-
Hail Guest! We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
-
Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
-
Hail Guest!, Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
-
Hail Guest! Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!
Something tells me we wont hear anything about it until it is released to the shards.
But if I had to guess with little over a month away and no time to test anything super big we will get a new ruler and a few trinkets in our packs.
But if I had to guess with little over a month away and no time to test anything super big we will get a new ruler and a few trinkets in our packs.
Last edited:
Isn't the 15th Anniversary EXCITING?!
Last edited:
- Awards
- 1
I was just thinking, you really should put spoiler tags on this so you don't ruin it for everyone. I knew there was a post earlier where a couple of people objected to being informed of such exciting things.
Isn't the 15th Anniversary EXCITING?!
Last edited:
Done! Just need to edit yours now.
Maybe at GAMESCOM something will be revealed?
meees wanted a town hall so meees could gibe outs ice creams comes agin., and meets alla yooos peooooples
buts meees will take a hippoputamus fer christmas. Meees likes hippopotamus's and dey likes meees too.
Looks like you've got them figured out
And what's wrong with virtual anniversary cards from the Devs and fireworks wands, hmmm? Let's not forget about harpsichords hehe
I hope they turn off the angry rioters.
Does that beast even exist in the game?
The dragon? It's from the Hildebrandt print that shipped with the UO Charter Editions back in '97. One could easily say that it is the basis for the CC dragon.
However, the dragon isn't important in the image...
Last edited:
W
Woodsman
Guest
And risk having it drowned out by Guild Wars 2 or Pandas for Warcraft?
They should have been talking about this already, because in another week or two, gaming media will focus on GW2, and later next month it will be nothing but World of Warcraft. That was a real **** move on Blizzard's part to time it with UO's anniversary. If this were a marathon, Blizzard won it hours ago and is running back down the course and tripping up the runners who are a lot slower.
Still amazes me that Mythic is run by a marketing guy. Ultima Forever was actually a good announcement, except they didn't release any screenshots or video at the same time. Other than that, Mythic doesn't have a single clue about marketing stuff. It's like they want to wait until the love affair with Guild Wars 2 is in full swing and World of Warcraft's is about to ramp up.
If EA is planning a town hall meeting for the 15th anniversary to be able to make some kind of surprise announcement, like they did with High Seas, they should probably say something soon so people can request time off work and make travel arrangements. It may be getting a bit late in the year for people to still have unused/unplanned vacation time and family budgets are probably pretty tight with planning for back-to-school and holiday expenses.
Last edited:
W
Woodsman
Guest
If they were going to do a town hall, they have to have something big to announce. If they talk about 15 years, mention the harpsichord and a few other things and then talk about vet rewards or holiday gifts or something, people who went to the trouble of attending would be furious. High Seas was worthy of a town hall. Theme packs or something on that scale are not.
Maybe we'll get another one of those "boosters" we are supposed to get every 6 months that we haven't gotten in 2 years since High Seas was released.
I can tell you right now, I am playing UO more because there is nothing new to do in WoW at the time. I can also tell you i'm just as bored in Britannia right now as I am in Azeroth.
Also, I would like to add that MORE HP's! is a sad sad replacement for fun and challenging to kill mobs in UO. Scalis is frigging horrible and takes too long even with 20 people.
I hope they are going to announce another expansion that is near done so we have some new stuff to do besides killing things with 999999999999999 hit points and calling it a day or grinding to get ingredients for cures which I was over and done with the monotony within a day.
Really, for me, another anniversary token with some new items really isn't going to cut it.
Sorry, I am rambling. =D
I can tell you right now, I am playing UO more because there is nothing new to do in WoW at the time. I can also tell you i'm just as bored in Britannia right now as I am in Azeroth.
Also, I would like to add that MORE HP's! is a sad sad replacement for fun and challenging to kill mobs in UO. Scalis is frigging horrible and takes too long even with 20 people.
I hope they are going to announce another expansion that is near done so we have some new stuff to do besides killing things with 999999999999999 hit points and calling it a day or grinding to get ingredients for cures which I was over and done with the monotony within a day.
Really, for me, another anniversary token with some new items really isn't going to cut it.
Sorry, I am rambling. =D
Honestly ....
I am not expecting anything more then whats been leeked and peeked at in the code.... the harpsicord is something nice... but does it equil out to 15 years in a game?
Let's do the math.
1 account @ 9.99 a month (this was the original price per month)
x 12 months
________________
$ 119.88
x 15 years
_______________
$1798.20
Most of us have over the years had alot more then just that 1 account.... now if you add in the hours put in ................
Now this does not reflect the $ you have put in by purchase of tokens and items from the uogamestore.and origin.com........
Well I do have to admit this is way cheaper then going to the movies... You dont want to know that cost ....*grumbles about the 6.00 bucket of popcorn! and 5.00 medium cup of soda..*
I am not expecting anything more then whats been leeked and peeked at in the code.... the harpsicord is something nice... but does it equil out to 15 years in a game?
Let's do the math.
