Ultima Franchise Producer's Letter about UO in "Coming Weeks"

[Rupert Avery]

Even posting on stratics is not a perfect place... Many don't read stratics or even UOforums..

that aside on both stratics and UOForums there are people you do use twitter that update what is being said about UO or other interesting things from Jeff.. I know I post a lot of twitter posts on UOForums. Ideally I would love to see updates on Herald.. bt for little things random questions etc I find he is very good at answering!

I know I have asked him to take a look at threads and he has come on and answered anything that he can.

 

[MalagAste]

Exactly
I dont Tweet/twitter etc... Never Will ether.
I can be found here if Jeff wants to talk. He knows how to get in to Stratics.

EXACTLY. I don't tweet/twitter or facebook..... I have no intention of ever doing any of that... If someone wants to speak to me they can do that here... or email me... but no way I'm doing one of those stupid services. I don't want to know what aunt jenny had done at the Dr on Friday and I seriously don't care what anyone had for supper last night... and like hell I want 10,000 phone texts or emails every time someone ****s green.

 

[jskalski]

My post should hit the herald over the next day or so. And I've asked Mesanna to follow up with more detail on UO later this week. Stay tuned.

 

[Picus at the office]

I'm sure that all that D3 time has sucked the life out of talking to us UO folk. Face the facts, twitter is perfect as there is no possible interaction with your fan base. Say what you want and walk away.

Lame and a cheap response.

 

[NBG]

If I only have time to play D3....

 

[NBG]

UO Herald should be the first place. What is the point to literally tweet about nothing since he can not say anything concrete or detail unless it is actually as a news release on the site.

As far as updates burst responses, would it be too much to ask you to respond to the high visibility threads with valid concerns in UHall? EA\Mythic treat Stratics as what again? I mean is it or is it not a way to get some feedback from the hamsters no matter how high your wheel is in the machine....

 

[Lady Silverbrook]

My post should hit the herald over the next day or so. And I've asked Mesanna to follow up with more detail on UO later this week. Stay tuned.

Seeing as your last stratics post/ interaction with the UO community (which you are franchise producer of) was JUNE 2nd, that is good to know.

 

[Salivern_Diago]

Uh guys... As much as some of you refuse to use twitter/FB/ other networking sites... Maybe JUST maybe some of the UO crowd refuses to use unoffical forums? Ever thought of that? Jeff dosnt HAVE to use UOS, he dosnt HAVE to use anything BUT he does use Twitter and has said as such in plain english.. if you want to ask him or generally communicate with him then Twitter is the place to do it. Its your choice if you dont want to but the option is there.

If UO had offical forums then that would be different, but they dont and unless they are sneaking it in when UOH is relaunched, we will never have them. If you dont want to use twitter, then ask a friend to tweet him. If you dont want to do that and just constantly post on a site other than what Jeff has said... That is your issue not his or anyone elses.

UOH is where the offical communications are put, UOS is where they may post something if they want to, same as Twitter/FB.

You HAVE to remember that Stratics is NOT an offical forum for UO, its a fan site so they are under no obligation to post here at all.

 

[cazador]

Has anyone guessed that maybe a shoddy as communication might be..that he said a few weeks because it a timed letter for something specific that may just ruin the surprise? I don't know if he posted weekly with hi ya I ate a donut this morning and burned my palette with my chamomile tea..would you be happy..no me neither..maybe because he really doesn't have anything significant worth posting before that time..what should he post..it's coming soon..ok the day is closer..we are getting there..I mean really come on..if its a stupid letter I agree slam away but give just one more chance..whether or not it's your 500000000000 chance..it's ok what's one more ur still here aren't u!

 

[Reth]

I've been following him on twitter, and he has been putting some nice information out. I especially like the map gave to Yoshi-P, but that's the XIV player in me.

