Deckard and I have been emailing about this too. Best if I just restate it here instead of trying to come up with a unique way to say it. In part:Is there a reason why a new player experience/returning player experience can't be very close to one another?
It's a valid point. I usually take short breaks if I take a break, but the people I know who have taken longer breaks do have a harder time coming back, and a lot of the questions/issues they have are identical to questions/issues that new players have.
So I get the need to bring in and focus on new players. So they start playing and they hear cheat program terms or try out pvp in Fel and wonder why their armor just dropped to their feet while running or how someone just got all Lord Marshal on them before they got their first swing in.For me, with Jeff, I'd like them to decide on a direction, lay out a plan, stick to it, endorse it properly, hire adequate staff to do so and be able to become more transparent. I don't want anymore false starts without being able to finish it correctly with bare minimum resources. THEN you focus on new players. It's only now dawning on so many that EA may just keep this ball rolling instead of allowing it to see a mile marker anniversary and slowly close up shop. Should it have come before now with a big anniversary date that could have been used to advertise to a newer player base? Yes, but not with so many things that need work first. I cringe at new players trying to decipher so much before they can even go on a simple hunt.
Anyone remember.....JAIL? Like omgooses UO Jail You got to log in your character and fondly remember that time yesterday you were playing before you got caught cheating. I would love to see that return but the jail house would be overcrowded nowadays so then what? How about an Escape from New York type system? "Here ya go buddy, you wanted to be all bad arse didn't ya? So do allll these other fellas and gals already running rampant here."
*wakes up from dream*
Sorry, where am I? Oh right, new players. Yes we need to encourage them but I'd rather see the 15th anniversary as a re-load with revived conviction on what UO has yet to accomplish. Have THAT set up first and then start reaching out to the newer playerbase with confidence.