1 account @ 9.99 a month (this was the original price per month)
x 12 months
________________
$ 119.88
x 15 years
_______________
$1798.20
Most of us have over the years had alot more then just that 1 account.... now if you add in the hours put in ................
Now this does not reflect the $ you have put in by purchase of tokens and items from the uogamestore.and origin.com........
Well I do have to admit this is way cheaper then going to the movies... You dont want to know that cost ....*grumbles about the 6.00 bucket of popcorn! and 5.00 medium cup of soda..*
Not even sure what you're trying to say here?
Well the harpsichord was "leeked" by Mesannah posting a preview of it here, so I'm not sure what that has to do with "the code"... and what's that got to do with 15 years in a game? And it sounds like you are expecting more, contrary to your first few words.
And in exchange you got 15 years access to this game, so... ? You still think you are owed something more that all current subscribers shouldn't get?
Not with the number of accounts you've said you have.
W
Woodsman
Guest
Wow, things are bad if even you've lost faith in Mesanna and the team.
I think EA is close to putting UO out to pasture, but I do think they'll finally do the graphics update, or at least part of it. I'd have more faith if they had hired replacements for all of the people they've let go.
If it's true that there will be a Return to Britannia campaign soon without the ability to place a house, I wonder if it might be something that's turned on permanently.
W
Woodsman
Guest
I take it back, EA is spending some money at GAMESCOM, they have a press conference setup.
Star Wars: The Old Republic | News Articles
EA Labels president Frank Gibeau giving Gamescom 2012 opening keynote
This is the same Frank Gibeau who uses UO as an example that EA can treat Star Wars: The Old Republic Right. And the same Frank Gibeau who last year claimed UO was in its first 10 years and then this year said it had been around for 17 years.
EA Extranet: "Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels, to deliver opening keynote at gamescom 2012"
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes... because I'm sure Activision Blizzard was like, "Which old game can we ruin by timing our game release to overshadow its anniversary celebrations with for this expansion?"
No offense, but that's a real huge ledge from which to leap. Blizzard chose to release MoP based on when it was ready to be released. Beta has been going on for months now and its winding down. People are also tired of Cataclysm content. It needs to be out before Christmas. Surely Blizzard isn't going to wait until October just because it's UO's fifteenth anniversary. If anything, it would have been timed to crush Guild Wars 2, and it hasn't even been timed to do that.
If EA was about to put UO out to pasture, they certainly wouldn't be wasting money on bringing a graphic designer in-house, nor would anyone at UO be working on anything graphically related. You don't ramp things up to shut them down.
Even with OWO:O, though the game was nearing beta, development had not been in high gear as one might expect for a game about to go into beta, and rumor has it that it wasn't ready for beta when EA pulled the plug (because EA up until SW:TOR wasn't about letting games take time to finish before pushing them out the door), and UXO was in development but anyone with half a brain knew it was dead when every last person on the development team decided to forgo moving to EARS. Yes, it was bad timing on EA's part to close the EA Austin studio, but I suspect they felt that those offered the move would have accepted it -- none did.
Anyway... point is, UO's not on the chopping block... yet. However, it's not exactly on the cutting edge of moving forward either.
W
Woodsman
Guest
If you are talking about art leads, they have to have an art lead in-house to manage the external contractors and he is replacing the in-house art lead. But they may only have one art person on the team and he maybe it.
If it's a client upgrade, sure you do, just ask Kingdom Reborn fans
Honestly though, here's what makes me think the graphics update will happen - it was still being worked on in June, and there are some other indications/references from Jeff Skalski, etc. about it.However, around 9 members of the team have left in the past year, and less than half have been replaced. On a team that was already small after the 2009-2010 layoffs, that's not a good sign, not at all.
The staff reductions on an already small team are what really worry me. I understand that things happen, things get pushed back, etc. and so we don't see the whole picture, but anytime you have staffing reductions, it sets off a lot of warning bells, especially when the game should still be making millions in profit.
Either it means the game is in really dire shape and down to under 30,000 and maybe close to 20,000 subs (because anything over 30,000 is a lot of profit), or it means EA has given up on it and is just milking it while running it with a skeleton team.
sOMETHING cOLLCTABLE...like the old gobes/ statues....some commons/semi rares and rare ones......give us something to ''player interact'' for a bloody change......jesus....u made a great system years ago then u bloody broke it when it didnt need fixing with lame stuff ....choose form 4-6 items list....ever since....[crap]
Last edited:
I don't hold my breath.
The dwindling team has me concerned. As for the new art guy from what I gather he's not going to be exclusive to UO. Maybe I'm wrong but I didn't get that impression...
As for other things Mesanna told us what to expect and that's I guess what I foresee... Going ahead with the end of this arc coming to an end with the Anniversary or there abouts, moving into the "Holiday" season full swing as in something going on in the works for Halloween (one would hope we don't just toss in the same ole same ole.... but do something new yet fun) Then I'm assuming (maybe that's bad of me) that they might revisit the turkeys in November followed by taking time off over the holidays while we enjoy whatever they have planned to gift us for Xmas...