 

[MalagAste]

Uh guys... As much as some of you refuse to use twitter/FB/ other networking sites... Maybe JUST maybe some of the UO crowd refuses to use unoffical forums? Ever thought of that? Jeff dosnt HAVE to use UOS, he dosnt HAVE to use anything BUT he does use Twitter and has said as such in plain english.. if you want to ask him or generally communicate with him then Twitter is the place to do it. Its your choice if you dont want to but the option is there.

If UO had offical forums then that would be different, but they dont and unless they are sneaking it in when UOH is relaunched, we will never have them. If you dont want to use twitter, then ask a friend to tweet him. If you dont want to do that and just constantly post on a site other than what Jeff has said... That is your issue not his or anyone elses.

UOH is where the offical communications are put, UOS is where they may post something if they want to, same as Twitter/FB.

You HAVE to remember that Stratics is NOT an offical forum for UO, its a fan site so they are under no obligation to post here at all.

Just going to say he ought to be posting crap on the Herald.... so should Mesanna. This BS with the lack of communication is getting old and quite frankly it's not helping UO any at all...

As for his tweeting I don't give a rats ..... I don't tweet.... as I said before I don't need to be informed on my cell everytime someone ****s green..... I don't need 30 texts a day telling me someone said this or that.. and I seriously don't care about anyone I graduated HS with and I would rather they DIDN'T find me.... If I wanted to hear from them I'd go looking for them.


So I'm not about to start any of those stupid accounts... Personally I think they are the work of Satan and I prefer not to feed into the hysteria... or sell out to them.

But the OFFICIAL site is the Herald and it hardly gets used.

 

[Woodsman]

If UO had offical forums then that would be different, but they dont and unless they are sneaking it in when UOH is relaunched, we will never have them. If you dont want to use twitter, then ask a friend to tweet him. If you dont want to do that and just constantly post on a site other than what Jeff has said... That is your issue not his or anyone elses.

Actually UO has official support forums on EA.com as of sometime last month:

Ultima Online - Answer HQ

You HAVE to remember that Stratics is NOT an offical forum for UO, its a fan site so they are under no obligation to post here at all.

This.

And for those complaining about Twitter, it's there, he responds. My problem with his communication is that he said last year that he would increase it, and he didn't. I'm willing to meet half-way and follow Twitter as long as he's answering questions.

But it would be nice if somebody was collecting his comments and putting them on UO Herald. That I have a problem with - his Twitter comments can quickly be lost/forgotten/pushed way down.

 

[Poo]

they have their own interaction tool.
its called UOHerald.

that's the only place i look for new stuff and official stuff.

and we have a Producer?
i thought we where put into Zombie Mode.... Caretaker Mode, no?
hehe

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

You HAVE to remember that Stratics is NOT an offical forum for UO, its a fan site so they are under no obligation to post here at all.

Save for the fact that both Jeff (on UO Forums):

UO has a thriving community on Stratic’s and other support sites such as UOForums, and rather than compete with it, we’d rather support it.

and Mesanna during Wayback Wednesday:

[0:51:03] Grakulen: OK, so you guys have your own forums?
[0:51:05] Mesanna: Yes, we do on Stratics.
[0:51:08] Grakulen: OK.

have pretty much labled Stratics as UO's official forums. Seriously, they can't have it both ways. Let's stop giving them BS excuses to continue failing at the basic communication required by both their job descriptions.

 

[Tina Small]

I've been following him on twitter, and he has been putting some nice information out. I especially like the map gave to Yoshi-P, but that's the XIV player in me.

Yeah, a few people have had some brief conversations with Jeff on Twitter in the last couple of days:

August 19, 2012
Longtime UO Fan: So are you all going to actually do anything for the anniversary? Too much silence from you all. It's scary.
Jeff Skalski: Check out http://uo.com for more info. Anniversary item details soon & we'll be hosting a 15 year party at our studio.

