, I felt they were taking me for a sucker.

Is it a problem of graphics not putting sparkles in the eyes of low attention span gamers?
No. You won't change UO anyway. You can spend millions in a new new new "3D" client, it'll still be a top view isometric tile by tile RPG. It won't ever be sexy as a full 3D game with bouncing breast and gigantic swords.


But F2P will be farmers heaven!
That's an entirely different topic. If your game can't handle bots, that the fault of developpers, not the business model. And in the case of UO, we all know that bots haven't been dealt seriously ever. The GM team is unefficient and all the coders attempted was some stupid game design breaking "fix" like boosting Dread Spiders. What they need is GM tools and traps in the code to detect bots. I wouldn't advise PunkBuster or similar rootkits, but there's a moment when it becomes a needed crutch.
Anyway, the fight against cheaters shall never annoy legit players. Cutting off the hands of everybody to prevent robbery is plain stupid. Don't apply it in a game through abusive restrictions.


Will players stop playing if UO goes F2P?
No. Even if lots of the current players may stop paying, the potential customers you can bring is more important. Remember that there are lots of private server users who could be interested. Also seeing how the cheap copy of UO named Runescape is doing so well, I think there's place for UO back at the top of the MMORPGs.

What restrictions should have freeloaders?
Not as much as the OP suggested, IMO. They must have access to the whole game. There's a cash shop already. The premium subcription could be free cash shop gifts, more or less.


Anyway, UO going F2P is necessary, otherwise soon there will be only LadyStorm playing and paying for a few hundred accounts.