Now after that she mentioned that starting next year she plans to NOT add things but work steadily on fixing bugs... and we are talking the over 1,300 bugs on the list she wants to squash half those before she starts on ANYTHING new. I rather like that idea. I hope she is able to do that. Now that I suppose is as long as corporate doesn't come down and say "Mesanna, either you get out something we can sell and make money on or hit the road"... before she's done. I must say though that being the Producer of UO doesn't seem to be a long lasting career.
I'm rather hopeful that many of those bugs include ones that are in the EC.
The dwindling team has me concerned. As for the new art guy from what I gather he's not going to be exclusive to UO. Maybe I'm wrong but I didn't get that impression...
As for other things Mesanna told us what to expect and that's I guess what I foresee... Going ahead with the end of this arc coming to an end with the Anniversary or there abouts, moving into the "Holiday" season full swing as in something going on in the works for Halloween (one would hope we don't just toss in the same ole same ole.... but do something new yet fun) Then I'm assuming (maybe that's bad of me) that they might revisit the turkeys in November followed by taking time off over the holidays while we enjoy whatever they have planned to gift us for Xmas...
Now after that she mentioned that starting next year she plans to NOT add things but work steadily on fixing bugs... and we are talking the over 1,300 bugs on the list she wants to squash half those before she starts on ANYTHING new. I rather like that idea. I hope she is able to do that. Now that I suppose is as long as corporate doesn't come down and say "Mesanna, either you get out something we can sell and make money on or hit the road"... before she's done. I must say though that being the Producer of UO doesn't seem to be a long lasting career.
I'm rather hopeful that many of those bugs include ones that are in the EC.
O"Brian who pee'd in your cheerieo's????
Why does everything in your view have to be a put down......
For the umphteenth time I do have 47 accounts on and running... son has changed his mind and is now telling me to hold on about shutting down 1/2 my empire. Wish you men would make up your bloody minds. Why we women let you take the lead I'll never know.... (Son has me working my fingers off painting figures and terrain for his warhammer games, so I have been in UO in the last 3 weeks for total of 1 hour..... feeling the tug but too tired)
Now back to your small minded complaint...
No I am not expecting alot as I know UO/EA. 15 years in the game makes one sort of a pestamistic/optomistic mess. I can hope for a great gift and happy time, but if the past is anything to go by I should expect the one leeked gift a card and a wand like was suguested above.
If it was me at the helm ...... boy the ideas I could come up with...
Not that EA would let me........... that coo looked like a party pooper to me.
Woodman I have not lost faith I just know the EA leash is not that generous. Every time they have given us something great the sneeky rats take more then double back or limit to the point of players saying why bother! It's always a double edged sword with the EA Dev team.... now I cant say same of Mesanna but I have no idea of her limits. What we need or should get might not be under her powers to give.
Why does everything in your view have to be a put down......
For the umphteenth time I do have 47 accounts on and running... son has changed his mind and is now telling me to hold on about shutting down 1/2 my empire. Wish you men would make up your bloody minds. Why we women let you take the lead I'll never know.... (Son has me working my fingers off painting figures and terrain for his warhammer games, so I have been in UO in the last 3 weeks for total of 1 hour..... feeling the tug but too tired)
Now back to your small minded complaint...
No I am not expecting alot as I know UO/EA. 15 years in the game makes one sort of a pestamistic/optomistic mess. I can hope for a great gift and happy time, but if the past is anything to go by I should expect the one leeked gift a card and a wand like was suguested above.
If it was me at the helm ...... boy the ideas I could come up with...
Not that EA would let me........... that coo looked like a party pooper to me.
Woodman I have not lost faith I just know the EA leash is not that generous. Every time they have given us something great the sneeky rats take more then double back or limit to the point of players saying why bother! It's always a double edged sword with the EA Dev team.... now I cant say same of Mesanna but I have no idea of her limits. What we need or should get might not be under her powers to give.
It's true, he may be the only art person in-house... however, if they were simply closing UO down in the next six months and someone at EA knew that, they wouldn't have green-lit hiring someone new. Most likely, Grimm would have been let go, and that's all we would have heard.
But that's one of the issues that I've been going on about at length in various threads. Kingdom Reborn was a waste of the money that EA supplied to get the graphics update done because the graphics update was neither in the look nor the feel of the original game. You can't just up and change everything and not expect a majority of players to look around and say, "This sucketh most verily." Had the KR graphics been handled properly, we'd be in a different boat... had the UI portion of the KR client -- you know, only the most important feature of a new client to the end user -- not been held off for work until the last few weeks of development, we'd also maybe be in a different boat. But we're not. And instead, we got the SA/EC which is the KR client with some tweaking done to it and several programmatic steps backward. Instead of fixing the UI issues, they instead gutted the UI. All of this decries to horribly wasted money on the part of the development of UO which is why EA is fairly unlikely to unload heaps of money on them.If it's a client upgrade, sure you do, just ask Kingdom Reborn fans
It's not a good sign for future development of UO, agreed. But development and shutting the game down are two different things. UO could go another five years on its existing codebase without a single update, and it would be profitable all the way down to under 10,000 subscribers. Not saying EA's likely to let that happen, but the point is, development staff requires income. Keeping the game on life support requires much less income. Will EA turn more money toward UO? I don't know... I'd like to think so, but I think a lot of it rests on the current producer's shoulders showing that there is room to grow, how such money would spent, and all of that other ROI stuff that producers and gaming executives have to worry about. I will say I think that UO's current producer may be up to that muster, but it depends largely on whether anyone in the EA conglomerate is listening.