August 20, 2012:
UO Junkie: Is there any possibility we can get a repeat this year of the 2008 Halloween event? It might get some people playing again...
Jeff Skalski: Don't know. Let me check.
UO Junkie: Thank you!
Jeff Skalski: Srry doesnt look like its possible since we've revamed those dungeon. =( The team has a fun idea for u2 exp this halloween.

August 20-22, 2012:
UO Junkie: Any news on whether the upcoming Despise changes will somehow be implemented for Siege?
Jeff Skalski: Srry not in the plan.
UO Junkie: Just saw Mesanna's post on Stratics that Despise arties will be added to Cora. Thanks for discussing this/devising solution.
Jeff Skalski: Your welcome. See I do read stratics.

UO Junkie: Has there been any progress on rescheduling the interview about UO with PC Gamer? Any other UO-related interviews coming up?
Jeff Skalski: No progress, but chatting with Guinness about UO claiming a new world record! More news on that soon. Big win 4 all!

August 21-22, 2012:
UO Junkie: Will MyUO be returning anytime soon? Factions is a joke when you can't tell who is still active and who has kill points.
Jeff Skalski: Won't make the initial relaunch of UO,com but we hear you guys and girls loud and clear about wanting this feature back.
UO Junkie: Is there anything we as players can do to help speed up the relaunch of http://UO.com and return of MyUO?
Jeff Skalski: Compile a list for me of what are the top 5 most critical things needed for MyUO from you and the players.
UO Junkie: I'm sure people would love to do that. Thanks for letting us do something concrete to help bring back MyUO!
UO Junkie: How soon do you need the list?
Jeff Skalski: No immediate rush. Lets shoot for 3 weeks from today. Gives you time to gather as much feedback as possible.
Rupert Avery: We could bang some polls on some forums and on Facebooks
UO Junkie: Okay...hopefully folks from Stratics and UOForums are reading and can help w/thread creation & moderation.
UO Junkie: Do you want or need feedback/ideas on other content for http://UO.com? If yes, who do we send it to?
Jeff Skalski: More data the better. Good 2 know what the community thinks is the most important. U can PM me on stratics or uoforums.

August 22, 2012:
The Casino Girl: Are you still working on UO at all or have you completely transitioned to UF?
Jeff Skalski: Split between both. Mesanna drives the day to day with UO as the Producer.
The Casino Girl: Good to know. Perhaps you can start running stuff by the community before it actually hits production?

UO Junkie: Can u quell rumors re shard mergers? Duped NPCs, extnd maint for just a few shards and later weird probs has made me nervous.
Jeff Skalski: No plans to merge any shards at this time. You can relax. =D

Edited to add: And he's still at it, answering tweets. He just had this exchange:

UO Junkie: What's status of work on EC? Tried using it again & new char setup is hard bcs pointer doesnt align & selections get reset.
Jeff Skalski: Looking into that one. Having QA see if they can reproduce.

 

[DJAd]

Jezz, stop moaning everyone and get on Twitter. I don't blame Jeff if he doesn't post on here much. First off he would have to wade through pages of threads full of people moaning and winging, then reply where needed. Twitter is fast and simple to get a message about.
Anytime I've had a UO related question I've asked Jeff via Twitter and got an answer within a few hours, sometimes even minutes.

 

[DJAd]

By the way. Jeff has asked for ideas with what people want to see when the relaunch "MyUO". I think Petra is going to setup a thread about this.

See, you get all the good information on Twitter first

"Compile a list for me of what are the top 5 most critical things needed for MyUO from you and the players."

See the tweet here: Twitter / Jeff_Skalski

 

[Salivern_Diago]

I dont believe its Mesanna's or Jeff's call what is the offical UO Forums. As much as I like Stratics, it will never be the 'Offical' Forums becuase they are owned and run by a 3rd party. Only a forum thats owned and run by EA would be called the offical forums and what you posted about what Jeff said... he only said they would rather support the fan sites rather than compete. As for what Mesanna said... that is no-way any declaration of UOS's offical status. For that to happen, all staff would have to be vetted by EA and the site would only be permitted to advertise EA material. And I dont think the Stratics Admin/Owner is going to let that happen any time soon.