Well, here's the thing... we don't know whether UO truly is profitable at the moment. We have to believe it is because it continues to exist, but we don't know any of the margins and any made-up numbers thrown around will only bounce about a bit and still not have any significant bearing on what's going on behind the scenes. Now, I can reasonably say that at 12.99 -- or even 9.99 -- that running UO's servers on life support alone at 10,000 subscribers, which would effectively be in the ballpark of $100,000 a month income, given what I know of servers and bandwidth, would be more than enough to support UO "as is." But I can't say at what level "as is" vs. development costs enter into the equations and what margins exist. None of us can, and those who could are probably sworn by employment not to.
What we can definitely agree on, player to player, is that UO's development is not what it should be for a game to continue moving forward with any significant momentum. And there's a lot of decisions that would need to be made to improve that, not the least of which are decisions that would attract older players and newer players alike back into Britannia. We can also agree that Ultima Forever isn't that stimulus, at least directly.
Well, let's be honest... without vision, an updated client, lots of bug fixes (which we are told are in the pipeline) and a bunch of other stuff, UO has no reason to have anything other than a skeleton game. It's fifteen years old, and is using (primarily) a client that was outdated in 1997 from graphical perspectives; the modern client, say what anyone wants to say, is still a failure, and won't be anything else until it's gotten significant UI revision that isn't tied to downloading someone else's vision for UO.
The question is whether or not we still have faith that something will still come of UO, or whether UO simply peters off over the next 5 to 10 years. Only EA, Bioware, Mythic, the development team, and reality know those answers for certain, but I wouldn't say the game is completely dead yet. It's definitely on life support though.[/quote]
Last edited:
On a side note, I'll say the problem with squashing bugs exclusively to adding new content is that the playerbase may continue to grow weary of what content exists at the time, and that will plunge numbers. Even WoW isn't immune to this. Their current 9.1 million subscriber-base is definitely no shock into the industry because the game is at the end of its cycle for the Cataclysm expansion. People are tired and bored of doing the same old thing. Numbers don't rise without new things to experience. So my hope is that the development team doesn't try to do an exclusive bug sweep and forget that just fixing bugs isn't sufficient to keep players interested. Excitement over fixed bugs has limited appeal.
W
Woodsman
Guest
If she can spend 15 minutes or so on Siege telling a small number of people that she would like to have the ability to for people on normal shards to have a house on Siege, she can spend 15 minutes on Stratics talking about the future of UO (not the live arc stuff and its inherent spoilers) or she can spend 15 minutes on working on a what will be a producer's letter.
The communication situation is horrible. There are no excuses, not when EA is spending money on flying BioWare devs out to Germany to tell people why they should be playing SWTOR. Not when EA spent a lot of money flying Ultima Forever devs out to Comic Con to announce it. Not when BioWare devs under and including Jeff Skalski, have given like 20+ interviews about Ultima Forever in the past month.
Many of us would like to believe that EA is micro-managing UO and is forcing Bonnie to remain silent, because it's a simple explanation that removes the burden from her shoulders, and we can stop with the hard questions.
That's not the case. Jeff "Champions/advocates for my teams and products. Charismatic, great speaker" Skalski said this nearly a year ago:
I don't believe Jeff is a liar. Jeff made it clear that EA was not the problem, the problem was either him or the team.
The reality is that the only thing with Ultima in the name that EA cares enough to micro-manage would be Ultima Forever, and ultimately, the only thing EA really cares about right now, that is going on within BioWare, is either related to Star Wars or Mass Effect.
Lady Storm, if you were go to try out the top 5 MMORPGs for a month, and then come back. You know what would happen after you left? You would receive emails from those games expressing things they have planned and why you should come back and play those games. And during that time you would have seen producer's letters talk about those games. You would have seen communications between those teams and the players.
You want the real reason why we have no decent communication? It's us. We don't demand it, we don't do the things necessary to get it. We post on internet forums. We watch as Stratics, which Bonnie said was the official forums, is cut off from honest communication from her and EA. The Stratics people have busted their butts to help UO, help the UO community, and the UO team, and she and Jeff and everybody else can't be bothered to post on Stratics.
EA says Stratics is the official forum for UO, but they don't act like it.
How do we fix this? Simple. We start going to other websites, such as MMORPG.com, Massively.Joystiq.com, Joystiq.com, Kotaku.com, PCGamer.com, Gamasutra.com, TheVerge.com, EscapistMagazine.com, and we tell them that EA is not talking to us in a manner that gives us confidence in UO's future. We tell them that people have been let go and not replaced. We tell them EA is giving off signs that UO is in serious trouble.
Because clearly, taking our grievances to the "official" forums isn't working. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting things to be different.
all meeesd wants bees a fartin hippomaus. i will name it Bert
W
Woodsman
Guest
If they put it in maintenance mode, then they might as well just end it, because if you stop trying to bring in new people to replace the old people, it's done. Maintenance mode means that it will definitely be closed down in the not too distant future. There is no way of getting around it. Doesn't matter if it's a year or two years. It's got a death sentence. If people aren't pouring in by the thousands every month now, they aren't going to be pouring in by the thousands 6 months from now if it's in maintenance mode.
One thing they were doing, although we no longer know what's up, is that they were going for a high resolution version of what we have now in the CC.
Ultima Online Development Tracker
I don't think it could go another 5 years in its current state. And the current UO producer isn't doing the things she needs to be doing to help retain or attract existing or new players, and neither is her boss.
Interviews / Producer Updates / Producer Letters / Newsletters | Ultima Online Development Tracker
Two producer's letters since January. Two. One from Jeff, one from Mesanna. For a huge anniversary year, that is not a good sign. If a producer is not confident enough in their products to be out there selling them, especially in Jeff's case when he claims that it's one of his biggest assets as a producer, that he champions and advocates his products, then you really have to wonder. Jeff says more about other video games from other companies than he does about UO. Go read his Twitter.
We know it's profitable simply because it exists. While some EA people have used UO as an example that they can keep Star Wars running for years to come, we all know that UO is around as long as it's profitable, because EA is not going to lose money on it. EA has enough financial and stock problems, and EA said last year they wanted to go away from lower-profit games and stick to the bigger stuff. They will not keep a 15 year old game if it loses money.
I agree with yo on the costs of running UO, and I agree with you that Ultima Forever is not supposed to be a catalyst for UO and can't be. Two very different games.
I agree completely. I don't have a lot of faith though, because communication is one of the cheapest things game companies can do when it comes to promoting their products, and neither Jeff nor Mesanna are out there selling UO less than 6 weeks away from its 15th Anniversary, an anniversary that no other MMORPG has obtained.
Somebody who hasn't played in years, hears about the 15th Anniversary, looks at UO Herald, sees a website that doesn't sell the game and doesn't seem like a website for an actively produced MMORPG, goes to Stratics, sees no communication from the UO team, etc. At a time when the UO team and when people like Jeff Skalski should be out selling UO, nothing.
Have you seen the old videos with cal and Messana..and tell me the game is in good hands! Not taking anything away from Messana but she didn't seem as passionate about things as cal did..now everyone has a different personality and such..but I would assume that any MMO would rather a personable figure representing their game..I don't know it just felt she was more interested in hiding whats going on tater then divulging what could be said..now I'm all for super surprises of a great magnitude..but factions maybe should have been discussed rather then just making the system even worse for all parties and basically saying like..oh well deal with it..which it seems like its going to be... Oh well I just hope there is something super awesome in the works for the 15th where they feel the need to not talk about it "AT ALL" and I can eat my words apologize and say thank you..but again I'm not holding my breath...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Cal was a PR guy, that was very obvious. He knew how to generate excitement over little things...even non-existent things...and sometimes that blew up in his face. For all his faults, for all his BSing us, he knew how to exite us.
Mesanna loves to hold her cards close to her vest, even when she shouldn't. Especially when she shouldn't. She's let several opportunities to promote UO for free slip away. She's let most opportunities to excite the playerbase about the 15th evaporate. Look at the buzz generated by the sneak peeks she released. Why not continue that weekly? Right now there is NO BUZZ about the anniversary, NO EXCITEMENT. (Pixelcrack lovers notwithstanding.) Woodsman is right at calling this a low point in UO's history.
Jeff... *sigh* Jeff is the ADD shadow of Cal. He only payed attention to UO long enough to get U4E ready for alpha, notice how little he's paid attention to us/UO since January. He payed UO enough attention to make the "franchise" part of his producer title even remotely plausible. If he were actually involved with UO, we'd be seeing more out of him about the "historic" anniversary - and he'd be pushing Mesanna to talk more.
There very well may be something exciting planned for the 15th...but we won't know till it happens. That's not a good plan. Keep the arc fiction secret, sure, but don't keep the future of the game shrouded in secrecy. Secrecy is perceived as inactivity, apathy, and milking us for cash. Perception tends to trump reality.
Mesanna loves to hold her cards close to her vest, even when she shouldn't. Especially when she shouldn't. She's let several opportunities to promote UO for free slip away. She's let most opportunities to excite the playerbase about the 15th evaporate. Look at the buzz generated by the sneak peeks she released. Why not continue that weekly? Right now there is NO BUZZ about the anniversary, NO EXCITEMENT. (Pixelcrack lovers notwithstanding.) Woodsman is right at calling this a low point in UO's history.