 

[SlobberKnocker]

i dont have twitter and dont care to make an account. any chance we can have a twitter thread here that we can read?

good job to the op posting that exchange.

 

[Woodsman]

i dont have twitter and dont care to make an account. any chance we can have a twitter thread here that we can read?

good job to the op posting that exchange.

Jeff Skalski (Jeff_Skalski) on Twitter

I am glad he is doing something and that he has asked Mesanna to talk more about UO. They may have let communication drop after last year, but with him publicly stating they are both going to be talking more about UO, it is a commitment we can follow.

 

[Poo]

ya, its not like they are publishing Pubs to Origin and not telling anyone its off TC and on Production shards or anything.

like that would be a extreme lack of communication.

*nervous laugh*

 

[Poo]

Ahhahahahahha

oppppps!

 

[NuSair]

My post should hit the herald over the next day or so. And I've asked Mesanna to follow up with more detail on UO later this week. Stay tuned.

not going to hold my breath.

 

[Woodsman]

Could be worse, we could be Warhammer Online players just waiting for the shoe to drop.

"Didn't ask for a miracle just a update."

This game is so neglected that yes, you did ask for a miracle.

"While I do understand that you are correct and I do understand this game is in a "maitence mode" is does not mean they cannot run patches and work on the game."

LOL, you sure you "understand" maitence mode?

I am in Germany right now for Games Day, GamesCom and some holidays. I already send emails to remind them to post.

So what was their response? Did they give any justification for their unprecedented level of ignoring us and when can we expect word from them? It hasn't been GamesCom and Games Day for 3 months consecutively and it doesn't take much time to post on the forums. If you can't be specific, can you give us some reassurance that they are actually doing stuff and not just taking our money?

Seriously, this is the longest gap in communication in this game's history....and that's really saying something!

Even if some within Mythic think it's wise to just pretend like the players have no concerns, Jeff has started talking on Twitter again and should have a letter up soon.

And for the record, based on what Warhammer, Camelot, and UO players all say, the problem is clearly a Mythic problem, since all of us are having a hell of a time getting any communication out of our respective teams.

We should start complaining elsewhere about Mythic/BioWare in general, like somewhere where somebody will actually see it. I know, BioWare pretends Mythic doesn't exist because BioWare is focused on keeping themselves together in the wake of SWTOR and trying to get more DLC out for Mass Effect and trying to get Dragon Age 3 into full production. I wish Mythic had real leadership.

 

[Lady Silverbrook]

Jeff Skalski (Jeff_Skalski) on Twitter

I am glad he is doing something and that he has asked Mesanna to talk more about UO. They may have let communication drop after last year, but with him publicly stating they are both going to be talking more about UO, it is a commitment we can follow.

But it isn't just last year. It's every year. We go through this song and dance every year.

People loved Grimm for his communicating with the player base, but they forget that he was pretty much silent until the few months before he was terminated. I notice that as soon as a scrap of information is fed to players they instantly jump to saying that things are better, only to fall into the same repeating pattern almost immediately afterwards...

He has had essentially over a half year to acclimate to UO and begin to improve communication. The ball was dropped, and badly. Let's not fool ourselves for thinking a few days tidbits removes the months of neglect to their paying playerbase.

 

[Woodsman]

But it isn't just last year. It's every year. We go through this song and dance every year.

He has had essentially over a half year to acclimate to UO and begin to improve communication. The ball was dropped, and badly. Let's not fool ourselves for thinking a few days tidbits removes the months of neglect to their paying playerbase.

I won't deny any of that. I believe we'll get an increase for the next 45 days or so. Quite frankly, here's what I think will happen: Jeff and Mesanna will up the communication for the month of September, only because it's the anniversary and only because they have let things get so incredibly bad that they can no longer ignore them.