Jeff... *sigh* Jeff is the ADD shadow of Cal. He only payed attention to UO long enough to get U4E ready for alpha, notice how little he's paid attention to us/UO since January. He payed UO enough attention to make the "franchise" part of his producer title even remotely plausible. If he were actually involved with UO, we'd be seeing more out of him about the "historic" anniversary - and he'd be pushing Mesanna to talk more.
There very well may be something exciting planned for the 15th...but we won't know till it happens. That's not a good plan. Keep the arc fiction secret, sure, but don't keep the future of the game shrouded in secrecy. Secrecy is perceived as inactivity, apathy, and milking us for cash. Perception tends to trump reality.
Last edited:
kelmo
Old and in the way
Professional
Alumni
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Dread Lord
Sometimes this was true. He had no love for Siege. I appreciate Mesanna for what she brings.
W
Woodsman
Guest
I really do not get this.
Put aside the layoffs on the team, put aside the lack of communication/interaction with players outside of the game where everybody can see it.
This could be the biggest warning flag about UO: Mesanna is not using things like the MMORPG.com livestream stuff to help sell UO. Those people wanted to talk about the anniversary and UO's future and she shut down that line of talk. If a huge site like MMORPG.com wants to help give you a chance to sell your game ahead of the 15th Anniversary, and you'd rather pal around in a dungeon with them, what does that say about the anniversary and what does it say about you as a producer?
I wish Jeff were as excited about UO as he is about whatever console game is coming out, and as much as I loathe Paul Barnett over Warhammer Online, I have to admit he was a great salesman and helped sell a game that didn't even exist at that point. I would like to have Paul sell UO as well as he sold Warhammer and as well as he sold Ultima Forever.
Last edited by a moderator:
Between the lack of any real communication, lack of support from EA, loss of DEV's that aren't being replaced, the non-existence of a TRUE Official Forum... (Nothing bad towards Stratics because I do love Stratics but it really is NOT a true Official Forum) The loss of our MYUO that is in no hurry to be replaced... making things difficult on guilds and players... and the disaster of all disasters the new account management system.... and the fact that most returning players or people interested in trying UO can't navigate the website to download the client 9 times out of 10... things do NOT look good at all for UO.
The biggest disasters have been the account management system which I'm absolutely certain has cost UO at LEAST 5k in subscribers simply because folk can't navigate it and couldn't keep their accounts up... once several lost everything after their homes fell they moved on... can't say as I blame them. That's my best guess estimate. Add to that the dozens and dozens of folk who have expressed difficulty in downloading the client and walked away in frustration... and finally top it off with the HORRIBLE help page which makes it darn near impossible to GET help... and I'm going to say we've lost another 5 to 10k in people because of that.
Now if you figure in how many have given up in frustration because of lack of communication, bugs that go on and on..... the EC crashes and problems the lack of a decent UI that isn't something someone OUTSIDE UO supplies... and you see why we are in the state we are.
Now if you really want to get deep into what's wrong with UO you can figure in events that kill you, rez kill you and kill you some more eatting up your insurance money, the poor state of the UO economy frustrating newer players to no end, the current story arcs and the repetitious click fests... and the final straw the new competition that dozens of folk can't even come close to competing in and you get where we are now... with over 80% of the current population frustrated as all get out... Uninformed and unsatisfied. Wonder why folk are looking for another game???? I don't.
The biggest disasters have been the account management system which I'm absolutely certain has cost UO at LEAST 5k in subscribers simply because folk can't navigate it and couldn't keep their accounts up... once several lost everything after their homes fell they moved on... can't say as I blame them. That's my best guess estimate. Add to that the dozens and dozens of folk who have expressed difficulty in downloading the client and walked away in frustration... and finally top it off with the HORRIBLE help page which makes it darn near impossible to GET help... and I'm going to say we've lost another 5 to 10k in people because of that.
Now if you figure in how many have given up in frustration because of lack of communication, bugs that go on and on..... the EC crashes and problems the lack of a decent UI that isn't something someone OUTSIDE UO supplies... and you see why we are in the state we are.
Now if you really want to get deep into what's wrong with UO you can figure in events that kill you, rez kill you and kill you some more eatting up your insurance money, the poor state of the UO economy frustrating newer players to no end, the current story arcs and the repetitious click fests... and the final straw the new competition that dozens of folk can't even come close to competing in and you get where we are now... with over 80% of the current population frustrated as all get out... Uninformed and unsatisfied. Wonder why folk are looking for another game???? I don't.
Actually, despite being worried to death by all the negative feedback on here, I navigated through the account upgrade quite easily, after I'd read the more helpful advice, also on here. You just need to carefully read the whole thing and not skip over or ignore bits. But I know several people who quit because what they'd read, what YOU (generic, plural) had posted, made them too scared to even try to go through it.
How many subscribers are you estimating are lost because of negativity from current players? How many potential new players are being put off by the constant negative assumptions thrown around on here?
If you want the game to survive, stop putting it down at every turn!
Mesanna's not a talker, she's a doer - Ask an EM how many hours a week she puts in - that's a full day in the office and almost the same back home unless my guess is totally out. Have you ever thought that the reason there's no posts is because they're working so damn hard on the game that they have no 'leisure time' to make them?
Look not at what she says, but at what she does. How many people has she helped when they had a problem. Look at the last publish's bug fix list. How long have we waited for just these three?
How many subscribers are you estimating are lost because of negativity from current players? How many potential new players are being put off by the constant negative assumptions thrown around on here?
If you want the game to survive, stop putting it down at every turn!
Sure, you could do that. That will really encourage people to return to the game or come try it for the first time? Or will it tell them there's no point in bothering because the game won't be around much longer.
Mesanna's not a talker, she's a doer - Ask an EM how many hours a week she puts in - that's a full day in the office and almost the same back home unless my guess is totally out. Have you ever thought that the reason there's no posts is because they're working so damn hard on the game that they have no 'leisure time' to make them?
Look not at what she says, but at what she does. How many people has she helped when they had a problem. Look at the last publish's bug fix list. How long have we waited for just these three?
- Resolved the issue which was causing equipped items, mounts and even backpacks from disappearing in dungeons.
- Fixed the issue with altering the Quiver of Infinity into Gargoyle Wing Armor
- The issue with placing 1 tile house addons on the Brit Ship has been fixed
W
Woodsman
Guest
Last edited by a moderator:
I believe your pants are on fire, Mr. Skalski.Jeff Skalski said:
W
Woodsman
Guest
I don't think anybody is putting UO down itself, people are putting down EA's treatment of UO.
I'm one of those people that Mesanna and Jeff claim they want - a returning player. When I came back last year, I came back to a crappy website that had been that way for 3-4 years (and EA can make some nice websites), and I came back to a game where communication was going downhill. It was stunning to go from playing a bunch of MMORPGs where the companies believe in communication and community to EA and UO.
How are people who don't play the game going to ask an EM? She needs to get a talker.
Because you can't sell a game to new or potential returning players if you're not willing to talk about it.
You just said it. You have to read "the whole thing" just to navigate a process that should be easy and self-explanatory? That is a problem, Petra!
No more than would be lost if they were tricked into believing that nothing is wrong with UO and where it's currently headed and then quickly realized the truth on their own.
If you want the game to survive, stop defending shoddy development.
I'd like to know what she's so damn busy doing. Maybe she could communicate that to us, if nothing else. Those three bugs were created by the current Dev. team. You even ask just asked yourself, how long have we waited for just those three fixes? Maybe some of the programmers here can chime in and let us know how it could take months to fix things like those you listed.
After taking a look at the posted job opportunities for EA on their own websites (the regular job search page and the Careers section of the Bioware site) going back to early April (the start of EA's current fiscal year), I wonder if there has been a hiring freeze in effect for a while at the Fairfax office for all the games there. If yes, I wonder what that might mean for the future of Warhammer, DAoC, and UO. They may have been able to use summer interns this year and perhaps share people between titles, but if there continue to be no publicly posted job opportunities for that office, I think it's fair to wonder exactly what's up and where things are headed. Bioware seems to be hiring people in other locations (32 job listings for other locations in the same timeframe), but they don't seem to have been looking externally for candidates for open jobs in the Fairfax office in quite a while.
Last edited:
Is there anyone else here who plays the game just to have fun? To enjoy it? To play it without having to scrutinize to death every detail? That patiently waits for a gift and actually appreciates the gift for what it is... a gift? That does not make demands that their expert voice gets heard and responded to just because they voice an opinion every 5 minutes no matter how vile, how abusive the manner the expert opinion is voiced? That thinks that maybe having a little faith that things that are broken will eventually get fixed if the break is important enough? That doesn't think the Dev's are out to get us, don't have a clue, blah blah blah?
Before every anniversary the same thing happens. Months before we get people who ask.. any word about the anniversary yet? Then people work them selves up into a tizzy. Over a gift. Then one thing leads to another and it always ends up like this. Who says they have to come and communicate anything? Who says they owe you a gift? Where are your manners?
If you truly cared, in a healthy way, the poisonous righteous words, the poisonous righteous sentiments would not be used. Ya know, a few kind words go a long way. A few kind words are much more effective. A few well turned positive phrases will get you much better results. When was the last time you yourself was treated in such a negative fashion as some of those above treat others and how did you respond? I'm sure it wasn't a positive response.
Try a little kindness sometime. You'll feel better and so will they.
It's a game. A game for crying out loud.
Before every anniversary the same thing happens. Months before we get people who ask.. any word about the anniversary yet? Then people work them selves up into a tizzy. Over a gift. Then one thing leads to another and it always ends up like this. Who says they have to come and communicate anything? Who says they owe you a gift? Where are your manners?
If you truly cared, in a healthy way, the poisonous righteous words, the poisonous righteous sentiments would not be used. Ya know, a few kind words go a long way. A few kind words are much more effective. A few well turned positive phrases will get you much better results. When was the last time you yourself was treated in such a negative fashion as some of those above treat others and how did you respond? I'm sure it wasn't a positive response.
Try a little kindness sometime. You'll feel better and so will they.
It's a game. A game for crying out loud.