After the end of September, the communication will drop and they will go right back to ignoring us. I know this to be true, because we saw it happen with Jeff last year, and I see it with Warhammer and Camelot, which is why I made the comment about Mythic above. Clearly, Mythic does not believe that MMORPG producers and teams should be communicating with the players and keeping them interested or giving them reasons to keep playing or get their friends to come back. It's a stark contrast to the early years of Camelot, and it's especially sad given how much communication that the UO team used to engage in.

That other stuff can wait until after the anniversary.

 

[Reth]

Reading this thread destroys all aspiration I have for this game. Just sayin'.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Someone want to Tweet our Great Communicator that Origin was published today with no word posted on UOHearld (offical UO web site) what is going on. Why should we care about hurting anybodies fealing when it appears they really dont give a rats a$$ about us.

 

[Nimuaq]

Someone want to Tweet our Great Communicator that Origin was published today with no word posted on UOHearld (offical UO web site) what is going on. Why should we care about hurting anybodies fealing when it appears they really dont give a rats a$$ about us.

They just posted: Hot Fix Notes - 08/23 | Mythic Entertainment | Ultima Online

It seems Misk made them fix some of the reported issues on the feedback thread, like raiders spawning in Malas and Ilshenar or infected gargoyles keep spawning in ter mur, but the more recent ones did not make it.

 

[Lord Frodo]

They just posted: Hot Fix Notes - 08/23 | Mythic Entertainment | Ultima Online

It seems Misk made them fix some of the reported issues on the feedback thread, like raiders spawning in Malas and Ilshenar or infected gargoyles keep spawning in ter mur, but the more recent ones did not make it.

So they post HOT FIX NOTES to a shard without telling the players that oh by the way we will be publishing TC to Origin Aug 23. You know something called advance warning/information to the UO player base.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

*looks at watch*

*looks at calendar*

*wonders how many days a Mythic "week" has*

 

[Poo]

ya know who EA needs to get for a communication guy for UO?

that fella that Iraq had before the war, that military guy that would always come on the news and say "we have no airplanes" as the airplanes where being moved behind him, or "we are treating all our citizens with respect and fairness" as they are beating people behind him.

THAT'S the fella they need to communicate with us.

"there is no Publish coming to Origin on server up on Aug 23!"
"and we will not be fixing anything on the Publish that we did not put in!"

 

[Sevin0oo0]

nice pic Poo, looks cool

 

[Picus of Napa]

 

[Poo]

hammer meet nail.
dead on!

 

[T'Challa]

What's most shocking to me is that even with all these complaints and discussions about communication they STILL haven't commented. I mean, we all know they are "aware of the issue" so we can safely say that it's just been completely ignored.

That's ok because we keep on chucking our $12.99/mo at them anyway.

No, I don't.

 

[Zosimus]

I know the complaint is about commuincation. Same with advertisement and such. At least UO got a small plug from ArenaNet on MSNBC. Seems that many of todays developers have played UO in some capacity even from other companies and/or even before they became developers.

Just watch the second video titled The fear and excitement behind Guild Wars 2 the first 24 seconds.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

wasn't it also mentioned about "indulging scripters"? to be in a summer discussion wasn't it?
a summer that's almost over now?
was that Jeff, or was that mr calvin? both are getting to be kinda the same, in memory

 

[Woodsman]

wasn't it also mentioned about "indulging scripters"? to be in a summer discussion wasn't it?
a summer that's almost over now?
was that Jeff, or was that mr calvin? both are getting to be kinda the same, in memory

Ultima Online Development Tracker

Search for hackers or scroll down to the exploit section, it's quoted in there.

 

[HD2300]

LMAO Like I said its not the franchise producers fault if the Art 'department' only has the bandwidth to do 1 graphic a month, and the grand strategy to grow subscribers is to focus on EM events that only 5% of players participate in. What can he really say? 'Um I got nothing to announce, so go play U4E'.

Anyway expect a UO2 announcement, when NetDragon is ready to beta.