Last edited:
Yup, always played for fun for the last 14 years and not regret a minute. Some people here find it a sport to critize everything from UO and everyone who works on UO. Being a critic is the easiest was to hide there own mistakes and flaws. These people thing they interesting and want to have the attention to them self. But the only thing they show is they immature pathetic losers. But again post like yours Amber will again be slammed down by the same people trying to make them look better . But its good that some intelligent people will know better then that.
Giving feedback both positive and negative is one thing and needed. But the constant Negative posts and slander to everything is despicable by them.
I know for sure there more people who think like you but its because some bash down on everything positive thats written that some are afraid to replied. Maybe its a good time that the good and intelligent people show those critics that there is more good then the bad stuff they pretend to tell us.
Giving feedback both positive and negative is one thing and needed. But the constant Negative posts and slander to everything is despicable by them.
I know for sure there more people who think like you but its because some bash down on everything positive thats written that some are afraid to replied. Maybe its a good time that the good and intelligent people show those critics that there is more good then the bad stuff they pretend to tell us.
I'm sorry if my posts have offended someone. However, I'm first and foremost a consumer and I need to look out for my own finances. UO isn't a free-to-play game, so yeah, I have to come up with money every month to pay to play it. Unlike other people, I don't pay for my UO subscription fees by trading in-game items or gold for cash. I've never once sold something in UO to someone else for cash and I never will. So, yeah, I guess the way I look at things is that if the game is doomed, I'd like to know now so I can quit paying for it. Having only played since the end of 2004, my loyalty perhaps isn't as deep as yours. How could it be? I'm reminded almost daily by people who post here in this very forum or that I encounter while actually playing the game that I'm apparently just a worthless subscriber because I don't have 15 years of UO under my belt. So, yep, maybe I'm more alert to warning signs than other people are and maybe I feel like other people who may share my situation (i.e., they haven't played forever and are also made to feel like worthless subscribers as a result) feel the same way and don't really see the point in paying for a game that's in its death throes. I have better things to spend my money on.
Now, if someone like Mesanna or Jeff would actually take 15 minutes once in a while to bother writing some kind of a producer's update like Cal used to do (he posted such updates nearly monthly for quite a while, and sometimes even more often than once a month), maybe I'd feel differently. However, I have zero confidence anymore in promises from Mesanna or Jeff to improve communication. I need solid proof now, not just empty words that say they're going to work on improving communication. If UO is losing subscribers at this point, it's not the players' fault. The players are CONSUMERS..... The players are under absolutely NO obligation whatsoever to try to get more players into the game or even to try to keep players in the game. That is EA's job as the producer of the game.
Wake up folks....you aren't EA employees. Don't throw your time and money away trying to do EA's job. They couldn't care less about you, because they have millions of customers and you and UO are replaceable. UO is a game. You are a consumer who pays to play the game. If EA has decided to pull the purse strings together and let UO die, wouldn't you rather know as soon as possible to avoid just handing over your hard-earned money to a company who really doesn't give a damn about you? What good is it going to do you later in life to be able to say you wasted your money paying for UO, hoping it would last a bit longer, just to be able to collect some kind of pixel souvenir that you can't even keep? What is the point in that?? I just don't see it, and again, that probably comes from not discovering UO until almost 2005.
Now, if someone like Mesanna or Jeff would actually take 15 minutes once in a while to bother writing some kind of a producer's update like Cal used to do (he posted such updates nearly monthly for quite a while, and sometimes even more often than once a month), maybe I'd feel differently. However, I have zero confidence anymore in promises from Mesanna or Jeff to improve communication. I need solid proof now, not just empty words that say they're going to work on improving communication. If UO is losing subscribers at this point, it's not the players' fault. The players are CONSUMERS..... The players are under absolutely NO obligation whatsoever to try to get more players into the game or even to try to keep players in the game. That is EA's job as the producer of the game.
Wake up folks....you aren't EA employees. Don't throw your time and money away trying to do EA's job. They couldn't care less about you, because they have millions of customers and you and UO are replaceable. UO is a game. You are a consumer who pays to play the game. If EA has decided to pull the purse strings together and let UO die, wouldn't you rather know as soon as possible to avoid just handing over your hard-earned money to a company who really doesn't give a damn about you? What good is it going to do you later in life to be able to say you wasted your money paying for UO, hoping it would last a bit longer, just to be able to collect some kind of pixel souvenir that you can't even keep? What is the point in that?? I just don't see it, and again, that probably comes from not discovering UO until almost 2005.
Actually, I pay to play because I enjoy playing. What the company thinks about me doesn't really come into it.
What does the Cinema owner think about you when you pay to sit in his cinema to watch a movie?
What does the shop assistant think of you if you buy a chess set/CD/board game/console game from his store?
You buy a board game to enjoy playing it. I pay to access EA's servers so that I can enjoy playing on them.
What does the Cinema owner think about you when you pay to sit in his cinema to watch a movie?
What does the shop assistant think of you if you buy a chess set/CD/board game/console game from his store?
You buy a board game to enjoy playing it. I pay to access EA's servers so that I can enjoy playing on them.